Help Finding Lost Ring....

[F350Platinum]

Hibernia, I see you're a new member, welcome to the forum. Hope you plan you stay, seems like you have a few detectors and some experience. Do a Meet and Greet and let us know more about ya. We hope you find your ring, sounds like a real challenge! And we like pics of finds. ?

[GB_Amateur]

DIG5050 got you off to a good start and others have taken it from there.  I will summarize a few things already said with minor corrections.

1) If the ring isn't there anymore there is nothing you can do about that and you'll never no.  So just ignore that possibility, at least until you no longer have access to this site and decide to drown your sorrows.  The ring is there; go find it!

2) I would use one detector, the one you are the most comfortable and confident with.  All three should be able to find it.

3) If possible, mow the grass before searching.  That extra inch being able to get the coil closer to the ground could pay off.

4) I would forget the area you've excavated.  It's very unlikely that it's in that exact rectangle and if it is, it's probably out of your ability to find it.  (If you do get others to come help, it wouldn't hurt for one of them to go over that area, though.  A dfifferent detector and particularly a different detectorist might pick up on something you missed.)

5) Unless you have an exact version of the ring, don't concentrate your digital Target ID range too tightly or setting your discrimination threshold too high for the Tesoro.  (I'm not familiar with the Garrett.)

6) Definitely go over any area (assuming you have time) from different directions.  Some gold detectorists actually cover an area from 4(!) directions -- each 45 degrees or in other words up/back, left/right, and both diagonals.

All of the above assumes you have time for it.  If time doesn't allow, prioritize by picking one detector, searching away from your previous excavated spot, and covering from 2 directions.

BTW, I don't recall you stating the metal content of the ring nor the year it was lost.  The metal content (and even if 'gold', what was the concentration, i.e. karat specification?).

Stay confident you are doing things correctly and will find it.  ("Power of Positive Thinking")  And enjoy the ride!

[King-Of-Bling]

This is a crazy options for obvious reasons ( damage/cost) but it is an option...It's a relatively small area , but also lost 40 years ago , so could be deep. Rent a portable roto-tiller and churn that yard up ! Turning that soil over 4" or so could be the difference. That's the easy part..... GL finding your ring.

[Old Line Paul]

On 10/12/2021 at 10:46 PM, Matt4gold said:

If the grass was mowed with a grass catcher bag there is a chance the ring was sucked up into the bag. If there is a place where the grass bag was emptied I’d check there.

Great tip!

I live in a townhouse community where the lawn contractor dumped grass clippings in the woods for decades. Then, one very dry summer, the mountain of clippings spontaneously combusted and started a small forest fire. Since then, the HOA Board has made the lawn service haul away the clippings.

You can barely see where “Mt. Grassmore” was anymore. Once winter has killed the weeds, I’ll check it out.

 

[Hibernia1776]

Hi, I went back out Friday afternoon and laid out flagging tape in a grid and any promising signals I stuck small wooden stakes in the ground to mark them. I dug everything I had marked but nothing but trash. I now have to accept that I’m probably not going to find the ring. I have literally been looking for 30 years. When I use the vanquish in all metal and I get a target if it’s a solid hi in the ring range if I turn 90 degrees or circle the target it invariably bounces into the -3-4-5 etc....then maybe back up to 12 and I hear a high tone but no rock steady signal. The House went on the market Thursday and is already sold if everything go’s thru...3 days and we got more than we were asking. Time is running out now for sure. If I use the Minelab and stick a couple gold rings on the ground it picks it up without jumping around but in the yard everything jumps around on the numbers. The yard has a lot of iron and maybe a good chance it is masking the ring. When I’m in all metal and swing all I hear is bomp,bomp,bomp sound of iron. Does anyone have any tricks for the vanquish, I think it’s similar to the equinox. Nearly everytime I’ve gone out looking for that teeing I was sure i was gonna find it but now I’m running out of hope.

[DIG5050]

It sounds like You've cleaned out all of the clear sounding targets, and some of the junk targets.

When you hear the sounds like you mention in your post above, those targets are ones to dig, assuming the ring is being masked by iron, such as a rusty nail. I don't have a Vanquish, but bouncy VDI and sounds like you mention are common to lots of detectors with VDI.

If you have a nail tangent to a target, you might only hear the target's true response when swinging from one direction, iron sound from the other three directions, because the detector detects the iron first in those 3 directions.

Or if a nail is pointing to a target you might hear the target's true response when swinging from 3 directions, 90degrees apart. The fourth swing might be simply iron sound.

Nails above or below the target make it harder to find so swinging in 4 directions as GB_Amateur mentioned in his post above can sometimes help.  Anytime I hear a decent tone mixed with iron buzz I go over it repeatedly until I decide if I want to dig it or not. Most of the time, it turns out to be a desirable target; but sometimes not. 

Try not to hurry through the detecting process. If you swing too fast, your detector's recovery time between targets might further mask your ring. I would go back over the grid you mentioned and mark some of the iffy signals like you referenced above, and dig a few of them. I hope you are able to find your ring.

[Hibernia1776]

Please see new thread: BREAKING NEWS: Update on 40 year search for gold ring.

[Matt4gold]

Contact the Lowcounty metal detecting club on FB or George at 843-518-8183. His email is jsmegm4423@yahoo.com.  He lives in Summerville and detects at Folly and Isle of Palms most every week. I’m sure he will be happy to come help you look for it. Tell him I suggested you contact him.