Hello, anyone in the San Diego/Oceanside area? I'm usually free on the weekends for hunts. I do a lot of SCUBA and wet sand hunting but will also venture to the dry sand and inland every once in a while. I swing an Excal 2, ATX Pro, Surf PI, and Surfmaster.
When you dive how far out do you find the rings?
I dive beneath where people swim and and so far all I've found in 8 hours of scuba hunting is a dozen coins and lead sinkers. So far. The gold I've found has been waist deep.
I got certified for scuba, with the intent on md'ing, back in the mid 1990s. Thinking that: There is an entire world of real-estate out there that's beyond the reach of "mere mortals". But I was in for a rude-awakening :
The undersea world, and under-sea sand, is not "stationary". Ie.: Just like the sand on the inter-tidal zone, it is JUST AS SUBJECT to being "totally sterile", in the same way that the inter-tidal zone can sometimes be. Ie.: the same rules-of-thumb that you'd apply to finding where mother nature "groups targets" on the inter-tidal zone is JUST AS APPLICABLE to the under-water world.
Thus moving sand-dunes and such are just as much a problem underwater, as they are above water. So you can find yourself hunting vast areas underwater, that .... despite mere mortals not reaching, and despite tons of swimmers, can be TOTALLY STERILE. Sand can "come in and cover" down there, just like above water.
And then ... finally ... you get a signal. You start digging and silt fills your view. You struggle to remain "on target" as the currents pull you around. You hold your breath to hear (a scuba no-no) to try to combat the noisy bubbles in your face mask. FINALLY you get your target ! (drum-roll) : A fresh aluminum can or Capri-sun foil wrap drink box, at a foot deep. Hmmm
So you go on from there. Eventually you get another beep. You struggle for 5 minutes in the current and suspended silt. And ... (drum-roll) a freshly lost zinc penny at a foot. Hhhmmm.
Meanwhile , your buddies who were waiting for you, at the gear pile on the beach, have done some md'ing on the regular beach up above. They've gotten a dozen coins inc. an older silver coin. Hhhhmmm.
It became obvious to me that ... unlike the fabeled Mel Fisher "bass fishing clips" , that it's not as easy as it might seem. Underwater time is very expensive and time-consuming. Target recovery underwater is not easy. And the potential for the real-estate is no better than above water, in a lot of cases. Heck, on land, you can eye-ball 1000 yards in any direction to discern "low spots" on the sand where it's a better chance to find groupings. But underwater you're lucky to have 50 ft. visibility, right ? Not simply a matter of "walking to the right zones", when you're underwater.
I think that if the location were still-water swim lakes with heavy heavy historic swim-usage, that would be different. Because stationary lakes are not subject to sand-movement like this. So there's been some fabled tails of scuba on some lake dive platforms, or whatever. But in CA you can merely wait for a drought season , and walk out on dry land. Versus some mid-west areas where the water levels never fluctuate more than a few feet per year.
