The GT & SEF 15x12 Go Water Hunting

[Critterhunter]

Over the weekend I took my GT for it's first water hunt and had the 15x12 on. I had planned to use the original shaft for this just to avoid any possible issues with my custom lightweight shaft with Whites tall man lower carbon fiber one, but I didn't have time to swap over to stock. Either way, I'm happy to say it held up fine even with the big 15x12 on. I wouldn't recommend this coil for water hunting as it creates a good bit of drag. Sure, it works fine but I bet the 12x10, 10", or Sunray S-12 would be less work to use. I still had the box mounted on the shaft and just stayed in water as deep as between my knees and my waist without problems. Dug a ton of round and square tabs but no rings. The next day I hunted the dry sand at another beach with three friends using Excaliburs. We all got skunked besides a huge pile of tabs and other trash. Around here the swimming season only started about two weeks ago or so so I'd expect the ring count to climb later, but I'm still shocked at all the trash at one beach. These guys aren't doing a very good job of digging all the signals, but then again they might not be using Minelabs.

 

[Critterhunter]

Want to clearify this...The 15x12 works fine under the water but at least with my light weight shaft I found I wasn't able to hunt at the medium sweep speed I find the GT seems to give me the best response on real deep targets at. I was swinging at about what most Sovereign owners say to use....very slow, which is all the drag on this coil would allow me to do. The drag isn't bad, it's just slowing me down a hair more than I like to swing to insure best deep response. Probably with the more robust stock shaft it would slice through the water a little easier as I've also got a little flex in the rubber coil washers (using four) to make up for the wider gap of Minelab coils versus the Whites tall man carbon shaft I had it on. It probably won't be a problem with the stock shaft or for people that prefer that ultra slow sweep speed, but for me it was keeping my speed just a bit lower than what I want to swing it at. I still think the 10", 12x10, or S-12 (or 12.5" Excelerator...both about the same in performance from what I hear) would offer less drag and fatigue. Then again, I hadn't water hunted in years so I don't have anything to compare the drag to. It may be that there isn't much difference in drag between any of these coils, including the 15x12.

 

[Critterhunter]

One more thing for now...When me and my three hunting friends started hunting (them in the water at this particular beach while I stayed on land) this guy came up with a T2 (I think, one of those models from that company) and tried to scare me off the site. Said the Park Rangers were giving him a hassle about permits and so on. Told him I had a permit and that if he didn't mind I'd like to get to my hunting (in so many words). He probably just didn't like 4 guys showing up at "his" spot and wanted to try to shy us away. Also noticed his holes and he is leaving the trash in the sand. No wonder this beach (on the great lakes) is loaded with trash. Makes no sense to have to come back and dig the same targets over and over again.

 

[Critterhunter]

Well I don't use the 15x12 for my water hunting setup because I prefer the less drag of the 10" for the rate of speed I like to sweep, but I figured this would still be the best spot to post my latest water hunt this morning. The waves were big so while my two friends hit the water with their Excals I decided to play it save with my chest mounted GT and hunt the dry sand.

I picked a spot and started gridding, scooping just about every signal I came across. After about my 15th's pass in my grid area I got a nice solid "round" sounding hit. It sounded so different than your typical odd bits of aluminum and other junk that I even thought to myself "not a coin sound but it sounds 'round' and might be something good". I scoop up the sand and spread it out onto the beach (because this sand is a little too heavy to shake out of the scoop easily), take my foot and spread it out thinner when I see the edge of a silver or white gold looking ridge peaking out of the sand pile.

Well it turned out it was stainless steel but still a good looking ring and I was happy to get the thrill of finding any ring, junk or not. It tells me that the dry sand is worth hunting just as much as the wet when it comes to ring potential. In fact, I think I've found more rings on dry sand than in the water thus far with my GT. That ring and about $2 in clads was what I had to show for 3 or so hours of hunting this morning. My two friends got some coins in the water but no rings today. I'm really starting to enjoy hunting the dry sand for rings because of the less effort it takes and the improved odds of rings being found there versus some other land sites. Not to mention it's a quick way to rack up your clad totals. Tomorrow I plan to hit another beach and do a 4 or 5 hour gridding hunt. I could have went another two hours today but my ride was ready to go.