White’s Electronics,
It was a hot day, mid 90's and I was headed to Missoula and was about 20 miles from home when I got a call asking if I had an underwater detector. (No I didn't) and asked the regular questions like what, where, how etc. I was told that the wedding ring had been lost in the lake in about 3ft of water and they knew about where it was lost. Yea right, that’s where they notice the ring was gone, but I said I would turn around and be at the lake in about an hour.
I figured that if the water was about 3' deep then I had better try to add another mid shaft to the MXT to make it longer. The shaft added 10" to the length of the detector so I thought I would give it a try and grabbed my neoprene chest waders and long handled scoop and went to meet the guy at the dock. To my surprise we loaded into his really nice boat and made about a 5 mile run to a place called East Bay which is a shallow bay with a nice sand bottom. He explained that a group of them had boated to the area and set up a volleyball net about 150' from shore. 2 gals got to wrestling around and that is when she noticed that her ring had come off. Her husband walked a line back to the shore for a reference point. Sure I thought, like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Well I didn't have to wear my chest waders as the water was 78 degree.
They said that they had marked the spot with 2 large rocks so we anchored the boat at an area that looked to be 150 feet from shore in line with a tree. After searching for the rocks which we located a call was made to find out how the volleyball net was placed.
I'm standing out in the middle of this bay about 150' from shore thinking It is worth a try. After making a few sweeps I get a good solid VDI of 18-nickle-ring, NO WAY it's not this easy. After a couple of scoops, up comes an old brass shotgun shell case, good read but not what were looking for. After awhile I get another 20 to 22 VDI-nickel-ring read and yes another shell case and then another with a VDI of 22. After about 40 minutes I get a solid 26VDI-nickle-ring reading and in the 1st scoop up in the basket came a nice gold and diamond ring. I couldn't believe it, what were the chances of finding it. I didn't have a camera with me (always take a camera) so I had to come back later with a camera and get a picture from the top of the hill. The Red X in the 1 picture marks about where I was. The other picture is of the MXT with an extended shaft so I could keep the control box and handle out of the water. The 3rd picture is of the ring back on the ever so grateful ladies finger. I just couldn't believe that I had found it out in that much water after thinking it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. What a way to spend an afternoon.
Allen in MT
