<p><strong>I have been metal detecting with White's detectors for over 10 years now and have found different ways to use the detector.</strong> Initially I purchased one to find property markers and underground lines. I never did any serious searching for coins or rings up until this last year. I was asked by a friend to do a search in the snow for an earring and thought it sounded like a challenge. Well it only took me about ten minutes to locate the earring. This peaked my interest in metal detecting again. I went out and purchased a White's XLT which is great. I next decided I needed a water detector also and bought a Surfmaster PI. After many great days searching parks and old homes I decided to help sort out the trash even better and bought the V3i. What a great machine. You can make it do just about anything you want and all on the fly.</p> [split] <p>As part of the hobby, I joined a group that searches for lost rings. People contact me and I will go out and search for them. This week I had just such a hunt. I was contacted by the wife, about her husband's lost ring. It snowed here recently, and he was brushing off the snow from his arms when he heard a metal "clink" sound. He did not think much about it until he got home and noticed his wedding band was gone. He went back and searched the area but was unable to locate the ring in the two inches of snow. That night they found me on the internet and gave me a call. <p>I arranged to meet them that day after work, and started the search. Now it was about 18 degrees when I started and 3 hours later it was on its way to -5 F. I wondered how the V3i would hold up in that extreme weather. The snow plow had also worked the parking lot and now there were several big piles of snow. I searched that night over the parking lot and no ring. I then searched through the most likely pile of snow, which happened to be the largest one. I detected and dug that pile about 6 inches at a time and after several hours not luck. I decided to return the next day to finish the pile as I thought the ring had to be in there, and I did not want to take a chance of missing the ring or having someone else find the ring in a few weeks when the pile would melt. So after another hour of digging off layers and detecting and hearing no signals, I heard a strong "beep" and looked down and there was the ring half hidden in a cloud of snow.</p> <p>The fun part was getting that ring back to the man. I had his wife talk him into stopping by and giving me more details about where he lost it and to describe the ring. After he described it, I pulled out his ring and asked if it looked like this one. The look on his face was great. I never thought metal detecting could be so much fun and bring joy to people's lives at the same time.</p> <p>So how did the V3i hold up in the extreme weather? Great. I was in the cold for a solid three hours. The color screen was perfect and no sluggish responses. The detector performed just like it did when it was 80 F outside. I was by underground power lines and at first had EMI. A couple of quick adjustments on the V3i and It was no problem, smooth and steady. It is a great detector and made for a great hunt.</p>