Minnesota Gold heirloom ring lost Metal detecting scuba dive search
Austin was up north Minnesota at an area lake enjoying the day with family. They were out on their pontoon enjoying a hot day swimming in a bay when Austin’s gold/diamond ring slipped off his finger and sank down into the weeds, approx. 10 feet deep. This ring was an heirloom from his dad who passed a few years earlier. He searched the internet and found wwwtheringfinders.com and called me. We knew it was no hurry as the ring would stay exactly where it was lost, and we were struggling to commit to a day as the weather and our schedules were not cooperating. After about a week, we finally set the day and met up at the lake. These searches are very tough going as the weeds are so thick and the muck can be very deep. The search area must be very small when scuba diving at depth in weeds as we cannot cover a lot of real-estate with these obstacles, also the harder you work the faster you use your air. I told Austin it was up to him to remember and put me as close to the spot as possible, even a 20-yard deviation would make the search impossible. We pulled up in the pontoon and anchored, I gave him a junk ring and said toss it in where you believe your ring is. I started my search and found a couple old beer cans and 3 old lures. After approximately an hour of search I got a nice tone hit on my metal detector, sifted through the muck and out popped his ring. I looked up before ascending and I was right below the pontoon. Great job by Austin getting us to the exact point in the middle of a bay!!!
Pics of Austin and his Mother with the ring.
Congrats Austin, glad I could help out :O)
Darrin










John called asking about recovering his phone that he dropped in the bay while unloading his boat. He dropped it the night before and knew the general area that it was in. Besides the phone, his drivers license was in the case also. I arranged to meet him at the house, where we talked out the details, grabbed my equipment, and headed into the water. John stood in one spot acting as one point of reference, and I used the mooring buoy as the other. The bottom was very muddy and covered with weed matter, making the search a little tricky. Working back and fourth, I covered everything between my 2 reference points with no luck, and decided to work a bit between him and the shore line. Winds had shifted from the day before, moving the boat and mooring buoy about 180*, which kinda threw things off a bit. I wondered way out to the right of the mooring to an area that wasn’t covered yet, and bingo, I got the signal I wanted. When I
lifted the phone out of the water it was dinging like crazy after it locked onto Wi-Fi. These newer phones are incredibly waterproof.




