Looking for tips for the sandshark

[hookahman]

Hello fellow hunters, I recently purchased a sand shark and I have been having a great time on the beach. But I would love some tips or tricks to help out my hunting game. For example is there a way to get better discrimination or the fact that it's a pi means I will be digging up everything. Hope to hear from you all.

 

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[DrJoePrime]

Experience will guide you in discrimination .. BUT be very careful and wait for that experience to develop. The sand Shark reacts to smaller items like fish hooks, bobbi pins and nails with a weaker response. You should be able to recognize the difference between those and the deeper signals but it will take time.

Bottle caps too... however they usually give too large of a signal. My attitude on the beach is to usually dig almost (say 90%) everything since digging is relatively easy.

I set up my machine with maximum volume and just a small threshold as smooth as possible. Some of the deepies will come in with a tiny, tiny change in threshold..listen carefully to those.

It's a great machine best of luck to you!

 

[gamiller]

Dig everything. Even with detectors that can discriminate.You will be fooled and later on will wonder what you may have passed up on. ymmv

 

[Terry Soloman]

FIRST, go back to page 12 in the manual and MAKE SURE you have set your tone frequency to match YOUR hearing the best. Do you hear high or low tones better? Next, set your pulse width to about 3/4 power (2-230pm position). Turn your threshold up to where you can barely hear it above the waves and wind noise - like a mosquito hum, and use the machine in NORMAL mode.

DO NOT just walk up or down the beach in one direction or the other! Pick yourself a 50-yard long beachfront, and start gridding it. You start at the wet sand high mark and detect right into the water thigh-deep, move over a step and detect right back up to the high wet sand mark.. Rinse and repeat until the whole 50-yards or 5-hours is done.

Slight “Positive” signals are also called “whisper” signals. This is a very soft or slight, almost unnoticeable, rise in the threshold signal. It will always be repeatable over the target – not random. If your threshold is set too high, or too low, you can miss them easily. If your threshold is not smooth you can miss these whisper signals easily. There can be a couple of reasons, including EMI, for an unstable threshold. The most common is too much pulse width. Sometimes you can max it out, sometimes you can only run it at the 12-1 o’clock position. It depends on the beach. If you want to make your machine more sensitive and cut down on interference, make sure you are not wrapping your coil wire close to the coil down on the lower plastic rod (see photo).

“Negative breaks,” are also referred to as whisper signals. This is when the threshold gets quieter, or goes away completely over the target. Again, negative breaks are always repeatable over a real target – not random. As you remove a little sand from over the target and re-sweep with your coil, the signal becomes a slight or stronger positive signal.
I use “Normal” mode, because it is easier for me to hear these positive and negative breaks in the threshold – that does not hold true for everyone. It takes time on the headphones to learn to recognize whisper signals, usually over 100-hours. Sometimes actually speeding up your swing back and forth helps to recognize these signals. The general rule however is always to SLOW down and pay attention.

I’m right-handed, so I swing the Sand Shark with my left arm. I mount the box up high and use the arm strap so that I let go of the detector and use my left hand to remove the target from the scoop. The arm strap keeps the detector right there attached to me, but gives me the ability to use both hands. Lastly, using your scoop effectively takes practice in the water. I put my toe just in back of the pinpointed target then place my scoop right in front of my toe for the recovery. This works well with practice. You’ll learn to time the waves. Hope this helps you, and feel free to PM me with any other questions or explanations.

 

[donkarlos]

Yeah to sleep at night you really have to dig it all - afterall, you're out there to dig, right? Not to listen to thresholds buzz on earphones. Start hauling out the trash or you'll just find it again another day and waste time digging it again.
Sure, bottlecaps sound awesome but so can a heavy ring. Coins sound good but so does aluminum. Bobby pins, wire and nails have more of a "zip" to them but you never know.
Try to realize why the good targets are where they are on the beach.
Post all your crazy doo-dads for people to figure out on the forum. It's half the fun.

 

[G.I.B.]

Tip 1: What Terry said.

Tip 2: If it beeps, dig it up.

 

[sponge]

Yep I second that. Now for my second beer. ARRRRRRRRR