I'm swinging both ways from now on

[Water wizard]

Hooray! I found my first silver swinging left handed today I normally swing the Excalibur with my right hand and dig with my left, but I've been hunting so many hours this month that my elbow is a bit tender. When I learnt to juggle I learnt to do all the tricks left and right handed, and now I'm learning to detect both ways. It is hard to swing left handed and also dig right handed, but it has helped my elbow. Does anybody else swing both ways?

 

[mudpuppy]

Ha! Your on the wrong forum with a question like that! nice find!

If we were all honest, and were hunting as hard as you have been, beach hunters have at least once experimented "swinging both ways"...for purely pain avoidance reasons of course!

That said, I learned a good trick working that big expansive sand like you are in...instead of swinging the arm, I swing the whole body...imagine a crouch, slight bend at the knees. swaying side to side at the hips and letting steady momentum propel the coil..little to no arm movement at the elbow, more like guiding the weight of the coil than powering it...almost a 270 degree swath, nearly 4 meters arc...really lets me cover a lot of sand with no pain in any localized portion..just an overall complete workout....

In the water, instead of swinging side to side, I work a "herringbone" pattern...that is to say, I sort of push and pull the coil in sort of a wide "V" out in front of myself...using my body weight and legs to propel the coil out, pull it back in, reverse sides, still swaying at the hips, and driving off my legs..push it out, pull it back in, rock and repeat....and so on and so forth, not fighting the water resistance...nice and steady....probably looks stupid, but who cares? NO PAIN, and huge coverage!.

An elbow just cannot take the strain of a traditional swing in your hunting circumstances for very long...but the complete body (especially the legs) can...you'll get it right away if you try it, you being a danged old circus performer and all...I've not seen a youtube vid that describes this...but you will get it with a little practice just out of avoiding pain if for nothing else. My digging arm does get a little tender at the shoulder, but its on account I have that crappy homemade icecream scoop, and I'm pulling heavy gold all the time with it!

Mud

 

[Water wizard]

Thank you very much Mud, I will try that 'whole body swing' out. I am a water hunter, and so this big beach hunting is a new area in hunting for me. I'm going to hit it for 4 hours tonight at 2 till 6am, I will give it a try. I'm going to stick with swinging both ways, if I could find 2 detectors that didn't interfere with each other I might be able to double detect......

 

[mudpuppy]

Cool! Just sort of crouch and sway side to side...feet should be about a meter apart, knees bent...like when you are walking home from the Pub! Lets call it the "pub stagger" method from now on..you should have plenty of practice in this regard, lord knows I do, so muscle memory will take over, you will say, "bloody hell! this works!" and you will owe me a pint! Wish I was there to help you cover it all..Good Luck Mate!
Mud

 

[Nauti]

Can't swing with my left arm as my left shoulder is full of metalwork from a bike accident.......wish i could though as my swinging arm is getting a bit sore lately,my week away should help a bit.

 

[KinTN]

In the water, I keep my Excal attached to my belt and rotate my body mostly. On the dry, I often swing my left when my right gets tired. I always dig right tho- I set the detector down (in dry).

 

[Water wizard]

Ha ha! Yeah it is weird digging with the other hand, it's like you've never dug before! I suck at it!

 

[Goldrings]

I have to switch it up when the carpel tunnel make my hand go numb. Then have to switch back because I broke my left wrist a few years back. The excals get heavy after awhile.

 

[Water wizard]

Hi Goldrings, Yes I use one and it is heavy, wadermike made me a straight shaft, that made a massive difference. Have you got the arm cup with the strap? That makes a Hugh difference as well.

 

[Goldrings]

Yeah I have a anderson straight shaft with arm cuff with strap and nice padding. I also hip mount the excal now that I put the WOT coil on.That helps alot.