Water treasure Who Dares Wins. By Alan Hassell for newbies and oldies

Alan Hassell

Jr. Member
Jun 13, 2010
53
3
Detector(s) used
pulse star 2, impulse, spectrum. goldscan, PI 3000
This is an Oldie but it was the original article that got people interested in getting in the water in Australia and people still love it even today. enjoy...

WATER TREASURE--WHO DARES WINS
By Alan Hassell Copyright 1/6/1984
All rights reserved.

This was the very first article I wrote regarding shallow water metal detecting. In Australia, I wrote it shortly after meeting Tim Mcnickle using a Whites PI1000 in Elwood. Whilst other people were detecting on the gold fields I had found a new way of finding it.

Having had the beach to ourselves for four years, it was time to tell the others how to do it. Every treasure hunter dreams of being self-sufficient and having a source of income with no bottom to the barrel. Imagine owning your own gold mine, money tree or bank, where despite your withdrawals, you could never flatten your account.

Water is perhaps the last frontier, where vast expanses of virgin territory exists today. Few people realize that more treasure is lost in water than on land. Even items lost on land will eventually end up in water. The amount of goodies lost in water is mind boggling.

Apart from the coins, there are numerous jewelry items such as rings, watches, pendants, ingots, I.D. bracelets, chains and brooches. Unlike any gold field, the water is the one place where the gold will never be exhausted, owing to continuity of replenishment. Next time you pass a jeweler's window, have a look at the prices of those rings, ingots and valuables.

A one-carat diamond ring for instance can range from four to 5 figures depending on the quality. A good thick wedding band can weigh as much as fifteen grams, that's almost half an ounce. With gold at today's prices that's not bad should you find one?

In some parts of the World people are finding 50 to 100 gold rings a day. What about the ingots, they vary from 5 grams to an ounce of .999 pure in the case of gold. Finding such a trinket could be compared to finding a nugget of equivalent weight.

People are still wearing ID bracelets, that were all the rage in the 60s. I have found several ladies ones in silver weighing upto 55 grams. Men wear heavy gold ones, some weighing as much as three ounces imagine finding one of those. People have always loved the water, beach, lakes, rivers, creeks, and even dams, which they used to cool off in on a hot sunny day.

Water hunting, is new to Australia, but has been going on for years in the U.S.A. I predict this facet of metal detecting will become very popular in the near future. (One of my predictions that did come true.) In November 1980 I decided on an all out effort to search the water, Here's how I did it, but owing to hidden dangers, the author and publishers of this magazine take no responsibility for any damage to your detector should you attempt the same.

Metal detector's are basically designed for use on land and have short stems. This restricts the users to a water depth of only 18 inches. To overcome this problem, a special search rod was constructed for me by a local engineering firm. The next item on the agenda was to lengthen the cables to the coil and headphones. Having read an article in an American magazine, I carefully studied the photographs of these guy's floating their detectors on inner tubes looking for clues.

Photographs in magazines consist of a series of dots; you don't magnify the detail only the dots so they were of little use. The problem was to join two lengths of cable together and keep the water out at the same time. Eventually a solution to my problem was found in the form of a piece of clear plastic tubing large enough to fit over the connectors.

Rubber Bungs used for wine making would be drilled and cut with a razor blade and a couple of radiator hose clips either side would ensure a watertight seal. Elementary my dear Watson. A visit to a car wrecker got me a couple of inner tubes onto which I fitted a wooden box to hold my metal detector. I had removed the insulating shaft from my old search rod and I now fitted it to the new one I had made for me.

Coils although waterproof are buoyant and to overcome this I had purchased quite a lot of buckshot from a gunsmith and filled the tube of my new search rod with it. Many coils which have been subjected to a lot of use on the gold fields may have minute cracks in them, these will allow salt water in.

Once water gets into a coil, it cant be repaired, the only solution is to replace it with a new one. Being the careful owner that I am, I had bought skid plates for my coil from new so I was working with and old but still new looking coil. Searching water is different to on the land. Most people know that detector's go banana's once they even get near salt water. Once in the water though things will work out.

