Yesterday I was interviewed by a NJ magazine. It was related to my metal detecting services. The article should be out sometime this summers. I will post a link here when it is available. The next step is a photo shoot.
One of the questions was about metal detecting rules. There is a code of ethics for metal detectorists. Do you follow them? Here they are:
I don’t know about you, but I like reading about other metal detectorists who are able to find and return lost items. Or they find historical artifacts.
There was an article in our local paper, this week, about a woman who lost a ring about 10 years ago. This ring was in the family since 1914. A friend of the family asked the husband if he could search their yard, with his metal detector to look for old items.
Well guess what he found in the back yard? The ring pictured below. I have also included a link to the news paper article. These stories are GREAT exposure for our hobby. It help to break the stereotype mental image of the old guy, on a beach detecting around all of the beach blankets, leaving deep holes everywhere.
Courier Post Newspaper Article: Lost family ring
I just added a new recovery story, Deja Vu All Over Again!!
This is my 1st repeat customer. So this also makes it my 1st successful repeat customer for the same item.
The look on his face when I showed him that I found it again was priceless. I hope you enjoy the story. Please feel free to leave comments!!
Everyone thinks people who use metal detectors are nerds.
Every once in a while we can make a find that can rewrite history.
Such is this case in Denmark. Metal Detector Story From Denmark
I would love to make a find like this!
Enjoy the 1st day of Spring!!
My latest recovery is posted on the website under Haddonfield NJ. (Lost Keys)
Paul had lost his keys while shoveling after a 22 inch snow storm/blizzard. His wife was very worried that someone would find the keys to the house and cars.
It amazes me at how many people lose things in the snow.
If you lose something metal, call a professional. So many people waste time and money on buying a metal detector to try and find their lost item. It takes years of practice to learn how to properly use a metal detector. The different types of sounds & metals in the ground will totally confuse most people.
What is your opinion? Should these guys be allowed to look for this treasure?
For the article & video click –>Treasure hunt thwarted by Myrtle Beach City Council opposition:
Robert Thomason of Spruce Pines, N.C., says he has used his technology (divining rods) to find minerals all over the country for 15 years. He said that technology has led him to pinpoint scattered artifacts on the shores of Myrtle Beach. But he and his friend’s quest to unearth them hit a roadblock Tuesday.
Its always nice to see the media have a story about lost items being returned!!
A woman lost her ring in the Cherry Hill Mall (NJ) during the Christmas shopping season. She was distraught.
Her son posted the lost on Craig’s List and other social media sites. The posts went viral.
One of the people who I found a ring for, sent me a message on the lost ring to see if I could help. I don’t think that security would let me in the mall with my equipment (LOL).
This story has a happy ending. The ring was returned. Turns out the lady who lost the ring lives in Philadelphia. The person who found it lives only a few blocks away from the lady who lost the ring.
To see the FULL story and news video click here:
I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy & Healthy New Year.
2015 was very successful for me in being able to return a lot of lost items to people. I am hoping for even more success in 2016.
I added my last recovery for 2015 in my blog. It is titled “Those Darn Leaves!”
If you lose an item, don’t try to rent a metal detector. It takes years of practice to really know what you are doing. Instead, enlist the services of an experienced metal detectorist.
If you ever have any questions about the hobby of metal detecting please feel free to ask me.
Happy 2016!!!
I responded to a ring recovery last Sunday. A young gentleman had lost his Triton class ring. He showed me the area behind his yard that he thought that it was in. It was overgrown.
I started searching and found some junk metal. I looked for over 1.5 hours and didn’t find the ring. It is not there or the ring isn’t made of metal.
Continue reading No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Here is the link to my latest post. My wife’s friend called because her late mother had lost her Mother’s ring in her yard.
It has a happy ending with a twist. I didn’t take any reward. My wife actually bought a raffle ticket to support her friend’s kids school. Karma took hold, and we won a very nice prize.
Click on the ling to get to the story:
Well this post doesn’t really have anything to do with metal detecting but I just had to let everyone know that I completed an item on my Bucket List on November 7th.
My wife & I traveled to Panama City Florida, without my metal detector, to compete in my first Full Ironman. This consists of a 2.4 mile swim in the Gulf of Mexico, a 112 mile bike ride, followed by a 26.2 mile run. You have 17 hours to complete the event.
November 7th started out with me as basket case. Nervous was not even close to what I was feeling. The day started off mild, water temp 76.8 degrees. The swim was rough, many people got sea sick, others got stung by jelly fish. I did the 2.4 miles in 2 hours & 15 minutes.
