rings found fanning underwater... now what detector should I buy???

southern maine diver · Aug 14, 2009

Evening gang! I haven't posted much, but I've been on the sidelines watching and reading.

I do a lot of diving and lately, I've located a spot that has produced several gold rings just by fanning the bottom with my hand. I would like to know from the underwater metal detecting experts (Sandman) what detector is recommended for this area. Let me describe it:

15 to 20 feet deep, northern New England, salt water, LOADED with trash... lead fishing weights, coins (old and new), brass, foil, metal, steel , iron, nails, tabs... its an old dock site. I was bottle hunting the area and turned over five different rings. This photo is of the last two I found over the past couple of weeks. The loot is mixed in with rocks, bricks, sand, ash, trash,etc. You name it ...

Any ideas of brand, make , type of underwater metal detector

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Wayne

COTTON · Aug 14, 2009

Older Excal or older Cz-20.Just my 2 sense. :tongue3:

Good luck

detectahead · Aug 14, 2009

I agree with Cotton

digum smacks · Aug 14, 2009

sorry i disagree excals are terrible,you want a aquasound

Tank69 · Aug 14, 2009

nice rings sounds like you found a nice spot but man sounds like you got your work cut out for you ,only plus side is if its that trashy likely nobody else has ever wanted to hunt it so you get all the good stuff.

excal/pirate · Aug 15, 2009

in those conditions pretty hard to beat the excal2 8inch coil working really slow or a underwater dredge :thumbsup:

Treasure_Hunter · Aug 15, 2009

I recommend the Excalibur, you mention it is loaded with trash, Excal will help identify the iron as it nulls out on the iron but will tell you about the gold under or beside the iron.

I have never used the Aquasound, but it is my understanding the sand must be free of black sand...iron/silver oxides for it to work properly. The Aquasound is not for all beaches, it works great though on beaches that are free of blacksand, and iron/silver oxides and goes very deep in the right locations.

The Buligarian can tell you a lot more about it, but I know it doesn't work as well in central Florida as it does in South Florida just from conversations. The Aquasound price is also twice that of the Excal, last time I heard it was $2500+, and repairs are very expensive as well.

Sandman · Aug 15, 2009

Sandman here Wayne. I like the Excal for the reasons Treasure Hunter gave. It will report on a gold object under or very near iron unlike most other detectors. At some beach locations there is more Black sand and guys tend to put down the detector when they fail to really turn down the sensitivity. Pulse units are a little deeper than the Excal, but I got tired of digging almost two foot for pieces of cans or nails and they can also be very unstable around the black sand. In freshwater a bobby pin can last decades. I also like the CZ20 but haven't used the CZ-21 but once. It is not hard to learn the Excal's noises as if it makes a low tone growl it is either foil or gold. I really don't pay any attention to what type of sound as if it makes any, I scoop. I also like the Tiger Shark for diving and use the larger coil with it, but it is wide and it can plane.

When diving I liked to use a Garrett Gold Classifier pan to push into the sand to "scoop" the item inside and the sand falls through easy. If it is a harder mud, you can wave the coil over the pan as it is plastic. If it isn't there, dump it to the side and try again. You must tether the pan to you as it will float to the surface on you when you turn your back. A Ping Pong paddle also is good for fanning.

Good Luck Wayne,

Dennis

southern maine diver · Aug 15, 2009

Hey everyone...

Thanks for the great advice. I've had my eye on an Excal for a while, just haven't been able to justify it to my wife (yet)
But with the gold prices on the increase, I think I can talk her into it sooner or later. Thanks for the input from all.

This area is really, really trashy... not much (if any) black sand. There is a ton of lead down here. I can fan a two foot by two foot area and come up with a dozen or more sinkers, lead weights, or other lead objects, so I guess my question is about how the other metals will sound. Lead, copper, silver, lgold, brass, tin... you name it, I have it here. So is there a detector that can differentiate between the different metals? Or is it just between the ferrous and non-ferrous metals? If this is true, then I will be hitting on every piece of lead down there, right?

I have not heard much about the "AquaSound" so I will certainly look into this. I will also be checking out areas where a lot of people jump off bridges, overpasses or swing out on "Tarzan" ropes. I would suspect that there would be a number of rings in all of these places.

Thanks again for your input. I look forward to hearing from more of you on this topic.

