Newbie beach detecting question(s)..

[pinenut]

Hey folks, thought I'd start off by asking how to determine when and where my local beaches will not be "sanded in".

Just went out with my new Tesoro Sand Shark yeasterday (with the full crowd there - was a family outing), and didn't find any "erosion" happening, and no great areas to search. While the detector worked perfectly without any falsing and I dug a bobby pin and a few bottle caps at least a foot down, it seems as if there weren't any targets on that beach.. It was clean!
I was swinging in the wet sand, and out in up to knee-deep water.

I live up in the mountains now about 2-3 hours from the beaches, so I can't get there to hunt but once or twice a week.

So, how can I determine when and where to do wet beach detecting?

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Get a "Tide Chart" for the beach you want to hit. Plan to start detecting 30-minutes before low tide and then right on through the cycle. Sanding is driven by wind and wave action. In my experience, it really is hit or miss - unless there has been high winds or a good storm. Most important though, is making sure you are in the water at LOW TIDE!

 

[pinenut]

..In my experience, it really is hit or miss - unless there has been high winds or a good storm. Most important though, is making sure you are in the water at LOW TIDE!

Thanks. I got there 'bout noon and stayed until the evening low tide, but I see now that it wasn't nearly as low as the morning low was. Been looking at the NOAA tide charts.

The bummer is, at both the early and late lows...all the peaches are off the beaches..

 

[flgliderpilot]

When hunting the wet sand or in the water, it's totally normal to find very few targets. If you are digging pull tabs at 12" it's sanded in, especially if you can dig deeper still. The solution is to move asap. One part of the beach may be sanded in, while another part is not. The shape of the shoreline is a good indicator, but it's different for each beach because the currents are different for each beach. The best thing you can do is hunt a few beaches a lot, so you know instantly when it's good or bad conditions, and where to look to determine that. I've gotten up at 3am, drove to the beach, dug two holes and decided it bad and went home and back to bed. I've also gone at 7pm, found conditions very good and stayed all night. In wet sand, conditions are everything. I usually bring two detectors for this reason. One for wet, and one for dry.

Sometimes you get lucky and even though it's sanded in there are good spots along the beach to be found if you really search for them.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Thanks. I got there 'bout noon and stayed until the evening low tide, but I see now that it wasn't nearly as low as the morning low was. Been looking at the NOAA tide charts.

The bummer is, at both the early and late lows...all the peaches are off the beaches..

You want to get there either just after "The Peaches" leave, or before they arrive. That way you can do the "towel line" without anyone in the way, or annoying any old grouchy people. Peaches, or treasure. It's rare to get both!

PS: If your feet are sinking into the wet sand, move to a different part of the beach. Here's a sample from an article I wrote for Lost Treasure magazine:

Beach Detecting Strategies; When and Where to find treasure on the beach

The beach is divided into two-sections - The "Dry Sand" or blanket area, and the "Wet Sand" or swimming area. When detecting the dry sand areas, successful beach hunters "grid" individual sections of the beach. Start by choosing an area 50-feet long, by 50-feet wide. First detect from the North to South. When you have detected the entire grid, turn 90-degrees and detect it again East to West.

Moving slowly and methodically, you will be able to pass your coil over almost every inch of the 50' x 50' area. Coins, watches, rings, bracelets, Ipods, cell phones, car keys - you'll find it all! The phrase to remember is "low and slow." Keeping your coil as low and flat to the sand as you can, while moving slowly enough to assure your sweeps overlap each other is the real key to success.

For tips on hunting the surf and wet sand I consulted with Rusty Henry. Rusty is a retired Navy "frogman," and an original Seal Team 2 member. He is a living metal detecting legend, and has been the Service Manager at Tesoro Electronics for 20-years. Rusty says rings and jewelry are lost in the water during both High, and Low tides. You can get to these treasures much more quickly during Low tide however. "At Low tide, get into knee- to thigh- deep water to get to the jewelry that was lost at High tide by people swimming, frolicking, throwing Frisbees, footballs and such," says Rusty.

