Skippy SH13
Forum Supporter
Got up early this morning and went to a soccer complex. This comes is huge… soemthing like 21 full sized soccer fields and another dozen smaller ones. I’ve never been able to grid the whole thing. Plus it’s about a 35 minute drive just to get to it.
It’s only used on the weekends for games (typically no practices allowed, so it usually is pretty light on junk. Conversely, it’s over an old field that has gobs of iron junk. Signals can be iffy everywhere. The sod layer is obvious and goes down to about 2.5” after that it’s pretty hard pack dirt… but not so rocky that stuff doesn’t continue to settle downward.
Years ago, my son found. The remains of an old pocket watch.. Presumably from some farmer the lost it 80 years ago. That’s the kind of field this is.
I’ve pulled two golds previously. Sat year a nice 4 gram men’s diamond ring, and about 6 years ago, a 10 gram 14k men’s ring. Field usually gives up a few rings every hunt, though most are kids stuff
Today, I started pretty nicely. A dime, then A nice fat silver ring. It was another 3 hours + before my next ring, and then another 30 minutes until the gold.
When I encountered the signal, I would have NEVER guessed it was gold. I figured it was just a corroded penny or more likely a soccer lapel pin.
Signals on the AT Max were everywhere from 50’s to 70’s. The only thing consistent was the strength of the signal and the size. Size is IMPORTANT in this field because of the iron garbage. As you all know larger dense iron pieces can ring high. It’s pretty easy to tell size by the signal crispness and the edges of where the signal stopped. This was pendant/coin sized for sure. And because I have a motto “when in doubt, it comes out!” Out it came.
First Lesche cut/dog didn’t pull the item in the plug. It was more than 5” past the top of the dirt. Pin pointer caught it though and back into the hole went the Lesche.
Second carving popped up a GOLD ring. Beautiful. Dirt wasn’t compacted around it, so it just fell away as the Lesche pulled it up.
Picked it up and figured it was about 5 grams or so. Definitely dense.
But here’s the thing. I set that ring on the ground and it was a solid 60-61. Re-checked the hole, and there was no signal and no iron scrap or anything to mask the signal.
I’ve seen it before, but I figure that ring has been there about 15-20 years. They get a mineralization “halo” that alters the signal until the ground is disturbed. I even got the bouncing on video, and the stable signal after. It was definitely there.
Took it home, checked the hallmarks and found 750. Sweet 18K! Weighed in at 4.75 grams on the nose. Roughly $387 in melt.
A great Saturday morning.
It’s only used on the weekends for games (typically no practices allowed, so it usually is pretty light on junk. Conversely, it’s over an old field that has gobs of iron junk. Signals can be iffy everywhere. The sod layer is obvious and goes down to about 2.5” after that it’s pretty hard pack dirt… but not so rocky that stuff doesn’t continue to settle downward.
Years ago, my son found. The remains of an old pocket watch.. Presumably from some farmer the lost it 80 years ago. That’s the kind of field this is.
I’ve pulled two golds previously. Sat year a nice 4 gram men’s diamond ring, and about 6 years ago, a 10 gram 14k men’s ring. Field usually gives up a few rings every hunt, though most are kids stuff
Today, I started pretty nicely. A dime, then A nice fat silver ring. It was another 3 hours + before my next ring, and then another 30 minutes until the gold.
When I encountered the signal, I would have NEVER guessed it was gold. I figured it was just a corroded penny or more likely a soccer lapel pin.
Signals on the AT Max were everywhere from 50’s to 70’s. The only thing consistent was the strength of the signal and the size. Size is IMPORTANT in this field because of the iron garbage. As you all know larger dense iron pieces can ring high. It’s pretty easy to tell size by the signal crispness and the edges of where the signal stopped. This was pendant/coin sized for sure. And because I have a motto “when in doubt, it comes out!” Out it came.
First Lesche cut/dog didn’t pull the item in the plug. It was more than 5” past the top of the dirt. Pin pointer caught it though and back into the hole went the Lesche.
Second carving popped up a GOLD ring. Beautiful. Dirt wasn’t compacted around it, so it just fell away as the Lesche pulled it up.
Picked it up and figured it was about 5 grams or so. Definitely dense.
But here’s the thing. I set that ring on the ground and it was a solid 60-61. Re-checked the hole, and there was no signal and no iron scrap or anything to mask the signal.
I’ve seen it before, but I figure that ring has been there about 15-20 years. They get a mineralization “halo” that alters the signal until the ground is disturbed. I even got the bouncing on video, and the stable signal after. It was definitely there.
Took it home, checked the hallmarks and found 750. Sweet 18K! Weighed in at 4.75 grams on the nose. Roughly $387 in melt.
A great Saturday morning.
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Dirt gold is tough to come by. That's definitely a nice one too!
