Numbers don't always add up at the beach

Gold rings with cracks or a break in the band can throw you off if you only hunt by numbers, or you are not yet up to speed on what your metal detector is telling you.

Just like only digging two way repeatable signals, if you only dig solid low or high tones you will miss stuff.

I remember the broken low tone from this gold ring with three nice chunks of ice, it sounded similar to a bottle cap.

The reason for the broken low tone and jumpy target cursor on my CTX 3030 was the ring had a break in the band.

This often occurs when a ring is sized or resized, the solder breaks and the band cracks in the repaired area.

If the band was complete the signal response would have been just as expected. 

Broken gold bands and open gold ear rings sound very similar on the metal detectors I use, an unusual broken low tone not too far off a crusty bottle cap response. 

Something to think about if you have your metal detector set to reject bottle caps.

The more time you spend beach hunting the easier it gets to distinguish between junk and good targets without having to use too much discrimination.

I don't advocate digging everything at tourist type beaches, if you rely on experience and your instincts you should not have to dig everything.

I have recently received quite a few emails from people with Ferrous Conductive number questions, questioning why something registered unexpected numbers.

The very reason I never put too much stock in numbers when metal detecting, searching for jewelry at the beach is all about the audio responses and tones to me.
Sure you can get quite good at spotting coin numbers after digging hundreds or thousands of them, but lost jewelry at the beach is a different matter.  

There are just too many variables about jewelry to expect consistent numbers on a metal detector VDI screen. 

For example, metal mixes, shapes, breaks or cracks, encrusted objects and even patina of the target all have a say on what response you will get through your headphones at the beach.

Anyone who has ever found a heavily oxidized Spanish silver reale or an encrusted gold class ring at the beach knows what I'm talking about.

Expect the unexpected and don't expect everything to go by the numbers when metal detecting at the beach.