Uncategorized Category | Page 93 of 644 | The Ring Finders

On  Wed. Aug 20 I received the following text .

Good afternoon Bill.  My mane is Lucas. I spoke to Dennis Boothby via the ring finders yesterday and he recommended I reach out to you as I live nearby in Hamden. I lost a ring on my property recently and am looking to have someone help locate it. Let me know if this is something that might be possible to set up.

I responded  “Yes! Absolutely!”    Lucas had recently had his driveway resurfaced.   Two loads of gravel were delivered to his yard and he and  his son were playing on the piles when he realized his tungsten wedding ring was missing. The contractor later spread the gravel over the driveway and compacted it.  Lucas was sure his ring was there.  For a metal detectionist gravel driveways are the worst, as they are compacted and very hard, difficult to dig… you have to  ‘sneak up’ on the target in the hard gravel or you are likely to damage the ring.

Lucas’ lost  ring was made of  tungsten.  I was unsure of  the numerical number metal detectors give for it and would have to react to many more targets in the gravel.  I asked if his wife’s ring was the same material so I could get a reading [numerical number] from it. He said it was not, however, he had a second ring.   Why do you have two rings ??     That’s the way they came.  Apparently when he ordered his ring …two arrived.  I said well lets see the second ring and get a reading from it.  Lucas brought out the second one ring and I placed it on clean ground and swung my coil over it.  My metal detector would not pick it up.

I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe I could not hear a tungsten ring. I told Lucas I had to figure this out and I would return in a few days.

As I was driving away, I called my friend, Dennis, and he could not believe it either.  He asked me if I checked  that ring really well.  I turned around and went back. Looking at the inside of the ring with my glasses now on as well as a magnifying glass I could see the small word “Ceramic.”    This was a ceramic ring not tungsten!!  Metal detectors will not detect ceramic. I asked Lucas if he was sure his lost ring was tungsten.  He said that is what he paid for and he was pretty sure it was on the inside of the lost ring.

I decided to proceed with the search.  Being unsure of the signal number, I would have to investigate all the targets.  Usually a recently lost ring is on or near the surface… however, with this gravel being spread with a bobcat, it could be at any depth.. possibly down to the old driveway. I had some work in front of me.

After an hour and a half or so and dozens of holes, I had detected the whole driveway….  NO ring. During this whole time,  I was wondering if  I was looking for a ring made of tungsten OR ceramic ring ??? Ceramic is NOT possible to be found with a metal detector!

I asked Lucas if he was sure the ring was in the gravel or was it possible for the ring to have been lost in the grass on the edge of the driveway??  He was unsure, “Maybe?”

I was beat, yet  decided to do one sweep around the perimeter of the driveway

In front of the garage doors there was a little clover and grass.

When a metal detector gets close to any large metal, such as a garage door, it gives a loud signal making it impossible to hear anything else. Therefore, you are unable to detect the last 12 inch or so up to the door itself.

Each swing ends with a loud metal signal…. at the midpoint of the first overhead garage door … right on the edge of that signal, I thought maybe I heard a little something extra.  I managed to repeat it… so I got out the pinpointer. Just under the grass was Lucas’s tungsten ring!!

Any closer to that door and I would not have heard it!

I attempted to make a video of returning the ring to Lucas, however, The video came out terrible ! Yet in the audio one can hear me ask Lucas if he was sure his ring was tungsten?  His response was “not 100 percent”.   As I gave him the ring,  I said  “You are you right!” HIS SMILE SAYS IT ALL!

I was contacted in late August of 2025, via the website, to see if I could locate it. On the first day I could only be on site for two hours due to the temperature in the 90’s without any shade. When I returned, determined to spend all day or days if necessary, the weather was much more cooperative.

Continuing where I left off, I located the ring in 45 minutes. It was in excellent condition with no evidence of being touched by mower blades. I was very concerned about the ring because the property is maintained with a zero turn mower. Had that mower picked it up, I was afraid of what condition it would be in. Fortunately, the grass had a root structure that was extremely strong. The ring was trapped in those roots, above dirt level, and the mower never touched it. I was totally relieved as was the young lady who has it once again.

Russel was visiting his Father in an assisted living center. They were sitting together near a wooded area.Russell cut the end off a cigar and threw it in the woods and his gold wedding band also flew into the woods. He searched and could not find the ring. He contacted me through RingFinders and we met the following morning.Following his directions I searched the wooded area and found the ring! Russel assured me his wife would be ecstatic at the rings return. Another disaster averted!

I was asked by Kashif to try and find a small 18 K gold earring that his wife had lost recently, the earring was lost when his wife took off her jumper whilst gardening on the front lawn .

I scanned the other earring , so as to know what sound and numbers I was looking for , and began scanning the area of lawn that the earring was thought to lie in , after 20 minutes of searching I had a solid repeating signal and a corresponding number ( 15 ) on my manticore detector , showing the target was only 1 inch deep in the lawn thatch , after retrieving the small golden earring , I presented it to the very thankful and amazed owner , who had her doubts if something that so small could ever be found and recovered .