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Got a great run happening this week with a ring every day so far.. The first one was a call-out from a footy player who lost his ring on the oval.. Got a $50 reward for finding it, took about an hour.. Ever try gridding a football oval? It takes a long time to cover.. The other two rings were at a spot where a huge load of sand had been washed away during a very high tide.. They must have been too deep to pick up before but here they were in the top layer of the washout.. I'm getting better at spotting likely locations, it's no longer the hit and miss affair it was years ago.. I'm slowly developing a 'Geosense' as to where rings are likely to be deposited along different parts of a beach.. It's no longer all about luck, experience is starting to play a bigger role..

Didn't think I'd get out today, but managed to when we got back from shopping. I was out for only 3 hours but did pretty good. Today the air quality was bad, you could hardly see the water from the campground due to all the smoke from the fires in Canada. Who'd have thought that would be blown all the way to North Carolina? Yikes. Went back to the tent sites this evening, they photographed the bear last night but it wasn't around. Glad I had situational awareness from the WSA II headphones. The forecast said rain this afternoon, but when i got back it had changed to none. Heh. $21 a year for one of the most "accurate" weather apps. It started raining as soon as I got out there. It wasn't coming through the trees so I stayed out. So did the deer flies. 🤬 Today I was using a program I started yesterday, one that @CPT_GhostLight inspired me to create. It's just a build on General again, still needs some tweaks but it's much better. 🙂 Didn't get too much trash today, and heard very little iron falsing. Turning on a target definitely made my decision not to dig. Tent stakes were on top of the ground. The ring is a large pipe cutoff, i think copper. It was a 97. The big disc is lead. And of course all the usual suspects below. Audio filter helped with larger can slaw and many pull tabs with that brassy sound. Even the shotgun shell heads were all very weird multi tones so I dug them out of curiosity. The object that says "SOTO" is a butane pocket torch with an extended torch head. The 13" is my favorite coil these days, I've got used to its weight and love the great separation it has for such a large coil. Yeah it tends to droop a bit but It stays tight enough to not be annoying. Here's the finds, 37 coins in 3 hours. Not bad at all. 🙂 I really like that Zincolns are much lower tone and ID than memorials now, but I dug them anyway.

Today was my first go at detecting after left inguinal hernia surgery last Friday (5 days). I had to get my fix and see my favorite beach. The first challenge was to put on my rubber boots. I could get my right boot on normally but when it came to the left sock it was not possible or wise to bend my leg and twist it at the angle I normally would. Once the sock was on I could jam my foot in pretty much ok. My idea was to 'cherry pick' but conditions really weren't good enough to have many choices of what to dig. I walked and walked (with no pain) but there just weren't many targets on the way out. Conditions weren't very good at the bottom of the slope. On the way back there were more targets and the uneven slope made me start feeling some tingles from the incision and the repair site. Digging was comfortable with the left hand only with my arm scoop. Bending and pulling at the sand was restricted so that I didn't over-do-it. I don't use a foot/shovel scoop. Using two hands caused pain that I wanted to avoid. In the end I had 1 quarter, 1 dime about 5 pennies, 5 pieced of trash and a really deep (18") aluminum can bottom in my collection. That was good enough. So, my questions are: "What did you do for your rehab to get back to your digging?" "Do you have any cautions or horror stories to share?" I'm not ready for a nugget trip based upon what I learned today. That could be too challenging until I have more healing time.

I have corresponded with Paul and Todd of Centreville Electronics and was very impressed with their professionalism and attention to detail. Both were apologetic that it was taking so long to get my TDI Beachhunter repaired even though I stressed that there was no urgency on my part since I have several other detectors to use. The spring is also, typically, a slower time of the year for beach finds in my area. I'm just grateful that Centreville Electronics even exists otherwise I think that this machine would only be good for spare parts. Todd contacted me yesterday to say that my detector had been repaired and verified that it was working properly again. My detector was no longer under warranty but the cost for parts, labor and shipping was surprisingly reasonable. My TDIBH is on its way back to me as I write this. Kudos to Todd, Paul and their associates for the important services that they provide.

