Minelab Excalibur series tips, settings, questions

[Robert Le Mal]

Hi Silver,

I could only dream of some sort of "sea hoover" that would just dredge everything up a hose and spew it onto a sorting mesh on a boat on the surface. Main problem is I don't have a boat and I'm pretty sure it would make a hell of a mess, on the upside I reckon it would deliver all sorts of cool stuff.

When I figure out a way of recovering stuff while diving I'll definitely put a video up. I am hoping someone on the forum also dives & detects - tips would be great.

 

[silver]

here is a photo of it Robert.

 

[Robert Le Mal]

cool - looks the business

 

[the duck]

hate to throw a dampener but its also illegal to dredge in the bay
used to be done but some caused to much damage need a licence now

 

[Robert Le Mal]

fair enough too, would make a real mess and visibility in the bay is not good at the moment.

 

[Sandta]

Gday Robert, ive been thinking about the diving thing for a while myself..
I used to dive when i was younger .. Started at age 12 living overseas
That vacuum dredge idea , boat up top seemed the best idea to me too , but assumed ,as stated by Duck ,to be too good to be acceptable. typical...
I suppose that each hunting area would have to be worked in a manner suited to that particular spot . What may work in one spot may not work in another. Tides , currents ,depths , run off , fresh/salt etc
Maybe a fine chicken wire mesh codd end type basket dragged around with you and a small hand scoop , 'just' empty scoop into basket ... Then the surprise ,good or bad, will be when you get out and see what you got
Just a thought
By the way ... This technique may work better in Tassie
:lol: For those with an extra appendage :lol:

 

[silver]

You'd have to end up looking like Audie Murphy,...going in with two guns blazing(ha),...the photo above is not the actual one that I was looking for, it(the proper one) has an in built battery and a nice little basket at the top, and would be good in clear water that has a nice clean deep sandy bottom,... but like duck says dredging is a no go, I suppose that's why they made it a hand held unit for treasure recovery(to get around the dredging issue) as all you do is push it in above the target,..just need it in plastic and attached to the under water detector at the rear of the stem so you only have to detect then suck and check again to see if it's gone(wishful thinking),..be good if static electricity worked under water so you could make the cloud of muck and mud coalesce and drop to the bottom instead of floating away and obscuring visibility,...but you'd end up having to lug some monster apparatus under water with you just to nicely pull out the goodies,...looking from above you'd end up being in the only clear spot around you(ha). This is what you get when you drink Grants Scotch Whisky and Mescal Tequila shots and finish of with a shot of Midori(all strait, who wants to wreck it with fizzy), ya just start rambling in the morning(ha),..that was, a good bit of Christmas Cheer.

 

[Robert Le Mal]

Hey Silver & Sandta I'll keep working on my recovery methods, if I come up with something that works I'll post a video or an image.

At the moment I'm waiting on a full face mask (the one I ordered looks like something out of a horror movie, but it was the cheapest). My moustache causes normal masks to slowly flood, which means I'm clearing the mask every few minutes - very annoying. Believe it or not but vaseline under the nose does reduce water leaking in but doesn't stop it. Vaseline is not good for silicone but meh... it's an old mask I had from when I used to dive as a younger bloke.

Happily the warm weather means more people in the water, so I'm watching the tides and then I'll be wading until I got my underwater detecting stuff sorted.
Have fun on the beaches, it's only going to get better from here.

 

[jamie]

it may be a little cumbersome but what about using a bait pump and dumping it into a mesh type basket, i haven't tried it myself but may work

 

[Robert Le Mal]

hi Jamie,

that might work, however the problem with neutral buoyancy is that you tend to wiggle all over the place if you try much more than fanning.
I could take a different approach, load myself down with lead like old school divers and walk on the bottom - in that case the bait pump might work or I could try using my stainless scoop.

Thanks for the idea. I'm sure there's a solution to be found somewhere.

 

[Mac urban]

G day Robert it was good to meet u today and cheers for the info look forward to see what u filmed this morning.
Cheers Andrew...

 

[Robert Le Mal]

Hi Andrew,

did you score anything more after I took a dive?
Water viz was rubbish, had to cut myself free from some fishing line but otherwise not exciting. I might put a video up but not here since I wasn't detecting.

I'm not even going to post what I found at Altona early this morning - all modern coin & sinkers, nothing exciting and frankly dissappointing since the sand has moved in over my favourite spot.

Happy to bring the CTX along at some point, either to the beach or an old homestead, so you can have a go. Let me know & we'll line something up.

Also "If" you get into diving & detecting I have a second hand bcd that you could have super cheap like

Nice to randomly pump into another detecting addict.

ps get out of the waders and into one of your wetsuits, the water was beautiful.

Robert

 

[Mac urban]

G day robert yeah I know about the waders I left my wetsuits down at my caravan at torquay should be going there in next couple of days so they'll be coming back to Melbourne with me thats for sure in regards to my finds for the morning pretty crapy just a few more coins , I agree we should line something up like u said it's always good to met another detecting nut and I'm definitely getting into the scuba seen for sure , also what is a bcd ? The learning curve has already started cheers once robert.

 

[Robert Le Mal]

BCD = buoyancy control device. Your tank/cylinder is usually attached to it, pretty much does what the label says. I hang my finds bag, small digging tool and a few other bits from it. I got a good deal on a travel one (lighter & easier for taking places) which is what I was testing this morning (working on trim & buoyancy). As a result I have a Sherwood BCD that's done less than 10 dives that I don't need.

Let us know when you get the wetsuit.
Nothing wrong with waders but when I'm using a wetsuit (in warmer weather no need) I work right up to my chest in water.

 

[Mac urban]

Cool another thing learnt today , the missus, kids amd myself stopped in at willy around 10 o'clock tonight and it was bloody busy there was a woman in knee deep water shining a torch down in the water Mmmmm wonder what she lost , also what's the bcd going for? Some bloke was already detecting there also.
Cheers

 

[Robert Le Mal]

yeah I think Williamstown gets hit a lot - that's why I wade as deep as I can on low tide.
I'll message you about the bcd & diving stuff so I don't clog up the forum.

 

[Robert Le Mal]

and talking about scoops, I think I said I'd post a link...... so here's a link to the scoop I got.

http://goannagolddetectors.com.au/review/product/list/id/246/category/49/

unfortunately I can't see a price and I can't remember exactly what I paid for mine. Not cheap but it works, I use it mercilessly and haven't bent or busted it yet.
Don't know how I lived without it

 

[Ramjet]

When you click "Add to cart" the price comes up. $175. Plus postage I assume.

 

[Mac urban]

Pm sent Robert

 

[Robert Le Mal]

Hi Ramjet - that sounds about right.