Another successful return and another happy person!
I Was contacted this afternoon because Elaina could not find her keys that someone had buried on the beach. After arriving at the location and beginning to search she had her keys back in just a few minutes! Also got to clean up the environment a bit. First Target was a fork. Ouch! Glad someone did not step on it. Be careful out there..
I received an email wondering if I could go up to a western Wisconsin lake and see if I could recover a lost ring. It was about 14o miles away. Wanting to ensure a successful recovery on the first trip we waited until both could meet on site to confirm the location of where it was lost. The water in the lake is getting very cold around 36 degrees F. so waders were going to have to be used. I was told that the ring came off while uncovering a boat. The ring slipped off and went into the lake near the end of the dock in about 4 feet of water. The lake levels can be lowered for the winter by conservation officials and was down about a foot from summer levels. This putting the search area in around 3 -4 feet of water. This was about the maximum depth that I could go before water would come over the waders and my hand would be submerged holding on to the metal detector. I also use an aluminum scoop to recover targets to prevent from having to get wet this time of year. The search area was about a 15′ x 10′ area. Several attempts were made at finding the ring by the owner and friends and neighbor. They tried snorkeling, raking and tried a metal detector with no luck. I have in the past had searchers looking for lost items using rakes end up moving the rings to a new location, which expands the search area. I started out with my primary search. A primary search is an initial search in the area of the highest degree of likelihood. It is usually just seeing how many targets are out in the location and if anything just screams hear I am. The lost ring was platinum with some diamonds. So you look for somewhat shallow targets, anything deeper then 4″ is kind of ruled out. The bottom of lakes if real sandy might get pushed down by searchers stepping on it but in this case there was a hardpan layer about 2″ below the bottom sand so it was going to be shallow. I did pick up several targets that were in the range of the ring but turned out to be pop tops/ pull tabs, bottle caps and other misc. junk targets. After searching for 15 – 20 minutes I got a hit on pretty good signal but not jumping out, I had set my scoop down on the dock which was about 6-8′ away. When hitting that target I did not want to take my eye off the target location but I needed to go grab the scoop. Its not hard to loose the target by waves pushing you or currents in rivers. I identified a small white pebble on the bottom that I could come back to. I grabbed the scoop and found the white stone. took a scoop and missed the target, took and second scoop and I had whatever it was in my scoop. BAM there it was… The ring, what a great feeling seeing the ring in your scoop. It never gets old. Now to reunite the owner to the ring. When I walked back up the hill to the cabin, I mentioned to owner that was standing out on the deck – « boy a lot of junk targets out there ». He said yes he was afraid of that. When I extended my hand out with the ring, it took him by surprise. You found it. You could just see the emotion run across his face. The ring had such deep sentimental value that when reunited you can feel that everything is back in it place and the relief that you are complete again. It’s so great to see that relief happen right before your eyes.
Never gets old. 
I got a phone call in the late afternoon from a woman asking if I were « that Ring Finding guy ».
« That’s me! » I replied and another lost-ring story unfolded…
Marina and Sergey had been down on the remote Makalawena Beach taking photos while on their honeymoon. The couple, visiting from Oregon, had only been on the Big Island of Hawaii for a few days.
After applying sunscreen, the two posed for fun photos, playing in the wet sand near the water. One photo Sergey had his ring on – then the next – he didn’t! They literally showed us photos in the series on-and-off!
« My ring!, » he’d exclaimed. A heavy, tungsten ring, it had vanished without a trace in the deep sand. The group spent the rest of the afternoon digging for it to no avail.
The next morning Sylvie and I picked up Marina and Sergey and their cousin in our truck and started the long, bumpy 4×4 trail that headed down to the remote beach.
Once we’d hiked to the spot along the beach, my heart fell. Though we’d checked the tide charts, high tide was on its way in force – washing higher and higher over the spot Sergey had noticed the ring had gone missing.
Switching the detector on right away I got a target signal but digging the spot only hit lava rock below a thin layer of sand. Sylvie scanned the beach above the tide line in case the ring had been washed up there during the night’s high tide. I came back and back to that same place where I’d gotten the signal, fighting the water and waves as they got higher.
Sergey had tried digging with his hands while I showed him the place. Our long-handled scoop was useless as it was blocked by the lava rock buried beneath the sand – the water came in waves too strong and too rapid to have a chance to get to it. Sergey was on his hands and knees. « Try to feel under the rock and in crevasses for anything that moves, » I told him as both his arms were buried in sand. Almost two hours had passed at this point and we’d all lost hope that we’d find it.
Suddenly, Sergey stood up and yelled, « I got it! » – He’d felt under the rock and took hold of what moved in his fingers. If it had slipped, the ring would have been sucked out into the now-heavy surf.
All of us jumped around and celebrated. « This ring couldn’t be replaced, » explained Marina. « It was blessed by the church and we believe that we can only get one of these in our lives! »
Better get it resized!
Also check out www.BigIslandMetalDetecting.com for more photos!
I received a call a young lady. She said she had lost her gold diamond pendant. It was given to her from her boyfriend. She said she had lost it while she was riding her horse. She had been jumping her horse in the outdoor area plus the inside one.She said it could be anywhere even the barn. I told her I would start on the out door arena around all the jumps first and grid the whole area. It was a very hot day about 30 degrees.I started finding lots of stuff but it was a lot of nails which I picked up so the horses wouldn’t pick them up. I hunted for about 3 hours about to give up and I thought I would give it about another half hour. Just about the last couple of minutes bam I found it.So I went the the indoor arena where she was teaching young riders. She came over ans asked if I found it I showed her all the metal and nails.She looked sad and said thanks for trying.Then I showed her the gold diamond pendant she screamed your my hero I’m so happy thank you so so much. Well another successful hunt and a very happy girl. Kevin Niefer Ring Finders Calgary Alberta 