2015 STEALTH 920iX X-treme Hybrid Feedback

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Yesterday I finally got to try out my new scoop. I had never visited Boca Raton beach and decided to give it a try. The beach is beautiful but it is all replenished sand. It was a little chilly about 68 at the high but a great day to be out. I was north of the Boca inlet but wanted to reach south of the inlet and walk to the pier. I never made it across to the south side of the pier because a hotel had me blocked off at the inlet to make the crossover to the other side. I did not find much other than clad and will not be posting pictures of my finds. I will however post some photos of the beach for others to see.

The new Stealth920X X-treme Hybrid is a well designed and rugged scoop. It is built to last and for sure will out live me. I found the new 1/8 x5/8 slots cut into both the bottom of of the scoop and the rear of the scoop a great design. It will allow the capture of small objects without having them fall through the bottom of the scoop. I found the weight to be minimal and with the rifle strap extremely easy to carry. The width of the scoop made it easy to get my target normally on the first scoop. I walked about 4 miles on the beach and did not find it difficult to carry. I would highly recommend this scoop to anyone who is looking for a new scoop. I bought this scoop to use with my 10 inch coil on my Excal II.

 

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[lookindown]

Since you are open to new ideas, I would like a scoop that is adaptable in the field to meet changed/unexpected conditions as follows:

1. I want to be able to change the length of the handle (Max length for waist to chin) deep water and to push back to safety if I get in too deep.
Minimum length for dry sand. or where it is necessary to drop knee to pin point target. Ideally - I would prefer a twist and extend /collapse and lock like on the Rubber Maid sponge mop. If that is not practical its length could be adjusted by taking out sections of the shaft using push pins like used on metal detector shafts/

2. I do not like hybrid design baskets as a smaller target often gets pushed out of the larger holes, unless you slow way down.
Instead I would prefer a plastic / Kevlar insert with smaller holes (all the same size) which could be snapped in or secured with screws inside the stainless steel
basket with one half inch holes for maximum drainage when necessary to retrieve smaller targets. It would be similar in function like the protective cover aka skid plate which is used to protect the bottom of search coils except that it would be inserted inside the basket to catch smaller targets when needed.

3. An adjustable angle handle from 90 degrees to standard 20 degree handle.
This could be done with different top brackets to mount the handle, or a flag holder type of fixture would could rapidly changed without tools.

I understand that implementing the above changes would be a challenge and that it might a little weight and cost a few bucks more which I am willing to pay for the wanted and needed flexibility.

I thought scoops were about as good as they could get but your ideas showed me the light...there is plenty of room for improvement...good thinking.

 

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[Sir Gala Clad]

If that is the way you sift, wouldn’t the 90 degree angle (straight up) scoop work better, such at the 990iX (IIRC) as it allows you to sift with maximum sifting power each time you hop the basket up in short steps? You would only need to sift thru the end of the scoop with its smaller slits if a target fell through the larger holes of the basket on the way up.

When I sift, i sift with the scoop parallel to the ground, at least at first, this gives me maximum sifting power, only toward the end do I tilt the scoop. So it requires working with the design a bit, but it works really well.