NEW STRATEGY - SEVEN SILVER - ATX back from Garrett

[SoCalBeachScanner]

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Good Morning in the Neighborhood - Hunted early this morning for 2.5 hrs. in the sand of Long Beach, CA.
The area on the beach I was hunting was very popular at the turn of the century and continues to be popular today. I ran the AT Pro wide open without even a ground balance to utilize the full power of the machine, but I wanted to scan even deeper. So what I did today was to walk backward with the coil pushed into the sand while sliding it back and forth slowly as not to break the shaft. This actually gave me two more inches of depth. This is an area where people have been stacked up on the beach for generations, so I knew if I could get a couple more inches in depth, that I would hear some faint high tone signals. This is one of the areas on the beach at Long Beach, that some day, I will find a Gold Coin.

The problem is; the sand in this area is between 3-4 inches deep with a extremely hard dense clay/sand mix underneath. It is so hard I can't even chop at it with my scoop. When you wipe away the few inches of sand, the surface of the clay is very smooth. I knocked on the clay with my hand and it sounds like you are knocking on wood. Even a digging tool would have a hard time penetrating it. Knowing this, I brought my pick hammer with me to the beach. I felt like I was prospecting, instead of beach hunting.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I found the following:

Large Silver cross marked SS. It was in the hard clay and required extensive cleaning to look for markings. I never found silver with SS markings, I knew it wasn't stainless steel, so I tested it and it is silver. The smaller cross has no markings, but it tested silver, I did not clean it, and it was just floating in the sand as I was looking for deeper stuff. It probably floated across the top of my coil.

1935 Mercury
1948, 1952, and a 1956 Roosevelt. The 1956 date is very hard to make out, but I know it's silver, 1943 Nickel, and a 1945 Wheat.
You can see the dent by the date on the 1952 Rosie where I hit it with the pick.

I also found the back to a pocket watch and a Sacagawea dollar in the first inch of the clay. I bet many a sand hunter scanned that dollar and couldn't scoop it because of the clay.

And a 5-Francs coin from Western Africa ... Who Knew! I doubt if I will ever find another Western African coin again.

While I was typing this post the FedEx truck came with my ATX. My ATX was sent back to Garrett for repairs on December 16th. So it's been gone one month.

So far, my day is going Great! Thanks for looking.....


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This machine will find my first gold coin, if I don't break it again.

 

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[redbeardrelics]

Sounds like a great new strategy! How far down into the hardpack was the deepest signal you dug?

 

[RustyGold]

Happy to hear you got you ATX back from Garrett! What a technique SoCal! Do you think the ATX will be able to do that? Long Beach has an under layer that is hard to penetrate, maybe a pointed shovel would do the trick?
As always, awesome finds!

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Sounds like a great new strategy! How far down into the hardpack was the deepest signal you dug?

Hi redbeardrelics ... I guess the deepest item was 6 or 7 inches into the clay. But you would need a pick or dynamite to reach them

 

[lorraine]

Very interesting post, SCBS!

Great finds....love the two crucifixes and those silver coins.

I wish you continued success out there; glad to read that your detector is back safely with you.

Lorraine

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Thanks Lorraine ... I had fun today and can't wait to play with my returned toy.

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Happy to hear you got you ATX back from Garrett! What a technique SoCal! Do you think the ATX will be able to do that? Long Beach has an under layer that is hard to penetrate, maybe a pointed shovel would do the trick?
As always, awesome finds!

Thanks RG ... I was cherry picking high signals with the AT Pro doing that clay technique. Although the area was fairly trash free, I could hear some iron, aluminum (which could be gold or jewerly) and I didn't want to spend a lot of time pounding clay. I'm tempted to get a full size pick One or two blows would open the ground with that vs 10-20 wacks with my small pick. The ATX will be mainly used in the surf, but I will use it in selected areas on the beach that may have deep silver or a gold coin. After more experience using the ATX Signal Strength Indicator, I will be better able to judge the size of the item vs depth. So I guess that I may need a larger/heavier pick if I'm going to mine all-metal deeper in the clay.

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Congratulations on your finds SCBS.
Enjoyed the detailed description of your hunt, it‘s like being there having never left California.
Who knows you might even come across some old memorabilia from the Miss Universe Beauty Contest(s).

Wouldn’t you get close to the same depth by slowly sweeping the search coil with skid plate in an arc across the sand (assuming the sand is not bumpy and easy to slide across)? This way you would be covering the same surface area with each sweep as you normally would with the DD coil which has a cleaver (narrow and long ) shaped receive pattern. You should not miss any targets with a 50% or more overlap between sweeps with the DD coil.

I suspect that using Push pull while dragging a Double D coil backward would look like you were sawing any target the coil detected. While using push pull while dragging a concentric coil backward would be more efficient since the detector senses more surface area under its coil since its receive pattern is cone shaped.

 

[DrJoePrime]

Hi Bill..Nice haul there for just a couple hours hunt...Congrats!

I've gone the garden pick route also on a few of the spots I know of...unfortunately a lot of aluminum crud gets in my way sounding so sweet.

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Congratulations on your finds SCBS.
Enjoyed the detailed description of your hunt, it‘s like being there having never left California.
Who knows you might even come across some old memorabilia from the Miss Universe Beauty Contest(s).

Wouldn’t you get close to the same depth by slowly sweeping the search coil with skid plate in an arc across the sand (assuming the sand is not bumpy and easy to slide across)? This way you would be covering the same surface area with each sweep as you normally would with the DD coil which has a cleaver (narrow and long ) shaped receive pattern. You should not miss any targets with a 50% or more overlap between sweeps with the DD coil.

I suspect that using Push pull while dragging a Double D coil backward would look like you were sawing any target the coil detected. While using push pull while dragging a concentric coil backward would be more efficient since the detector senses more surface area under its coil since its receive pattern is cone shaped.

Hi Sir Gala Clad ...

I wasn't doing a push pull with the coil. I had the coil pretty much buried in the first inch of sand while sliding the coil back and forth slowly. You could barely see, if at all, the top of the coil.
With a normal sweep of the coil just clipping the top of the sand riffs would be 2" plus higher then my deeper slow sweep of the coil under the sand. In spots where the soft sand is only two inches thick above the clay, I would press the coil onto the clay and sweep back and forth. This makes the difference between hearing a subtle blip that would not repeat verses a good high tone repeatable signal. It's hard to explain, but it is almost like you have a direct connection through the clay to the target by having the coil pressed against the clay. It makes the target sound stronger and shallower then it actually is.

Another enhancement strategy I have been using is to always use the detector with a full charge. The AT Pro has 4-bars showing the status of the battery. I've noticed a big difference in detecting power and the clarity listening to the target strength with having 4-bars vs 2 or even 3-bars. My rechargeable batteries will usually last 2.5-3.5 hours before dropping down one bar. I always recharge after every hunt.

I hope all that made sense.