1911 $5 Gold Coin....

Well, I ate too much turkey and dressing and spinach souffle and .......and it makes my wetsuit too tight. "Diana, do I look fat in this wetsuit?"

Didn't know what to expect on the beach since I took yesterday off to eat and eat. But with no real wind I didn't expect anything good.

Stood at the top of the beach and could not see anything that looked holy. Turned on the detector and bam, there was a penny right there.

Headed into the surf and found a spot that might have been a tad lower. My fourth target sounded midtone and I always hold out hope when I hear this.

Up comes the scoop after three tries. Alright!@!! A gold necklace!! And look it has one of those coins in it. Looks gold....but it is probably a copy. At least that is what I thought out on the beach.

I have looked and looked and can not find copy on it anywhere. 1911 Five Dollar Gold Coin. So, if it is real...and I am starting to think it is...I did pretty good. No, not pretty good. Real Good.

I have to let this one sink in. It really hasn't hit me yet.

Here is the mess. 38 cents and a five dollar gold coin. Not many targets for three and a half hours in the surf.

I am not sure who to take it to have the coin verified. Maybe I will take it to the coin shop in town tomorrow morning.

Ring Daddy #110 and #111.....EeeeHaaaa!!!!

Well yesterday was a bust...my Excaliber went phitttttt, phittt, gargle, phit, gargle. The battery wire that I had welded came loose. Resoldered the wires and put a new connection on with new prongs. Tested it at the house and it seemed fine.

I was hungry for some real detecting. The day was sunny and 50's. NW wind that helped knock down some of the wave.
I jumped in the hole I found a couple of days ago and worked the Heck out of it. It wasn't that big and I just kept beating on the door. On the fourth pass over the same area I got one of those hmmm, not high, not low sounds. On the second scoop I waved the detector over the area and it nulled??? What the.... I turned the Sunspot scoop sideways to take a look before I dumped it. There it is!!! Man, what a beauty!! One of the best men's rings I have found in a long time.

After three hours of beating up a hole that was maybe 40' x 40' I thought of heading for the house and then a spot that has been good to me came into my head. I drove about 20 blocks north. When I walked out on the beach I was encouraged by what looked like a little bit of a hole exactly where I wanted it.

This spot is weird. I have never gotten very many targets here but even with a low target count I end up finding gold rings.

I walked into the surf and waded around fifteen or twenty minutes before I got my first nickel. The fourth target was this pretty ring.

The pic isn't great. The stones are dark red, ruby. The total targets for the second spot was five.

The last target was the piece of chaise lounge chair.

Here is the mess. $1.84 in change.

Those fishing weights that have the prongs on them ought to be outlawed. Talk about a good way to have a wire stuck in the bottom of your foot!! That fishing weight is on the right side of the picture.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I did get one silver ring.

I feel like I live in a wetsuit this time of the year...but when I have a day like today I really don't care.

Diana and I are going to the Apache Campground Thanksgiving Dinner this evening. I'm a happy, hungry boy!!

An ugly gold ring???? Is there such a thing?? Yep!!

It has been tough here in MB. I cannot seem to find a hole. I hunted in the surf three hours, two before low tide and one after, and had one dime. Then suddenly I was in chest to neck deep water and had targets. Since I did not have my weight belt on I got pushed around. All of the targets in the mess pic came after I got in the hole.

The low tide was a memory when I finally got some targets. I hung in there about an hour and a half. This is where I will start tomorrow.

I got this ugly ring....gold???????? It has to be the ugliest gold ring I have ever gotten. No markings and it looks like it has been in an acid vat. Even the purple stone looks beat up. I will try to find some one to test it.

Here is the ring cleaned up some. Still looks ugly. I really have my doubts about this one.

Ring Daddy #108 and #109......Brrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Yeah buddy, it was cold!! I checked the temperature before I got into my wetsuit. 28 degrees with a NW wind. Man, I am tired of living in a wetsuit. I will be neoprene man until May of next year. I've got a Farmer john (7 mm) and a Shorty (7 mm). I've also got neoprene gloves and boots...and it takes a while to put all this stuff on. I feel like its Halloween every day.

This morning I tried a new spot...brand new...never detected this stretch of beach. My other choices had been pretty lame for the last couple of days and I needed to change things up.

