shallow river hunting

[bhershey]

Hi All,

I have been a land swinger for many years (currently have a Coin$trike and Excel), and I finally "dove" in and bought a 1280X 8" Aquanaut.

I'm first going to hunt a very shallow river/stream (30 yards wide tops) this weekend where a ferry travelled and was the location of an amusement park and swimming area through most of the 1900's. It's VERY shallow (knee deep at most) from lack of rain this season, and many hundreds of finds have been pulled out in recent years, mostly by members of a local dive shop using small dredges and just probing around with gloved hands.

I have a sturdy plastic hand scoop and a floating sifter on a tube, both with 5/8" holes, and I'm planning to have gloves, knee-pads and a belt and treasure pouch I got from k-co.

Any advice on the hunting and recovery technique I should use? I was thinking of tying the tube/sifter and scoop on ropes and attach to the belt. I imagine I'll need a digging tool, perhaps the one I use for land if I need to dig/pry more than the scoop can handle. So I find a target, get on my knees and scoop into the sifter and then check the sifter with the detector... sound about right?

I'd really appreciate any comments from anyone that has done this before. I've never seen anyone water hunt before, so I'm practically guessing what to do! I'll post my results here of course


Thank you!
Brian
Lancaster, PA, USA

 

[therick]

n/t

 

[Bobbie]

n/t

 

[Troy]

Hello Brian,
I use a 1280 (10.5 coil) also, the first thing to do is jump in and start swinging! the 1280 loves nails and other small iron bits at 0 disc. (you won't believe how small) oh yeah and pennies just ask pete!. there was a tip a while ago about securing a magnet into your scoop so iron doesn't keep falling through. In the water I hunt 0 disc. and 8 or higher sens. (noisy over 8 ) and I dig everything. If the area is real trashy you can knock out some trash by hunting with the disc around 3 I wouldn't go much higher than that however if you want to find just coins I've hunted at 8 but I feel you lose depth at that setting. You will probably destroy a plastic handled scoop mine is all metal and I've welded it several times. Just a good scoop should be all you need to recover targets the less equipment the better. It also helps to belt mount the control box to save your arm. Have a good time it sounds like you've got a spot with a lot of potential ( I'm jealous).
Troy