$.28 in 9 hours, help needed please

[Overkill Overkill]

Did I mention I have also found a sporty yellow matchbox car?

Man, what the heck am I doing wrong?!?!?!?!?!? I had better success last year when I rented a Garrett Ace.

To bring you all up to speed, I finaly took the plunge and bought a brand-spankin' new Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II. Of course, it's only as good as its operator, and, I, my friends, am not very good. So if you don't mind, I could use a little guidance to hopefully have a better last 3 hunting days on my Florida trip.

I flew in Friday early evening and went to Indian Rocks Beach around midnight (Low tide was stated as being around 3 am, so you should show up a few hours before that time, correct?). I am still getting used to the machine and its settings and beeps. I'm finding seemingly contradictory info in books and on this forum, etc. I think I recall the adage "If you have a PI unit, dig everything." But for example I read in the Golden Oldie website that covering area is very important, and one cannot cover a lot of area if one is digging up 95% junk. So I guess it will just take time to learn my machine. So far it seems that the best sound to hear with this Sea Hunter is a loud, short, crisp, discrete beep - which signals gold or coins, correct?. But should one dig everything; I am setting my unit to Standard Elimination 2?
Perhaps I need to try St. Pete Beach or the heavily hunted Clearwater Beach?

Also,
1) What the heck is going on when I can't find the target either in the scoop or in the sand I've just unearthed? Is it ever true that sometimes my PI will give me a false positive reading, or is it instead true that a single beep always represents some kind of metal?

2) I am finding quite a bit more clad in the dry and and as oposed to the wet, but I thought one usually finds more stuff in the wet sand, correct?

3) Part of the problem could be that I have not yet ventured into the sea. I read somewhere that one can use a hand scoop for water up to 2' deep, but I'm having trouble digging in only 1 inch water! Any suggestions?(Besides buying a long-handled scoop.) I've read about a method called "fanning"the sand away, but maybe that method is just for underwater hunting?

Thanks in advance!

 

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[desertfox]

Do not use disc on a beach! Dig it all. Gold rings sound like trash and if you disc trash out, well, there goes the rings, too. If your detector is sounding off and nothing comes up in your scoop it either means you didn't dig deep enough or the target is so small it fell thru the drain holes. Fanning won't work in shallow water just use your scoop and forget about the rest. Your doing good, just give yourself some time. Good luck and keep us posted on your finds. HH

 

[DrJoePrime]

As I was trying to put it into words Joesen beat me to it.

A PI should be an easy machine to use but it takes some finesse to get the swing and speed right. I'd suggest doing some experimentation. Bury some coins at various depths and see how they sound. Then try it with a wedding band, yours and maybe your wife's too.

Of course the items have to be there and find their way to be under your coil and at a shallow enough depth to set off the detector.

It's taken me about 9 months of use but now I can actually tell the denomination of most coins I find with my Whites PI. Aluminum does confuse me though and coins (especially dimes) that are buried vertically can sound like bobby pins.

I don't have the specifics on your machine as I'm not familiar with it.

Patience, Persistence and above all Believe that you will find something. It may not happen this trip but it WILL happen as long as you don't give up. FUN is the object not GAIN.

HH Joe

 

[erikk]

Set it on discrete, threshold 3 and elimination 1 1/2-2 after a while U wont have to dig the double beeps but dig everything else

 

[davest]

man, you just didn't pay attention to my previous post.

the mark ll is a great machine but it does not, repeat as neccessary, does not discriminate. The only thing the nice little knob on the upper right hand portion of the face plate does is make you feel like it works. You could place the knob on the lower left portion of the face plate at the "discrete discrimination" detent and that will make the target sound lighter, and you feel better, but it will not discriminate.

