bigscoop
Gold Member
- Jun 4, 2010
- 13,535
- 9,072
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- Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
That Amazing Disappearing and Reappearing Act
I don't usually post finds these days unless there's something significant to add about that particular find and I think this last one has a story to tell that's worth knowing. So here it goes.
It's hard to believe just how fast items can sink, especially on those beaches with deep fine sand. Yesterday I ran into a reminder of this fact while hunting over the wet sand, this just one day after the busy Memorial Day weekend.
First, we all know that the sand is coming onto the beaches quite heavily right now, this being apparent by the wide bars/mounds that are building up on the lower beach and the runnels that are forming at the back of them. When these mounds are dry they can feel quite hard, thus giving the impression that items won't be able to sink all that fast, However, once these mounds are covered with water during high tide they become a lot softer then you might think. To help prove this issue let me tell you what I ran into yesterday.
So yesterday I started hunting a section of wet sand at low tide, this being a very busy part of the beach during the prior weekend (like there were sections that weren't busy). Anyway, most everything I was hitting was fairly deep, i.e., clean clad and the usual crap in that 6 – 8 inch range. Now most of this stuff was lost during the prior weekend, or say sometime within the last four days and it was already 6 – 8 inches deep in just a few days. And I know this because it all came from that new bar of sand that's been building on the lower beach, that same bar that feels so firm and hard during low tide. The gold ring that is pictured here is only 4.3 grams and it was already an easy 8-10 inches deep. It was just a few more inches away from that safety zone, that depth at which a lot of machines would have difficulty responding to it.
During the summer I use a large coil and in just a few more weeks I'll be routinely hitting targets in the 15-16 inch range, these being those items that have managed to escape us and continued to sink. The sand is coming in and items don't sink toward the surface so this has to be the simple fact of the situation, the beach not seeing 8 inches of new sand in that short amount of time. So these items simply had to sink that deep into the dead zone, and they had to do it fairly quickly.
This is why targets start to reappear a lot of times after periods where some sand has been stripped away, say after weather fronts or in the weeks leading up to the winter season when currents shift and the sand is slowly stripped away. In the spring the sand comes on very fast, usually before there is enough beach traffic to provide the required drops. Once the beach traffic builds up a lot of drops will start taking place and many of these will eventually find their way into that dead zone and beyond. Then comes the stripping away of sand and the exposing of these targets. Only 4.3 grams and in just a few days it was already 8 – 10 inches deep in what only "appears" to be firm/hard sand at low tide. This is the seasonal magic act of the typical east coast beach. Something that's good to know.
I don't usually post finds these days unless there's something significant to add about that particular find and I think this last one has a story to tell that's worth knowing. So here it goes.
It's hard to believe just how fast items can sink, especially on those beaches with deep fine sand. Yesterday I ran into a reminder of this fact while hunting over the wet sand, this just one day after the busy Memorial Day weekend.
First, we all know that the sand is coming onto the beaches quite heavily right now, this being apparent by the wide bars/mounds that are building up on the lower beach and the runnels that are forming at the back of them. When these mounds are dry they can feel quite hard, thus giving the impression that items won't be able to sink all that fast, However, once these mounds are covered with water during high tide they become a lot softer then you might think. To help prove this issue let me tell you what I ran into yesterday.
So yesterday I started hunting a section of wet sand at low tide, this being a very busy part of the beach during the prior weekend (like there were sections that weren't busy). Anyway, most everything I was hitting was fairly deep, i.e., clean clad and the usual crap in that 6 – 8 inch range. Now most of this stuff was lost during the prior weekend, or say sometime within the last four days and it was already 6 – 8 inches deep in just a few days. And I know this because it all came from that new bar of sand that's been building on the lower beach, that same bar that feels so firm and hard during low tide. The gold ring that is pictured here is only 4.3 grams and it was already an easy 8-10 inches deep. It was just a few more inches away from that safety zone, that depth at which a lot of machines would have difficulty responding to it.
During the summer I use a large coil and in just a few more weeks I'll be routinely hitting targets in the 15-16 inch range, these being those items that have managed to escape us and continued to sink. The sand is coming in and items don't sink toward the surface so this has to be the simple fact of the situation, the beach not seeing 8 inches of new sand in that short amount of time. So these items simply had to sink that deep into the dead zone, and they had to do it fairly quickly.
This is why targets start to reappear a lot of times after periods where some sand has been stripped away, say after weather fronts or in the weeks leading up to the winter season when currents shift and the sand is slowly stripped away. In the spring the sand comes on very fast, usually before there is enough beach traffic to provide the required drops. Once the beach traffic builds up a lot of drops will start taking place and many of these will eventually find their way into that dead zone and beyond. Then comes the stripping away of sand and the exposing of these targets. Only 4.3 grams and in just a few days it was already 8 – 10 inches deep in what only "appears" to be firm/hard sand at low tide. This is the seasonal magic act of the typical east coast beach. Something that's good to know.
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