1st Daytona Beach hunt

[Deft Tones]

Nail was a curiosity dig to see what nulled - ouch!

Popped my saltwater cherry at Daytona Beach today. Two hours total including the time to walk 300yrds to the beach. I'm totally conditioned for jewelry hunting in midwest black dirt- what a different hunting experience Daytona is! I decided to use the Sovereign GT first because I bought this unit specifically for this trip.

I was slightly unsure of the laws so felt the nerves as I approached the beach, but being myself I straightened-up and just acted like I own it until LEO says otherwise. No problems and a few LEO waved...guess it's good to go! Thanks for the approval.

It was a rising tide so I mainly hunted the dry sand where everyone parks, but not before getting the coil wet to see if there would be problems. Falsing in the waves running max sensitivity so I backed it off a bit. Sometimes I still got falsing at the end of a right-side swing....whatever, I'm not turning it down any more.

I'm so used to trashy parks that the long periods of silence became unnerving itself. If it were not for the threshold I'd be constantly wondering if the machine is working. Took some adjusting in my head to compensate for the long periods of silence. Looks like coverage is the name of the game here.

So, old habits die hard and I soon find myself hunting the highest areas of trash I could find. I just need more noise to feel more at home. Up in the dry sand it was more to my taste, but still fairly quiet by my standards...even around the trash cans.

Everything is easier except locating signals...any signals! Much more distance between beeps. I hope the jewelry gods bless my with their golden favors soon. Amen!

Tomorrow the V3i 12x15 SEF coil gets to play. Then the Deus will get a chance on Tuesday when it rains. The best performing unit will get the bulk of the swing time the rest of the week. Who will it be? I'm curious to find out. Perhaps a three-way shoot out is in order before I leave back for home. I'll record it for giggles.

Maybe I'll see another detectorist out soon. Perhaps even a Tnet'er!

Thanks for looking. Good hunting.

 

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[ChampFerguson/TN]

Sounds like a great vacation!
Doncha just Love digging in sand instead of dirt?

 

[Deft Tones]

Doncha just Love digging in sand instead of dirt?

Of course I do! Guys get spoiled I'm sure.

Two other things I forgot to note:

1. A 10" coil seems really small when looking down miles of sandy beach.

And

2. The waves; If you stare at the sand near the coil the illusion of the earth sliding around under your feet tripps me out! Whoa!

 

[bigscoop]

This was actually a refreshing read, and so relating. Now try to image a guy who had hunted nothing else but those clean vast beaches traveling to your trashy inland parks for the first time.........just imagine how overwhelming all of that noise/chatter would be. He'd probably be doing this a lot....

PS: There is an upside to all of that quiet.....your battery is going to last longer.

 

[cudamark]

Tomorrow the V3i 12x15 SEF coil gets to play. Then the Deus will get a chance on Tuesday when it rains. The best performing unit will get the bulk of the swing time the rest of the week. Who will it be? I'm curious to find out. Perhaps a three-way shoot out is in order before I leave back for home. I'll record it for giggles.

Maybe I'll see another detectorist out soon. Perhaps even a Tnet'er!

Thanks for looking. Good hunting.[/QUOTE]

In the dry sand, I predict it will be a toss-up as to which one works the best. Your personal favorite will probably get the nod there. In the wet, my bet is on the Sovereign. It should be much more stable and have almost double the depth with the proper settings.

 

[Deft Tones]

I have three hours more. Taking the Deus V4.0 stock 11 coil now. Tee hee hee... fingers crossed!

 

[tlane38003]

Sovereign for shure just being there is treasure enough for me

Sent from my LG-V410 using Tapatalk

 

[Deft Tones]

Deus disappoints at Daytona Beach. I cut the hunt short after two hours due to poor performance.

To start, I was feeling a sex vibe in the air. I think Daytona exudes sex as I become attuned to the feeling of the environment. All the beautiful people were out and the crowd was much different from earlier in the morning. Thin and thick with everything in between and lots of lovely, sexy skin of every shade. I like this beach! Uh huh!