Raise your coil off the sea bed about 6 inches and press the retune switch, your detector should go quiet. Don't worry, it's still working. You can ground cancel in fresh water, but not in salt. This is why the detector goes quiet. Water being a conductor should in theory add to the depth capabilities of your detector.

You can work in both VLF or TR modes. I prefer the later owing to the numerous nails and junk found in the water. It is a great dumping place remember. I usually turn up the discriminator just enough to knock out nails. At this level there is no risk of losing small gold rings. Special recovery tools need to be constructed as none are made in Australia. My scoop consists of a heavy gauge screened steel; it's nine inches long and 6 inches deep. The handle is made from an old gas pipe with a curved handle.

This works just fine and a target can usually be recovered in the first scoop. Towing a floating screen behind you will speed up recovery of the object. One can be made out of aviary wire attached to a wooden frame and floated on a motorcycle inner tube.

WAVES, WINDS AND TIDES.
Knowing something about conditions will assist in successful searching too. For instance always work two hours before and two hours after low tide. This allows you to get into area's previously unexplored for about 4 hours. Knowing when the tides are going to occur will help so obtain a tide chart, most BP garages give them away. Wind causes waves, which in turn affect the bottom for instance an off sea wind can bring sand up onto the beach, piling sand up onto the natural bottom.

Natural bottoms can be clay or stones. This is where the goodies are. An off shore wind on the other hand will remove the sand and take it out to sea. This is sometimes known as a blowout, but the wind must be in excess of 30 mph to be of any good. When it does happen, oncoming waves are flattened by the force of the wind and the sea is flat like a duck pond.

Another quirk of nature is known as cut out, this is when waves race up the beach and undercut the sand. Cliff like structures appear which are undermined by the oncoming water. Eventually the overhang breaks off, the sand is then returned to the sea. Usually modern coins are carried with this sand back into the sea and can be found at the water's edge, sometimes the occasional ring too.

Whenever you go on the beach, keep an eye out for sandbars. A short distance from the sand bar usually on the beach side, a channel will form which is slightly deeper than surrounding area's. It is in this channel that most goodies will be found, especially if signs of bottom, rocks and stones are visible. As the sea is in a constant state of flux, changing and moving all the time, so is the bottom.

Some days Neptune will open up his locker and you can recover all sorts of goodies. Don't expect it to be like that all the time though, tons of sand can be dumped over your hunting ground and you will not find a thing until the sand moves once more. Understanding geology of the sea is just as important to the water hunter as it is to the land based prospector. Do your research, before you search.

UNDERWATER METAL DETECTORS.
Special Underwater metal detector's are now available through good retailer's. During the early days some manufacturer's produced machines suitable for fresh water but couldn't work in salt water. The main problem the abundance of black magnetic sands, such as hematite. This mineral causes Induction Balance detectors to give false signals. You end up digging holes that only contain black sands, and no targets.

Some of the very early underwater detectors, made by JAW. Fisher only had a meter, no earphones, it was great if you were swimming with scuba gear but had its limitations. In future you can expect to hear quite a lot about the White's PI 1000 underwater metal detector. Burns Scott the distributors, offered me one for testing without headphones, I now know why... Tim McNickle of Sydney was using the PI at Elwood when we met and became good buddies.

During the five days we worked together Tim only dug up junk, with the exception of a few coins. I even took him to one of my favorite spots where I had found four gold rings in a day. Tim worked dammed hard at it but the best he could do was pick up junk. Let me elaborate on this for a moment.

The PI1000 is made in Inverness in Scotland; it is a Pulse Induction machine as such it is highly sensitive to small ferrous objects. When turned on it sounds like a ticking clock, this is because unlike conventional detectors it has a mechanical warning device. When an object is bought near the coil those clicks speed up, something like the old BFO machines we used years ago.
There is no change in tone or pitch in the signal.

Just a steady increase of speed of the clicks. It is possible to pinpoint but not as accurately as a T.R. You must sweep north, south, east and west during pinpointing. During the half-hour that Tim allowed me to use his PI1000, I only dug up trash.
This does not mean it won't find gold rings, it will but you must dig every target in the hope of finding one. Tim found one in the U.S.A. but admits he had to dig a lot of junk to do it.

