Sand/Water Scoops

[Gemini420]

Hi there,

I am trying to step up my game and get a proper sand/water scoop, but I am totally shocked at the prices. The market for these scoops is soooooo overpriced considering what they are made of.

A product of similar size and materials (like a nice shovel or sledge hammer, etc.) are $20 - $40 at most hardware stores. Even a carbon fiber and titanium golf club can be found for less money than a steel welded water scoop!

So, I went searching for a reasonably priced sand/water scoop. I figure *someone* out there must be selling these for what they are worth. These things are not high tech construction or anything! A local body shop could custom make one of these for about the same $180 retail price.

Anyways, does anyone know where to find a durable long handle sand/water scoop for a reasonable price? I will happily pay what it is worth, but refuse to buy one for $180 on principal alone. Even the used ones seem to be going for highly inflated prices.

I searched and searched online, but seem to keep finding the same overpriced products.

Maybe there is an existing digging product (for another purpose), called by another name?

Thanks in advance,
Shane


P.S. I ran into a guy detecting on the beach last week. He was swinging a Whites BeachHunter ID. We chatted about sand/surf detecting, and the interference issues in the water. He mentioned that he was not out detecting much anymore and that he had a second Whites BeachHunter ID at home that he was trying to sell online (with no buyers.) I took him up on the offer and bought the Whites BeachHunter ID, plus two used hand scoops for $200. I'm feeling like this was a great deal. The detector works and everything. Realistically, me buying a second detector was a little premature on my part. I'm new to all of this, but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. The same model, albeit old is still for sale at a local store for $1000.) Testing it out, the BeachHunter ID definitely cuts through the interference issues in the water and wet sand, and it seems to have much better discrimination/identification than my Bounty Hunter. So far I'm very happy. I've heard that Whites will upgrade this unit to the BeachHunter 300 model by swapping out some parts? Anyone have any experience with this? Is that worth the effort? Costs?

 

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[bigscoop]

Scoops.....this is suddenly becoming an issue for me again. "Deep water & deep targets"....this is the new issue that I've been battling lately thanks to the addition of the Skullies. I have a big stealth scoop but to be honest, the thing is wearing me out because it's so darn top heavy once the bucket is loaded. This wasn't a huge issue when I was only using it occasionally and just a few scoops at a time, but let me tell you, when you're in the deep digging a lot of deeps the thing can wear you out in a hurry, mainly because it's so hard to keep balanced once the bucket is full. Add to this that once it gets buried it can be a real bear to get back out, even with the assist handle. Smaller scoops are easier to handle for sure, but as quickly as holes can fill back in my turbulent environment you're often making little progress when chasing really deep targets, not to mention that if you miss your mark there's a chance the target can get sucked even deeper as the hole fills back in. So......"Would someone please bring back the big Miller Scoops!" That looped handle provided a lot of leverage and it allowed you to balance the bucket once it was full. I may just have to go see the guys at the fabrication shop! Man I wish I still had access to a shop!

 

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[Pi_Rat]

I am sorry you feel that way. You can offer to sell the Sunspot in the Classified Section if you were a Charter Member and recoup your money. Then You could buy what ever smaller scoop you wanted. Sure they make smaller alum scoops and some are even SS, but in the surf you would want that larger size. Some of these smaller scoops are made by Reillys Treasured Gold - RTG Royal Stainless Water Scoop series Check their prices for what you get. Or you could add hardware cloth to the inside of your Sunspot so you'd have those smaller holes. Chuck is my friend and I am proud to call him that.


Dennis/Sandman

Large scoops are unnecessary. In any conditions, sand or dirt, the vast majority of our finds are fresh drops. Most drops will be found in less than 4" to 6". The amount of material to be moved is best done by a small scoop. Even under water when snorkeling or diving, you can check Sandman's old post and he will attest that you don't need a scoop when snorkeling or diving. The material above the target is best moved by fanning, not scooping. When it comes to a large scoop it becomes less enjoyable moving more mass/weight. Save your self money get the Stavr scoop. Watch the many videos and channels on YouTube. Look at Digginrings channel or GravediggerMax's channel and then go from there. Max has the best surface videos and digginrings has the best underwater videos. Most in water digs can be best accomplished with a snorkel too. Meaning less than 5 feet of water with proper surf conditions. All the guys that in the videos that bought large scoops regardless of brand end up going back to their smaller scoops in later videos. I wonder why? Large scoops are inefficient. Large scoops are a burden to dig with and take the fun out of detecting. It becomes more work with a large scoop. Don't join the misery loves company crowd by buying something that is a burden to use. Buy something that is designed with the averages and where 90% of your targets are going to be. That is a small scoop in the first 4" to 6" range dirt or sand. If you dig deeper 10 out of 100 digs you will be happy with a smaller scoop and moving less mass/weight. They are cumbersome to carry once on the beach for a few hours and difficult to get out of the way from the detector once the hole is dug. Keep in mind you need to move the scoop away from the hole to re-sweep the target. The scoop becomes a 15+ pound weight when full. Dig 100 holes and thats 1500+ pounds you moved. I'm going to start a new thread as a voting poll and ask what people prefer to dig with, large scoops or small scoops? Please vote. When I get time I'm also going to make a test garden and video tape the results to illustrate my point. Stand by.

