first beach hunt

[jjg70]

first time working a beach in Florida, I think i need more practice, 5 hours to find these coins

 

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[Buried Crap NJ]

I think you did good. I don't know what detector your using? But your finding stuff that's great!

 

[lorraine]

You did well!

That's more than I find in some 5 hr. hunts.

 

[jjg70]

Using my AT pro. It was strange all coins came from high tide level and leads weights at low tide level

 

[mlayers]

Looks good to me......Matt

 

[digum smacks]

why is that strange?sounds exactly right to me.the lead is heavier than the coins therefore they find the lower spots,also lately wave action moves coins,therefore pushing them up the beach or uncovering them take your pick

 

[jjg70]

I do like digging in sand more than dirt

 

[Da Sand Crab]

The gold and heavier stuff like to hang out with the lead weights.

 

[jjg70]

Do rings stay with heavy stuff or are they washed up higher where coins are

 

[Bruley24]

You did very well. All the coins are discolored and the nickels show you were paying attention to your machine. As far as were the targets are normally I would say some days they are high and some days they are low. Last three rings I pulled where in between. Look for fresh cuts and work until you are hitting targets. Slow down and cover the area from there to water or cut depending on direction working and you will find something.
Don't know what beach you were on but stay there too many nickels for there not to be some better items for you to pick up. I like it when pulling nickels and pull tabs means someone either does not work beach are has machine set to notch out targets either way good for you.
Good luck

 

[erikk]

why is that strange?sounds exactly right to me.the lead is heavier than the coins therefore they find the lower spots,also lately wave action moves coins,therefore pushing them up the beach or uncovering them take your pick

Right on

 

[lacey333]

Your gold and silver finds will be with the lead and heavier finds!

Do rings stay with heavy stuff or are they washed up higher where coins are

 

[stevemc]

Fishing weights are usually out farther-they are fishing weights, cast out and get caught on something or kicked of the line. Coins usually are up on the beach, or where people are standing on their heads. They usually arent out too far. Rings could be anywhere, and as everyone said, keep hunting. But they could be on the beach- less likely, but mostly from the waters edge-best area, and out to where you cant stand any more. All that is good. I have gone over places where many MDers have been or are already working, and find rings. I have a UW PI MD though. Keep it up, remove all the trash, and soon you will post a nice gold ring! Dig it all, even nulls. When it gets quiet then starts buzzing, dig that quiet area. Remember stainless steel and gold jewelry are hard to pick up, so keep your ears open for tiny differences. Go back over things that sound funny, and try digging them. Not that you want stainless steel, but gold.

 

[goodmore]

You did well. I predict in the future zinc pennies will stay in the sand. According to a well known detectorist and seminar giver gold rings do not move. The only direction they go is down.

Dig it all, even nulls

That depends on your location. Also the amount of junk. I was hunting Atlantic City yesterday. Your not going to dig the nulls there. Unless you want to stay in the same spot all day.

 

[surfshark]

I dont see any trash.

 

[jjg70]

I had my share of lead weights and bottle caps

 

[tnt-k9]

Overall it's a good haul These guys & gals know what they're talking about. You are on the right track to the gold vein.

 

[DaChief]

I have been away for a while but thought I would put in my two cents worth to hopefully help. What you have read above from others is correct in my book too. You have gotten good advice. You will most likely find the gold where you find the heavier objects. Gold would have been, if it was there, in and around the area where the lead weights had settled. It is true that you will find freshly dropped gold near the surface but it does get deep within a matter of days depending on the weather and wave pattern. Lead is what we all look for as a sign we are down to the strata where old gold would be hanging out. You would find the gold there and probably just a bit shallower than the heavy lead items but most likely you have hit the base strata where the gold is if you are finding lots of lead.

I might suggest that you insure that when you can that you run your machine with very little discrimination. I am not familiar with your AT Pro but I took a quick look at the manual on line. It appears to be a souped up water proof version of the Garrett Ace Series which means Garrett has their folks paying attention to so many hunters trying to waterproof their Aces. Your machine is more suited for freshwater and while it will perform well on sandy beaches, you will find the performance will probably deminish as you get near or hit salt water or wet sand. I am not putting the machine down, it is just the nature of that particular machine. I use a Garrett also but it is a machine specifically for salt water. Yours would blow mine away in fresh water. That being said, there are ways to get the most out that machine on salt water beach areas.

If you weren't digging a great deal of things like aluminum pull tabs or other small pieces of metal like earrings, etc, you probably had your discrimination set too high. We all dig several earrings per session. I didn't see where you had mentioned finding any. They are probably the most frequently found junk item we come across in the realm of jewelry. I saw where your machine has 4 presets you could select for discrimination. On the beach, I would set that machine's discrimination to zero which I saw was an option and then adjust the sensitivity until the threshold tone is stable when swinging the coil. If you are hunting wet sand you will hear a lot of false tones as you swing if the sensitivity is set too high. You just lower it in incriments until it smooths out. If you are hunting dry sand, you can set the sensitivity fairly high as long as you don't start getting an erratic theshold tone. You can substitute your visual digital ID for your discrimination to make choices to dig or not in lieu of letting the machine filter stuff out for you. I would dig everything you hear until you determine what your machine is capable of. Sometimes with a VLF machine, you will find that it can be wrong on the ID depending on the depth of the target and mineral content of the sand. Your lead weights, depending on how big they are will probably show a bit higher than gold and near or below the zinc penny. You would get the same reading hunting relics if you hit a large Civil War Minnie Ball. This is just a guess since we can't see the trash items. You are definetly doing good though. Just a little fine tuning and you should find your gold soon. That looks like a neat machine. I have been away from the hobby for about two years and didn't even know Garrett had come out with it. I may have to have one for fresh water here in Tennessee where I relocated to from Florida.

Remember to be patient and go slow. Very slow overlapping swings of the coil with it nearly scraping the sand will produce more finds than any other technique. Your machine calls for a normal pace of swinging at 3ft per second. You can slow it a little more than that but not much. If you watch people hunting beaches you will see many who appear to be the kid on the Easter egg hunt who is trying to beat everyone to the eggs. They are almost running with the detector as if you or someone else is going to find everything before they get a chance. That same person is also the one you will see with the coil, normally a 9 inch stock coil, about 12 inches in the air over the sand. No chance for them to find anything.

Good luck and keep experimenting. You will get it right. Be persistent and you will find that gold.

DaChief