Location, Location... Location?

[PlanetExpress]

I've been out now for my 2nd day and am trying to learn. I sure have no problem finding metal and lots of it. Trouble is, after a total of maybe 8 hours, it's all been trash. Today, the area of a beach I was in was littered with old, rusted out nails... and I mean tons of them. They used to build ships in this harbor, and I wonder if I didn't stumble on a spot where they used to bang together odds and ends for the ships. Although, I have no idea why they would have been using iron nails.. ??

Anyway, as a beginner who is not finding anyting but trash, I'm starting to think: Location Location Location!

Is researching a better way to do beach hunting? I was planning to go to an old beach from the 1800's in the area later on this weekend. It isn't a beach anymore, so does anyone think this will reduce the levels of trash?

Thanks for any input. Still trying to get a hang of the beach stuff before I do any diving.

 

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[Sandman]

If your finding iron nail, you don't have to worry about having your discrimination set to high. Your right on the location, however, you never can tell. Search where the max. amount of people visit the beaches. Keep the coil level with the ground about a inch or a hair more abobe the sand and over lap about half.

You just have to put your coil over it, it's that simple. The more you get out, the better your chances.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[Cubfan64]

I know this probably isn't going to be much as far as "words of wisdom" go, but I'm going to give it a shot anyways:

1) #1 thing is don't get discouraged when you're just starting! When you come on this site and see all these people posting these wonderful finds, try to remember that the vast majority are coming from folks who have put in 100's of hours refining their techniques, learning how their detectors work and learning where the better finds can come from. It honestly will happen for you too - just keep practicing and try not to get discouraged - take away something positive from each hunt - even if it's just learning something NOT to do!

2) Beaches in my personal opinion are a very good place to get started learning your detector - mostly because it's very easy to dig. I have no idea what your detector is or whether you are hunting in water, on land, salt water etc... - I'd say you're doing the right thing by trying to find a beach (or what used to be a beach years ago). Odds are there will be less trash, but that's not a given.

3) One thing you could do (depending on your detector) is start by using a decent amount of descrimination if you can. This should get rid of alot of the garbage you find and although you might very well miss the gold, you'll still pick up silver and coins. It's kind of like taking baby steps - give yourself a chance to find worthwhile things until you get the hang of how your detector acts on them, and then start backing off on the descrimination and turning up the sensitivity and just go back over your areas again - it won't take long before you're very good with your detector and will have a much better idea of how to adjust it to get you what you want.

4) If you are planning on diving with your detector, it's obviously waterproof, so there should be nothing stopping you from getting out in the water at least up to your knees or waist. Not as many folks detect out that far unless they too have waterproof detectors and your odds should increase in finding more useful things. Unless you are using descrimination, you'll still find garbage, but it's a good step in learning as well.

Like I said - I know these aren't words of wisdom, but I did most of these things (or learned that I should have) this past spring when I got back into the hobby and started using a water detector for the first time. I guarantee you I learn something new every single time I go out still, but at least the initial sharp learning curve has leveled off some.

It just takes some time and practice - just like anything else

Good luck and I look forward to seeing some of your finds!

Oh and one more last thing - once you've hunted with some descrimination enough to know you CAN find things, you'll want to go with the least possible descrimination and the highest sensitivity you can stand and you'll want to move slow and close to the ground and you'll find that you missed alot of the really good stuff earlier on when practicing . If you can put up with digging 100 junk things for every 1 good thing, you can go with the lack of descrimination right off the bat, but I know for myself as a newbie I found myself getting discouraged too quickly doing that. Now that I know I can find those good things, I can handle doing all the extra digging - I don't mind it and you won't either!

 

[PlanetExpress]

Great advice! Thanks so much.

I really appreciate the tips. I'm using a White's Surfmaster PI-PRO. Not exactly a beginner machine, but I figured I'll grow into it as I dig up my rusty nails.

Guess I'll just keep at it.

We have the remnants of Ernesto arriving this weekend, which might make for some good detecting next week. We are looking at a gale warning tomorrow, and predicted beach errosion and coastal flooding.

Guess maybe I'll hit the crowded beaches after this one to see what might have popped up.

Again, thanks for the tips. I'll follow them.

PS: There's no discrimination at all on the PI-PRO. It was the trade off for buying a machine that would go deep and go 100ft underwater.

 

[Cubfan64]

Great advice! Thanks so much.

I really appreciate the tips. I'm using a White's Surfmaster PI-PRO. Not exactly a beginner machine, but I figured I'll grow into it as I dig up my rusty nails.

Guess I'll just keep at it.

We have the remnants of Ernesto arriving this weekend, which might make for some good detecting next week. We are looking at a gale warning tomorrow, and predicted beach errosion and coastal flooding.

Guess maybe I'll hit the crowded beaches after this one to see what might have popped up.

Again, thanks for the tips. I'll follow them.

PS: There's no discrimination at all on the PI-PRO. It was the trade off for buying a machine that would go deep and go 100ft underwater.

You pretty much answered your own question

I've never used a PI machine but have thought about it a number of times for the reasons you mentioned. I've never done it though because although I'm a reasonably patient hunter, without any kind of descrimination it really limits the areas I would hunt - I just would have to skip those places where a target is hit every foot or so.

I'm absolutely positive you will find alot of things other people miss and in the end, if you have the patience to dig all the signals, you're gonna come out doing really well on gold at the beach I'm sure - as you said though, the trade off is that you're going to be digging one heck of a lot of junk in between finds.

I've read that some folks who use PI machines get so "in tune" with their machines that eventually they can audibly tell with reasonable certainty when a signal is good and when it's bad, so with experience (probably ALOT of it), you might be able to do that too.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Michigan Badger]

I haven't read everything posted before me so maybe this is redundant redundant.

Context: Beach hunting on land or to water's edge

Gosh, you never know about these old beaches. Ocean beaches change with the wind and inland beaches sometimes have been stripped and sand moved away or sand brought in and dumped. You just never know.

Here are some things essential to beach hunting:

1) A mega (super) deep quality discriminating detector

2) An excellent working knowledge of your detector (sounds, etc.)

3) Research (location)

I couldn't over emphasize depth. I'd work a beach with a 15 inch coil and my Nautilus maxed-out on power and sensitivity. She would bang-off on a gold wedding band at 12-14 inches. Other machines are also excellent.

If you don't have one of the extra deep machines than just dig everything.