Compass

I surely don't always dig everything. I don't think my body would hold up! Like you said, sometimes you just have a feeling!

Well done and not a bad trash to treasure ratio. It's a great feeling to be first in line but if someone else is just looking for coins that's okay by me as well.

Awesome hunt and report! Congrats on the gold. It's great that your wife gets to celebrate this hunt with a night out. Our wives put up with a lot in support of our detecting and it's only right that they share in the fun when we are successful.

At first I thought that picture of the blue, round tablecloth was a map of the world made out of coins and rings you have found on this planet. 🙂 Awesome work!!!

I've heard that the Raptor handles are not intended for carbon fiber shafts. I wonder if it depends on the carbon fiber wall thickness?

I just received this barely used Sito scoop today. The build quality looks outstanding and the 2mm thick steel looks and feels pretty strong.

That 585 ring is a beauty! Congrats o.g.! 😮

Thanks Strick, Oh I know the feeling seeing some of the amazing finds here and other sites. It really is incredible how much treasure is out there and, I believe, we find a relatively small portion of it. Most of these recent lake finds have been very shallow, some being right on top. These lakes get detected pretty regularly so I believe that most of what I have been finding has been lost during the past year.

Thanks og, Seems like I went years and years without finding a gold crucifix or cross but now the collection is starting to grow. Thanks OBN, Mostly smaller jewelry but no complaints, especially, since I missed a couple months of detecting.

Thanks M, Yes, I hope El Nino is good to us! TY Thanks VL, Nice to be able to hunt year-round but those mountain lakes can get pretty cold. Thanks toad, As I mentioned, SoCal. Most of my lakes are man-made and newer so, unfortunately, I never find old jewelry or silver coins Thanks Jim!

Southern California

Thanks CPT, It's been a good detecting year for me so far and a productive winter would be icing on the cake. Thanks rvp, You are spot-on about the lakes. Sometimes you can even find recently posted fishing videos to to help monitor the lake levels. Thanks school, That silver chain and ring were dark gray when I found them but, yes, cleaned up MUCH easier than salt-water silver. Even an off-limit lake authority might be interested in having someone remove trash for free, especially, if they see the hazardous items we remove (fish hooks, lead, batteries, nails, broken bottles, can slaw, etc., etc., etc.).

I am fortunate to have several lakes to hunt which are between 5 - 100 miles from me. Some of them have fluctuating water levels and if you time it right you can get to dry areas that were submerged during the summer. At one lake I was probably a week late and missed out on some good hunting. At another lake, I was likely a couple days late and despite seeing signs of previous hunters I was able to still have some productive hunts before the water level was returned to normal. During my last 2 hunts I found a gold crucifix and a small gold St. Mary medallion. Both had their hoops intact so the chains holding them must have broke or opened up. I spent a lot of time looking for the chains, that may or may not have been there, to no avail. (one of these days!) I can't wait for the beaches to get productive again. The lake circuit has been fun but, to me, so much more work and more trash than I find in the wet beach sand.

There are several good ones out there. I have used the Stavr and Stealth scoops. Both are strong enough to work through rocky sand but the tips will wear down after years of use. I believe that the Sito scoops are pretty durable from what I have heard. Carbon fiber handles are not cheap but are light, strong and long lasting - highly recommended.

One of the most impressive rings I have seen here - congrats!!! 😮

Awesome return story M, I hope you cash in on that good karma in the next few days with the Bolaven swell that is forecast to be fairly sizeable.

Thanks strick, I agree that it is a numbers game. That does not mean that notching out targets is always necessary. There really is no wrong/right answer. I think it depends on a lot of factors but it comes down to what one's goals and capabilities are.

Awesome results Skull - congrats!

This how I got interested in metal detecting. When I was a child in the 60's we use to go surf fishing in Santa Monica and, as someone posted, we had sand crab catchers that we used to get bait. I would drag it in the dry sand to find coins along with thousands of cigarette butts. In the 80's I fabricated something similar with a long handle and I would drag it in shallow swim areas looking for jewelry. I did have some success with it but it was very strenuous work.

Can't see the pictures but I'm sure that you dug up quite a bit of trash for that gold. I was doing some bench testing the other day and one of the nicest rings in my collection rings up as a "14" on my 800. However, it was found on the beach with one of my pulse detectors.

Thanks strick. The last couple of months have been good hunting for me and, surprisingly, the lakes have been a big part of that. However, the amount of trash at the lakes can be mind-boggling. I think the trick is to celebrate each pull-tab as being one step closer to the gold. 🙂

Thanks for letting me know Matt. I really enjoyed reading his post (and yours). I was stationed at Pearl Harbor for a couple of years when I was in the Navy and loved it in Hawaii. I was even able to do some metal detecting there back in the late 70's.

Awesome write-up CPT - thanks for sharing! Sounds like a perfect vacation to me. Can you imagine what treasures could be found at the resort though?

Thanks rvp, I actually get a bit excited when I see those "18-20" TIDs near the water. Sure, most of them are zinc pennies but big gold rings are in that range too! I hunt in "gold" mode quite a bit which is very chatty. Not wearing headphones makes the chatter a lot less annoying. Thank you School. Getting a "preview" of the gold is an awesome experience. Another similar circumstance is finding a little bit of a gold chain sticking out of the sand and pulling on it only to find 1 or 2 more feet of chain and maybe even a gold pendant behind it! 😮 Thanks CPT, Funny how something can be plain and beautiful at the same time. 🙂 Thanks BSG, I used to think that this stamp was F6 . Now that I have found a few and know the maker I really welcome finding them - good quality jewelry! 🙂

I'd say that 80% or more of my hunts are at the beach and I usually use my pulse detectors there. However, when the beaches aren't productive I am fortunate to have some lakes to hunt. On one recent hunt I was hunting a lake with my Nox 800 (and its new control pod) and without using the headphones. I almost always wear headphones when I detect as they are hardwired into most of my water rated machines. Even with the Nox I typically use waterproof headphones because I work in deep water where the speaker is below the water surface. However, this hunt was along the shore in the wet sand and shallow water of a quiet lake so I decided to go without the headphones and what a pleasant experience that was! It was so nice to hear the background noise and wear a wide-brimmed hat to protect my face and neck from the sun. I also had a very memorable experience made possible by the Nox TID display. Working in the wet sand I got a strong "19-20" TID readout and when I looked down I saw a semi-circle sliver of yellow gold flush with the sand's surface (see below). I brushed away enough sand to see a complete circle of gold confirming that it was a ring and not just an earring or some other piece of jewelry. It looked like a skinny ring but here is the coolest part - when I have found gold rings in the "19-20" range they have always been fairly sizeable so I called over my buddy and said, "watch this nice big ring come out." It's no monster but 6.5 grams of 10k is always welcome. It was a great day!