Blak bart
Gold Member
ya see...most people on the beach and shallow water forum could never visualize a typical shore line in the keys !! Where my metal detector is would be the height of the highest king tide. Where the orange seaweed is would be the normal high tide. Your beach scoop will never work here. The rocky soil destroys most digging tools. Hard coral rock with holes and voids and cracks are filled with a mix of sand soil rocks and leaf litter. Low areas can be be mangrove swamp. Hurricanes will sweep much farther than the king tide line and will push trees over farther inland and all along the shore line. That's what you see in this photo.
this is the root ball with the ships spike. At high tide this root ball is no more than 50 feet from the ocean. It's not all wide open white sand beaches. The treasure is splashed across the coral rock and up in the mangrove swamps. 
digging tool of choice is a claw hammer for prying rocks up. Many people in the beach and shallow water forum could never imagine nor would they hunt these spots. And then wait till you get in the water here...very unpleasant and spooky snorkel !!
thought I had a cobb in the knee deep water here....haaaa...i was fooled...it was lead !!
