The Ugly Truth About The Beach Machine Debates

[bigscoop]

A sandy beach, it is a mile long and two-hundred yards wide. Hidden in the sands of this beach are six gold rings, all of them only an inch in diameter and buried between four and ten inches deep. On this same beach there's also a dozen experienced hunters sporting a broad assortment of quality beach machines, some new and some old. Guess what, at the end of the day, the guys who get their coil over those buried gold rings are going to find gold.



Year after year the same people seem to always be finding the most gold, many of them using different machines then in previous years, some of them even finding more gold in previous years. This should tell you something of HUGE value. In my opinion there's way too much touting of machines and not near enough discussion about what separates these individuals from the rest of the pack, i.e., “what are they doing differently that delivers them so much success.” Obviously, given the wide variety of machines they have used over the years, it's not the machine. Sure, you need possession of a quality beach machine that's been designed for the task, but this is simply a bag of clubs to be slung over the shoulder of the golfer. Some will excel at the game, others won't. The important question is; "Why?"

 

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[bigscoop]

Hey BigScoop, if you need someone to go with give me a hollar. I tend to make it out 2-3 times a week for 4-6 hrs at a time. I just finished all of the mods as well and ordered another one for the wife.

sent you a PM

 

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[bigscoop]

Great post BigScoop!

Just going out with your machine is NOT enough... I recently ran into a hunter on the beach where I thought I would be to myself so I went over and said hi and told him I would be testing my new detector and if he wanted to join in he could... well, I sunk a medium 14k ring down to 8" and let him go first... no response...I know this machine, it should have hit that ring so I asked to see his settings..... he had the sensitivity down low and the disc up high enough to disc out pull tabs...... he had been on a 3 month slump of no gold..... his settings were siimiilar to a buddy of his and he hadn't touched them in those 3 months.... can't say his buddies machine worked right or not but machines do differ, you have to know your machine and what it will and won't do...Test your machine and see its capabilities. You will rarely find me out there without my calibrated string and a few rings.

Another thing I have noticed with a different hunter I have got to know this year.... he can't figure out how he has found so many gold chains this year.... well, IF you could see how he hunts you would see why, he is slow, methodical and covers every inch of sand in front of him as he slowly moves.... he has commented on his ring cound being down.... well, if he would speed up just a bit, he would cover more ground but not quite as efficiently.... he would get the bigger targets BUT he would probably not get as many chains.... it is a fine balance as to how fast to work and the machine you are using...

BS in your initial thread, you said it would be the hunter that got his coil over the gold that would get it.... I have to say you are right but only IF he has his machine and his ears working to full potential.

Again, great post....

Cliff

So true Cliff. Much of the hobby is mental toughness/awareness. I use to go to the beach to excape the stress. I've noticed in recent weeks I've been taking that stress with me which is distracting.

 

[TheRingFinder]

Experience is everything - It takes years to really "know" your machine. An experienced hunter will pull out treasures in the exact same area that inexperienced and moderate hunters would never find.

 

[lookindown]

Some people get so caught up in worrying that they might not have the best detector they forget what there out there for...to have fun...I don't care if my machine is not the deepest or most sensitive, I have fun...get a good quality detector and enjoy the hunt, you will learn your machine and the good finds will come.

 

[smokeythecat]

I have a $300 machine.
This year I got gold coins, 18th century (and earlier) silver coins, rings, etc etc etc
Biggest mistake I see is 1) people giving up after 1 hour 2)running hell bent for leather as they say up and down and down and up and 3) worst of all, swinging the machine 8" high in the air! Some of them look like they're bushwhacking snakes!
$2000 machine plus 5 mph walking speed and coil 8 inches off the ground, only thing they'll find is aluminum cans.
However, on one of my best days, I heard my phone "quack". yes, the ring tone is a quacking duck. So I answered it. No one was there. Call dropped. Put the phone away. A minute later the phone quacked again. So I answered it again. No one on the line. Another dropped call. And again it quacked, so I go to answer it and look up and about 100 feet away two mallard ducks take off out of the marsh. Thank God nobody knows about this

 

[cactusrat]

Thank God nobody knows about this

Yep, no one knows about it.

My silence will cost you 4 pull tabs and a Zinking Lincoln.

