Dejavu all over again....

A couple of months ago I lost a little gold chain that fell thru my scoop. Of course, I was digging a different target and it just happened to find its way into the scoop. That day I was in waist deep water with no visibility. Today, I was digging a normal sounding target when, once again, I see a gold chain drop through my scoop holes...but this time I was in calf deep water and could see the little bugger. Then I retreived the quarter that was the original target.

Life has been hard at MB lately. I cannot seem to find a hole in the surf....until today. Just after low tide I found a depression with some targets. Man, this makes it fun. Oh yeah, I found a piece of bone...a big piece of fossilized bone. Maybe whale. Also, I got a car and motorcycle to fill up my non existent garage.

The bracelet is surprisingly heavy for being so small, 4 grams 14K. The picture came out good. I wish I knew how I did that.

When I laid the bracelet on the sand and ran my Excaliber across it I only got a signal, a very low Barry White signal, when the coil was within a half an inch of the bracelet. It was pure luck that I retreived this bracelet.

Ring Daddy #82,83,84, and 85

I hit the same spot I hit yesterday before I quit. I swear this is the only depression at MB. Gene ran all over and found one silver high school ring. But where I was, there were targets...not a huge number but enough to keep me interested. I got in the water and my detector started making occasional phitttt sounds. This had me really worried but not enough to mess with it. The beach crowd was pretty slim today. I think the MB numbers are way down from past years.

After an hour I get the big wedding band. Alright baby!!! It can only get better from here. Five minutes later I get a foil sound and was not disappointed...it was a very small gold ring. #2. Let's see if there is a number three in here. Two hours later I was still looking for #3, and I was tired and hungry and tired. I was just slogging along when I got a couple of targets and there was dark sand in my scoop. Good sign. The next target was one of those indescript sounds, neither high or low. Bam! #3 Not a great ring but it counts. Then three foot away I get almost the same sound. Bam again!! #4 This ring looks like it has alien eyes.

Here is the mess.

Here are the rings in the order that I found them. I also got a spinner ring.

Rings 84 and 85 are apparently a set...not a very good set but a set nonetheless. They don't fit together very well. Gene thought maybe I was missing a piece. Here they are together.

This was a great day, but I had to be exactly where I was or I would have ended up skunked.

One more photo.

No, one more. It is epoxy time again. I have worn the epoxy all off of one side of my coil. I've got a hell of a backswing.

Oh, when I do this usually I put tape around the outside edge of the coil to act as a dam and then fill it in with Marine Epoxy. Makes a little neater job.

Ring Daddy #81 and another day in the trenches

Headed back to where David Toller and I hunted yesterday. Today it seemed more filled in and I only got one silver ring out of the area. After a couple of hours I see Gene coming down the beach. We talk and he indicates he is still digging coins on the same line we have dug coins for a week. Coins and coins and no gold. Somehow that week of NE wind lined all the coins up about mid beach. I told him I was headed for the South end. I hate moving in mid low tide but I didn't feel confident I was going to get anything where I was. So off I go. When I take a look at the new spot I see....could it be???...somewhat of a hole. I jump in the water and at first things are slow but I start kicking more shells and rocks and suddenly I've got targets. Finally that foil sound comes into the headphones. Is it possible?? Please....please... I shake the shells in the scoop to the side and there is a small silver colored ring. I remember the foil sound so I am confident it is gold. 10K. Alright!!!

Here is the mess. 2 silver rings, $4.23 in change, a non ticking watch and a 1940 wheat penny.

The white gold ring is small, 2 grams.

Well, I know where I will start tomorrow morning.

Ring Daddy #80 and a new water hunter...

David Toller, a resident of MB, is putting together the 2009 Treasure Expo and Trade Show on April 4th and 5th. This morning we got together to plunder the waves. David had never surf hunted and wanted me to show him the finer points of being beat to death in the waves. We hit McDonalds and off we went. I showed him where the free parking was. As we parked the sky was black and looked like it would pour rain any minute. So I didn't put sunscreen on or take my sunglasses. This will always bring the sun out. Off we go into the waves.

David said, "There's something wrong with my detector. It is signaling each wave."

"Yep, PI's will do that. Turn down the sensitivity."

David was reluctant but he did and the wave signals went away.

We waded around for sometime before I found a bottlecap. "Here," I said, "Try to dig this." David had a new scoop. He would get set up and a wave would move him. He finally got some sand out and then some more and then some more and...well you get the idea. His eyes were starting to roll back in his head. "I don't think this surf hunting is for me," he said. He rested a bit and then went at it again. I hunted about an acre and then saw him smile as he pulled out the bottlecap.