A test report published in an American Magazine stated that a ring would give a single beep or click in both directions. A ferrous object would give a double signal in one of the directions. This is impossible; it was obvious to me that the person who wrote that report had probably never even seen it yet alone experienced White's bone conductor.

With this sort of verbal diarrhea being published one not only doubts the credibility of the author but also that of the magazine that published the report.

Garrets have gone one step further and introduced the XL 200 which is the worlds first discriminating Pulse Induction metal detector. Pulse Induction, once popular in the U.K. lost its popularity owing to it's over sensitivity to ferrous objects and high battery drain. T.R.s are now being used instead of PIs. D-Tex are introducing the ultimate underwater metal detector, known as the Scuba King, modern technology has been used to develop this superb detecting device.

Working at 15 Kilohertz V.L.F. a frequency noted in Australia for its ability to locate minute nuggets on the gold fields, it is an excellent looking machine. It features automatic ground canceling and discrimination, the being set to eliminate ferrous objects but retain the ability to detect small white gold rings. The circuitry is enclosed in a watertight cylinder mounted to a search rod with an eight-inch coil. Two external controls which rotate around the cylinder use magnets to activate the device.

The lower control selects one of the two battery packs, which is used until it totally discharges. It is then rotated to bring in the second set of batteries. No other detector has a feature such as this to my knowledge. A special charger is included in the package to recharge the batteries, good one Mr. D-Tex. With the cost of batteries these days, it pays to use Nicads; over a period of time will save you heaps of money.

The uppermost control is a simple on/off switch. Simple being the keyword because you just turn it on and start producing. It's that easy. Two stems are supplied as standard equipment, a short one for diving and a long one for wading which extends to about 50 inches. Although no visual meter is available, the headphone or bone conductor gives a beaut audio signal when an object is detected. This can be placed under a wet suit helmet or inserted into a special pair of ear muffs (supplied) and used as conventional headphones.

The Scuba King is fully submersible to a depth of 200 feet which is far more than you will ever encounter. Using the Scuba King is sensational; a pistol grip and hip mount arm support makes the detector an extension of your arm. Very little drag is experienced during scanning. Almost neutral buoyancy is built into the instrument, however a small lead weight is included for fitting to the cylinder to achieve this.

Pinpointing is achieved by shaking the coil over the target. Getting the Goodies. During tests on a cold day in April in a well populated swimming area, the third target produced a small delicate child's ring with a heart shaped green stone. Numerous coins were recovered together with spoons, sinkers and other items, it got the goodies and left the trash for the others.

Some of the items required several scoops to be removed. This is indicative of the excellent depth penetration of the V.L.F. This mode of operation is included in all latest Hi-Technology detectors. Recovery of objects missed by the old TRs should be dead easy owing to the extra depth. My search for the ultimate underwater recovery device is now finished.

When working in water, it is best to start at the waters edge towards the sea. Wading in water its possible to cover strips about 4-5 feet wide until a comfortable depth is reached. You would be amazed how much ground can be covered in this fashion It's gridding in water instead of on land. What does the well dressed water hunter wear, it could be jeans, waders or a wet suit.

I prefer the later because it not only keeps you warm but is also more streamlined. Always wear some kind of foot protection, there's plenty of broken glass and other objects that could injure your feet. With the advent of the Scuba King you can now search in any weather, the rougher the better.

However modifiers are restricted to calm weather only. Remember one drop of salt water could cost you a new circuit board, speaker, meter, coil and battery pack. They all cost money and time. Never search with a modified detector when there are waves about, the risks are too great and manufacturer's frown upon the use of a machine for which it was not designed.

Melbourne's John Crowley uses a modified Fisher 1260 and A2B; he prefers the 1260 owing to its ground canceling capabilities. John averages $8 in modern coins, apart from all the oldies on an average day. His best find so far is a 58 gram silver wrist bracelet.

Known as the Silver man, owing to his collection of silver rings, John recently lost his nickname after finding his first gold ring
John like Tim and myself will be customers for the new Scuba King so that we can exploit the potential of this area. With a coastline as great as Australia's water hunting will become very popular with our treasure hunters. The rewards are great, but danger exist even in the water.

