mn90403

As Joe said, it needs a better background but I'm photo challenged right now without a light box that I once had.  My phone doesn't take very good pictures and I should trade it in and get another one.  I don't understand the maker mark.  It is that oval shape with very small icon inside. 

When it is a 14k/6g/33 diamond ring!

And then there were 4 other cheap rings to go along with it and two cheap chains.  These were from the same beach that had next to nothing on it for over a week.

In addition to that loot there were lots of other targets.

After I found the first ring and the gold ring in my 3 hour plus session I decided to switch from Beach 1 to Park 1.  It just bangs harder on the coins and targets on the damp beach sand better than the B1 that I have used for years now.  It also seemed easier to pinpoint.  If I went down to the black sand line it would get noisy at 23 or 24 so these were all targets up the slope in a very compressed beach.  I found nearly nothing on my mile hike in and same hike back out because there was nothing in the wet and the top had been waved over/blown out without a cut.

It was a glorious full moon night with no one on the beach and most thankfully no other detectorists.

Mitchel

Were we going to see a picture of the earring?

I just happened across this video and thought I'd post it.  

I still find any of these simple videos to not include 'off the coil' sensing of a target.  They show field restricted to just the edges of the coil.  We all know the field is larger than the coil.  I say I'm drawn to some of my targets like a moth to a flame.  Some days I am better at this than others.

It's the FRINGE that can make a difference.

Now that makes me feel 'bad' all over again!  Can I ever skip a penny and not wonder?  haha  My wife says she will never skip one.

A couple of night ago I did a beach session hoping to take advantage of a bit of surf and wind waves I had seen in the afternoon.  In that afternoon session I couldn't find any surf/wet targets but I did find one silver band in dry sand using Park 1.  I thought there would be some low tide waves so I went back out from 1-3 AM.  I walked about a mile before I found my first penny and then I got to my spot where the wave energy had been concentrated.  I picked up a few coins and junk and headed back to where I started.  I stopped to look at my settings and noticed that I had tracking off and I turned it on in Beach 1/23/50/6/0F2.  I went about 20 feet and I got a 20 target number.  That is a number I skip sometimes when I am 'saving' myself from making too many holes.

To my surprise there was a ring in my scoop and in my light it looked pretty good!

It looked like a ruby and diamonds but it was a 20!  What gives with that?

Here are the other items I found on the hunt.

This was the same beach I couldn't find much just a couple of days before and when I gridded it I had been skipping some of the 20 signals because those are all pennies, right?  Now I had just found this ring and it felt good but I didn't have my glasses.  How many rings did I skip by not digging all of my 20s?

When I got home I checked the ring.  Cheap and not gold.  Nice looking and I was disappointed but then I realized that the decision to skip many of the 20s (pennies) was a good choice so I could dig a quarter.  One quarter equals 25 penny holes.  The cheap ring made me feel 'good' if you get what I'm saying.

This afternoon I went to a different beach and it is also normally a producer but not now.  Near the end I finally got a 'round sound' at 10.  This makes me anticipate.  It was a ring but a black, stainless steel ring.  Not valuable either.  Wave intervals are over 15 so I don't expect much up and I'll have to spend more time wading and get lucky for the old stuff as few swimmers are around for new drops.

It is always a learning experience to get out.

Mitchel

I just read this story to my wife.  She got a chuckle and obviously could see some of 'me' in the story.

When I was done I was going to tell her about my night beach hunt.  I went to my pouch and emptied all of the finds and couldn't find the ring.  Where is the ring?  I couldn't tell her the story about the night without the ring.

Long story short, I searched where I remember putting it several times and looked in other 'likely' spots.  I looked in the tray of finds.  Was I going crazy?

Finally I decided to look behind the shelf where I 'remembered' putting it and somehow it had moved from the bag to behind that little bookshelf and wedged itself against the wall.

My memory was good but my placement was bad.

Mitchel

This is the real story!

You gotta love a big rock.

What were the numbers on the Nox?

Mitchel

She was looking for gold nuggets in the Golden Triangle and found these instead ...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8472753/Amateur-metal-detector-finds-FOURTEEN-extremely-valuable-sovereign-coins.html

Oh, my ... 51 gold in ONE DAY!

I agree about the video.  It reminds me of stories I heard while growing up near Jacksonville Beach, Florida about how some guys would go out to the old fishing piers there and dig around the pilings and found coins and chains in the 50s and 60s.  I didn't see it done but was told about it.

To have an area like the Chesapeake with its couple hundred years of history it has to be a bit exciting to go out hunting that way with a efficient detector.  Now think of the Mediterranean!  Then the early metal detecting days of the Caribbean and ...

