It's almost TOO HOT to relic/coin hunt. Water hunting questions.

I went out Saturday morning at 7:30am Central time and my shirt was wet by 8:30 am!!!! And stayed that way until 10:45 am when I called it quits. And I was hunting mostly shade. I knew that this time would come. Early mornings and late afternoons are tolerable for a while.
But I am giving thought to taking the AT Pro into the water like I have seen on youtube. I'll need waterpoof headphones and some kind of scoop. Can anyone recommend a good scoop for recoving targets in the water? Thanks.

Whatever scoop you decide on make sure it has a strong handle and aluminum will bend and most wood ones will snap as the torque pressure is high..

Year ago what I did was bought a regular metal scoop, went to a farmers auction and bought an old rake with an oak handle and bolted it on.

Most good ones are made of strong metal are heavy and have a kick boot on it to put pressure with your foot to dig...good part of a oak handle it will float but
shop around as they make metal one with floatation devices and buy locally as they are heavy and shipping is high..

Might ask this question on a water hunting forum for up to date info....

PS: they recommend holes no larger so a dime won't slip thru the hole..

Never knew it could get too hot to hunt LOL!!!

Few tip's I use for all summer Ga Heat hunt's.....

1-Dont use air conditioning in you vehicle...Just makes youre endurance less.
2-Get your self a camel pack at wall mart.....Keep hydrated constantly when you are really loosing water sweating ...Down this way the humidity is unbearable in the summer month's 80% at 90 degrees and you will pour bucket's...
3-Wear light colored shirt's...
4-Wear loose pant's..Not short's for relic hunting..I usually wear snake boot's up to my Knees to keep safe so a pair of loose camo pant's Summer style they are thinner...tuck them into the snake boot's or even the regular boot's...they will keep the Tick's off your lower body...
5-By all mean's wear a hat...an uncovered head in the sun will get you quick if you are exerting yourself..
6- wet towel around the neck does wonder's..

Basically just common sense stuff...But the main thing about summer hunting is you cant just run out in July and start hunting one day all day in the heat...but if you do it a few days a week throughout the Spring and into the Summer your body will get accustomed to the heat...

Remember people work in the heat all day doing strenous manual labor...but they stay HYDRATED...

I messed up one Time down toward's Beaufort S.C. off Hwy 17....I was hunting a Colonial period plantation with civil war relics mixed in and forgot to bring a canteen...It was close to a wet land..(swamp) ...The humidity in that spot was off the chart....it was 103 degrees that day not a cloud in the Sky...

My hunting partner and I got seperated about 10:A.M. about 11A.M. I found a spot in the open and it was producing Eagle Buttons like crazy...I mean I got like 30 out of that one spot with a pile of Flat 1-Piece button's also along with some bullet's etc...well I dug on the spot for about 2.5 Hour's and I was sweating like crazy but I was on cloud nine digging...I noticed that I had quit sweating after awhile and then I started having cold chill's and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest....it was beating super fast and irregular...I then got disoriented and could not figure out what I was doing...I forgot my buddy's name it was so bad...No cell phone's then anyway LOL!....So I found a Palmetto bush a few yards away and got up under it for some shade...I was getting weak fast...

I layed there thinking ??????? Just random crazy thought's........Finally thank God my buddy come though there in about 15 minute's...???

I called out for him but did not know his name....He had a canteen and I drank it down it about 2 gulp's...he led me back to the truck....then we headed down to a convienance store... He got my 2 bottles of 32oz gatorade and I literally killed them down....then we ate a sandwich ,,,,Got to feeling better ...got a canteen for myself and we ended up hunting for another 6 hours till dark...That Night I had the worst leg cramps in my calf's of my life...Both at the same time....UNREAL pain for over 20 minutes locked up!!!! the ached for hours after that..


So yes you can dehydrate quickly and unexpected...it comes on out of no where,,,always be prepared....Keep some bannanas around the house also when you sweat alot ...I eat them all summer...keeps the muscles from aching as bad...


Hot hunting is doable but be carful and HYDRATED...

That's the best times to hunt where I live No deer hunter's no turkey hunter's and no one else out in the woods to bother you...

If I had just dig that Confederate Staff button like you did ....Well water hunting would sound nice but I could not sleep till I scoured that site LOL!!!

Good Luck on


Keith

That's a lot of excellent advice Keith, thank you for taking the time.
Aaron

You didnt mention the conditions of the water you would be hunting in.... mud bottom, hard clay, gravel or sand. I dont think you can go wrong with either a Babs 2 handle, Starvr or Chucks Stealth are good choices. I use the Pro scoop with 1/4 inch holes but 1/2 to 5/8 is best if it isnt sand. SS is just the best way to go, although they are starting to put out TI ones now. I prefer the 90 degree handles just because i dont seem to have a lot of those surface targets like coins floating out. RTG aluminum is a good scoop but they do bend in the rocks over time without a SS tip. My scoop is 11X9 you may not need one that big if the targets dont move like they do in the ocean. Id also say consider making yourself a floating sifter to make it less work.

Dew

To me it's never too hot for 2 things,And one is Metal Detecting. LOL.

