Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Noob looking for underwater detector

Ship wrecks in the area

Tom_in_CA said:
David, I love reading your insights to the Philippines . Since you have connections to there :)

Question: I know this post has to do with fumble fingers coins/jewelry . But the subject of "shipwrecks" also crept in. So: In your opinion, is there a lot of cultural superstition/belief in treasures there , with the Philippine people ? Eg.: Treasure stories here and there, Yamashita, etc..... ?

Most of the time, whenever we see , on a forum from someone in the Philippines, it's typically about big-ticket-treasures. Not beaches or coin-shooting.
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Since he is planning on scuba diving and under water detecting that area , most of the ships listed are Japanese from World war II and in fairly shallow waters . The area is considered to be really great diving and interesting with lots to see .. With a good detector he might find a few good war relics in the area of those ships but i doubt any thing that would be considered a treasure. With the water being fairly shallow there i imagine anything of real value has long been salvaged. There are sunken ships all over the Philippines from the Japanese and the Americans as well as the Spanish over the years but many of those are in much deeper water.
 
Ship wrecks in the area

Tom_in_CA said:
David, I love reading your insights to the Philippines . Since you have connections to there :)

Question: I know this post has to do with fumble fingers coins/jewelry . But the subject of "shipwrecks" also crept in. So: In your opinion, is there a lot of cultural superstition/belief in treasures there , with the Philippine people ? Eg.: Treasure stories here and there, Yamashita, etc..... ?

Most of the time, whenever we see , on a forum from someone in the Philippines, it's typically about big-ticket-treasures. Not beaches or coin-shooting.
Click to expand...

here is a short video of so divers exploring the inside of one https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...398D551C9226BFF9FFA3398&view=detail&FORM=VIRE as far as i know most of the ships were suppling troops with supplies when sank , no treasure associated with them as far as i know.
 
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davidlhyde63366 said:
here is a short video of so divers exploring the inside of one https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...398D551C9226BFF9FFA3398&view=detail&FORM=VIRE as far as i know most of the ships were suppling troops with supplies when sank , no treasure associated with them as far as i know.
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David, thanks for the info. I can't believe that I've never heard of these shipwrecks. I'm wondering how the people or government would take somebody going down there with a detector, especially a foreigner.
 
ship wrecks

Dirty Dirt said:
David, thanks for the info. I can't believe that I've never heard of these shipwrecks. I'm wondering how the people or government would take somebody going down there with a detector, especially a foreigner.
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they have lots of tour companies that will take you right to the site to dive , no problem , how many of them make their living. Here is another site to check out on diving there, https://divezone.net/diving/coron-palawan , no problem getting to the sites. Another site that shows the names and locations of many of the ships sank in the Philippines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_Asia#Philippines
 
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Don't know if you made it to Corregidor when you were there in the Philippines before , but a lot of history there a great source of information is this site. https://corregidor.org/ I believe the whole place is off limits to detecting but worth seeing. That is on my wish list for future visits .
 
davidlhyde63366 said:
.... no treasure associated with them as far as i know.
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Yes, obviously not. For some reason the mere word "shipwreck" conjurs up images of $$ to the average mind. No doubt d/t the Mel Fisher story fame. But the truth is, there are shipwrecks all over the world, all of which are merely industrial trawlers, cargo, military, pleasure-craft, etc.... that had/have nothing at all to do with the type of thing that Mel sought. His was the exception. And of course military shipwrecks had nothing at all to do with $$.

Dirty Dirt said:
... I'm wondering how the people or government would take somebody going down there with a detector, especially a foreigner.
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Who the heck is under the water watching what a scuba diver is doing ? :?:
 
diving ship wrecks there

Tom_in_CA said:
Yes, obviously not. For some reason the mere word "shipwreck" conjurs up images of $$ to the average mind. No doubt d/t the Mel Fisher story fame. But the truth is, there are shipwrecks all over the world, all of which are merely industrial trawlers, cargo, military, pleasure-craft, etc.... that had/have nothing at all to do with the type of thing that Mel sought. His was the exception. And of course military shipwrecks had nothing at all to do with $$.



Who the heck is under the water watching what a scuba diver is doing ? :?:
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If you go back and check http://scubatechphilippines.com/scuba_blog/the-shipwrecks-of-coron-wreck-diving-philippines/ it gives you most of the details on each ship most were a convoy of supply and cargo ships as they went down i imagine all kinds of things dropped in the area including weapons and military gear , not sure how good of shape they would be in by now might be hard to identify . The local authorities are not going to care who dives there since the diving tours a a big source of income there for the local economy. Sure you could dive with a bigger group or charter a boat and crew and guide and dive all day for fairly cheep . A site that shows some of the diving tour companies in the area you can checkout , sure there are many more https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...Palawan_Island_Palawan_Province_Mimaropa.html
 
