Posted by Tom_in_CA
on 7/20/2009, 3:02 pm, in reply to "thin gold chains in sand"
207.200.116.69
Sure, there are machines that will respond better to fine tinsel-thin gold chains, than a coin hunter like an Excaliber or Explorer, or any of various coin/relic type machines. You can certainly get various beach pulse machines, and will indeed get smaller teensier objects. Or heck, you can even go get a nugget machine, and get smaller teensier objects still!
The problem is, that you will also get bogged down with birdshot, BB's, staples, bobby pins, straight pins, flecks of who-knows-what, etc... Yes, some pulses and some nugget machines have a degree of iron reject, but nagging doubts usually send you digging "just to be sure".
I too have thought about certain ritzy tourist beaches near me, where no one, currently, is using a pulse or nugget machine, because they want to reliably pass iron. And to them, you can still get some pretty teensy stuff with an Explorer or Excaliber, by listening to the very faint iffy whispers. Yes, you WILL miss an earing stud, or a tinsel thin chain. But at what cost? How much 1 ft. deep bobby-pins do you want to dig?
And yes, the fact that no one has combed these touristy beach-blanketed sections with an all-metal or super high-powered pulse, means that there may be an accumulation of teensier jewelry just "waiting to be harvested" now 
But the problem is, so too will there be an big accumulation of other "tinsel" trash items 
I know a fellow who reasoned that the city park and school sandboxes must, by necessity, be having all their tinsel fine chains and earing studs missed over the years. So he took a nugget machine, and spent weeks going sandbox to sandbox farming out every single staple, bread-bag-twisty ties, etc.. Yes, he did find some teeennssy gold jewelry, but determined that it just wasn't worth the headache. The odds could be much improved if you had a reliable iron disc. system. But me thinks that iron disc. might be reliable for shallower targets, and larger foil-sized items, but when you're trying to discern a deep bent nail, or a bobby pin, verses a very fine gold earing stud, it's not as easy as it sounds.
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