It's a case of WHO DARES WINS.
This was the very first article I wrote about shallow water metal detecting in Australia. Later, much later after I started to learn more about my new environment, I realized, that Pulse machines such as the Whites allowed you to get into the channels were all those goodies were waiting to be recovered.

Everything was trial and error, nothing was easy. Learning about this new environment took a great deal of time and effort. Today, passing on that knowledge ensures that individuals such as yourself, don't have to learn the hard way. We learnt through our mistakes blunders and lack of knowledge. Anyone reading my informative articles that they are today are given the facts and plenty of them.

It's articles such as mine that make you successful, if you are prepared to put in the hard work, persistence and be dedicated. Nothing in life is meant to be easy including shallow water metal detecting. Happy Hunting. :icon_thumright:
 

Upvote 0
Thanks too. :read2:
 

mucho thanks too from the east coast.
 

Hello Allen, Lou here. Remember, the abalone poacher from Oscars?

I took your advice and eventually got into underwater detecting.

I got onto your website "Alan Hassell, Wizardmaker" and read all of your many posts, including the one above.

Whilst some of your articles were educational and informative, its the article above that causes me some angst.
To be blunt, its a load of crap!
I quote, "own gold mine... money tree... own bank.... never flatten your account".
Its this sort of rubbish that lures unsuspecting desperates into detecting, expecting to make their fortunes or at least a comfortable living from it.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
How many 1 carat stones did you find, or 1 ounce ingots or 3 ounce chains? And you were one of the first here in Oz?
Granted, it might have been good being one of the pioneers hitting virgin territory but those early days are long gone. And I suspect they were never that good in the first place, for your not the only pioneer that I have talked to. His best day back then was 8 rings, average a lot less. And most of our stuff is 9ct crap of av 2-3 grams.
This is not America, mate!

As an ex poacher I know how to spend time in the water. I detect more often than most and spend twice as long in the water. In 2 1/2 years I've found 154 gold pieces. 350 grams of 9 ct, 150 of 18 ct, about 30 of 8, 14 and 22, plus one 4.2 gram platinum ring. Add about a kilo of silver, a few hundred grams of old predecimal silver and what have you got at todays prices? Around $13,500 Australian, which is about US$11,000. Wow!
Subtract the price of the machine, scoop, wetsuit, accessories, fuel etc and what have I got? A hobby that pays for itself! Most of the other operators would be lucky to break even.
I was talking to one of the dudes at the Miners Den who detects around Brighton and over the years has found, wait for it, 6 rings! Whoopy do!
I'm not putting this guy down, he is very proud of his finds, but this is the reality of modern detecting.

So Allen, please keep your crap to yourself!

Lou.
 

Hi Allen
Me being a fellow English man am interested to no how you have got on when detecting the beaches
in England.
As you no we have a much bigger tidal range than most of the U.S.
Which leaves 1/2 to a mile of wet sand at low tide do find all the wet sand productive or do you still try to get as far out as possible.
I am off tonight to Fistral to catch the low tide for a all night session.
Thanks for the post loads of good info
Buy the way I am from Cornwall so have been finding the beaches a bit more productive than the fields :icon_thumleft:
 

As an ex poacher I know how to spend time in the water. I detect more often than most and spend twice as long in the water. In 2 1/2 years I've found 154 gold pieces. 350 grams of 9 ct, 150 of 18 ct, about 30 of 8, 14 and 22, plus one 4.2 gram platinum ring. Add about a kilo of silver, a few hundred grams of old predecimal silver and what have you got at todays prices? Around $13,500 Australian, which is about US$11,000. Wow!
Subtract the price of the machine, scoop, wetsuit, accessories, fuel etc and what have I got? A hobby that pays for itself! Most of the other operators would be lucky to break even.
I was talking to one of the dudes at the Miners Den who detects around Brighton and over the years has found, wait for it, 6 rings! Whoopy do!
I'm not putting this guy down, he is very proud of his finds, but this is the reality of modern detecting.

So Allen, please keep your crap to yourself!