Eventually we got into a small zone that ran parallel with the low tide line and started getting some targets. David got a couple of pieces of costume jewelry and some coins and I could tell he was getting much better at retreiving the targets.

I found a silver ring and he seemed impressed. Then he dug a mood ring at about a foot. His first ring in the surf. Then I found a silver ear ring and then I got the gold ring.

Here is my mess. Not a lot of targets but at least one gold ring showed up. Oh yeah, I got a Canadian dollar coin. That helped my coin total.

The can was at 32 scoops down.....well maybe not that deep, but close.

The sun finally retreated behind some dark clouds and it began to rain.

David said, "It's raining, I don't want to get wet."

I am always thankful when a gold ring shows in the scoop.

David kind of summed it up as he limped back the car, "It's a lot more work but a lot more rewarding."

"What's wrong with your foot?"

"I cut it with my scoop."

"Usually when I do that the sharks come, so I get out of the water."

"I didn't realize I did it till we got out of the water."

I said, "Well you really didn't get a good day. Most days you get jellyfish stung and and smashed into the bottom." I'm not sure if he realized I was serious.

Here is a link to the 2009 Treasure Expo and Trade Show in Myrtle Beach

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,166512.0.html

Also, David said he hoped to have his website up and running in a couple of days.

http://www.treasureexpo.com/

Ring Daddy #79 and too many pennies!!

Well the NE winds continue to blow...and move sand around...but not necessarily for the better. Last night I found a spot with targets just above the low tide line and found a mess of coins and one titanium ring. At 4:35 this morning I was back at it. Coins in the same area. Coins and coins and coins and finally one silver ring. After two and a half hours of digging coins, mostly pennies I needed a change. There was a shallow trough I hit last night and decided to hunt just above it. At last a gold ring. This one was one of the deepest gold rings I have found with a Minelab. I was real surprised when it rolled out of the sand. Not a particularly big ring either. $5.85 in change. One James Monroe dollar coin. That is the second one I've found this year. 45 pennies.

113 targets retrieved this morning before breakfast. I am going to estimate that I have found over three hundred targets since I found the gold rings on Thursday morning. Do we earn our gold or what!!

I did check the water this morning. It was definitely colder than a few days ago. There was still way too much current running down the beach to hunt it. Most of the surf area was mushy but I did drop into a hole, chin deep, that was smooth and immediately got a target but the current made it impossible to retrieve. There has got to be some holes out there after all this wind.

Ring Daddy # 77 and 78....Thanks Fay

Thanks Fay for eroding the top of the beach and pulling all the sand down and covering up the lower beach and the surf area. I really do not like hunting the top of the beach. Usually I find a million coins and after I have fallen down from exhuaustion digging coins I go to the house. I hate the upper beach. I'm talking the upper wet beach, not the dry sand area. At 4:30 AM I was on the beach with an old Sov. It didn't want to work and after messing with it for 45 minutes I took it back to the house and got the Excaliber with the little, itty bitty, 7-1/4" coil. I hate swinging this on the beach because it has no coverage. So I am in an ill mood. Foul mood. Don't get in my way mood. My first target back is a low tone. Grumble, rotten, no good...grumble...what the heck?!! It's a gold ring!! I can't believe it. No way!! I'm digging coins and soon I get another low tone. Maybe. Yep, it is. I can't see it because the sun is not up yet but it looks nice.

Here is the mess from the "I hate the upper beach" hunt. $5.93 and two gold rings.

Here is the first gold ring. 10K 1.4 grams

Here is the second. It's a looker. 14K 3 grams

Ring Daddy #76....The Mother of all Diamond Rings!!

Today was overcast and low 80's with some north wind. Great day to be on the beach. Another two weeks and the tourons will be gone, the kids will be back in school. It is with mixed feelings that I think about this as I swing down the beach. Where I started today I found a few targets and as I got further down the beach it flattened out and I went a good half mile without a signal. So I head back the way I came. I tried the surf here and there but there were no holes and without a hole...you might as well be swinging the sanded in beach. When I got back to where I started a few more signals started to wake me up. I grid intensely when it is like this. On one of the passes towards the top of the beach I got a small signal, a low sound. After two good scoops the gold ring came out. I grabbed it and put it quickly in my pouch. When I get to the water I wash it off. It can't be. There is no way....maybe....maybe...it's heavy enough. Here is a pic of all the stuff. Two silver rings and a few other trinkets and the Mother of all Diamond Rings!!

I am almost scared to think that it might be real. When I got home I could read the 14K but I needed to have the diamond tested.

The lady at Reeds Jewelers just smiled and I knew...I knew the truth...She poked all three diamonds without so much as a budge from the tester.

Oh well, there went my new car and paying for my daughters college education.