mn90403

My 5000 and the 18" NF was a lot of fun to run. I almost got in the pounder club with a deep Arizona nugget. It suited me quite well but I stopped using it much after I got my 7000 and that is probably a mistake. I still have it and should warm it up when I get the chance. I've used the 5000 on the beach and it is actually pretty good there too.

And maybe you will get a higher price. How traceability of gold became a focus for independent jewellers (ft.com)

Ah ... what a feeling! You anticipated and it paid off. WTG

Can people order one of those Lunk detectors? It seems to be programmed for gold. haha

Reg Wilson has some thoughts on the origin of the technology.

Ouch on the break! I thought you were going to have Robin with you. Nice to still be finding spots out there. I wish I could be out there but not with kids in school.

Italian surf! Italian Surf Pumps As Leo Fioravanti Scores Once-In-A-Lifetime Swell (msn.com)

You certainly took advantage of the full moon! What a haul. I'm guessing it happens more often than we ever know about. Most people don't post such things any more. I'm glad you did. I'm convinced that jewelry is like crabs. The waves and the currents group it together into big patches that make it into metal detector range every so often. I stay up on the banks and find it now and then. You guys that go out and wade find more of the heavies that don't get moved up and a diver can hit some really virgin spots. Joe said it right. It moves and best to get after it again and again while it is there.

I saw the last Shuttle launch from the beach and a couple of others before that. When I was growing up my mom knew the significance of the Space Program and she would drive down in the middle of the night and we would watch the Gemini and Apollo launches. Now those were sights and sounds!

This might be the best testament I've ever read on the Manticore. When you say the site was pounded ... did you find areas that had been 'missed' by other detectors? Maybe they would have been missed by others because of the iron fatigue on the ears. What 'better' things did you find on this site in years past? Were there some bigger coins or mostly more of the same as you found in this 12 hours?

Mybe you have or want a nugget ring. I've found a couple but I don't wear them. Would anyone care to show their ring? Here is an article I found interesting about nugget rings. What do you think? The Timeless Elegance of a Nugget Ring: An Exquisite Addition to Your Jewelry Collection - (ventsmagazine.com)

Here's a bit of current info about gold hunting around Fresno. Storms — human and atmospheric — fuel ‘second gold rush’ - The Business Journal

Have you found any bits with the 7000? (I reread your post and you said you found the most with a 4000 so I guess you have found gold with the 7.) Let me ask if there is a pattern, shape or size that it seems to find ... or a depth?

Oh, my! 🙃

Thanks. This is the phone I use: BLU F92e - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com) I've used Blu phones for a few years. The lighting was from a dining room light and I zoomed in a bit. The black contrast helps get depth of field. Years ago I had a lightbox setup and that would take good pictures with a Canon digital but I haven't used it in years. The last picture of the ladies ring is lacking in quality and depth. I need to retake it because the ring shows in person a bit better than that picture.

They all test REAL! Here is a ring I found the next night that does not test real on the diamonds. It is 2.9 g/14k. Before the last hunt I'd be very thrilled with this and to tell you the truth I am but testing the other ring at the same time and these are not real and that makes a difference.

I grew up in Florida on the northeast coast. I've detected a little bit there and on the treasure coast and it is as close as you will get to southern California detecting but it is still miles apart most of the time. On those beaches there you can get a cut. South Florida east coast beaches are different starting to get more like the islands with fewer swell conditions. When you move over to the west coast of Florida you really lose a swell and wave energy pattern like we have on ALL of the west coast. From Ft. Myers to Pensacola I would do two things. Wade or dive in the water and hunt the blanket lines and the beach and this would include lakes and springs. My recent find of two big pieces and one more 2 gram ring last night is a bit of luck but also just hours. It has been a couple of years since I put this many hours in for one week. I missed out on our hurricane events because I didn't go to the waves and get my share. Gerry and cjc go and get it and I know some others who don't wait on the gold to come into shore. Is there anyone who wades Clearwater Beach? Compass, you and many others in socal are way ahead of me on gold. That is why I said I had an epic night but it is mostly a one off. Keep showing what you find.