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Man made forest

Dirty Dirt said:
I lost most of my pictures because they were in my old phone but I'll surely post some when I get back. El Nido doesn't even look real in pictures and seeing it in person is even better. I've been to both Cebu and Bohol. If you're ever on Cebu island be sure to check out the whale sharks down in Oslob. It may be just as fast getting there from Dumaguete via the ferry that goes directly to Oslob. It's well worth the trip. I only spent about a day and a half in Bohol. We took a driving tour with a local that lasted a little over half a day. It was worth it but I didn't see much to keep me on Bohol for any longer than that. We went to the chocolate hills, a rope bride, man made forest and a couple of other places. Mostly just tourist traps. Man made forest just looks like a typical forest. I asked the driver what was so special about it. He said because all of the trees there were hand planted, ummmmmm.... Ok? Lol.
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Got to say i wasn't that impressed with the man made forest either but wife and family all had to stop and take some selfies :laughing:
 
Some war history as well as island history

Here is some information on the land battle there in World War 2 from some of the places mentioned might give you some areas to detect for relics ( Japanese helmets and gear can go for some pretty good bucks on ebay )https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Palawan Also a link that gives some Islands history and a cool picture of a old Spanish fort there.https://www.tikigo.com/tips/palawan-history/ be cool if you could detect around this old fort https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...ationId=101&albumid=101&filter=7&ff=402098114
 
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moving to the Philippines

Dirty Dirt said:
Hey guys. I'm new here. I've been looking through the posts here for a while and finally decided to join. A little background: several years ago I tried to get into metal detecting. I impulse bought a bounty hunter platinum detector at Cabela's just because it was there. I never really got into it much because I was too busy with other things. I do remember that I really didn't care much for all the adjustments and digital readout, probably more than anything was because I just didn't have a clue as to what I was looking at.

Fast forward to today, I'm in a unique situation. I had a baby born over in the Philippines in March, got laid off due to this covid, had a tree completely destroy my house in hurricane Laura, and bought some land over on Palawan island in the Philippines. I'm going to be moving there before the end of the year. I want to get back into metal detecting. I already bought a Tesoro Vaquero for general use on land. I love the fact that it doesn't have all the digital readouts and seems to be easy to adjust. Let me know if my choice was bad.

I'm also wanting to get another detector solely for beaches and shallow water. I already ordered a wedigout smaller handheld underwater units with no adjustments to use while scuba diving and snorkeling. I ordered it off of Amazon based on reviews. Now for my shallow water / beach unit, after a lot of research, had decided to try to find a Tesoro sand shark. Well they're next to impossible to find now. I do have a lead on one but it's halfway across the country and the transaction seems a little sketchy to me so I held off and did more research. It seems like the more I search the more confusing this becomes. I've now looked into the white's surfmaster and beach hunter, which are also very hard to find. I've looked at the excalibur 2 and the Garrett sea hunter. So many choices.

Can y'all help me out here? This is almost Greek to me lol. I'm sure any of the above would do but I'm looking for good quality. A company being out of business, or a model being discontinued has no affect on my decision as I'm going to be too far away to try to get warranty work done anyway. I'm very open to getting a second hand unit as long as it fits my needs. Thanks
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Not sure if they are going to lift the travel restrictions over there by the end of the year , most areas still very locked down both air travel and boat travel. Are you planning on shipping some of your stuff ahead by box ? I have shipped one of my detectors ahead by box depending on where you live about 2 months by boat. That is the cheapest way to get your stuff there . If you are going to build a house over there i would have it done in both voltages 110 and 220 . When we had our place remodeled we did that just used diffrent colored out let covers to keep from damaging 110 volt stuff. Plugging 110 into 220 fries it quick.:laughing:
 
davidlhyde63366 said:
Not sure if they are going to lift the travel restrictions over there by the end of the year , most areas still very locked down both air travel and boat travel. Are you planning on shipping some of your stuff ahead by box ? I have shipped one of my detectors ahead by box depending on where you live about 2 months by boat. That is the cheapest way to get your stuff there . If you are going to build a house over there i would have it done in both voltages 110 and 220 . When we had our place remodeled we did that just used diffrent colored out let covers to keep from damaging 110 volt stuff. Plugging 110 into 220 fries it quick.:laughing:
Click to expand...

I'm currently awaiting my visa. I know once I get there I may be stuck on Luzon for a while. I'm not shipping anything. I'm going to carry whatever I can fit in my bags and that's it. Whatever I have left over I'll grab another time. I just ordered a carbon fiber 4 piece shaft from Mr. Bill at pluggers shafts. With that one shaft I'm supposed to be able to use it in and out of the water and even underwater while diving. He is going to add a few more holes to it so I can use the excalibur 2, sand shark, tiger shark and the lobo supertraq all with the one shaft. The vaquero is plenty light enough as it is. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to bring all my gear in two suitcases including my clothes and other stuff I'm bringing. If not I'll probably leave I've or two behind till I come back. I'm very leary of shipping stuff over there and truth be known I could probably fly back and forth for not much more money than it would cost to send 100 pounds of bulky stuff anyway. As far as voltage goes, well I should be able to do whatever I want with that because it looks like it's going to be cheaper to build an off grid solar system than it will be to tie into the local electric lines. Palawan is known for horrible electric service anyway. Running a couple of 120v plugs in the house sounds like a great idea. Thanks.
 
