F350Platinum

Thus far it hasn't, apparently it's quite the draw here, and a lucky thing to see it. The Brevard Zoo is nearby, it would be easy for them to come and get it, but they haven't. 🤔 My dog would be a snack. 😬

Thanks Okara! Am I near you? This time last year the Potomac was at 34 degrees. Right now it's 37, and 21° where I would hunt. All things considered I am very happy to be here in Florida for the next couple of weeks, I'm sure it will be fun despite the fact that it is kinda chilly here too. The worst day here is forecast to be 49°. If it's not too windy even that would be a good hunting day in VA! Regardless of the air temperature the sun is still much warmer. 🙂

Today was a Big day. Got out for about 4 hours here in Florida, went shopping with my wife in the morning and hit the beach at low tide in the afternoon. It got up in the 60s today, and the water isn't all that cold. Beautiful day, light wind, and very few people at the beach. Last weekend when it was 80 it was packed so I went back to the beach where I found the gold ring. There was no real cut, but the tide was way out, so I had a shot at whatever was out there. Turns out it was pretty good! Got about as much clad as my first day, and a snake bracelet that was plated but it's now brass: The blue thing is probably from a broken mood ring. 47 cents in clad, I'm always happy when I get at least each one of the coins. It means I'm doing good. 😅 I was on my way back to the entrance, searching the shell line, getting coins, and suddenly got a very strong 20. I thought it might be yet another shard of "aluminium" but it was this 🤯: A massive necklace, about 18" long, and over 50 CZ's. It wasn't broken! 🥳 Thing is, whatever the plating, the back looks like crap: If this necklace was white gold with over 50 3/4 carat+ diamonds, imagine what it would be worth. I think you can get one on questionable sites for about $100. 🤣 Trash was nothing, this area is pretty clean: And on to the other "Big", saw this 10'+ Gator in a pond behind the fence in front of the hotel this morning: Later, Gator. 😬 🍀

I'm on it. 🤣

Thanks Ghound, I'm onea those people who can't sit around for a long time. I have to be doing something. My wife had to hit me with a bat to catch me 😅 My stepson (God bless him) is a 23 year Coast Guard Vet, (CW3) he's trained in HVAC and a million other "boaty things". He retired from the military and built a house on his dad's farm about 15 miles away, and now teaches Marine Trades at the local Tech School. Our house was literally designed around the "Marina life" by the builders who had a boat near us. Pretty maintenance free so you can enjoy other things. 🤔 I'm as proud of him as I would be if I was his father. He said I was smart to get out, and said he will try to get the outside units working before we get back. He might possibly meet a repair crew if needed. He tells me (for his mom's sake especially) that it would be a mistake to come back. My wife wants to do some shopping today, but I might get out to the nearest beaches this afternoon, it's supposed to be in the 60s. My "birthday week" is looking better, and the weather models say no snow cover by the time we get back. 🍀

🤣 Makes me think of my grandfather who always accused me of "Living the Life of Riley" 🍀 he was one tough Irishman that got through the Great Depression with style. My dad had Polio when he was a kid but he was tough too and we got by. Lost him when I was 18. 🥲 I grew up kinda poor, joined the Military determined to improve my life, and it paid back well to a degree. Can't afford one of these million dollar houses on the coast, but at least I'm comfortable enough in retirement to enjoy whatever time I got left. 😎 Luckily my second marriage has been great for both of us. ♥️

Thanks Mn, I've learned a lot from Rich (Joe D) so far, like wearing the right clothes to avoid sunburn and deal with the heat, how to interpret beach conditions, and to get in the water when it's a good idea to do so. 🙂 I've already seen a few "blue bottles" since I got here. 😬 Right now the water is the only warm thing, and it isn't all that warm. Here right now in Florida it's 35 degrees. 🥶 I used to love surf casting, but want to detect as much as possible. They're mostly fishing here, not catching. 🤔 Thus far with our dirt fishing, we are catching even if we have to "throw some back" (trash can). 😅 I'm already happy, I couldn't imagine being trapped in the house all day with all those fields back home covered with ice. 🫤 🍀