The Karma is still with me! Now it has really come in with an epic hunt. I have two all time bests in one hunt. It started last night in a somewhat normal fashion. I went to my local beach that I know so well and began using the 800/11. The wave energy push had subsided so it was time to see if I had missed anything deeper. After about 30 minutes I could tell that not much was on this beach. A bit ahead of me I could see a couple of detectorists coming so it was time to leave. I have to really thank them for coming along and pushing me off the beach before it got too late. There was enough time to go to another beach about 10 miles away and try my Karma there. It was with me but I almost didn't give it time. I had been near this part of the beach a couple of nights before but I just ran out of time to hit this stretch. When I got there the tide was still going out a bit and NO ONE had detected it. It can produce under the right circumstances about 1 out of 10 times or so. It was stingy at first with long stretches of nothing and just 4-5 coins in an area that could give up more. I was trying to find a line, a patch ... a something. I actually turned around with the idea that I was going to leave when I heard a low, deep, near negative hit. When I got down 10 inches and could still hear it and the number was coming up closer to 15, I was getting disappointed because we all know that is a bottle cap. This one was also chattering to me big time. A couple of more scoops down in the hole and it was out. Now it was in my scoop, and I was shining my light into the scoop, and it SPARKLED! Shock and awwwwwwwwwwww! I was ready to leave, and I got lucky and found this. It is not marked but I have had it analyzed and it is 10K, 7.3 grams with 15 stones that are very white. It fits me and is one of the best rings I've ever found. I looked around and circled the area looking for more, but I thought, this must be it. This is what I was meant to find. Then I went back to my starting area and hunted the cuts and slopes a bit just trying to get a 'hook' into the beach and telling myself that I'm not done here. I might be able to find another score ... maybe even better if I just don't go home yet. I found a pattern with a few coins with long distances between, but it kept me at the beach. I got another quarter hit and when I got it out it was my second ring of the night. It is a silver 5.5 gram ring. It kept me in the game saying that this might really be a jewelry beach after all. Let me keep going. A bit later I got a little hit and looked in my scoop and there was a little silver earring. It is the one on the right. The one on the left is one that I found a couple of nights before over 10 miles away! Now I was really locked in and covering all of the ground in a parallel to the beach. I could see a pattern between, above and below my dig holes. I was going along and I heard a 2! That is normally one of the round, plastic bottle caps or something. I gave a couple of scoops and in the cloud lit beach I could see a chain. I turned on my flashlight and BAM! My session just went 'epic' if it was real. I've never found a chain like this one. It seemed a little bit light but I didn't know. It is marked in two places as 14k but we've all seen fakes before. I had to take it to be analyzed and I was told the chain is 14k and the crucifix read as 11k but they needed to scratch it to know for sure. Since I'm not selling I said I was satisfied with what I was told. It is 24 inches and over 33 grams, so I have just made the ouncer club with a piece of gold jewelry! I was blown away but I wasn't quite done. I found one more silver crucifix that weighs 6.2 grams before I finally had enough. Here are the valuables on one sheet. And here is everything including the trash. I didn't get much sleep but I'm going to try it again! Thanks for getting to the end of this post.

