Unreasonable Expectations of a Beach Hunt?

[Skippy SH13]

So... I have this dream... I'm 8 hours from the coast, and I dream I go there, and find like 3 gold rings and a watch every visit I make to the beach. WHy? Because every video I look at for beach hunting, they find like 3 gold rings and a watch, though admittedly, sometimes the watch is just a band, and sometimes the watch is a knife.

In my brain, if I go to the beach, I'm guaranteed to find some jewelry.

I have the sneaky suspicion that my brain is lying to me. So... Here's the deal. This is what I find and my averages per hunt. I'll list the item, and then list the frequency of finds, and estimated hours to find one. I'd love it if you could do the same.

I LAND HUNT ONLY and to date, have only hunted (and rehunted some up to 20+ times, always finding new stuff) the local city parks and schoolyards:
Each Hunt averages about 2 hours.

Gold rings: 1 ring for every 20-25 hunts (40-50 hours per ring)
Silver rings: 1 ring for every 15-20 hunts (30-40 hours per ring)
Silver Bracelet/Chain/Pendant: 1 for every 10 hunts (20 hours per piece)
Other Quality Rings (Tungsten, Titanium, Cobalt, Stainless Steel but nice, etc): 1 every 5 hunts. (10 hours per ring).
Junk Jewelry - 1-2 pieces per hunt.

Silver coins - NEVER
Clad - approximately $2 per hunt.

Adding them all up, I seem to average about 1 good piece about every 2-3 hunts (4-6 hours), but make around $8-$12 in clad during that time.

What does your profile look like?

 

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[Captain Caveman]

My jewelry intake is not nearly that good. I'm averaging a silver coin every 2 weeks since I got my F75.

As far as the beach is concerned, I have yet to find a real piece of jewelry in dry sand, wet sand or in the water on the Mississippi gulf coast beaches. I enjoy the h3ll out of the water hunts tho!

My hunts are normally 3-4 hours. I go every Saturday and Sunday. I go at least every other Thursday evening (due to my wife's wacky work schedule) and most weeks I make it out at least one other week day evening. I'm averaging about $20 of clad a month, but I try to mainly do permission hunts which usually don't turn up much clad (or silver for the matter ).

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I notice in your avetar list, that you're using the Garrett 250 & 350. Be aware that those are poor wet salt sand hunters.

The best time to have your dreams come true at the beach, is after storm erosion. Mother nature groups all the targets in zones so thick, that you spend an hour in a space no bigger than your living room. Granted, those days are few and far between, but ...... once you've been in that type hunt, you'll forever be spoiled & hate dry sand hunting thereafter

 

[airscapes]

I am 2 hours from the beach, been to one in Del a couple of times off season for a very short time and found a dime.
Don't count your clad or your rings till you find them.. seems to me location has a lot to do with it, who is on the beach, do the think it is important to wear jewelry while sunbathing or do they value the jewelry to much to take a chance at loosing it.. seem to me you need to live close enough to hunt the beach every day and learn where and where not to go, it's a really big place..
This is why I no longer watch videos.. I have been hunting almost 2 years and I really do believe many of them are not for real.. just my opinion after a little experience and talking with a lot of people who have been hunting longer than me..
Dreams are nice, I just don't expect them to come true.. well maybe one more PowerBall ticket!!

 

[adamBomb]

It depends too much and too many variables. I live at the beach. I have been to a spot one day and found like 40 quarters in 2 hrs. The next week I cant even get a hit in the same spot. All of the factors that will affect your trip include things like:

How often its hunted
your experience
what the waves, sand, tides are doing
moon
detectors you have
how crowded it gets
etc, etc, etc.

Last summer I found 2 gold rings in about 2 hrs. This summer I found no gold rings at all.

 

[Terry Soloman]

How many of you believe everything you see on Youtube, or here for that matter? What you find depends on LOCATION, and KARMA.

 

[Loco-Digger]

I average 1 piece of gold in 800 hours of detecting and 1 piece of silver jewelry every 100 hours. I have only water detected once and in 1.5 hours I scooped 3 fish hooks from a fresh water state park beach.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

First thing...dont count on Expectations..lol I few members have posted some numbers to go by, but its all chance/luck


First day out with my CTX in the water, found a Gold ring in a matter of minutes, my buddy found a 14k Marniers Cross. Nothing the rest of the day. Went back the next weekend, found a silver ring within an hour. Nothing the rest of the day. next 3 times there, found nada

Same on land, I typically find everything the first hour or 2 then nothing..but then have days in a row where its nothing...then out of nowwhere a day where I find 3 or 4 silvers in an hour.