Thanks Rich, I will say since I began this new trend last year that Florida is a tough detecting environment. The difference between my first Equinox and these new detectors (Deus 2 and Manticore) is massive, for me now it's getting so if finds are there it's easy to get them, but you have to dig deeper. The more Northern beaches have less competition, In Florida you have to resign yourself to long periods of swinging and no digging, Being a relic hunter is an asset, you can hit a 90 acre farm and only find a few hotspots, so I'm used to it. Didja notice that one little tweak made your Manticore insanely powerful? 🤔 For the curious we simply set Beach Surf and Seawater to the Dankowski "4 down" upper ferrous limit, eliminate the lower limit, and use Enhanced Audio. What it does is is put all the ground noise in the background, and good targets (or bad) sound off loud. With sensitivity at 30 we're hitting coins at a foot or more, some places I was digging down to the shell layer to retrieve. It always made sense to me because "NASA Tom" hunts these very beaches. 👍 I've tried all of the other beach programs and none are quieter. Gold is gonna gold, conditions, size and depth are your enemy. Just dig them low conductors! I've seen it before, people freak when other detectorists are coming, and go back over where they were to make sure they didn't miss whatever was left in the ground they did cover 😅 and what's with all these golfers? 🤣 We even told one noob he was not keeping his coil down, and he went right back to it. 🙄 Ah well, the beach is big enough for all of us, you can't cover everything. 🍀

UKD2User is right, that bad boy is almost EMI proof. Forgot about that one. 🤔 Jeff has great insight into it as well. Great question, NC. 🏆

Trial by snow for sure Colonel, but here I am running around in shorts while the locals are dusting off their jackets 🤣 it isn't gonna be too warm here through all this, but waaay better than Northern Virginia. 🤔

Good God, Joe. Hope you're warm and safe 🥶 The backstory is I woke up last Wednesday night before the storm thinking about having to run generators, pump water on the outdoor units, and possibly during an outage have one of my PVC water pipes burst again like in 2010 when it was -4. Yeah, it's been that long since my first floor got flooded while I was in Richmond that day. We have a bit of travel surplus, so I thought of all we would have to do if we stayed vs. leaving, and winterizing the house seemed like a better deal. We were coming here anyway about a week from today. Woke my wife up at 5am, and we took all day Thursday getting things in order, making sure all family was safe, and got out Friday morning. I probably should have pulled the breakers on my outside units, but they quit anyway. Lesson learned. Thanks for your concern and support! I feel like y'all are my friends. 🙂 🍀

Thanks Locator! 🙂 Update: the outside heat pumps failed, but the inside air handlers are still going. Albeit expensive electric heat, at least things inside won't freeze.🥳 I wish I could post the images and video of my son in law and grandson sliding on the driveway. 🙄 His phone sends them in a format not supported here. 😵 We visited the hotel we are going to for my birthday, it's beautiful! Right on the beach. We're going to stay inland for a week for the free breakfast. 😂 I'm probably gonna annoy y'all for a while with posts of not getting much, but there will be some good info for the forum in here. We're discussing another hunt, and I'm possibly going to meet a legend while I'm here. It just keeps getting better. 🫣

I'll only post my opinion here. 🫣 I have the HF2, I've used it, and like it for what it is. I tend to like elliptical coils anyway, I use the 13" most often, and the M15 on my other detector. I have the stereo WSA-ST headphones on order, even if they came today I'm "stuck" in Florida due to a storm back home where my Deus is, or I'd be testing the whole rig on the Florida Coast right now. 😵 Stuff happens. I have very high hopes for V4.1 and the WSA-ST backphones, but y'all ain't gonna hear from me until I get it all rigged up. It's you're happy with V2 and the 13"and 9", I'd say wait until some of the early adopters get out with it, and if @Jeff McClendon gets into it after his testing with other stuff, check his posts out. @Chase Goldman is also posting wise info. Hell I'd just give you the "ground pounding" viewpoint anyway, but now and again you can pull some diamonds from the BS, right? 😂 🍀

