Help on choosing stainless steel for scoop please

[Habanero]

I'm about to order a scoop for water hunting in lakes with the rare trip to the coast for beach/water hunting. My lakes will mostly consist of clay beds covered with thin layers of silt, sand or mud with some small rocks often present. I have the chance to get holes that are 1/2" or 3/8" as well in the stainless steel scoop. Also, I have the chance to get the scoop in either 304 stainless steel or 431 stainless steel. The manufacturer told me the 431 would be the better choice if I could wait a few weeks for the materials but I wanted opinions here as well. Anyone use these different types of stainless steel or know a little something about them and can impart some facts or first hand experience? Which would you go with and why? Also, for my type of hunting, I thought I would ask your feedback on the hole size as well; they are the hexagonal punched holes by the way. I appreciate your feedback, thank you!

 

[John(Tx)]

Some of the beaches I hunt do have a clay bed and that makes for some tough digging. For those beaches I use a nuttail diamondhead scoop with 5/8" holes. For the sandy beaches I use an RTG 6"x11" aluminum scoop. I also have the 6" RTG 6"x11" stainless but like the nuttail better, it's heavier but cuts thru the clay so much better. Went hunting yesterday to the clay bed beach, found 19 quarters, 14 dimes, 9 nickles, 26 pennies, one silver wrist bracelet, 1 SS ring, 2 silver rings and 3 gold rings. Not a bad day, my hunting partner fared just as well as I did finding 6 rings also and more coins than I did. I'll post a pic later. HH John

 

[John(Tx)]

The ring with the emeralds (?) has two little diamonds on each side and is 10k, one band is 10k, the other is 14k, two rings are .925, 1 is stainless and the wrist bracelet is silver. This beach has a thick clay bottom and is hard digging but the nuttail diamondhead scoop dug in pretty good. HH John

 

[Habanero]

Hey John, super nice finds man!!! I never had a day like that at the lake but I just started last summer for water hunting so I am still after my first gold but I've hit silver a few times. I've got a different machine now and hopefully a new scoop soon before it warms up more enough to wade. I'm in Tx as well but I don't own waders and not sure I fancy wading past my knees just yet if you get my meaning. I'm looking at a do it all scoop for now but most important to me is lighter weight than my last scoop (stealth), strength and cleaning ability. I don't know about the lake/lakes you hunt but this one I have to break the clod of clay with my hand because I can shake it til my arm falls off and It's still a big heavy lump in my scoop. If I had the funds then I would go your route and have a scoop for the occasion as well. Of course, if I had days like you just posted with your finds then I could do that and see an excal coming my way, great job again!

 

[PowerDetecting]

Either size of the SS will be fine one will be a little heavier than the other being that one is thicker gauged. If you are young go for the thicker gauge because you have to go through some rocks. As far as hole size that is your preference. I do not like too small of holes because that small stuff is most of the time junk and even if it is a small gold stud earring it is not worth much so in my opinion I would personally go with bigger holes. My scoop is 3/8 and I like it. If a target falls through my scoop I will try 1 more time to keep it in the scoop if it falls through I move on. you should be fine with 1/2 or 3/8. Both will lose the stud earring sized stuff but a dime wont fall through it. GL HH

 

[John(Tx)]

What part of Texas are you in? I live in Angleton, just south of Houston. The area we hunt is a bay on the Gulf, the clay is just thick and heavy, not in clods which helps alot. This time of year, the tides are extremely low, alot lower than summer tides, areas that are underwater during the summer are exposed which makes it easier to hunt. During the summer we go in to our chest to hunt, that's where we find the better rings. This past summer, my hunting partner and I pulled out about 35 rings with about 20 been gold, not to mention the bracelets and other jewelry. This is the best hobby around. Good luck on your hunts. John

 

[Habanero]

What part of Texas are you in? I live in Angleton, just south of Houston. The area we hunt is a bay on the Gulf, the clay is just thick and heavy, not in clods which helps alot. This time of year, the tides are extremely low, alot lower than summer tides, areas that are underwater during the summer are exposed which makes it easier to hunt. During the summer we go in to our chest to hunt, that's where we find the better rings. This past summer, my hunting partner and I pulled out about 35 rings with about 20 been gold, not to mention the bracelets and other jewelry. This is the best hobby around. Good luck on your hunts. John

John, I'm around the Bryan/College Station area south of Waco. I get down to Galveston every chance I get but that turns out to be about once per year due to family, school, job constraints. I don't have a great saltwater machine either in the AT Pro but if I ever get to where my hobby that I do for fun starts making me some money with finds then I might be looking at an excal as a dedicated water machine. For now I am relegated to a local lake but hope to branch out as this one has not produced anything great so far. I suppose it depends on how many trips you put in, how long your'e out, your experience, hunting techniques and good old fashioned luck. I had a rough go of it this last summer; I had difficulty pin pointing since I was brand new to the water and I would chase targets on average 10 mins per target. I mostly found it easier to just go knee deep then feel around with my hands because I would get so frustrated with chasing targets with the scoop I had. Anyway, going back into it this summer with a fresh mindset, different equipment including a different scoop once I nail down just the right one and cross my fingers it starts coming together for me. Sounds like you had a great summer! I can't imagine pulling that kind of precious metal out of the water but if you did it then maybe my first gold will find itself caught in my scoop this summer.