OK, after what I would call a successful detecting week last week where I scratched off a couple minor-league bucket listers (silver ring, Sacagawea dollar, >5 coins in one hole), I've gotten skunked on my last two hunts. (Although I will say I now know where the local high schoolers drink beer out-of-sight on the local playground, based upon the volume of Bud Light cans dug.) Granted, this skunk hit when testing new/low traffic areas on existing public grounds, so my expectations were low anyways. So, what is your advice for beating the skunk? Anything from your experience, good luck charms (😅), prayer offerings, etc.? On a humorous note, last time this happened (and after I finally started digging good targets again), I arrived back home triumphant, announcing, "I beat the skunk!" Our twin boys then looked each other, confused, and turned to me and said, "Umm, it doesn't look or smell like you fought a skunk, daddy..."

Thanks! It was a coin find every 5 minutes, not bad. I'm liking V1.1. at least 3 coin spills, one with 3 quarters. The IDs did not waver. 93.

Hunted a park today , and found no cladd, just zincs, and pull tabs, but i dig Iron and was using my new super magnet, and I dug out a crecent shapped Iron object and scanned again ,Got a nice clear high tone, Up comes a crusty quarter they Missed it , and again i was digging out some bolts by the side of an Ice arena and after digging some nuts out i got a nice high tone , up comes another crusty quarter, and i got a fake ring, hopes up then rug pull Down, My new magnet uses 2" long x3/4" size neodemium N 42 housed in a copper pipe, and it really grabs the iron when i find it , bottle caps nails It really cuts down on the time looking for the iron

Thus far in the 3 years I've been detecting, "skunk" days come from going to places I've pretty thoroughly hunted. It's the bane of relic hunting, no ghost is gonna drop buckles, buttons and silvers when they're all gone. In my limited experience changing technique, settings and coils - even detectors - only helps marginally. The only thing that brings better success is research, using Topographic maps, LiDar maps, and generally knowing where to go when you get there by marking curious spots in a tracking app like OnX Hunt. It helps if the place you are hunting was or is a wealthy area as well. For Beach hunting I'm pretty sure weather plays the biggest part, if it's been cold expect to find less. If it's been really stormy you might expect to find more. 😀 I don't have any parks in my area and haven't really gotten into school hunting, but those are places where there should be repeat finds due to traffic. It helps of course to not have a lot of competition. 😏 I don't worry about skunk days and focus on the research to keep it from happening. The one thing that you can count on is there will be another day you can get out. Until you can't. 🤔

Caution - I would stop doing any more detecting for at least 3 weeks. The last thing you want with a hernia is to re-open it. Often after that type of surgery they might suggest something like not lifting anything more than 1 kilogram for 4 weeks, 3 kilogram for another 4 weeks, 5 kilogram for another 4 weeks, etc. Walking is great but the twisting, lifting, squatting of detecting and retrieving targets is something I’d avoid for awhile. That’s just what I would do. No point overdoing things and having to go back to the OR for the sake of a few weeks 😉 Keep on top of the pain and don’t get constipated 😀

I haven't noticed a tremendous gain, but when I was at the last beach I had to dig 4 scoops just to get to pinpointer range, and that's way over 8". I still only find most targets even here in less than 8". The big thing is coverage. Despite the extra weight (which isn't all that much), an area I cover with the 13" is covered. 😀 If i go back to it there's nothing but the junk I skipped. I have a lot of confidence in that. Like the 9" it has a wide field but even wider so you can follow down a blip from the edge. It's just a larger coil. For finding stuff faster the 9" can't be beat except by a 10x5" elliptical. I'm finding I prefer elliptical coils overall. 🙂

Great hunt. Last ring looks like platinum down the middle. You can have all the experience in the world , but if the cut or conditions aren't there , none of it matters.

I just went back to scratch for the most part, took General again and applied Hi Square, full tones, bottle caps ended up at 4, and turned Audio Filter up and down to see how much it affected aluminum. I think everything else is stock. 🙂 I like the XY screen better than large ID. At AF=5 aluminum gets the brassy tone, and sometimes even the up/down tone I used to get in V.71. I discussed this with Chase one day and we both thought AF was just a tone control and wouldn't affect much else. It works for me! There is a lot of can slaw in this place. Notice I got coins of every denomination, and less pull tabs than nickels 🤔

The thing is, i enjoy finding old coins. Im not just a ring hunter, i really like old relics and coins. I dont sell any of my rings, i dont care about the money, i just love the history, the challenge and being outdoors.

Aye, tis a rude awakening finding out we aren`t bullet proof and I agree we should be open with our experiences, it helps the healing process.