Wayne

olepossum · Aug 16, 2009

anything made by whites that can be used in the water is good to go decent prices also

Sandman · Aug 16, 2009

Wayne, another detector you should look at is the Garrett Infinium LS http://lostreasure.com/fieldtests/ArchiveView07.cfm?ID=LT20030826 Lead is very near the gold range and I don't think a detector out there can not sound off on the lead sinkers and still report on the gold. It is just one of the things we have to put up with. At least lead is more valuable than pull tabs and you can sell the sinkers or make dive weights.

Wives usually get with the program and will even start cutting the grass while you go metal detecting after you give them a nice ring you "found." This really works guys............. :laughing7:

Treasure_Hunter · Aug 16, 2009

Sandman said:
Wives usually get with the program and will even start cutting the grass while you go metal detecting after you give them a nice ring you "found." This really works guys.............

I can vouch for that. My wife no longer objects to my buying equipment or going, she has witness my selling detector I bought used for $800 for $725 after using it for 18 months and finding several diamond rings with it.

After giving her the first diamond ring, she said thats nice, after the second diamond ring she said, maybe it's not a bad hobby, after the third diamond ring she started asking me "aren't you going detecting today".

FLauthor · Aug 16, 2009

When its time to sell your gold to buy that MD, I recommend:
http://www.midwestrefineries.com/. I use their services exclusively. they only require 5% and you receive 95% value of your gold.

FlAuthor :thumbsup:

fieldboy se va · Aug 17, 2009

I would use eather the Detector pro wader or diver . Both have disc
I have a new style diver for sale like brand new 400.00 shipped to you. I have used it 3 times at va beach works fine, I use a Pi md I dont mind digging everything. I will give you your money back if the diver isn't what I say o it is good to 100ft

Michael.....aka fieldboy

guzz1 · Aug 17, 2009

EX CAL

Guzz

Treasure_Hunter · Aug 17, 2009

Detectorpro will not null on iron, it will not report a piece of gold laying beside or under piece of iron, Excal II nulls on iron and will report gold under or beside piece of iron, (you get null then tone for gold).

Detectorpro Diver has adjustable freq, but only transmits one freq at a time, you pick the freq, Excal II uses 17 freqs, transmitting all at same time over a range of 1.5 kHz to 25.5 kHz in 1.5 kHz steps. (All frequencies are transmitted together at same time).

Detectorpro wader is only waterproof to 6 foot.

Go with the Excal II, it beats the Detectorpro hands down. I have nothing against Detectorpro name, I use their Detectorpro Uniprobe, on all my land detectors and swear by it.

pistolpete · Aug 18, 2009

You are going to have a tough time with all the trash and lead no matter what machine you choose. Myself, I would stay away from the PI machines in this situation. Sounds like most stuff you've found is not deep, since you're using scuba you have limited bottom time and therefore dont want to waste that precious time digging a ton of junk. I recommend the excal. If you want to thoroughly clean the area I would get the 2 excal books by Clive and study the characteristics of the excal. Go through the area with the machine setup on a short dive setup using discrimination. Cherry pick the good stuff on top and after a few weeks of getting some jewellery/coins and cleaning up some trash, switch to all metal and check for the deeper targets. You may want to mark or grid the areas that you are doing to help you cover things better. With the excal setup in all metal properly you will dig just about as deep as a PI and have the bonus of discrimination on iron.....

Tank69 · Aug 18, 2009

lead is at .80 a lb sounds like your gonna begettin alot of it

The Bulgarian · Aug 19, 2009

Treasure_Hunter said:
I recommend the Excalibur, you mention it is loaded with trash, Excal will help identify the iron as it nulls out on the iron but will tell you about the gold under or beside the iron.

I have never used the Aquasound, but it is my understanding the sand must be free of black sand...iron/silver oxides for it to work properly. The Aquasound is not for all beaches, it works great though on beaches that are free of blacksand, and iron/silver oxides and goes very deep in the right locations.

The Buligarian can tell you a lot more about it, but I know it doesn't work as well in central Florida as it does in South Florida just from conversations. The Aquasound price is also twice that of the Excal, last time I heard it was $2500+, and repairs are very expensive as well.

Hi Marty.
I have my Aquasound for about 3yr.and never have to send for repair.
The problem in this case is,this guy dive 15-20ft.The Aquasound is water proof test for 8-10 ft.