Any advice on digging the target out of the sand or mud?

[steve from ohio]

I was in the water down in Florida at the Gulf beaches and the scooping was the pits. I must have spent most of my time scooping.

I mark the target with my foot and use a real good long handled scoop. I dug and dug and dug and...... nothing. Every once in a while I would pick up a 50 cal. brass but overall the targets were there.....but I was going crazy trying to dig up the target. After a while I just got so tired that I had to give up to rest. Back in the water again....find another target and then scoop, scoop, scoop and maybe a coin or a brass shell. Some targets I would dig at least 20 times...and nothing in the scoop.....but the target was still there reading just fine on the Excalibur. It's a larger scoop...and it really digs down well.

Will I get more used to the scooping? Is there a better way to retrieve the targets? Will I get better with time? Is there a learned knack to this?

Man it is really driving me crazy. Lots of targets in the water...almost none in the dry sand.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[stitchlips]

You need a really good big scoop. I got the nutall scoop after hearing about it on this board and it works great. Most of the time you get it in the first scoop unless its really deep.

 

[rsc]

Sounds like you were over shooting the target. Need to slide your foot back a couple inches before you scoop. HH Gayle

 

[Schrecky]

Steve, I have a Excal too. I take it you are scooping in the water. Scooping can be frustrating at times. Once you are over a target try moving your coil back and forth with very short swings and at the same time move the coil slowly away from you. When you loose the target it should be just behind the coil. If you can't see the coil (because its to deep or the water is murky) slide your foot up to the back of the coil to mark the spot and then try scooping there. Practice on the beach in dry sand first.

 

[Detector Wars]

I was in the water down in Florida at the Gulf beaches and the scooping was the pits. I must have spent most of my time scooping.

I mark the target with my foot and use a real good long handled scoop. I dug and dug and dug and...... nothing. Every once in a while I would pick up a 50 cal. brass but overall the targets were there.....but I was going crazy trying to dig up the target. After a while I just got so tired that I had to give up to rest. Back in the water again....find another target and then scoop, scoop, scoop and maybe a coin or a brass shell. Some targets I would dig at least 20 times...and nothing in the scoop.....but the target was still there reading just fine on the Excalibur. It's a larger scoop...and it really digs down well.

Will I get more used to the scooping? Is there a better way to retrieve the targets? Will I get better with time? Is there a learned knack to this?

Man it is really driving me crazy. Lots of targets in the water...almost none in the dry sand.

This is how I would have described my situation, almost word for word. Untill I found my first ring in the water. I use a beach brute 2, untill now, I have almost always detected on wet sand.

 

[finderzzs]

Just throwing my 2 cents in, overshooting is totally one thing you may be doing, what I like to do, and it will save your back & arms, fan your foot in the hole, blow the sand out with the fanning motion, then recheck the hole and scooping may get easier. Also, practice makes perfect. I've been water hunting for over 18 years and you still get those targets that sneak back into the hole when you scoop, sometimes, time & time again. Good luck.

 

[txkickergirl]

I have a large scoop, and what I have done is if it isn't coming up, I change direction and go to the other side of the hole and work around. Bottle caps tend to come up and float away and it took me awhile to figure that one out. Its there and now it ain't. Small things go through the hole and its frustrating so if I am close to shore and that happens I scoop, check the hole if no sound I beeline to the shore dump the scoop and most of the time find the small fishing weight that kept falling through. Other times I scoop scoop scoop scoop scoop scoop scoop scoop.....by this time I realize awwwww its going to be a can, but I just can't help it...what if its a chest. Never happens but I can dream.

 

[TheSleeper]

All coils even on the same machine hit different. Each coil can hit exactly at the top, 1/4 in off the top up to a 1/2 in off the top, meaning as you sweep the coil backing it up from the hit the target could be anywhere from exactly under the front lip of the coil to 1/2 in in front of the coil. I have even seen some coils that the target would be 3/4in in front of the coil.

Practice on dry sand first, locate target, move your coil back til u can just barely hear the target then dig it and see how far off the front lip of your coil it was. I always use the front lip, never the back, once u find how far off the target locates that makes it alot easier.

When i m in the water, i locate a target, back the coil up til i loose target then slowly move forward, when i hear the target i know on my machine it is 1/4 inch off the front, I press the coil down and move my left foot to where the curve of the coil is in the curve of my foot, that puts the front of the coil even with my toes, then i move the coil and place my scoop at the base of my big toe, that way i am underscooping the target, straighten the handle so that the basket is straight up and dig down, most times first scoop has the target.

Now one problem alot of people make is angle scooping, instead of digging the scoop straight down they dig at an angle, most times they skim right over the target digging deeper in front of the target, hence missing and having to dig severial times. Straight handles tend to do this more, as u have to lean the handle way forward to dig straight down on the target, angled handles you do not have to lean the handle so far forward, both have the pro`s and con`s depends on which you like better.

THink of a target in this way, it can be 1" to 6" under the coil, now if you dig down with the scoop angled you can dig right past the target, so what you want to do is dig the scoop straight down like you would a shovel. So position your handle so when u press the scoop down it does that instead of digging down at an angle.

Naturally the more experience you have the more varience to your own hunting/digging style you will find works best for you. But in the beginning you got to stick to the basics or you will drive yourself crazy digging.