Critterhunter
New member
Today I had intended to dry beach hunt in PP mode to re-grid an area I had already done in discriminate at a very mineralized beach where pin point mode has shown some merit to sounding off to targets that either null completely or choke out so bad that you have to wiggle right over them to get disc to sound off, while PP is easily telling me to pay attention.
Well, I changed decisions even though I was using my land shaft with meter, and not the stock shaft, which I use for when water hunting without a meter and the GT either chest mounted or stuck on a back shaft extension.
So anyway, I gave up my plans to try the 13" Ultimate on the dry sand, and since it's not rated waterproof I strapped on the SEF 12x10 and headed for the water. I would only be hunting a bit deeper than my knees due to not wanting to risk my control box mounted on the shaft, or even worse the meter which is mounted further down the shaft of course.
I hunted for a little while in discriminate and popped a necklace/pendant with a raised angel on the pendant. It looked white gold or perhaps silver in color. My heart rose when I saw the clasp was stamped 18K, but it sank when I saw it indicated plated after that. It had read as a zinc penny on my meter, since I was using my land shaft with the meter on it to see. This target was found in discriminate.
Little later I switched to PP mode to try hunting in that. Get a good "zing/zing" in PP mode, but it was hardly breaking thru a null in disc, even though it sounded only about 4 or 5" deep. Scoop up and I see a gold ring staring at me. Rest of the story on that in a minute.
Move on and PP says a big target, or at least wider than a coin/ring. Disc sounded real bad. Scoop. Shotgun shell. Scoop again. 1960 nickel. Scoop again. 1964 quarter, all of which was in same hole! I think there was iron in the hole as well judging by what PP was telling me, though I could never track that down.
Then I get a zing/zing again in PP mode. Switch to disc and it's a very super soft whisper that I could only hear in disc if I wiggled right on top of it. No way I would have heard it in disc just doing a general long hunting sweep. Scoop. Scoop. Scoop about 10 times. At about around a foot up comes a silver ring!
Then I hear another super deep zing/zing in PP mode. Once again disc would only report if I wiggled right over it. About 20 scoops chasing this thing and almost ready to give up when I no longer hear the signal in the water hole. Look in the scoop and I see a wide band gold ring! It had some black tarnish on it but I have seen gold come out of the water looking blackish before, so I wasn't going to decide until I read inside of the ring. 10k! But then the dreaded "GF" after it, meaning gold filled. Man, that one was super deep, and I have no doubt if I wasn't hunting in PP I would have never seen this one as well, because disc would only sound off if I was right on top of it wiggling.
Many of the targets in PP mode today would either null in disc no matter what angle, or hardly sound thru like an iron false, and yet turned out to be non-iron targets as little as say 5 or 6" deep or deeper on from there. Am I a PP mode believer? Sure am! At least at VERY mineralized beaches where microscopic iron, black sand, or minerals in general can choke a target down into the null range (iron), or try to ignore it like a ground signal. Would I hunt in PP when targets are numerous in disc? No, I would not. The BBS machines (Sov/Excal) are know for going where no other detector will in disc, but just the same even they have their limits in very badly mineralized soil or sand that would have other detectors limping at best. We stand above others in terms of depth in the worst of grounds, but even our machines can be put on their knees if the minerals, black sand, or microscopic iron is beyond belief for even our machines.
But if disc is only finding the light fluff stuff and no heavy stuff (coins, sinkers, gold rings, etc), and seems to be choking out on coins or tabs at say only 5 or 6" or so or deeper due to the ground matrix, and targets are scarce otherwise, then I'll for sure switch to PP and start seeing deeper thru the minerals/microscopic iron and see if heavier targets turn up, because that's the layer the gold is going to be laying at.
So getting back to the gold ring/karma thing. Turned out it was a 2013 high school graduation ring. Also turns out it had the name of the girl inside of it. I'm not going to lie to you. I was walking that edge of return to owner or scrap the rest of the day and on the drive home. This economy has been hard on me, so I'm not going to try to come off as a saint and say I found that ring and instantly knew it must go back to the owner. I walked that line for the rest of the day, convincing myself one way and then the other. In the end, on the drive home, I'll say I was 99% convinced to myself that times are hard and it's going to be scraped. But then I talked to a family member and they pushed me back to the other side of where I should have stood in the first place.
Long story short, fourth # I called in that city of the high school with that last name was the grandfather of the girl. He took my name/# and said the mother of the girl would be getting home shortly to confirm a few things about the ring/name/activity at the school it indicated the girl took part in. The mother called and it all matched up. Tomorrow after I do another beach hunt I'll be taking a short drive down the road from the beach to return it to her, and looks like I'll have a pic to share of either her or her daughter holding the ring.
