Lost my Class Ring, Need Pointers on Detection

Good work! Are you hooked yet?
Obviously you don't need anymore help finding your ring, but the one thing I might add since you may continue metal detecting is simply to overlap your swings by at least a third of the coil as you move forward.
Again, good job!

Great that you found it! I am curious...what did it Vdi? martin

Im glad that you found your ring Please be sure and post some pics after you get it cleaned up. Good luck and i hope that it does clean up well for you.

popatop said:

Im glad that you found your ring Please be sure and post some pics after you get it cleaned up. Good luck and i hope that it does clean up well for you.

Click to expand...

+1

I want to see how it cleans up, too

How do you like your Delta? I have one as well and it's my first machine. I've been hunting mostly in "tot lots" (playgrounds at public parks, if you've not picked up the lingo yet), and it does an excellent job with coins. I've found lots of clad and a little bit of jewelry. I found a silver hoop earring (~1g) a couple of weeks ago - it was 6" deep in wood chips, and the ground was frozen solid. It came in loud and clear!

If you want to compare notes on the Delta, I'd be more than happy to do so. The most useful things I've found so far:

1) Use your pinpoint mode to check the size of things before digging. If it's 5" around in both directions, it's probably a can. If it seems to be 2" or less, it might well be a coin. You'll soon find that the VDI numbers will help with identification this way as well.

2) Don't wear steel toe boots detecting! That said, i usually wear them and don't change for a quick run over a tot lot. If you turn your sensitivity down and make sure you only dig reproducible signals, you'll be okay.

3) "D" mode (discriminate) is the most versatile, but I switch over to "A1" (all metals) often if I have a target that the VDI jumps around a lot. "A1" doesn't discriminate iron and you get to hear more of rise and fall in pitch/volume - helping to "see" if there might be another piece of metal down there that's interfering with the readout. "A2" seems to be just "A1" with iron notched out. The manual says it's useful for "highly mineralized soil", but in practice it's also useful for trashy sites for the reasons previously stated.

Vdi Number: 80

Great that you found it! I am curious...what did it Vdi? martin

Click to expand...

I didn't actually find it with the metal detector. In the end, it was old technology that found it. I was burning stuff that day in an iron fire pit and that is where I found it after building a sieve out of 1/4" mesh wire.

Because I was curious, I did take it out in the yard and cover it w/ about 1" of dirt. There was no doubt that I would have found it had it been in the dirt rather than the fire pit.

And it registered an even 80 on the Vdi.

It cleaned up real well. The vinegar and toothbrush treatment worked pretty well. The toothbrush with some toothpaste worked even better, though. In the end...after wearing it for a few days to feel good about having it back...I sent it off to Balfour to have it reduced by 1/2 Size. It will come back completely refinished. I will post a photo when that happens.

Speaking of Vdi Numbers....where is a good primer on what they actually mean and how they are arrived at?