How *do* you hunt shallow water exactly?

[Lasivian]

I'm getting an Excalibur but i've never hunted in the water before. (In fact I have zero water gear at all)

Do you rely on trying to see in the water, or just scoop up a massive bunch of sand with a long scoop and shake it out? Etc.

And what about shore areas that aren't sand? Lots of "beach" here is bigger gravel that wouldn't sift well at all.

Thanks

 

[guzz1]

get a good Scoop..... very important ,,, Guzz

 

[davest]

get a good detector, a good scoop and walk slow. I use a seahunter, lot of others here use the excal. when I locate a possible find, I pinpoint it by making the sign of the X, and then place my foot at the heel of my coil. That's where I start the tip of my scoop. Sometimes it takes more than one or two tries to get the object, and if you're like me, it'll turn out to be a piece of broken crab trap more often than not. You have to do this as the waves are hitting you from whatever angle, and the surf is running back out and little kids are asking if you found anything yet, and you're trying to check out the bikinis on the beach. Trust me, it's a gass

 

[Lasivian]

get a good detector, a good scoop and walk slow. I use a seahunter, lot of others here use the excal. when I locate a possible find, I pinpoint it by making the sign of the X, and then place my foot at the heel of my coil. That's where I start the tip of my scoop. Sometimes it takes more than one or two tries to get the object, and if you're like me, it'll turn out to be a piece of broken crab trap more often than not. You have to do this as the waves are hitting you from whatever angle, and the surf is running back out and little kids are asking if you found anything yet, and you're trying to check out the bikinis on the beach. Trust me, it's a gass

So i'm guessing that often you can't see what you're doing?

 

[Marty-Graw]

the lake where I hunt is mostly little shells that do not sift out....I will twist the scoop around and try to spot the item in the scoop....if I cant see it I will then take a hand full out at a time and scan it over the coil....time consuming but it beats pulling a floating sifter around with me...I do have one but I rarely take it out with me

 

[davest]

in the gulf of mexico, you can see what you're doing, but all the above apply. If the target is on the surface, just reach down and grab it, if it is 2" down, take a scoop, and take it from there if it's any deeper. Good luck. It's not so much seeing what you're doing as it is seeing what you're digging. How does one see the bottom of anywhere except dry land when one is chest deep in moving water? Or knee deep for that matter?

 

[busted leg beach bum]

When hitting beaches with lots of shells a floating sifter is a real time saver, you can make a light weight one with a plastic gold pan gravel sifter and take a swimmers floating noodle and wrap it around and attach it with zip ties or string a piece of rope to tow it and your in business. Also a good pair of polarized sunglasses help you with seeing in the water and the eye candy as well.

 

[JackInFlorida]

Hey Lasivian,

I hunt in waist high water all the time. No, you can't see what you are doing. It took me about 4 trips to get the hang of it. I was about to give up and decided to give it one more try. I found that time, it was suddenly fairly easy to dig up the stuff. Now it's not easier than dry sand, but it's not bad. If the waves are small enough, I can last about 2 hours in the surf before digging starts to become difficult.

I see many people selling excals saying that water hunting is not for them. Listen to me "Once you see what you find in waist high water, you won't waste your time hunting dry sand any more!"

I can go to the beach now and find several nice jewelry items in one day. I used to hunt the dry sand and was lucky to find anything nice once a month.

Set your MD so that you can hear a little sound when you are in the water, but don't get alot of feedback from the waves etc. Once you get a signal, do the X to try and pinpoint the location, just as you would on land, except you can't see the coil. Try to estimate the center of your X and put the coil on the spot. Move the foot opposite your detector along side the coil, then move the coil away, put your scoop next to your foot, near the heal and dig it in. Move the scoop away and quickly run the coil over the hole, if you still get a signal, dump the scoop and get another from the hole, you usually don't have to pinpoint again, it is actually not that hard to find the hole once you have made one. When you swing the coil over the hole, try to note mentally if you may have missed the mark by a few inches and adjust your next scoop.

Yes, there are times when you can't get the target. Here are some tips.

1. The target seems to be in the center of the hole, but you can't get it. I have found that sometimes I am digging too deep and the target is actually on the top of the sand at the bottom of the hole. So I keep pushing it out of the way instead of getting it in the scoop.
2. The target gets louder but I still can't get it. This usually happens with iron, the target is actuall in the wall of the hole and I am digging to China for nothing. If you find yourself on scoop 4 without getting the item, try scooping the side of the hole to see if it is stuck there.
3. The sand keeps filling the hole. If the target is large, like a pair of glasses or a watch, it could be deep. Digging a 14" deep hole in the surf is a lot easier said than done. You can do 1 of 3 things: 1) I will dig 3 or 4 scoops out as fast as I can and dump them in the same place, in case I got the target, I know where I dumped it. 2) Bend down and dig quickly in between waves with our hand, this is dangerous, if it turns out to be a sharp edged object. 3) Move on . . .
4. Suddenly the target is not there. This can be two things: 1) it was an aluminum pop top, once you uncovered it, it washed away or 2) It is small and you dug out the hole so that it fell to the bottom out of reach of your detector. Always try one last scoop, not going too deep, to grab the debris at the bottom of the hole check that.

