Looking back is funny ...

[flgliderpilot]

I've been beach detecting for about 2.5 years. I would call myself an aggressive learner. I *love* breaking my back to learn everything I can.

The first 6 months I worked super hard ... detecting my entire local beaches.. gridding as much of the dry sand as I could sometimes for two miles. I also hunted the water from neck to knees for 3.5 miles. I dug holes. I drove stakes. I marked signs. I searched under piers. I even searched under wooden walkways.

Guess what I found? NOTHING.. some sunglasses 2ft deep, a few quarters, and lots and lots of light aluminum.

Stumped, I went home, read a few books on beach detecting, and spent the next year studying beach habits and sand movement, and trying to understand WHY I didn't find anything. it paid off eventually, and I started finding a ring (or three) on every trip. Once I understood the coastline, the sand movement, etc, i was EASY to figure out where I needed to hunt.

Tonight I went back to a beach I hunted when I first started but hadn't been back to because I found ZERO and never understood why ...

This time I immediately started laughing. It was so incredibly sanded in all the way to the water line. I mean like sand piled up to the top of the sea wall. Huge piles of sand over the jetty. A huge hump on the beach which goes right down to the water line. Flakes of rusty mineral deposits on the wet sand.

I came to this beach only because my wife wanted to get some walking in and so I figured I'd work the dry sand while she did her long walk. It looked so bad that I took the AT pro because I knew I wasn't going to be hunting the wet sand. Recent drops were my only option.

Of course I told her as soon as I saw the beach I was totally screwed and this was purely an exercise trip. I was right. Total finds? 35 cents for 1.5 hours of hunting. The only quarter I found was in the only low spot I could find in the wet sand.

Water hunting this beach might not be bad... I haven't tried yet, but the wet and dry sand (at least right now) is a nightmare.

Weather was nice tho and she got her 10000 steps in.

Next time *I* pick the beach!

 

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[sphillips]

I did the same today. Took the wife to the beach, she walked I metal detected. 3hrs, 2cents, and tons of pieces of aluminum (I think a Budweiser truck sank off shore�&#56860. Worked the berm, the hump between the berm and the water, troughs in shallow water. Good workout though.

Steve

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Good narrative. BTW Ya know those holes ya dig and the target is deeper and deeper and you're sweating and still the detector says its further down? Wanna know whats down there? I looked: I dug several targets today, because things were slow, that were those deep ones we all dread - they were so deep I could hear people speaking Chinese! Any ways, all of them turned-out to be either aluminum cans or, more likely, aluminum can tops (not tabs). On the CTX 3030 the deep cans/tops registered 12:31ish...that's gold ring country to me and requires a little more effort.

 

[CASPER-2]

I'm not using it right now - so sending you some luck

 

[lookindown]

Good narrative. BTW Ya know those holes ya dig and the target is deeper and deeper and you're sweating and still the detector says its further down? Wanna know whats down there? I looked: I dug several targets today, because things were slow, that were those deep ones we all dread - they were so deep I could hear people speaking Chinese! Any ways, all of them turned-out to be either aluminum cans or, more likely, aluminum can tops (not tabs). On the CTX 3030 the deep cans/tops registered 12:31ish...that's gold ring country to me and requires a little more effort.

Yep, most of those two foot deep good sounding targets are can tops for me too.

 

[WaterScoop]

I know they are can tops when the depth says a few inches and nothing comes up after a few inches yet the pinpointer
Whistles Dixie as if I’m right on top of a gold bar.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Good narrative. BTW Ya know those holes ya dig and the target is deeper and deeper and you're sweating and still the detector says its further down? Wanna know whats down there? I looked: I dug several targets today, because things were slow, that were those deep ones we all dread - they were so deep I could hear people speaking Chinese! Any ways, all of them turned-out to be either aluminum cans or, more likely, aluminum can tops (not tabs). On the CTX 3030 the deep cans/tops registered 12:31ish...that's gold ring country to me and requires a little more effort.

Hah! Yes done that too. Once I hit a target I was sure was a trunk full of gold and silver. I must have dug down 3 feet or more. What did I find?

