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Okay, this time more than celebrating a period of good production, I am keeping in mind the worst dates of this summer and taking action for next year.... Although we are only a month away from peak beach attendance, to date, I have encountered more than three weeks of bad swells and have spent few sessions on the bottom and more time at the wetsand. As expected, the result is that the fresh drops are probably too deep to manifest themselves and a few pieces of really old gold, perhaps not caught in the obviously eroded spots, is all I can take away for now. Last Monday this very old ring, now devoid of stone, was the only prominent piece on the seafloor besides several coins dug out at three different beaches on the wet sand. In miles of sand on which I have walked and checked, not a single piece of gold and a very small amount of coins when diluted over so much space. The prevailing wind is screwing up "my" coast with a majority of inshore and bloody filling in more sand. I am tired beyond comment and have started using my left arm to lead the detector. I fear I have epicondylitis. Have a great weekend everyone!

Actually not much to report for this week, if anything the M9 had a fairly quick break even with three rings under its belt. Two of the three, were recovered last week and thus not new, but the third turned up Tuesday morning after sunrise buried well over 10 inches...No wonder, considering the 7.77 grams of 14K. Bad surprise was the acid test, where just the heaviest one turned out to be 9K complete with a 585 mark typed inside. A real scam into which the owner also fell, because inside it bore the bride's name and thus a fake wedding band or at least passed off as 14K but with much less real value. (This ring appears next to the M9 logo). About the M9, there is little to be done, once in the dive, exceeding 20 points of sensitivity with beach LC, is out of question.With the M8, one can dare a few more points and given the non-appearance of broken bracelets or necklaces, I will return to use it soon. Definitely the M9 is more akin to rings, but not to links in bracelets and necklaces. Have a great weekend to all of you!

3 in the same hole! Who knew treasure hunting could get so... intimate. Joke aside, I'm very happy with these results. Value-wise, just over $1000 AUD in scrap from maybe 4 hours of detecting. Day 1, I met my friend down at one of our good spots. Very cold. 13 degrees in the water at the moment (55F). Spent a few hours in pretty bad visibility water and I managed to score 1 gold 14ct ring as well as a few other odds. Day 2 (a couple days later though), just as cold, but we knew the tides and swell were going to be PERFECT. For comparison, it's never what I would call 'perfect'. It was flat, calm, no wind, no waves, nothing..for the first hour anyway. I haven't seen it so flat since last week, and before that, years. To line up the tides, visibility and weather is very hard at this spot. We ended up getting in the water before daybreak and I was equip with my Blu3 Nomad and only the light from my Manticore. It's the first time I've used it at this spot as the waves are always too big. I ventured out a bit deeper and didn't find a lot, so came back to the shallower end, about 2 meters deep where most people swim. Boom, started getting coins and bangles and other bits and pieces. One thing I noticed when using such a thick dive hood with the nomad is that it's very hard to hear targets even with the "sound boost" feature, so I found myself mostly looking at the screen and kind of switching between the Nomad and my snorkel. After about 20 minutes, got a nice signal and found a cool ring. I can't remember which one came first but I got 3 rings and a coin! 2 were gold and 1 was a cool little silver snake. I cleared that patch and went over to another rocky section and scored another nice 18ct ring as well as more coins. Great fun! One might ask, "aren't you afraid of sharks???". I'd reply, "Nah, never seen any, it'll be fine". Imagine my surprise when friend messaged me the following day with a video of a shark he spotted around the corner, LOL. Not sure what type it is, but he said it looked harmless. Have tons of videos to edit for Youtube but not enough time unfortunately. I'll get around to it eventually.

Week started not great when I think about the fact that for about 15 days bad waves kept me out. It wasn't until yesterday that I was able to dive safely when I discovered I had a serious instability problem with the coil. The M9 was making terrible noise at whatever level I set the Manticore and by pure chance I managed to pull out three stainless steel rings before leaving the area in despondency. Back home, it was not until yesterday afternoon that I was able to see that I had a cut on the coil cable with the wires exposed. This morning with the M8 back at work, in disbelief, I unearthed an 18K snake ring among the same holes as yesterday, where I had most likely passed by without noticing the signal among all the perceived noise. Ever since I started visiting old spots with the M8, this has been the longest period without seeing gold also accomplice to the bad wave energy. Monday, it's back to the drawing board. Have a great weekend everyone and stay safe!