Title says it all, turns out that while we didn't get as much snow as predicted, we got a lot of ice, and had a power outage perfectly timed with freezing rain that turned all the 4" of snow to ice, which froze up my heat pumps and put them out of operation. A relative went up to check on the house, luckily no structural damage that we know of yet exists, but according to him it would be insane to go back today, or anytime for the next week for that matter. 🙄 The guy who was supposed to plow the half mile gravel driveway provided these pics: A 4"thick 1/2 mile skating rink. My house. So, ol' F350 is stuck here in Florida. Ironically we have another hotel booked in a week for my birthday, so we're not leaving for 2 more while we try to remotely coordinate house repairs. I met up with Rich, y'all know him as @Joe D., he's one of the people I met up with here last year. We have been good friends for quite a while now. I'm not good at selfies but here we are. I've learned a lot about beach hunting from this guy, and the lessons continue. We met up on Monday at a beach about halfway between us, and didn't do too bad, this is off season so expectations have to be lowered, but it was warm and the beaches were packed to a degree. I did ok, got some bling and change: And Rich went off the beaten path and got this interesting Aquarius spoon ring, (my Zodiac sign and birthstone): You can make out "Sterling" on the back. We have no idea what it would be doing back under the sea grape trees, but sometimes the homeless use them for shelter or others for other questionable activities. Either way that's thinking off the grid 😂 The next day we got together to go on a Treasure Coast trip, we hit some of the beaches looking for erosion and found it, but there wasn't anything in the places we looked but some old clad. Some places were better than others, but still nothing. The biggest fear was not being able to get out of the cut before the tide came fully in, the water is warm but the polar front has moved in and it was extremely windy and much colder. Yesterday's haul 🫣: Hit both of these coins at a foot or more. Trash is surprisingly minimal: First day was "beachy" stuff, and yesterday was more like a relic hunt from the eroded beaches. Despite the worries back home I'm having a blast, wish I had my Deus with me but I'm not going home to get it. 😅 Glad I brought the M15 and M9, I'm pretty sure we're going to hit the Treasure Coast a bit more, and the next hotel I'm staying at is right on the beach. Good friend, good times. 🍀

I live in a very historic area that actually has an available bumper sticker that essentially says "You've seen it, now leave". There are a few beaches and a lot of coastline, many cottages. I'd amend that to "You've seen it, now leave your jewelry". 🤔

Guess I'll have to stop by then, even Florida didn't escape this polar event 🥶 we're heading out to the Treasure Coast this morning, and it's 39 degrees, just barely 4 Celsius. It's supposed to go up to 53°F, or about 12°C. 😂 Back home it's -11°C. But here you still can get a sunburn! I'll be wearing shorts anyway. Still going to go in the water a bit.

Thanks Lawrence, That is one of the best feelings you can get detecting aside from handing the ring to my wife. 🙄 Florida East Coast is a tough place to hunt, lots of competition that most likely gridded the beach last night. I'm just glad I got the Manticore set to where it's easy to find deep stuff, everything the pickers missed. 👍

Yeah the karma points should carry me for a bit, it won't be detecting weather when I get back but I'm returning here in early February anyway 😅 Got out today and am going again tomorrow. This polar weather is annoying, I'm done with it already after many mild winters at my camp. 😵 Sorry about your 47°, that's why we took off. I didn't want to deal with it, the snow, the ice, and power outages. A side road from mine did lose power, it took them a bit to get it right. Right now I'm trying to find out if my heat pumps are working, that would also be a no-go home.

Thanks Joe, Just checked the power outage map, and there are some in my area without power, thoughts and prayers for y'all. I think we only got about 4", or so the snow cover map says. It's the ice storm that followed. 😬 Been through a few of those, I've had enough. We'll be watching the grid until Wednesday when we expect to return, but the persistence of ice and future power loss may make us extend. I'll be coming back here in a short time, this was an off the cuff decision.

