14K gold and a half ounce of silver! Parks and schools rock.

Skippy SH13

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Joined
May 8, 2015
Messages
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Location
Pacific NW
I finally got out again, yesterday. 12 days since my last hunt. I have to take it day by day with my health. Last week, I was pretty much laying down. I've developed Arterial Fibrillation (where the top part of the heart beats faster than the bottom, can cause blood pooling in the heart, and clotting that breaks free and can stroke you out.) Super fun, to add to my health problems, LOL. I think I've got it under control, though, and haven't had an episode in a few days.

Once I got that under control, of course the first thing I just HAD to do, was go metal detecting! I got my first permission ever, on Sunday, and tried a house, yesterday morning, that the owner assured me was "very old". I should have inquired more. It was built in 1971. No silver. And it was flood irrigated. Anything of value probably sank through the sandy soil long ago. I found 62 cents in the 30 minutes it took to do his yard. Fun, but not the experience I was looking for. Especially, since the wind was high, and it was just cutting through any heat in the body. 'bout froze my hands!

By afternoon the wind died down, and it was a pleasant 39 degrees (low humidity here, you can do 39 degrees in a light jacket, without wind...)

Got out to my favorite park, just down the street, and managed to pull a dollar in change, and an aluminum kids ring, before hitting a bouncy, but solid 42-48 signal. Out of the bark pops this gorgeous silver chain. Didn't take long to figure out why it got lost. The lobster clasp was slightly bent, allowing the clasp to slide out of the lobster clip, even with it shut. Nice find though! Over 17 grams of sterling!

I almost headed home, at that point, because a rain storm was pushing through the valley. I watched it get closer, but then the winds shifted, and it went north of my position. I decided to hit a school that I found 4 gold rings at, earlier this year. It was south of me, and about 15 minutes away, but I wanted to add some gold to the silver... or at least some more rings!

The elementary school bark was pretty much empty. Four targets found across two playground bark lots. But I wasn't complaining. Two of the targets were dollar coins. :) Another $2.06 added to the pouch.

This particular school is TOUGH, because it's old, and there is gobs of trash in the ground. I "sort of gridded it" earlier this year, but I knew I'd missed stuff, for sure. An errant swing is all it takes to miss a target. So, I decided to go over the "hot spots" again, very slowly. Ended up pulling a couple more dollars in change, two more rings (one tungsten, and one kid ring), before I hit the fun.

This was about 10 feet behind the 2nd base to 3rd base line on the ball field closest to the school. The funny thing was that I had literally been thinking, "If I were a kid, this is probably where I would lose a ring, standing here waiting to get a kick ball". Not 15 seconds later, I had a solid 48 signal, that deserved to be checked out. I dug the plug, and missed the target's depth. Still in the hole. That's when I tucked the lesche in deeper and out popped a gold ring! I genuinely hollered "Woo Hoo!" It was a fun find, at the end of a day.

I was sure it was at least 10K, but when I got home and looked under the loupe, the stamp was slightly worn away, and I could only make out a slash and a K. But the slash, before the K wouldn't jive with a 0 from a 10. Out comes the acid. 14K held, 18K disappeared.

14K it is! It took only a minute to find the ring online, too. $277 at Amazon.com. Going to see if I can't polish it up and sell it for $110. Spot value put it right around $90.

Glad to be out in the fields again! Gold #12 for the year. Can't get enough of this hobby.

Skippy
 

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Digging is digging, but the finds can make a good day even better. The way you know school yards and parks I wouldn't get too flustered by a disappointing residential permission.
 
Does the contents of that spray bottle turn everything into 14k gold? :)

Oh my gosh, I WISH!! So many times I hit the scrape pad, and discover it disappears. The worst ones are the ones that disappear so fast, that they leave a smoke trail and a bad odor. I feel like I have to run out of the room, or I'll die of cancer.

Fake jewelry gets found out pretty quick with the acids. Love em.

Skippy
 
Digging is digging, but the finds can make a good day even better. The way you know school yards and parks I wouldn't get too flustered by a disappointing residential permission.

Nah, I didn't. Kind of laughed about it. Was funnier at Church on Sunday, when the wife came up and asked if she could split the money I found (she was kidding). I told her I'd get the thirty-one cents to her, as soon as I could figure out if the pennies would hold up under the cleaning. LOL

I talk to a lot of detectorists locally, who never find gold. I swear it's simply because they're too keyed in on finding silver. They actually do pretty well with silver, though. Some folks around here find 30-50 silver coins a year. Boggles my mind, but they all do permission hunts...

I prefer the ease of the parks and schools, and the payoffs are much richer, to boot.

Skippy
 
Wow that ring appears chunky 🤔
I’d put at back on the scale .

Congratulations on the incredible hunt .
Keep us posted on upcoming adventures.

Many of us are pretty much snowed and iced in.
Great report !
,Dew
 
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