Monday I had an Email from Michelle who resides in North Carolina. Seems a couple weeks prior, her and her family were visiting family here in Iowa and were staying at an uncles cabin on a lake. The story you have heard many time on this site, she removed her ring to put sunscreen on the kids and put the ring in her pocket. Later she went to sit on the bench at the end of the dock and her phone and ring fell out. The phone landed on the dock but the ring was gone. I was missing a couple key pieces of equipment like submersable headphones and a sand scoop to properly do this job. I had no reason to buy them prior. Since she knew where they fell out I figured I stood a good chance of finding them but of course I did not tell her that so she did not get her hopes up. I told her I could do it and agreed to do it the next Saturday since it was suppose to be 90 deg and Humid. She said that her in-laws and Her Husbands uncle would be there and were having a family gathering that day. I promptly ordered the Headphones and scoop so I would have them for the weekend and asked my wife and son if they wanted to go for a road trip which they were excited to do.
Saturday came and I neglected to watch the forecast and we took off for the 3 hour drive. When we got there is was raining and shy 70 deg. We made small talk with the uncle for a while under the garage lean-to and watched it rain for a bit but then I said there was no time like the present so I went to the lake and got in. It was not bad once you got in. The water had dropped about 2 foot in the last couple weeks so it was only about 3 foot deep The bottom was a mix of Silt, rock up to 2-3″ and sand. First thing I had to do was figure out how to use the detector when I could not see the bottom or the coil. I finally figured out that I could pinpoint and then use my foot to mark the spot to dig. I had just sent my waterproof hand held pinpointed in for repair so I was without that which might have made things a bit easier. Now digging was another learning experience since I have not used a sand scoop before so it took a little while to figure out that I had to dig deeper than I was and with the big rock I had to really give it some effort. At one point I had my son Jordan come in with me and we tried some different strategies without really any luck. After a little over an hour I loosened the setting up on my metal detector and it was raining pretty hard at this point that I could hardly see. We decided we should take a break and warm up but I had hit upon a strong signal that I wanted to try. I gave it a big dig and came up with a aluminum Rivet Washer so I now figured I had the right technique. I hit on another strong signal and I took a big scoop and nothing. I tried and hit it again so I took another big scoop and I pulled it up and I exclaimed excitedly « Jordan, there it is ». So we washed the dirt and rocks off and there she was in the bottom of the scoop. I told Jordan that when we get out to tell everyone watching, which was like 20 people now. that we were going to take a break and warm up. So he gets out first and started walking to the garage and they met him half way and asked if we found anything and like a champ said no. I got out and I had to walk back to the deck and get my shirt and sandals and I come walking up and the MIL and FIL met me and I asked if anyone even knew what the Ring looked like. The MIL started to describe it and then I held up my hand and asked if it looked like this. Her scream could of awoke the dead and the FIL could not believe we had found it. I learned later that they were skeptics and were telling Michelle that it was gone and there was no way that it could be found but Michelle told them that she had to at least try so she had a piece of mind . They are now believers and there were some very joyous people. It was a good Family outing that ended well for everyone.
Jason.. go work. Sounds like you got a ‘crash course’ in learning different aspects of metal detecting. Now, you’re an expert!