At the request of MudPuppy, here's what I’ve learned after 26 months, and 406 rings later (37 of which were gold, and over 70 silver).
My very first gold ring was found with an ACE350 in about 3” of dirt. The small 10K gold antique class ring, with no year or other identifiable mark, was found at a city park large enough to house 16 soccerfields of various sizes. It was the first of three gold rings I found at this park. This one was found between the fields and the parking lot, and encountered because I was simply metal detecting “in lines.” I had not yet learned the proper word for what I was doing was called “Gridding.” That ring got me hooked on Metal Detecting. There's never been another find quite so amazing as that one. Even the priciest finds I've made don't come close to having me tearing up in joy, like I did that find. Or feeling like quite so much as Golem, as I repeatedly got it out to admire it.
Since that first gold find, I’ve detected in 4 cities, approximately 3 dozen city parks of various sizes (some up to 20+ acres), 3 dozen schools, and close to 4 dozen neighborhood parks. Some basic patterns have emerged for where rings get dropped, and my find rate for rings is a bit more than 1 per hunt. Consistently. As an example, I've hunted about 30 times so far this year, and I'm at 40 rings.
Here's what I have learned about where you're going to find rings.
The first and foremost place you should be checking is where people take rings off. This accounts for the BEST of my finds. While I find rings dropped virtually everywhere in the parks, the very nicest rings always end up in the same basic locations. Here's the list, in descending order of volume:
1: Where ladies take off rings to sunscreen up their children
2: Where ladies and gents take off rings to “keep from losing them”
3: Where coaches remove rings
4: Where players set rings down because they’re not allowed to have “jewelry” on the field.
The above four places account for approximately 75% of all my gold finds. The remaining 25% fits into this category:
5: Where cold hands meet gloves coming off (its’ my favorite season in tot-lots!).
6: In ball fields, probably lost while arms are swinging
7: Near Skate parks, where skaters put down all their gear
8: totally random drops in the middle of fields (probably due to one of the above, but unknown just by looking at the field!)
The top 4 hotspots are the top four because people are FORGETTING to pick up their jewelry. I believe this is partially due to the fact that grass in our parks is several inches long, and a ring sliding off a bag, flipped out of a cap (when being placed back on a head), or simply placed into the grass, is so easily LOST at dusk, that people commonly think they’re stolen. It’s also quite common for me to find rings recently lost simply embedded into the ground, as someone has stepped on it. Once pressed into the dirt, they virtually disappear from visibility. This means that someone might be looking right AT the ring, but not recognize it for what it is. Often, I believe, people simply assume they are stolen, or don’t remember until much later that it was removed. If they return, and someone has stepped on the ring, it appears “taken,” instead of simply lost.
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1 and #2 (1: Where ladies take off rings to sunscreen up their children, and 2: Where ladies and gents take off rings to “keep from losing them”) account for 100% of all my really nice diamond rings. And when I say nice. I mean NICE. It also accounts for the run-of-the-mill diamond wedding bands that get left in the grass next to volley ball courts. Several others have been found around tot-lots. Far more, though, are found AROUND the tot-lots, than IN the tot-lots. The key here is that people are intentionally taking them off. These aren’t “fall off the finger” losses, but actual “left behinds.” They account for more of my ring finds than any other type, and actually account for 100% of my diamond wedding/anniversary ring finds.
#3 Where coaches remove rings is also a strong producer of rings, though I find far more tungsten and titanium bands in these locations than gold, #3 accounts for gold men’s bands, and probably a dozen other men’s bands. These are so common in the areas where coaches put stuff down, that I commonly will drive by parks just to see where the gear is placed by the coaches to detect there, and in other locations. This includes behind or along the lines of the baseball fields (ESPECIALLY for fields that are close to roads), and the “about 40 feet into the field” places where coaches walk out and drop their gear. It’s far enough from the sidewalks that people won’t come pick it up, but not so far out that it gets in the way of practice. These also show up at corners of marked soccer fields (again...common drop points), and at the edges of the goalie boxes (amazingly, this is also a common drop point, if practice isn’t going to take the whole field.). My heaviest gold rings (other than men’s class rings), come from these points.
4: Where players set rings down because they’re not allowed to have “jewelry” on the field. Accounts for most of my gold jewelry with gemstones that are not diamonds. These are the gold rings that youth commonly give each other, especially worn by high school girls. I find a LOT of these at the edges of softball fields (not baseball), where girls will run over after seeing their rings on their hands, and put it down where their bags are. These are not typically large rings, often ranging from 1.4 grams to 2.4 grams, and typically only 10K, but they’re fun to find, nevertheless.
