Metal Detecting

Hi all i have never ever done river detecting before and have a good chance in doing one so i need all of your advice.......

I have a AT PRO ! so first if any one has a at pro and knows a good setting that would be handy...

second my mate steve who i will be doing it with has a plastic sive scoop thing and there will be two of us doing it ! ( one with detector and the other digging and finding object )

water level should be nice around half foot to a foot.

any advice would be great

Take a fork to loosen the bed before scooping with your plastic sieve scoop. Have fun!

Ironhearted Gog wrote:Take a fork to loosen the bed before scooping with your plastic sieve scoop. Have fun!

Thanks for that Ironhearted Gog ! it all helps as i have never done it before but willing to try and conquer !!!!!!!! lol

im going to be trying river detecting for the first time tomorow night so will be watching this post with interest
and afterwards to see what i did wrong

Keeleyohara wrote:im going to be trying river detecting for the first time tomorow night so will be watching this post with interest
and afterwards to see what i did wrong

Where both put a list together ah lol , im off first thing tomorrow morning ... will post my finds as well even if its full of rubbish .....

good luck Keeleyohara

Start with sensitivity low about 3 bars... tend to be chattery with iron above that I find on my water. be prepared for all sorts and expect signals to change depending on whatever is encrusted around objects. The fork idea is a good one, good stuff tends to be in hard pack or behind rocks. stand upstream when you dig and disturb the silt and let the water clear the cloud before you take another swing. Be prepares for object to move a bit and the best thing to take with you is plenty of Patience.
VERY IMPORTANT >> Take some cleanser or disinfectant with you and wash hands before eating etc you do not want to get Wiels disease which is mainly contracted around the waterline..

Have FUN

well what a fun day it was ! but unfortunatly no treasure ...

For my first impressions on doing river was good fun but very hard work ... we didnt bring a fork in the end and could of really done with it.
after having the machine in for 5 mins it adapted it self to the water temperature, i had it in STD mode with full sensitivity up and all metal mode.
i was walking up stream with the flow running towards me and found this was the best.

over all the machine certainly can handle river very well with no jumping around or playing up, i did see quite alot of trout keeping an eye on us ( should of brought a fishing rod )

by looking into the stream we picked up a couple of bottles and some pottery probably dating any where from late 18th to early ish 19th century. and also 3 coins / 1912 penny / 1939 half penny and a modern day 2p ( found by the bridge it self )

Well we had good fun and it could have been worse I still reckon a fork wouldn't have been much help but was the best place to be on a day as hot as that only a few weeks and we will be on the fields mate

well u did better than i
my at pro didnt get to leave its bag
too many tourists enjoying the sun 9pm came and went and they didnt look like they were leaving so gave it a miss

From the land of the Bluenose....a stronger scoop should be used. Stainless stell is the best and the cash outlay is worth it if you tend to do a lot of water work. Set the Pro in Pro mode zero...good luck!

I use a Minelab Musketeer mounted on a straight shaft with the control box right on the end of the rod and the little 7inch coil on,this gives me the ability to detect in levels upto about 3 feet of water without water entering your control box and the reason for using a small coil is you dont get as much drag from the water.

The reason i use this option is as i dont do river detecting every day you dont have alot of money tied up in a specific waterproof machine,of course if you detect with a ATPro or CTX then you dont have that problem.Once again i also bought a cheap long handle sand scoop from Ebay its not the top top of the range super sexy sand scoop that you can buy but once again if i was doing beaches or rivers all the time then the top of the range scoop would be the way to go,but it works very well and that is all that matters.

I tend to detect up stream so that when you disturb the silt in the bottom of the river/stream it does not cloud your vision into the water as much as down stream,i bought a new pair of neoprene waders from Evilbay as well if you shop around you can buy some superb bargain and although you can use wellies you are restricted by the depth that you can go by the height of your wellies.


So basically you can still enjoy all that river detecting offers but on a shoe string,safety is paramount and you have to be very carefull specially if you are by yourself,may go out later into my local river that has a couple of fords that go back about a 1000 years.

Keeleyohara wrote:well u did better than i
my at pro didnt get to leave its bag
too many tourists enjoying the sun 9pm came and went and they didnt look like they were leaving so gave it a miss

Definatly worth a blast was lovely in the heat of the day !!
My river was in the country so had a good chance in finding something old but nothing come up
in different parts of it though varied on signals and the coins come out by the bridge with the pot and stuff

will certainly go back again and try a different part .......... it beats trying to dig rock hard pasture any way lol

Mega B wrote:I use a Minelab Musketeer mounted on a straight shaft with the control box right on the end of the rod and the little 7inch coil on,this gives me the ability to detect in levels upto about 3 feet of water without water entering your control box and the reason for using a small coil is you dont get as much drag from the water.

The reason i use this option is as i dont do river detecting every day you dont have alot of money tied up in a specific waterproof machine,of course if you detect with a ATPro or CTX then you dont have that problem.Once again i also bought a cheap long handle sand scoop from Ebay its not the top top of the range super sexy sand scoop that you can buy but once again if i was doing beaches or rivers all the time then the top of the range scoop would be the way to go,but it works very well and that is all that matters.

I tend to detect up stream so that when you disturb the silt in the bottom of the river/stream it does not cloud your vision into the water as much as down stream,i bought a new pair of neoprene waders from Evilbay as well if you shop around you can buy some superb bargain and although you can use wellies you are restricted by the depth that you can go by the height of your wellies.


So basically you can still enjoy all that river detecting offers but on a shoe string,safety is paramount and you have to be very carefull specially if you are by yourself,may go out later into my local river that has a couple of fords that go back about a 1000 years.

Cheers for the tips Mega B ............ next time i will go slightly more prepared