how often

fisher2

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2009
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im hoping that underwater detecting at beach will payoff but how often do you find gold? how many hours of in water do you put in to get a slvier of gold or even silver? is it fairly common like if i put in 4 hours do i have a good chance to get on on a small beach thats pretty populer? i saw one guy get 3 rings in like half hour but he was a shady charector i think he might have brought them with him but i cant prove it and its not worth calling him out
 

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halfstep

Full Member
May 11, 2010
135
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Beaches are hot spots. You have a very good chance of finding bling. The biggest obstacle is competition. If several other dirt jockeys work the beach, there will be less to find. Try to find beaches that less likely to be worked over and don't wait too long to hunt it.
 

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fisher2

fisher2

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2009
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so how long should it take me to pay for the 275 im spending on the detector(well its a trade actually)
 

davest

Silver Member
Nov 5, 2007
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it should take you about 23 minutes to pay off the detector you're buying....................................................if you hit the right spot at the right time and actually put the coil over something worth 275.00.

or


it could take you years. Don't know what else to tell ya.

You might want to ask Overkill how long it's taking him to pay off his. (sorry OO, I couldn't help myself :hello:)
 

Sandman

Gold Member
Aug 6, 2005
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Excal 1000, Excal II, Sovereign GT, CZ-20, Tiger Shark, Tejon, GTI 1500, Surfmaster Pulse, CZ6a, DFX, AT PRO, Fisher 1235, Surf PI Pro, 1280-X, many more because I enjoy learning them. New Garrett Ca
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fisher2 said:
im hoping that underwater detecting at beach will payoff but how often do you find gold? how many hours of in water do you put in to get a slvier of gold or even silver? is it fairly common like if i put in 4 hours do i have a good chance to get on on a small beach thats pretty popular? i saw one guy get 3 rings in like half hour but he was a shady charector i think he might have brought them with him but i cant prove it and its not worth calling him out
A lot depends on the amount of visitors the beach gets an the jewelry they wear. Are the beach goers just laying on towels or throwing Frisbees, balls and playing in the water? The detector has to be set with low disc so it responds to foil and pull tabs as this is the range where 90% or the gold rings are. Silver jewelry reads higher into the coin range. If there are mothers with little ones they tend to stay very shallow so any jewelry they lose is only out to about knee deep as this is were most of the trash is also.

You can have one ring whose value could pay off your detector or it might take a couple. Your find ratio goes up according to how often you can get out to hunt. http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/ Study this site an good Luck. :read2:
 

fathead

Sr. Member
Dec 19, 2009
363
3
Conowingo, MD
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Bounty Hunter 505
I can guarantee you will pay off that detector in 30 hours if you follow the same plan I did.

1) Find someone who needs some yard work and is willing to pay $10 /hour.

2) Set aside the first 30 hours you would have spent detecting and go do the yard work.

3) Enjoy your detector guilt free because you know it is already paid for.


As for the number of finds, There was a guy who posted from the lakes region up north who was metal detecting full time. According to him, he was making more detecting than he would at a regular job. Even if his numbers were accurate, you can't depend on a beach site being littered with new jewelry every week. Especially in this economy when people are selling their gold for cash.

Read some of the posts by the regulars here. They seem to put in 4-6 hours a day on heavily used saltwater beaches and from what I can tell they seem to average about 1 piece of gold per week. Silver doesn't really have the same resale value as most of its worth is in the ring design, not the metal.

Good luck and keep us posted. I too am considering a water detector, if my wife ever lets me keep the money I make doing yardwork.

-Fathead
 

Indasurf

Full Member
Jan 2, 2008
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fisher2 said:
im hoping that underwater detecting at beach will payoff but how often do you find gold? how many hours of in water do you put in to get a slvier of gold or even silver? is it fairly common like if i put in 4 hours do i have a good chance to get on on a small beach thats pretty populer? i saw one guy get 3 rings in like half hour but he was a shady charector i think he might have brought them with him but i cant prove it and its not worth calling him out

Fugetaboutit!!! ::)

If you're looking to make $bling with beach detecting...........Fugetaboutit.........Sorry, but that's the truth!

Yeah, I've had 3 ring days, rare though.......I've also had "MANY" :'( hunts without finding squat....... :tongue3:

If you factor in the time spent traveling to the beach, tolls, gas,.....etc,........Fugetaboutit :laughing7:

I'm not saying that you can't find $bling......I do......but I've also had my good share of dry runs without finding anything decent :dontknow:

The things that are going to make a HUGE difference in your success are: timing, competition, knowledge (being able to read beach conditions),
skill, detector quality, time spent hunting......etc! :tongue3:

Beach hunting (especially water hunting) is hard work and most weekend warriors give up fast when they realize that it's not a quick get rich thing. I do it for the fun and exercise while always hoping to score something good, I truly luv the beach and hunting in the water!

If you're looking to just make money doing this........work a job.......it pays "MUCH" better! :sign13: :coffee2:
 

gmanlight

Hero Member
Jun 17, 2007
823
66
MA NH seacoast
Detector(s) used
what ever works
It sounds like you are leaning heavy on a money return.
You could have beginners luck, but you can also get
get P OD if you don't find something fast.