There is also the problem of having the item be too small to get caught in your scoop, such as a sinker or earring. No real good advice there. Many people talk about pulling around an inner tube to dump your stuff in, but that doesn't work in Ocean hunting. That thing would kill you if it were tied to you.

Good luck, water hunting will get you in better shape too!!

Jack

 

[karib2517]

when i hunt in STthomas you can see your feet on all of the beaches,sometimes the waves get you.Magens Bay is calm 90% of the time. i use a minelab x50 so waist high level hunting is as far as i can go for now until i get my waterproof detector,works good in dry and wet sand.

 

[busted leg beach bum]

The beaches I hunt it is a rare occasion when you can't see bottom in neck deep water, you get spoiled because recovery is easy when you can see the coil on the bottom.

 

[JP]

Jack is 99.9999999999% correct, the only thing that I want to add to what he said is about the point of if there is still a signal after you put your scoop to the side with sand in it, there might be multiple items, for example you may have lifted up a quarter but there are several more there.  This you learn with time.  I used to scoop, scan, and dump if I still heard a target and then one time that I did that I kept hearing targets but now everywhere that I moved the detector.  I had just spread out about 15 coins, mostly pennies.

Another point, if the signal is very strong and you have already dug a hole almost to China, it most likely will be part of a can. 

Try the water, you will love it.  The only thing is that you can read these posts and the books out there but nothing will prepare you like experience.  I researched water hunting for several years.  I waisted my time.  Just get out there with the detector, scoop, booties, and something to store your finds and practice.  (you might need a few other items depending where you are)

***Another important item to bring is a water proof container for your keys if it has one of those remote controls on it.***

Good luck.

 

[Urban Grund]

I'm getting an Excalibur but i've never hunted in the water before. (In fact I have zero water gear at all)

Do you rely on trying to see in the water, or just scoop up a massive bunch of sand with a long scoop and shake it out? Etc.

And what about shore areas that aren't sand? Lots of "beach" here is bigger gravel that wouldn't sift well at all.

Thanks

Nice topic! I need to follow the answers for tips myself.

 

[Narthoniel]

Another important item to bring is a water proof container for your keys

great tip, my keys are so rusted after only 2 trips in the water. It is amazing to me that after getting dipped, and then rinsed off 3-4 hours later, those keys can rust so much. I definatly need a waterproof key container.

 

[JoeSWFla]

Here's an idea on the keys.If you have a key with a chip in it,you can ususally have a duplicate
made that is just a blank(no chip).Won't start the vehicle,but will open it.I tether mine to the suit
so I can't lose it.The ones with chips can get expensive to duplicate,especially if you lose the
original.If you use a waterproof container,fasten it good so it doesn't float away.HH Joe

 

[kaptainkosmic]

I use a sifter, simply dump scoop in sifter (after verifying target is in scoop by checking hole) fill hole if needed and move on. if lots of gravel i use vibra probe in sifter. spend more time looking in bottom instead of looking in bottom of scoop. As an added bonus I don't have to carry 7# scoop all day! Its also easy to get to the water.
I don't go without it!

hh steve

 

[Lasivian]

As an added bonus I don't have to carry 7# scoop all day!

I see those are two different scoops, or did you have to fix it?

 

[kaptainkosmic]

I see those are two different scoops, or did you have to fix it?

same scoop just different handles, pictures taken on different days.

hh steve

 

[VBDave]

After a 2 or 3 scoops without a recovery, I'll attack the same hole from a different direction. My experience is that after 3 scoops the target's likely hung in the side wall of the hole. Hitting it from a 90-180 degree differential usually produces the goods.

VBDave
I'm here for a good time, not a long time..."

 

[Lasivian]

I see those are two different scoops, or did you have to fix it?

same scoop just different handles, pictures taken on different days.

hh steve

The first one seems to be at a slight angle whereas the second is a 90 degree angle between the handle and the scoop.

I like the design of the first alot better than the second.

 

[kaptainkosmic]

The first one seems to be at a slight angle whereas the second is a 90 degree angle between the handle and the scoop.

I like the design of the first alot better than the second.
[/quote]

You are correct the first handle is at an angle of 30 deg and 2nd is 90 deg. I like the 90 deg handle better and here is the reason why. This scoop holds alot of bottom, and when you lift the 90 deg. handle up the bottom doesn't spill out. The 30 deg handle does dig a little easier especially in deeper water but I don't have enough wrist to lift without spilling some of the contents unless I "choke" down the handle close to the scoop bucket, which I find to be more grief than its worth especially when trying to more the scoop to check hole to make sure I have target in scoop before dumping in the sifter. Also the 90 deg handle carries the sifter much better. Thats just my opinion.

hh Steve