I didn't count, but my original estimate was ~30, I just lowered it to be safe. 😅 It was also thick and heavy, not cheesy like some I've found, Wow 🤯 I'm happy as well that she really knew where it was, she said she put it in her dress to go in the water and it fell out when she took it off. They hunted around quite a bit for it, guess they pressed it down even more. 🙂

Thanks Matt, Yep, "karma" is one of the great benefits of detecting. 🙂 I'm glad I found it so fast. Turns out that ring can sell for anywhere from $3,000 to $35,000, depending on who made it and what metals and diamond quality. Closest fit was Neil Lane from Kay about $8k. Honestly I'm not worried about finding anything, I'm just glad to be here. 🙂

Yep, ya just gotta be out there. Had that guy not come to get me my wife might have got a hella ring! 😬 He's the real hero. 🤔

Ok, off the bat I chickened out of Winter Storm Fern in Virginia, I winterized the house, got my wife and dog Sammy in the Bronco Sport, and we cut out for Florida. There were dire reports of 20" of snow with an inch of ice, stuff like that. My driveway is a half mile long through a farm, it's gravel/mud all the way. Got nobody to plow it and though I have two generators and an RV, I decided I just didn't want to go through having the power out for days, and temperatures in the teens or less. We haven't had a storm like this one was purported to be in years, I'm getting too old for that crap. 🫤 It's a 15 hour drive, but we made it safely to Florida, I'm fairly close to Orlando. Best part is I'm pretty near my Florida detecting buddy, @Joe D.. might go somewhere with him this week. I got out fairly early this morning, and hit a beach not too far away. Beautiful day, Southeast onshore wind, 84 as the high. There are a lot of people in my hotel who cut out of various states like I did 😅 met a few on the beach too. I only brought the Manticore with the M9 and M15 coils, my scoop and usual stuff. I wasn't really expecting to go out at all, but my wife told me to go so I did. Walked up the wet, I was 2 hours late for low tide, but I still got some stuff. Manticore was using Beach Surf and Seawater with Dankowski ferrous limit, and Neil Jones' tones. Only thing I did a little different this time was set my stabiliser to 3, and sensitivity to 30. About halfway in, a man came running up to me signaling me to stop so he could talk, apparently he ran a half mile from where I came in to catch up with me. He breathlessly told me his wife had lost her wedding ring in the sand, and asked if I would try to find it. I was kinda pressed for time today, but I said sure and hunted the dry back to where I started. It didn't take but 5 minutes, I had them move some metal stuff, and got a solid 20. The Manticore sounds so good on a ring you just know it. I said "there it is", and pulled this gorgeous ~18k beauty literally dripping with diamonds out of the sand, it had already sunk about 2": Bam. 💥 Well you never saw a happier woman, she tearfully hugged the hell out of me, and whipped out a $100 bill. I said "Nope, All I want is a picture of you wearing it and smiling!" She was still crying with joy when I took the pic. That was about a 2 carat diamond on that ring, and about 20 others. The most expensive thing I've ever seen, I'd estimate it at about $10k or more. She said she had to give me something so I asked for a bottle of water. What else did I get? Not much, this is Florida off season. 🤔 Here the trash: And my 57 cents. 🙄 Oh well, first ring of 2026, glad I got out. 🍀

Pretty awesome ring. 🏆 I say "a ring is a ring". Found this honker in Myrtle Beach, it's all fake and stainless, but it's pretty pricey. This was my biggest surprise, it's 925 but all the diamonds are real, just low grade. So... Yeah. 👍

Wow Dan, The fact they put it in such a nice silver bezel may indicate its authenticity straight off! 🏆 Congratulations. I'm getting Roman or Byzantine, that is one hell of a find. 👍 Seriously old coin if authentic.