An Inspirational Post

ScubaDetector

Silver Member
Mar 1, 2016
3,668
8,247
Port Huron MI
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
2 Fisher CZ-21's 8 and 10" coils
Tesoro Tiger Shark 8 and 10" coils (Interchangeable)
Minelab E-Trac with Sun Ray Probe
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
I started water detecting here in Michigan around 2001 or 2002. I started with a Whites Eagle Spectrum. That lasted until I bent down to retrieve a target and in doing so dipped the control box in lake Huron. It fizzled out. I really didn't like the machine and decided on a Whites DFX. Well that worked for a little while. However, I drowned that one also by raising the coil in the air and water running down the shaft went into the electronics. I got smart and bought a Fisher 1280X. That was a great machine and I found a lot of gold with it. However I also had a problem with it and sent it back. Upon the return, I took it out and while diving I notices bubbles coming out from one of the control knobs. GRRRRR. So I sent it back in and bought my First CZ-20. That machine gave me a lot of pleasure. I also bought a backup as a spare. It had a 8" coil. All my other water machines had 10.5 inch coils.

When I started detecting and diving if I wasn't bringing home 6 gold rings each day, I was disappointed. Every lake I found was virgin territory for diving with a detector. I was bringing in silver and gold all the time. I worked with a friend that waded and took me to lakes I never knew existed. I would bring up many golds to him finding nothing. One lake near Ann Arbor Michigan was a great example. We got there on a Thursday and I went past the swim area. He said to come up and check on him because he hardly found anything there. After about a half hour I popped up and he motioned me in. He wanted to leave. I had two gold rings and a walker. We left but I went back that weekend. I ended up with 24 gold rings that weekend including the ones on Thursday.

Some of the lakes I hit show absolutely no clue of major swim areas. There was a lake around Waterford that had a small beach on it. I found a few gold over the waders heads. I then started to go behind houses zigzagging without overlapping my swings until I hit something. Well I hit a jackpot. Behind one house I was bringing up religious medals and silver coins left and right. I could only assume there was a church camp there at one time. Over 12 gold rings were found behind that house also. More walkers and silver rings. It was a bonanza of an unhunted underwater spot.

I found a few spots like that. On a drop off in one lake at the end of a dock, I couldn't move for hours with beeps all around me. I was fanning and uncovering nails, bolts, coins, rings and everything you can imagine. I find a place like that almost every year. Last year by Grand Rapids I went camping with my boat. We went to a lake looking for a sand bar. We found it. I hit it at almost full speed with my Chris Craft. We laughed and decided to try it. Two days and 19 gold rings later we came home. Absolutely nothing was in the swim area. It was void of signals. We were in the boat changing tanks and I saw a couple of detectorists on land. I waved at them. The one said something to his partner, he looked at us and they left. STRANGE.

I never go to just the normal swim areas. I go everywhere I can and get pretty lucky. You never know when they build a home on an old beach, an old swim area for hippies or a secluded area for lovers. Thinking outside the box gets me more treasures.

Another lake near West Bloomfield was another great example. I started finding live 45 bullets from the 1800's. Then very old gold rings with Latin inscriptions on them, a couple of live 45-70's a Springfield trap door bayonet and some great buttons. I also found a metal eagle and some other military stuff. This was all in a small area, but again, way over the waders heads. I am positive a small military encampment was on that part of the lake in the late 1800's.

I have a bunch of lead toys, two guns, 5 WW1 Mark 1 practice bombs that were dropped from biplanes in 1917 - 1919, over 30 old toy guns, brass fishing reels. an outboard motor, Hutchinson bottles, and lots of other finds that are very uncommon. One old beach gave up 45 pieces of silver and 8 gold rings the first time I hit it. Again I stumbled upon it.

So anyone that is landlocked. Look at all the possibilities on any body of water you can and not just the public beaches. If you can legally walk around it, do so. People swam everywhere. No air conditioners kept them cool and no TV's kept them from being outside.

The oldest dated ring I found was 1879. The oldest class ring I have found is 1901. You are not going to find that kind of stuff at hunted to death parks. You will find it in shallow water. Will you get lots of silence? You bet. However you just might come across a honey hole that nobody has ever found on your own. Here are a few pictures. EVERYTHING you see was found by me.

Do I still go to hammered places? Yep. They have parties in some of the lakes I detect in. One alone has over 5 thousand boats at one time moored and the beer is flowing.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs...=yhs-mozilla-002&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

People get upset when I post the pictures. BUT it is not a secret. One year after it I in one dive I found 1281.00 in gold consisting of 2 rings and a bracelet. I can't get it all. I have my spots I won't share. One is on the post where the police were called 9 times.

Think outside the box. Look where others are not and above all, RELAX and enjoy nature and the water, BUT be careful.














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[URL=http://s81.photobucket.com/user/robertg_g/media/finds%202012/10julyweight.jpg.html]


And my main beauty, the one that paid off my home is right here.




My main photobucket and sub albums are all public. I have a few personal pictures I haven't moved. Noting earth shattering.

http://s81.photobucket.com/user/robertg_g/library/?sort=3&page=1

Anyone can find gold that was lost. You only need 4 factors in finding it.

First, Gold has to be where you are looking
Second, You have to get your coil over it
Third, It can't be deeper than your machine can detect it
Fourth, You have to decide to dig the signal.

