Beach hunting 101 tips from the pros?

[jmb2email]

I am approximately 48 hours from my first chance to MD on a beach. As most of you know I am fairly green still to the hobby but have my mxt pro, homemade sandscoop, DD 10, 12 inch and 5.3 inch coils at hand. I will be carrying a light backpack with a kitchen scoop, pinpointer, gloves and a few light items.

What I am hoping to get are some pointers/opinions/ideas on beach hunting. I will be hitting an east coast florida beach and am assuming optimal seek times of evening and early AM.

What else should I know?

Thx in advance all!

JMB

 

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[jmb2email]

Less is more. Machine, scoop, finds bag, bottle of water, wallet or money clip. That's it. carry no more.

Most of us wear scuba boots or similar. On dry sand i've found that hiking shoes or boots work well. Wear socks so the sand doesn't cause blisters.

Yeah, was thinking old walking shoes with mid height socks. Been 19 years since i've been on a beach, but I remember the blisters!

Great info!

Should I look for the and expect to find all kinds of ?! Too bad it isn't that easy!

JMB

 

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[jmb2email]

Well I was able to get out on the beach for about an hour at 7:30pm. I only used the DD and it did occasionally go nutty on me but after a while i was able to do either wet sand or dry. My scoop worked fine for me, but needs some minor tweaking if i were to use it a lot. Need to add 2 u shaped bolts to hold the rod in place a bit.

I found a clad penny and dime, 12 bottle caps, and 5 pieces of unidentified metal that washed up with the late tide. The 3 largest metal pieces have 1 or 2 humps on one side and flat on the other.

See pic, any ideas? Will get out early AM and will try again.

JMB

 

[jmb2email]

Pic didnt upload... attempt 2.

 

[jmb2email]

Day#2.
Got out at 7am, got in about 2 hours mostly in area between white sand and very wet. Went probably 45 minutes without a signal at all. Frustation was building up.

The mxt pro seems to definitely be touchy in wet areas. And over any water level its impossible.

Finally I hit a sound that bounced between iron and pull tab/ring... 3 inches down was a very large earring. I am about 99% certain it is cheap metal. Another 15 minutes and i get a pull tab/ ring signal and it was reading at7-8 inches. Dug 8 inches and found a nickel, 1977. Had a brownish paint look/layer on it.

Over the next 45 minutes i found 6 beer bottle tops. Then while walking back i hit 2 more small pieces of iron plating again like last night. Last, as i was walking up the white sand i hit an allen wrench, small piece of what appears to be well corroded nail, and then a coppenhagen container.

End result... I have a good idea of what is the popular beer and tobacco in the area.




Will hit again tonight!
JMB

 

[jmb2email]

Last time out... found several beer bottle tops, 2 clad dimes, another allen wrench, several pieces of iron plating, a small metal wire. No big hits!

Until next time.

JMB

 

[arizonaames]

Last time out... found several beer bottle tops, 2 clad dimes, another allen wrench, several pieces of iron plating, a small metal wire. No big hits!

Until next time.

JMB

I see the "know it all folks" posting about more things they do not know. The MXT is an excellent beach detector and will work very well in very mineralized soil, salt conditions, in or out of the water, and on wet or dry sand. Put your selector switch to SALT, Use Relic Mode, adjust disc, threshold, and gain ( run about 9 in AL or FL) and use a 6X10 DD coil (Eclipse). It is the same coil you will use for nugget shooting in mineralized soil out west in AZ or NV. The MXT was designed as a gold detector and beach detector. I have found .02 to .06 gram nuggets in mineralized soil with the MXT and Salt conditions are nothing to this wonderful detector. You have one of the best all around detectors out there. I turn the threshold down on the MXT because it likes to chatter even in a Tot Lot in non mineralized soil and I like to run silent. You must be new to the MXT. It is sensitive and that is a good thing. Happy hunting.

 

[Viddy]

-- take a small folding camping shovel as a back-up to your home made long handle scoop. I honestly think I would snap that thing in an hour.
-- take water along.
-- take a camera.
-- take a light treasure puch, hopefully one that has a mesh gottom to drain any extra sand. sand gets everywhere.
-- use your biggest coil.
-- wear headphones and pretend you don't hear anyone. If children around, they will follow you around like rats calling out your every find to everyone on the beach.
-- put valuable finds away. Someone will claim a ring if you found it, and 99.99999998% chance it's not theirs.
--

 

[jmb2email]

Update... several days after trip. For those saying they would break my scoop i laugh prtty loud at. I am 6 foot 2, 235pds. And i used the h311 out of it with zero breakdown. The only fix i need is to fix the handle to reduce the minimal turn to it and drill about 15 more small holes on the bottom. Another detectorist said it looked awesome.

Headphones were best tip. People would look at me and say stuff and 99% of the time i ignored them. No valuable finds. 4 beer cans stuffed in solo cups were the biggest irritation.

All said I only used my DD2 10 inch coil and although there was occasional crazy signal, as long as i used salt and regrou ded when going from wet to dry sand all was ok. I met 2 other detectorists and saw a pair of kids detecting(using a full sized shovel lol).

My hip pouch was awesome, and i wore my fishing hat that has a flap that covers my neck. Was a good trip. Good practice for next time.
Best things:
Scoop
Headphones
Sunscreen
Fishing hat
Gridding the beach

THANKS ALL!
JMB

 

[lorraine]

I'm no pro, but would like to add this : keep the coil on the soil so as not to lose depth.

Good luck

Will be watching for your finds posts

Lorraine

 

[jmb2email]

I'm no pro, but would like to add this : keep the coil on the soil so as not to lose depth.

Good luck

Will be watching for your finds posts

Lorraine

Yeah I tended to be 1-3 inches above sand due to the ripples in sand except for the last day when the wind had flattened the sand. I felt my signals were better that last day. Also found my deapest item at 8-9 inches that day. So, coil to the soil is great advice.

JMB

 

[fongu]

Good luck with your beach hunting. I've never been to the salt water beach since I started detecting 5 years ago, but at the river I follow the advice and stick my finds in my pouch and if anybody asks what I'm finding I show them the trash items. I remember reading in W&E treasure mag about some guy detecting on the beach. This young girl approached him and asked if he had found anything and he told her he had found a gold ring. About 30 minutes later, the girl, her mother and a police officer approached him and the woman said he had found her ring. Was it an 18K ring he asked her and she replied it sure was and he said it can't be your ring because it's 14K. It pays to be careful out there. Good luck and HH.