Low tide was 6:02 and I was on the beach at 6:05. The eastern sky had a tint of light to it. The Atlantic Ocean looks like a large lake with such small waves. I wade into the surf and on about the third swing I get a target. I can't see what I have in the scoop and walk it up to the shore and dump. A quarter. My right hand is aching from the cold. I swing for fifteen or twenty minutes before I get another quarter. Then I get a pin of some kind.

Five pelicans fly overhead in the darkness.

I hear a siren on Kings Hwy. and hope that they are not coming to rescue me again.

I step on a flounder or skate with my left foot and he bangs into my right leg trying to escape.

Man, my hand is cold. I move down the beach to the next little depression. A guy bundled to the max shakes his head as he walks by. It is close to sunrise. I get a small signal. Two scoops later it is sounding interesting. The third scoop has the target. The sun breaks the ocean line. I move the shells around and see Ring Daddy #108.

Suddenly, I don't feel nearly as cold. I continue to grid the surf area. Already I feel warmer from the sunshine on my black wetsuit. A few more targets and I venture a bit further out. Another sweet sounding signal. One scoop and I am looking at diamonds!!!! The ring is turned upright and the diamonds are all aglitter. OMG!!

Now the cold has no meaning. I am doing the ring dance in my head.

The low tide is gone and yet I hate giving up. I dig an electric box and call it quits. 8:30 when I get to the car.

This has to be the least amount of targets per gold ring that I have ever gotten. Two quarters...no other coins.

Yesterday, I hunted the 14th Street Pier area. They are in the middle of dredging that section. There were hundreds of conch and snail shells scattered on the beach. I love the snail shells. Everytime I see one I am transported millions of light years away or looking through the Hubble Telescope at a new swirling galaxy.

I went to McDonalds to celebrate. You know where I will be tomorrow morning!!

No Gold Rings Today....but still a great day!!!

I knew I only had an hour and 45 minutes to hunt today. I needed to get home and put the meatloaf in the oven.

I headed for the same spot that has been producing. I've been coming onto the beach and walking north but today I walked out and there was a hole directly out front. The NW wind today had beat down the waves and the waves were less than six inches. 60 degrees and sunny. Wonderful conditions!!I jumped into the surf and started digging. The fourth signal was a nice foil sound. After digging through the shells I started pulling out this gold bracelet. Alright!!! I've been needing some gold with some weight to it. 14K.

Not a lot of targets but then again I was not out there very long. The bullet took me forever to corral. Thank goodness I put that mesh in the bottom of my scoop.

Explain can bottoms. Why is it that the sides and top disappear and the bottom is the only thing left?? Is it that some hateful engineer makes the bottom thicker? And every case that leaves the factory makes the engineer smile, knowing that you and I will eventually dig up some of those can bottoms.

Ring Daddy #107....astounding!!

Today I headed back to the same spot I hit yesterday. The ocean was rough but the sandbar was doing a very nice job of breaking the waves before they got to me. The sandbar is my friend.

There were only a few targets in the first hole. I moved north and the next hole had a few more. I started to get that "it ain't gonna happen today" feeling.

I looked further north and it looked like there might be a very small hole that direction. Oh well, I jumped north again and found a small hole about the size of a bathroom. I get a target and scoop up a silver ring. Then within a couple of feet I get a nice midtone. Two scoops later I was looking down the barrel of my scoop and I am astounded. How can anything look better than a gold ring in a scoop??!!!

How can I still be astonished when I look in the scoop and see a gold ring? Is it that the gold ring is so out of place laying there among the shells...so totally gold...so totally beautiful??

And here is the mess. Had to use the flash so the pic isn't that good. Not many targets today. But you only need one.

I love the tunnel vision of my scoop with some gold in the bottom.

Gators and Ring Daddy #104, 105 and 106.....

Wednesday, Diana and I headed for Sunset Beach...really Bird Island. Diana hunted shells and I hunted with the detector. She had a huge bag of shells and I got a nickle and a penny. On the way back to MB, as we were passing a golf course, Diana says, "I think I just saw an alligator." I spun the VW around and parked. I got two pictures before some golfers scared the gator into the pond.

