Ring lost in Portland Oregon found with a metal detector

I received a call from Michael inquiring if I could help find his white gold wedding ring.

He was involved in some extensive renovations on his home in the Portland area, and he was fairly sure he had lost it in his yard while spreading straw for erosion control. I had an obligation that afternoon close by, so I was able to go over to do the search.

I arrived and Michael showed me the area, and described what he had been doing when the ring went missing. He said he would be in the house if I needed anything, and I began the search.

After tuning the detector to the local conditions, I quickly realized the area was littered with metallic debris. This slowed down the search process considerably. The ground was very dry, with large ‘dirt clods’ and cracks.
I decided to grid-search the area where Michael had spread the straw. I hit many large objects that gave very strong signals, making them read closer to the surface than they actually were, resulting in having to move around the straw to double check. I also went over some stuff that clearly registered as coins, which I dug out of the hard packed dirt.

I worked up and down through the yard, and as it always seems to happen to me, when I started up one of the last lines in my search pattern, I hit a good, repeatable signal. Looking down, I couldn’t see anything, but after kicking back some of the straw, I saw the faint outline of the missing ring.
I snapped a quick picture as it sat, and went to the house to find Michael.

He was inside, along with his wife, and I asked him to come out so I could explain the difficulties in searching his yard. I handed him the handful of coins I dug, then ran the detector over several of the large, loud objects in the yard. I took them down to the corner of the yard and ran the detector over his ring, letting him know I’d found it. I pulled it out and handed it to him. Michael seemed genuinely surprised, and his wife said she thought it was “like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Good gear, experience, and patience takes the day.