Newbie Beach/Surf Hunting and optimal MD Mode questions

[Gemini420]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forums here and am also new to metal detecting altogether. Hello everyone!

I just purchased a Bounty Hunter Sharp Shooter II. It seemed like a good choice for a beginner like me, the coils are water proof, and the price was right.

I have been reading advice in the forums here and am also reading the Sharp Shooter II manual. I am trying to understand what the best 'Mode' options would be for beach/surf hunting.

I am reading that small rings and thin jewelry can accidentally be eliminated when using the Disc or Notch/Auto Notch modes. I agree with the advice that it would be better to operate in an 'All Metal' mode, simply to be alerted to all available targets.

Aside from that sound advice, what consideration should a newcomer be aware of when selecting between Discrimination, Notch or Auto Notch modes while hitting the beach? Is one of these a better choice for coin/jewelry hunting? I'm not really looking for historical finds (old iron.)

I clearly don't understand the real differences between the Discrimination, Notch and Auto Notch modes as they pertain to optimal beach/surf hunting for modern treasures.

The manual is not very in-depth, and it appears they recommend different settings for Jewelry VS Coin hunting. I would like to find both!

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice,
Shane

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Are you hunting fresh or salt water, if your going to hunt salt water you need to know the salt minerals in the water and wetsand will drive your detector nuts with false signals caused by the salt minerals, unless you stay in the dry sand.....

Your detector will give you constant false signals, you will need to turn the sensitivity way down on it, which is going to cause you to lose a lot of your depth. If your going to hunt salt water you need a good beach machine that is designed for salt water...

In general when your hunting saltwater beaches, you don't want to use any descrimination, or you will descriminate out some gold due to the base metals used in the gold jewelry.....

 

[Gemini420]

Hi Treasure Hunter,

Thanks for your reply.

I'm in St Pete FL, gulf coast salt water beaches with relatively pure white quartz sand. I don't believe there is any metallic component to the sands here. It's mostly quartz sediment with lots of calcium carbonate shell and coral pieces. There is definitely salt in the water, but I'm not sure what 'salt minerals' (if any) are abundant here.

I know the SharpShooter II is not designed for water detecting, it is a single frequency, general purpose detector with waterproof coils. I'm assuming it will be okay to try detecting in the wet surf region of the water though ... ? Hopefully, I won't ruin my hardware.

I am still waiting on the SharpShooter II to be delivered, but have been using a old 1980's Radio Shack Detector for the past couple of days. I have run it over the wet sand (in between incoming waves) and have not picked up any signals.

Is there any chance the relatively pure quartz FL beaches would not cause too much interference with my general metal detector model?

Thanks again,
Shane Metler

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Shane,

Welcome to TreasureNet.

Salt minerals are in all saltwater, it has nothing to do with the white quartz sand, what ever sand the high tide covers daily during the tides, the sand in it will have the salt minerals, and will make it very hard to detect with a single freq detector....That is just the nature of the beast. I have hunted all the beaches on the Gulf coast as well as many on the east and south coast of Florida, they all have the salt minerals in them....

You can hunt it if you turn your detector sensitivity way down, problem is with doing this your probably only going to get maybe 4 inches in depth, and with the sand we have, the gold and silver jewelry is going to sink deeper than a 3 or 4 inches.....

The Bounty Hunter Sharp Shooter II is a land machine, it is not designed to hunt wet saltwater beaches....You can hunt the dry sand and struggle with it on the wet sand, I highly doubt you will be able to get it to stablize at all in the water, and it will be hard on the dry sand............

When they say the coil is waterproof, they are meaning for hunting on land, not the salt beaches.....

 

[Sandman]

Welcome to Tnet Shane....

Treasure Hunter is right about you using your detector in the water or wet sand at the coasts beaches. When the manufacturers say the coil is waterproof, it means you can place it in water. It doesn't mean the coil will work. You are fine in the dry sand if there is no "what we call Black Sand" present. The salt concentrations are highest in the waves at the shoreline and this is were the "black sand" is mainly located as the waves wash it back and forth. Learn more about beach hunting here...... http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/
We've done the ground work for you and are trying to save you from making our mistakes...........

