The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.....Ring Daddy #98

Wow, the beach is really a mess. I opted for the surf but the hole I was in yesterday was taken by a surf fisherman. I don't think he would like me wading through his hole. Met a couple of detectorists from Lincolnton, NC. Had a great chat. They found very little on the beach.

I jumped in the water and promptly found very little.

Finally packed it in and moved north. The spot that I had last found some targets in the area was also taken by a surf fisherman. Waded around and found very few targets for about and hour and a half. I just can't seem to find a hole to work.

Oh well, some days are like that. I waded in to shore, started out of the water and got a signal. Out pops this gold ring. Unreal!!! I swung the beach all the way back to the car, about three quarters of a mile and only got one pulltab. Explain how you can swing for three quarters of a mile and get one pulltab and one gold ring. It doesn't make any sense. None.

Total of two quarters and one dime in four hours. Also found a 12 mm socket.

Here is the ring. Pretty lightweight. 3.6 grams

And here is the reason it is so light.

Ring Daddy #97.....it was cold out there!!

Dadgum, it was cold today. That blast of arctic air really hit home. Mid to upper 50s today. I wore my shorty and wish I had wore my farmer john with it.

Headed north and tried the spot I got the ring yesterday. It was more sanded in. Ran into Phil and Walter. Phil was swinging the beach and will go home tomorrow. Walter was in the water when I got to the beach. He is from New York and will leave tomorrow also.

I told Walter I was moving further north. He decided to move also. When you do this you always wonder if you have made the right decision.

At the new spot we both waded around until we started getting some targets. He found a spot and was a digging machine. I waded north and finally picked up a few quarters. Then a cell phone. Then a deeeep sinker. The waves are starting to get big. Sunset was at 6:37 and I was starting to get chilled. What the heck...a big ol ring. Tungsten Carbide. The very next signal I pull out the gold wedding band. 10K.

I trudge down the beach and Walter is still in the water. Walter picked up a silver ring and was happy.

Normally I show all the junk but it is dark out and I like natural lighting for the photo.

Here is the two rings.

And here is the one that I was looking for. I went to Taco Bell to celebrate. Eeehaa!!!

Ring Daddy #96 and tumbling rings...

Another day in the low 80s. Still decided against the wetsuit today. I ended up a bit cold late in the day. It will be wetsuit weather this weekend as we get into the 40's at night. I started on the south end and quickly moved north. Not a really great hole but at least a hole.

Quite a few green coins and finally that soft low sound we want to hear.

Here is the prize!!

OK, I am lazy when it comes to cleaning my silver rings. Real lazy. I usually just throw them in the box and then eventually send them off to the refinery.

Yesterday I found three silver rings...two that were large.

This morning I was tumbling some silver clad coins and thought "what the heck". I threw both black rings in with the coins. I covered the coins and in this case the rings with water and added a dollop of ammonia. Two hours of tumbling and voila!!!

The end is near.....

Today they started the dredge and began putting the new black sand onto the beach. Always in the background you could hear the heavy equipment. The ocean is a filthy dirt dark gray. Visibility is one, maybe two inches. Thousands of underwater worms (at first I thought they might be octopi arms) were thrown onto the beach.


Sunshine and 80's. I got too hot in my wetsuit. The new moon tide and no wind made it almost a pleasure to be in a moderately calm ocean.


I was in the water before twelve and stayed until a little after four. At first I was not in the right area but when I did get situated there were lots of targets. 61 coins. $9.93 in change.


Phil from Conn. is down this week and I could see him water hunting in the next hole down the beach.


I cannot for the life of me, find a gold ring. I did get a gold chain, for which I am grateful.


The gold chain had a nice soft sound. I kind of go on alert when I get this type of sound. 10K, 15.1 grams.





Phil found a nice gold wedding band.


It is going to be very interesting to see how the new sand affects the water hunting. Will the sandbar move out further? All kinds of possibilities come to mind. Who knows??