Last Friday I went to my PCSC meeting in Downey, California and saw our panning contests for the year. We also had our displays of the month but I forgot to get the picture. Part of my display was telling everyone about the Golden Heart Return. Thank you for all that looked at that thread and made comments about gold was coming to me soon. That, a rocket launch and the tides motivated to get out to the beaches after the meeting on Friday night. The launch schedule was for 12:47 AM. By the time I made it back to Santa Monica is was almost 11 PM so I just went to the beach. There had been some nice waves come in, but the beach had been detected! I decided to continue anyway. Earlier in the day I had detected a park before the meeting using the Equinox 800/6. I got the quirky idea that I wanted to leave the small coil on as I had found 4 gold rings on the beach with it the first time I used it nearby. So off I went to see the rocket launch and detect. Detecting on the beach with a 6 inch coil as opposed to the 15x12 is naturally quite different. The lightness of it can make me swing it too fast but it is sensitive enough and can go 7-8 inches deep on a quarter. It is a bit fun. When it was time for the rocket launch there was a delay of 30 minutes. It caused me to walk up the beach closer to the Santa Monica Pier. I wanted it in my pictures with the rocket. I had seen one before by 'accident' out detecting one night when I didn't know the schedule. This one I had the schedule on my phone. I detected my way up the beach and got a few coins and then a nice high pitch. I had my light off but I could still see something hanging from my scoop. It turned out to be a 25 inch, 17 gram, .925 silver, round, box chain with a little pendant. It had been washed up with the waves and missed by some of the other detectorists looking further down the hill. I can only imagine what they got. Yahoo was all I could say. A few minutes later the rocket did launch and I made a video. It is a little long. The rocket becomes visible about the 1:50 mark. I didn't realize that the formatting would not be full screen. This video makes it very difficult to see. It looks much better on my phone. I've seen several of the SpaceX launches now from Vandenberg and Santa Monica. They normally head south so they get closer during the launch. These launches remind me of watching the Apollo launches when I grew up in Florida. After the launch I detected more and found the stainless-steel ring pictured. It was successful for the night. The next night, Saturday I decided to use the 800/6 on another beach. At first it was not able to find any targets. I wondered if I had the coil working correctly but then I found a 'wet patch.' I was standing in the waves with my boots on getting wet but finding just about all of the coins and trash within a 50 ft area. I had the right coil for this job. My calf boots were filling with water but I was still getting targets. A combination of wind, waves and tide moved this patch to a spot where I could detect it. I found 6 $1 coins which I don't normally find. All of it was shallow. Each wave would move something else up. These are rare times but I was glad I had the small coil. I walked away several times to find another wet patch but there were none so I returned to find more. That was my session. Sunday night I decided to see if more targets had been missed. I walked about 5 miles with very limited success. Detectorists must have known there was not much about because I didn't see anyone or any dig holes. At the end of the session I heard a 6 and it was solid. I was hopeful it would be a ring and it was. I didn't realize it was gold until later. As I was circling the spot where I found the ring ... the battery icon started blinking and the volume crashed. I had just found the ring before all power went out. I've learned a lot about the 6 inch coil in the last 3 days. I found one part of an aluminum can at 15 inches and if you go really slow you can find coins at 10 inches. It is easy to use on the slopes and cuts and it detects 'bigger' than its size. I can hear a target/break in the threshold by getting within 7-8 inches of it while swinging fast. Then it becomes like the moth to the flame of enhancing the target location. This small coil is a tool and if I know there are big waves and moving targets again I'll use it. I think it can also help on detecting a long cut where the wash downs and the wash ups are shallow and quick to recover.

WTG! That is a good score. You have some good detectors. People that are new and relatively new don't know where to look. haha

Well done. I've only done a little bit of lake hunting in Havasu and that was many years ago. I'm eagerly awaiting a 'return to normal' swells if the southern Pacific and El Nino kick in as they predict.

I was getting in a quick afternoon detect and was just about to leave when I was approached by a guy about my age I'd say. He was with a beautiful girl who was his daughter and he asked me if I could help him. I didn't know. He told me that his daughter had lost a necklace. They had been sitting on the sand and it was gone. I told him I needed to know exactly where they were sitting. This is what I tell anyone that wants my help. I need them to mark a line in the sand and I'll detect inside of that area. Of course many people when they lose something they don't know where they were and he was a bit unsure. We walked over to his daughter and I asked her what was the necklace made out of. She said gold. I asked if it was a very fine chain and she said yes. I told her that would be harder to find. Then I asked her if it had a pendant and she said yes, it was a heart and gave me an approximate size. Now I had to mark off the area where they were sitting and detect it. As I did this her dad pointed to some additional area near where some other people were sitting but I needed to detect the primary area first. There was nothing in the square, no coins or trash. They were naturally disappointed and thanked me for the try but I wasn't done. I went out a little farther from where they were sitting and went over an area with some dirty sand but it had been disturbed a bit. I got a wobbly hit and when I scooped up the dry sand, there it was! I was about 20 feet away from them and they didn't see me pull it up out of the sand. (I could have kept it.) I walked over to the girl (late teens I'd say) and I said is this it? It was hers. A nice chain (unbroken) and a 6-7 gram gold heart. Her dad thanked me and said it had great value to her. She would be very happy. He asked if I owed him something and I said no. I was happy to do it. I walked away. Then I thought about it a little bit and I said I wanted a picture of the find. It might be my only gold this month. I've found some cheap rings but no gold so far and I got a titanium today, but we all know those leave you more disappointed than anything else. I'm glad I was able to help.

Really great to see you with a good post like this.

Years ago, I went into the area that has a big parking lot with the bear proof trash cans. Someone had told me at a Keene Meeting that there was a hill on the other side of the stream where they had found a few small nuggets. At the time I had my 5000 so I decided to figure out the story. I went across the creek and headed up a little gully. It was a big mistake. It seems that everyone had used the parking lot for a place to shoot everything on the other side! Some of it was old lead with the 3 rings and a few other pieces but no gold. After that I gave up on the area and went to other places much farther away with less trash. Maybe there is still some gold there?

Where was the area called the Gold Bowl? Was it north of Boquet Canyon?