Shipping things to the Philippines

Dirty Dirt said:
I'm currently awaiting my visa. I know once I get there I may be stuck on Luzon for a while. I'm not shipping anything. I'm going to carry whatever I can fit in my bags and that's it. Whatever I have left over I'll grab another time. I just ordered a carbon fiber 4 piece shaft from Mr. Bill at pluggers shafts. With that one shaft I'm supposed to be able to use it in and out of the water and even underwater while diving. He is going to add a few more holes to it so I can use the excalibur 2, sand shark, tiger shark and the lobo supertraq all with the one shaft. The vaquero is plenty light enough as it is. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to bring all my gear in two suitcases including my clothes and other stuff I'm bringing. If not I'll probably leave I've or two behind till I come back. I'm very leary of shipping stuff over there and truth be known I could probably fly back and forth for not much more money than it would cost to send 100 pounds of bulky stuff anyway. As far as voltage goes, well I should be able to do whatever I want with that because it looks like it's going to be cheaper to build an off grid solar system than it will be to tie into the local electric lines. Palawan is known for horrible electric service anyway. Running a couple of 120v plugs in the house sounds like a great idea. Thanks.
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We send Balikbayan Boxes over there through several shippers Chicago being the closest shipping center to us. My wife has probably already sent at least 10 this year, They take from there normally about 8 weeks to get there by cargo boat and get delivered . They often have several sizes boxes like regular, jumbo and super jumbo the regular are about the standard size you would get from U-Haul my wife can pack well over 100 lbs of supplies in one. Last batch she sent cost her $63.00 per box. You might send some of your clothing and American goods and small electronic in the boxes ahead and save room in your suitcases for your gear. I think you are usally limited to (2) 50 lbs. bags and a carry on , unless you are flying first class . I have never flow first class (to cheep). Back before you had tight security my wife used to have me wear cargo pants just so she could load more in the pockets. Appliances made for sell in the Philippines are usally of a lower standard and cheaper made and don't last as long, even if they have a American brand name. We have had to replace several ice boxes over the years . We have at least one 110 outlet in each room and have a power strip in the kitchen . We sent a microwave , and other small American appliances, by having diffrent color outlet covers has saved a lot of burned up electronics. Instead of air for the whole house we put a window air conditioner in each bedroom and celing fans and wall fans through the rest of the house.
 
If you can get permission to detect the grounds around some of the very old churches there take advantage of it ,some of them are several hundred years old. If you do expect a lot of trash ,as trash was often burned and buried on the land no trash pick up. Lots of older churches on Bohol many were damaged by a big earthquake a few years back. Here is a link to some of them being restored.https://www.gmanetwork.com/entertai...he-loboc-church-in-bohol-looks-like-now/story A small contribution to the church might help , or offer to buy some paint or other needed projects that need repairing. If you can detect any where near this old church/fortress might ne worth it. https://www.vigattintourism.com/tourism/articles/Saint-Augustine-Church-in-Cuyo-Palawan due to being a meeting place for the area as well ad a defense structure. Then there is the possibility of native people or Japanese solders stashing small personal stashes in a place close to a land mark they could come back and find again.
 
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travel restrictions to Philippines update

Dirty Dirt said:
I'm currently awaiting my visa. I know once I get there I may be stuck on Luzon for a while. I'm not shipping anything. I'm going to carry whatever I can fit in my bags and that's it. Whatever I have left over I'll grab another time. I just ordered a carbon fiber 4 piece shaft from Mr. Bill at pluggers shafts. With that one shaft I'm supposed to be able to use it in and out of the water and even underwater while diving. He is going to add a few more holes to it so I can use the excalibur 2, sand shark, tiger shark and the lobo supertraq all with the one shaft. The vaquero is plenty light enough as it is. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to bring all my gear in two suitcases including my clothes and other stuff I'm bringing. If not I'll probably leave I've or two behind till I come back. I'm very leary of shipping stuff over there and truth be known I could probably fly back and forth for not much more money than it would cost to send 100 pounds of bulky stuff anyway. As far as voltage goes, well I should be able to do whatever I want with that because it looks like it's going to be cheaper to build an off grid solar system than it will be to tie into the local electric lines. Palawan is known for horrible electric service anyway. Running a couple of 120v plugs in the house sounds like a great idea. Thanks.
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This just updated a couple of days ago, https://ph.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/
 
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