5: Where cold hands meet gloves coming off (its’ my favorite season in tot-lots!). This makes Soccer/Football line, and tot-lots really fun.. I love the fall and spring for these drops. When a cold snap hits, I believe people’s fingers simply shrink. Rings either fall off, or they drop when the light gloves are removed. This is when I find rings in one of three locations. Soccer/Football lines, Tot Lots under the swings, and at concession stands. For the ball field lines,, this is where people are sitting in the chairs removing and putting on gloves... rings literally just DROP on the line. You can search the line (both sides of the “parents don’t cross this point”) line to find these drops. I find a lot of ladies costume jewelry during this time, too. It’s not uncommon for me to find 1-2 rings every week in a multi-field soccer park. The lines are just magnets for drops, both at game time with gloves, and from players. Fair weather, though, reduces the drop rate by a huge margin. Rings stay on hands, when it’s warm out! Tot-lot drops, for me, often happen at fall-spring. I’ll find a gob of change in the summer, but no rings. I say this, because I detect several lots WEEKLY, year round. The only time I’ve ever found precious metal rings is spring and fall. All summer, when there’s 4,000 people a week coming through a big park’s tot lot, it’ll only be change. But... see above for “edge” drops. Summertime, I’ll find rings in the grass, not the bark. The last area, is really hit/miss, but it happens. Check for the areas where people stand waiting for concessions, if it’s in a grassy area. Peoples hands come in and out of pockets at this time. There is a fair amount of change here, too.
6: In ball fields, probably lost while arms are swinging. These are TOUGH to find, and I only come across them when I’m gridding a field. They’re just out there in the middle. Often smaller bands, of the 4 gram variety, they are either dropped as part of play, or are just a random set-down in the middle of a field. I’m never sure why they’re there, but they can be out there. I only grid major fields once a year, to catch these drops, choosing to focus my time on #1-#5 instead during the summer. This is usually where I hunt in late fall and winter, when everything else has slowed down. I’ve found enough gold rings (and even a gold earring) in the middle of fields, that it’s worth it, when you know the grassy areas around the lots, water features, and volleyball courts haven’t seen any action.
7: Near Skate parks, where skaters put down all their gear
These are interesting little bubbles of fun. I’ve pulled four gold rings out of skate parks. All of them VERY light gold, with the exception of one woman’s gold class ring. These have all been 10K, and half were mashed flat. Skate parks are notorious for pop-tabs, ring tops, etc. But they’re worth digging all that scrap to find the gold. Again, though, they’re ONLY where people take them off and put them down, these are not “fall off” rings. I’ve never even found a bad ring around the edges of the park where people sit with their drinks (and load up the ground with pop-tops)... all my skate-park rings (Silver, gold, tungsten, stainless, etc.) are always found where gear gets put down at a corner, or under a tree. In fact, for the three skate parks, I can hit the “hot zones” in less than 10 minutes each. I find a ring about every 3rd month. I pull a decent amount of change from these same areas, too. Just watch during the summer months where kids are sitting while taking a break... THAT’s where you want to detect.
8: Everything else is just random drops. I’ve found rings in the oddest places when gridding everything. There’s no real reason for them to be there, but they are! Sides of hills (possibly pocket drops?), grassy lanes near sidewalks, and just out in the middle of a neighborhood park. They can happen anywhere... but these account for only a VERY few # of finds.
Hope this helps on your own quest for rings/gold!
oh... one other "hotspot" for jewelry, though it's always costume style or silver! In Schoolyards, look for where there's a row of 2 or 3 trees that is NOT at the edge of a school yard. These are just magnets for rings from little girls. I think the social nature of the young ladies just puts them sitting under the trees. If a school has 2 or three trees in a row, I can basically "call it" that there will be rings near them / between them / around them. I've found as many as 5 in one hunt under 2 or three trees. This really works best, when the trees are within 20 or 30 feet of the asphalt playgrounds or bark lots, but they can sure be productive!
Gridding a school yard is always a good way to find aluminum rings, too. LOL
Cheers,
Skippy
PS: If you look back at my post, you'll see that the first and foremost place was "where people take them off." This is why my first spot in a park will not be the bark at the end of a slide. I'm there for the jewelry, the coins come second. Just something to consider.
EDIT: Here's the picture library if you'd like to see a bunch of my ring finds.
http://s547.photobucket.com/user/SkippyS13/library/Ring Finds
