DIGGER27
In Memory Of
Even though I have 2 rings that are suspect, not marked and still need to be tested, this is the first ring that is officially marked that I ever found higher than 14k .
Blew right past my 18k gold goal and I am not sad about that.
First gold ring with any initials, (not counting class rings),...this one has a name.
First gold that is not marked as karat purity but with a number.
916 is common in Asia and the middle east as a gold purity mark.
It has that buttery look of high karat gold, a beautiful sight to behold in real life I am here to tell you.
First gold of 2015...and the year is just starting.
Heck of a way to start out the new year!
If I am destined to find no other gold target this year after this one I would not be too disappointed if that happened.
Everything is still pretty frozen due to the 2 week deep freeze we just experienced, but it got up to the low 60's today so I had to get out.
Went to a park close to me that I spent a lot of time at in the past and started out at a pretty well used picnic area I have scoured countless times but still some good signals left to dig in this trash pit.
I decided to hunt what ended up to be two very trashy sites because I really need to find some gold soon so I figured this was the highest percentage place close to me to try this.
I always hunt for gold at parks, I never expect it but I hope for it every time so that is why I chose to go here instead of a much easier site with less trash.
The problem at this first area was that even though the top inch or soil is defrosted the deeper dirt was still pretty much frozen.
I dug a few shallow coins and a couple of tabs and can slaw pieces but when it takes me a couple of minutes to chip out the dirt just to dig a 2 or 3" deep tab it is time to move on so not long after I did.
I moved over to another area also with a picnic pavilion and right next to a lake but more out in the open so I hoped the sun had melted the ice in the soil a little deeper here and it did.
Not much deeper, but I could get down to 3" pretty easily here so that was good enough.
I have also been over this area over and over many times in the past but no area is ever hunted out so I always return.
I was still looking for gold but again that was not unusual because that is always my goal when I hunt parks.
In reality I was just out here today to dig...anything, very few hunts this month so far and most of them were before the weather turned bitter cold so just digging a few zincolns would have been fine and dandy as far as I am concerned.
Getting out and digging in comfortable weather was the real goal, the frozen soil and all the garbage I had to pick through was a non issue for the most part.
Little did I know that this short hunt would end with a lasting memory.
For you fisher guys I set the F70 to hunt quietly, no need to get deep so I started at 30 sense but eventually kicked it up to 60 for the heck of it, it still stayed silent except over targets and that was the setting when I found this thing.
Disc was at 21 to kick out most of the lower end problem trash, thresh at -2 and I am still enjoying hunting in 1 tone because it did so well for me after I started using it late last year.
I pretty much only dug my usual solid signals, if the numbers jumped more than 2 or 3 it stayed in the ground.
This thing showed up as a solid, never wavering 41 from 2 angles at about 2" deep.
99% of the time this is going to be trash, can slaw trash, usually even tabs don't come in at this number at this park
Honestly all I really expected this to be was a shallow and flat piece of can slaw, but when I opened a small hole and saw a round edge of a gold ring down there I took a breath.
This was also the perfect signal for not only can slaw or tabs but also a decent size piece of gold so this target was that other 1%.
6.1 grams of 22k, or 916 if you prefer, at today's price worth $230 melt.
I am in the process of getting another little package together to send to ARA so this will be a great addition.
For you newbies this was a tab signal all the way and this is why we all say dig those tabs.
Not a usual tab number for me but still right smack dab in the tab range.
I rarely dig bouncy signals anymore, shallow ones for sure, but solid non jumpy ones I dig all day every day for just this reason.
Most of the time I find that even solid trash signals are usually trash...but not always.
Sometimes they could be the making of a lifelong memory.