I started again last October to hunt full time almost every day, storms permitting and with a bad back. Like every year, this period of heavy sand accumulation on the beach finally arrived I would say late. For about two weeks now, the only targets within reach have been a few really deep coins and an inordinate amount of aluminum. Although I always manage to find a depression or an eroded section, these are a few obvious and over-beaten spots, the same ones that first ever allow fresh drops to be recovered but not even in this case have I been able to encounter new material. It had been seven years since I had experienced this feeling, very similar to stepping into the ring at dawn and taking punches, then starting again the next morning and yet another one to follow. We'll see when the next piece of gold shows up....

We've had a spell of hot weather here on the East Coast, but if you get up early enough it's not bad, and you can get off the beach before it fills up. Hit my local (ha, an hour drive one way) beach yesterday hoping to do a water hunt, as yet the jellyfish have not appeared, or are very few. I got there at 7am and decided to hunt the dry first, there had to be a lot of activity because it's the day after the 4th of July weekend. The river was flat and I had a few hours to low tide. For the dry hunt I used the 13" coil. I can sort of get away with dunking it a little deeper than the 9" or 11", in about 5 inches of water I'll lose the signal. Did pretty good there, all the usual toys and coins. A guy came rushing out on the beach with his detector while I was out there, said something about how much it sucked that I was there, threw his stuff back in the car and went to another place 🤷‍♂️. Cool, all the more for me I guess. 🙄 At about 10 it started to get hot, but a breeze came up, so I got my other D2 with the 9" and antenna, and the new float sifter I wanted to test. I bought this one not even thinking that the mesh was stainless, my bad, as the coins and other stuff come up pretty much the same color as the rocks, so they are hard to see, and you can't pinpoint because stainless. 🤔😏 I'm going to either try and get some plastic mesh for it, or return it and get the fabulous Tube Tubb that costs about twice as much. 🤬 Here's the crap, keeping it real for y'all. I did find a big VW Microbus toy that I gave to a little kid, his parents were thrilled, and I got some space in my bag. I like doing that. It was a great karma day, a woman offered me a cold bottle of water while taking to her about detecting. Came away with enough to justify the $3 an hour parking I guess: A couple of toy cars, the Mercedes was over a foot deep in the wash and kept banging 95+. A few of the coins were deep too, I must not have a lot of minerals or salt in the water at the edge because they were 3 scoops or more to get to them and I had my big stainless scoop this trip. I don't see that shift in ID - ever, particularly with dimes and quarters. Jewelry was sparse but not bad, I scored a 4g silver band, and some unidentified metal ring that my wife likes. It's beat up but should polish nicely. Cool looking but no hallmarks. The earring was disappointing, turned out to be 14k over brass, it has a stone in it but it's probably CZ. It finally rained a bit, so I got a nice rainbow photo, an end to a pretty good day.

Turf hunting can be tough, especially when it gets hot and gravity seems to be increasing based on what my knees tell me. My left thumb has developed soreness from digging so many holes. Sounds like I'm getting old! What's the cure? A little gold! On July 1, I went back to the same soccer park that gave up the heavy 14k on June 28. I tried my best to squeeze out another ring from the same area, but it was not meant to be. I went across the parking lot and started swinging around the soccer goal perimeter and then into the goal itself. I was using the 15" coil on the Equinox 800, so the metal goal was messing with my detection ability. I got a signal of around a 12 right in the corner of the back of the goal. Out popped a ring that at first I thought was titanium. Upon closer inspection (thank you to the inventor of the zoom on the camera in a phone), a 14k appeared--my first white gold! I got the same signal immediately after the ring, just about a foot away. That time it was aluminum. 😱 Today I was fishing with my 20ish son, and we were catching nothing. He has more grit for catching nothing, so I said he could keep fishing and I would dig for a bit seeing we were at a park already. 😉 About 5 minutes after letting him be on his own, I dug what I though was a copper ring. Only after seeing the front more closely did I have a hint it was just 10k doing what it does. After rubbing a bit, it showed its true colors. It's strange how I went a whole year without finding gold, and all of a sudden I had three within about a week. I guess that's why we do what we do!