 

[Silver Simon]

I'm going to start a new thread as a voting poll and ask what people prefer to dig with, large scoops or small scoops? Please vote. When I get time I'm also going to make a test garden and video tape the results to illustrate my point. Stand by.

I see you are continuing the anti large scoop campaign, to each his own I suppose. There are more things to consider than simply how deep a target might be when choosing a scoop. I hunt a lot of rivers, with rocky hard bottoms, and the 720i cuts through it with ease. Those lighter round scoops don't work nearly as well.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I use the Beach Brute II, one of the largest scoops made, no way would I want to hunt the water with any smaller scoop.

Surf on East coast of Florida is not usually calm, I need to recover target in between waves and swells, can't do that easily with small scoop.

Many of my targets are a lot deeper than 6 inches, gold sinks quickly in our fine sugar sand....

I have tested rings to see how they sink, tied gold ring on a long string on the waters edge just to see what happens, in 10 mins it was a good 8 inches deep...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[bigscoop]

Large scoops are unnecessary. In any conditions, sand or dirt, the vast majority of our finds are fresh drops. Most drops will be found in less than 4" to 6". The amount of material to be moved is best done by a small scoop. Even under water when snorkeling or diving, you can check Sandman's old post and he will attest that you don't need a scoop when snorkeling or diving. The material above the target is best moved by fanning, not scooping. When it comes to a large scoop it becomes less enjoyable moving more mass/weight. Save your self money get the Stavr scoop. Watch the many videos and channels on YouTube. Look at Digginrings channel or GravediggerMax's channel and then go from there. Max has the best surface videos and digginrings has the best underwater videos. Most in water digs can be best accomplished with a snorkel too. Meaning less than 5 feet of water with proper surf conditions. All the guys that in the videos that bought large scoops regardless of brand end up going back to their smaller scoops in later videos. I wonder why? Large scoops are inefficient. Large scoops are a burden to dig with and take the fun out of detecting. It becomes more work with a large scoop. Don't join the misery loves company crowd by buying something that is a burden to use. Buy something that is designed with the averages and where 90% of your targets are going to be. That is a small scoop in the first 4" to 6" range dirt or sand. If you dig deeper 10 out of 100 digs you will be happy with a smaller scoop and moving less mass/weight. They are cumbersome to carry once on the beach for a few hours and difficult to get out of the way from the detector once the hole is dug. Keep in mind you need to move the scoop away from the hole to re-sweep the target. The scoop becomes a 15+ pound weight when full. Dig 100 holes and thats 1500+ pounds you moved. I'm going to start a new thread as a voting poll and ask what people prefer to dig with, large scoops or small scoops? Please vote. When I get time I'm also going to make a test garden and video tape the results to illustrate my point. Stand by.

Used many scoops over the years, to me they are like coils and machines, the use of each being relevant to their design and to the circumstances and the environment encountered.

 

[Pi_Rat]

I see you are continuing the anti large scoop campaign, to each his own I suppose. There are more things to consider than simply how deep a target might be when choosing a scoop. I hunt a lot of rivers, with rocky hard bottoms, and the 720i cuts through it with ease. Those lighter round scoops don't work nearly as well.

I would suggest a $25 shovel for rocky river beds and a $10 floating sifter. Work smarter not harder. You have to clear a scoop of rocks larger that a dime you don't need to clear a shovel. If you have to use that much force to get your scoop in the ground I would suggest re-thinking your process. If anyone doubts this go shovel pea gravel and then shovel some larger rock. You will learn real quick what is easier to do. The learning curve for this is real steep. They are called sand scoops for a reason. Save your rock scooping for the back hoe. Or if you like to hunt squirrel with a bazooka because sometimes those little critters hide behind big oak trees, then definitely, to eat their own.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

On original post we were talking hunting salt water beaches, shovels not going to work when your waist to chest deep in the surf......