Holy Crapanium!!! And the Scoop Thief!!

Dadgum!! The last gold ring I found was twelve days ago. That is at least forty hours of detecting since the last gold ring. Yesterday I got three junk rings and today I got two silver and another crapanium class ring. That is the third crapanium class ring in the last two or three weeks.

Yesterdays finds.

Todays finds

Holy Crapanium!!! I am starting to hate class rings!!!!

At least I've had a couple of holes to work the last few days. But the conditions have been miserable. Huge waves and lots of current. Today I stepped down into a spot with heavy current and it yanked my sunspot scoop out of my hand. I thought...no problem. The wood handle will stand up and I will just grab it. Then I saw the scoop for a second and it was ten feet down the current and then a wave covered it. I raced down current, realizing that it might not stop until it got to the middle of the Atlantic. The handle showed again and I stepped on the scoop. I was lucky I didn't cut myself. I retrieved it at least twenty feet from where the current thief tried to rob me.

The water has cooled and now I am in my wetsuit everyday. There are a few people in the water, very few. At least the jellyfish have seemed to disappeared. Thank Goodness!!

At least I had a chance....

This mornings low tide came early and the sunrise keeps coming later. I put on my wetsuit, the first time this fall. I'm out early to see the gloaming, the loss of the night and the beginning of the day. Yesterday as I walked I saw some holes in the surf. And yet, when I see these I question whether they are deep enough to have targets.
I waded into the first one, nothing. The second one, nothing. The third one, nothing. Should I just go to the house? The fourth one looked bigger, perhaps deeper. The wind was coming out of the NE at a good clip, pushing some fair size waves over the sandbar. I wade out further and finally a target. A very silvery junk ring with a touch of rust. Oh well, at least it is a target. Then a few coins. Then a few more. Then I wade into the chest deep, raging current and there are more targets...but I can't stay put and the scoop will not cooperate. The waves are pummeling me, the current pushing with the force of a locomotive. After fifteen frustrating minutes in the washing machine of the Atlantic I move to calmer water...and less targets. I spot another hole and give it a shot. A few more targets.
At last the majority of the waves are going over me. People stop and stare. I call it.
Two junk rings and a junk (Mexican) necklace. As I detect down the beach I find a fossilized horse tooth. These are from the Fossilized Horse Tooth Era. At least I had a few targets this morning. I had a chance at a gold ring...and that's all I really want. Just a chance.

The big rusty blob in the upper left looks like a battery..but it seems too big. I don't think I will hit it with my hammer to break the stuff off. It might be something left over from WWII and if I smack it, it might end up disturbing the campers in the KOA campground.

The beach is deader that four hells...

The beach is sanded in. I found eleven cents in an hour and a half today. MB is massively sanded in. Nature brought in the sand on the winds of Hanna. And now the wait begins. Will any erosion take place before the forty million dollars worth of sand is added to the sanded in beach? For those of you who have never seen how they put sand on the beach it is quite a trick. They set up a dredge out in the ocean over a sand deposit, suck it up and send it through a tube to the beach. Then it gets spread around.
This is the end of the tube on the beach.

Here is a better view of the end of the tube and the dredging platform in the background. The guy standing on the tube is throwing a cast net for bait fish.


And lastly, here is a better pic of the dredging platform.
I should be really upset at this turn of events but since the beach is already sanded in, it really doesn't matter. This may actually change where the sandbar is located and maybe open up some water detecting that is normally under the sandbar.
Isn't hope wonderful? You go out the door with high, up in the sky hopes, and then reality pulls you down with an eleven cent day.
I think I am taking tomorrow off. I may do some writing and walk the beach and pick up some sharks teeth. I will laugh at the folly of it all and enjoy the crispness of the morning and the gentle north breeze in the afternoon. I will watch the sandfleas burrow in the sand, their little butts just visible as they disappear into the sand. I hope to see the pelicans soaring in the waves. And maybe I will just walk to be walking. A day without purpose...that's my goal.