The details of how the ring was lost? It said 2013 high school graduate on it, but the ring was bought last year, and only after about a month of having the ring the girl took a swim on the last day of school in June and lost it. The mother told me she had planned to buy her daughter another before she graduated next year, and without getting into specifics let's just say that I feel good about my choice. Not as good as I should because I hemmed and hawed over my moral decision before calling her, and in fact needed a family member on the phone on my ride home from the beach to push me back over to the moral side, so while I might sleep a tiny bit better tonight, I'd be sleeping a lot better had I not even wavered on the decision after I found the ring.
I ain't no saint, but my hypocrisy only goes so far I guess. After having my head handed to me and two other siblings in an large sum of inheritance money, the details of which I won't go into, let's just say that I've developed *slightly* better character then I had in my prior years of life, only because I don't want to be "that guy" that others look down for moral imperfections. At least then I can look to those I feel have done me wrong and not be so hypocritical when I think "I would have never have done to them what they did to me..."
Yea, I'm posting this, and I always thought to myself "If you've got the moral character to return a ring then why the need for self pride by posting the kind deed and pics of it?" Well, just so as to show you, as said, that my hyprocosy only goes so far, as this is the first ring when a name in it I've found that this delimia was ever presented to me, I'll only point out that I'm calling myself out here. I had FULLY intended by the end of the day, waging a moral war with my self, to scrap that ring. Only when I called a family member on the ride home did I get enough of a moral push to once again decide to do the right thing. So I'm not playing myself off as a saint here. I won't lie to you. I was well intending to scrap that ring and enjoy the money.
Sometimes you have to weigh your options a bit more and seek input before making any rash decisions. That said, had that family member not answered the phone, I would probably have drove straight to the local gold buy who gives me ARA prices (only 2% skimmed of the day's market price for gold) and cashed that puppy in. So I'm not the guy who wasn't fully intending to rob the bank, I'm just the guy who ended up changing his mind based on some obscure reason on the way there.
So don't think otherwise... 
Pictures of my finds by tomorrow, and hopefully a follow up story and pics of the ring returned to it's rightful owner...
Well, I changed decisions even though I was using my land shaft with meter, and not the stock shaft, which I use for when water hunting without a meter and the GT either chest mounted or stuck on a back shaft extension.
So anyway, I gave up my plans to try the 13" Ultimate on the dry sand, and since it's not rated waterproof I strapped on the SEF 12x10 and headed for the water. I would only be hunting a bit deeper than my knees due to not wanting to risk my control box mounted on the shaft, or even worse the meter which is mounted further down the shaft of course.
I hunted for a little while in discriminate and popped a necklace/pendant with a raised angel on the pendant. It looked white gold or perhaps silver in color. My heart rose when I saw the clasp was stamped 18K, but it sank when I saw it indicated plated after that. It had read as a zinc penny on my meter, since I was using my land shaft with the meter on it to see. This target was found in discriminate.
Little later I switched to PP mode to try hunting in that. Get a good "zing/zing" in PP mode, but it was hardly breaking thru a null in disc, even though it sounded only about 4 or 5" deep. Scoop up and I see a gold ring staring at me. Rest of the story on that in a minute.
Move on and PP says a big target, or at least wider than a coin/ring. Disc sounded real bad. Scoop. Shotgun shell. Scoop again. 1960 nickel. Scoop again. 1964 quarter, all of which was in same hole! I think there was iron in the hole as well judging by what PP was telling me, though I could never track that down.
Then I get a zing/zing again in PP mode. Switch to disc and it's a very super soft whisper that I could only hear in disc if I wiggled right on top of it. No way I would have heard it in disc just doing a general long hunting sweep. Scoop. Scoop. Scoop about 10 times. At about around a foot up comes a silver ring!
Then I hear another super deep zing/zing in PP mode. Once again disc would only report if I wiggled right over it. About 20 scoops chasing this thing and almost ready to give up when I no longer hear the signal in the water hole. Look in the scoop and I see a wide band gold ring! It had some black tarnish on it but I have seen gold come out of the water looking blackish before, so I wasn't going to decide until I read inside of the ring. 10k! But then the dreaded "GF" after it, meaning gold filled. Man, that one was super deep, and I have no doubt if I wasn't hunting in PP I would have never seen this one as well, because disc would only sound off if I was right on top of it wiggling.
Many of the targets in PP mode today would either null in disc no matter what angle, or hardly sound thru like an iron false, and yet turned out to be non-iron targets as little as say 5 or 6" deep or deeper on from there. Am I a PP mode believer? Sure am! At least at VERY mineralized beaches where microscopic iron, black sand, or minerals in general can choke a target down into the null range (iron), or try to ignore it like a ground signal. Would I hunt in PP when targets are numerous in disc? No, I would not. The BBS machines (Sov/Excal) are know for going where no other detector will in disc, but just the same even they have their limits in very badly mineralized soil or sand that would have other detectors limping at best. We stand above others in terms of depth in the worst of grounds, but even our machines can be put on their knees if the minerals, black sand, or microscopic iron is beyond belief for even our machines.