Can't we all just get along?? I love this pic of the golfer, gator and turtles.

"Whoa, that's a pretty good size gator." This guy is hurrying to the next hole.

I don't think I would go after the golf ball just to the left of the gator.

Yesterday I hunted or was going to hunt just north of the 14th Street Pier but part of it was blocked off for the renourishment program...where my hole was. I knew of a another hole to the north and headed there. Dick, one of the guys down for the winter, was in that hole. He and I talked and he told me about a huge gold military ring he got out of the hole the day before. Grrrr.

I headed north and found another hole about the size of a cadillac and did OK for about an hours worth of detecting.

Today I headed for the same spot. I got two silver rings out of it before it dried up. Another detectorist, Chuck, stopped to chat. He was having no luck on the beach. I told him about the two silver rings and then he headed north.

I moved to the next hole to the north and found a nice waist deep hole. The waves were not too bad today; very tolerable. Soon I heard a foil sound and visualized a gold ring. A few shakes of the scoop and I was looking at Ring Daddy #104.

Then the very next signal sounded funky. Hmmmm. As I dug through the shells I spied a dime and a gold ring right next to each other. What an itty bitty ring!! Half a gram!! If the gold ring would not have been next to the dime there is a good chance I would have turned the scoop over and never knew that there was a gold ring.

I worked the hole from the deepest point out and finally ran onto this really nice heavy wedding band. Yeah Baby!!!!

Here is todays mess. $3.01 in change. Quite a few sinkers today. Also, a Watkins Glen lighter.

One of the silver rings was heavily encrusted so I threw them in the tumbler with the silver clad coins and Voila!!

Ask me if I am excited about tomorrow!!! Eeehaaaa!!!!!!

Ring Daddy #103

Well it was another wonderful sunny fall day...mid 60's. I headed straight back to the same hole. The first and second signals I had to give up on, they were just too deep. Then I got the smallest of small signals. Only one little blip. I could not make it repeat. I switched to all metal and got the signal. Two scoops later I was staring at a gold ring in the bottom of the scoop. It happened way too fast.

This always gives me hope of having a double or triple ring day....but it was not to be. The ring is small; it will not even start to go on my pinkie but it is stout!! No markings but I suspect 10K. 6.8 grams.

This is the fifth gold ring out of this one hole. Sounds pretty incredible that there can be that many in one hole but I know that I have only been scratching the surface. The hole is too deep to work effectively without going scuba and then the viz would determine whether or not you could do any better. The viz at MB is usually less than a foot and many times less than 6". Imagine trying to fan targets in a closet with the door closed. Oh yeah, did I forget to say there is current running in the hole.

The hole is filling in and everyday I get less, not because I have found it all but because it is filling in. Here are the meager targets retrieved for three plus hours.

How many gold rings are in the surf at MB??

Ring Daddy #101 and 102.....

Yesterday was Diana's birthday so I didn't detect. Instead she and I went fishing on Apache Pier, the longest pier on the East Coast. This was Diana's first time fishing. Well, we found a good spot and set up and watched as several fishermen landed spots; a fiesty little fish that taste great. I managed to catch three before Diana got one. She was smiling from ear to ear. Then a bit later she got two spots at once. "I can't believe it, two friggin fish at the same time!" Ever fisherman within ear shot was laughing. We had a super time and ended up with 14 spots in about four hours. I can see where I will have to buy her a fishing rod and tackle box.

This morning I was back in the detecting mode. This time of year I start to feel like I live in a wetsuit. I headed back to the spot where I got #100 and the hole was still there. The waves were about the same as the last two times out but there was more current this morning. This hole is maybe, 30 yards by 30 yards. I just kept hammering it and got this nice tri-colored gold ring. It is not marked and is definitely a unique design. Maybe a custom made ring.

Half an hour later I got a nice soft signal.

Here is the mess. I picked up a couple of conch shells and a sea biscuit...I think that is what you call them. $2.83 in change.

What a beautiful morning!! Not a cloud in the sky. An orange butterfly flew by me quite a ways from shore. Why would a butterfly fly out over the ocean?? I guess for the same reason a man would wear a wetsuit and wade in the ocean. Just because.

Ring Daddy #100 !!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeeehaaa!!!!