You have now purchased the machine from hell that will have you digging every bit of bobbypin, canslaw, fishhook, et al. But you will find gold/silver/and coins because that is just what happens when your left arm gets bigger than your thighs.

oh, you will hear others say, "the double beep" will indicate iron or steel.........................hahahahahaha

Oh, I've used mine every weekend for the past 2.5 years except for Christmas/Easter and my wifes' birthday. So I do have some inkling of how it works.

After a while, you'll see other hunters and you'll be asking yourself questions like, "I wonder why I never see anyone else using this model of machine".







what kind of scoop did you buy? Are you gonna try Gandy with the mark ll?

 

[davest]

I should also add.

You didn't say where you were hunting except for finding more clad in the dry sand. Well, that's where the blankets usually are laid down and the folks put their purses, cigarettes and spare change. Expect to find more clad there.

that, "loud, short, crisp, discrete" beep is just that. Now you have to figure out which part of the coil you're hearing it from. Then you have to pinpoint it using your foot, the coil, and your scoop. My coil sounds off on the left side, 2nd coil that does this, so when I get that "loud, short, crisp,disrete" beep, I know about where to dig. Yesterday the waves were kinda small but the undertow was pretty strong, made for some interesting digging while chest deep. Also watch for stingrays this time of year, shuffle your feet.

Many times you'll have small pieces of canslaw that float off to give you more practice later. Those are what you'll be thinking are false signals, unless you point your coil at the sky and get a false signal, that means a bad coil.

Upon further review, I see you haven't been using the SeaHunter for the sea, so disregard all of my advice. You will need a long handled scoop for water use unless you can hold your breath for quite a while.

 

[Gator-Flea]

Man, just get out and have some fun

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

O/K, you did not listen to us..

1. Metal detecting is NOT PLUG AND PLAY, which is why we kept telling you to just buy a detector and LEARN. You should have spent weeks practicing before your trip.

2. Many of us told you to not buy a PI, but you bought a PI. PI is going to beep on every single piece of metal there is, every tiny piece of iron ever made, every piece or trash.... It does not have different tones to tell you the diference in the metals, nor does it "null" on iron like Minelabs to tell you "don't dig me, I'm just a piece of iron". A PI takes a lot of patience and skill, and even then your going to be digging a lot of trash. We highly recommended you bought an Excal or Whites Beach Hunter that told you more about the target you were digging.

3. There are more good targets in the wet, and less trash is what we told you, but you have to get your coil over it to find it, and if your busy digging trash, your not spending time finding gold....There is some gold in the sand, but there is also at least 100 times more trash in the dry sand and when you have a PI, that is a lot of wasted time digging......

4. We told you a scoop was VERY important, a dry sand hand scoop will not work in the water, and barely works in the wet sand. You need a water scoop, it gives you leverage for digging. West coast of Florida has a shell base and that is hard to dig in....

Last......A lot of people buy a detector and go to the beach thinking I just going to go out and find all that gold......NOPE, it takes time to learn your detector, time to learn how to read the beach, time to learn how to pinpoint, time to learn how to search the beach......In other words you have to pay your dues..............

 

[Willee]

My advise ..... for what it is worth ...

Put the Garrett SeaHunter in the closet (or sell/trade it) an buy yourself a Excalibur II.
From what I read you want a discriminating detector but instead are using a PI.
PI type detectors are great machines for those that learn to like them.
If you don't mind digging every bit of trash on the beach to get all the gold and silver ... then use a PI.
PI's are usually very sensitive to small gold items like a 1/2 carrot diamond stud earring.

Depth !!! who needs it on the beach?
What you are looking for is recently lost jewelry and that stuff isn't very deep.
What a beach hunter really needs is large area coverage and sensitivity to small gold.
The more beach you swing the detector over ... the more items you will recover.

IMHO ... Minelab BBS and FBS detectors are the greatest salt water beach detectors ever made.
The company don't support them as well as the American manufactures but bottom line is ...
They work ... and work very well in the salt water environment and require no adjustment going from dry to wet sand.

