Muddyshoes
New member
So I planned to try my first water hunt today with my new AT Pro. I remember a city park where I used to live when I was little that had a public beach. I figured I'd go today early so as not to fight against and dodge the swimmers. When I arrived at the park.. I found the beach had been closed...almost 20 years ago! It was now being used as a dock for a couple local rowing clubs. The white sand beach was completely overgrown with grass. It almost looked like one of those apocalypse movies where the guy revisits some place in his past after a world catastrophe. The entrance gates were all locked but I noticed a summer crew/rowing camp going on. I tried all the gates and found one of them unlocked. I walked in and headed right for the water. The few people I spoke with there had been coming here doing rowing for over a decade and none of them knew this used to be a private beach.. Mwuhahahaha!!
The only downside is that there is a boat landing right next to the beach area and boats that launch and land there throw waves along the beach which means very thick layers of silt that likely covered a lot of the now, forgotten treasures that are there. Still, I dropped my AT Pro in the water for the first time and started to search. I immediately starting finding boat parts, wingnuts, bolts, other aluminum parts, almost all of which numerically read out at 45 on my AT Pro. Of course there were pulltabs and other trash. But then I found my first ring...and then shortly after, another...and then another, and another... and after taking a short break to reapply my sun block I went back and found one more ring. By this time it was about 95 degrees. I was drinking water but had a huge headache and soon after going back and forth wasn't finding anything.
Since I managed to find an unlocked gate, I really didn't want to leave as it meant I might not be able to return again since the place was clearly locked down. Still, I'll try again after I get a better scoop. This junky one I had was meant for sand, not water hunting, and its mouth was only about 6 inches requiring numerous scoops for each target. There is a caretaker that lives on the property. I tried to knock on his door to meet him and ask about what happened to the beach area, hoping to establish a rapport so I could return again and again and again, but there was no answer. Will try another day.
I found about 85 cents, a pair of sunglasses, two dead small flashlights, a glasses frame, and some round brass cup and:
5 rings! One is a snake type of ring, which appears to be junk with no markings, three are sterling, and the celtic ring has a silver mark which I was able to trace back to the jeweler in Ireland. The ring only sells for about $50, but it is a pretty, designer ring.
http://www.solvar.ie/item/s2409/rings/silver
The other one, I can't tell what metal it is, but it has the word "March" on it and an aquamarine stone which broke off while I was examining it. Fortunately, I was able to keep the stone and may try to repair it. The rings ranged in conductivity on my AT Pro from about 53 to about 85 for the sterling.
The last thing is a solid brass bar that had been painted gold originally with the words "Jew Gold" on it. Really strange, and must have been sold as a novelty item. No idea how it ended up on this beach. It is the south here, after all. But the thing is heavy and it weighted down my pouch until I could unload it. If anyone has any info on where this came from, I'd be curious to know.
While I found this after about 3 hours of hunting, I have to say I really hate trying to pinpoint with the DD coil, and I had a real hard time trying to pinpoint in the water. I try to pinpoint off the tail and it's slowly getting easier, but some metals don't give as clear a signal-drop off the tail as others requiring having to turn 90 degrees and try to pinpoint that way. I may just go for the elliptical coil and be done with it.
I want to revisit this park soon, but will have to make an earlier morning of it. It's just too hot to do any hunting after 1pm here. Plus it depends on whether I can charm the caretaker with my kindness...and maybe a bribe if he'll be inclined.
So that makes 6 rings with the AT Pro after about 8 hours of hunting. I think I'm starting to like this box.
Granted, I was lucky with this honey hole today.
