Erik Oostra Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Over the next few mornings I'll be hunting an unusually high and low spring tide with a difference of 0.20 metres to 4.10 metres.. This enables me to hunt with the Equinox's large coils over ground where I normally scuba detect with the Deus II and PulseDive.. These targets were out of reach for both of them but to be fair the PulseDive struggles with huge depths anyway and the Deus II is run on the Dive program and uses a smaller coil.. The spring tide means waking up at 1:30am, 2:00am and 2:30am but at least as it goes on I get to sleep a bit longer each morning.. So far there's been little of interest (a few junk rings) but what made this morning special was a big bullet (100mm long and 20mm wide).. I often find .303 and .308 shells but I haven't come across any ammo this size on the island.. I don't know what to make of it.. Although the island had a WWII air defence bunker and Allied soldiers were stationed here, the bullet looks far too new to be from that era.. There are air force and army bases across from the island on the mainland and a few years ago they had a mock up battle/beach attack happening at the bay I found the bullet.. Could it be a blank? If it was from this training 'battle' then the army wouldn't be using live rounds, especially with a bunch of islanders on the beach watching the show.. Any help from our military experts would be very welcome.. The 'Bang' pin and weird bottle opener were found hunting along the beach on my way down to the low tide mark.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kodiak Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Nice finds. Looks like a blank shell to me. Crimped ends is the dead give-away. Funny you found the BANG ping the same day. Bottle opener looks like a butterfly knife. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Oostra Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 20 hours ago, Kodiak said: Funny you found the BANG ping the same day. Made me giggle out loud, lucky there's no one around at that time of day.. I found the pin about half an hour before the bullet.. Thanks for info regarding the blank shell, it confirms what I thought.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F350Platinum Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Definitely a blank, got some info on the headstamp: ADI Australian Defence Industries (1991–1993; 1994–present) – Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (1991–1993) / Benalla, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (1994–present). Moved from Footscray to Benalla in 1994. Became privatized as Thales Australia (a division of the French firm Thales Defense) in 2006. Probably from that exercise. 👍 Cool butterfly bottle opener! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valens Legacy Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Looks like a gold ring with some small diamonds in that mix. Nice finds and yes it is a blank, looks like it may still have some wire around the base of the shell. If so it was one of many connected and that would explain the dark color towards the top of it. Good luck on your next hunt and watch out for sharks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPT_GhostLight Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Great finds Erik! I agree with Kodiak, that's a crimped blank training round, probably .50 caliber. I've never seen a crimped blank cartridge that large before, cool find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Oostra Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 This morning around 2:00am was the lowest low of this spring tide.. I'm hunting the three most popular bays so I went to a different bay this morning.. Depending on the width of the bay, it takes around four hours to get to where the normal low tide mark would be.. I chase the tide out for half an hour to give me a chance to dig targets along a line, I leave the holes open as the sand mounts become my markers in the dark.. The holes get filled in again by the incoming tide.. I stay just ahead of it to keep the targets from getting washed out of the hole.. There wasn't much of interest in this mornings haul except for my first gold ring for the year, at least I hope there will be more as it's been a bit of a drought lately.. Unless someone asks about it I won't put it on my Facebook ring recovery page.. It looks like it's been there for a long time and no one has asked me to find a ring that fits its description.. It'll probably end up in the melting pot with other unclaimed rings.. I'm trying to trace the owner of the medical dog tags, he's a young bloke who suffers from epilepsy.. I'm hoping he's sorted out some new ones or doesn't have a fit in the meantime.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvpopeye Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Gotta love those negative low tides dontchyaknow ! It seems to come in faster chasing you back to shore though LOL Second gold with black stone ring pic posted this week .IIRC They all look good , even the plain ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Oostra Posted January 22, 2023 Author Share Posted January 22, 2023 6 hours ago, rvpopeye said: It seems to come in faster chasing you back to shore though LOL No kidding, at times I was digging like a maniac trying to keep ahead.. I'm not too worried about having a knee-deep wade on a low tide hunt but in this case I travelled as light as possible with just Foxy Noxy and a small shovel.. Scoops, headphones, WM08s and even headlamps are just one more thing that can fail during the night.. I always leave a spare headlamp under a palm tree on the beach, which I nearly always forget about and have to come back for during the day.. So far no one has nicked it yet.. 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valens Legacy Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Another fine hunt and a great save on the ring. Stay safe out there and good luck on your next hunt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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