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Metal Detecting in Rivers??? Need your help! :unsure:

P

Phillip_in_NM

Member
We have a river nearby that has seen a lot of tubing, kayaking and rafting action this year due to the inordinately hot weather. The river is maybe 5 feet at its deepest, has a mostly rocky bottom and a temperature of about 60-65 degrees. On any given weekend, hundreds of water sporters floated the river with most getting in at one of three locations. While I already am planning to hunt the entry points with my land detector, I thought I might break in my AT Pro to some fresh water action by hunting the first hundred feet or so downstream from each of the entry points.

My usual hunting companion seems to think it will be largely a waste of time. He says that any jewelry lost would be quickly covered by the silt carried down the river, that finding jewelry among the rocks would be very difficult and that we would probably only be finding very recently lost items.

I have zero experience on this concept, but I knew I could tap into a huge amount of experience on this forum.

Please tell me your thoughts on this subject.
 
Depends on the size of the gravels. Can you dig them with a scoop or are they too big? How is the visibility; could you snorkel and see the bottom to kneel down and search?

Tourists, sunscreen and water are a GREAT combination for losing jewelry.
 
little experience in rivers. The river close to me has way too much trash in it to even try to take a detector in it. You can find things amungst the rocks I do it all the time. BUT I dive. I just move the rocks and get my items and its super easy. Covered by silt would be wonderful for you. Detectors see past it but the eyes looking for the item can't. A great way to know things will be there. Is the current strong? As someone else mentioned can you snorkel? I stir up a ton of silt in some of the places I dive. I carry a small mesh bag with me at all times. I get a target, take handfuls of muck and silt off the bottom and wave it in front of my coil. Get a signal in my hand, transfer the handful to the bag, hold the top shut and swish it around in the water, all that is left is a target and some small rocks. To me that river would be a great prospect. I would try snorkeling in shallow water up to 3' and just see what you can do. Fan the silt off the bottom if there is a strong enough current and move the rocks around. At some of my great beaches I have found coins and rings inbetween large and small rocks. NO scoop can get into some places I play.
 
During the summer, my relic hunting partner and I hunt a gravel bottomed river. We primarily hunt for Civil War relics, but when it gets so hot and muggy here in south Arkansas..... we turn to the water and the old country swimming holes. About the jewelry being washed down stream...... nope! We have found H.S. class rings dating back to 1925....... found basically where they were lost "back in the day". Gold and silver jewelry seems to be heavy enough, that it drops to the bottom, and even the winter bank-full waters moving downstream don't seem to dislodge the rings and coins, etc. We have also found that these swimming holes were almost without exception..... an old river crossing..... most dating back to the Civil War. We have found coins dating back that far, as well as Civil War bullets and other relics. We have even found C.W. bullets that have been shaped or hammered into fishing weights. We use Detector Pro machines and Long-Handled scoops to scrape the gravel and whatever the target is up..... and have a great time.
 
Rings have no surface like coins and most junk. They sink and might move in swift water.... but weigh 10 times as much as sand. A lot depends on how swift the water is, type of bottom, and maybe how close it is to a road. Lots of trash get tossed out windows. Crevices and shallow light sand bottoms are great to keep heavier items in place. The key to metal detecting is detect where other havent. Old swimming holes and boating areas are good. If you have ever been in the water much you know you best have a zipper on your pockets or the water will turn your pockets inside out..... you loose stuff. Why would you not take a day to hunt an area if you have the equipment?

Dew
 
A good waterproof probe will help, like the Vibraprobe, which is waterproof down to several feet deep.

When the people immerse their hands in the cold water, their skin contracts, and off come the rings. If there are any "rapids" areas where people get tossed off the tubes, or if there are any areas where people are using their hands a lot to paddle for direction change, either to enter or avoid rapids, well, these areas will produce for you as well.

Digging in the bottom of the river? Well, if the River has a rock bottom, it will be very difficult with a scoop; matter of fact, you might want to consider one of you detecting targets, then one of you on snorkel moving rocks, using the probe, and fanning, especially if there's any current at all.

Again, if there's any current to speak of, it can be difficult for one person to manage a detector, probe, recovery tools, bag, etc., and actually recover stuff deep in the river bottom. As others mentioned, the gold will settle and "hold" where it hits the bottom, then start working its way down over time, just like a gold nugget would, because of its specific gravity.

All that being said, tell your buddy that he's wrong. Why I don't know, but there are a LOT of people who wear their jewelry in the water.

I might be going out on a limb here, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised at your success in shallow waters where tubers float down the river.

Hope this helps.
 
The Rivers in Ga. have allot of rocks of all sizes. It is allot of extra work with the rock, not like the sand bottoms here in Fl., but that means less competition. I have done very well hunting the entry and exit points. Hunt areas where people grab each other to pull closer together, like rapids and big rock areas they rip off bracelets and rings trying to hold onto each other. Good luck and post some pics. of the River and your Gold. watch out for floating logs, they can hurt. HH!!
 