Onto the bike, 112 miles. The was a head wind and then it rained, thus slowing my time. I expected to be off the bike in 6 to 6.5 hours, but it took me 7.5 hours.
Now the run, or should I say walk… It rained during this part too. I was exhausted. My mind putting serious doubt in me finishing in the 17 hours. I pushed through and finished in 16 hours, 43 minutes and 52 seconds!!!
So yes I can call myself an Ironman!!
Next time I will take my metal detector. So many of the 2500 people in the event were wearing jewelry when they entered the water. I am sure that some of it was lost! It would be worth a search of the area!!
Now that the swimming season is over, the requests for my recovery services have slowed way down. That gives me more time to train for the Panama City Ironman in November and also lets me do some detecting for me.
I like going out walking on the beaches searching for targets without having the pressure of making a recovery. If I find a piece of jewelry I look in the lost & found and post a generic “Found” on the beach – charm or ring or whatever it is. Then the owner can contact me and describe the item. If no one clams it it goes into my safe deposit box for retirement.
Continue reading Slow down or snow down?
I just don’t understand it. I receive a lot of calls to find lost rings that were lost during heated discussion. They don’t tell me that right away, but it eventually comes out. I guess they are embarrassed. I think ring tossing should be a new Olympic event. Most of the rings thrown aren’t cheap ones either. Throwing your rings is just like throwing money down the drain…
Continue reading A New Olympic Event – Ring Tossing
A co-worker of mind told me that he had lost his wedding band, 3-4 weeks ago. He forgot that I search for lost rings with my metal detector. He said that he was in his driveway painting some items, when he heard a ting… He said to his wife “what was that?”
So I was away with my family for a couple of weeks at the jersey Shore. While there I like to go metal detecting.
Out of the 14 days that we were away, I went detecting about 10 of them. I usually go in the morning to watch the sunrise and have the beach to myself.
Continue reading Found Money $$$
I’m back home after a 2 week vacation at the Jersey Shore.
I went out detecting several days. I am usually on the beach by 5:45 am to watch the sun come up as I detect.
I find it very relaxing. Very few people are on the beach at that time. There are a lot of amateur photographers out trying to get the best picture of the days sunrise.
Continue reading Vacation…Its All Over
My time has been very limited to metal detect the last couple of years. I have been training to compete in an Ironman race. So my find totals have been way down.
Last year I completed a Half Ironman in Princeton NJ. This consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. It was such an awesome feeling when I crossed the finish line.
This year I am registered to compete in a Full Ironman in Panama City Florida in November. This is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride & a 26 mile run. It has to be completed in 16 hours.
So most of my spare time is dedicated to exercise of some sort. My ultimate goal is to complete the Kona Ironman in Hawaii. This is where it all began.
When you cross the finish line the announcer says your name and says You Are An Ironman! So when he says “Dave Milsted you are an Ironman”, you just might be able to find me with a metal detector as long as you don’t discriminate iron…
I have been looking for a lost wedding band on the beach of Ocean City. It was lost 3 days ago. The section of beach where is was lost is heavily detected.
The problem is that the owner posted the ring missing on Craigslist and gave a very good description as to where it was lost. This notifies every devious person with a detector to look for an easy score and not return if they find it.
This beach has 3 – 5 people every morning searching it. Tonight there were 3 others on the beach looking for the ring. All said that they saw the post on Craigslist.
I have a very bad feeling about this ring. I think it has already been found. I did talk to the owner and he said no one has told him that it has been found.
I might give it one more try in the morning. Wish me luck!!
Today one of my success stories was used in another blog, the CookeCapeMay blog. The story is titled “Cape May Lost & Found”
He starts by telling a story of a man who lost his wallet. It was found and social media was used to locate the man.
Then the story goes to one of my finds in 2013. It is a very cool feeling when you see one of your stories being used elsewhere.
Tomorrow I am heading out to a private dwelling to search the yard for a lost ring. The owner states she took her ring off in the house to wash her hands. It fell to the floor and the dog ate it. They have checked the dog’s poop but have come up empty. When the dog ate it a few weeks ago there was a lot of rain. They feel that they may have missed checking a few piles.
Hopefully I will have success with my metal detectors. Looking at Google Maps it is not a large yard. The issue I will have is there is a metal fence surrounding the yard. Hoping my Minelab CTX3030 with be able to sort out the signals.
Update: I did not find the ring after searching for 1.5 hours. The women did notify me a few weeks later that they found the ring under the oven. It fell down a small hole in the floor boards.
