Virginia Beach

[NEAesculus]

Today was my first time ever of detecting on the beach, any beach. We recently moved to the DC area from Missouri and I decided to drive down to Virginia Beach today and give the beach a try. Actually I got the bug from reading this board last night.

Beach detecting is a bit different from the rocky soil in Missouri. Much easier to dig!

One thing I am curious about is that I didn't get very many signals of any kind in the dry sand. Two signals over quite a large area that resulted in a bobby pin about 6" down and a bottle cap about 3" down. I am so used to all kinds of junk in the soil in Missouri, that I kept throwing a coin in the sand to make sure the detector was working. Is it that the sand is actually relatively clean of debris?

I have a Whites Prizm V, and found the wet soil, as I expected, to cause some problems. I set the sensitivity down pretty low and that seemed to help. But I only got one strong signal that turned out to be a quarter a couple inches or so down. Again, down by the water, not a lot of signals of any kind. Is that to be expected?

Does anyone know if there is a waterproof coil that can be put on the Prizm V? and if so will that help with the false signals that I currently get in the wet sand?

I have to admit, the atmosphere at the beach is a wonderful place to hunt. I think I might have seen TEX tonight at about 6:00. I recognized him (I think) from a picture on this board. Anyway I will be moving to Australia in a few months and will be pretty close to the beach so I am wanting obtain some knowledge and techniques from those of you who know how to hunt the beach.

 

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[ringding]

A waterproof coil will not eliminate the chirping caused by the wet sand. I guess there are metal detectors that are designed to work well in wet sand.

 

[Jason in TN]

Max has already dug every pice of metal on Va beach out. If you want to hunt the wet stuff get a whites DFX or Beach hunter ID or a mine lab.

 

[ringding]

I was at Tybee Island this last weekend and I covered long long areas of the beach before I found anything. I think that the reason the beaches are clean is because the swimming season is just getting started now and there hasn't been a lot of stuff lost yet. Last years stuff was buried deep or found. Just a theory. What do you think?

The first time I went to the beach my machine chirped a lot and I got a lot of false signals. I read the manual again and I have more experience now and I took it to the beach and it worked like a charm. The problem was that there were so many people I couldn't search all areas of the beach. Only the dry stuff. There were literally that many people all up and down the beach.

 

[Sandman]

For more knowledge on hunting beaches go to this web site www.thegoldenolde.com/ With a lot of people hunting the dry sand most of the surface stuff is gone. Most hunters don't overlap their sweeps and use it like a pendulum so they miss even more area.

Your coil is ok in the water but it will chirp since you don't have a salt water mode. A great detector for the beach is the Excalibur 1000, this baby ignors the iron junk and is deep. The next good ones are Tesoro's Tiger Shark or Sand Shark which is a pulse. Also Whites Beach Hunter II. The BH II has a salt mode and three different toned to id the target. You can just dig the middle tones an at the end of the day and have more gold rings than your buddy whiich will have lots of coins. You could also use other land detectors, but in the surf is where most of the good stuff is hiding and for this you need a water unit.

Neilo hunts the waters around Austrailia and he uses a Minelab Excal too. He does very well too.

HH,
Sandman

 

[Roadquest]

Sandman...you said the Excalibur 1000 is a great beach detector.
Doe's it work well on dry land also, relic, coin hunting on dry land?

I am going to get some new stuff, just want to make sure it the
right suff, These detectors are not cheap.
Thanks Roadquest

 

[LadyDigger]

I live 10-15 mins from the oceanfront in Va Beach....(give or take traffic ). We have been there and have had some lucky coin/costume jewelry hits. But we had like two days with just a few coins. Like the beach was really picked clean or ppl are wising up and not taking their valuables to the beach anymore Be careful of those COIN sounds....I got a very very very strong signal....12 empty beer cans!!!!! UGH

At the beach in Norfolk (Ocean View, off Shore Drive)...I don't like that beach, dirty ...eeew...but we got lucky with coins....they don't replenish their beach like the oceanfront does. Also, Chick's Beach area, off Shore Drive. Not as crowded, but a few coins. You also have Croatan Beach...south of the Oceanfront, but North of Camp Pendleton. One side for Surfers only, the other side of the fench for Swimmers.

At the oceanfront, it's not uncommon to see anywhere from 3-6 detectors out there at any given time. With the tourist season beginning...I would expect to see more. You can see them out there as early at 5-6 am and even at night. They also, the city, has that surf raker that cleans the beach EVERY MORNING!!

One major problem with Va Beach....they replenish the sand just before tourist season (they need these ppl to come here so they will buy all the junk so they can loose it on the beach, so we can find it)

So, all the real good stuff is buried deep. That is why we are looking forward to a good storm to wash away all that sand

Also, for you local Va Beach residents....the municpal parking lots at the beach...remember on Wednesday, you show your ID / Driver's License that shows you are a local...PARKING IS FREE...that is on WEDNESDAY ONLY and after 5 pm other times, only a buck!!!! That would be 19th, 24th and the others. We normally go to 19th or 24th Just a heads up...to save you a buck or two. They won't tell you either that locals are free, nor is it posted (I read it on the cities website). And it's true...cause we go on Wednesday's now . It does not count for the parking garages, I believe on 9th street and 32nd The parking garages are excluded...only the open air municpal parking lots.

Welcome to the area Roadquest...and happy hunting to ya'.