 

[jyt2017]

From what I heard PI good for ocean...but big learning curve. Take the advice of the pro's here. Sell it or use it as a backup and get yourself an excal II. I am saving for one now.

I use a fisher 1280. The manual tells you one thing the pros say another. I was told to set my disc down to about 2. I did and found that machines first gold ring...in freshwater. I do primarily freshwater, as the 1280 does not perform in saltwater.

Don't give up whatever you do. This is a rewarding hobby...that takes time to learn. Bury some stuff and mess with it. Get to learn your machine.


Me, I would personally just keep it and if I had the money Id order the excal II...or save up for it. If you plan on doing this a lot....two detectors are what you want. And you can let a buddy try it out too.

I don't know how close to a detecting store you are...but find one and get a GOOD scoop. Id go all stainless as your in saltwater. It is a bit heavy but a tuck could run it over and you still be digging [thats a bit exaggerated].

Hope this helps. HH -Joe

If you dont have means to get the excal...give your machine a chance...learn it....use it for at least a few hundred hours....read read and read and hunt!

I dont know much about PI so youll have to get those tips from people who do.

 

[GuerillaBill]

The area you detect is far more important than the detector you use. That's because even the best detector won't find anything if there is nothing on the beach to be found.

But if you choose a beach ripe with targets, almost any detector can find at least some of the targets.

If you spent 9 hours and found only 28 cents, it could mean:

1. You are swinging the coil too fast
2. You are not keeping the coil parallel to the sand when swinging
3. The detector is not set up properly
4. The headphones are not working properly
or . . .
5. There is nothing to be found in the area you are detecting

On the Florida west coast beaches I've detected this week, there is about two feet of sand that has washed in on top of the normal levels of the beach. This 'sanded in' condition is making it difficult to find targets unless they are very recent drops.

To increase your chances of finding something, choose a beach ripe with more recent drops - a beach lined with high rise hotels (not condos), and a large parking lot.

Try water hunting at Clearwater beach or Siesta Key -

 

[Sandman]

man, you just didn't pay attention to my previous post.

the mark ll is a great machine but it does not, repeat as necessary, does not discriminate. The only thing the nice little knob on the upper right hand portion of the face plate does is make you feel like it works. You could place the knob on the lower left portion of the face plate at the "discrete discrimination" detent and that will make the target sound lighter, and you feel better, but it will not discriminate.

You have now purchased the machine from hell that will have you digging every bit of bobbypin, canslaw, fishhook, et al. But you will find gold/silver/and coins because that is just what happens when your left arm gets bigger than your thighs.

oh, you will hear others say, "the double beep" will indicate iron or steel.........................hahahahahaha

Oh, I've used mine every weekend for the past 2.5 years except for Christmas/Easter and my wifes' birthday. So I do have some inkling of how it works.

After a while, you'll see other hunters and you'll be asking yourself questions like, "I wonder why I never see anyone else using this model of machine".

what kind of scoop did you buy? Are you gonna try Gandy with the mark ll?

Davest, you slay me. This is a riot.

Overkill, You bought a great detector which will find every piece of metal out there on the beach including foil paper from gum wrappers. If you could spend the amount of time with all the digging you are going to do you are bound by the laws of chance to find some gold. I am old and feeble now so I use discrimination of Minelabs Excal 1000. It allows me to max my time by not letting me dig every piece of trash out there. The more good targets I can get my coil over the more good targets I'll find. This is what is meant by paying your dues. Just hit the beaches at fresh or salt water sites and enjoy the searching and soon the good finds will appear.
If not going in the water a short dry sand scoop will work for you till you venture in the real wet stuff. It is all for the sake of fun and I hope you have a lot of it. Just stay positive and don't Overthink everything, we sure don't.

As for the .28 cents, don't sweat it, sometimes we find less.............

 

[GibH]

Sea Hunter Mark II is a great PI detector, but it is a PI. You will dig every piece of wire, bobby pin, fish hook, and washer down to 16" with it. It's great IN salt water because salt corrodes a lot of junk very quickly. On the beach it will wear you out.