Lou.

Hi Lou, sounds to me like you have a chip on your shoulder and bear a grudge of some sort.
I note you have been in the water 2 and a half years Wow, If i REMEMBER I informed you about this before I left Australia and that was in 94 to look for serious treasures.

sounds to me like you missed the boat and let others reap the rewards.
There's no guarantee how anyone will get on in the water part of it's luck the other part knowing your beaches and where to look. Another aspect is knowing your machine what it can do and how you hunt.

Minelab would never take me up on an offer I made to them to a challenge using my PI detectors against their magic wand the Excalibur. The excaliburs only a waterproof sovereign and tests were dont by myself and a sovereign owner and he could not detect the targets i could on wet sands. That article never got published I guess minelabs advertising was the reason for that.

You never mentioned what machine your using? sure I used to dig up a lot of trash but I always got gold rings.

You also make snide digs at me like, own bank.... never flatten your account, you take that out of context for starters, why i can only guess. But in a way it's true where else can you go and find Gold, apart the the goldfields and that costs heaps in petrol to get too and there's still no guarantee that you will find anything after the expense. I know Iv'e done it too, so dont pull that one on me sport.

As for your buddy down in Britghton only finding 6 rings in a day, at least he's trying and not moaning about it, they are there but you still have to find them and go over them with a machine, then recover them.

The article I put up here was only a very old one. I never mentioned VLF type detectors after I got and used PI's.

I never claimed that anyone should enter this HOBBY as a business venture, it's a hobby nothing more nothing less.
Something you do in your spare time for recreation and its still a rewarding hobby too as many will vouch apart from myself.

There are members on this site who can remember the good old days when some of the guys were finding upto a 100 rings a day and thats no exageration.

My personal best was a mere 21 gold rings in one day which is nothing compared to what the guys in the states were finding and I did have a witness to that too Jack Bosanquat my old mate.

z21rings000a.jpg

If that doesnt do anything for you then maybe this one will.​

hands.jpg

only a bad worker blames his tools or fails to come up with the results, before casting blame on others you should look at your own faults and failures? What are you doing wrong? Are you using a PI? Are you looking in the right places? Are you searching too fast? if so tie your shoelaces together and slow down and use a circlular motion while going over the sweep.
How many targets have you walked over without knowing it?

As the old saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink.

The same as I can promote detecting which I havent done for years and when I get a post such as yours it does nothing to induce me to to help anyone. Get a life mate you have a hobby even if you entered it too late. Your complaining about only making $11.000 out of it. ha ha ha there's guys who pay to play golf and get nothing in return thats their hobby this is yours its your life not mine.

And as for my crap as you call it, if it wasnt for me you wouldnt have that $11,000 and you never had the decency to thank the guy who fed you the information. How mean can you get? Words fail me.
 

chipmonky said:
Hi Allen
Me being a fellow English man am interested to no how you have got on when detecting the beaches
in England.
As you no we have a much bigger tidal range than most of the U.S.
Which leaves 1/2 to a mile of wet sand at low tide do find all the wet sand productive or do you still try to get as far out as possible.
I am off tonight to Fistral to catch the low tide for a all night session.
Thanks for the post loads of good info
Buy the way I am from Cornwall so have been finding the beaches a bit more productive than the fields :icon_thumleft:

Hi Chipmonkey,

First of all my appology for not replying to you earlier, as you can see I had to defend my actions of making people aware of this fantastic and great Hobby. It's one I love with a passion and since day one when I knew of the pleasures the hobby bought myself I decided to share my knowledge and pass on the skills I learnt as I went to others.

I used to have no less than 5 websites up an running in the early days but I guess when you give all this information away for free and not charge anyone a Brass Razoo even a cent. Some people once the know how its done dont like others to know it too so they hack and destroy websites for their own selfish greed.

Now, where were we? Cornwall? yes, it was my favourite beach, in fact I had just taken possesion of a Goldscan P.I. and took it to Townan Beach in Cornwall because it was the most popular and had a history going back to victorian times.

