Critterhunter
New member
You should feel lucky, as only a few machines on the market allow the control box to be removed from the shaft and have enough cable length to chest mount for water hunting. Might as well take advantage of it. Even putting cable extensions on other machines is NOT a good idea because water can get in the connection without waterproofing that. No such worries on the Sovereign with it's extra long coil cables, which are meant for water hunting.
OK, had enough of the heat hear in Cleveland. While some places aren't bad to dig at others are like concrete in this kind of dry, but regardless of all that I was just never one to hunt in the hot sun. On a warm sunny day if I do head out it's either stay in the shade of a large tree in an old park and dig every signal I find there above iron (which can take several hours) in the hopes of unmasking an old coin or finding a gold ring or something (there are many varieties of old coins that read lower than 180 too you know), or I head off into the open woods where there is a lot of shade and usually some kind of breeze to keep me feeling decent enough.
But, not on days this hot, and are supposed to be all week, and lacking pretty much any kind of breeze to boot. Time to throw the control box on my water rig (the stock shaft) and get ready for some early morning water hunting. I like to hit the beaches at sunrise so I can hunt 2 or 3 hours before the sun gets high and reflects up at you from the water, as well as avoiding the swimmers. I usually leave when the first beach goers show up. My beaches on lake Erie (about 10 to 20 miles away depending on which beach I hit, of which there are like 5 or so in that mileage range) as well as a super close (about 5 miles or less away) local lake that has a small but decent beach...All of these beaches don't really allow detecting during the swimming season, but the Rangers will put up with you hunting there so long as you get out as soon as a few swimmers show up.
Anyway, just putting it out there. There is a good reason why the control box comes off the shaft you know, and also a good reason why all the coils for the Sovereign (even the aftermarket ones) have a long coil cable...For chest mounting and water hunting. Who else is hanging it up for land hunts until it cools down in a week or two maybe after this heat wave passes. 70's temps are good for me land hunting, but when it starts pushing 80's and into the 90's I'm all about the water hunting thing.
If you don't have a good sand scoop then get one. Not just for water hunting, but also for easy hunting the dry beach. Plenty of rings get lost in the towel line (as they call it) where people hide their rings under the corner of their blanker or one slips off due to sun tan lotion or their fingers shrinking from swimming. Also people playing frisbee, digging in the sand, or playing volleyball or throwing a football around. With the price of gold these days unless you find a key date silver it takes a BUNCH of silver finds to equal the value of just one gold ring. Don't get me wrong, silver is paying pretty good right now (I think it's about 19 times face value), but gold of course is paying a MUCH bigger pay out.
Tonight I think I'll throw my control box in the Minelab chest mount bag for my water rig. My water rig is the stock shaft and stock 10" Tornado coil. Stock arm cup is on that too. Replaced the stock grip with a more comfortable bike end bar and rubber grip cover. MUCH more comfortable.
Here's a few tips...The stock shaft doesn't have the adjustment snap pin holes drilled out on both sides of the shafts. Drill it all the way through so the snap adjustment pin can have both of it's heads (there are two) snap out both sides of the shaft. Takes a ton of slop out of the shaft, which is important for water hunting. That plastic cam lock that is supposed to tighten down and take slop out of the shaft doesn't do NEARLY as good of a job at doing that as just drilling out the shaft so both of the snap pins heads can pop out. You won't believe how much slop that takes out. Be sure not to drill it any bigger than it should be or it won't. Also, stick a measuring tape down the inside of the bottom shaft to measure the distance to the plastic insert that the coil mount has stuck up inside the shaft. Then mark and drill a couple holes on both sides (front and back) of the shaft just a HAIR above that plastic insert. That way the water will drain out of the shaft when you walk out of the water. I like to do that at the front and back of the shaft so that the normal hunting position will at least drain it out of the hole on the back side of the rod.
OK, had enough of the heat hear in Cleveland. While some places aren't bad to dig at others are like concrete in this kind of dry, but regardless of all that I was just never one to hunt in the hot sun. On a warm sunny day if I do head out it's either stay in the shade of a large tree in an old park and dig every signal I find there above iron (which can take several hours) in the hopes of unmasking an old coin or finding a gold ring or something (there are many varieties of old coins that read lower than 180 too you know), or I head off into the open woods where there is a lot of shade and usually some kind of breeze to keep me feeling decent enough.
But, not on days this hot, and are supposed to be all week, and lacking pretty much any kind of breeze to boot. Time to throw the control box on my water rig (the stock shaft) and get ready for some early morning water hunting. I like to hit the beaches at sunrise so I can hunt 2 or 3 hours before the sun gets high and reflects up at you from the water, as well as avoiding the swimmers. I usually leave when the first beach goers show up. My beaches on lake Erie (about 10 to 20 miles away depending on which beach I hit, of which there are like 5 or so in that mileage range) as well as a super close (about 5 miles or less away) local lake that has a small but decent beach...All of these beaches don't really allow detecting during the swimming season, but the Rangers will put up with you hunting there so long as you get out as soon as a few swimmers show up.
Anyway, just putting it out there. There is a good reason why the control box comes off the shaft you know, and also a good reason why all the coils for the Sovereign (even the aftermarket ones) have a long coil cable...For chest mounting and water hunting. Who else is hanging it up for land hunts until it cools down in a week or two maybe after this heat wave passes. 70's temps are good for me land hunting, but when it starts pushing 80's and into the 90's I'm all about the water hunting thing.
If you don't have a good sand scoop then get one. Not just for water hunting, but also for easy hunting the dry beach. Plenty of rings get lost in the towel line (as they call it) where people hide their rings under the corner of their blanker or one slips off due to sun tan lotion or their fingers shrinking from swimming. Also people playing frisbee, digging in the sand, or playing volleyball or throwing a football around. With the price of gold these days unless you find a key date silver it takes a BUNCH of silver finds to equal the value of just one gold ring. Don't get me wrong, silver is paying pretty good right now (I think it's about 19 times face value), but gold of course is paying a MUCH bigger pay out.
Tonight I think I'll throw my control box in the Minelab chest mount bag for my water rig. My water rig is the stock shaft and stock 10" Tornado coil. Stock arm cup is on that too. Replaced the stock grip with a more comfortable bike end bar and rubber grip cover. MUCH more comfortable.
Here's a few tips...The stock shaft doesn't have the adjustment snap pin holes drilled out on both sides of the shafts. Drill it all the way through so the snap adjustment pin can have both of it's heads (there are two) snap out both sides of the shaft. Takes a ton of slop out of the shaft, which is important for water hunting. That plastic cam lock that is supposed to tighten down and take slop out of the shaft doesn't do NEARLY as good of a job at doing that as just drilling out the shaft so both of the snap pins heads can pop out. You won't believe how much slop that takes out. Be sure not to drill it any bigger than it should be or it won't. Also, stick a measuring tape down the inside of the bottom shaft to measure the distance to the plastic insert that the coil mount has stuck up inside the shaft. Then mark and drill a couple holes on both sides (front and back) of the shaft just a HAIR above that plastic insert. That way the water will drain out of the shaft when you walk out of the water. I like to do that at the front and back of the shaft so that the normal hunting position will at least drain it out of the hole on the back side of the rod.
Summer time and the livin is easy 
I think it was the one with the Sharkdapuss (half shark, half octopus). It came up on the beach and grabbed her and that was it. If I remember correctly, she had just found a gold coin and when she got ate, some guy that was watching her picked up the coin, bit it to make sure that it was real, put in his pocket, smiled and walked off. He left the metal detector laying on the beach. What's wrong this that guy, leaving that metal detector behind.