Received a text message asking me to look for a ring lost while doing fall cleanup in Wheaton, Illinois. There were 4 possible areas that it could have been lost in. Found it in the first area I hunted. Used my CTX3030. Rang up at 26 VDI.
reunited
Falls Church, VA. Land search AT Pro with stock coil and 4’ sniper coil, Pro pointer. About 1 hour.
Pamela called me and left a message. She was visiting a grave site when she lost a very treasured earring. As anyone would do, she searched on her hands & knees for a long time. I called her back and we worked out the time and location to meet. Pamela was on top of everything, she even contacted the cemetery to make sure it was OK to search.
As always, we re-enacted how the item was lost. Having the matching earring allowed me to set the detector to ignore most other targets. I started searching in a small area with a probe, and then a larger area with the stock coil. Despite proper settings, the larger coil was getting too many signals. Within minutes of switching to the sniper, I recovered the earring. When I pulled it out of the grass, I was overwhelmed from the look on Pamela’s face. I am so glad to be able to help people find their treasures. Thanks to Chris Turner, for being a visionary and creating the Ringfinders.
In retrospect I should have started with the 4” coil, but I have had great success on small items in the past with the stock coil. I’m glad I could adapt to the unexpected conditions with the proper equipment. Pamela is a very interesting person who has some professional experience in electromagnetic fields. She expressed interest in learning to metal detect and helping others. Jump on in Pamela, the water’s great:)
If I can be of service, the fastest way to get me is by text at 703-598-1435. I will contact you back ASAP.
cemetary
in the grass
Close-up
Smile!
Diamonds and sapphires in white gold!
I got a call from Randy who lost his ring sometime last month while driving to a jobsite. Apparently he had removed his ring and put it into a cup (with some liquid) in his console. Sometime later, he forgot it was in there and he tossed the contents out the window as he was driving around the bend to one of his worksites!!!
Luckily Randy remembered seeing a Ringfinders Facebook post that featured my previous find and looked me up! He remembered the turn on the road and gave me a general area to look for his ring.
I searched the side of the road for some time… After gridding the area he pointed out, I extended my search area. He was close in proximity but it was a bit further than he remembered. I found it! A beautiful white gold ring with some really cool sapphires and diamonds!
Roadside Recovery!
This afternoon I received an email from a Hawthorne Hills couple who had lost a ring over the weekend. While fidgeting with one of her rings on the back deck, the ring slipped out of her hand and they heard it hit the deck and roll! The deck was on a steep incline with lots of landscaped features and shrubbery around it, all very viable and hard to find places it could have landed. They searched for a while before realizing what they needed was a metal detector… or even better, a Ringfinder!
After a phone conversation where I got the details I needed to plan my attack, I gathered up my gear. I made it there soon thereafter and started to hunt the landscaped hillside. After striking out around the perimeter, the grim possibility that it slipped through the cracks of the deck was growing. The heat was stifling, and my summer attire of flipflops and shorts was not the best choice of armor to battle man-eating spiders and other scary things (alive or dead) in the cramped dark area under the deck! But once I had exhausted the other possibilities, it was time…for THE CRAWLSPACE!
Needless to say, it was cramped under there. I had to belly crawl around and I methodically swept the area with my detector. Turning around was nearly impossible, and I was hoping to end this hunt quick! Luckily, after some time, SUCCESS! The ring was found and I quickly escaped the creepycrawlers! After celebrating with the owners, I hastily drove home for a “Silkwood shower”!
Ringfinder-1 Spiders-0!
CRAWLSPACE!
Diamond & Gold Ring FOUND!
Ring reunion smiles!
Found it!
I received a desperate email from a devastated woman. I was Mary’s last hope. The day before she went with her family for a day trip to the beach in Stone Harbor NJ. While her husband in the water with their daughter, he watched his ring fall off his hand and sink into the sandy bottom. They searched for a while with no success.
They drove back home thinking that the ring was gone forever. A search of the internet, later that night brought Mary to the Ring Finders site since I have made other recoveries in Stone Harbor. She sent me an email around midnight.
I didn’t see it until after my 6-mile run the next morning. I answered her email asking all of the questions needed when doing a water search. I also followed up with a phone call. Mary answered all of my questions, but she said there was someone else already looking for the ring. I said to let me know if she needed me when he was done.
Later in the morning, I called the other detectorist. He said that he didn’t have any luck in finding it. So Mary and I were in touch again. I told her that I would go look for her.
On the drive to the beach, I was getting a gut feeling that this wouldn’t be successful. Someone else already searched the area. I asked for help from above from my mom & my mentor.
I got to the beach and got another bad feeling. I waited till the lifeguards left. I was in the water at 5 pm. I didn’t get my first signal till 5:10 pm. It was a very promising sound and number on my CTX 3030. It was the ring that I was looking for. I left the beach to get my phone to take some pictures. I sent one to Mary. She called right away and I could tell that she was crying. We made arrangements to meet the next day to return the ring.
I got plenty of hugs when we met. It’s a good thing that my wife doesn’t get jealous!!!