Keeping the summertime rolling, got out early this morning to my small beach. We had some rough storms yesterday so I hoped some stuff got stirred up. Normally I'd chicken out if there are waves, but some light training with 2' waves seemed ok to me because I'm going to a very big beach soon, and may water hunt. I saw a few small jellyfish today so the season is starting here soon. Detecting will be dry only because it's too hot to wear waders. I was wearing the 5mm neoprene socks in my water shoes again, the silt here is much finer, so I wanted to see if they would keep the fine stuff out and they did. 👍 I was only there for about 4 hours, people started showing up before I was done. I grid searched the water between the fingers in the photo, there are 4 similar sections. The water is a little more than waist deep at the end of the fingers. I was using the D2 with the 9" coil and the BH-01 bone phones, there isn't a lot of aluminum there so I didn't mind being forced to full tones. That way I could fully dunk the detector. Ended up with a small amount of trash: Typical beach junk, I try to get the bottle caps out and any sharp junk aluminum. Visitors don't know how good they have it! 😎 Got a few coins out there, at first I thought one of the quarters might be silver but it's a 1979. Oh well. Just at the wash I got a solid 50, and thought "please don't be aluminum!" It wasn't. A recently dropped silver chain (925) with a silver decorated Islamic sword, called a "Zulfiqar" sword. Not sure what the text says. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulfiqar Another good water hunt! 🥳 I'm curious, going to air test each piece and see which dragged the other down. 50 is odd for silver, but the chain could have done that. 🤔

Got out today to a local soccer park and had 45 minutes before the rain ran me off. At about the 30 minute mark, the Equinox 800, running in Park 1 with the 15" coil, hit a variable 22-24 signal. Those in-the-know realize this is not a typical signal. Too high for a zinc penny and too low for a dime. Thought it might be a screw top, but it caused me to have a giddy feeling as I knelt down to locate it with the Garrett carrot. Upon digging around it and flipping the plug, my first thought was that it was a gold- tone stainless ring because I have been disappointed before. That was until I picked it out and realized that it looked more real than not, and the weight was promising. My finger cleared enough mud for my phone camera to see 14K. I put it on my pinky and continued to detect until getting rained out. When I got home, I was able to see the name and date in the inside of the ring. I have done some looking for the owner, but it only has a first name and date. I think a reunion is possible. This week has been productive: my first silver and then gold ring since moving to Minnesota a year ago. The small gold ring in the pics is my own wedding band. The gold is worth about $580-my biggest single gold find by far.

I went back to my big beach yesterday to see if I could turn up any more rings in the water. The tide was going out when I got there, so the water was pretty flat. It was a windy day but very dry. You might see that I was using the BH-01 headphones on the Deus 2. I only used them for a little while because they have a drawback - they only use square audio and don't allow High Square, which for me is a big issue because of the amount of aluminum I can ignore. I ended up switching to the WSA-II headphones, which then limited me to detecting with the remote at the top of the water. Thanks to all the people that recommended stuff to get to keep the sand and rocks out of my footwear, I didn't have much time before this hunt so I managed to get some 5mm neoprene dive socks that I could wear inside some old Columbia water shoes I have. The shoes will let sand in, but the socks didn't allow it to get to my feet. Not exactly the height of fashion, but I just looked like an old geezer with compression socks 🤣 I didn't care, and was able to stay in the water most of the day, until I found a washed out section of the beach that some old finds turned up. One thing I noticed yesterday was that for some reason targets were difficult to retrieve, especially when the waves started later. A few days ago here most of my targets came up within 4 scoops, this time it was taking 20 minutes just to get them sometimes , and sometimes it took so long I gave up. Perhaps you dedicated scoopers can shed some light on this? 🤔 Got a pretty decent haul and something new, and something unexpected, but that is typical for this place, it's always got something odd going on. Got the usual pile o' clad, ended up with 3 old coins too. A wheat penny, a 1945 Mercury dime, and a 1950D 50 Pfennig coin from Germany. The Merc was in pretty good shape but black from years under the sand, I have dug a few Mercury dimes here, some from sand replenishment, and others from the shoreline after storms. The 50P coin came out of the water. I also got two rings, an old beater with a big CZ or rhinestone, and a new one for me, a Black Zirconium ring with a Koa inlay, which was easy to find: https://www.happylaulea.com/products/black-zirconium-ring-with-hawaiian-koa-wood-offset-inlay-6mm-flat-shape-comfort-fitment?_pos=1&_sid=11af8d3d3&_ss=r Not gold or silver, but unique. Never seen one like that before. The metal bird is old but I have no idea what it would have come off of, and the ring with raised bumps is my whatzit for the day. The silver band with the moon and stars might be a bird band. Got next to no trash, when I started using the WSA-II phones I could skip a lot more crap, and yet again I noticed someone has been skipping pull tabs because I dug 7 nickels. A good portion of the clad and nickels came from the shoreline where a lot of erosion occurred. I didn't bring my "flip float", mistake I won't be making again. Here you get a huge pile of stones in every scoop, so you end up having to go to the beach to dump it, making it difficult to find the spot you were in that might have additional targets. Thanks to the socks I was able to stay out there for 7 hours, even though it was hot (91), the wind was off the water and it was very comfortable.

