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Most of the freshwater lakes that I have detected were man-made during the last 50 years so I have not found many older things in them. Out of thousands of lake coins that I have recovered I may have found a couple of silver Rosies at best. I've always been a bit envious of some of the older lake finds that I've seen on this and other forums. The fresh water seems to preserve them so much better than the toasted ones I've found at the beach. Recently, I hunted an older lake and about an hour into the hunt scooped out a 1968 10k class ring. It was in pretty good shape so it was probably there a long time. After finding a blackened silver ring a short time later I got a jumpy "32" reading on the Nox and was expecting another silver ring. However, I saw a large black circle in my basket and was shocked to find that it was a 1959 Franklin half! Despite the discoloration it is in amazing shape. I have found silver halves in schools, parks, deserts and beaches before but never while wading in a lake so this was a memorable hunt. Gold is what I'm usually after but this find was a pleasant surprise!

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..

All this dirt talk…. Thought I’d show yesterday’s finds and remind ya what this machine is also good at. One picture shows my 5 hours of trash. Left the iron and caps for someone else. In reality…. I wasn’t trying to dig much. Just getting able to get back out there …. Couple of broken toes and small crack in wrist. Pulling, twisting and standing on that scoop out deep was a challenge. Only a couple of others hunters out … but it was a great day for being in the water. Don’t know why but everything was deep…. 8” or more… couple I thought could be sunglasses. The yellow is 14k 7.1 grams with 1/2 c stones, the small white gold with chips tested 10k the others was Tung.

Some knows I broke a couple of toes a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday is was attempting to put a TV stand with a very heavy thick glass top on it in a dumpster. That glass came off…. and dropped straight down on those toes. Man that hurts like heck. Well I was determined to do a little hunting anyway. Long slow walk tot the water. It was really moving pushing me a round. Managed to check the transition points with some success. If you get there at low tide you can clearly see what the beach has been doing and where the deep cuts are made. Wend was out of the SW and pushing the waves. Good many coins considering the guys hit it last night. One SS, a silver earring marked Jordan and the small 14k gold 3.9 grams. After today …. Man I’m taking a few days off again

At the end of the summer we experienced a favorable tide/swell combination but the first 2 beaches I checked out weren't producing. However, as soon as I reached the wet sand of the 3rd beach there were shallow targets every couple of feet. By this time it was already well after 10pm but I could still see that there was a decent cut running up and down the shoreline with lots of black sand showing. There were a couple of other hunters in the area but this was one of those rare times when there were enough finds for everyone to keep digging. It took a long time to find any jewelry but once I did it seemed that they were popping out pretty regularly and even in the artificial light of my headlamp I knew I had some small gold and silver items. As daylight approached I tried one other beach that I was curious about and didn't find nearly as much there but high on the slope I did scoop out a find that got my heart going - a large gem-studded cross and chain with some weight to it. By this time it was light enough outside where I could see that the cross and chain were not yellow gold but I held onto the hope that it could be white gold until I found a .925 stamp on the hoop. Still a nice find! I live for hunts like this and only wish that I had the willpower to keep hunting since these conditions don't come around all that often. Of the 4 gold pieces I found, one was a gold claddagh ring, one a St. Christopher medal and another a gold crown from a cremation urn. I also found over 200 coins on the hunt and probably at least that many pieces of trash. Needless to say, my body was hurting for some time afterwards and I was thankful for the ibuprofen in our cupboard! GL&HH!

Been camping for 3 days, just extended for a fourth because camping season is winding down, and I seem to have carte blanche at this one to dig anywhere. First day I hit 2 tot lots and the beach, unfortunately they must have removed all the old sand and refreshed it. The lots produced 30 some odd coins, some small worthless jewelry and some small brass beads. The little heart is .925, the only silver I've found so far. It's an earring. Got some stuff at the beach anyway, the ring is cool, but stainless. Next morning I went to another tot lot and did much better: 80+ coins and some small jewelry, again all junk. Hit another tot lot in the evening: I was approached by a staff member who asked me to hunt for a particular piece of hardware in a gathering field where they have Cornhole tournaments. They also have bands here and used to have vendors, but replaced that part with a basketball court and a dog park. Never found the part, it was steel and probably got hit by a lawnmower this morning. By this time I was really coin shooting, ignoring pennies for the most part. 60+ more. That funny looking wingnut at the bottom is a bass guitar tuning key. I've pulled over 200 coins from this place in 3 days, the earliest quarter was a 1966, and the earliest penny was 1963. About $30 total. Got one more day and two more Cornhole courts to hunt. I've pretty much cleaned this place out! 😀 Next year it'll be full again.

