River hunting???????

[histoplasmosis]

Just curious what any of you thought about hunting in a river or on river banks. By me we have a river that dumps into Lake Erie. The surrounding area has had settlers since 1800. Sometimes the river gets low enough to walk through. Just wondering if any of you think it would be productive mding the river bottom when the water is low?

 

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[jeff of pa]

My guess very trashy, but also very productive. things get washed into the river from small streams during floods, boats tip over in rivers, if you can walk in it, so has thousands of others over the years. GO FOR IT & HH ; jeff

 

[Charles,Oak Island]

Very good spot to search, especially if there was a settlement, river ferry or a battle in the area.

 

[lab rat]

River banks can be excellent places. Anywhere people go, someone has probably lost something. Good place to practice beach hunting!

 

[histoplasmosis]

Supposedly there was a large settlement in around 1800 that started the city out. A General Paine no joke they used the river as a source of fresh water. The other place I was looking at was my buddy found an old logging / mapple trail behind his parents house. He found a really old pair of glasses wire frame and hemp that was just laying under some leaves.

 

[jeff of pa]

While reading Frontier forts of PA, there was a comment from a diary , ROUGHLY " we were traveling down the west side of the Susuuehanna to harrisburg, when we were supprised be indians, so we through ore rifels in the river, so the indians wouldn't get them" YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHATS ALL IN RIVERS. including a few gold nuggets, I'd imagine.

 

[southern gent]

I hunt rivers on the average of about 40% of the time. I have several great spots. It's worth a try I'd say. Good luck and HH! Chris

 

[bakergeol]

I remember a long time ago when I was hunting Civil War relics I stopped at an old battleground site. After spending the day digging up minnie and musket balls, I stopped to show the owner of the site my finds. He informed me that a year earlier a guy diving for "fresh water oysters" found a complete musket in the river along the Confederate retreat line. I then realized this guy was not looking for "oysters" but was years ahead of me in thinking about how to recover relics. Being innovative(and also first) does pay off.

George

 

[warthog steve]

there is a park over in Gladwin in Michigan that has a river flowing thru it-I have detected it with my under-water metal detector;goes from ankle-deep to neck-deep-have found rings,toy cars,coins,old silverware.It is a public-beach area.I try to hit it once a year. 8)

 

[ranger ricky]

never detected in water, what are some of the techniques you use to recover your target

 

[Lowbatts]

Hey Ranger Ricky, I am a water wader, seldom detecting in water more than chest deep. There are a lot of differences to detecting in shallow water and deep water and even more in deeper water. I use my CZ-20, it's submersible and I take along a couple tools. A long handled wire mesh sifter and a garden cultivator with and extendable handle. along with that I have a folding entrenching tool. These are the usual tools when I am working the river. The bottom goes from rocky to samdy to silty depending on the channel you're in.

Upon getting a signal in poor visibility I will see if it moves easily first with a gentle scrape of the garden tool, then determine it exact location and scoop it. In clearer water it's often easier to stir the pile and wait for the muck to clear and eyeball the target before recovering it. At sandy beaches I usually just scoop and dig at the target's most likely position using the machine pinpoint function until I get it scooped. First try for shallow targets and sometimes a few tries for deeper ones.

 

[SnowQueen]

If you do some research you can find where the local ferrys were located years ago. My GGgrandfather ran the local ferrys, one is located on modern maps as a historical site, but the others aren't listed on the current maps. When I get my detector, the other sites are ones I plan on hunting. Good luck and HH. Snow

 

[True_Metal]

Remember that in the old days people bathed, washed cloths and swam in rivers too. Yeah, they are worth checking. Old swimming holes rule 8)

 

[sod buster]

speaking of hunting water, i use the whites xlt and was wandering if it is safe to search with the coil in the water?

 

[jeff of pa]

YES. up to the control box, but no higher

 

[Jason in TN]

Most all settlements were on rivers. Most have a lot of trash more so on the east coast. (more people)
But since most have been used by people as long as people have been in the area. They are a great place to detect if you can work around the trash.