know before you go, relearned a lesson the hard way

[Tommybuckets]

I headed out to a NJ beach this last weekend. I had my eye on two spots. One is a popular boating destination but its a hike without a boat and theres no parking nearby. We opted to hit the beach in a more opulent area with easier parking. We got out to the towel line and the water is beautiful, fairly clear and there are rocks and shells in the top of the trough. I like seeing these heavier items since it can indicate that sand conditions are good. As soon as my feet hit that soft wet sand and started sinking i knew it was looking bleak. I walked for two blocks zig zagging in and out of the surf zone through the soft unsettled sand without finding any firm bottom. There were no signals and I knew it was a waste of a trip. I turned the machine off and headed back. The rocks and shells were still up near the top since the sand had just been replenished this winter and hadn't had a chance to be stratified by the surf so it was a red herring of an indication. The soft unpacked nature of the sand would put targets out of reach and there was nothing in the freshly dredged sand. Talk about a sad hunt. I am still kicking myself for not doing any research since I have had this lesson and the displeasure of seeing these conditions before. This is what makes beach hunting more challenging than a field or park hunt. One day the stuff is exposed, the next tide its sanded over or the surf is too big to do anything.
The next best approach would have been to hit the towel line but since it was full on a busy weekend that was not an option. I don't like being that guy scooting around towels and chairs and causing old ladies to pull their purses closer. I've seen people do very well on the towel line but with all the trash and people its just not for me.
It was too late and I wasn't willing to spend $20 more to try to get to the other spot. Yep, $20 for my girl and I to walk on the beach. Those *******s. I hope you boys and girls are doing better than me because you can't do much worse lol.

 

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[CASPER-2]

I - 95% of the time - always have a plan B and usually a plan C
Cause I did what you did plenty of times when i was younger
live and learn

 

[CASPER-2]

same goes for equipment - when i was younger - would bring one machine on a road trip - 2 hr ride to beach ...got in...
my lower rod was really worn and it broke in half where holes were drilled - 2 hr ride back
another time 2+ hr ride to beach was in water only minutes - got hit by a wave - stiff armed my machine - coil
hit in slant of trough and snapped it off at the coil - another long ride home - I now bring a minimum of 2 of
everything - machines, scoops, masks and everything else i use - i bring Gorilla tape, water proof silicone, super glues,
zip ties, extra rods and anything else i need to fix an accident.

 

[califteacher]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I had a similar experience recently that was equipment related, but I still felt bad knowing that I should have known better. In a nutshell, I decided to try out my unused Minelab Excalibur while on vacation at the beach. Since I have used the Minelab CTX3030 for a couple of years, I figured that it should be "no problem." WRONG. I failed to try out the Excalibur beforehand and had no idea what I was doing. Although I had the proper settings, the various tones meant nothing to me. After an hour or so in the shallow surf and finding only a nickel, I called it a day. I knew that I should have tried the Excal out beforehand and gained some experience in a lake or calm water. The mistake was my own doing and I learned a valuable lesson--Don't assume anything and always be prepared.

 

[CASPER-2]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I had a similar experience recently that was equipment related, but I still felt bad knowing that I should have known better. In a nutshell, I decided to try out my unused Minelab Excalibur while on vacation at the beach. Since I have used the Minelab CTX3030 for a couple of years, I figured that it should be "no problem." WRONG. I failed to try out the Excalibur beforehand and had no idea what I was doing. Although I had the proper settings, the various tones meant nothing to me. After an hour or so in the shallow surf and finding only a nickel, I called it a day. I knew that I should have tried the Excal out beforehand and gained some experience in a lake or calm water. The mistake was my own doing and I learned a valuable lesson--Don't assume anything and always be prepared.