Stimulates the brain 

I asked Joe how many gold rings he has found and he told me near 800!  That is an incredible number in my book.  It gave me pause to think about some of my local 'legendary'  local beach detectorists.  I have not met one.  His name is Walker.  I have met another one Tim Tidd and he told me about other local legends.  

Over on the nugget forum we have several 'legends' contribute to the discussions there.  One is Reg Wilson among several others.  Here is a link to a project Reg is working on to preserve the memories.

So, who are the LEGENDS of the Beach?  What are some stories you can share about them?  I know some are still hard at work at enhancing their legends but I don't go to other forums.  Are you a LEGEND and want to share a bit of your lifetime successes with us?  There are legends that hide and many who would never visit a website I would imagine but let's try to change that.

Mitchel

I don't quite get your terminology but I get your results!  Well done.

If this is #56 for this year how many is it for your career?  

Mitchel

Thanks for the responses.

I'm hoping for the tells on the modulation as well.  It is certainly a helpful feature of a good detector to let you interrogate your target before, during and after you dig it.  It makes for a better learning experience going into the next targets.  It produces detector memory (mental memory, muscle memory) which gives us the feeling we're on to something good.

Modulation just happens to be what I consider to be a weak spot of the Equinox 800 I have.  (I never felt that way about the 3030 or  Explorer SE Pro)  I'm still surprised sometimes by the mass of some targets.  I can sometimes anticipate the target by tracing the size but not always.

Mitchel

Treasure,

You found a good memory.  Searching places where you and your relatives have lived will reward you in that way.

I remember those little knives.  I think they would be sitting in bowls at stores.  They were a cheap little multi-tool you put on your key chain.  Everyone was always cleaning their fingernails but few people get their hands dirty these days.

If you really get into coins and relics you'll do a bit on research on when the house was built, the neighborhood and find the first parks so you can go to all of those places.  Your town or neighborhood might have an historical society or library where you can see what was there in the past.

Mitchel

Sometimes you have to be a contrarian also just to swing longer!  haha

Alexandre,

Thanks for taking up the bet!

Mitchel

Having no expectations and just hunting one swing at a time will have its own rewards.  It becomes part of the background for the better days.

Mitchel

16 minutes ago, RickUK said:

Many folks will probably disagree with me on this one but i use the settings that work best for me and my sites. 

Results we like to hear and lets us think outside the box.  I like your settings.

JP always talks about coil control on the Zed.  The more I use the Nox the more I see my coil control has an effect on my targets.  The targets don't know how fast or smooth I'm swinging the coil but the audio response is sure different with different swings.  

Try it, you'll like it.

I ran down to the beach with my 6" coil when I got it and found 4 rings that session!  I was stoked.  I've use it quite often in the desert and for whatever reason I haven't found any gold nuggets with it.  I did find lots of tiny bird shot which means if gold was there I should have detected it but not so far.

It is quite a treat to walk a beach with such a tiny coil and get some good hits.

Mitchel

I've managed to get out for a few sessions with these extremely low tides but there is not much to show for it.  There have not been many waves to get things moving up.  When I try the swimming areas it is long and far between targets.  It would have been great today to have a deep punching PI to see if I was missing anything with my 800/11.  I did dig a couple of targets in wet and damp sand that were 15 inches!  I don't like to say it but this represents about 8 hours of detecting with a few of the finds from dry sand on the way in and out of my beaches.

This was today's session.  Once again the sea groups things together with it being a key day.  This was all I could find on some normally very productive beaches.  Come again another day.

This session from a couple of days ago covered some of the same beaches I covered today.  I found one cheap ring.

This session was at a beach I've done good at in the past but haven't been able to park near it recently because of the closed beaches.  I got this 20-21 signal as soon as I walked down to the wet sand.  It was the ring.  Unfortunately it is one of the tungsten/carbide rings but it did fool me.  As you can see this two mile walk didn't produce much.

This last picture is just another session.  The picture is documentation.

It's sessions like this that bring the averages way down ... haha

Better days ahead!

Mitchel

I think I should also add that in ALL of the clubs I belong to there is a group of prospectors who love to teach new people about prospecting.  This is where people get access to old timers and have a short cut to success.  If you are an 'old timer' and your kids and family don't care about your pursuit of gold, join a club and show others what YOU do so that someone else can COPY you.  So much knowledge about people, places and things gold related have vanished before it was passed on to others. 

Clubs make it 'easy' for someone to go out and give gold prospecting a try.  If you don't like it then you just don't go back.  If you do like it you will generally find someone willing to teach and share just like they do here online.