Give it time, be positive you`ll come back, had bowel & appendix tumors removed, prostrate rebore, chemo etc back in 20. Was a hard year but magic professional health care, good luck, fit out of new Troopy and gentle 6K detecting brought me back.

Found a pay-streak in a patch of hard pan. It had about 1" of mud covering it, and it didn't look very enticing. It was a challenge getting my shovel into it, but what a surprise! I used my bigger GEO drop riffle highbanker.....faster shoveling = more gold, right? Here's what yesterday's adventure looked like. And..........and also dug up a nice coral fossil out of the North Saskatchewan River. Here's what 4 hours of digging got me...........

I haven't had that much fun in a long time. I went to the coast for a weekend with the family and I took the detector with me just in case. As soon as I got to the beach I saw that there was a cut of about 80 CM so the decision to take it with me was a good one. about 3 hours in total, it had been a while since I had so much fun and on top of that some gold came out.

Almost forgot Strick

June 15 2002 Part Four We are late into the night with no word from Jim. Jacob said there has been not even a sound up on the mountain in the area near the pump. It will be dawn soon and we will need to make a decision on what we are going to do.I will have no choice but to involve the law as Jim is a missing person. I’m also going to have to contact Jim’s family and advise them of our situation. When my wife hears of this she will be beyond upset. I think that - wait - I am hearing the Thompson firing up on the mountain. I am stopping here to try and raise Jacob on the radio. I think that

I didn't get a chance to post this earlier, but a few weeks ago I got to go back to the site of my first ghost town hunt. It's one of my detecting club's permissions that has been hunted for probably 30 years of the club's 50 year history. My first hunt there 2 years ago was a daunting experience to say the least. If you've never done relic hunting, specially on a site that once had almost 2000 people living and workng there, then you cannot even imagine what that's like. The tons of iron and coal throughout the area makes every detector go nuts and a few detectorists too. 😉 There are other inhabitants on this site as well. A couple of local boys wanted to crash the hunt, but they didn't have their club cards on them so they were politely asked to leave. 😏 I was very excited to get back to this site hoping for some really old coins and artifacts now that I have had a few years of training and felt I was ready for the big game. Well let me tell you, it only takes hunting a few hours of hunting with 30 pro detectorists to to put you in your place and one of the big lessons I learned was that detecting is 50% physical and 50% mental. I started the first day rushing around to get out the door on time for the long drive to get to the site on time and discovering a few block from my house that my rear tire was flat. That set the tone for the day. I got that fixed and flew like the wind and just barely made it to the meetup on time. When we get to the site, I rush around getting my wife's detector set up and ready to go, grab my detector and climb through the barbed wire fence and discover I forgot my shovel, so I climbed back through the barbed wire, grab my shovel and slither back through the fence only to find I forgot my gloves... Auuuughhh! I run the gauntlet again with gloves in hand and finally get ready to hunt and my remote control lock mount decides to break off. Fortunately I have a couple of backups in my pack.... but I forgot to pack my little screwdrivers.... just shoot me! I manage to flag down one of my detecting buddies and he graceously stops his hunt to rescue me. When he returned to hunting, he was promptly rewarded with a beautiful 1876 Seated Liberty Dime with CC mint mark! By the time I get out on the field my brain is fried and I spend the next several hours finding junk while everyone around me was finding ancient coins and wonderful artifacts. That's when I just took a time out to get my head together. After I settled down and ate a sandwich I went back to the field and my training kicked in. I discovered everything I was doing wrong and adjusted accordingly and then the finds started popping out of the iron. There were some amazing finds made over the 2 days at this site by some great detectorists, not by me of course, but I did find a few interesting things and learned an invaluable lesson. Keep a cool head, remember your training, and most of all respect the skills of your mentors! They all did well and deservedly so. I look forward to day that I reach that level of Zen. Well done my teachers! One of my cooler finds was this tiny heart pendant or rosery piece: Here's a dime for size comparison: Unkown disc, possibly a coin or token piece but no discernible markings. Oil lamp wick mount with 1872 & 1873 patent dates: Mostly iron and lead trash:

Very nice F350! I’m studying low conductor targets AF in very mineralized soil. I’m working on a new program and I’ll share it here. Thanks for your report..

mn90403..... whatever you do, don’t catch a cold or the flu. You do not want to have to cough, at all. Heavy coughing can even cause a hernia, so imagine the stress to a fresh incision there.