Oh, one more interesting thing. Water hunting is like doing dynamic tension exercises. You have constant resistance from the water as you swing your coil back and forth. After three hours of hunting this lake, I decided to hunt the beach for a bit before I left. Once I pulled the coil out of the water, I was swinging that thing around like a light saber, it was so light, without having the resistance of the water. It took about 10 minutes to get my muscles back to normal so I could swing the coil evenly on the ground again. But I found out one more thing... After 3 hours of water hunting, the first dirt target I dug was an 8 inch penny. That meant, back on my knees again, digging with the Lesche tool, using the pinpointer to find the penny etc. "Fishing" in dirt is a helluva lot more work than 'fishing' in water...
- Muddyshoes
The only downside is that there is a boat landing right next to the beach area and boats that launch and land there throw waves along the beach which means very thick layers of silt that likely covered a lot of the now, forgotten treasures that are there. Still, I dropped my AT Pro in the water for the first time and started to search. I immediately starting finding boat parts, wingnuts, bolts, other aluminum parts, almost all of which numerically read out at 45 on my AT Pro. Of course there were pulltabs and other trash. But then I found my first ring...and then shortly after, another...and then another, and another... and after taking a short break to reapply my sun block I went back and found one more ring. By this time it was about 95 degrees. I was drinking water but had a huge headache and soon after going back and forth wasn't finding anything.
Since I managed to find an unlocked gate, I really didn't want to leave as it meant I might not be able to return again since the place was clearly locked down. Still, I'll try again after I get a better scoop. This junky one I had was meant for sand, not water hunting, and its mouth was only about 6 inches requiring numerous scoops for each target. There is a caretaker that lives on the property. I tried to knock on his door to meet him and ask about what happened to the beach area, hoping to establish a rapport so I could return again and again and again, but there was no answer. Will try another day.
I found about 85 cents, a pair of sunglasses, two dead small flashlights, a glasses frame, and some round brass cup and:
5 rings! One is a snake type of ring, which appears to be junk with no markings, three are sterling, and the celtic ring has a silver mark which I was able to trace back to the jeweler in Ireland. The ring only sells for about $50, but it is a pretty, designer ring.
http://www.solvar.ie/item/s2409/rings/silver
The other one, I can't tell what metal it is, but it has the word "March" on it and an aquamarine stone which broke off while I was examining it. Fortunately, I was able to keep the stone and may try to repair it. The rings ranged in conductivity on my AT Pro from about 53 to about 85 for the sterling.
The last thing is a solid brass bar that had been painted gold originally with the words "Jew Gold" on it. Really strange, and must have been sold as a novelty item. No idea how it ended up on this beach. It is the south here, after all. But the thing is heavy and it weighted down my pouch until I could unload it. If anyone has any info on where this came from, I'd be curious to know.
While I found this after about 3 hours of hunting, I have to say I really hate trying to pinpoint with the DD coil, and I had a real hard time trying to pinpoint in the water. I try to pinpoint off the tail and it's slowly getting easier, but some metals don't give as clear a signal-drop off the tail as others requiring having to turn 90 degrees and try to pinpoint that way. I may just go for the elliptical coil and be done with it.
I want to revisit this park soon, but will have to make an earlier morning of it. It's just too hot to do any hunting after 1pm here. Plus it depends on whether I can charm the caretaker with my kindness...and maybe a bribe if he'll be inclined.
So that makes 6 rings with the AT Pro after about 8 hours of hunting. I think I'm starting to like this box.
Granted, I was lucky with this honey hole today.Oh, one more interesting thing. Water hunting is like doing dynamic tension exercises. You have constant resistance from the water as you swing your coil back and forth. After three hours of hunting this lake, I decided to hunt the beach for a bit before I left. Once I pulled the coil out of the water, I was swinging that thing around like a light saber, it was so light, without having the resistance of the water. It took about 10 minutes to get my muscles back to normal so I could swing the coil evenly on the ground again. But I found out one more thing... After 3 hours of water hunting, the first dirt target I dug was an 8 inch penny. That meant, back on my knees again, digging with the Lesche tool, using the pinpointer to find the penny etc. "Fishing" in dirt is a helluva lot more work than 'fishing' in water...
- Muddyshoes