 

[smokeythecat]

Agreed to your silence! Quack. Did get to enjoy bald eagles, golden eagles, orange footed artic whatchacallits, I have to look up their names again, arctic terns, common gulls, brant, swans, snow geese, Canadian geese, a HUGE SEA TURTLE and 2 weeks ago a seal. On the Delaware coast!

 

[lorraine]

"However, on one of my best days, I heard my phone "quack". yes, the ring tone is a quacking duck. So I answered it. No one was there. Call dropped. Put the phone away. A minute later the phone quacked again. So I answered it again. No one on the line. Another dropped call. And again it quacked, so I go to answer it and look up and about 100 feet away two mallard ducks take off out of the marsh. Thank God nobody knows about this

Not even an "AFLACK" on the other end?

L

 

[bigscoop]

That quacks me up.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

"However, on one of my best days, I heard my phone "quack". yes, the ring tone is a quacking duck. So I answered it. No one was there. Call dropped. Put the phone away. A minute later the phone quacked again. So I answered it again. No one on the line. Another dropped call. And again it quacked, so I go to answer it and look up and about 100 feet away two mallard ducks take off out of the marsh. Thank God nobody knows about this

Not even an "AFLACK" on the other end?

L

I have parrots, I know someone who was going nuts answering his phone and no one was there.

After couple weeks he caught his African Grey doing it. The Grey would never do the ring when he was in the room so he did not know he could imitate the sound of a phone ringing perfectly.



Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[bigscoop]

I see a lot of beach hunters swinging "way above" the sand, also see a few with their coils turned up at a near 45 degree angle to the sand. I'm very vocal about coil control because it all begins there, at the working end of the stick. If you're not fundamentally sound in your ability to control the plane and motion of the coil then you'll never be able to access the full potential of your machine. Toss in saturated salt/sand and/or any type of turbulence/current and you're done before you ever got started. Achieving good coil control is critical to the entire process.

 

[Sandman]

I have watched many hunters swing their coils like grass whips and it is only near the sand just in front of them and up at the ends of the sweep. The next sweep is couple feet away and they think they covered the area where their foot tracks are. Not over lapping sweeps keeps ring totals down. Most everyone knows to not disc out pull tabs but lots of white gold is in the foil range. I used to swing a Pulse for deep rings but while I found a lot, I was spending lots of unproductive time on trash. Then as you get older you decide that faint beep was trash so you don't dig it. Its good to not have to crawl back to the vehicle everyday cause your to tired to stand up. When I had my van I could pass out on the cot and later make a meal and go back out for the evening. Time spent finding the afternoon drops.

 

[Fletch88]

I have watched many hunters swing their coils like grass whips and it is only near the sand just in front of them and up at the ends of the sweep. The next sweep is couple feet away and they think they covered the area where their foot tracks are. Not over lapping sweeps keeps ring totals down. Most everyone knows to not disc out pull tabs but lots of white gold is in the foil range. I used to swing a Pulse for deep rings but while I found a lot, I was spending lots of unproductive time on trash. Then as you get older you decide that faint beep was trash so you don't dig it. Its good to not have to crawl back to the vehicle everyday cause your to tired to stand up. When I had my van I could pass out on the cot and later make a meal and go back out for the evening. Time spent finding the afternoon drops.

I kind of like it when I see this! It gives me hope they'll miss the booty! I saw 2 At Proers Monday on the wet sand swinging their detectors like sling blades with about the same speed! I just smiled inside and kept on swinging low and slow. It was a clad only kind of day!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I kind of like it when I see this! It gives me hope they'll miss the booty! I saw 2 At Proers Monday on the wet sand swinging their detectors like sling blades with about the same speed! I just smiled inside and kept on swinging low and slow. It was a clad only kind of day!

Totally agree I see it all the time it is like they are swinging a blade cutting weeds. I prefer seeing them on the beach because I know they didn't find my gold...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[bigscoop]

Learning "your" machine is also important. I've gone from one Excal to the next and not been able to use the same settings I had grown accustom to on the previous machine. The machine I have now is far more stable in turbulent water then my previous machine/Excal was. I've owned a couple of CZ-20/21's and I had similar issue with these, each machine being just a bit different then the others. I know new hunters often think they can use the same settings as another hunter using the same machine but there is often so much to factor in that this may not be the best settings for his machine, conditions, or his technique/mechanics. So as other have said, "learn your machine" because that is the machine you're using. Each time I end up with a different machine in my hands it's off to the beach with a variety of targets in my pocket that I can play around with in a variety of conditions for the afternoon. Regardless what machine you choose, it's only as good as the individual swinging it.