Years ago I hunted with a good friend in Fla. and he invited a friend of his that he had sold an Excal to. He gave the guy the manual and thought that he would read it before we went out. Ive never used a Minelab (hunted with lots of guys who have) so I had no idea how to help him or advise him - my friend wears weights and dives out in the 6-7 ft area - so he was away from us. I was using my CZ21 in all metal and digging everything. I was hitting in the 6ft to 5ft area and my friends friend was doing like 5ft to shallows. We all headed south. Long story short - my friend popped up and had just gotten a small gold ring out deep. I was mostly getting coins at this point and his friend was getting nothing and was very frustrated - he turned and was heading back to where we entered. So i turned and started to head back also. I had a mask and snorkel on and could see his friends foot prints and some marks his coil made. I got good hit in one of his footprints and pulled up a nice diamond ring. My friend came up for air and i got his attention and told him what i got. He came in closer to see. His friend was like 50 yrds away and i told my friend that i got it in his friends foot print. He just figured "he's new and probably was not swinging just right" . I took 2 steps and got a blast and scooped and came up with big silver scalloped earring - went off like a can.
Before my friend went under to head back deep... I told him "hey, just got this where he went". My friend could not believe it. He dove under and outward. I walked about five feet and got another blast and looked down as i scooped and saw gold chain fall off the end of my scoop. It ended up being 18k with a solid dolphin pendant on it. It was in like 3 ft of water and i could see coil marks all around it. My friend poked his head up for air and I held the chain up and he said "wtf!". He came back in to get a better look and could not believe it - i told him "look down at the sand"
He could see foot prints and coil marks on the bottom. He started to head back to where we entered and his friend was now sitting on a blanket - had given up. I wanted to finish my path but did it quickly to catch up to them - I got 2 more silver earrings. Upon arriving at the blanket...my friend asked his friend "How'd you do?" He replied all he got was a beer can. We (I especially) did not want to rub his nose in it but there was no way around it.. my friend told him as I approached.. what I had found and that i had gotten it where he had gone. I pulled it out and he could not believe it. My friend asked him what he had his machine set at and asked him to hand him his machine - his friend had every knob turned full on I guess - or at least the discriminator and that is why he could not pick anything up.
bad for him - lucky for me. The large medallion was found few minutes later when we jumped back in - my cz21 batteries were low and I had a Whites PI as a back up. I jumped back in and walked about 5ft - got a blast and scooped up the gold medallion...got "WTF" from both of them after that it was bottle cap city... but I had a good day. Other jewelry in pic are from couple of next day hunts.

 

[OBN]

I'm out about 3 days a week and always watching the winds, weather, tides and Live webcams. Just no way to be 100% until you land your feet on the beach.

Water levels in the Chesapeake bay this year have been crazy high, with that it has pushed so much sand in and more or less killed the hunting...When you get to places like this you really have to just go to spots normally you would not hunt. This past July I had a real nice Honey Hole (I call the 1892 beach), but if the winds were from one direction it's was not good hunting. So I set out to find another spot I could hunt when winds were bad at the 1892 beach. I went to one of the other spots I hunt and it was just bad..sanded in..walked up the beach to the another spot i've found gold......the same..no targets at all...Thinking what the heck,..............I am going out as far as I can and see whats up...bam..I started getting silver coins, then gold...Never have I hunted this spot deep, but just by doing something I had never done before it gave up 2 gold. Not the end of the story...I get back to the 1892 beach, things are good..july passes and it's getting tougher at the 1892 spot..so I go back to the backup beach...the hot spot ......it is gone...3 weeks had past and it changed. ..Right Now the 1892 beach is just about covered with sand...it was good while it lasted...Never had a clue it would have been this good if you asked me last year. Found it only because I went some where I had never hunted that beach before. Always think outside of the normal....

 

[Tommybuckets]

Good advise and inspiration from my favorite hunters here. Thanks guys! I always brought the nox and excal but the excal is down and my backup waterproof choices are infinium and at pro. Not ideal since the nox is so tough to control in the surf but i make sure I have an extra machine in the car. i bring a snorkel and mask plus goggles, duct tape, swiss army knife, often my kayak and maps, GPS points saved in my phone. I watch the surf cams, tides and weather and gather intel from locals. Now i just have to turn my seriousness level up and start getting out earlier so I can make those last minute plan changes if things aren't panning out. I also just got a Deus but I am not ready to try to figure it out yet. I'll save that for some land spots in the fall.
This year I am hitting all the spots I did well/ decent at last year and coming up mostly empty. i haven't had that hunt where I feel like " I did it". Rather finding scraps here and there. So it goes. I need to get more creative and take more chances on new spots. I definitely have crossed a lot of questionable spots off the list but with the way the sand shifts they shouldn't be crossed off forever, rather just for this year. Keep up the good work and I'll get on to something post worthy other than griping soon!

 

[ARC]

Agreed.

I carry a large waterproof toolbox of "extras"... from gloves to battery packs to zip ties... silicone... shaft parts parts... trench shovel... small sift... multimeter etc. sheesh I go on and on.
And one of my favorite go to tools... top notch Gerber multi... heck I even carry an Estwing steel roofer axe... OH and 2 inch wide electrical tape.

The box is dedicated to any and all possible problems that could arise... be it a leak via cracked housing to a root that is in my way.

The box stays in trunk and goes wherever detectors go... which I never leave home without at least 3... one of which is always my girls...
if one is down... then who's down gets backup... three PP's as well.

 

[Billieg]

I put a $20 in the glove compartment for "Just in case". We traveled 2hrs to the beach to find out it costs $15 to access the beach. Since I put on my shorts I didn't have my wallet but said to the wife "We are ok, I got a $20 in the glove compartment". She gave me a look and said "Ah, no you don't" I used it for parking last month.... A 4 hr wasted trip.... Live and learn...

