BH 505 and the Salt Water Beach?

[hunter_46356]

Now I already know the 505 is not a salt water machine but I have to tell you I actually had some luck recently in wet salt water sand. Not in the water but the wet sand.What I did find is I had to work standing facing the beach or water and swing parallel to the water. Swinging perpendicular to the water caused falsing at the end of the swing nearest the water every time and GBing was near impossible to eliminate random signals. Sensitivity was an issues and had to be reduced and I had to hunt in all metals mode and ground balance as often as the false signals started happening. I could usually make what I'd call a drop from dry sand to the water without having to GB for that section. Often when I moved to the next section GBing was necessary. Didn't find any value targets but did find junk. My guess is you lose depth in direct relation to reduced sensitivity? Can anyone confirm this? And is there anyone out there that has successfully used a 505 on a salt beach wet sand or in the water?

 

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[bigscoop]

On the 505 depth and sensitivity go hand in hand. However, at the other end of the spectrum mineralization and sensitivity also go hand in hand. So basically, turn the sensitivity up and the machine will hunt deeper but it will also be more responsive/sensitive to mineralization. Turn the sensitivity down and the machine will not hunt as deep and it won't be as responsive/sensitive to mineralization. It all has to do with the size of the search field, the larger the search field the more mineralization being introduced into that search field. It's actually a bit more complicated then this but this is the basic concept. Mineralization also increases as you continue to approach the waterline because there is more saturation, or a progressively increasing sand/saltwater mixture.

 

[hunter_46356]

What you describe is exactly why I believe I was able to hunt parallel to the water since the minerals (salt water) would remain similar as they washed back to the surf. All in all It's not an easy way and definitely not as efficient as a PI machine but as long as you still have a some sensitivity left and a good low tide I do believe it is possible to MD wet sand with a 505. I'm certain with a daughter that lives very close to the treasure coast of FL I will eventually have a PI.

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

I prefer to use the BH Pioneer 505 when hunting dry sand on salt water beaches as it is very light and detects lead (have not found gold with it - but should be able to) surprisingly deep.

This detector is very sensitive to mineralization, even when after switching to the gold finder 11" DD search coil, which is my go to beach coil for it.

There was one beach where I got an unusually large number of false alarms which was puzzeling as I stayed high and dry. I later discovered that swells often pushed the salt water up over the dry sand beach all the way to the crest , which was not expected as there was little tide change.

Even though the 11" DD coil is larger than the approx 8" stock concentric coil it is less effected by trash.

I have not had any luck with it on wet sand or in the water, however, I don't search in the all metal mode as I do not like to constantly ground balance.