I dug this up two weeks ago. I thought it was a broken rosary and tossed it in my bag. I looked at it more closely yesterday, and realized it has the wrong number of beads to be a rosary. A little online research and I discovered it was a chaplet. Rosaries are the most common kind of chaplet, but there are many others - with varying numbers and arrangements of beads - used for different devotions. I’ve been unable to determine exactly what kind this one is, however. The other curious thing was that I found it directly on the end line of a soccer field, right in the center of the goal box. Put there on purpose as a good luck charm?

I went out tonight to a local football field with the exclusive goal of digging a gold chain. Before going out, I looked on this forum to see what numbers I should be looking for. I came across this (thanks 😊) and used the +4-5 range as my target numbers. I know gold chains can come in other numbers, but I had about an hour to detect. While all the numbers in that range turned out to be aluminum, I ran across a solid 9 and had to dig. While it is not a chain, it's the next best thing. I scanned around the pendant, but all the +1-4 targets were foil and aluminum. I always use Park 1, but tonight for kicks, I used Park 2. Not sure it made the difference, but I have been over that area with Park 1 in the past. Park 2, 7 recovery, 17 sensitivity, all metal, 15" coil

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..

Detecting the property where my grandparents,aunt and father grew up found a 4H pin, or award for poultry. BTW my grandfather was a large producer of chickens and dairy, some sheep too. Trying to find details on it is like, well...pulling chicken teeth. Found a website with some historical info that shows this particular pin as a national award starting 1946(?) and they had a sponsor name on the back. This pin has nothing on the back except "sterling". The website says "not to be confused with the "generic poultry medal 1932" so suspect it might be that one but they seem to have no info on it. Sent an email to that website but nothing heard yet. My internet search has run dry, not a lot of historical info out there. approx 5/8" X 1/2"

I really didn't know what to expect on one recent hunt but I certainly didn't think that I would be finding gold and silver including one of the biggest rings that I have ever found. The hunt started off slow enough with lots of trash and zinc pennies for most of the first 2 hours in the wet sand. Then I started to find a few "real" coins and even a couple of small blackened silver items before being stunned by scooping out a yellow gold diamond ring that was so clean looking that it could have been lost that same day. But I know better and that ring could have been lost years ago, especially, with all the blackened silver nearby. Not long after finding the gold came another big surprise and I mean BIG! I don't remember anything unusual or special about the target signal but when I kicked it out of the scoop I remember thinking "no way!" There on the sand in front of me was a huge bright purple blob, so richly colored in the sunlight it looked like a plastic part from a child's toy. However, I've seen that color many times before and when I picked the target up it confirmed that it was a huge silver ring! The gold ring was not stamped but held the 18k acid. However, I don't think the diamond is real from my preliminary testing. Too bad since it appears to be about a carat. At nearly 30 grams, the silver ring may be the heaviest ring that I have ever found. It is stamped "DIESEL" and "925". It turned out to be a fun afternoon at the beach. I haven't detected all that much this year but I have had some memorable and productive hunts like this one. GL&HH!

On Monday (my 19th detecting session) I found this: I found it on the sidelines of “my” soccer field. The ring is marked 18K and 950. Weight 45 grains. There was a teeny-tiny, clear stone in the center but it fell out in the ultrasonic cleaner. I was able to rescue the little stone and trapped it in a clear piece of packing tape. Should I ever propose to a mouse, I’m sure she’ll be impressed.

Puttered around on some old stomping grounds, further up from where I found the gold ring with yellow diamond and found an 1881 IH penny with heavy patina so won't bother to clean it and a thin what seems to be platinum ring. No stones in it and the casting and finish is a little rough so thinking it was a custom piece. Also found an old pewter spoon, was a little spread out in the hole but managed to find all the pieces. Never thought the Apex would do so well with jewelry as it does. Audio on it is so simple.

