Dilemma: Ring in an Iron Patch

[highvVDIlowIQ]

Hey everybody, longtime lurker here with my first-time post: I went over this weekend to help a neighbor look for a lost wedding ring in his garden (men's gold ring), only to find the garden absolutely LITTERED with buried iron chunks, wire under the roots, etc. To make matters worse, many of these iron fragments seemed to be throwing 14-16 signals on the Equinox 600, which is roughly the range I'd be looking for on his ring. It was near impossible to get a single "clean" signal in the entire garden.

Wondering if anyone on here has faced a similar challenge while looking for a very specific target, and if you've had any discoveries that could help out here... short of tearing up the whole place.

By the way I am working with the standard 11" cool on the Equinox. May just need to go back if/when I spring for the 6 inch...

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If the chunks are truly iron (and not some conductive composition / metal), then you ought not to be getting TID's in the range of a man's gold band. A man's gold band (which is nickel to pulltab range, depending on size), should be VERY different than any iron object (even if the iron object is big).

Try varying swing speeds over suspected targets. A conductive target (like a ring or coin or tab, etc...) should remain strong (assuming you're centered @ "x-marks-spot-centered correctly), while iron will tend to "break up more" and should be bouncing into iron range on your TID. Versus a conductor which should be cleaner, repeating in same spot, etc...

You also mention "wire" : Perhaps the "wire" is not iron (like chicken screen would be). So can you give a better description of what you mean by "wire". Eg.: some pictures perhaps. Also some pix of what you mean by "iron chunks".

 

[highvVDIlowIQ]

Don't have any pictures of the stuff I dug up unfortunately, a few misshapen and unidentifiable rusted pieces, and the wire (there was a lot of it) was rusted and mangled, twisted, looped, etc. about 3-4 inches down. About the thickness of chain-link fencing.

At a certain point I just resorted to passing over the surface with my handheld pinpointer; figured if the ring was in fact there and recently dropped it was bound to be shallower than the rest of that stuff-- no luck there either.

 

[KOB]

I'm sure you are leaving out important details. But every search is I know of , if it's recent , you don't even need a detector. Maybe a small rake at best. It's on the surface.

 

[John Madill]

Is it a recent drop? If so use the bigger coil and try dropping the sensitivity to one bar. Two if the grass is thick.

 

[Diga]

Check that iron on it's own and with no other targets. If it still comes up as nonferrous, maybe it's because your iron bias might be set to minimum.

 

[spence]

Check that iron on it's own and with no other targets. If it still comes up as nonferrous, maybe it's because your iron bias might be set to minimum.

And the wire might be copper which will drive your TID nuts.

 

[Diggum]

That's a tough spot, for sure, but the 6" coil will help a TON to focus in on individual targets. Assuming that the ring is a recent drop, reducing your sensitivity may help hide some of the deeper iron and make the gold ring stand out more clearly.

 

[Linesider]

If it was me. I’d start with the 11” also. But FE all the way up discriminate almost everything , horseshoe of.. grid area, obviously ground balance and noice cancel all done as needed also adjusting sensitivity . After a pass or 2 with no luck,, id swap to the 6” maybe sooner if there was that many signals still.
Try to stable out machine. Swing slow, double check target TDI ,sometimes flipping horseshoe on/off while on target helps ID

 

[gismapper]

Completely agree about dropping the sensitivity as low as possible. But, one other thing to remember...people don't always lose things where they think they lost things. I was helping an older couple look for a wedding band that they were sure was lost at their grandson's baseball game. I spent the better part of an hour scouring the place they were sitting and everywhere they walked. Nothing. I gave up and told them to try to think about other places it could be. Next baseball game, I asked the grandson if the ring ever showed up. Yup...it was in the car after all that.

 

[Skippy SH13]

Hey everybody, longtime lurker here with my first-time post: I went over this weekend to help a neighbor look for a lost wedding ring in his garden (men's gold ring), only to find the garden absolutely LITTERED with buried iron chunks, wire under the roots, etc. To make matters worse, many of these iron fragments seemed to be throwing 14-16 signals on the Equinox 600, which is roughly the range I'd be looking for on his ring. It was near impossible to get a single "clean" signal in the entire garden.

Wondering if anyone on here has faced a similar challenge while looking for a very specific target, and if you've had any discoveries that could help out here... short of tearing up the whole place.

By the way I am working with the standard 11" cool on the Equinox. May just need to go back if/when I spring for the 6 inch...

Start by turning down the sensitivity. Then do a once over only tackling the solid signals. More than likely the ring isn't damaged (still circular) and will sound solid on a hit. If it's a recent loss, it's not deep.

 

[highvVDIlowIQ]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Will mess around with the sensitivity and iron bias settings and give it another shot. I'll post a picture if the ring turns up