Failure and fiasco - My mistake in search.

[Danzigman]

Okay.. Not really my best day in detecting careers..
At around 19:00 I had a call on my mobile.. A neigbours sisters daugther had lost her keys on the beach.. Normally just a walk in the park to recover them, specially when the person who have lost them is still around.. So I skip the 7 o´clock news - something that usually takes quiet something to make me do..
Drive to the far end of the Island to meet up on the beach..
A young girl and child have lost the keys to the parents car.. Only key.. She think she have lost them where there now is strong surf and 30 cm of water - not my favorit spot to detect..
I give it a go, but nothing.. There is like a step down where the hig tide come to, and she belives it is on the water side she have lost them..
One more guy turns up with an older cscoop model.. ( I didnt know about him and that one) anyway it have slow recovery and he dont work so fast, but better with two hads than one..
Now she is not so sure about where she could have lost them keys anymore, and the area is now expanding to something like 50 x 50 m or more..
It takes 1hour and 45 min to do it all - outcome 5 £.. But no keys..
So we decides to try againe next morning when low tide is..
22:00 Mobile rings againe.. Low tide at 24 and dropping now..
So okay.. we try it one more time - 45 min later we are ready to go..First we do around the car, as I belive she have droped them in loose sand..
I have taken my old detector with me, as it is not wireless, and he can do the really wet wet part - It is a CScoop 1220 XD.
One the waterfront I give the man a short instruction and we do a short test on my keys.. First time ever he have had an detector in his hand..
So we starts of, and shortly after I find a 1 £ coin on the edge of water. Okay I think this is working..
1 min later the guy yells.. I found them - I found the keys I found the keys.. He was very very happy.. and immediately called his vife to tell her..
I did feel littel stupid.. I had been standing on top of them several times in the afternon.. Not found them.. So on my way back i the car I had time to think of my failure..
Conclusion and what I will take with me is.. The Zone where water meet bach and the waves lick the sand is difficult.. I like to use GMP even on beach, sometimes also dry sand mode..
So I did the search in the afternoon on the low sand shelf in wet beach mode.. Rest of the beach I did in GMP..everytime i came down to the water and signal goes crazy, I turned around as I was to lazy to click over to wet beach..
In this way I simply missed the target, and luckily someone else found them.
I was so sure sure sure in my mind that they were not there, that I didnt search properly..
Now I just hope I never do that mistake ever againe..
Anyway Car owner was happy happy happy.... And he lives down the country in really good Viking area (Ribe) He asked what he could do to return the favour.. I said Please try find me some land there to detect.. So I hope he got the detecting bug under his skin, and that he do find me some good land..
But me - I go to bed angry with myself.. to make such a mistake just becaurs I was knowingly and lazy.. rl;

[sweepspeed5]

A for effort though young man!!!

[bob79]

Don't be so hard on yourself Danzigman, all's well that ends well. Job done and lesson learned, keys were found and you have gone to bed with more knowledge about the beach.
So next time you get the call to search you will go with a different frame of mind,

Bob

[Redcap]

A good lesson learned Danziman but don't beat yourself up. The main thing is that you were willing to help. And you may just get yourself some new land to detect on.
Good luck
Les

[slowsweep]

he would not have found the keys if you hadnt been so kind, top man

[RRPG]

Don't be so hard on yourself my friend.

You, of all people, should know that a large portion of what we do is down to luck. Luck that we walk over the exact spot where we find something awesome. Luck that we had the machine set right to find it. Luck that there was no background chatter or other finds to prevent us finding that one awesome item. Luck that your swing covers 100% of the search area and you don't miss slices of ground between strokes.

I remember once digging on an old gunnery range with some friends. One guy had a top of the range Minelab and was confident he would find far more than the rest of us. At the end of the day, he hadn't found as much as any of us, all purely down to where he chose to search. He was a swing away from me all day, and I found twice as much as him with my Bounty Hunter. I had the sweet line, he didn't.

Luck my friend.......it was not with you on that day. Nothing more.....



RRPG

[Danzigman]

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging and comforting postings.. I simply trusted myself to much and was thinking "I`m Perfect, I have a good covering procentage" Nothing can go wrong here..
Only thing that swing to my benefits, is that the start process with many people looking and talking about the keys, presentation the different persons ect.. made start littel hectic.. I hope, and belive, that if I had been alone I would have found them in first attempt..
A said - I went to bed wiser, and with more experince.. End of thinking about this.. Next time i will sharpen up littel, and perform better,, And luck will be with me.. Expensive gear and great land dont make a detectorist alone..
Thank you all for the support
If the land comes to reality, it makes base for a nice littel club rally in future.. Never knows the outcome ahead, that makes life so wonderfull.
Happy Hunting - John.

[lordofthecoils]

beginers luck on his behalf john ,there are a thousand storys of detectorists with complete novices in tow and who finds the amasing find , i took a mate out who was a complete novice and ten yards from me he finds a hammered gold noble ,try living with that one rl; . on the other hand all your efforts to help the young lady ,which may i say ultimately lead to the finding of the keys makes you the real hero of the day,well done john........ray

[foundit]

well done, what a great thing to do Danzigman a true gent...hope he turns up with some land for you as you totally deserve it
alan

[oldartefact]

What failure???? ... thats a BIG SUCCESS in my book!! thanks for the great story.

The big key I found the other week will be given back to the Church later this Thursday!

[Danzigman]

What failure???? ... thats a BIG SUCCESS in my book!! thanks for the great story.

The big key I found the other week will be given back to the Church later this Thursday!

Thank you.. Guess here a few days later,, The success is mor easy to spot. I was just so anry towards myself to have missed them.. Could not get out of my head all the things I have missed by thinking I was "perfect"..
Always a new day.. Im on first day of my Holliday.. Rain have just endend.. Tomorrow will be a great day im sure
Happy Hunting.. - John.

[Ringpullstiltskin]

Great result in the end but like you I would have been frustrated not to be able to be the one to save the day. I was asked to help recently when a young couple we know asked for help to find a ring which was tossed out of a window during an argument!!! I said I was sure I could find it, after all, the possible 'landing' area must be quite small but when I got there there were thick hedges below the window and lots of old fencing with wire....I never had a chance and had to give up feeling very sheepish about my earlier confidence rl;

'stiltskin

[clint]

Without your involvement John the keys would probably have been lost forever ir even if found by others just put in the scrap bucket without knowing the importance. I too was asked to find two very expensive (££££££'s!) Platinum and diamond rings a while back. I went to the owners property and failed miserably. The area was full of rubbish and almost impossible to detect. All I found was 1p! I did get the offer to come back to detect some fields they have for trying. So chin up John!

Regards

Clint

[Stratman]

No failure or fiasco on your part John, you're very generous with your time to try. I do know what you mean though and I always feel niggled If I do not find the item on a recovery as I'm mostly successful. A couple of weeks ago I made contact with one of my old permissions and told the landowner that I had not given up trying to find her diamond (very large stone!) earring she lost. I first tried to find it about 25 years ago but I will re-visit the area and try again - never give up.

[Larfin boy]

Nice one John, a good result anyway .

Gez.