Why is it when couples fight, one of the first things they do is throw their expensive jewelry?
Got a call yesterday for a lost platinum ring. I drove the 15 minutes to the location and met a gentleman who described what happened. His girlfriend took off her ring and threw it into the ground. Then they heard a “ting”.
Well the story didn’t add up. If she threw it into the ground in the area he said, there was nothing but grass, so they shouldn’t have heard the “ting”. Several feet to the right was a large parking lot, to the left was a driveway, and straight ahead was the street.
My guess is that she didn’t throw it down, she threw it out. I searched the area anyway. I used 2 different detectors. The guy was right there with me. Every signal he was on the ground looking through the grass hoping to find the ring.
I even walked around the parking lot, the driveway & the road. No luck! He offered me some cash to cover my time but I declined.
I think she should get a platinum metal for the toss. Oh that’s right she threw the Platinum away…
This year my metal detecting activities are down. I have been training for my 1st half marathon run on September 15th. I have put a lot of time and sweat into achieving this goal. I am down 30+ pounds.
Earlier this week I went out for a recovery (see Recoveries…). I was in a bad mood because I couldn’t make the find for Christine. So while alone at home, because my family was in New York City attending the America’s Got Talent Show (sitting in the front row), I decided to try and cheer myself up by heading to the Jersey Shore. I love spending time on the beach alone. I get to spend some quality time with my mom.
I settled on Sea Isle City. I brought my rain gear because the forecast wasn’t good. Heavy cloud clover and dark clouds off in the distance. There were very few people on the beach at 5:30pm. Just the way I like it. Low tide would be around 8:30pm.
I started searching and I was finding quarters, a very good sign. I worked my way to the wet sand. Very few targets there. The sand was all soft & mushy. Back to the high tide mark. More targets there.
I got a very large signal & started digging. I thought that it was going to be a soda can. Much to m y surprise it was a 2 foot metal shovel. I guess someone was building a serious sand sculpture when they lost it.
Then I found my first toy car. I have found close to 200 of these cars. I have been thinking about putting them on eBay in groups of five to see what they will bring me. Plenty of targets still keeping me busy, I moved along.
The surf wan’t very rough, so I kept looking for dolphins. They usually bring me good luck. Tonight there would be no dolphins. I guess too many have died this year.
It started to drizzle. I kept pushing along. I did see a few other people metal detecting. One father son & daughter team, sharing 2 detectors and 1 shovel in the dry sand. There was another guy a few blocks away searching the wet sand. All were digging making finds.
I ended the night with no jewelry. Oh well you can’t find a ring every time out. I did end up with a used car lot. I ended up finding 9 Match Box cars and a fighter jet toy. I was soaked because it was a warm rain, so I didn’t put on my gear. I would have just been wet with sweat, so I enjoyed the rain.
This week I should get a lot of detecting time in. Lake season opens up and I plan on making a trip or to to the beach. I took some time off from work.
Tomorrow I travel to Pennsylvania to return a anniversary band I found for a woman who lost it in Cape May. I will be posting that story on my website www.metaldetectingman.com
Lately I have been doing a lot of recoveries for people who have lost metal items, mostly rings. They find me through my website (www.metaldetectingman.com). I have had pretty good success. I was 5 for 5 until today.
I got a call from a lady who said her husband lost his wedding band while spreading mulch around the yard over the weekend. The area was a small plot of a garden. I thought this would be an short & easy search.
I went to their house today, out in the middle of the woods. She showed me the area of fresh mulch and I began my search. 15 minutes into my search it started to rain. I was using my Minelab CTX-3030 which is waterproof. I searched for a while and no good signals were heard. I even expanded the search outside of the area.
Christine came out of the house and said that there were some guys over yesterday and moved mulch to other places. I searched those areas. Found a shotgun shell. No luck.
Then she came out and said he had cut the back yard grass. I searched there too. Still nothing.
Now she said they are not sure when it was lost. They even when to the husband’s work place and searched. He wears gloves there and even searched them.
After 2.5 hours I gave up. I was soaked and frustrated. I have never hunted an area that didn’t have that few of signals. I hate not finding what I came to find. She was nice and covered my fuel to get there.
Boy I forgot I had this blog space. I only wrote 2 articles. I will have to get back on the horse and start posting again about my favorite hobby of metal detecting.
I have been having a blast this summer returning lost items to people. To see some of the stories check out www.metaldetectingman.com
To find this blog easier follow this link: www.metaldetectingman.info
