A
Anonymous
Guest
Hi All,
Anybody who has hunted with a detector all day knows how tiring it can get. Now, when hunting for gold nuggets, the problem can be worse since a person might be hunting the side of a wash, going up hill, etc.
Well, I finally gave in and began using a bungee suspension system. In the past, I have tried a couple of different pre-built types but just wasn't happy with them, so, me being me, I had one built.
It is difficult to tell just how it is built from the attached pic, so I will try to explain it. First, I have a 1" wide strap that goes around my chest. What cannot be seen in the pic is this strap isn't one piece, but has a piece of 4" long elastic sewn in the middle on my backside.
Two plastic D rings are also attached to this chest strap, one on the front left and one on the back left side. A second strap equipped with plastic snaps attaches to the D rings on the chest strap and is shown in the pic as the strap going from the front left, over my right shoulder to the D ring located on my left side in the back.
I tried using a strap just attaching on the right side, over the shoulder to a D ring on the right side in the back, but it always seemed to try to slip off my shoulder. That is why I ended up with the rather strange arrangement that is displayed.
Now, I managed to find some 3/16" bungee material for the suspension cord. This smaller cord has a lot more flexibility so it is less restrictive when trying to move the coil around.
A D ring was attached to the lower stem using double sided velcro and the bungee cord attached to the D ring using a plastic snap. This D ring would slide up to the lower shaft and hold at the junction of the two shafts. A second plastic snap is connected the upper end of the bungee, and that would connect to a plastic D ring sewn on the over the shoulder strap.
Now, to make the length of the bungee adjustable, the upper end of the bungee just slipped through the part of the plastic snap built to allow a strap to be connected. A simple spring loaded plastic button type device commonly used on the ends of shoestrings would pinch the bungee and hold it from going back out the slot of the snap. When I wanted to change the length of the bungee, I just pinched the spring loaded button and slid the bungee cord to the ideal length.
The suspension system is butt ugly, but is really comfortable. In fact, this trip was the first time that my arm and shoulder didn't feel like they wanted to fall off from carrying the weight of a detector all day.
BTW, this picture was taken by Bob Trower when I found my smallest nugget. I was trying to pinpoint the nugget at the time the pic was taken. Bob is really a great guy but sneaky. I was too busy trying to pinpoint what turned out to be a nugget and didn't notice him taking the pics.
Reg
Anybody who has hunted with a detector all day knows how tiring it can get. Now, when hunting for gold nuggets, the problem can be worse since a person might be hunting the side of a wash, going up hill, etc.
Well, I finally gave in and began using a bungee suspension system. In the past, I have tried a couple of different pre-built types but just wasn't happy with them, so, me being me, I had one built.
It is difficult to tell just how it is built from the attached pic, so I will try to explain it. First, I have a 1" wide strap that goes around my chest. What cannot be seen in the pic is this strap isn't one piece, but has a piece of 4" long elastic sewn in the middle on my backside.
Two plastic D rings are also attached to this chest strap, one on the front left and one on the back left side. A second strap equipped with plastic snaps attaches to the D rings on the chest strap and is shown in the pic as the strap going from the front left, over my right shoulder to the D ring located on my left side in the back.
I tried using a strap just attaching on the right side, over the shoulder to a D ring on the right side in the back, but it always seemed to try to slip off my shoulder. That is why I ended up with the rather strange arrangement that is displayed.
Now, I managed to find some 3/16" bungee material for the suspension cord. This smaller cord has a lot more flexibility so it is less restrictive when trying to move the coil around.
A D ring was attached to the lower stem using double sided velcro and the bungee cord attached to the D ring using a plastic snap. This D ring would slide up to the lower shaft and hold at the junction of the two shafts. A second plastic snap is connected the upper end of the bungee, and that would connect to a plastic D ring sewn on the over the shoulder strap.
Now, to make the length of the bungee adjustable, the upper end of the bungee just slipped through the part of the plastic snap built to allow a strap to be connected. A simple spring loaded plastic button type device commonly used on the ends of shoestrings would pinch the bungee and hold it from going back out the slot of the snap. When I wanted to change the length of the bungee, I just pinched the spring loaded button and slid the bungee cord to the ideal length.
The suspension system is butt ugly, but is really comfortable. In fact, this trip was the first time that my arm and shoulder didn't feel like they wanted to fall off from carrying the weight of a detector all day.
BTW, this picture was taken by Bob Trower when I found my smallest nugget. I was trying to pinpoint the nugget at the time the pic was taken. Bob is really a great guy but sneaky. I was too busy trying to pinpoint what turned out to be a nugget and didn't notice him taking the pics.
Reg