Here is a link to on of my latest recoveries (Medford NJ).

I was a nice day in March for a search. The woman was so overcome by emotion when I showed her that I found it. I get more hugs doing this hobby.

“Betty” didn’t want to have her picture taken so there is no photo of her with the ring.

If you lose a metal item I can’t stress it enough, call a professional.

I received a non-jewelry recovery call the other day. I am always up for a new challenge. Kevin asked if I could find his property markers. This is a first for me. I might have to add this to my specialities.

It took a while to find the first one since I had no reference as to what number or tones I was listening for. Once I had that information I found the second one within a minute.

Click here to read the full story:

Over the border

Here is a link to one of my recent recoveries of a lost ring.

Flying Ring in Maple Shade NJ

It started with a little tiff and ended up with a flying ring into the backyard. Two metal detectors bought and several hours spent looking on hands and knees, looking for a lost ring, until they decided to call a metal detecting professional.

The engagement ring was lost for over 1 week. It amazes me at how many rings are tossed because of an argument.

As I always say, if you need help finding a lost metal item, give a professional a call. It takes years to learn how to properly use a metal detector, and know what a detector is trying to tell you.

Let me know how you like the story!

I need to give a shout out to my metal detector dealer. I was on my 2nd day of a 2 week vacation at the beach, when my metal detector decided to break down.

I gave Joe DeMarco, of DeMarco Detector Sales a call and took my broken detector to him. He made sure that I would not miss a day of detecting.

How is that for customer service?

Click here for DeMarco Detectors Great Prices and even BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE!!

Back in May I mentioned that I was interviewed for an article that was going to be published in SJ Magazine. Well it has arrived in the September issue.

SJ Magazine “Ring Finders”

Myself & fellow ring finder Jeffrey Lagg are featured in the article. We both are in the Public Service sectors with our jobs. Jeff is a firefighter and I am a paramedic.

The article is well written and portrays metal detecting in a positive light, not your normal hole digging nerds.

Let me know what you think of the article.

I discovered yesterday that there was an issue with my Request Services Page/Form. I received a blank form. I then tried sending myself a new form. Another blank form was sent.

I have corrected the problem. If you filled out a form and haven’t received a response, please complete another form or call my number (707) 706-3626

Sorry for any inconvenience.

With beach season comes the increase in calls for my services with my metal detector. I don’t mind, I love any chance I get to get out with my detector to search for jewelry. I have made many recoveries. To see some of them check out my Recoveries Page.

A lot of rings are lost after applying sunscreen, which makes your fingers slippery, then putting your hands in the water, which shrinks your fingers. This allows the rings to fall off. Continue reading Beach Season Is Here! →

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:

Continue reading Interviewed →

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

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!!

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…

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.