Diving specific questions.

[controlfreq]

Just curious how you retrieve targets; scoop, fan, combo, other? Would presume it also is dependent on conditions like sandy sea bottom vs muddy lake. I've not done a lot of UW MD yet but the little I have, realized the scoop was a little unwieldy in that weightless environment since I had nothing to push with. I've learned of a swim spot popular from the 40s in 8 ft of water. Because of location, I will not have a lot of time for trial and error. Do know it has a sandy bottom and a hard pan below that so targets should not be extremely deep.

Thanks

 

[dobbratacus]

There’s a guy named scuba detector(something like that) on the forum and I think he’s the expert. Hopefully he will chime in soon enough. From my experience, it’s a lot harder than one would think. You’re down there, sound is coming from everywhere, bubbles are loud, detector chirps, then you gotta pinpoint. Then you start digging or sifting and now you can’t see your hand in front of your face. What I’ve done is first sift with my hand, if I see it or feel it great, if not, I start taking handfuls of the sand and putting them in a mesh bag. Eventually you’re going to get a cloudy mess all around and won’t be able to see a thing until it settles back to the bottom. I can feel a good target in my mesh bag even if I can’t see it. Then you move a couple feet and get another target and if you’re lucky you’re not still in the haze from your last target. If you are it just ain’t fun, unless you’re in ring city. If the sand is not deep and there’s hard clay below then you gotta dig, a little trowel or a flat headed screwdriver works. Go slow, try not to stir up a lot but for me it seems inevitable. I’m a numbers guy, though. I dig as many signals as I can when my head is above water. It gets old diving when you can’t see. I’ve really have got to have some motivation to do the diving thing and conditions have to be pretty clear for me to stay down any length of time. Now swimming along the bottom and picking up treasures I can see is a blast. Like sunglasses.

 

[dobbratacus]

There’s a guy named scuba detector(something like that) on the forum and I think he’s the expert. Hopefully he will chime in soon enough. From my experience, it’s a lot harder than one would think. You’re down there, sound is coming from everywhere, bubbles are loud, detector chirps, then you gotta pinpoint. Then you start digging or sifting and now you can’t see your hand in front of your face. What I’ve done is first sift with my hand, if I see it or feel it great, if not, I start taking handfuls of the sand and putting them in a mesh bag. Eventually you’re going to get a cloudy mess all around and won’t be able to see a thing until it settles back to the bottom. I can feel a good [attachment 361671 2A38988E-89BB-4843-96B2-42CE13162821.jpeg]target in my mesh bag even if I can’t see it. Then you move a couple feet and get another target and if you’re lucky you’re not still in the haze from your last target. If you are it just ain’t fun, unless you’re in ring city. If the sand is not deep and there’s hard clay below then you gotta dig, a little trowel or a flat headed screwdriver works. Go slow, try not to stir up a lot but for me it seems inevitable. I’m a numbers guy, though. I dig as many signals as I can when my head is above water. It gets old diving when you can’t see. I’ve really have got to have some motivation to do the diving thing and conditions have to be pretty clear for me to stay down any length of time. Now swimming along the bottom and picking up treasures I can see is a blast. Like sunglasses.

 

[rc2125]

I can't imagine recovering targets while dive detecting without my Vibra-Probe 585's (not any other model and not regular pinpointers cuz they false underwater bad and can't feel the vib's as well). Find target with detector, move in with vibraprobe and find target with that, while fanning (sometimes). Might be different if clear waters and good viz. I work into the wind, so the slight currant it helps move murked up water behind me, rather than along with me. I essentially crawl walk along the bottom, never use fins either.

Good luck

 

[dobbratacus]

Great info. Never even thought about an underwater probe. Thanks. Will be much easier.