You are right the tide there can go out as far as 1/2 a mile to a mile as well. And as you asked I will tell you how i searched that beach. The first thing is to use a good pair of wellingtons (gum boots ) to the ozzies and americans and over that i had waterproof leggins. Strangely enough the water pressure agains the leggings and wellies is sufficient to make a watertight seal.

Now if your familiar with Towan I used the road leading onto the beach as one of my markers the other one was the pier to the left.
I used to wait for two hours before low tide and go into the water and search a small area there just following the tide as it went out and also as it came back in.

This is where i learnt to use the coil in a circular pattern something i never published or told anyone about before after all I had to keep some secrets to myself if they worked for me. hehehe.

I always came away with a smile on my face except for the last trip I made to Newquay before devoting my time to real treasure hunting on a big scale, when i only came away with coins but there was a lot of sand in at the time.

This is one of the benifits of being in the very shallow water knee deep in that the movement of the water itself actully moves the sand bringing targets into range of the coil. Call it cheating if you like but its using all the skills and knowledge you develop over the years and put them into practice.

The last website I had Alan Hassell the Wizard Maker had over 250.000 hits and Im sure many people who read and absorbed the information on that site took up the hobby as its very popular these days.

My time which is limited these days is taken up with vast amounts of historical research for a book I intend to publish in the near future. After 20 or more years researching British History although others have written their books which are usually based on wrong information its time for the truth to come out.

If I decide to post any of my articles on this site it is done for one reason only and that is to inspire the NEWBIES to the hobby.
I never ask anyone to read my posts on here or anywhere. If they do and they learn something that was usefull great if I get a thank you even better I know i have helped someone and it was appreciated.

The only thing i ever wanted to do was to help other people get into this great hobby. I never asked for anything in return either and never will. I did try Fistral beach once and found a nice seiko watch one day but its not my type of beach but then its horses for courses what turns one person on is another mans poison hehehe
Take care and good luck on the Cornish coast it sure is a great place to stay. Oh, I stayed at the Linton hotel i was only a minute from the beach lol :thumbsup:
 

No chip Allen, but I make no bones about the fact that you are not my kind of guy.

So you reckon I left it too late and have missed the boat?
How so? According to you, "the water is the one place where the gold will never be exhausted, owing to the continuity of supply".

You say one needs luck, know where to look and to know ones machine.
Fair enough. But because most, if not all of us, are not finding 1 carat rings, 1 ounce ingots or 3 ounce chains then clearly your inference is that we are unlucky, dont know where to look or know our machines.

You say that I make snide remarks and have taken your comments out of context.
Untrue. I have merely quoted your own printed claims back at you and have asked you to back them up.
Something you still have'nt done and now appear to be backing away from.

My buddy at Brighton did not get 6 rings in a day, but over a couple of years!
Clearly another unlucky individual who does'nt know his machine. I would have thought that he was in the right spot though as Brighton has been a a popular bathing beach for 150 years or so. Never mind, I'm sure he'll get his act together one day and find all of those hundreds of rings just waiting for him.

Whist its true that you never claimed detecting to be a "business venture", clearly the inference that vast, "inexhaustible" amounts of valuable jewelry could be had for the taking, potentially resulting in large profits if sold. Or is this something your backing away from also?

In response to your reminiscences of the old days of "100 rings a day" as justification for your outrageous claims.
The fact that a very few, a long time ago, in a few select areas did very well from detecting does not justify the ridiculous claims you make.

As for trying to impress me with your photos.
Very impressive indeed!
However, and I could be wrong here, but the second photo, the one of the handfuls of rings.... is that not a photo from an old "Gold Gem and Treasure" magazine? The article was about an English gentleman and his "amazing 6 troy pounds of rings?" Surely your not trying to impress me with the finds of others, are you Allen?
Will see if I can find that old copy and confirm.

So you feel I'm a "bad worker, failing to come up with results, casting blame on others and not looking at my own faults". Interesting comments. Bad worker I might be, not getting the 1 ounce ingots etc. is definitely true but I dont recall laying the blame on others? Must re read my earlier post.
So what am I doing wrong? Lets see.