 

[Water wizard]

Hi habanero,
I only have one scoop as well, it is stainless but not sure what type......I sweep the target one way, east to west, then turn and sweep it north to south. Once I've pinpointed it I put the inside of my left foot right next to where the target is, and put my scoop down alongside the heel of my foot and dig it in with my right foot. Before I lift the scoop up I put my left foot back in place, so that I can go straight back to the right place if the target isn't in my scoop. If its not in there I sweep again and work out if the target has moved by the sound it makes. You can get very accurate like this, gauging how far along your foot the target is, so you only make the smallest of holes. If its a tough one to recover after a couple of tries I will turn 90 degrees and dig across my last attempts. This technique works well for me. Lining the scoop up along the instep of your foot and pressing it in ensures that you are right on the target, and its easy to get right back to it if its not there first go. Turning 90 degrees can help with those tricky targets. Good luck, your first gold is coming.......water wizard

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Here's a pix of my stainless steel scoop. It is customized by me to have a pistol grip and arm-cup, so-as-to have single arm operation. The fellow I got this from sells on ebay, and has a "store" there. He goes by the name: Borderlineengineering and can perhaps do some custom features, if you need, and communicate with him on spec's. (like if you wanted diff. hole sizes/mesh, based on answers you're getting here).

 

[Water wizard]

Nice scoop Tom! I recon the handle on it is very useful, wish mine had one.....

 

[Habanero]

Thats not a bad looking scoop you have there. I wonder what it goes for as far as weight?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I don't have a scale readily handy right where I'm at (that would do sub-units of pounds anyways, to get exact). But here's a way to find out, and some notes on that subject: As I said, the particular scoop started as a long-handled readily available one from ebay. And the seller has a store there, as I said. If you go to his listings, find one of his long-handled scoops, and .... if I'm not mistaken, he has the weight listed right there. Then what I did: When I got it, I cut the last 3" of it off with a hack-saw. Then had an employee of mine, who has stainless welding ability, attach that portion to become a pistol grip. So then, in essence, the only weight added thus far, would be whatever solder it took, and the bicycle grip plastic sleeve thing.

Then the arm-cuff weight, whatever that is. You can either fashion scrap metal (about the thickness of sheet-metal tin, that's bendable with mere hand fashioning). Then I used some bailing wire to use as the top part (to keep my arm from flopping out). And then the two bolts and nuts to hold the arm-cuff to the end.

HOWEVER, when I made my order from the ebay fellow, he customized mine, and used a lighter gauge stainless steel pipe/rod. And did NOT put in the "foot-push" bracket. And went a little lighter on the brace-rod. All those things lightened it up (so my starting weight would be lighter than the ones in the ebay ads, perhaps). And... in my opinion, did not compromise the strength. He said that some of his customers wanted the extra strength (because they "pry", for example), and that weight wasn't as much of an issue to them (because they use two hands, and were not intending to make it a single arm-use-device). So I took a gamble and custom ordered one, to lighten up on those couple of factors. And no matter how hard my down-swing, it's every-bit-as strong as I'll ever need.

 

[Habanero]

Thanks Tom, I looked him up but he does not have any of those water scoops built at this time but I saved his information in case I decide to ask him if he can work one up for me.

 

[Ron Lord]

I have a S3i Stealth scoop with a 1.5 inch alum. handle 5 feet long , it weight is 7 lbs . The handle is filled with foam and it floats.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Well, what you saw in my original pix, was some of my own customization of that seller's scoops. So, no, you won't see one in full hip-mount style like that. I don't know of anyone who sells this pistol-grip and arm-cup style. You have to take one of this regular long-handled types, and modify it yourself. If he has no current listings, just go to his store and click on contact us, and tell him the spec's you want.

And if you decide to modify like I did to mine, there's several critical measurements, to match your height and arm-length (elbow to grip, etc...) and angle of basket, etc.... Because if you don't have those right, you'll hate this type scoop. But ........the list of those spec's is a different thread

 

[Habanero]

Oh ok, makes better sense now Tom. I was looking for one similar to what you had in your pics. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but wish I had access to welding/cutting equipment, a punch and sheet metal roller.....I would just make my own!