Anyone who has hunted in the surf knows you have to recover your target quickly, hard to do that with a small scoop...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Pi_Rat]

On original post we were talking hunting salt water beaches, shovels not going to work when your waist to chest deep in the surf......

Anyone who has hunted in the surf knows you have to recover your target quickly, hard to do that with a small scoop...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Makes no difference. The gulf coast of Florida is not know for it's radical surfing conditions or hosting large competitions. Florida surf has nothing on California or Hawaii. I lived in Pensacola and there are more long slow rollers than anything. It's not like the north shore of Hawaii where you are ankle deep and convinced you are going to wash away with the tide. Other parts of Hawaii you wonder where the surf went to. I'm very confident the Florida does not have the extreme surf you describe. If you want to risk life and limb during a storm good luck on living and finding anything.

Bonjour

 

[Sandman]

Geez Pi Rat, We aren't talking surfing but wave action from the surf. But I see now you are from Illinois and a relative newbie and might not have hunted the saltwater beaches to know how fast the holes cover up with wave action. As others have pointed out they mostly use large basket scoops to recover deep items quickly. Rare are targets in the saltwater shallow as sand is always moving and items sink quickly. Fresh water lakes, the targets don't get buried so fast and you can get by with a smaller scoop. However if your a little bit off in pinpointing, you will likely need to take many scoops to recover the item. This is time wasted. But you are mainly interested in bad mouthing large scoops because you feel Sunspot cheated you out of a whole ten dollars. I'll bet you won't sell that 720i once you start using it. As for lifting all that weight up to shake out the rocks, shells and what not, most of the sand is washed out before you bring the basket to the surface. I just let the waves wash out the sand.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Makes no difference. The gulf coast of Florida is not know for it's radical surfing conditions or hosting large competitions. Florida surf has nothing on California or Hawaii. I lived in Pensacola and there are more long slow rollers than anything. It's not like the north shore of Hawaii where you are ankle deep and convinced you are going to wash away with the tide. Other parts of Hawaii you wonder where the surf went to. I'm very confident the Florida does not have the extreme surf you describe. If you want to risk life and limb during a storm good luck on living and finding anything.

Bonjour

?

No we do not get 20 foot waves, but we do get 3-6 foot regularly and 6-12+ during storms..

Even hunting in just 3-4 foot surf you want to recover target as quick as possible.


Pensacola surf is gulf of mexico surf and is nothing like the surf on east coast of Florida hunting Atlantic ocean surf...

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[bigscoop]

TH has a point. Here on this section of Florida east coast we have "feet" of soft sand in the summer months that is constantly moving under the surf, that's the biggest issue, the amount of deep soft sand. With a small scoop a lot of times that first hole is completely filled back in as soon as you remove the scoop, and I do mean, "all trace of it is completely gone" and with each miss the target just keeps getting sucked deeper and deeper into the sandy abyss. A well balanced big scoop provides a big advantage as long as you can physically handle it. Once most of this sand gets stripped back out I'll go to a smaller scoop, but during the summer when working in the water in all that soft sand I use the larger scoop because it is far more efficient and it can save you a lot of frustration and prolonged digging.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Bigscoop is correct, it is almost like quicksand many times it is so soft and we have tons of soft sand constantly moving...... We have wood pilings on the beach to stop people from driving on the no driving zones areas of the beach. Sometimes those pilings at 9 feet in the air, other times the same pilings are waist high and I am 5'10"......

 

[lookindown]

