First underwater trip with Sand Shark

[Ca70]

Headed up to local Foothills lake today. Slipped into wet suit, weight belt, snorkel and mask. Shortened up shaft on SS and detected between 4' - 8' of water, before the weeds start to get thick.
Ended up with about 50 something beer caps ( i'll spare you the photo , we know what they look like ) about 12 pull tabs, 16 submerged aluminum cans , some speaker cable , about 15 fish hooks 20' something lead weights . I'll post a photo of the "more" interesting older junk , and the booty haul, including a nice heavy mens gold band.
I've had this unit for about a month now , and it really works nicely . It was fairly neutral buoyant with weighted lanyard . I like it more than my old Excal. 1000 by a long, long shot.
I wish I could've stayed longer , or dove with the Hooka system. Next time. Nonetheles it was a great day.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Whoa Baby! Congratulations on the Golden Ticket! Gotta love the Shark!

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Three questions:
How did you weight the lanyard and how long is it?
What is it that you like better about the SS verses Xcal 1000?
Were you free diving with snorkle and mask?

 

[Smoogle]

wow - WTG - eat em up sharkey!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lorraine]

Great detecting, Ca70!

That is a beautiful gold ring find!

I wish you continued success with the SS!

Lorraine

 

[Sandman]

Hooka is the way to go, but harder to get all that stuff to the water.

 

[G.I.B.]

And proven again... if you dig enough trash- you will eventually get the treasure!

Good work!

 

[jdiggs_treasure]

awesome gold ring. congrats..

 

[Ca70]

Three questions:
How did you weight the lanyard and how long is it?
What is it that you like better about the SS verses Xcal 1000?
Were you free diving with snorkle and mask?

I have about 16 " 550 para-cord fastened to the top bolt inside shaft , that attaches arm cuff . I drilled hole through plastic cap , ran two ends through , one drop of glue to replace cap and keep in place. I have a stainless steel spring loaded toggle to cinch onto arm or caribiener . To weight the unit I fed 18" of pencil weight (used for drift fishing) into 20" of surgical tubing . The tubing can be wrapped around the upper shaft , cuff or attached to the lanyard. worked nicely for fresh water . Salt , I may have to add some more weight. I was using snorkel / mask and weight belt.
The SS tends to false less than the xcal 1000 did. I really like the VCO mode . targets "pop" nicely. I can use AA batteries . Broken knobs on the 1000 were getting tiresome .

I was originally in the market to get a Xcal II. but just didnt want to cough up the $1200 +. Im a big Minelab and Whites fan too. I am primarily a Nugget prospector with a GP Series or Whites MXT , GMT, so i'm used to digging everything anyways with the GP. I had the chance to play with Xcal II and the Whites PI. For the $$$ I was impressed by the SS. I told myself if it turns out to be the wrong detector in the long run , someone would be more than happy to buy it . I would then get the Xcal II. But so far so good . Im happy. No buyers remorse

I barely put a dent in this area. It's adjacent to a popular swim beach. about 50 yards off shore there are two 12' x 12' swim platforms, in approx 15 ' of water .
Next time I will float the Hooka out there and hit in the area of the platforms. I have been to that area many many times years past with friends /family and never seen a MD'er in the water.
Be sure to post a thread for that trip . Should be interesting, I want to do it before the weather warms , and people come back to play there.

Since the Dredging moratorium here I've been doing much more detecting during the summer months. I'm eager to get the SS down in some of our old deep dredge holes to see what's left onthe bedrock. Again .. Another thread.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Les West Central Fl]

That is a nice heavy prize, congrats.