tips for beach and water detecting

Carl2112

I'm planning on heading to a popular lake and doing some hunting its a very used beach during. The peek summer months. So I'm hoping to find some treasures left over from last year any tips or tricks that might help me would be great I tried hunting in a lake here close to my home but it was so cold I didn't even get in the water past my shins and every signal I tried to dig up vanished. I did make a home made sifter scoop too

ricko

What MD are you using? You need a good scoop, not sure how good your homemade one may be.... the targets are there, they cannot disappear. Be sure your MD is 'water friendly'... Cheers, RickO

Zot

As Ricko mentioned, a good scoop is key. I use one with a handle around 5 feet long and that takes around half a bucket of stuff at a time. Even with that one, it can sometimes take several digs to get a target. The scoop also needs to be robust enough that you can force it down with your foot. Otherwise things will take forever if the bottom is hard

Locating a target also takes a bit of practice as you can't really see anything in the water (at least the murky waters I mostly detect in!).
You can try various approaches here - practicing in very shallow water first, with a practice target on a beach with your eyes closed etc.
You basically need to develop a feel for where to put the scoop down in relation to your coil. I usually first put the target in the middle of the coil, then move the coil forward a little bit, and then force down the scoop near the back edge of the coil. Then check with the detector if you got the target or not

PS. I'm assuming your detector is waterproof. If not, you'll be limited to shallow water and will need to keep the control box dry (the coil itself is waterproof on most detectors, but better check this too)

edited to add: If you get serious about water detecting, you'll find a drysuit a very worthwhile investment. I was chuckling when I read your original post: I got my water machine in early spring myself, and of course I wanted to try it out as soon as possible. Almost froze my balls off.. I use a drysuit now, except for a short time in the middle of summer.

Carl2112

My machine is a garrett AT pro which says its waterproof up to ten feet so we'll see if that's true while its still under warranty. The scoop I made was from pvc pipe and seems pretty robust I was able to dig with it the one time I tried it and yes I have a wet suit and thought about wearing it that day now that the weathers in the mid 60's I still might consider wear it

ricko

I am not sure a PVC scoop will hold up for long, but worth a try anyway. Zot has given a good method for water digging... takes some practice. Cheers, RickO

ricko

Hi Zot... good to see you posting... back in time for digging season... Cheers, RickO

Zot

Hi ricko!

Digging season will start this weekend!
I was hoping to start already during the easter holidays but there was still too much snow. Now it's melting rapidly!