Ordered my first sand scoop

[SpencerK]

After using a basic soil scoop on the beach for my metal detecting adventures here in los Angeles I finally gave in and ordered a sand scoop. I tried to find something easy for my first one and went with a royal manufacturing 50" 2 piece full steel sand scoop.



Should be here by wednesday. I can't wait to try it out.

I'll let you guys know how I like it, but does anybody here have one of these or a similar scoop?

 

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[Xraywolf]

Looks ok for easy/moderate sand, can see it easily bending in compacted sand/muck.

Any case, any upgrade is a step in the right direction, if it fails to meet your needs then you'll just have to pony up more $$ for a heavy duty model. I have saved my old lightweight bent scoops as backups and for kids to use at beaches, gave a couple away too to aspiring beach hunters.

 

[SpencerK]

I'm building an HHO welder ( I live in a studio apartment so I can't use a tig welder) so maybe I'll weld on a couple of reinforcing struts just for giggles. The sand I'm digging is REALLY soft. Even the wet sand with rocks is really easy to dig with my super cheap soil scoop.

 

[Xraywolf]

Nothing at all wrong with it, looks well made with good leverage ,, Just recognize and respect its limitations like any other tool.

Depends what kind of hunting you do, out in the water sand can be silky soft or hard as a brick while dry sand is more forgiving. Heavier duty scoops are more expensive and can be a pain to lug around ,,But all scoops can easily pay for themselves with a single nice find.

 

[SpencerK]

As of the moment my machine limits me to dry sand... I hope to remedy that in the future...

 

[Terry Soloman]

You will tire of it's weight very quickly. I sold mine as quick as I could and got an aluminum scoop from Reilly's Treasured Gold. Good luck!

 

[Xraywolf]

Weight can be a factor but I found ways to alleviate that.

In water, not much of a factor due to buoyancy. Mine floats.
On dry sand, I tend to drag it behind me, which not only relieves the weight, but leaves nice grid lines on the sand so you can tell where you've been.

Don't think this slim little thing would be very heavy anyhow, not like the monsters most of us carry.

 

[SpencerK]

I'm not too worried about weight... I've been carrying my soil scoop in one hand with a bag for trash/iron and my detector in the other hand.

Now I can drag it and use a shoulder bag. Plus I hopefully won't be getting on my hands and knees to dig or even find most of my stuff.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Big Gold!!!

 

[SpencerK]

Pix of the new sand scoop. Its bigger than i expected!

Finally got to try out my sand scoop this morning. The scoop itself is much bigger than I expected and the handle is the perfect height! Not only that, I was digging everything up in the first scoop. Shaking the sand out is effortless, even today's wet sand in the rain (shocked that my bounty hunter tracker iv is working on this beach in the wet sand, I think it's from the lack of surf/tidal swell so there is less of a magnetic field in the black liberalized sand.

I also dug up a 1960 penny in the water. Looks like it's been there since 1960 because it was inside of a hard green ball of sand but after I brushed it down with a brass brush it wound up being in near perfect condition. The beach is man-made and was built in 1957. I'm sure I'm getting close to finding some silver coins.

The sand scoops mesh is the perfect size for trapping coins. Dimes won't slip through but the mesh is large enough that dry sand falls through with the slightest provocation.

The 2 piece design is actually VERY strong and comes with a crush washer (same way ar15/other rifle muzzlebreaks are fit) and locks the two pieces together perfectly. Mine isn't perfectly straight at joint but that really doesn't matter. I can't even tell when I'm digging. It may be off center by 1 or 2 degrees.

The scoop was sturdy enough for me to lever a huge rock to the side without bending or even really scraping the scoop.

The scoop even worked down to the clay later and was even able to sift through the clay with the mesh. Something else I wasn't expecting.

For the money I think this is a great scoop for sand/light gravel. I do however think the sifting abilities are mostly limited to coins and objects close to that size because of the size of the thick mesh. With that said, it does get rid of small pieces of gravel/pebbles with ease which is also nice. And just dipping it in the water releases the sand and automatically sifts it out.

I AT LEAST tripled the amount of stuff I can dig per hour.



This thing cost as much as my bounty hunter tracker iv (about 80 bucks shipped) but it's by far the best thing I have purchased for my metal detecting adventures...

 

[Xraywolf]

Perfect scoop for your purposes.
I have one similar and pushed it past its design limits and bent it pretty bad, but is still functional and I occasionally use it when just sand hunting or let a kid hunting partner use it.

$80 is not much at all, if you ever look into the heavy duty models you will go into instant sticker shock - Handles alone can go for $200 and up. But they are a necessity for those of us who detect in harsher conditions than dry sand.

 

[SpencerK]

Believed it or not this thing is a lot stronger than it looks and I most likely will reinforce it a bit so I can keep on using it in harsher conditions. Because it works really well for picking up gravel and sifting through it a bit.

I'm probably going to weld the handle together and weld a circular piece of tubing around the joint. The whole thing is constructed of welded steel so it's already stronger than I expected. Even the lip of the scoop is very thick. Probably 2mm. Everything seems way overbuilt already for what I'm doing. If I can make it stronger, I would like to so I don't have to buy another one. I like the round shape. I tried someone elses t rex style ones and wasn't able to get as much depth on a single scoop. I was however able to cover more area.

I think this one is going to fit my needs for years to come. A little extra welding and the darn thing will be indestructible.

 

[Xraywolf]

I don't mean to demean the scoop, saying I let kids use it ect, not at all.
Not a girly scoop at all - And I even have a couple of those !

Just sayin, as I progressed to harsher areas it was not up to the task that I thought it was, and neither would yours be if you venture into muck/clay ect. Even digging down 10" at most beaches you will run into a harsh sub layer that is very, very resistant to digging, more so than most hard packed dirt.
Metal typically does not give a warning when it fails, it just buckles when its had enough, and once that happens it develops a memory and won't go back into shape for any length of time [ask me how I know] - But yeah, if you are handy with a welder might be ways to reinforce it and/or repair it if it ever fails.

I think $80 is a bargain for that, I wish I could make something like that.

 

[clv]

On the dry sand that Royal is great, on the wet sand no so. My royal started to break welds and tear the metal after a few months use in the wet. I had the same model you have pictured.

 

[SpencerK]

Believed it or not this thing is a lot stronger than it looks and I most likely will reinforce it a bit so I can keep on using it in harsher conditions. Because it works really well for picking up gravel and sifting through it a bit.

I'm probably going to weld the handle together and weld a circular piece of tubing around the joint. The whole thing is constructed of welded steel so it's already stronger than I expected. Even the lip of the scoop is very thick. Probably 2mm. Everything seems way overbuilt already for what I'm doing. If I can make it stronger, I would like to so I don't have to buy another one. I like the round shape. I tried someone elses t rex style ones and wasn't able to get as much depth on a single scoop. I was however able to cover more area.

I think this one is going to fit my needs for years to come. A little extra welding and the darn thing will be indestructible.

 

[Vern2]

Spencer, what is the name of your scoop and where did you purchase it from?

 

[SpencerK]

It's a Royal Manufacturing step on 2 piece 50" Sand scoop. I got it off of Amazon

 

[Goldfleks]

I've got that Scoop! Mine was $64 at Royal. But i went with the heavy duty version. Has thicker supports.

I'm def thinking about a larger scoop once this one breaks (and it will) just to dig more sand.

 

[SpencerK]

Do you have a picture of it?

 

[Goldfleks]

The $50 version used the thinner wire (thats at the front) on the back. I opted for the upgraded version for $64 since I figured if I was going to be stepping on the support I would want a thicker piece of metal.

Other than that the scoop is the same.