Found this pretty 10K the other day in the water. There was also a heavy (19 gram) tungsten ring etched with deer foot prints, a buck, a fish and a fish hook.

Through most of 2020 I detected a large park which had been previously detected but still produced decent old coins for me. In one post I told of a well used path to a small waterfall which confused and frustrated me. The path (approx 150-200 m long) is right next to a creek ('stream' for you New Englanders 😉) and it was likely used for watering cattle in the late 19th and early 20th Century. The path was hard packed gravel and crushed stone, occasionl larger pieces of limestone, with soil filled in between all that aggregate. This path gave thick iron response to the Minelab Equinox and produced almost no coins. (I do remember one Zincoln -- I would.) Back then I tried both the 11" stock DD coil and the 6" DD with similar results. With both coils I recovered shallow (meaning mostly within the first 1" depth) lead bullets as well as brass casings. Most were 22 cal. but a few were larger and those in particular I was able to date at over 100 years old. My conclusion is that this path was used by hunters prior to it becoming part of the park. So in summary, lots of small iron (nails and wire), as many bullets and casings as I cared to recover, but no coins. And the recovered targets were mostly located in the top 1 inch. Some time after my report, kac suggested returning with the Tesoro Vaquero and 8"x9" stock concentric (the only concentric I have for it presently). He and dogodog recommended setting the threshold to where Zincolns just break up. I found out from the park caretaker that the path is scheduled to be covered over completely with a boardwalk so if I was ever going to return, I better make it quick. A week ago I took his advice as well as kac's and doggo's. But in two hours of hunting with the Vaquero I recovered almost nothing. One lead bullet somehow snuck past the threshold and I think I got an aluminum can base, but specifically no coins and practically no trash either. I had been committed to using concentric coils only and took my Fisher F75 with its tiny 3"x6" concentric as a backup. Returning the the vehicle I swapped out the detectors and returned for 2 more hours. I only use silencing discrimination (and silencing masking) when I have no choice so I set the F75 up in Default process, 4H (4 tones with nickel zone joining the high conductor coins in the highest tone). Low tone is 0-15 which is nominally the entire iron range. With this detector I decided to dig anything 'interesting', at least at the start. As was the case in 2020 I immeditately started recovering lead bullets and brass casings, all very shallow as before. Two more hours and still no coins. I gave up. At the far end of this wooded path there is construction of a new paved path in the open area of the park. (I've bitched many times before that I hate these backfilling-party upgrades!) For the last hour of this session I decided to search near that path, also at or close to where I had hunted previously. All the coins found that day (just two clad dimes and two copper Memorials) were found in that last hour with the F75 and its tiny coil. Here are the coins I found that day and the next day (described below): The next morning I returned to search several dirt piles -- the dirt having been removed ("scraped off") so they could backfill the walkway with crushed stone before paving with asphalt. That 2.5 hour hunt was exclusively with the ML Equinox 800 and 11" coil with my standard park/school coin hunting settings. The dirt piles produced only a clad dime -- what a disappointment. For the last hour I just searched part of the park I had hunted previously. One wheat penny was in the ground up trunk of a recently cut down tree (not surprisingly with damage from the blades of that tool). The other Wheatie was in along a path I'm pretty sure I had detected previously, but was less than 2" deep and thus sounded like a shallow Zincoln. (Lesson to self: Be careful what you mentally reject digging....) Oh, what's that other thing? Near the end of the first day in a dirt pile I got a signal in the nickel zone of the F75 (25-35 on the 0-99 scale) and thought maybe it was in fact a nickel. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a 10kt gold child's ring weighing 0.43 g. (still about $10 in gold content at today's price). That's my first gold jewelry find since December of 2018. Ignoring the foil and pulltab ranges has its advantages... and its downsides. Finally, the non-valuable non-ferrous finds over these two days. The finds along the 'noisy' path to the waterfall (4 hours of the 7.5 hour total) are the lead bullets and brass casings, the aluminum bracket at far upper left corner, the chrome plated strap clamp (off womens clothing?), and the two items right above it -- one a small cap (but not bottle cap) and the other a small gear, possibly from a clock. To the right of those, also found along the wooded path, is heavy gauge copper wire wrapped around a fine gauge copper wire -- something electrical I guess. Everything else was from the rest of the (open) area I hunted over those two days. The tag with printing is religious and not old. Note the interesting toy cannon from a WWI(?) playset. I have no idea what those two embossed mating pieces (pot metal?) to the right of the toy gun are. That rectangle at the lower left is some kind of nametag, etc., not a buckle. Lower far right is a thick amber glass jar piece, probably part of a canning jar. Crown cap is pre-plastic liner era (I seldom find those as they rust away over 50+ years). Upper left is a decorative knob off of a piece of furniture. Finally the upper right -- what this was doing in a pile of scrape-off dirt at a park I have no idea. Here's a picture of a nearly identical piece I found googling: And some info on the company that made it: I'd much rather be showing you pictures of early coins, especially silver, and I'm sure you would, too, but the earlybird detectorists got those worms, leaving the decaying insects for me.