 

[stevemc]

All salts are "metal salts". Sodium Chloride is saltwater salt. Table salt. The main one we work with. Sodium is a metal. Same with potassium and many other metals that react with other chemicals quickly. The detector will pick up these metals, and give you signals. Only a detector which is made for saltwater will work correctly in saltwater. The black sand is fine metallic ore that is gathered in tight bands on the beach, and will even drive a saltwater detector crazy, if a band is thick enough. If you hit one (a band of black sand) you dig and see it, then you know when you go over it, and you will tell if you have a real find, or the black sand. But you will need a detector that can work in this environment.

 

[Gemini420]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

That's a real bummer. I bought this model because I was under the impression it was a good introductory beach/surf detecting model (after reading various online reviews, etc.)

What *is* a good recommended beach/surf model? Are they all pricey high-end models? The beach is where I want to treasure hunt at, and I would really like to be able to search in the water.

@Treasure Hunter -- You said, "with the sand we have"... Are you in FL? Tampa bay area? -- Never mind, I just saw the stats next to your post ...

@Sandman -- Thanks for the link! Bookmarked and reading up on it now.

@stevemc -- I really appreciate the in-depth explanation below, but I'm not entirely sure that the sodium component of salt can actually be detected with a metal detector (i.e. would a metal detector be able to detect a big pile of table salt ... ?) The metals in a salt don't behave like their pure metal form. I'm guessing that it's just the conductivity of the sea water that causes back EMF or interference, and then that produces a signal in the detector. Either way, it looks like I'm stuck out of the water for now (although I'm still going to try it.) Luckily, I don't remember seeing too much 'black sand' on the beaches local to me. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Thanks again,
Shane

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

That's a real bummer. I bought this model because I was under the impression it was a good introductory beach/surf detecting model (after reading various online reviews, etc.)

What *is* a good recommended beach/surf model? Are they all pricey high-end models? The beach is where I want to treasure hunt at, and I would really like to be able to search in the water.

@Treasure Hunter -- You said, "with the sand we have"... Are you in FL? Tampa bay area? -- Never mind, I just saw the stats next to your post ...

@Sandman -- Thanks for the link! Bookmarked and reading up on it now.

@stevemc -- I really appreciate the in-depth explanation below, but I'm not entirely sure that the sodium component of salt can actually be detected with a metal detector (i.e. would a metal detector be able to detect a big pile of table salt ... ?) The metals in a salt don't behave like their pure metal form. I'm guessing that it's just the conductivity of the sea water that causes back EMF or interference, and then that produces a signal in the detector. Either way, it looks like I'm stuck out of the water for now (although I'm still going to try it.) Luckily, I don't remember seeing too much 'black sand' on the beaches local to me. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Thanks again,
Shane

The minerals in the salt WILL set off your detector, wet salt sand is usually even worse than in the salt water due to the varying different levels of salt minerals in the wet sand. Shallow surf will set your detector off as the waves roll over the coil, this gets less after you get 2 foot and deeper, but then you are in danger of damaging your detector, and the salt water will still cause your detector to false.

You have to also consider the salt spray in the air, land detectors are not built for this, you can cover your detector with a bag, but in the heat it will cause condensation inside your detector.

There is a reason salt water detectors are made, it's not just to get your money, hunting salt water is a whole different ball game compared to land or fresh water...... The Tesoro Tiger Shark is a great fresh water detector but it does not work well in salt water due to the minerals in the water. You need a detector that is designed especially for salt water...

 

[Aka Nameless]

Tesoro Sand Shark and Whites Dual Field PI are the type of detector you want for saltwater hunting. Saltwater detectors start at $550+ and go up to $1500. Don't buy a viper or cobra or any of the cheap water detectors that kellyco sells, they shouldn't even be selling those china made trash detectors that don't even work for what they are made for.

With the detector you have, stick with the dry sand hunting, there is gold in the dry sand also.

 

[herb n surf]

You now know some of the problems you may come across when hunting wet salt beach ,but:: Like you said go ahead and try it and see what happens .Lower the sensitivity , and it might surprise you. I always carry my cheapie bh in the backseat in case I happen to be in an area that looks like a good place to hunt. It recently surprised me with a silver ring , and some fairly deep clad coins in the wet salt water on Tampa bay. (remember luck plays a part in all of this too ) Have fun w/what you have at the moment.

