Silted in sites..What are our options??

Prairie Prowler

Prairie Prowler

Hero Member
May 7, 2006
541
318
Midwest ILL
Detector(s) used
Fisher1266-/ CZ-20 / Sovereign XS/Excalibur II / Equinox 800
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Upvote 0
Besides going to the expense of using a suction dredge, but the best, is to dig with a Garrett gold classifier pan. Just push the pan into the silt and shake. But the dredge is the fastest and best. No detector needed and will clean it down to hard pan.:thumbsup:
 

Thanks for the comment ..I was really suprised to find one of the sites I hunted heavy in the mid 90s was almost not huntable..
 

There is a dive site in a near by lake where there used to be a diving raft past the drop-off. It was in 35 Ft. of water on a silty slope where the silt had to be at least 3 foot thick. I kneeled on up slope and pushed plastic classifier pan into muck and pushed crud through the mesh repeatedly till I was scraping clay, the deepest gold would sink. No metal detector was needed. I had to tether the pan to me as it would float to the surface. It took a long time to clean that bottom of trash, jewelry and silver coins as I had to use a hookah and chase boaters away as they thought the funny lawn mower on a tube was free for the taking. But this was more like work and not the fun I was used to having digging a goodie up one by one. :coffee2:
 

Sandman said:
There is a dive site in a near by lake where there used to be a diving raft past the drop-off. It was in 35 Ft. of water on a silty slope where the silt had to be at least 3 foot thick. I kneeled on up slope and pushed plastic classifier pan into muck and pushed crud through the mesh repeatedly till I was scraping clay, the deepest gold would sink. No metal detector was needed. I had to tether the pan to me as it would float to the surface. It took a long time to clean that bottom of trash, jewelry and silver coins as I had to use a hookah and chase boaters away as they thought the funny lawn mower on a tube was free for the taking. But this was more like work and not the fun I was used to having digging a goodie up one by one. :coffee2:
Click to expand...

always wondered about setting up second hose with high pressure air hose with trigger nozzle like used in garages and blow out areas then hunt - or keep eyes open for targets
wondered also if you could float a strong leaf blower and connect pool hose to it and do the same
 

Unless you had a good current, visibility would be a problem.
 

Knowing the site was used heavily fuels your ambition to hunt it despite conditions..I am a freshwater wading hunter will have to look into diving in the future...some of the crud at this site can be moved w/fanning & then searching..just takes alot of the fun out of the hunt..but that changes when you pull up a nice find..
 

Jet ski ...not out of place. Normally seen on the beach so not to draw attention as much, Less Noise.......and you can take it shallow. Can remove areas of sanded and silt/muck... Working on some type of down draft setup for the rear using a pier ladder which folds up. I have places that are so silted in that you sink several inch's up to 7 or 8. And I have places I hunt that there are cuts that are slanted parallel to the beach. At the deepest part of the cut your hitting old coins, and sometimes gold.. as your walking the cut it starts to get shallow, the shallower it gets the lesser the targets until there are none. Extending areas like this could pay off I think if you could continue the cut further.. but like Casper said... you will have to check what you blew out also....
 

OBN said:
Jet ski ...not out of place. Normally seen on the beach so not to draw attention as much, Less Noise.......and you can take it shallow. Can remove areas of sanded and silt/muck... Working on some type of down draft setup for the rear using a pier ladder which folds up. I have places that are so silted in that you sink several inch's up to 7 or 8. And I have places I hunt that there are cuts that are slanted parallel to the beach. At the deepest part of the cut your hitting old coins, and sometimes gold.. as your walking the cut it starts to get shallow, the shallower it gets the lesser the targets until there are none. Extending areas like this could pay off I think if you could continue the cut further.. but like Casper said... you will have to check what you blew out also....
Click to expand...

I have seen a dredge set up that way, hooked to jet exhaust
 

OBN said:
Jet ski ...not out of place. Normally seen on the beach so not to draw attention as much, Less Noise.......and you can take it shallow. Can remove areas of sanded and silt/muck... Working on some type of down draft setup for the rear using a pier ladder which folds up. I have places that are so silted in that you sink several inch's up to 7 or 8. And I have places I hunt that there are cuts that are slanted parallel to the beach. At the deepest part of the cut your hitting old coins, and sometimes gold.. as your walking the cut it starts to get shallow, the shallower it gets the lesser the targets until there are none. Extending areas like this could pay off I think if you could continue the cut further.. but like Casper said... you will have to check what you blew out also....
Click to expand...

I don't own a boat - but always wondered if you could make a "mailbox" like the bigboys use to blow out areas in the ocean for wrecks
using a smaller 10 - 25hp motor and as long as you didn't go nuts
or pic up one of these - they make a few inexpensive models and you might even find a cheap one on eabay
3 Really Affordable Underwater Scooters from Sea Doo
 

I am going to try one of these scooters or rigging up a blower on my 90hp etec. I have a couple of freshwater spots with 2-3 feet of muck. I have tried fanning and finning but usually visibility goes to absolute zero.
 

CASPER-2 said:
always wondered about setting up second hose with high pressure air hose with trigger nozzle like used in garages and blow out areas then hunt - or keep eyes open for targets
wondered also if you could float a strong leaf blower and connect pool hose to it and do the same
Click to expand...

Air does not work to "blow"...
it can be used to make a "rise" and lift...
but must move "up" being controlled and away from .
When using air in water... The air rising is the motor moving the water...
causing the water to move things.
Thus... the air can be used for an "air lift"... creating a vacuum cleaner.

Water is used to Blow... and to "clear"... even when using "air"... water is the "mover.
 

Last edited:
407kk.gif
 

AARC said:
Air does not work to "blow"...
it can be used to make a "rise" and lift...
but must move "up" being controlled and away from .
When using air in water... The air rising is the motor moving the water...
causing the water to move things.
Thus... the air can be used for an "air lift"... creating a vacuum cleaner.

Water is used to Blow... and to "clear"... even when using "air"... water is the "mover.
Click to expand...

with high pressure hose hooked to a hookah - air is blowing the water and the silt - with some sort leaf blowing system would hope to use the same as
with a mailbox system and blow the water down onto the area to clear :dontknow:
 

Heh,,, Mmmm k.
Post your video of that :)
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Got my 93rd gold ring for the year and its a doozy

⬅️ Previous Thread

Two Day - 3 Ring Hunt

Next Thread ➡️

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
We Dig Metal Detectors

Latest Discussions

Back
Top