 

[Detector Wars]

In my opinion there's way too much touting of machines and not near enough discussion about what separates these individuals from the rest of the pack, i.e., “what are they doing differently that delivers them so much success.”

The problem is, the most popular posts on any beach detecting forum are gold/platinum finds with pictures of treasure. People would rather see others find good stuff rather than learn what they're doing right, type of signal and how they found it. I try to sift through posts in order to find good advice, but they are few and far between.

I would love it if there was a specific sub-forum that only involves beach theory and discussions on how treasure was found. Couldn't care less of just pictures of rings.

 

[Detector Wars]

Sure, you need possession of a quality beach machine that's been designed for the task, but this is simply a bag of clubs to be slung over the shoulder of the golfer. Some will excel at the game, others won't. The important question is; "Why?"

It has been my experience, the more and more I do this the clearer it becomes that sand is the key factor. A sanded in beach is the biggest enemy, so understanding how to avoid this problem, understanding sand and sand movement will help. My problem is that my beaches seem to ALWAYS be sanded in... or most of the time.

 

[bigscoop]

It has been my experience, the more and more I do this the clearer it becomes that sand is the key factor. A sanded in beach is the biggest enemy, so understanding how to avoid this problem, understanding sand and sand movement will help. My problem is that my beaches seem to ALWAYS be sanded in... or most of the time.

Yep, sand is a huge obstacle, especially on those coastal beaches that experience enough daily turbulence to keep all that soft sand in motion. At low tide the upper beach can appear hard and firm, come back six hours later when it's saturated with water and the sand at that same location can be soft/mushy/soupy. This is one of those things a lot of hunters don't recognize, at high tide even that upper beach sand takes on a quicksand effect when the beaches are heavily sanded in. Doesn't take heavy/dense items very long to sink beyond detection depths when there's a deep bed of this soft soupy sand. Right now it's even tough to find can slaw and pull tabs on my area beaches, let alone denser items with small surface areas like gold rings, etc.

 

[Whydah]

I will chime in here... This is just a few of the things I consider before hunting.
I do my homework on the area or areas to be searched... Location, tide, wind and direction, erosion, exposed rocks...
Is there history to the place you want to hunt?
Were there any Concession Stands, Bathing Houses, or Carnivals in that area ever?...
Just because it looks good when you get there, doesn't always turn out that way...
Learn to read the beach...LOOK at the lower areas, troughs, cuts, slopes, grey sand, scalloped areas, areas that hold rocks or shells...

We are as good as your machine can be... What I am saying is, knowledge is KING... the more you use it, the better your going to get... Listen to what it is saying... Let's face it, we are there to dig... so dig it all till you find that some things are just not sounding good... Switch to discriminate mode, and if the sound nulls, move on... I do not go by the numbers so much, who cares what they come it at? the deeper they are, the more different the numbers are going to be... I hunt more by sound than any other factor... then comes depth...
One of my most important rules are KEEPING my COIL to the SOIL ..."PERIOD"... the closer to the ground the better... Depth is everything... I hope this helps someone find at least one goodie... Good luck and Happy Hunting

 

[Fletch88]

Yep, sand is a huge obstacle, especially on those coastal beaches that experience enough daily turbulence to keep all that soft sand in motion. At low tide the upper beach can appear hard and firm, come back six hours later when it's saturated with water and the sand at that same location can be soft/mushy/soupy. This is one of those things a lot of hunters don't recognize, at high tide even that upper beach sand takes on a quicksand effect when the beaches are heavily sanded in. Doesn't take heavy/dense items very long to sink beyond detection depths when there's a deep bed of this soft soupy sand. Right now it's even tough to find can slaw and pull tabs on my area beaches, let alone denser items with small surface areas like gold rings, etc.

Another problem besides sand conditions BigScoop are huge jellyfish everywhere. I was down south of you a bit and tried to get out in surf and quickly got back out when 4-5 jellyfish the size of pie plates narrowly missed me. Nothing but clad and a pipe all weekend. Still beats sitting at home I guess!