Was out for a couple hours with the Nox 800 in Park 1 with the 15" coil hunting for deeper coins on a local park soccer field and sidelines. We have had plenty of rain to make the ground a bit more willing to give up deep signals. The spoon was the first thing that was found, and it came out of the hole in that condition. The ring was wavering between 27-28 which was a hint as to it being something other than a quarter or dime. The ring does contain what my "Diamond Selector " says are diamonds. Sadly, it looks like it was hit by a lawnmower. The first writing I saw in the inside of the ring was 14k; then the GP showed up before the final 925 was seen. The waterfow band was an interesting find that I believe likely came off a goose...back in the 1940's!

Hard to describe the mixed feelings here. From initially seeing it come out of the sand and going.. "GOLD!"...then feeling the weight and being ehhhh, then getting to the car and not seeing hallmarks..but then saw no worn plating..but then it's very light...but also "well if it was brass, it's so cheap, why hollow it out?" "hmm looks pretty clean tho" . Ughh. Went straight to the scrap gold buyer with the XRF and was more than pleasantly surprised to hear that it was testing between 17 and 19ct gold!! Wow what a relief. I was hoping 9ct at best lol. Didn't sell, just holding it for now. The links are hollow and it's super worn, like hanging on by a thread of gold. Definitely for the scrap pile. I was soo thrown off by the weight. Being hollow links I thought maybe 13-12 grams, but not even close, 37.4 grams!! Although there has to be a little sand and water in the links so maybe closer to 35g. Still over 1oz and my heaviest gold to date. Up at 5:40am, left at 6am, got there 6:30am right at sunrise and left by 8am. Made roughly $2700AUD in scrap gold hehehe. Overall, terrible conditions in the water, super rough, 5m vis, very very strong current and big waves. I found a small patch and found a silver 2 shilling coin and a silver ring as well which was nice. Was hoping to snag a gold ring too in case the chain was fake but it was hard going after sunrise so I just left. Tides weren't ideal either. HH

Today I had a feeling I needed to go back to the beach I was hunting on Monday, there were no jellyfish in the river, so I wanted to do a water hunt. Packed up the D2 with the 9" outfitted with the RCDIGS mount and antenna, grabbed my titanium scoop and headed out early, it was 74 in the morning but expected to be 90. There was a coincidental low tide, not the lowest but pretty good. Dressed in quick dry clothes and sandals, I hit the water waist deep. Found a dime, and then got a 99, I've only rarely seen a number that high on the Deus. It took me a while to dig that target, I can't see the coil in this river waist deep, so I had to pinpoint and follow the coil with the scoop. This is what I got: This huge honker of a ring, at first I thought it was a class ring. A bit later after finding some coins in this spot I got a really clean 52, and dug this little guy. I quickly put it in my zipper pocket, these shorts have zip pockets with a mesh back so they don't float. I find the less I carry the better. I even had the Pinpointer attached with a lanyard to my belt, and stuck in the other side pocket. I have a dry bag for my phone and keys I keep chest height. Didn't do too bad! Here's the "trash", I did throw out some wire and an aircraft clamp as well. Got a couple bucks in change, oldest coin 1967, some small bling, a heart shaped silver earring, and a broken chain, maybe plated. Two "train penny" tokens, one with the Lord's Prayer, and one from NC Aquarium. Only got one toy today, this pony monster truck. Got home and identified the gold ring, it's a 14k Simply Vera Vera Wang stackable, with 17 diamonds. They come in 1/4 or 1/2 ct TW, my wife thinks this one is 1/2 ct. So about $750. The crusty, nasty looking huge ring turned out to be this: https://palmbeachjewelry.com/products/mens-2-89-tcw-square-cut-cubic-zirconia-ring-in-925-sterling-silver.html However, it is older and the stones test out as low grade diamonds. It polished up nicely. Hallmarks are "925" and "SETA". Quite the honker, it came in at about 15g. Until next time! 🍀