Firstly, I walk over nothing. I snorkel, face in the water at all times, from knee to up to 8' deep. I work slowly, gridding the areas I work, scrubbing the coil along the bottom at all times over lapping each sweep. I hunt from 6 to 8 hours at a time. The areas I mostly hunt are popular bayside beaches that have a hard bottom covered with a thin layer of sand that "even" an Excalibur can easily penetrate. I hunt mostly in all metal and dig everything. I average over one piece of gold per hunt, but goddam it Allen, I seem to keep over looking those huge chains and ingots and only find mostly 9ct rings averaging 3 1/2 grams. Sigh!
Aha, you say! All the good stuff was found long ago, probably by you.
Except, a few times I've been lucky enough to hit an area that no one has detected before. Why? Unprecedented sand movement uncovering hard bottom areas that normally have 3 to 4' of sand over them. How do I know its virgin? By the sheer volume of pre decimal coins lying around. Even here there is remarkably few gold rings. And still no 1 carat rings etc.
Conclusion. They just are'nt there and will rarely, if ever, be there.

So, in your opinion I've entered to late. Damn!
And as for my "complaint" about only making $11000, actually I said about $13500 Au, you really should read things more carefully, but I digress, its was actually an example of a realistic return for effort if one was prepared to put the hours in.
And yes, it is only a hobby, one that I truely enjoy. I get into the water and seemingly a few minutes later its getting dark when actually 8 hours have flown past.

Lastly, you selfish, self promoting arrogant ......
How dare you suggest that I owe detecting to you?
I have owned detectors for over 30 years, knew all about water detecting long before you used to annoy us all at Oscars and if the truth be know, the reason I did'nt take up water detecting back then was because I did'nt want to have anything to do with you!

And one last thing, you claim to have the best interests of the sport at heart. I find this laughable coming from the man who tried to bully others off Frankston, claiming it as "his" beach and when they continued to hunt there threatened to destroy the area by dumping tons of fine metal trash!

If you must reply, and I'm sure you will, please read and digest all of the above carefully before you do.

Lou.
 

Lou from downunder

No chip Allen, but I make no bones about the fact that you are not my kind of guy.

Im not out to win any popularity competitions for starters only to inform others about the hobby, do i care if you like me or not? The fact you dont like me makes you biased together with your opinions, and boy do you show it on here lol
heard the one about whinging Pom's hehehe now we have whinging aussies ha ha ha.

Lou from downunder
So you reckon I left it too late and have missed the boat?
How so? According to you, "the water is the one place where the gold will never be exhausted, owing to the continuity of supply".
you repeat yourself too: Whist its true that you never claimed detecting to be a "business venture", clearly the inference that vast, "inexhaustible" amounts of valuable jewelry could be had for the taking, potentially resulting in large profits if sold. Or is this something your backing away from also?

Ah I underestimated the intelligence of the general public and their awareness of losing valuables in the sea. Today's tourists being aware of that danger now take their jewellry off before going for a dip hence less losses and less finds to recover.
Also there are more guys out there looking for the same thing as yourself.
No one can foretell what the future holds not even you.

Lou from downunder
Fair enough. But because most, if not all of us, are not finding 1 carat rings, 1 ounce ingots or 3 ounce chains then clearly your inference is that we are unlucky, dont know where to look or know our machines.

Lou you are very short sighted with that remark? has it not occurred to you that others have already found those goodies if they were there in the first place.
Dont blame me for your late entry in the water if I recall you statement, "In 2 1/2 years I've found 154 gold pieces. 350 grams of 9 ct, 150 of 18 ct, about 30 of 8, 14 and 22, plus one 4.2 gram platinum ring. Add about a kilo of silver, a few hundred grams of old predecimal silver and what have you got at todays prices? Around $13,500 Australian, which is about US$11,000. Wow!

In your own words, In 2 1/2 years, you forget about all the other guys that were out there looking for the same stuff you are years before you. You are not the only person detecting around the bay only the first one to have a whinge and blame your own failings on me. Ha ha ha dont make me laugh your a joker, a bitter one at that too.