When the waves are pumping you have to keep jumping! I was out for 5 hours last night and got 2 more Gold, 2 more Silver, 30 Quarters and a scull digger surprise. Here is the loot. Here is the good stuff. Here are the rings. Here are some details with 10k/10g/Reads 10 on the Eq 800/15/B1 Here are the rings from the 2 days by day first and by metal second. The gold was 18k, 14k, 10k Thanks for looking.

Sometimes there are just a lot of targets on the beach ... you dig and you dig and you dig and some of them are rings! Two of these rings are gold (18k/14k), two are silver (.925) and two are junk. When the energy is about it time to go out. These were the total finds for my session with the 800/15. There was about $10.00 in clad ($7 in quarters). This 3.6g/18k (marked 750) has some stones. I need to clean it in the ultra sound. I went back for a session with the 3030 and found this 1.6g/14k in the dry sand.

This week I have used my 3030/17 two times after it being on the shelf for a couple of years. The reason why I got it out was because my wife was using my 800. I won't wait that long to use the 3030 again. When I first got my 800 I was switching back and forth because the 800 had 'foreign' sounds to me and I was not comfortable. I made the comparison at the time that the 3030 was still a very good beach machine and maybe even better than the 800 with 11" coil. After I got the 15" coil for the Equinox it was just easier to use and I have found lots of valuable things with it but that does not mean that the 3030 is not good. Today I was by myself just before an incoming high tide and I didn't have much wet beach to detect but it was just a joy to swing with my harness and hip stick. Targets were not that many but they stay on the screen and in the ear phones longer than the 800. I came to remember the sound, look at the screen and see on the grid where a penny, dime and quarter are. Of course the Equinox has numbers but not a graph which gives better discrimination than the Nox. When I got the low tone and saw the circle in the gold zone I was hopeful. My hopes were rewarded with a 2.7g/14k little bracelet. I can elaborate more on the detecting if someone has questions. I could really use this a lot more again. When I turned on the location of my finds it showed all of these finds I made back years ago. That is really special. I don't remember much about aftermarket coils for the 3030. My coils are the 6, 11 and 17. Gold Hound used it for gold and I've found a nearly half ounce gold nugget with it.

Short run at one my usual stomping grounds. This time I hit the lower section near the power lines to see how the Apex handles emi. My buddies Nox 800 and my Kruzer aren't fond of that area as it gets noisy. Not bad enough to quit but enough to be annoying. The Apex handled it well and separation is great amongst the trash. 2nd hit of the day was the 14k ring with yellow stone, not sure what the stone is. The other good hit was the 1871 Canadian 10c. When I first dug it I thought it was a barber not sure and just tossed it in my pouch. Got too hot to keep going so called it day shortly after.

Last year was my best ever for the amount of nice jewelry I recovered but this year was shaping up to be one of my worst. Granted, I wasn't detecting as aggressively due to other commitments and conditions didn't seem to be as good as last year but I went from 60 to 0 just like that! However, a couple of summer finds lifted my spirits and filled me with optimism for the fall and winter seasons. The gold chain and cross was a shocking find in more than one way. It was found in the darkness of night and my hopes were dashed when I turned on my headlamp because in the artificial light it had a cheap stainless steel look to it. I drove home thinking that the hunt was a bust until I emptied my finds pouch and was stunned by the radiance of big gold amongst the rusted iron and corroded zinc pennies. This hobby never ceases to surprise me. GL&HH!

