beachdude
Elite Member
Back home in Canada now. Here is my final tally from 12 1/2 days of hunting on the island.
The gear used:
The gear used:
Final tally from the Mauritius trip
- Thread starter beachdude
- Start date
metaladdict
Elite Member
Nice going!
BufordCityDawg
Elite Member
Just curious, but how many hours did you put in for that GREAT haul?
BCD
BCD
beachdude
Elite Member
I was in the water maybe 5-6 hours a day, except for one day I hunted for 8 hours and found 3 rings. The water was 24-25 degrees C so staying in that long with just board shorts. Hard to get targets out because of the coral however. I shot some youtube video which I will try to edit down in the next few weeks to give people an idea what hunting on the island is like.
TheMaddMan
Elite Member
Amazing finds. Congrats on a good haul. Bet the pile of trash was a mile high?
scott.f
Elite Member
Fantastic! That is an amazing haul, congrats!
beachdude
Elite Member
Not a lot of junk, but a lot of modern 1 rupee coins and their metal alloy and salt water decay can sound like gold so you have to dig them. 1 Rupee is worth about 2 cents US. I have to stress that most of the battle is getting the targets out of the coral. It is difficult but doable.
I am used to extracting targets from underwater granite crevasses in South Africa so the coral, although difficult, was not that bad for me. You need a lot of patience and a really good scoop for Mauritius. I used a Stavr M9 which took a hell of a pounding and doesn't even show scuff marks, but am sure that one of the stronger Stealth products would work as well. Aluminum scoops won't work in this area.
Also, there is some sea life to worry about, in particular cone snails, which have actually killed people before but I only ever had 2 live ones in my scoop the whole time and ,mostly saw their empty shells. I wore kevlar cut gloves and wouldn't poke around in my scoop to pick through stuff but rather stired it around with a piece of coral first, or dumped it out in a line underwater again on clear sand area and scooped the target out again. No big sharks like South Africa though, as they are probably outside the main coral reef which is about 1km offshore.
I did step on a ray, which lifted me right up, but didn't see it swim away so I don't know what kind it was, and also a fish hit me in my leg - it felt like a punch in the leg. Must have been after some small fish around my scoop digging.
beachdude
Elite Member
I was very happy with my scoop handle, which is a Canadian snow shovel handle made of Ash wood that I coated 4 times with spar marine varnish. Very light for the luggage weight and very very strong.
Mud-puppy
Forum Supporter
A picture sure does say 1000 words! Great concise shots there...the finds and the obviously huge amount of thinking and prep work that you put in to pulling off this success! Love the gear redundancy especially...
Also the feedback about that place and a few of the notable details like the cone snails, coral etc...A guy can tell you had some knowledge of the conditions and experience with your gear and went in there with a plan to find GOLD and executed!
Great hunt! I bet you have several other tidbits of info from this adventure..any hassle or sass from the locals/airlines? Did you night hunt at all? Assessing the ROI, how did you do? Not knowing the weighs and just estimating, I think I'm seeing @3k worth of Gold/Plat there at $1250 melt? Would you do it again?
Mud
Also the feedback about that place and a few of the notable details like the cone snails, coral etc...A guy can tell you had some knowledge of the conditions and experience with your gear and went in there with a plan to find GOLD and executed!
Great hunt! I bet you have several other tidbits of info from this adventure..any hassle or sass from the locals/airlines? Did you night hunt at all? Assessing the ROI, how did you do? Not knowing the weighs and just estimating, I think I'm seeing @3k worth of Gold/Plat there at $1250 melt? Would you do it again?
Mud
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An average of more than 1 gold or platinum ring per hunt! You gotta love that average!!! I am however VERY disappointed in your lack of 14K finds.
zeemang
Forum Supporter
Awesome trip man, sounds like a dream location!
L.I.Digga
Forum Supporter
Sick week..Talk about a dream vacation. ..Congratz....As far as your equipment. ...Damn!!!You aint playin...
Canerat
Elite Member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2013
- Messages
- 1,194
Very nice.
I have a beach near my house with a thin layer of sand and a corral bottom, I've tried to detect it a few times but it's full of aluminum blobs, and retrieving a single target take ages. After 10 or so targets I'm done. Never found anything good there and its a fairly busy beach, must be something good there but I'm terrified of that beach, I have the same scoop as yours and fear it won't last long digging that stuff. Well done I know exactly how difficult digging that stuff is.
I have a beach near my house with a thin layer of sand and a corral bottom, I've tried to detect it a few times but it's full of aluminum blobs, and retrieving a single target take ages. After 10 or so targets I'm done. Never found anything good there and its a fairly busy beach, must be something good there but I'm terrified of that beach, I have the same scoop as yours and fear it won't last long digging that stuff. Well done I know exactly how difficult digging that stuff is.
beachdude
Elite Member
I paid for my airfare from Toronto - South Africa - Mauritius - Toronto with a bit of pocket money left over. The hunting in South Africa was particularly bad this year - I only found 4 gold rings there after 2 months of hard hunting.
I will definitely be hunting Mauritius again, hopefully next year if I can afford it.
Numil
Elite Member
Great finds... shows off some considerable skills. Congrats!
joee5
Elite Member
You done real good. Grats
