Tesoro Compadre at the beach

LM

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Dec 11, 2007
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Obviously, not a 'beach machine' but took it out today at low tide to see how it did.

The fresh-wet and intermediate wet sand was a no-go. No worries, this was expected.
I was, however, able to get below the high tide line and into the tide line itself with *no* false signaling problems whatsoever. I'm guessing the sand had about 4-6 hours to dry out. That small coil really was nice when swinging in the high tide washup, since it was so easily manipulated.

Everything else was as expected about the machine. Digging up little foil fragments 10" deep, etc. Really impressive. One thing that's super nice about the Compadre for those of us who hate going out loaded down with crap (diggers, bags, pinpointers, heavy machines, etc) is that it's so light weight, you can grab the shaft with one hand and swing the machine around your hole to figure out if the metal object is in the fill or if there's more digging to do.

Honestly, if all someone wants to do is go to the beach and swing a machine around the dry sand, this thing is absolutely fine.
 

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Sandman

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It is about having fun doing what gives you pleasure. :coffee2:
 

Smudge

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I love my Compadre, but have never used it at the beach. That 5.75" coil just seems too small for that environment.

That wasn't problem for you?
 

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LM

LM

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Walked a little slower and swung a bit faster than with large coil machines that cover a lot of real estate, but the Compadre handles pretty nice anyway so it wasn't a big deal.

It might not be the 'ideal' beach machine seeing as it doesn't handle wet salt sand and the coil is small, but it's totally serviceable... plus, on the walk home from the beach, I hit a hotel volleyball court that included around the net poles, bleachers, chaise lounges, etc where that small coil was a gem. Got a pocketful of clad there, which I promptly gave to some kids who had been watching me and told them to go spend it in the coke machines at the hotel :headbang:.

I'm buying a PI water machine shortly that will be my dedicated saltwater md- but for guys who use Compadres as travel machines, or for people who only have Compadres and are wondering if it can be used on the beach to any degree of effectiveness, the answer is definitely yes. Just understand it's main limitations are coil size- which will effect your swing rhythm, if you're used to larger coils- and wet salt is a no go. Other than that, it was signaling little tiny foil fragments a foot down. Got what I thought was a perfect neckchain signal- turned out to be a wire fishing leader >:( That damn thing was probably a good 8" deep.
 

Smudge

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Well, from one PI user to a future PI user, get ready to dig deep for junk. You'll be doing a lot of that! :wink:

Thanks for your info on the Compadre at the beach. I figured wet sand was a no-go, but its nice to know it works the dry sand well.

Thanks for the feedback. :icon_thumleft:
 

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