I have yet to find beach gold in 4 years hunting
I have hunted with a bud that got Gold and Plat

I have some nice Silver and last winter i got a nice Indian head penny.
I have IHs from the dirt but i thought one from the beach was cool.
To me the best part of beach hunting is finishing my coffee as the sun comes up
with nobody around .
 

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fisher2

fisher2

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2009
363
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i am in beach detecting for partial money but mostly it i like the fact i wont be able to see the dirt under my feet so the find will be a mistery everytime and i have better chances of finding goods
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,305
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Florida
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It could be on your first day, but I wouldn't hold my breath and it could be never.......Beach hunting is a lot of work, you don't just walk down the beach picking up gold, it means a lot of walking, a lot of digging and a lot to learn on how to understand your detector and how to read a beach. It also sounds like from the cost of your detector you not going into the water where more of the jewelry is found.

I would read everything you can find on water detecting starting with the link below...

http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/
 

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fisher2

fisher2

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2009
363
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im getting the fisher 1280x
 

PettyOfficer

Greenie
May 3, 2010
13
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Tesoro Sand Shark
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I wouldn't buy a piece of crap detector, but don't drop a grand on one that you feel like you'll have to justify in a few weeks or months on the beach. I get some gold here and there but most of the time it's not hardly anything I would feel worth posting. Today I dug a junk earring that had my pulse up when I saw that flash of yellow in my scoop, and it was a nice day out there. I also found enough clad for a slurpee! I don't want to buy another MD unless I pay for it with my finds, kinda like a game. The beaches in FL have been sanded in like crazy and I'm hoping for better days. My averages have not been great, but I'll never catch that fish unless I have a line in the water. Bottom line, I don't feel pressured to perform, when I have down time I research, and I enjoy not being at work and walking around in my own little world wondering what the next hit is going to turn up. :sign13: Do you have a mother-in-law? Invite her over more often and I'll guarantee you'll feel better about spending hours out there with little bling to show for it! :sign13: Another idea, even if you're not finding anything dig like crazy and watch the reaction of the other guy metal detecting just up from you. Better yet, go behind him and do it! Have a little fun... then get a slurpee.
 

S.S.Tupperware

Hero Member
Jul 18, 2009
798
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Orlando
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10 minutes maybe never... where are ya hunting? Treasure Hunter and I went to Daytona yesterday low tide... between the 2 of us we didn't even come close to breaking even on gas one way!!! But I have had days where gold was found the first few swings on the beach... kinda like playin the lottery.
 

DrJoePrime

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Sep 9, 2007
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OK, I detect about an hour or two each day and after about three years my ring average is ONE per ten days, of these one in 5 is gold. So that's one gold in 50 days. (both dry and wet sand)

Of course I've had great days with 3 gold rings in one day .. but also dry spells of NO gold rings in 3 or 4 months.

Going only for the profit is a sure hobby killer I would expect.

HH Joe
 

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miser

Guest
Your odds definitely increase or decrease with the type of detector you're using. Use a PI and you'll go really deep and not miss anything. If there's gold there, you'll get it along with every piece of iron, foil and bobby pin on the beach. Your biggest challenge would be fighting the frustration. Nothing worse than digging through ten inches of compact sand, the hot sun covering your body in sweat, only to bring up an old pulltab. Its going to happen.

If you can get a beach machine that works in wet sand (not all machines that claim to beach machines are really good there) and has some decent discrimination, you'll knock out the garbage but lose depth unless your using a top of the line machine like the sovereign or excal.

But the experienced posters above are right, you may hit the jackpot and gold may elude you for years. I pray for lady luck to smile on me too, but I also know there's no gurantees.
 

bigscoop

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Jun 4, 2010
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If you're thinking of finding gold rings with profitable consistancy, well, it's not very likely. As Sandman said, the competition is tough as most of the beaches are already being hit pretty regularly by experienced detectorist. My advice, if you want to try to avoid this situation, is that you try to locate some of more less known and out of way the beaches, like those at some of the smaller campgrounds and little known county parks. The best day I ever had was at one of these little known county parks which sat out in the country within easy reach of a few high dollar housing additions. It didn't look like much, about a one acre pond with a 60 foot wide beach that never reached your neck in the deepest water. But man we took a lot of gold and silver jewelry out of that place, and I mean a bunch. In one spot I found five silver rings in one hole up on the hillside overlooking the beach, obvioulsy someone had taken them off and probably slid them under their blanket and then forgotten about them when they left. We found necklaces, bracelets, chains, watches, coins, and a lot of rings, both silver and gold. But this is a very, very rare event. If you watch the beaches you hunt closely you'll learn that there are also certain places within that beach that gets most of the traffic, for example, maybe most of the bottom is soft, weedy, or mucky, with only a small area of the beach providing firm comfortable sand between your toes. Swimmers usually tend to gather over these more comfortable bottoms. As Sandman stated earlier, learn to "read the beach". To barrow an old prospector's saying, "You can't find gold where gold ain't!" Good luck!
 

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