After staying a whole week repairing the hookah compressor and other finesses on a new harness, Monday I started again from the spot where for three days I had been stumbling on a rock bank barely covered by little sand and totaling 21.09 g... Of course almost two weeks after that, the whole bottom changed its face and I returned empty-handed with almost no signal. On Tuesday I changed areas and much to my surprise, the M9 produced its first gold, which I would say was not bad given the depth and modest ring's weight. Amethyst and probably fake diamond on the small ring of 18K white gold. Wednesday although I was ready to leave, something "higher" wanted me to stay home trapped by parked cars blocking the passage to the gate.The night before we celebrated an anniversary with excellent wine, fish and roasted meat and I forgot to move the other family cars and leave myself an opening..At the end of the story I couldn't wake up at 5 a.m. all the others for the keys...Screwed day, considering that at 8:30 a.m. at maximum, I resurface and leave the beach already invaded by bathers. Last session of this week yesterday, Thursday, again in the same spot where on Tuesday I scouted with the M9 the first piece. Three hours of silence, a desert of smooth clay covered by little more than 4 fingers of sand. A paradise that turns to hell because of the current that plays at moving objects everywhere until the first depression, which is generally filled with much more sand. So ten minutes before I resurface exhausted, I get close to shore again and a solid signal just after a sinker saved the week and brought me closer to the 10g target I set for myself. In total, 7.53g of 18K in three sessions. Today and till sunday, too choppy and I stay out of the area for rest. Have a great w.e. You all!

Finally got a chance to hit my local big beach after a trip to Myrtle Beach and the Outer Banks. My Myrtle Beach post is gone, and I haven't posted my Outer Banks trip. It was fun hitting many beaches in OBX, but not incredibly productive, other than finding one silver ring and a couple dollar coins. It's been a while since I posted anything, but it seems to be all good now. 🙂 Got up at 6am to get there by 8, it's an hour drive. I like getting there early because there is no one there. It's a really stony beach so I have to use my stainless scoop, didn't want to trash the titanium one there. I only hunted for 4 hours, it's getting pretty warm here. My first good target was a dime, about 8"+ down, the D2 really sounds off well on coins down to about a foot, you will get a faint high tone and the same ID as if it was closer. I love that. I'm using a pretty modified Beach Sensitive program. My next target surprised me, it was a mostly high 70s ID with some lower tones, it was in the wash where the river waves come in. If I get any good signal in the water I'll dig it, only skipping iron that sounds off in all directions. It turned out to be a silver bracelet chain, black from a long time in the water. It took 3 scoops to get it and my scoop is big, so it was pretty deep. Later on I was on the high beach, and started getting multiple signals in a small spot. There must have been an earring vendor there over the weekend, I ended up with 10 of them, all different except for a pair still on the card. Not surprising that the vendor may have dropped non matching stuff, but to find a brand new pair on the card was a win for both me and my wife who scoffed them up for 4 July. 🤣 Here's the haul, 26 coins, 11 earrings, all costume variety, a gold plated Bobby pin, and the small silver bracelet. Someone was skipping pull tabs which is why I got so many nickels 🤔 The rose earring came later from another place. I heard Steve H. loud and clear and am reducing resolution on my photos from now on, so sorry for not being able to zoom in much. It was good to put some silver in the bag! Especially a small chain. Here's the trash, pretty horrendous for me but I wasn't about to leave any gold behind. 🤔 Bottle caps were all sight picks, as was the Taylor Swift sticker 😁 Even got an old pocket knife. While not the most productive place for precious metals, this beach always has its surprises.