So you really didn't get skunked if you found all the cans, those cans are worth money by themselves. When something like that happens to me, I sit down, take a break, and think about what I am doing wrong or what I am doing right when swinging the coil. After about 30 minutes I get back up and it seems to take care of the problem. Sometimes I just think that it is how I start detecting that day if things are not producing items, so I change my mental settings and get back on track.

A good hunt. Sounds like your honing in on the new update.

Nice haul, F350! I'd be intereted in seeing how your new Reaper ends up. I'm really getting to like General specially on damp ground, which is the only kind we have right now. I played with it again yesterday and it ran really well. I briefly played with the Audio Filter, but I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. 1-2 settings were interesting, but anything higher sounded weird to me so I went back to zero. I'll have to explore that some more. You're the one that got me interested in General in the first place, so thanks again for the tips!

Getting skunked is a big part of the hobby.That in part is why there are so many barely used detectors sitting in garages and being sold on eBay and so forth.It happens to all of us and more and more frequently it seems as time goes by.One thing that you can do is start up a collection of Ring pulls like one of our other more popular members has done.

Doc, It does help. Thanks. I'm going out tomorrow and will be trying it out. Gary

Mitchel, Glad to hear you are up and running (walking). I think Norvic is spot on, take it easy for a bit, rest as necessary and in a short bit you will be back in the desert slaying it. Jeff

continued on with the patch in the first post first picture, it has given up a total of 105 bits of gold now for 14.4 grams. Four part days detecting it, today was 5 and 1/2 hours for 43 bits of gold which weighed in at 5.4 grams, and it was a much more pleasant day as the very strong winds from the last few days have gone. A few pictures from today you can see the settings I am running on this type of ground and the detector is running nicely and todays result, 43 bits of gold for 5.4 grams, the gold is small but it is gold cheers dave

Day 2 was kinda short so I'm adding it here, it's my 14th anniversary so I didn't stay out too long, mainly hunted newer areas of the campground, and some parts I've already hit hard. I was also interrupted for about an hour by this turtle laying eggs, she's over a foot long. She was getting attacked by crows while laying in the open, so I metal detected around her for a while, and covered her eggs better when she left. Sadly I came back later and the eggs were all dug up by some animal. 😵 I went over the farmhouse site, I'd defy anyone to find anything here, it's machine gun everything. Aluminum, steel, copper tubing, all the junk you can think of and more. 😀 Over the past couple years I've got some coins out of here, mostly wheats and some Indian heads. Here are the finds today, just some modern clad and a fancy washer. All from the 70s to today. Trash wasn't bad. No detecting tomorrow probably, going shopping further south. My wife is looking forward to it!

and another spot that I have been getting small gold from that was very close to or had been gone over somewhat last year with the Zed and the 17"cc x-coil. So the last two days on this next patch had yielded 32 bits of gold so far and have another go at it today to see if there might be a few more.

Spent a couple hours at my favorite beach yesterday and was rewarded with a nice honker of a platinum men's band. Not sure of the exact size or weight yet, but it's probably a 7-8mm regular dome comfort fit between sizes 11-12 and made by benchmark rings. I'm working on locating the person that lost it, but no one reported it at the hotel and it's not on craigslist lost and found. I am really happy for the find, especially since my pt wedding band was stolen in the usps mail last year when I sent it to El Dorado to make an exact copy of it with some my placer gold. Funny thing is that this is the exact same ring as I lost except I wear a size 10 so If I can't find the person that lost it I will try and have it resized. Current retail for $2,240 right now. I know over 20 years ago my wife paid over $3k for the ring that was stolen, but platinum has not risen like gold.

Helped a buddy load some scrap and found these axle caps and a brass leash clip that will be my new key ring. Then I couldn't see scraping this mower yet.

