ground balance on black sand beach

[Slimpickins]

Lately I've been hitting the outer cape beach in Orleans. There looks to be plenty of black sand everywhere.Tomorrow I'm bringing a magnet to see if it clings to it. Besides the black sand, there aremillions of tiny to large pebbles and large rocks just about 10inches under the sand that may be causing falsing at times. I am not able to run sensitivity any higher than 18 without a lot of chatter. I always noise cancel if I try a different sensitivity but I always lower it back to 18 for stability. I will ground balance it tomorrow to see if that makes a difference for finding more repeatable target numbers and try "tracking" also. I never find much in the wet as close to the waves as I can. After the Nor'easter the other day I did scoop a 1941 walking liberty half dollar and a several clad coins. Probablythe biggest reason there aren't many finds is because of the Great White sharks feasting on the 30 plus thousand seal population on the Cape. I've seen some BIG ones just 50 ft. from shore. so most people don't go too far from shore in the water. But for all those years before the seals were here in such large numbers and probably no white sharks there has to be some good stuff yet to be found like that '41 half dollar. It is my favorite beach even if I find little or nothing. During a Nor'easter 12 foot waves are facinating to watch and can helpto uncover some goodies for sure.It would certainly help if I could increase sensitivity for more depth. Maybe heading south a few miles from the main beach away from any source of EMI may make that a possibility. That's where the off road beach goers head during the summer beach season. It"s a 10 mile long beach so I'll probably get the Minelab Pro-swing 45 and see what happens.

 

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[TORRERO]

Lately I've been hitting the outer cape beach in Orleans. There looks to be plenty of black sand everywhere.Tomorrow I'm bringing a magnet to see if it clings to it. Besides the black sand, there aremillions of tiny to large pebbles and large rocks just about 10inches under the sand that may be causing falsing at times. I am not able to run sensitivity any higher than 18 without a lot of chatter. I always noise cancel if I try a different sensitivity but I always lower it back to 18 for stability. I will ground balance it tomorrow to see if that makes a difference for finding more repeatable target numbers and try "tracking" also. I never find much in the wet as close to the waves as I can. After the Nor'easter the other day I did scoop a 1941 walking liberty half dollar and a several clad coins. Probablythe biggest reason there aren't many finds is because of the Great White sharks feasting on the 30 plus thousand seal population on the Cape. I've seen some BIG ones just 50 ft. from shore. so most people don't go too far from shore in the water. But for all those years before the seals were here in such large numbers and probably no white sharks there has to be some good stuff yet to be found like that '41 half dollar. It is my favorite beach even if I find little or nothing. During a Nor'easter 12 foot waves are facinating to watch and can helpto uncover some goodies for sure.It would certainly help if I could increase sensitivity for more depth. Maybe heading south a few miles from the main beach away from any source of EMI may make that a possibility. That's where the off road beach goers head during the summer beach season. It"s a 10 mile long beach so I'll probably get the Minelab Pro-swing 45 and see what happens.

Your machine is probably more sensitive to wet salt sand, this is very common in single frequency VLF detectors.
Only real option is to turn the sensitivity down and the descrim up until you reach a quiet medium ...

 

[Slimpickins]

I should have mentioned that I'm using the Nox 800 in beach 2

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

I've used the 800 for about 5 yrs and have drowned 3 of them (now use Manticore w 15" coil). Any ways, Sensitivity sounds about right given those conditions. We have a lot of black sand here on west coast of Florida and 18 or so is good. It just doesn't go as deep, it seems to me, but not because of the decreased Sensitivity but rather is a by-product of the iron infested environment. It will not stick to a magnet, by-the-way.
Hey, but the environment sounds VERY PROMISING!!! Keep searching and the real good stuff might just be under those rocks. I've broken many sand scoops in such an environment, but boy it sure was worth it!
Happy Hunting

 

[TORRERO]

I should have mentioned that I'm using the Nox 800 in beach 2

That machine should handle any beach type environment without much problem, is it possible that you have some EMI interference ?

 

[CASPER-2]

my CZ21 works great on Cape beaches in and out of the water

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Oh, I always use Beach 1, NEVER have liked Beach 2 in dry sand or in the water!
On Beach 2, Sensitivity is lowered internally so, in a sense, "18" in Beach 2 may be more akin to 20 or 21 in Beach 1, for example. Beach 2 also is geared towards lower frequencies (weighted more because of salt effects) and thus may be somewhat less sensitive to small gold. So, try Beach 1!

 

[TORRERO]

my CZ21 works great on Cape beaches in and out of the water

I don't know about the CZ21, but back in the day I used a CZ6 Quicksilver and it worked great for coins, and it had a beach mode for salt water, and it also worked great... until I discovered that in the SALTWATER mode it basically had NO sensitivity to small gold on the wet sand. in NORMAL mode it did, but you couldn't use it in the salt water wet sand because it would just go crazy... I would do an air test IF it has a saltwater mode switch (like the CZ6) and see what it picks up in the saltwater mode.... Mine would not pick up gold earrings, chains, bracelets, only bigger gold rings..
I picked up a nice 18k Gold Rope chain on the beach, but ONLY because it had a medallion attached, it would not register on the chain, which was big and has 30 grams of gold...

 

[Slimpickins]

Thanks LawrencetheMDer,
I read exactly the same thing somewhere and I will try Beach 1 on the wet and waters edge. It's too cold to try wading with my 3mm farmer John right now. I just sent an email to Minelab service asking if they would consider offering a Nox 800 upgrade to enclose the 800 pod into the more rugged and more waterproof 900 pod. If other 800 users also inquired about this upgrade, perhaps Minelab would give it some thought. It would be a smart marketing idea to keep their customers happy and loyal to the brand