Want to learn to find gold among trash?  Here’s how to develop your skills.  From left: 1/ A solid gold target or dense, round foil.  These respond in a unique way–soilid, clean and with a narrow meter reading.  What you want is something that does not change that much when you sweep the coil cross-wise.  This is the way to learn to stay off things like alloyed  “can-slaw” and big foils. 2/ A “fence sitter” bottle cap.  This is a cap with a lot of aluminum–but also some corrosion.  learning to manage this “rust line” on your detector is an important skill in recognising good quality targets mixed in with hundreds of caps.  Using the cross sweep will often show these as they will change dramatically.  This is the detector responding to the corroded part and it’s interaction with the ground.  3/ A smal gold target that’s not a ring.  Practicing with this will also help you to recognise your detector’s low (est) gold response as well as teaching you to be alert for targets that are strong, clean responses for their size.  A good way to work with your testers is to put a cardboard box upside down and sweep while listening, watching the coil and meter.

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