Wow, that sky isn't nearly as blue as it was in your previous post F350. It's smokey up here in MA and you are 700 miles further south! Regarding the 13" coil, it obviously has a lot more coverage than the 9" in coil, and as you and others have said, it separates quite well, but have you seen a noticable gain in depth with that big coil over the 9"? Lodge

Mitch I had Quadruple Hernea surgery a few years back. I gave myself plenty of time to heal then eased right back to digging " Large Coil GPX" holes and climbing hillsides. Since then I've apparently blew at least 1 apart. Made an appt. To see Dr. That did the work to find out he's no longer affiliated with the local hospital. Then after calling the Hosp. asking about getting copies of my records on this I was refused access. The Dr had a test done and told me yes I had a problem, 👍 However he suggested it would cause me more pain than it was worth to attend to it. 🙄🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 He suggested I wear loose clothing 😳🦯🤪🙈🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🤕 Great system we have to work with 🤕🤔😤. I guess they did not want me to know the manufacturer of the mesh used because of all the lawsuits going on. So that left me with the choice of having to secure a dreded "Lawyer" to find out anything 😎🤬 Well, as I said just take it ez for a period and remember it takes longer to heal inside than outside on the body 👍⛏️ At 71 years old now an I can still dig a 2 foot hole for a Sardine Can 🥫 but you have to do 2 things, stay away from the Medical Profession and Don't let the Old Man in 👍⛏️🥫🙈😎🎯 Happy Huntn 😁🤠

Congrats on the finds, I know that I sometimes give you a hard time, but that is only because you are in a great place. I have seen your on the forum for over a year now and I can see how much you have grown as far as detecting. I believe that if it is there you are going to find it. Good luck on your next hunt and stay safe out there.

Good Job.

Nice hunt! Darn tax tokens, I found an aluminum tax token in a ghost town too 🤮

Way to go, Erik, congrats on the awesome rings! Luck is great, but experience is more consistent. 😎

I remember your reverence for the dog who had passed so many years ago. You paid tribute. I appreciate your natural understanding very much. It makes me know there is a connection between such things.

Thanks man, the second hunt was a bit disappointing but they can't all be gems, at least I got something 😀 I'm hoping the ring is gold, that would be nice. I think it was under that tree since at least the 70s. My wife says she had one like it a long time ago, and it was gold.

I watched the video early this morning.I liked that they took the time to include the kids.

Very nice finds. All of them!

Norvic, Thanks for the perspective. We all have our challenges and given a chance to compare situations it shows me and the rest of us what to expect. Being as this is my first surgery it supplies the mind with information not previously considered. I'm hoping this thread will allow more stories to be shared which will provide experience, strength and hope to move on to the next steps. Mitchel

Congrats — Ah I see you found all that stuff we planted for you. Joe D made me do it 😂 Happy Anniversary! I have one of those coming up.

Yes, let's celebrate imitation Marmite 🙂 "Vegemite started out as a response to a wartime shortage of Marmite. It's now a symbol of Australia that's spread onto toast, added to curries and even churned into ice-cream. Vegemite has inspired national pride – and outrage – since its invention a century ago in Melbourne" I'm a Marmite man myself, you can keep your salty Vegemite! Can't stand the stuff. They're celebrating a clone, a GPeeX 4600. For the Americans among us, it's a Pepsi/Coke thing 😉 with a lot of salt, think salty Pepsi. I should ad I do like the Vegemite jingle, I grew up with it as a kid even though I was a sworn Marmite devotee 🙂

At this point in my journal from 2002 & looking back at things I wrote I am sure the crew was sitting on top of the world. We must have all thought we had it all figured out and were on our way to glory like the old timers of 1936. And then there's reality. Tonight, as I put this stuff out for all to read, I am missing Jacob & thinking about all he taught us about life and hard work and of course, mining. Here's to you Jacob - may your cup always be full. Cheers.

Some of these video guys get more wrapped up in view and follower numbers, rather than learning the machines.

Right, they've gone upstairs with the sterling silver. And they sound good... We don't have an iron filter so all you can do is slow Recovery Speed (to 1) and listen well for that 'looooong' tone, it's slightly shrill with every swing. If you slowly approach the top of the coil, negative ID's will appear. I'm finding more Silver than with the Nox 800 without a doubt. It is also true that it sounds throughout the extended scale, not just above and with that easily recognizable high-pitched squeal. I explain... This men's chain came out on an ID around 24-26. The Pandora bracelet rang very low, between 14-18. That heavy ring came out in an amazing 94-95 ID. The thin women's rings with stones jump around 42-48 and the heaviest around 74-82. I think it's better to cover the screen with a piece of duct tape... 😂 It works well on the beach. Yeah...

Previous forum thread on dry washers http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/28-drywashers/