Easy!!

I also have a major reasons I love the CZ-21. I know for a fact it gets as deep as a Excal. I hip mount it and that makes it light and looks professional. It is quiet and I can mostly hear boats that come in my detecting area. I will not bash the Excal. I think it is a fine machine. Just not for me.

I was going to mention what happened to my other CZ-20. I was detecting around an island with a friend and he found this.


I think it is the fastest trade I ever made in my life.
 

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Dang! That's quite a haul!...
We all wish that you were a member in years past, so that we could enjoy your finds along the way...no matter, glad to have you now!... Looking forward to your posts this season, that's for sure!
 

Awesome finds Scuba!! Makes my 5 ring day look kinda piddly....oh well, like ya say, gotta hit the swim spots!!:thumbsup:
 

Awesome finds Scuba!! Makes my 5 ring day look kinda piddly....oh well, like ya say, gotta hit the swim spots!!:thumbsup:

5 ring days are AWESOME. I bet you were as excited as a 8yr old at Christmas! I have days that are 0 gold now but I always find something. Mel Fisher's motto was today's the day. It took him years but he found what he was searching for. As I said sometimes you have to FIND those swimn spots from bygone days. None are maked, look at me, I was a public beach at one time.

Enjoy whatever you find. I don't find gold every time anymore, not in my area. I go to new lakes and I do. I love the old toys, bottles and other artifacts I bring up out of the deep.

The real thrill is stumbling upon a virgin spot. I think I found one this winter. There was a hotel on a lake that was huge built in the late 1800's. It burned down in the 1930's. Nothing is left and the land has a multi million dollar home on it. I am positive it has never been touched. Who knows what is there. I enjoy talking to folks and hearing stories about a lake.


Find history of the area you are searching. Go to the public swim areas but look for areas from the past IF LEGAL. I know of lakes I can't possibly get into YET. I also hand out business cards to thousands of boaters every year. One private lake, I was invited to to find a set of keys. I found them and was invited to stay and play around. I found a couple of mercs, a working Swiss army watch and then bam, a platinum ring worth over a thousand dollars in scrap. it was by a water trampoline on an association beach. You absolutely never know what you will find and where. As I said. A lot of places I get silence. Some places I use a small coil and push down weeds. I have found many gold rings in past swim areas that are now overgrown with vegetation. Very tiring but sometimes great results.

The problem with a lot of places that are public as we all know is the new age metal cwap. Titanium, tungsten carbide, stainless steel and their useless tradmark names like Siladium, Celestrium or CE, and others I can't remember at this time. Cost hundreds at jewelry stores but are absolutely worthless. We all find them now.

So if you have extra time on your hands, do some research. However, there is a good chance you will find nothing until you walk around a lake and stumble upon history all by yourself. Then you have a virgin spot that only you know about. And the finds will be plentiful, just like you found a virgin long lost park on land.

If you dive. Even better. look for cinder blocks, 55 gallon drums, cut off dock posts. Anything to show evidence of a dock or a floating swim platform. You will clean up. In muck and you can't see after you find a target? So what? You know where you were. Relax and keep looking. Once you found everything you can swim to clearer water.

I bought two new toys this winter. A Dolphin and a Trident. A Dolphin is an underwater scooter. However, I have a better idea for it.


I hope to turn it around and blow thick silt off some drop off's where I have been finding silver and gold. I am hoping to uncover chains, small gold, bottles, and things that I have not been able to get down to.

The Trident is a secret weapon. I won't have it till November. However I will use it when the water is too cold to dive and have it hooked to a laptop with a GPS. I can sit on a dock or my boat and survey a lake without wasting air. It has a wire that goes to a floating buoy and it sends a real time wireless picture back to the laptop.



To find new places, think outside the box. Sure hit the hammered areas. BUT spend some time exploring like you might do on land. You just might hit the mother load.
 

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Your posts are great!! Inspirational as well. You've got me thinkin' "outside the box" now. The drone is the next best thing since sliced bread!! Have a great day!!:thumbsup:
 

Your posts are great!! Inspirational as well. You've got me thinkin' "outside the box" now. The drone is the next best thing since sliced bread!! Have a great day!!:thumbsup:

Thank You T.C. I said in my first post on this site, I am not your ordinary detectorist. This is a passion of mine and a dream. Going into retirement doesn't mean not living life. To me it means living the dream now. I will be traveling to a lot more inland lakes in Michigan and I hope to see more detectorists WADING. Don't need anymore divers!
 

Awesome ScubaDetector. Simply awesome!! Makes me wish I were into metal detecting.

As a new member here, I hope I will not be out of line in saying the following:
I arrived here just in time to catch all but the beginnings of the turmoil caused by a recently booted member. I had a difficult time trying to understand what was going on, especially as posts and threads were being deleted. It was the deletion of posts that nearly had me running from the site. So as a new member, I would like to doubly thank ScubaDetector for this post, also due to the timing of it. I don't have the physical condition to dive, but the wife has been wanting to try her hand at swinging a detector. Posts such as this will help to motivate us, especially through all of the inevitable failures of the learning process.

VERY well done!
 

Welcome to TNET KCM and your Mrs. Don't let an occasional "flare up" run ya off!! Most of the time around here is very entertaining...and ya might pick up some new ideas!!:thumbsup:
 

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