"Look for streaks of Black sand on the beach at the waterline. These are always an indicator of where other heavy things like coins and jewelry will be deposited. Many beaches will only have Black sand streaks after a storm, or unusually heavy wave action. Storms uncover things that have been out of reach for many years as the sand gets ripped away. You have to act fast however during low tides, as a couple tide changes can start covering it all up again." Rusty says after a violent storm, look for hard clay patches that are showing and, "detect the small depressions that look like miniature potholes."

 

[SweetCorn]

Yeah, a sanded in beach can still be good. I'm perfectly fine if every hunter wants to split the second they realize the beach is loaded with sand. But I've had some good hunts when the beach first appeared to look like crap. You gotta keep on the move until you find some good spots. Really productive hunting for me in wet sand, the targets come in pockets. You have to work to find them. Sometimes they are always in the same spot, sometimes not. Like a prior poster mentioned, you gotta hunt some beaches a lot to learn the specifics. It takes time.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Wet sand and dry sand require completely different tactics and different expectations.

It's really difficult to grasp this at first when starting out coming from hunting the dry sand and can make for some hard times. Hang in there.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Thank you Terry! I read too much and detect too infrequently. So I've read thousands of threads on the water and quite a number of books. You said some good stuff I'd not seen - maybe someday everything I read will add up to something I've always been obsessive reading everything I see, including the ingredients sections.

And I'll be hitting a river swim hole this weekend. The local parks & beaches make you feel better after a search if you find a zincoln, So, there's certainly a need to look at other water spots. The salt beaches are about 5 hours East, and I haven't been there in at least six months - gotta schedule that soon.

 

[gamiller]

https://www.windy.com/?28.484,-82.513,5 maybe helpful

 

[cudamark]

You want to get there either just after "The Peaches" leave, or before they arrive. That way you can do the "towel line" without anyone in the way, or annoying any old grouchy people. Peaches, or treasure. It's rare to get both!

PS: If your feet are sinking into the wet sand, move to a different part of the beach. Here's a sample from an article I wrote for Lost Treasure magazine:

Beach Detecting Strategies; When and Where to find treasure on the beach

The beach is divided into two-sections - The "Dry Sand" or blanket area, and the "Wet Sand" or swimming area. When detecting the dry sand areas, successful beach hunters "grid" individual sections of the beach. Start by choosing an area 50-feet long, by 50-feet wide. First detect from the North to South. When you have detected the entire grid, turn 90-degrees and detect it again East to West.

Moving slowly and methodically, you will be able to pass your coil over almost every inch of the 50' x 50' area. Coins, watches, rings, bracelets, Ipods, cell phones, car keys - you'll find it all! The phrase to remember is "low and slow." Keeping your coil as low and flat to the sand as you can, while moving slowly enough to assure your sweeps overlap each other is the real key to success.

For tips on hunting the surf and wet sand I consulted with Rusty Henry. Rusty is a retired Navy "frogman," and an original Seal Team 2 member. He is a living metal detecting legend, and has been the Service Manager at Tesoro Electronics for 20-years. Rusty says rings and jewelry are lost in the water during both High, and Low tides. You can get to these treasures much more quickly during Low tide however. "At Low tide, get into knee- to thigh- deep water to get to the jewelry that was lost at High tide by people swimming, frolicking, throwing Frisbees, footballs and such," says Rusty.

"Look for streaks of Black sand on the beach at the waterline. These are always an indicator of where other heavy things like coins and jewelry will be deposited. Many beaches will only have Black sand streaks after a storm, or unusually heavy wave action. Storms uncover things that have been out of reach for many years as the sand gets ripped away. You have to act fast however during low tides, as a couple tide changes can start covering it all up again." Rusty says after a violent storm, look for hard clay patches that are showing and, "detect the small depressions that look like miniature potholes."