“Undetectable” Diamond & Platinum Earring Recovered… Just Barely!
Today’s recovery was for a lady who lost her impressive diamond stud earring while staining her deck a few days ago. She at some point took off her dust mask which probably caught her earring and flung it off into the unknown! She noticed the back landed in between the boards, and then realized her loss.
After her and her husband scoured the yard, and squeezed under the deck to look for it, they tried renting a metal detector. They found out quickly, though, stud earrings are very hard to detect because they contain so little actual metal. In fact, their rental unit could not even detect it when they passed it over the 2nd earring.
I had confidence that at least one of my machines should be able to outperform this rental unit and headed out with all 3. After testing on the other earring, I was pretty surprised to find my 2 most expensive detectors would not detect this target!
My least expensive unit did, but just a barely audible sound would come through, and only occasionally. I started getting pretty nervous that this hunt would be unsuccessful.
To make matters worse, the lawn area around the deck was littered with nails from the sloppy contractor who built it. I was getting a pretty sinking feeling, but I was determined to at least try. Many nails were pulled out of the ground, so I could concentrate on the whisper that the earring MIGHT give me.
Somehow, someway, I managed to pass over a quiet target and it was the earring! We were both so amazed and relieved, and glad that I have a few types of machines in my arsenal!
NEARLY Undetectable Platinum & Diamond Stud! Slightly dirty but undamaged!
Diamond pair reunited!
FOUND IT!
Last week, a kayaker lost his wedding ring after slipping and falling into the bay while launching at the shoreline during low tide. After he and some others tried searching for it this week with no success, I hit the beach this weekend to try my best to reunite him with with his precious ring.
Good information is key to a successful hunt, and I asked him to get some satellite photos where he was, and circle the place he thought it could be. I headed to the beach before I got any answer, and searched anyway. I did my best to guess based on other factors, where I thought it could be.
I hunted for some time before I realized I missed the email, and he had sent me info and pictures that were key to finding it.
He wrote: “I will say another ring finder did a search of the area on Thursday and was unable to find anything. The tide at this beach is enormous. Probably 80ish feet of beach disappears at high tide. Looks like low tide is at 3:48pm this afternoon, if you do still want to look. I will attach some images that may help. The image with the green kayak at the shoreline is where I slipped and it must have come off my finger. But the tide could have taken it anywhere. The big tree stump doesn’t seem to move as well as the flat and curved driftwood I highlight in the image. I was between these two landmarks circled in red at the shoreline where you can see the other kayak in the background. The ring is made of palladium by the way, a member of the platinum family. The tide was somewhere around midway between high and low when I fell in. It will be much further out, as you will see, at 3:48 than it was in this photo.”
He also provided me with a crucial picture that he had taken that day. In it you can see the area he launched from, and some static landmarks.
After hunting another 45 mins or so, I FOUND IT!
Remember, time is of the essence when it comes to finding your precious belongings! Don’t give up hope, and give me a call or email me please! I want to help you find your rings, and your smiles!
Good info was the key!
Saved from Elliot Bay!
Beautiful Engagement Ring Found!
Today I received an urgent request from Melody, who lost her engagement ring over the weekend. Luckily I was able to rush out to look as soon as we spoke. Me and the dog hit the road!
Me and the treasure dog, Cyril, teamed up to search. He seemed more interested in eating grass and rolling around in smelly stuff than looking for diamonds, but I still consider him my lucky charm. After a short hunt… SUCCESS!!!
Melody did the right thing by reaching out for my help promptly, after searching… with no success, for her beautiful platinum and diamond ring. She provided me with the details that my detector and I needed to quickly find her ring in a highly trafficked area, where it could have been “lost” forever if someone found it before us. Time is of the essence when it comes to recovering lost jewelry!
Not every search is a success, so it was great confidence booster to happily reunite Melody with this important, beautiful ring! And Cyril couldn’t care less!
Stunner!
Hunting ain’t easy!
WOW!
THE LITTLE THINGS CAN BE VERY IMPORTANT TOO
We got a desperate call from a woman whose church group had helped organize a concert here on the Big Island – and one of the church’s parishioners had lent his car to the concert’s head performer.
The performer had a few hours to kill before his first concert so went to one of our local beaches. As he went back to get ready for his first performance, he suddenly realized his key – and the only key to the car – had been lost in the sand.
He looked for the lost key and finally had to ask to be picked up or miss the concert!
Some of the church members went to the beach the next morning to search for the key with rakes, carefully combing the sand in the area the musician had been.
After three hours they looked online and we got the call – and went immediately to the beach to join them in the hunt.
The site where the key was lost was quite small and had been scoured with rake marks. I searched the area for about 15 minutes with my Excalibur II metal detector, finding wire, fishing weights – and then hit a big target in the sand.
The car key materialized in my scoop as the sand strained out of it. 
A key is such a small thing, but finding it saved the congregation from having to hire a tow truck to come to this remote spot and re-key the ignition.
We were happy to help – and remembered that sometimes the most valuable things are often what seem of least value – until they’re not!