I've been whining lately about my "treasure drought" and wondering when it will get a little relief. Well, today was the day.
I convinced pal Hal to get out of the swamps and mosquito bogs this morning and take a little looksie over at the pocket beach nearby. He has only been relic hunting before meeting me and he looked sideways at me, mumbling something about there being tooo many people. Let's face it, he wasn't all that excitable about the idea. It was still early and there would be no crowds, I assured him. It turned out to be worth it.
I turned up the ring you see in the pics. It is 10K and what looks like missing stones in the pic - isn't. It has all the stones in the setting and I can say it went over real nice with the wifey.
We also hit a local school on the way home and altogether uncovered plenty of coinies along with the usual junk. Hal said he had never done this sort of detecting before and he thought he could get used to it. "Sure beats fighting off mosquitos, mocassins and gators for a few grubby old three ringers," he said. I agreed with him. I like all kinds of detecting, but I like water hunting the best.
There were some interesting asides with today's detectabout, as well. I was working with a non-typical water detector - my Tesoro Vaquero. Hal had his ACE 250. I had already hit the shallows and was scooping coins, while Hal stuck to the dry sand. I had noticed the measured tracks of some other detectorist in the sand when we arrived, so I suggested he come wading. He looked at me like I had a foot growing out of my head. Then I showed him the ring I had just found. I never saw anyone get out of their shoes and socks that fast!
He has only had his ACE 250 for a week or so and was getting flustered with it... bieng in the water only made it worse for him. I told him that first of all, he had to stop slamming that ACE of his around like he was on land. I annonuced that it is neccessary to move deliberatley in the water, since neither the Vaquero nor the ACE was waterproof - so we had to guard against accidentally dunking them. The best way to do that is to plan each step you take and then move into your steps. You soon get a rhythym to it, and he smiled when he realized I was right. Pretty soon he was working it real smooth.
Then I talked to him about the ACE. I let him know that the Ace is a good little machine for this type of hunting, and I told him about John and his Ace Diver. He was wowed by that.
"Why would he do that, go to all that trouble I mean?"
"Because it's a great way to get a great water detector for only a little money."
I also suggested that he should be hunting in Jewelry or Relic and that he should reduce his SENS, which he had maxed out.
"Do you always run like that?" I asked.
"Sure, I want to get the max depth." He said.
I assured him that wasn't the way to do it, at least not here. Actually. maxing out the SENS on the ACE 250 is not a great idea in MOST places you might take it. The deep sands at the ocean beach is one of the few places that come to mind where that is a good idea. However this paricular beach of ours is not. It is new beach with about 6" of clean sand, laid down on a bed of crushed granite. Under that is a lot of old decomposed iron, fishing sinkers, and pockets of beer cans from previous days (some of them mine, I'm sure). Running at max was giving him the fits!
Then we worked some signals together while I talked him through the reactions of the 250 to the targets we were hitting and the why's and howfor's of the ACE 250 in general. I dont think he's convinced and still plans to trade it for a new Fisher. I also suggested he try and see his way to keeping the ACE as a backup or maybe waterizing it - he's liable to find the new Fisher and the little ACE have more in common than he thinks. We'll see what he does.
I got home and told Lori to pack her beach-bag and be ready when the weekends come. I'll take care of the beverage cooler, as every man should. If there is water and a beach, we're there from now on.
I convinced pal Hal to get out of the swamps and mosquito bogs this morning and take a little looksie over at the pocket beach nearby. He has only been relic hunting before meeting me and he looked sideways at me, mumbling something about there being tooo many people. Let's face it, he wasn't all that excitable about the idea. It was still early and there would be no crowds, I assured him. It turned out to be worth it.
I turned up the ring you see in the pics. It is 10K and what looks like missing stones in the pic - isn't. It has all the stones in the setting and I can say it went over real nice with the wifey.
We also hit a local school on the way home and altogether uncovered plenty of coinies along with the usual junk. Hal said he had never done this sort of detecting before and he thought he could get used to it. "Sure beats fighting off mosquitos, mocassins and gators for a few grubby old three ringers," he said. I agreed with him. I like all kinds of detecting, but I like water hunting the best.
There were some interesting asides with today's detectabout, as well. I was working with a non-typical water detector - my Tesoro Vaquero. Hal had his ACE 250. I had already hit the shallows and was scooping coins, while Hal stuck to the dry sand. I had noticed the measured tracks of some other detectorist in the sand when we arrived, so I suggested he come wading. He looked at me like I had a foot growing out of my head. Then I showed him the ring I had just found. I never saw anyone get out of their shoes and socks that fast!
He has only had his ACE 250 for a week or so and was getting flustered with it... bieng in the water only made it worse for him. I told him that first of all, he had to stop slamming that ACE of his around like he was on land. I annonuced that it is neccessary to move deliberatley in the water, since neither the Vaquero nor the ACE was waterproof - so we had to guard against accidentally dunking them. The best way to do that is to plan each step you take and then move into your steps. You soon get a rhythym to it, and he smiled when he realized I was right. Pretty soon he was working it real smooth.
Then I talked to him about the ACE. I let him know that the Ace is a good little machine for this type of hunting, and I told him about John and his Ace Diver. He was wowed by that.
"Why would he do that, go to all that trouble I mean?"
"Because it's a great way to get a great water detector for only a little money."
I also suggested that he should be hunting in Jewelry or Relic and that he should reduce his SENS, which he had maxed out.
"Do you always run like that?" I asked.
"Sure, I want to get the max depth." He said.
I assured him that wasn't the way to do it, at least not here. Actually. maxing out the SENS on the ACE 250 is not a great idea in MOST places you might take it. The deep sands at the ocean beach is one of the few places that come to mind where that is a good idea. However this paricular beach of ours is not. It is new beach with about 6" of clean sand, laid down on a bed of crushed granite. Under that is a lot of old decomposed iron, fishing sinkers, and pockets of beer cans from previous days (some of them mine, I'm sure). Running at max was giving him the fits!
Then we worked some signals together while I talked him through the reactions of the 250 to the targets we were hitting and the why's and howfor's of the ACE 250 in general. I dont think he's convinced and still plans to trade it for a new Fisher. I also suggested he try and see his way to keeping the ACE as a backup or maybe waterizing it - he's liable to find the new Fisher and the little ACE have more in common than he thinks. We'll see what he does.
I got home and told Lori to pack her beach-bag and be ready when the weekends come. I'll take care of the beverage cooler, as every man should. If there is water and a beach, we're there from now on.
The ring looks great. I'd like to find another nice one like that again.....