Excalibur Rules! Summer season is now over, took me a few hunts in June to find a decent spot but It's been giving every since, 13 straight hunts with gold. July 3rd to Sept 4th ..........Summer gold count 30, 27 Gold rings, 3 misc. Gold (174 grams)....130 Silvers, mostly coins.......the July 3rd gold was with the AQ..which is setting for right now ...... due to the amount of time I can get out and hunt, the AQ requires a lot more work when hunting and the excalibur fits the one spot perfect and finds gold...... Kind of Funny, I posted this on a Excalibur Facebook Page and Got a over whelming response, and had a few, I guess who had never seen a Class ring and a few thought they were fake rings? Anyway all worked out, had to delete a couple of the post to keep the peace. Come on Fall! And the Silver..as bad as it gets..bay is terrible on it.

Not as much gold as the previous months but still had fun hunting the wet sand during the negative low tide cycles last month. All hunts were done in "All Metal". First gold of the month was a 14k white gold vintage onyx diamond ring, unfortunately the onyx stone is busted and the shank is broken at the back. Next was a 10k yellow & white gold mariners cross pendant with eagle and small ruby for the eye. Since the bale on the pendant was intact, I searched around for the chain but no luck. Also pulled a decent amount of silver. Next day went back and hit a 10k ear ring with a depiction of The Last Supper, followed by a wide 14k band and more silver. The second low tide cycle towards the end of the month didn't yield any gold unfortunately. I did find a spot that had eroded out with black sand due to some heavy surf and yielded a ton of crusty green clad and some black crusty silver but no gold. So the totals for August: 10k - 5.3 grams 14k- 13 grams 925- 3.63 oz GL & HH out there!

Storm Larry did a good job messing up the beaches here, created a ton of useless wash so detecting wasn't easy. Lots of lobster traps washed up and tons of bits from them so I was glad I didn't bring my PI. Was going to use the Apex but realized I have one of Steve G's custom shafts on it and didn't want to trash the clip on it so I took the Multi Kruzer. Most the hunting done in gen mode with manual ground balance at 14khz. Hard to miss a target that way and not a huge fan of beach mode on that machine. Little bit of pocket change and on the way back I hit the towel line and caught a glimmer of something sticking out of the sand as I swung the coil over and saw the id's hit in the alum range. Didn't even bother to let the numbers lock as I snatched it up with the sand scoop. My buddy had his Apex and seems they both hit targets at similar depths if anyone cares. Stock Viper and Nel Superfly. The Kruzer has the all metal audio which is easier to follow for fringe and tiny targets.

Hello Friends, My Oldie finds have been building up for the past month or two, so I decided to make another post. All of these finds were with my Nox 800 from around 10 different parks in my locale. These parks have been detected by numerous hunters around me many dozens of times over the years. I’ve been detecting them for close to 15 years now. All the parks are very trashy, and most times my hunting protocol is to pick thru the the trash and dig the deeper, higher conductive targets, in addition to digging all quarter signals regardless of depth. I’ve hunted these parks so many times, I know the depths of the oldie targets, which range from 6-9+”. I’ll also dig the occasional nickel signal. I have some hunt buddies that prefer digging all clad signals regardless of depth, but that hasn’t been my style of hunting for decades now. It has been a very hot and dry summer in my area (dryer this year than previous years), and I have limited my hunts to just a few hours at a time. It works for me because I can’t stay away from home too long anyways since I take care of my Dad (preparing his meals and medications daily). Thanks for looking! Good luck on your next hunt! Raphis Dan

Recently got a replacment coil on my Apex, stock one had become knock sensitive and was going crazy with emi. Garrett did a quick job keeping me up and running. Descided to take it to the local park for a couple hours, used MF for the most part and my custom mode was simply same notches as jewelry mode with the addition of the first iron block on. Lets me nose off some the flat iron like bottle caps and get a grunt so I dont dig them. ID's where fantastic, machine ran like a champ. Included my trash, not sure what the big chunk is, not iron and it is pretty hard. Little over $3 in clad, battery has 1.4 volts still and the 14k ring is 5g.