With little expectation, last Monday I began an inspection dive to check a narrow corner between a stretch of public beach and an old arm of the harbor. While the large concrete structure helps keep the corner protected from wind and wave energy, it also actually creates a troublesome decades-old pile of algae and sand. The risk factor is water depth, where in reality the Manticore is not necessarily the first choice to use, when in fact the Excalibur was and forever will be. Because of the lower level these days, however, I was able to get down and with some wonderment found a decent uncovered area with something like a cut. I closed the last session on Wednesday, leaving the area after a total of 10 hours of bottom in three days. Next week I will work on another SSA project and rebuild a proper harness and ballast system.... Have a great weekend everyone!

At the end of the day, I gave in to the temptation to introduce the M9 into the artillery... After 49 total days of ownership and about 20 sessions in which I 97% adopted the M8, the Manticore has produced its price and the first gamble after the break even point will be this new coil. I'm highly skeptical of an improvement regarding thin gold sensitivity against the M8, but I'm attracted to a few more inches of coverage...Regarding detection depth, I'm afraid there's not much to look forward to. We'll see as soon as the coil arrives next Wednesday what it brings. In any case, before next Monday, I won't have a chance to dive.

I took up a ritual as a pure pastime, devoting a few hours to the shoreline. Some time ago I found with great wonder, a small ring in a really forgotten stretch of a beach, where I could barely find iron and a few coins. This morning, it being stormy and so for the rest of the week, I returned a little further than the spot where I was successful. The only promising area with obvious erosion was about 10 square meters. A very strong concentration of clay and black sand was making Ctx sick, so I immediately opened the pattern and changed separation, given the incredible masking I could hear. What happened next, in a dozen coins, is nothing short of a miracle for me. For the first time I found myself looking for a pendant that might belong to the necklace instead of the other way around, and the little ring had opened a sliver of hope amidst very obvious signals, but mixed with really too much iron. I think the necklace gave a minimal signal because of the knot along the links by the way. Nothing else to record for today, but what a day guys!

Being far from the seabed for over a week and forced to appreciate the wetsand work, I honestly loved the things I found in these days and kept a good pre-view of the lower eroded slope meanwhile hunting the upper side. After one small ring and a necklace last monday and another ring with a diamond yesterday, it was clear that a precise point remained unhunted or at least not so well explored by others. Doing the maths I checked a time window of three hours this morning to go underwater exactly in the same point and facing the hotpoint where I pulled up the good stuff on the shore. As soon as I was facing the bottom, I realized the suspected conditions I had when water was too murky to see it for good among waves. I've seen this s##t too many times in two decades so thinking about heavy scattered iron, slippery clay and boulders with almost no sand at all to cover the surface, I opened totally the screen and started listening everything to remove the masking stuff... Due to the deep flat slope, the only places where to keep the eyes and ears open were the holes filled with moved rocks... Ten minutes and the first wedding band it was in my hands. Already happy but conscious that nothing more than luck caused so soon the first hit, other two hours passed until the second hit with a terrible silence in between... So the second wedding band, this time white gold with a little ice it's been recovered and warmed the heart and the wetsuit. As usual my camera it was left home and all that remains is this picture?

If you keep a diver out of the water for more than a week, it goes bad like fish. Not to rot during this lousy time of zero visibility and bad waves, I went back to the little miracle spot on wetsand today. Although I had returned yesterday with a 6", no signal was in range and quite disappointed and tired I returned home after two hours. Instead, this morning I was with the 11" retracing the same steps. After more than 4 hours with my arm wrecked and all too much aluminum dug out, as I was leaving the beach I was swinging the detector just enough not to keep it off and really stumbled upon an unmistakable signal. I titled the previous post "seriously?"...Well this must be the second act. After 20 years, I continue to experience the wonder of certain days. The spark of gold can make you forget even that you are broken.

After the last three days of waiting, with little pronounced swell but enough to make the surf area impassable, this morning I tried to hang on despite the water still being choppy and the visibility really bad. Once again, a pattern with really tight high and low iron limits selected the few signals worthy of digging. I must say that while limiting the sensitivity, I am afraid it is the only efficient way for me to make an effective session in certain conditions. As usual the cam's battery died before the glory shine and however, just sand suspension and fast water it's been the subject for 99% of the dive session.

