Good Advice Sherpa T. I just got back & didn't read your post until now. I had a great time even though I didn't find any rings. I found around $4.00 in quarters, dimes, & Penny's. I dug everything and learned to ignore the false signals. I also found a hotwheels car and a kids necklace charm. I don't think it's silver as it's a silver colored easter basket with colored eggs painted on it
. I also found a 50 cal rifle shell in the picnic area before I found out that searching that area was not allowed. The maintenance people saw me searching that area the whole time, but didn't say anything to me. There was a guy that asked me if I found anything as I was leaving and asked if I had got a permit. I said I didn't know you needed a permit and he said he read it somewhere, but that he wouldn't worry about it if no one had said anything about it. I went ahead then and asked the park office about getting one and they gave me a piece of paper that I signed and explained to me that I was only allowed to hunt on just the beach.
From then on, I only hunted the beach. I think the sand there has a lot of minerals because I couldn't get the hum to go off with the nob turned all the way to the right if I was within 15 feet of the water. I still was able to find a few coins right up to the water's edge in the discrimination mode with iron notched out. It's sort of steep in most places at the water's edge, so high and low tide is doesn't make a lot of difference...not much mixing of the sand. I did see a couple of other guys metal detecting during the day. One guy had one of the very expensive metal detectors he took all the way in the water in a kind of lagoon area and he had the beach scoop that has a curved around handle; kind of looks like a big hand rail. I just used my gator trowel, which worked fine. Most of the sand was too coarse and wet to use a sieve easily.
One area I searched was out on kind of a sand bar I found a few mid 60's dimes, but a few years past 1964, the last year for silver dimes. The ocean really works on those Pennies. I found one that had barnacles all over it and I soaked it in vinegar just to find out that it was a penny. Can just barely make out the Lincoln Memorial on one side; the other side is completely gone.
All in all I had a great time, and yes, early in the morning is the best time to go. No one else on the beach at all.