Reading and asking questions will only go so far. Experience is by far the best teacher. One book you might read is "Pulse Power!" by Clive James Clynick. Most of the information in it can be gleaned from these forums, but it is all neat and compiled in one easy to read format.

 

[Deepdiger60]

All my learning with my detectors is OJT !! weeks months what ever just get out there and learn the curve the only advice i asked for was a choice of detectors Sov.GT won and DFX for the kind of hunting i do ,only time with the detector will prove worth while it takes time you cant expect to be the Bling King your first trip out . Dd60

 

[UncleTom]

You must become one with the machine grasshopper

 

[rsc]

BUT BUT BUT buy a machine and get rich..right?? NADA
Another machine up for sale....Soon...
You get what you sew...
Learn the machine, and you will find good stuff.
Get in a rush, and all you do is waste time.....
HH Gayle

 

[Da Sand Crab]

Okay, alright you've been bombarded with info but I'll just make a few comments I hope will help. First thing I know as a P.I. user is that you never use it at night, (you said you went out at 3 a.m.) because you won't be able to see all the tiny hits that are going through your scoop, its hard enough seeing these things in broad daylight let alone being in the dark. You also need to put a magnet in the bottom of your scoop to catch all this iron debris. You gotta just enjoy this hobby not for what you find but for the whole experience of the beach the ocean and of course the excitement of the hunt and the next signal. People have all kinds of hobbies and play all kinds of sports, not for gain or fortune but for the experience. Ours is unique in the fact that we have all kinds of fringe benefits and great potential for gain.

 

[spartacus53]

Man, just get out and have some fun

I have to agree with Gator-Flea, go out and have some fun. You'll learn your machine as you go along. Keep in mind this is a hobby and for fun. As for what josen said "Pay your dues", that doesn't always work either. I paid my dues $50 last year and still came up short Besides, you may get lucky and find a little piece of gold even without paying these co called dues. Relax and have fun!!!

 

[fathead]

A little over 3 cents an hour sounds about average when you take out for expenses.

1) pick a good spot

2) make sure the round thing is facing down

3) dig

4) repeat

I know how you feel, but good finds require research, knowledge, and patience.

Actually, I found several gold rings my 5th time out, but I am so lucky that people actually hate me because of it. Well, maybe it is because I think I'm funny.

Good Luck and hang in there. It must be nice to finally be digging.

-Fathead

 

[erikk]

O/K, you did not listen to us..

1. Metal detecting is NOT PLUG AND PLAY, which is why we kept telling you to just buy a detector and LEARN. You should have spent weeks practicing before your trip.

2. Many of us told you to not buy a PI, but you bought a PI. PI is going to beep on every single piece of metal there is, every tiny piece of iron ever made, every piece or trash.... It does not have different tones to tell you the diference in the metals, nor does it "null" on iron like Minelabs to tell you "don't dig me, I'm just a piece of iron". A PI takes a lot of patience and skill, and even then your going to be digging a lot of trash. We highly recommended you bought an Excal or Whites Beach Hunter that told you more about the target you were digging.

3. There are more good targets in the wet, and less trash is what we told you, but you have to get your coil over it to find it, and if your busy digging trash, your not spending time finding gold....There is some gold in the sand, but there is also at least 100 times more trash in the dry sand and when you have a PI, that is a lot of wasted time digging......

4. We told you a scoop was VERY important, a dry sand hand scoop will not work in the water, and barely works in the wet sand. You need a water scoop, it gives you leverage for digging. West coast of Florida has a shell base and that is hard to dig in....

Last......A lot of people buy a detector and go to the beach thinking I just going to go out and find all that gold......NOPE, it takes time to learn your detector, time to learn how to read the beach, time to learn how to pinpoint, time to learn how to search the beach......In other words you have to bay your dues..............

AND B LUCKY AS HELL