I agree that this method will work fine....if you're finding lots of targets on that section of beach. Otherwise, I prefer a different method when the targets are few and far between. I divide a beach into 5 sections. 1. The entry/no-mans section, where people don't camp, but, walk over and the area that is used by lifeguard vehicles or coned off. 2. The blanket/tent line. 3. The upper slope.....not dry, but, not shiny wet either. 4. The lower slope where the sand is saturated and still shiny. The surf still washes over this area. 5. The water.
When I hit an unknown beach, I start a zig zag pattern from seawall/dune to surf. After many passes, I can see where my targets are concentrated. I then hunt parallel to the water and try to keep in the "sweet" target zone. If targets are plentiful, by all means, grid the area. If not, I try to move as fast as the detector will allow and NOT overlap. My theory is that I have only so many hours of detecting in me and no way am I going to cover the entire beach. Why cover the same ground twice by gridding and overlapping, when I can have the coil over "virgin" sand all the time and cover way more beach? Will I miss some targets? Sure, but, I'll cover WAY more potential good ground than if I go slow and overlap. If targets are deep, a slower sweep speed is necessary to keep from missing those deep ones. If you're hitting the dry and looking for fresh drops, you want to move FAST to get as much blanket line covered as possible. You start hitting targets, slow down a bit and try to get 100% coverage without overlapping. Impossible, I know, but, you can get close. In the water, there's no way to swing too fast, so, don't worry about that there. Once you know what the beach is like, you can compare it with later conditions and then concentrate on the areas that have changed. Changes in the amount of dry sand, the shape of the slope, humps and valleys, shell/cobble areas, changes in sand color, holes, troughs, etc, are all areas to investigate.

 

[Jim in MA]

The info above is right on
In these 2 same pics I marked the area I would start detecting on this beach IN the water.
Look for uneven surf line and water color, the darker is usually deeper.

 

[bigscoop]

Hey folks, thought I'd start off by asking how to determine when and where my local beaches will not be "sanded in".

Just went out with my new Tesoro Sand Shark yeasterday (with the full crowd there - was a family outing), and didn't find any "erosion" happening, and no great areas to search. While the detector worked perfectly without any falsing and I dug a bobby pin and a few bottle caps at least a foot down, it seems as if there weren't any targets on that beach.. It was clean!
I was swinging in the wet sand, and out in up to knee-deep water.

I live up in the mountains now about 2-3 hours from the beaches, so I can't get there to hunt but once or twice a week.

So, how can I determine when and where to do wet beach detecting?

A lot to learn for sure, even in the targets you are getting, bottle caps and bobby pins "a foot down." These are all liter targets so if they're a foot down the heavier and better stuff is likely going to be even deeper. Whenever I encounter this situation I generally go probing somewhere else. Learning to read a beach takes "a lot of time" as the sand and currents are always shifting and moving around, so you just have to become a student of the beach and the more you attend class the sooner you'll get there. (Just tell the wife you're going back to college and that you'll be attending regular classes....)

 

[bigscoop]

We beach hunters tend to toss the word erosion around rather loosely these days as not all erosion is the same. Per example, if we see two foot of erosion over an area of beach and that remaining beach is still made up of several feet of deep fluffy sand then that erosion generally isn't what we're talking about unless it has invaded those generally dry dune areas, etc. What we are talking about is erosion that has left behind “firm bottoms”...bottoms that are firm enough to support items like dense gold rings, etc. So there is a significant difference in the types of erosion being sought. About the only time this may not be the case is during the height of the summer season when recent drops occur more frequently and even then these denser items sink pretty quickly.

Take a gold ring for example, it is very dense/heavy with little surface area to provide resistance, so unless it encounters something that will support its weight as it's sinking then it's generally going to keep right on sinking until it does. So think, “firmer bottoms,” as that is really what we're after, these firmer bottoms either being dense enough to support the goodies we're after or at the very least they'll help to slow the sink rate of those denser items. Start finding these firmer bottoms and you're likely to start encountering old fishing weights, rusted nuts & bolts, and that sort of thing. This is what we're looking for.

 

[cudamark]

I think most of us prefer firmer bottoms.....oh,.....you're talking about sand.....ok......that too!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Tides *alone* have nothing to do with it. If there's no erosion going on, then it won't matter what that day's tides and timings are. You have to go when swells/storms/on-shore winds are occurring. Google "tom's beach tips", and read there. That deals with my part of the CA coast, but has applicable things for beaches in general .