At precisely 8:52 EST I looked in my Sunspot scoop and saw the small glitter of gold among the shells. Ring Daddy #100. I would have yelled "Yahoo" or something but my head was partially underwater and it would have sounded like "Yapfffttt".

The morning was windy out of the SW and the waves were semi-large....yes, they were as big as semis. But when you have spent half the morning getting into your wetsuit and weightbelt you have no choice but to follow through.

I was in the water before seven. You could hear the dredging operation to the south and the water was a silver gray from the sand being pumped. And this morning the water tasted different and I think it was due to the suspended silt. Water visibility was near an inch. This is when the bull sharks can't see what they are striking at.

I worked shallow for a few minutes and then waded deeper. I didn't get any targets until I was chin deep. The weight belt didn't seem to help me as much as I had hoped. I only have thirty pounds in it. I was still getting twisted around by the waves and looking something akin to a strand of DNA. Perhaps I should double the weight in my weightbelt. At what point, amount of lead weight, do you sink in the sand??

It took me a good half hour before I put my first dime in my pouch. Not that I didn't dig some holes. Holes is not an apt description. Craters??

Eventually, as it got closer to low tide I was able to actually retrieve some targets not just dig them.

When the gold ring showed up I hurried to shore and put it lovingly in the empty side of my nail apron. I checked the time and it read 9:52. But I realized that I had not reset the Timex so I knew it was either 8:52 or 10:52....I just had to think about it a while. Fall forward...uh no...uh...jump back jack....uh...I'll figure it out when I get back to the car.

After low tide the waves got bigger. Hard to believe. You know that you are working pretty deep water when you have to hold your scoop above your head to sort through the shells.

Here is the mess for three hours. $2.32 in change and one token.

And here is the one I have been looking for. Ring Daddy #100. Kinda small but it's a keeper.

I think I might take Diana out to celebrate this achievement. "What do ya say, Taco Bell or Burger King? We could just go to Sam's Club and walk around and eat the samples. Your choice."

Ring Daddy #99 and I need a ladder......

Well, today was one of those jerk Jim around days. I got up early and wrote on my Surf Hunting book and it went well. I thought of all the thousands of readers who will buy my book and was in a pretty good mood. After I got my wetsuit on I could not find my car keys. After twenty minutes of looking and knowing that each minute was cutting into my detecting time I found my spare key and took off. I knew there was going to be a problem when I got there, the spare key will not open the hatch on the back of the VW. I somehow wiggled my Sunspot scoop out of the back and over the back seat. At last I was off and running. The beach looked strangely different this morning...steep. I could not tell if it brought more sand in or took some out but it was very different from a few days ago. I waded in and found the deepest part of the hole, about chest deep and got a few targets. That was encouraging, last time I got nothing in this area. I waded south hoping to find a little deeper hole. God smiled at the request. Suddenly I was chin deep and there were targets everywhere. But I did not have my weight belt. It is behind the back seat. With a shorty and a farmer john wetsuit on I was too buoyant. Buoyant Boy. I would wait to place my scoop between waves and try to push it in the sand and shells. Then I would float off the scoop with the next wave. Almost all the targets were one scoopers but just getting the one scoop was a challenge. Silver rings started to show up. Then a junker ring. So four rings and no gold. I had a couple of nice sounding signals but I could not push the scoop deep enough to retrieve them. As the tide started to come in I was standing on the scoop to keep my head above the waves. If my scoop handle was longer and I had some rungs nailed on it I could work even deeper water.

Where is the police department to tell me to get the heck out of the water?!

Finally I headed for shallower water and had pretty much given it up for the day. As I got to the steep beach I got a foil sound...and it was a really nice piece of foil. I swung a couple of times and got another foil sound, a twin of the first one. I dug it, knowing it was foil, but also knowing that foil sounds can be gold rings. Suddenly it was Christmas. That's what I was looking for.

$3.23 in change. If I would have had my weight belt I could have gotten quite a few more targets or drown.

The five little pieces of metal behind the gold ring was a junk ring before I washed it. So, three silver rings, one junker and one gold. Not bad. I just wonder where the heck my keys are.

It shouldn't be too hard to screw some rungs onto my scoop handle.