Much of my hunting is done in all metal mode so I hear the hot rocks and negative hot rocks. What I didn't realize is some of them have a pretty good range of influence that even when discriminated out can make id's on a vdi machine little unstable and even drag them down a few points. Not a big deal except for maybe someone that is cherry picking. On the negative rocks if you ground balance on them your gb will just be really high but will make the targets nearby more stable. Simple work around if ya have a questionable target but most people will just dig a big hole anyways.

Did some testing with nickels vs gold jewlery. I only had one ring that had the same id or phase angle as a nickel. The ring was a 14kR (r is rolled gold that has a copper core). The ring behaved exactly like a nickel with vdi drop off.
All my rings of similar size that were not a rose gold just regular 10k, 14k and white gold, chains and earings had lower vdi's and drop offs where at or below nickels in depth with the exception of a 14k .8oz chain that even when balled up was in the foil range but fall off was much further.
All my rose gold rings had tdi higher than a nickel and many had drop offs simlar or further.

I didn't test anything in the salt to see this was just an air test using 1 machine 1 frequency.
Because jewelry varies so much and copper content in gold, size of the gold there are just too many variables to say that one id represents gold rings.

One thing ALL the gold had no matter the content was they had a tone roll, ID would raise then lower where nickels would lock on easier.

I would suspect that the tone roll as ids trail will start to clip off as a ring gets deeper especially in salt making the target sound a little smaller than it is. That is a good thing as it will be easier to hunt the tinier sounds in the surf and not have to try to read a screen under water.

I'm sure this will ruffle more feathers and someone will probably start back stabbing me on the web but I could care less, got thick skin. Not here to bust stones or hurt feelings. When people get all bent and run off rather than try to test then no one can learn off each other. Sorry I don't spend time on you tube and really dislike many of the canned tests someone in marketing might have come up with. I like to know why something is rather than take what I see as the gospel.

If I offended anyone, my appologies, that is not my intent and I never make personal attacks on anyone.

On another note Monte, how ya feeling? Glad you back online!
Ken