But if disc is only finding the light fluff stuff and no heavy stuff (coins, sinkers, gold rings, etc), and seems to be choking out on coins or tabs at say only 5 or 6" or so or deeper due to the ground matrix, and targets are scarce otherwise, then I'll for sure switch to PP and start seeing deeper thru the minerals/microscopic iron and see if heavier targets turn up, because that's the layer the gold is going to be laying at.
So getting back to the gold ring/karma thing. Turned out it was a 2013 high school graduation ring. Also turns out it had the name of the girl inside of it. I'm not going to lie to you. I was walking that edge of return to owner or scrap the rest of the day and on the drive home. This economy has been hard on me, so I'm not going to try to come off as a saint and say I found that ring and instantly knew it must go back to the owner. I walked that line for the rest of the day, convincing myself one way and then the other. In the end, on the drive home, I'll say I was 99% convinced to myself that times are hard and it's going to be scraped. But then I talked to a family member and they pushed me back to the other side of where I should have stood in the first place.
Long story short, fourth # I called in that city of the high school with that last name was the grandfather of the girl. He took my name/# and said the mother of the girl would be getting home shortly to confirm a few things about the ring/name/activity at the school it indicated the girl took part in. The mother called and it all matched up. Tomorrow after I do another beach hunt I'll be taking a short drive down the road from the beach to return it to her, and looks like I'll have a pic to share of either her or her daughter holding the ring.
The details of how the ring was lost? It said 2013 high school graduate on it, but the ring was bought last year, and only after about a month of having the ring the girl took a swim on the last day of school in June and lost it. The mother told me she had planned to buy her daughter another before she graduated next year, and without getting into specifics let's just say that I feel good about my choice. Not as good as I should because I hemmed and hawed over my moral decision before calling her, and in fact needed a family member on the phone on my ride home from the beach to push me back over to the moral side, so while I might sleep a tiny bit better tonight, I'd be sleeping a lot better had I not even wavered on the decision after I found the ring.
I ain't no saint, but my hypocrisy only goes so far I guess. After having my head handed to me and two other siblings in an large sum of inheritance money, the details of which I won't go into, let's just say that I've developed *slightly* better character then I had in my prior years of life, only because I don't want to be "that guy" that others look down for moral imperfections. At least then I can look to those I feel have done me wrong and not be so hypocritical when I think "I would have never have done to them what they did to me..."
Yea, I'm posting this, and I always thought to myself "If you've got the moral character to return a ring then why the need for self pride by posting the kind deed and pics of it?" Well, just so as to show you, as said, that my hyprocosy only goes so far, as this is the first ring when a name in it I've found that this delimia was ever presented to me, I'll only point out that I'm calling myself out here. I had FULLY intended by the end of the day, waging a moral war with my self, to scrap that ring. Only when I called a family member on the ride home did I get enough of a moral push to once again decide to do the right thing. So I'm not playing myself off as a saint here. I won't lie to you. I was well intending to scrap that ring and enjoy the money.
Sometimes you have to weigh your options a bit more and seek input before making any rash decisions. That said, had that family member not answered the phone, I would probably have drove straight to the local gold buy who gives me ARA prices (only 2% skimmed of the day's market price for gold) and cashed that puppy in. So I'm not the guy who wasn't fully intending to rob the bank, I'm just the guy who ended up changing his mind based on some obscure reason on the way there.
So don't think otherwise... Pictures of my finds by tomorrow, and hopefully a follow up story and pics of the ring returned to it's rightful owner...
here is a story for all to read i know this guy who owns a metal detecting shop locally he has been in the buzz over 40 years and has one of the most INTENSE !!! collection of finds i have ever seen in displays in his shop most are water hunting finds he is a very early water hunter just as water machines first came out , i can only imagine what was found on beaches back then in the 60,s with no other hunters to really speak of ? , there is a large photo and news article of a ring he found at one of the boat basins out here with a very early PI water machine ,the ring is a large mans band 22k with a 5ct White Diamond surrounded by 6 Ruby's for a total of 8ct,s he kept the ring for a year after he told the press about it who posted the storey in the paper inside the ring was 2 letters and a date if the owner wanted it back all he had to do was tell Frank the date and 2 letters well 1 year past and no one ever claimed it , guess what ?? the date inside the band is 1919 and the ring was appraised at $124,000.00 !!! back then early 1960,s and he still has it never sold it .