I would just stay positive and keep scoop those low signals....sometimes i catch myself passing one because im tired of digging...but thats just dumb on my part.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Your land numbers are fairly close to my water hunting numbers as far as finds. But, you'll need to extend your hunts to 8 hours instead of two for the water.

For the dry sand, I generally find about $1 - $2 per hour.

If I have an hour or two, I search the dry sand. If I have 4 hours or more, I go in the water.

Ace 250/350 will work in the dry sand great, may work well or not at all in the wet sand depending on how mineralized your sand is.

 

[TheRingFinder]

How many of you believe everything you see on Youtube, or here for that matter? What you find depends on LOCATION, and KARMA.

What Everything on TN is not 100% fact - I can't believe that!!!!!

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

What Everything on TN is not 100% fact - I can't believe that!!!!!

haha, next thing you will try and tell me is the Onion news network isnt real

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I see stuff on both that I could easily call BS on...

 

[metaljunkie]

I am at roughly 80+ hunts for this year. Probably averaging 4 hours each hunt. So around 320 hours of fun. I usualy go out after work at night. Mostly all parks and two water hunts.
I am at 8 gold rings and one gold chain. Also 6 silver rings and roughly 65 silver coins so far. So almost one silver every hunt!
I have been mostly rehunting old parks I have done before. I believe that is why my silver ring count is low. Most silver rings I find are trapped in the roots of the grass. Also I have concentrated maybe 30% of outings just digging mid tone gold signals. So maybe every 3-4 hunts I hit gold. If ONLY going for those signals. But yes, dug a ton of tabs also...

I have tied my gold ring count for last year. Way less silvers though. I got 165 last season, when these parks were more or less vergin. Not any more....

 

[Skippy SH13]

Thanks Loco, this is the type of information I was really looking for. Probabilities...

I was considering taking my ACE350 on a cruise with me (can hunt a few of the beaches). I'm already planning "NOT" to, but wanted to see if that decision was going to stick 3 months from now. LOL

I average 1 piece of gold in 800 hours of detecting and 1 piece of silver jewelry every 100 hours. I have only water detected once and in 1.5 hours I scooped 3 fish hooks from a fresh water state park beach.

 

[Skippy SH13]

I see stuff on both that I could easily call BS on...

Oh, sure... But I don't care if it's a live dig, or someone turned on the camera after the fact. I watch them as a way to further my enjoyment of the hobby. Seeing a big gold ring in someone else's scoop is pretty awesome... Reminds me of the plugs I've dug that had nice rings in them.

RE-living the experience is just as fun for me as having it to start with. Love this stuff.

 

[T.C.]

I know this is gonna be hard to believe but....my compadre and me hit a dried up swimming hole here in my county. Previously, I found two rings (one titanium with a diamond and one 925 with a red stone) on a scouting expedition by myself. I took my compadre with me the next time and lo and behold!! I found 5 rings ( three 925 and two stainless steel), he found 2 rings (both 925) for a grand total of NINE rings out of this area!! Well, we went back again with visions of rings in our heads and .....nada, zilch, nothing!! This had to be a "virgin" area....we're gonna try it one more time just to make sure....phew!! I get all worked up again, just tellin' about it!!

 

[Carolina Tom]

I had my best month ever last month: 17 silver coins & 5 silver rings.

I hunt after work during the week, maybe 6 hours... as much as possible on the weekends, maybe 12 hours. Maybe 18 hours a week.

I average: 7 silver coins and 1.5 silver rings per month. I have 2 gold rings in 18 months, however, I just started to dig the mid tones this spring.

It's all about where you get to hunt. I hunted NJ & Philly two weeks ago... 14 silver coins and 3 silver rings in 2 days! The local boys took us to their best spots.

 

[tcornel]

I am here in Myrtle Beach with my 3030, 17" coil, huge sand scoop and running known to work beach programs and settings.......sometime with no discrimination. I am digging pennies and dimes at 13" to 14", ditto for rusty bottle caps, very few pull tabs. So far averaging about a couple bucks in clad for a 3 to 4 hour hunt. No gold or silver rings. I did run into one hunter who found a platinum bank at 17". Everything is so sanded in that only recent drops are within range. So lower your expectations dramatically from those U tube videos. No one makes a video of the normal hunt.

Expect nothing and then you will be ecstatic when you find something!

 

[T.C.]

I don't think I will EVER have another day like that!!

 

[s.c.shooter]

Its hit or miss. Some beach hunts are great and other times I could have done better at a tot lot. Just go into it with an open mind. One knows that the targets are there. People lose jewelry at the beach all the time. One just has to get their coil over it. Good luck!!