Somebody got lucky but it wasn't me with the Deus.

Used factory Wet and Dry beach both, initially as programmed. Deus behavior in saltwater or anywherenear the wet sand is, um, very poor. A completely opposite experience from the Minelab Sovereign. At one point I was thinking it must be EMI because performance was such crap. Jiggling the coil falses like mad. Raising it in the air above shoulder level and jiggling the falsing completely ceased... POS! Looked at the settings factory uses. WTF is this audio response of one, a trick? Is that how they hide the poor performance in the salt? Come on. Bumping it up was a nightmare. Nothing short of killing all performance would help and standing there ankle deep in the water jacking around with the "god", I longed for the Sovereign I used this morning. Kicks the snot out of the Deus in the wet saltwater. No freaking contest - ever!

Moving into the dry sand performance increased by being plain stable. I began to notice a decrease in depth of targets located from this morning. 2-4 inches on average. The deal killer was when the quarter-size token (dry beach vdi 47) was barely cracking and spitting signals, just really badly broken, struggling tone and bouncy vdi 15-22. I thought for sure I had foil but it was dug at only 7 inches! All my little remaining desire to swing the Deus at Daytona Beach left at that recovery.

She'll be put away never to visit the shorelines again. I can't waste my time. If I had no other unit I could scratch the itch in the dry sand but without seeking a solution to factory settings I expect max depth to be 8" on a quarter. Unacceptable! The Sov banged pennies at 7-8 in the surf and zinc pennies to at least 10 inches in the dry.

It's about over for that niche unit except for special cases back home.... or in the rain... or nighthawking. It's great for nighthawking!

 

[smokeythecat]

Interesting comment on the Deus. I haven't had any problem in the wet sand, but if you go out much at all you need the optional antennae that goes around the coil. I prefer the dry sand.

 

[BallsDeep]

I love detecting the beaches! even diggin bottle caps can be great when the views is nice

 

[Deft Tones]

Araghn lost my post.... grrrrrrrr!

Anyway, today saw 3 hours with the V3i and my how things changed!



No nickels until today plus I'm finding junk jewelry at least.

Cudamark is right. Sov is king in the surf and wet sand without spending more time dialing in my V3i. Dry sand either is great but my nod goes to the V3i because I know it best and can sort trash well.

Notes:
Pushing a big coil through the surf (up to 24" deep) will kill a man in short order! Screw that!
In the surf dig your arse off before the hole is gone with the next wave! Mad respect to those who do it exclusively or for long periods of time.
Stop watching nice arses and pay more attention to deep signals!

The rest of the time it's Sov for surf and wet sand, V3i for dry and wet sand.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

If your using the sov at the beach be sure you use an environmental cover to protect it from the salt mist in the air.

 

[Deft Tones]

I'll have to wrap it with a shopping bag. Thanks for that reminder....I forgot!

I need to rinse my stuff off now. What a noob, eh?

 

[bigscoop]

That big coil in the water & wet sand....a harness will make all the difference in the world. Something worth adding to your arsenal, for sure.

 

[Deft Tones]

That big coil in the water & wet sand....a harness will make all the difference in the world. Something worth adding to your arsenal, for sure.

I own and used the Limbsaver sling. On land I can swing with one finger and a thumb....in the surf it's worse than swinging without a sling on dry land, IMO. Without it I'd last at most 45 minutes in the surf before the burn begins.

 

[darktower007]

Nice finds!


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[cudamark]

I own and used the Limbsaver sling. On land I can swing with one finger and a thumb....in the surf it's worse than swinging without a sling on dry land, IMO. Without it I'd last at most 45 minutes in the surf before the burn begins.

It's like getting a new heavy scoop. It takes a while for your arm muscles to get used to it. After getting a new Stealth scoop, my arm was dead after a couple of hours. Now, I can use it for 6 hours before my arm starts to feel it.