A Call For Help!
Ring Hunt.

Eddie Bradley, Lawrence McKelvey

1-18-2009

Like most of us, Eric R. began decorating the outside of his home, hanging lights, etc., shortly after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, in his trips up and down the porch steps and ladder, he managed to lose his wedding band and his attempts to find it were unsuccessful. In early January, Eric found our club web site and sent an e-mail asking if we could help find his ring. On Saturday morning, January 18th, Lawrence and I drove to Homewood to see what we could do.

On arriving, we met Eric and began pulling out our equipment. We also met the rest of his family as we were getting ready.

In my phone conversations with Eric, I offered to bring an extra detector (Tesoro Cibola) if he wanted to help hunt for the ring. Though he had never used a detector before, I set it up to find gold rings, gave him a little instruction, and we were ready to go.

Eric couldn't tell us exactly where he lost the ring, only that it happened while he was decorating the front of the house. There were 7-8 foot tall bushes next to the house and dense low shrubs around the stairs that were going to make it difficult to use our detectors. Hoping to get lucky, we searched the clear areas under the porch and steps, as well as the grass area for several yards in front of the bushes. Though we hit targets that read in the ring range, they were all trash. To hunt in the bushes I put on my smallest coil so I could maneuver between trunks and branches. This part was very frustrating. All three of us hunted for something less than an hour, each of us covering and recovering all the areas.

I was about ready to admit defeat when Lawrence wedged himself under the very lowest part of the steps (and what a tight fit it was, too). I know that Eric and I both had swung our coils in that same area without any success. In fact, Lawrence was swing his coil and did not get a good signal but had moved the dried leaves just right so that he saw the ring. It was under the lower 1st or 2nd step and so close to the step stringer (the board the steps are actually nailed to) on the right side that it would have been nearly impossible to actually pass a coil close enough to the ring to detect it.

Anyway, I was glad we were able to find the ring, and so was Eric and his wife

After finding the ring Eric's family came down to celebrate with us.

Looks like we may have introduced a couple of future detectorists to the hobby.

The club later received a card of appreciation that was read during one of our meetings. The family also sent an appreciated donation to the club.

Glad we could help.

Eddie