Any Lake Michigan hunters?

hillbillydigger · Mar 2, 2013

After seeing this news video about the ice balls forming on Lake Michigan it got me to wondering if during the formation process as the ice is tumbled and polished if it might pick up metal debris along the way? Could these ice boulders contain treasures that were picked up somewhere far away from shore? Anyone live out that way who can detect after the boulders have melted?

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/us/2013/03/01/dnt-ice-boulders-lake-michigan.wpbn

Irons · Mar 2, 2013

I hunt Lake Michigan and if you like conditions that can change by the hour you would love it here.

The ice is a game changer even on some of the inland lakes that are big. One lake last year when the ice was breaking up the wind drove it so hard onto shore it looked like a bulldozer had re arranged the beach.
There were 4 foot piles of ice and sand scattered haphazardly all over.

Years of ice grinding jewelry into the shore rock does a job on it too. Here is a gold ring I found that was close to shore, it's a 10k claddaugh but you can hardly recognize it.
The stuff found in deeper water is in much better shape.

Up where that girl is I wouldn't bother hunting in the water much, the big lake up there never gets warm enough to swim in for very long.

CanSlaw · Mar 2, 2013

Very interesting. I have never seen ice like that.

When I toured the Great Lakes a couple of years ago I was amazed at the hunting conditions. Like Irons said it changes constantly, troughs one day, none the next. The sand conditions there changes more than our saltwater beaches do.

Irons · Mar 2, 2013

CanSlaw said:
Very interesting. I have never seen ice like that.

When I toured the Great Lakes a couple of years ago I was amazed at the hunting conditions. Like Irons said it changes constantly, troughs one day, none the next. The sand conditions there changes more than our saltwater beaches do.

Last summer I found a small hole by a pier around 9 AM and was happily scooping old green clad, wheat pennies and some little matchbox cars and jewelry.

By 10 am the targets were getting faint and by 11 am they were gone, buried out of range again. I went back several times and that hole never opened back up for the rest of the summer.

CanSlaw · Mar 2, 2013

Irons said:
Last summer I found a small hole by a pier around 9 AM and was happily scooping old green clad, wheat pennies and some little matchbox cars and jewelry.

By 10 am the targets were getting faint and by 11 am they were gone, buried out of range again. I went back several times and that hole never opened back up for the rest of the summer.

I was absolutely amazed at the sand movement in a lake! One State Park area had a nice sandy bottom in the swim area the day we arrive, the next morning the lake bottom was gravel. Talk about needing different scoops. :lol:

AIRFORCEMIKE · Mar 2, 2013

We have some wicked conditions here in WI..I live about 3 miles from beaches and did do my share of hunting the Lake last year and was pretty successful and this year should be even better with some more research. The enviroment can change by the hour and change quickly.

hillbillydigger · Mar 2, 2013

Irons said:
Last summer I found a small hole by a pier around 9 AM and was happily scooping old green clad, wheat pennies and some little matchbox cars and jewelry.

By 10 am the targets were getting faint and by 11 am they were gone, buried out of range again. I went back several times and that hole never opened back up for the rest of the summer.

That's wild how things can change so quickly. I think I would enjoy lake hunting such a big lake. We don't have many lake swimming areas here and most of them are on state park land so detecting is prohibited. There is one swimming area in nearby town I just learned of and am itching to hunt but they gated the road till Spring. You are making me want to hunt there even more.

hillbillydigger · Mar 2, 2013

Irons said:
I hunt Lake Michigan and if you like conditions that can change by the hour you would love it here.

The ice is a game changer even on some of the inland lakes that are big. One lake last year when the ice was breaking up the wind drove it so hard onto shore it looked like a bulldozer had re arranged the beach.
There were 4 foot piles of ice and sand scattered haphazardly all over.

Years of ice grinding jewelry into the shore rock does a job on it too. Here is a gold ring I found that was close to shore, it's a 10k claddaugh but you can hardly recognize it.
The stuff found in deeper water is in much better shape.

Up where that girl is I wouldn't bother hunting in the water much, the big lake up there never gets warm enough to swim in for very long.

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Your gold ring is certainly well polished! Well at least its still gold if you ever want to sell it to refinery. What do you think of running a detector over ice boulders like that? Would a detector "see" any metal inside the ice? Even if that girl's area isn't good for swimming what about along the shoreline hunting for items dropped from pockets since others like her probably walk their dog and jog along the water?

Irons · Mar 2, 2013

hillbillydigger said:
Your gold ring is certainly well polished! Well at least its still gold if you ever want to sell it to refinery. What do you think of running a detector over ice boulders like that? Would a detector "see" any metal inside the ice? Even if that girl's area isn't good for swimming what about along the shoreline hunting for items dropped from pockets since others like her probably walk their dog and jog along the water?

Shoreline and beach hunting would still be very good. They are still busy summer areas.

It must sound odd to someone from a warmer area but the beaches will be full of people doing normal beach stuff just not swimming!

From about Manistee south the big lake gets nice and warm, but from there on north it never really gets warm unless you are in a bay like Grand Traverse.

Any Lake Michigan hunters?

hillbillydigger

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Irons

CanSlaw

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CanSlaw

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AIRFORCEMIKE

hillbillydigger

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hillbillydigger

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