Finding old class rings is great. Like a piece of time captured. HH. -Joe


SoArk said:
During the summer, my relic hunting partner and I hunt a gravel bottomed river. We primarily hunt for Civil War relics, but when it gets so hot and muggy here in south Arkansas..... we turn to the water and the old country swimming holes. About the jewelry being washed down stream...... nope! We have found H.S. class rings dating back to 1925....... found basically where they were lost "back in the day". Gold and silver jewelry seems to be heavy enough, that it drops to the bottom, and even the winter bank-full waters moving downstream don't seem to dislodge the rings and coins, etc. We have also found that these swimming holes were almost without exception..... an old river crossing..... most dating back to the Civil War. We have found coins dating back that far, as well as Civil War bullets and other relics. We have even found C.W. bullets that have been shaped or hammered into fishing weights. We use Detector Pro machines and Long-Handled scoops to scrape the gravel and whatever the target is up..... and have a great time.
Click to expand...
 
Great responses everyone. I knew I could count on you. I'm absolutely going to detect it. I really like the idea of one detecting and one finding. We typically split our gold finds whenever we hunt together anyway. I will let you know how we do. Thanks for all the info and feel free to leave more.

HH

Phillip
 
I use the vibraprobe, it works very well with a snorkel and goggles, caution , get a high power magnet to check your target first if you can,t see it, in fresh water lakes and some streams I have found plenty of lures and rusted hooks, a jab from one of these is not nice
 
signal to make a hole. UNLESS it is muck. Then I do but I do it very carefully. I have had run ins with shotgun shell bottoms, glass, zebra mussels and and rusted cans before. NOT fun.
 
I live near a tubing river and have seen the bottom up close. There are 10 million pull tabs, discarded lighters , and cans in the bottom of a tubing river. Not to mention infinite broken pieces of glass from bottles discarded by drunk tubers. Not even the best metal detector in the world can find anything in such a high concentration of trash. You will literally dig 1000 pull tabs and still not find gold. You may find a few dropped clad coins at entry points but that's it. I see guys try, fail miserably, and never come back. Please post your experience. I'd love to hear it.
 
This post was a long time ago and I wonder how you made out. Lot's of people, lot's of jewelry. The At/Pro can find jewelry among the trash, especially in pro zero mode.
 
Yes...long time ago post but very relevant feedback from everybody...I learned a lot.:please:..I see those tubers on the rivers around here every once in a while post they lost a gold ring in the river....makes perfect sense! There you are, floating in a tube, drinking, on a hot day in cool water, paddling around, splashing and drinking...perfect recipe for a ring losing scenario! I often wonder if a fellow just puts on a mask and wetsuit, and floats with the prevailing current if a guy could eyeball a big chain or ring? Our rivers are crystal clear generally...bet a fellow would see all sorts of stuff...maybe give that a try this year, I might...
Mud
 
Como651 said:
I live near a tubing river and have seen the bottom up close. There are 10 million pull tabs, discarded lighters , and cans in the bottom of a tubing river. Not to mention infinite broken pieces of glass from bottles discarded by drunk tubers. Not even the best metal detector in the world can find anything in such a high concentration of trash. You will literally dig 1000 pull tabs and still not find gold. You may find a few dropped clad coins at entry points but that's it. I see guys try, fail miserably, and never come back. Please post your experience. I'd love to hear it.
Click to expand...
I second that! I just snorkeled a freshwater spring a few weeks ago! 10-15 pieces of clad and 9 billion beavertails/ pulltabs later I was so tired I gave up! I was using the Excal and the tabs sounded so good! May take the CTX and give it another whirl to see if I can do a very tight notch on tabs just to see what happens.
 
It doesn't matter how many pieces of trash you dig. I have a spot I call bullet beach. LOADED with 30-06, 45, 50 cal and 30 carbine bullets and shells. TONS AND TONS of them. I still find platinum, gold and silver there and nobody else touches it. I have pulled out over 2 five gallon buckets of 30-06 casings from WW1 biplanes. I go back all the time. The bullet heads drive me crazy BUT I still have to get them. Keep going back, take out all the trash you can and just keep at it. Sooner or later you will get most of the trash.

WARNING. Don't tell any other detefctorists what your up to. Once its clean or mostly clean, they will be vultures just after the good stuff. Most right now won't go near a place like that.
 
Check out aquachiggers videos on youtube. He has river detectin down to a science and uses the AtPro
and AtGold. I would definately be checking those areas out.
 
Yeah, that Aquachigger video pushed me right over the edge! I even made my Wife watch it so I could justify getting one!:rofl: Good thing too...:thumbup:
Mud
 
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