Metal detecting to me is something to do as a hobby and to enjoy. When it's 90+ degrees and 90+ percent humidity, I guarantee I'm not enjoying myself out trying to dig in the ground. Tennessee dirt is tough on metal detectors because of the mineralization...but when its hot and dry, it takes on a whole new problem: consistency and hardness of concrete. A normal attempt at target recovery that normally takes a few minutes, can sometimes take 20+ to break the ground apart enough to get down. The way to do it is to chop at it with a pick or an e-tool in the hoe position, and there's no way to do that without damaging the ground. There's also been many a relic that met its end to the tip of a sloppily swung pick or e-tool lol

I gave the water hunting thing a go for the first time last year. I bought a SunSpot Stealth scoop that worked pretty good for the rivers/lakes locally. We have no sand here...just the hard packed gravel and clay/shoal of the lakes. One thing I will tell you about water hunting....it's nice to be able to take a dunk underneath when its hot...but its two or three times the work of normal land hunting. Be prepared to take much longer to recover targets than on land. I hunted in one river that was so clear that you could see the bottom in 6-8 feet of water and it only looked like it was a foot deep. Even still being able to see the bottom, it was hard recovering targets in it. When I went to the lake, with a max of a foot visibility, in chest deep water...it was impossible to see the scoop anymore....so it was a total guessing game to where you were scooping. Much harder to do than on land. LOL

In addition to what Keith said about staying hydrated...I will add an incident on my own. In my younger years, my idea of staying hydrated was just taking in liquids. One day in July I was off for the week of the 4th of July and wanted to go do some digging. I went to one of my war relic camp sites and brought a nice cooler with me full of some Mountain Dews and such. Well when I'd get thirsty I'd go sit in the shade on the cooler and drink but I noticed I stayed thirsty all the time and after being down on my knees trying to pound at the hard as a rock ground for a while...when I stood up, I about blacked out and hit the ground. I started getting very sick...like I was going to start vomiting at any second. It was all I could do to load my gear back up in the truck....and by the time I got home, I was physically drained. I didn't know what had happened to me...I had stayed "hydrated". Turns out...Mtn Dews are loaded with sugar and thus being....the worse thing you could possibly put in your system when its hot and such. So even though I was taking fluids in, it was doing more harm than good. Water is the for sure way to go.

Wow forgot about locating the target....get the signal and put your boot-foot against the coil and dig in front of it...Ray-Ban or shooters glasses help block out the refractive rays in the water but it takes some time to become proficient..Tip of the hat for the tips for hot weather also as sure some accurate posts by forum members and they do work...
Again eat your wheaties as water hunting and retrieval is hard work....but then again your gold ring count should really increase....

Wow. I may just stick to my old sites. Ans the ground begins hardening like Daniel was talking about shortly after a rain. It takes an all day soaker to soften the ground. A Predator Raven shovel has been about working me to death!!! I have to jump up and come down with both feet on it. And if it happens to be a big oak root, it hurts. Crap, I don't know why I am being so negative today. I can conquer many of these troubles by doing some thinking. The old WW2 era trenching tool made into a hoe, like Daniel said, can chopp it's way through. Just gotta be careful. I always keep a full bottle of water in my nail apron.

Please heed Keith's advice. I won't go into my story, but I almost died at 17 from heat exhaustion/stroke due to foolishness and not being prepared. My buddy saved my life. Carried me for about mile to the vehicle. It can and does happen. And if it doesn't kill you outright, one can suffer permanent brain damage from being internally cooked.

I got into a little bit of trouble a few years ago on the beach. It seems silly with all that water around you, but it was very hot and I was scooping like a mad man. And what really got me into trouble was the long walk off the beach and back to my room. I now carry a bottle of water in a Polar Bear bike bottle. I also carry a cell phone to call my wife if I need to. I put it in an Otter Box. I think we all suffer from the same affliction. We don't ever want to stop hunting. Being safe and smart is a priority.

Oh I make sure to keep the water with me. I drink 6 to 8 bottles a day even in the winter. I just have the notion in my head that it keeps me flushed out therefore is healthy for me, But when I go detecting I'll carry several bottles of Ozarka brand bottled water. I was a Dasani man, then I got on Nestle Pure Life, then I tried Ozarka and liked it. I keep a full bottole in my nail apron (scrap metal pouch). When I fill the pouch up I will take it to the car wher I have a big plastic tub in the trunk that I dunp it into. Then I get more water. I am gonna try to get up real early in the morning and hit my new site where the Confederate button came from. I am surprised at the lack of bullets and other CW relics there. But, the old house was tore down with a dozer, and the basment filled in. The stuff is scattered about and could be deep. I wish I could have caught that site before any work had been done. There was a slave quarters on the property. It was old. And next to the river, Square nails everywhere (I wouldn't have it any other way)lol

Hey keith,yours is the first'heat' post Ive seen that has it right! Ive been a roofer for 23 years,and have worked in temps as high as 116 degrees. I use those white terry cloth towels,wet em down,and put it on my head ghetto style..helps alot. Not sure how to do that with headphones though,ha

It almost goes without saying, but there's one brand of water you should not be drinking to excess when out in the sun for extended periods: "Bud Light".

go-rebels Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It almost goes without saying, but there's one
> brand of water you should not be drinking to
> excess when out in the sun for extended periods:
> "Bud Light".


Had my last drink on August 31 of 2005. I liked it WAYYYYYYYYYY too much. Had to give it up. I'm allergic to alcoholic drinks. I break out in spots. Spots like Austin Texas, Albequeque New Mexico, Denver Colorado, .......land never remember how I got there. LOL