 

[Tigger]

Welcome to Tnet Shane....

. . . Learn more about beach hunting here...... http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/
We've done the ground work for you and are trying to save you from making our mistakes...........

Guys, I've seen you mention this site a lot, and I'd like to check it out, but Google says it can't find it, nor does looking for the 'cached copy' work. What am I doing wrong?
Tigger

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Welcome to Tnet Shane....

. . . Learn more about beach hunting here...... http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/
We've done the ground work for you and are trying to save you from making our mistakes...........

Guys, I've seen you mention this site a lot, and I'd like to check it out, but Google says it can't find it, nor does looking for the 'cached copy' work. What am I doing wrong?
Tigger

Are you on your personal computer or a work computer.....I just went to the link on my desktop so it is there and working, I can't get to it off of my work computer, it is blocked....URL I just went to and verified it is working is the same as what SM posted above........http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/


Something on the PC you are using is blocking it if you can't get there from the link we posted as I can go to it off both links with my personal desktop, but can't go to either with my work computer, company has it blocked...

 

[Gemini420]

Guys, I've seen you mention this site a lot, and I'd like to check it out, but Google says it can't find it, nor does looking for the 'cached copy' work. What am I doing wrong?
Tigger

I had to remove the WWW from the URL for it to work. Try just: http://nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/


So, I received my SharpShooter II today and was able to give it a whirl for about an hour before dark.

It is much more powerful than the old 1980's Radio Shack model I was using and the volume doesn't cut out either. No question, it's a vast improvement from what I was using before.

It was low tide and I did test it in the wet tidelands of a quite beach on Tampa Bay. It seemed to work fine for me in the very wet tidelands. It definitely produced a constant signal when I went from the beach to the wet ground, but I just put the coil on the wet ground and hit it's 'retune' button. It was fine after that. The best part is that I found a ring in all of that muck!! (picture attached)

I did find some spots that produced a signal and I dug and dug, but found nothing. Checking my dug up dirt, all of it seemed to produce a light signal. I am guessing this is the 'black sand' (this stuff appeared gray and clay like to me.) I'm glad I knew this may happen, or else I would have kept digging for nothing.

Thanks again,
Shane

P.S. WhooHoo! I found something that sparkles! It's silver, but unfortunately those are not diamonds.

 

[Terry Soloman]

..So, I received my SharpShooter II today and was able to give it a whirl for about an hour before dark.

It is much more powerful than the old 1980's Radio Shack model I was using and the volume doesn't cut out either. No question, it's a vast improvement from what I was using before.

It was low tide and I did test it in the wet tidelands of a quite beach on Tampa Bay. It seemed to work fine for me in the very wet tidelands. It definitely produced a constant signal when I went from the beach to the wet ground, but I just put the coil on the wet ground and hit it's 'retune' button. It was fine after that. The best part is that I found a ring in all of that muck!! (picture attached)

I did find some spots that produced a signal and I dug and dug, but found nothing. Checking my dug up dirt, all of it seemed to produce a light signal. I am guessing this is the 'black sand' (this stuff appeared gray and clay like to me.) I'm glad I knew this may happen, or else I would have kept digging for nothing.

Thanks again,
Shane

P.S. WhooHoo! I found something that sparkles! It's silver, but unfortunately those are not diamonds.

Congrats! A ring your first tme out - Wow! Good Hunting!

I have to go cry in the closet now..

 

[stevemc]

Nice ring for any time out! You might be right about the conductivity of salt water, but whatever it is, it makes many detectors go nuts. Glad yours worked good.

 

[stpauli914]

Damn man!! Nice ring for a first trip! Could have just as easily been gold! Find a gold one like that and you'll be well on your way to a detector upgrade

HH,
Aaron

 

[Tigger]

Guys, I've seen you mention this site a lot, and I'd like to check it out, but Google says it can't find it, nor does looking for the 'cached copy' work. What am I doing wrong?
Tigger

I had to remove the WWW from the URL for it to work. Try just: http://nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/


Aha! Got it! Thank you!!
Tigger

Congrats on the great start!!