An aluminum beach chair. Well, I only found one arm of it, the rest was still buried. This was the moment it "clicked" lol.

 

[Normsel]

I usually have that gut feeling when a ring or clad don't pop up within 6".. Especially if the tone is loud and after 6" it is still loud. I see people all the time digging on the beach and they are 2' to 3' deep and still digging and I know it's most likely a Bud can or soda can. If I don't bring it up within two scoops using my sand scoop I move on. The beaches in the Biloxi area rarely produce much anyway since all the sand was hauled in post Katrina and they groom them all the time so the sand is constantly churned up and moved around.

 

[Rodbuster209]

When on the beach and the target don’t show itself after a scoop or two I raise the coil about 18”-2’ and sweep over it if it sounds off 98% of the time it will be an aluminum can. Something I learned from past experience. Good luck!

 

[sphillips]

When on the beach and the target don’t show itself after a scoop or two I raise the coil about 18”-2’ and sweep over it if it sounds off 98% of the time it will be an aluminum can. Something I learned from past experience. Good luck!

 

[lookindown]

The only problem is that Ive dug some nice phones that I thought were deep can tops...phones are my new gold...I sell em on ebay.

 

[smokeythecat]

I have done very well at both bay and ocean beaches. I have somewhat learned to "read" the sand at the ocean, but on the bay, it's irrelevant. At the bay, you just have to be at the right place at the right time. I have a nice small collection of rings from the bay beach. When I had my boat, I'd use my binoculars to see where most people went, then would detect those hot spots. There are about 6 places I can always get something at that beach. Right now, it's picked over and at 17 degrees tonight, not much of a chance of finding much.

The ocean is a different story. Yes, you can go in the tourist season and treat it like the bay beach I mentioned, but this particular stretch of ocean has numerous old shipwrecks on it, so we hard headed types are looking for shipwreck artifacts the ocean throws up onto the beach. And it does that. Winter and early spring, unless there is a bad nor'easter, tropical storm or hurricane is really the only good time to go. My best coin was found in the month of January. The ocean is so violent here I wouldn't dare go out in the water. You can see the rip current from satellite images. So it's the sand, and I prefer the dry sand and flood tide mark. Now all we need is a good nor'easter. The last few offshore storms didn't do much.

And yes, all those 2' deep targets were aluminum. Fortunately, salt water eventually eats up aluminum.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

The only problem is that Ive dug some nice phones that I thought were deep can tops...phones are my new gold...I sell em on ebay.

Water destroyed and everything? I threw out a recent Galaxy w direct hit from my scoop. How much you get for a phone in not working order?

 

[lookindown]

Water destroyed and everything? I threw out a recent Galaxy w direct hit from my scoop. How much you get for a phone in not working order?

The last one I sold was a Galaxy 6s plus...I put in the ad that it was found in the water, not working, water damaged for parts or repair...I started the auction at 190 and I got $220...I don't know what they do with them...it had a clean IMEI.

 

[flgliderpilot]

The last one I sold was a Galaxy 6s plus...I put in the ad that it was found in the water, not working, water damaged for parts or repair...I started the auction at 190 and I got $220...I don't know what they do with them...it had a clean IMEI.

Nice I still haven't found one. Have you found them all in the water?

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

The last one I sold was a Galaxy 6s plus...I put in the ad that it was found in the water, not working, water damaged for parts or repair...I started the auction at 190 and I got $220...I don't know what they do with them...it had a clean IMEI.

Oh. man, I think that's what I threw away after finding it in the water and it was falling apart because of a scoop hit...where's the Tums...

 

[flgliderpilot]

I had a guy run out to me in the water to tell his son lost a huge gold chain right where I was searching ... on the way out to me a wave hit him and he dropped his phone.

It was like in detectorists when Lance hears the horses lol. Except this horse was real.

 

[lookindown]

I had a guy run out to me in the water to tell his son lost a huge gold chain right where I was searching ... on the way out to me a wave hit him and he dropped his phone.

It was like in detectorists when Lance hears the horses lol. Except this horse was real.

What happened next...did you find the chain?