Beach Hunting Tampa Area

[FloridaTreasureFinder]

Hi Everyone, I am brand new here in your forums. I enjoy metal detecting alot. I like beach hunting the best. I live in Florida. I have a Bounty Hunter Pioneer 101 detector that I got a few years ago at walmart.

I'm a long haul truck driver & take my detector with me. I hunt all over the 48 states, where ever the freight takes me.

I am just recently becoming more serious about the hobby. I found only some scrap metal so far. States are Oklahoma, Chicago Ill. & Missouri. I found some scrap metal in my yard so far also.

I am very excited to go hunting the beach more seriously during my December hometime. Sometime around Christmas.

I enjoy reading your posts and learning from your advice. I would love to join a club in the Gainesville Florida area, and/or find some nice hunting buddies.

These photos are of my detector, digging tool, and junk I found! lol

Thank you, and talk to you later,
Susan, and my dogs Kelly & Tinky

 

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[gold-digger]

Welcome to the area.
I'm not sure whats up that way but I'm sure you'll here from lots of hunters.


Happy Hunting

 

[mlayers]

Hi would like to welcome you to Tnet. If you ever get up in Ohio and around Williams County or by Toledo, Ohio drop me a line and I would b glad to take you out hunting. Land or water hunt......Matt

 

[godisnum1]

Hey, I'm in the St Pete area... if you ever want to go out, just let me know. My schedule is usually pretty open in the afternoons/evenings on the weekdays and on the weekends, except for church on Wednesday nights & Sundays.

Bran <><

 

[FloridaTreasureFinder]

Hi, thank you for the nice welcomes. Currently I am in Canton, Ohio (it's snowing now while I'm in customer dock). I will keep you in mind when I am in Ohio. And thank you again for Florida, I will send you a message when I get home. I am planning a trip down to the Tampa area for a couple days to do some searching.

Thanks again,
Susan,Kelly,Tinky

 

[DaChief]

One Leaveth and One Replaceth. I just left Gainesville. Didn't take up water hunting until I moved to Florida 4 years ago. There are some fresh water spings in the Gainesville area but beware the Alligators. You don't have to worry much about the gators in the cold water spings swimming areas. I have floated most in the area and if you get a chance, you have to float the Ichetucknee Springs just north there out of High Springs. It is well worth the day. You can't detect there but you can float the Springs for two or four hours, depending on your entry point you choose. The water is great and the experience is even better.

Now back to hunting. Your best bet for beach hunting, (based on my experience from Gainesville), is to spend the time to and drive to Clearwater Beach and other areas near Tampa. I would make a full day of it when I went and never came back disappointed. I would leave Gainesville at about 5:00 a.m., and arrive at the beach at about 7:00 or just after.
I did by a water machine. I hunted the water from the time I got there until about 6:00 p.m. I would take a break for lunch to rest. After 6:00 p.m., I would come out of the water and hunt the sand on into the night. There is plenty of light from the Hotels on Clearwater Beach to hunt safely. I never felt unsafe there. There are many people walking the beach at night. I always found most of my stuff in the water. I found some things in the dry sand but not much, usually coins and other odds and ends. I managed two rings in two years from the sand. I would normally know when to quit at night because my arms and legs just wouldn't work any more. I would spend about 15 to 18 hours detecting. The drive home was brutal because I was beat.

You will run into lots of the folks you see on here down there. They are all great folks. There are some folks that hunt there that aren't so friendly too but they usually just won't talk or acknowledge your presence. Most of them hunt to supplement their income or as a sole source of income and look on you as horning in on their turf.

I tried most of the beaches east coast and west coast and decided that the Tampa/Clearwater/St. Pete area was the best bang for the buck. Look at a map of the coast line there and go back and read old posts from here and you will find plenty of places. Like you have already seen, there are numerous hunters on here that will invite you down too. Lots of good people.

Good luck and I hope you like Gainesville better than I did. I hated the place. Ultra High Property Taxes and I won't get into the philosophical issues there when it comes to the local government. Let's just say I am ultra conservative and Gainesville turned out to be the Berkley, California of the east coast. My fault for not doing my homework. They didn't twist my arm and make me move there. Nothing against my liberal friends of whom I have many and love them all.

In closing, spend some money on a good salt water machine. You can read on here about the different ones. You can find stuff on the beach but you will surely find much more and better targets in the water. Law of averages. There are only a handfull of folks hunting the water as those hunting the sand. You will have better odds in the water. You can pick up a good used machine for about $500.00 bucks or even a new one for just over that. Don't buy a cheap one, you will regret it.

Good luck and good hunting.

DaChief!

 

[FloridaTreasureFinder]

Hi DaChief! COOL!! Thank you for an excellent reply. I actually live outside Gainesville on my 5 acres. I love it. Lots of room, not much noise, and I park my semi truck in my front yard. That mention of Berkely, Calif is funny. I'm a Calif native (south bay!). I don't get into politics very much. I only go into gainesville for the walmart, tax office, panera bread (free wifi), cold stone creamery (berry berry berry good ice cream, my fav!! uughh! lol) and movies!!

I have done some kayaking in the river that takes you to fanning springs. I have also kayaked in Rainbow River where I helped with a cleanup. Yes, I totally agree about finding more goodies in the water. Seems to make sense as people lotion up, then go swimming & their fingers shrink from the water, and off goes the rings, and here we come to happily scoop them up! (Treasure! yeah!).

I completely agree about getting up super early, drive down there, hunt my all day, and head back later. I am in contact with some members here and we may get together and hunt. It's nice to make new friends. My life is very limited being a long haul truck driver. I only get 4 days off A MONTH! (* sigh *).

I take my two dogs with me on the road. My mini aussie shepherd (Kelly-she's in my avatar pic), helps me dig. She's so funny. She digs with me, then lays in my hole!! lol. I take them with me on some hunts, but cannot take them on all my hunts. It's hard to watch over them, plus dogs aren't allowed in many places. They stay home in the comfort of air cond, tv, toys, food, water, etc..

Yes, about getting a good water machine. I am very serious about that. I was looking at some in Kellyco website that looked like a possibility. I can get new or used, either way. I was also thinking of paying kellyco a visit during this month's hometime. I know I might go crazy in that store and "spend money" (!! eeek! gasp!! lol).

I've been to Tampa, St.Pete, Clearwater & many other beaches in Florida. I have made many a truck driving delivery as far down as Miami. I've been to Key West twice. I'm aching to go again, and this time..see Mel Fisher's museum. Can't believe I missed it!! Twice even!! (I must be blind! lol). Spent time looking at Hemingway's house, etc.. but next time, I'll get to the museums.

The mention of some locals and their turf. lol. Reminds me of surfers back in So.Cal. They get aggro if anyone even steps a foot on their beach, let alone drops a board in the water and paddles out! Always some major problems there!! Palos Verdes, etc..I always enjoyed surfing in Hermosa Beach & Manhattan Beach. Lived in Redondo Beach most my life.

I also love what you said about the odds of sand verses water. I was thinking the same thing. Have you and the other folks here seen these YouTube videos of this guy in Hawaii (his name is pat)? He does some cool metal detecting videos. He even made a video showing how to make a homemade sand scoop. Pretty cool. I have 2 scoops, one for sand and one for water. I call my sand one my hawaiian scoop. I followed his instructions and made my own. His videos are called Metal Detecting in Hawaii. They are fun to watch. And beautiful scenery too.

Thanks again, and talk to you again soon,
Susan, Kelly and Tinky

 

[FloridaTreasureFinder]

!! wow, next time I will crop and resize (smaller) my photos!! Sorry that it is so big!!

skt (sooz,kellytinky)