Erik Oostra

How good? what does it cost?

the nice warm bath tub had a big salty floating in it yesterday.. a 4 metre saltwater crocodile! my ranger friends told me there's been a few large males sighted up and down our coast.. last month there was a smaller one at Horseshoe Bay.. usually it's only one per year if we've lucky..

I bought it thinking it was the real deal but forum members have pointed out that it was probably a fake.. the price and the extra coil and a cheap pinpointer that were thrown in with the deal were the giveaways that it was not an original.. the price really was too good to be true.. having said that it worked really well and it's now my son's go to detector for gold in the area he lives.. although he mainly uses his pan and sluices, he has found gold with it.. which is more than i can say! 😬

Luck happens when things get so bad, that at some point you've gotta get lucky.. 😁

😁

It turns out the bracelet was cubic zirconia.. she went to a jeweller on the mainland where they sold exactly the same bracelets for around $300.. So she got it.. and before you ask, yes i think i can trust her.. about as much as you'd trust anyone not to lie about a diamond bracelet.. 😬

I'm with Chase on this one, I'd also buy another whole detector, even if it was just to have another spare coil.. I've got a 600 as a backup to my 800..

my friend still hasn't returned with it.. that makes me sure it's diamonds.. 😃

That was pure luck!

It's weird how your luck can change week by week.. Last week started off great with a gold ring and finished even greater with a diamond bracelet.. But so far this week it's been nothing at all.. except a 5 cent piece and a load of bottle tops, pull-tabs and aluminium foil etc.. But this is not what makes it weird, the weird thing is that this week comes at the end of the school holidays and a long-weekend public holiday.. It's been a long time since there's been so many people on the island, you couldn't wish for a bigger crowd.. And yet, nothing.. 😬

Some great finds there, I really like the toy pistol.. must have been a wild neighbourhood in the 1920s.. 😃

surveyor's scope?

Crikey, what a haul! the clasp on both look the same.. like GhostLight said, fingers crossed.. but I've got a feeling that my friend will end up the real winner in the end..

A friend took it over to the mainland today to see a jeweler.. the deal is that if the stones are zirconia then she gets the bracelet, if they're diamonds i'm gonna have to think about if she can keep it.. sounds fair to me.. 😁

because it shows the pub? 😁 or because it shows Jeffrey Bay? that's two guesses..and i'll bet i'm wrong anyway..

Yes, those little $2 coins are the bee's bollocks, everyone loves to drop them and they make a huge difference in the weekly tally..

I've just been researching the bracelet (it's a tennis bracelet) and the stones could be zirconia instead of diamonds.. that would be a bit disappointing but is more in line with my luck as i'm yet to score the jackpot find on which i can retire a rich man.. one thing which makes me wonder is that the bracelets made with zirconia have fewer stones than this one.. i'll keep on researching.. Also the little gold earring is not gold..

From the explorer Captain Cook, he wrote in his journal that when he sailed past the island his compass behaved strangely.. but maybe he'd been tucking into the ship's whiskey supply instead..

I forgot to mention I found the bracelet at Alma Bay which is about a 1 minute walk from my house.. As mentioned in another post location is everything.. The bracelet rang in at 7-8 on the Nox, which makes me wonder if it could be white gold.. It's marked 925 which I always assumed was silver but white gold also has a high silver content..

This really has been a great week, found a gold ring on Monday and a diamond bracelet about an hour ago.. It's marked 925 silver.. Even though the Queensland borders are closed because of Covid, there are still plenty of people on the island for the school holidays.. and plenty of people means plenty of freshly dropped coins and jewellery.. I'm not usually this lucky though as the finds are seasonal when school holidays are on or depend on how much sand has moved during really high tides or storms.. Even so, it seems the Patron Saint of metal detecting (whoever that might be, I nominate Steve) is looking after me this week.. and there's still 4 more days to go before the school holidays are over.. Every morning I start at around 4:30am with my head lamp and finish when the first tourists arrive to watch to sun rise..

There’s a lot of posts on this forum of prospectors complaining that gold is getting harder to find.. It’s not just that their favourite patches have run dry but also that the size of nuggets found is getting smaller.. This has made me wonder if beach hunters are catching up in the amount of gold recovered each year? If their posts are anything to go by, the amount of gold jewellery found on popular beaches is pretty mind boggling.. I realise that the purity of gold in its natural form is higher but often when it’s made into jewellery it becomes more valuable, especially when a piece of jewellery also has gemstones in it (like diamonds, rubies or sapphires).. So I guess this question is twofold: which of these two groups recovers the most gold by weight? And which group can make the most profit from their finds?

I had a bit more luck than normal today, found $46.50 and a little gold ring with what looks like a diamond.. These were found at Horseshoe Bay after the Sunday markets.. On Monday mornings this beach usually yields a few dollars but today it was feeling especially generous.. It seems like they had a competition to see who could drop the most coins..

A recent post offering advice to newbies has inspired me to put in my own two cents worth.. My advice to those wanting to take up metal detecting is: Don’t! You’ll be far better off trying another hobby like banging your head against a brick wall, pulling out your hair in sheer frustration, or crying yourself to sleep at night.. Of course I’m only joking but any newbie has to prepare for the never-ending toil of digging junk, lots of it.. If you can handle this without having a nervous breakdown or flinging your detector out to sea, you’ll be amply rewarded when you finally hear that magic sound telling you there’s buried treasure below your feet.. A hard-won experience like no other! Metal detecting truly is a game where dogged determination and persistence will eventually pay off.. The only problem is that when you finally get to this stage, all you’ll ever think and dream about is metal detecting.. Your marriage will fail and your kids will starve but none of this matters as long as you can get a few more swings in.. In metal detecting there’s no such thing as an unhealthy obsession.. A house filled to the brim with all the latest detectors that you’ll never use is not weird at all.. Just rest assured that there’s many others just like you!

No, he was the real deal.. he described exactly where he lost it.. it got buried in the sand whilst he and his mates were partying on the island..