Large scoops are unnecessary. In any conditions, sand or dirt, the vast majority of our finds are fresh drops. Most drops will be found in less than 4" to 6". The amount of material to be moved is best done by a small scoop. Even under water when snorkeling or diving, you can check Sandman's old post and he will attest that you don't need a scoop when snorkeling or diving. The material above the target is best moved by fanning, not scooping. When it comes to a large scoop it becomes less enjoyable moving more mass/weight. Save your self money get the Stavr scoop. Watch the many videos and channels on YouTube. Look at Digginrings channel or GravediggerMax's channel and then go from there. Max has the best surface videos and digginrings has the best underwater videos. Most in water digs can be best accomplished with a snorkel too. Meaning less than 5 feet of water with proper surf conditions. All the guys that in the videos that bought large scoops regardless of brand end up going back to their smaller scoops in later videos. I wonder why? Large scoops are inefficient. Large scoops are a burden to dig with and take the fun out of detecting. It becomes more work with a large scoop. Don't join the misery loves company crowd by buying something that is a burden to use. Buy something that is designed with the averages and where 90% of your targets are going to be. That is a small scoop in the first 4" to 6" range dirt or sand. If you dig deeper 10 out of 100 digs you will be happy with a smaller scoop and moving less mass/weight. They are cumbersome to carry once on the beach for a few hours and difficult to get out of the way from the detector once the hole is dug. Keep in mind you need to move the scoop away from the hole to re-sweep the target. The scoop becomes a 15+ pound weight when full. Dig 100 holes and thats 1500+ pounds you moved. I'm going to start a new thread as a voting poll and ask what people prefer to dig with, large scoops or small scoops? Please vote. When I get time I'm also going to make a test garden and video tape the results to illustrate my point. Stand by.

If you cant handle a big scoop then use a little scoop...but dont try to make us look like we dont know what we are doing if we use a big scoop...bigger is better in the water...dont be sour just because you cant handle a big scoop like most of us can.

 

[matrix master DBA]

Can't beat RTG scoops! Just my 2¢

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Can't beat RTG scoops! Just my 2¢

Many people don't know this, the Beach Brute II sold by Kellyco is made by RTG exclusively for Kellyco.

Basket is 8.5 inches wide 6 inches high and 12 inches deep..... I have a stainless steel lip riveted on mine and added the adjustable lift handle and screen mesh to catch dimond earring studs to it, it weighs 5 lbs

It is a backhoe...:thumbup:


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[matrix master DBA]

Many people don't know this, the Beach Brute II sold by Kellyco is made by RTG exclusively for Kellyco.

Basket is 8.5 inches wide 6 inches high and 12 inches deep..... I have a stainless steel lip riveted on mine and added the adjustable lift handle and screen mesh to catch dimond earring studs to it, it weighs 5 lbs

It is a backhoe...:thumbup:

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Hey treasure hunter can you post a picture showing the screen for earnings?

 

[OBN]

Big is good if it drains fast, then Lite is a bonus (3lb10oz), unfortunately diablo has not made it to production yet.

Compared to the Beach Brute and Starv's Russion Scoop.

 

[Pi_Rat]

If you cant handle a big scoop then use a little scoop...but dont try to make us look like we dont know what we are doing if we use a big scoop...bigger is better in the water...dont be sour just because you cant handle a big scoop like most of us can.

Another arm chair detectorists crawls out from the good ol' boy network rock to try to discredit the new guy. It will always amaze me what people want to believe in to make themselves feel better about themselves. Perception is not reality, unless you talk to someone with a very skewed sense of it. Great Post Lookindown. My advice to you and those that liked your post is, don't break a hip swinging your detector. I don't think you realize that your post only makes sense to those who have none. To you my friend, you get the Bonjour award.

I'm a french model. I can't post anything to the internet that's not true.



I rest my case. I'm not wasting my time on this thread anymore.

 

[Silver Simon]

I rest my case. I'm not wasting my time on this thread anymore.

And we appreciate it. You were not happy with scoop transaction for various reasons, and came charging in to this forum, resurrecting 2 year old threads with your story, trying to convince people that Sunspot is the devil, and big scoops with tear your rotator cuff. And then you act shocked that you ran into resistance from people who have been using these scoops successfully, without injury, and have enjoyed their quality. And you think the only way anyone could disagree with you is if we are all a part of a club that supports each other on forums? I'm new here, with no ties to any of the veterans. I have the 720i and I love it. Done.

You don't like the 720i or the company, case closed. Sell your scoop, buy one that more suits your needs, and if you like it, come here and write a glowing review for it. I look forward to reading it.

 

[gravediggermax-vabeachva]

Many people don't know this, the Beach Brute II sold by Kellyco is made by RTG exclusively for Kellyco.

Basket is 8.5 inches wide 6 inches high and 12 inches deep..... I have a stainless steel lip riveted on mine and added the adjustable lift handle and screen mesh to catch dimond earring studs to it, it weighs 5 lbs

It is a backhoe...:thumbup:


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i have always wanted a brute, but it does not hold up around here in the rocks and kelleyco does not add S/S lip, so it would be out of pocket extra money.
see brute without lip used here after 2 years..
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