I recently had some doubts about the effectiveness of my sessions and made a radical change in instrumentation. Although I had been adopting the Deus 2 on the bottom for a year continuously now, I first overdid it by dusting the immortal Excalibur and later dusting the Ctx3030... Last week the numbers suddenly spiked and I reluctantly decided to sell the Deus 2. As I write, the new owner of the remote is getting ready to go out for the first time to the beach with my former detector. What happened this morning, however, marks a historic date for me. I am a diver, I practice the shoreline very little, and in my area, given the minimal tidal variation, practically after the first autumn storms the equipment is all in the water... Well, after years, I pulled up a ring in one of the worst spots where nothing but aluminum, iron and rarely any coins turn up. I hate to repeat it, but the time saved by avoiding digging out any possible sign made all the difference. Little does the bit of gold matter; getting to dig it up matters to me. I have no words ?‍☠️

I recently had some doubts in using the main detector and was pondering the possibility of eliminating some by selling. In detail, I complained of some high ID response that I accidentally dug up in the absence of decent signals. The last victorious session, brought me a 6.49-gram 18K wedding ring and by sheer luck, with an amazing 80, I deigned to dig it out. So this morning I decided to go out with a dear old detector, one that doesn't mess around, and the numbers are shocking considering the spot, the devastated condition of the clay and rocks, and lousy visibility. After 4 1/2 hours on the bottom, thanks to the use of hooka compressor, I flushed out 4 pieces totaling 20 "dirty" grams. The numbers speak for themselves, and I am beginning to have clearer ideas.... I will add no more...

In the common imagination, beach hunting is based on the first few feet of shoreline, sometimes at the top, sometimes at the edge of an eroded step, sometimes in flooded pools after a decent tide. All of this in my area is out of the question and being forced to enter the water and totally submerge, today, after three sessions I summarize what I am observing. On the first day, in a spot I hadn't been to in over 10 years, I pulled out a triple ring and amazingly not far from where I found a twin 10 years earlier. Finally, the first piece of 2024?. On the second day, a really thin ring, different spot, and really unusual water depth. It all ends today, with the third session in the same spot as yesterday, but this time even deeper at about 5 meters and very far from the shore. A man's wedding ring, after a century of other much thinner and lighter finds. The outer sandbar may remain the final frontier. Rarely, pits can open at such depths, and if they do, it is generally because of a play of currents with which one should not mess around. I am considering a floating platform of the bodyboard kind, to be kept on the surface as a safety device for a return to shore or at least to have something to cling to effortlessly and return to shore with the help of the board and fins. By the way, finally some shines.

Hi all. Lost my password, couldn't be bothered resetting it lol so I've just been lurking on the work PC for a few weeks. Been out heaps this year - I'm up to 53 rings for 2024 so far, mainly thanks to a couple of untouched washouts that I accidentally uncovered. One of the first hunts for the year produced 24 rings, I'll post that in another thread. The very first water hunt for the year, back around Jan 5th, ish, produced 5 nice gold rings, including my 3rd, and biggest 22ct ring. I nicknamed this one "Boggle-eye", it looks very steampunk. What an odd design though? Our jeweller said it looks to be a natural emerald and natural ruby, but the ring has been crudely modified and the second stone was added at a later date, you can see 1 stone was set nicely but the other was simply "attached" with a bezel. Maybe there was a matching smaller stone that broke? It's hallmarked "22ct KDM". Fun fact, KDM is short for Cadmium which was only used in jewellery for a short time and is now banned in India due to being toxic when worn/worked with. From memory, it's the solder that contains it, not the gold alloy but I could be wrong on that. Either way, I'm scrapping it and reusing the stones. The day started out quiet, I bumped in to another fellow prospector snorkeling in the water using his Excal who managed to snag a ring as well. I was using the Manticore w/ 11" coil. The area was a flat sandy clayish rocky area which always holds lots of coins and jewellery. I used to dive it with my Nomad but with all this sand movement and calm water lately, it's really easy to snorkel there and just duck dive for each target which is awesome! Might be a bit different in winter though. The area photographed below is from months ago when I dived it with the D2 - it's very similar now but way more open instead of just the odd small opening in the sand. Also, not to knock the Deus too hard but... this Manticore is an absolute beast. D2 was super unstable and struggled to pick up a lot of targets due to how much iron was there. The Manticore has been an absolute dream to use. So stable and has incredible depth - the WG ring in the middle was about 1ft down in sand and still rang up beautifully. Highly recommend. Thanks for reading. HH