You only want the big finds and 1 carat gold rings, who doesnt its the luck of the draw in this hobby, dont blame it on me if you dont find any, as many others havent found one either and they are not complaining like a spoil brat who didnt get his way, your true colours are showing Lou. But there are people who do find good jewellry and they put it on forums like this to inform others like I do.
Sour Grapes Lou?

Lou from downunder
My buddy at Brighton did not get 6 rings in a day, but over a couple of years!
Clearly another unlucky individual who does'nt know his machine. I would have thought that he was in the right spot though as Brighton has been a a popular bathing beach for 150 years or so. Never mind, I'm sure he'll get his act together one day and find all of those hundreds of rings just waiting for him.

Brighton Baths was dredged by a couple of guys who took loads of silver to Cyril Kovak and sold it to him, before I even got in the water myself Lou, I avoided the area like the black death after trying the area myself.
I once wrote an article about the many old baths that were in use years ago, one at the bottom of South Rd, another at Elwood, Hampton and many others Im sure the guys who dredged Brighton would of done them too. Thats where research comes in handy something you dont do.

Lou from downunder
In response to your reminiscences of the old days of "100 rings a day" as justification for your outrageous claims.

I was referring to guys in America dont take it out of context Lou, the best I ever did was 21 rings a day. Im sure others bettered that too. your jealous because you havent found that many and it shows, oh, how it shows. signs of a bad loser, whinger and character assasinator too. Ha ha ha get a life Lou.

Lou from downunder
So you feel I'm a "bad worker, failing to come up with results, casting blame on others and not looking at my own faults". Interesting comments. Bad worker I might be, not getting the 1 ounce ingots etc. is definitely true but I dont recall laying the blame on others?

Ha ha ha what a load of hypocritical rubbish hehehe you have me rolling on the floor in fits of laughter hehehe , Bad worker I might be, not getting the 1 ounce ingots etc. is definitely true but I dont recall laying the blame on others? Ha ha ha then dont blame me for your own downfall and failures which is what your doing Lou.

You have shown your true colours by making a personal attack on myself do i care Lou? What have you done for the hobby, how many people have you encouraged to try the hobby out and find out for themselves?

How many articles have you had published, printed and informed others how great this hobby can be? None if any at all.

Do I care what you think about me Lou? Get a life mate I have nothing to hide.
you say,"Lastly, you selfish, self promoting arrogant ...... ha ha ha if I were I wouldnt waste my time and effort explaining my enthusiasm for the hobby and how good it can be regardless of what anyone finds.

I became successful in what I did and had no bones about sharing what I learnt with many others, if I hadn't done it someone else would have in time.

I also believe personal attacks on this forum are frowned on too i dont attack others so keep your biased opinions to yourself.

I hate arguments which you thrive on. I'm not interested in your opinions so go shove them where the sun doesnt shine anymore. LOL

You really ought to try promoting the hobby Lou
 

As rubbish as it maybe for some, It is Gold for others....Thanks for sharing, Good to hear from a OldePirate,...Joe
 

OldeBeechnut said:
As rubbish as it maybe for some, It is Gold for others....Thanks for sharing, Good to hear from a OldePirate,...Joe

Thanks for your post as i said im not here to win popularity competition only to attempt to pass on information that others will enjoy, appreciate and learn something from it nothing more nothing less.

To you its gold and appeciated Knowledge is the key to success whatever the human mind can concieve and believe it can achieve.
The more you learn the more you want to learn because you know in this hobby everything helps to be successfull.
And by the way Im not God I dont have an answer for everything but for those wanting knowledge I will share what I know and learnt the hard way. happy hunting.
 

Guys, enough of the bickering. This is a great hobby and I water/beach hunt because I enjoy it. I sure don't do it to make a living from it, that is way to risky, I enjoy the outdoors and the thrill of seeing gold in my scoop. Alan, thanks for all the info you post, much appreciated. Lou, go water/beach hunting and thank the good Lord that you are able to do that, enjoy the hobby, life is too short guys. I for one enjoy reading Alan's posts, he makes alot of sense. I'm going water hunting tomorrow......HH
 

beachboy said:
Can someone please tell me where the 50-100 rings are? That is all that is important to me :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Sure, check your local beach................ ;D
 

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