LawrencetheMDer
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
- Messages
- 1,142
- Reaction score
- 2,979
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Ohio and Florida
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Manticore w M8, M11 and M15 coils, , Minelab CTX3030 w 11" and 17" DD coils,
Minelab Excalibur II w 10" coil, Equinox 800 (4) w 11" and 15" coils,
Pointers; Garrett Carrot, Pro Find 35,
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
For five years I worked w a 6" aluminum water scoop on sand and in sea and I was just fine. I recovered 1,000s of targets good and bad. A few months ago I broke down and paid big bucks for a massive 9"x11" water scoop with a 4ft hickory (I think) wood handle, called the Stealth 920iX. Well, I believe in extreme metal detecting and the wood handle broke yesterday while I was in about 4ft of water and 1/2 mile from the car. I had been watching a crack develop over the past few weeks (started when working in rocks and cement) and knew the handle was weak and could go at any time. Luckily, I had my spare but battered aluminum scoop in the car as a back-up and quickly retrieved it as the beach was growing more packed, like sardines in a can. Any ways, the surf was growing and I decided to stick to the dry sand, making retrieving targets a snap compared to the less-than-clear water. HOLY TOLEDO, what was wrong with me? I couldn't retrieve a target if your life depended on it! It was horrible. It was one thing that some of the targets were in the 10 - 12" range, but often the target was just hard to retrieve on the first or second or third or...attempt. The Stealth had ruined me. Just the other day on TreasureNet I commented on how easy it was to retrieve a target with the CTX3030 17" coil. I should have prefaced that statement with the following: IF YOU'RE USING A STEALTH 920iX scoop. It has totally spoiled me and there is no going back. As for the broken handle, I bought a replacement at Home Depot for 9 bucks. Ready to hit the water tomorrow, surf willing.
Oh, almost forgot. Found 2 sterling rings in the surf, yesterday, with the Excal before I broke my water scoop handle. One is a 925 ABE ring of an interesting shape (registers 8-43 and variable on 3030, air test).
The second ring, one of my favorite of the year, has a center heart shape with 3 set small clear stones and the band containing 6 set small clear stones on each side. This ring is also marked 925, followed by an unrecognizable hallmark. Interestingly, this second ring gave a scratchy signal on the Excal as if it were a bottle cap (registers 13-44 on 3030). FYI
Oh, almost forgot. Found 2 sterling rings in the surf, yesterday, with the Excal before I broke my water scoop handle. One is a 925 ABE ring of an interesting shape (registers 8-43 and variable on 3030, air test).
The second ring, one of my favorite of the year, has a center heart shape with 3 set small clear stones and the band containing 6 set small clear stones on each side. This ring is also marked 925, followed by an unrecognizable hallmark. Interestingly, this second ring gave a scratchy signal on the Excal as if it were a bottle cap (registers 13-44 on 3030). FYI
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