 

[Rodbuster209]

I put a $20 in the glove compartment for "Just in case". We traveled 2hrs to the beach to find out it costs $15 to access the beach. Since I put on my shorts I didn't have my wallet but said to the wife "We are ok, I got a $20 in the glove compartment". She gave me a look and said "Ah, no you don't" I used it for parking last month.... A 4 hr wasted trip.... Live and learn...

If my wife did that to me, I would have got a piece of cardboard and made a sign for her to hold, need gas money!

 

[ctdirtdigger]

I learned my lesson recently where myself and two friends were due to hunt two beaches over the course of several hours. I was going to bring my Excal as primary and a Nox 800 as backup. I have an intelligent charger for my Excal batteries so I made sure the day before the batteries were fully charged. Off we went to the beach, almost a 2hr. ride to the shore and everything is going well. About a third of the way into our the first beach my Excal goes completely dead..........I'm thinking Hmmmmm, what the heck can that be, I know I had a fully charged battery. I signal the other two hunters and head to car to get the Nox. When I got to the car, just for the heck of it I decide to change batteries on the Excal. Lo & Behold it fires right up ! What I was thinking was a bad cable, or connection or maybe a coil, was simply a dead battery. Lesson learned always bring two fully charged batteries and I'm going to buy a multimeter to check them. Didn't find a whole lot that day, but at least I was able to finish out the day hunting with the Excal.

 

[Tommybuckets]

CT dirtdigger- I have a similar excal battery. I bought a replacement years ago and the one I got has a loose connection inside the battery. It works just fine until you jostle it and then it cuts off. I keep it as a spare figuring I'll open it and solder it one day but with my excal out of commission its gathering dust. I had reported it to minelab right when I got it and they sent me a new new one.

Speaking of emergency kits I had to put my duct tape and creativity to work this weekend in the river. I was beeping along and heard a snapping sound. A little while later the arm cuff on my equinox snapped in half. I had found a phone with a credit card attached so I duct taped the credit card to bridge the crack along the cuff on the outside so the card flexes the cuff outward against the strap. It was a decent fix and allowed me to keep hunting. I'll probably have to keep the card in service until I can get on the phone with minelab and see if I can get a replacement cuff. My machine already had the foam come off really quickly as the glue hadn't made a good connection.
Its been a race against time to pay this equinox off before i destroy it lol. They don't make em like they used to. I am also a bit tough on the gear and myself. I have really bad shaft wobble at the top of the stem now, the lower shaft is bound up with sand, the arm cuff is in tatters and I am at about $600 worth of treasure with it which is what I paid for the machine. it often feels like i just sink the finds into new machines or repairs as things break. I am sad my excal is kaput but I am not sinking any more money into it. I paid $650 for it 10 yrs ago and have spent over $800 on repairs. I got a new battery. Its been in for new headphones (x2 due to an error with the phones one ear didn't work the first time I got it back) a new coil ( questionable that it needed it) a new housing and it still is erratic and all over the place after it warms up.

 

[ARC]

LEts revive this...

 

[releventchair]

$$$ to walk the beach.
There must be a lesson in economics in there somewhere....

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Some of you guys that bring an extra machine, do you guys leave it in the car? Most of the time I hunt it’s hot out and shouldn’t leave the detector in the hot car. Plus I’m worried about someone breaking in and stealing

 

[ARC]

Some of you guys that bring an extra machine, do you guys leave it in the car? Most of the time I hunt it’s hot out and shouldn’t leave the detector in the hot car. Plus I’m worried about someone breaking in and stealing

50% or more of the time i do / have.

Depends on where etc.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Bunch of stuff here -

Regarding being prepared; best laid plans fall apart: yesterday surf report said 1/2 ft surf - reality was 2 ft breakers with the regular 3 footer to smack ya on the back when not looking...wife asked why I looked so beat when I got home after doing something I enjoy for 5 hrs...

Ya'll have covered all of my supplies except for extra battery packs, flash light and water. Just don't let the pack of $500 worth of equipment (inc 2 pointers and CTX battery pack) and supplies roll off the back of your truck like I did 2-3 yrs ago... never to be found.

Reason I don't use the WM08 module (or any wireless headphones/earbuds) anymore w Nox 800 - I found it would lose pairing w detector (especially if your scoop came between the two) and I wouldn't know it unless I looked at the Nox indicator searching for a connection. How many targets did I miss?

Regarding a back up detector, right now main is Nox 800 backed up by a CTX 3030 and Excal II. Yes it is a problem to keep a detector in hot car as it will toast and rot wires over time; believe it was reason my Excal II battery wire cracked up. But ya need a back up, (period)
Happy Hunting