LawrencetheMDer
Hero Member
- Feb 22, 2014
- 984
- 2,396
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
-
Minelab Manticore, Minelab CTX3030 w 11" and 17" DD coils,
Minelab Excalibur II w 10" coil, Equinox 800 (4) w 11" and 15" coils,
Troy Shadow x2 w 7" coil, Pointers; Garrett Carrot, Pro Find 35,
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Day 1:
Got down to Florida from Ohio on Dec 11th and had a real itch to hit the water ASAP. Hit the water with my CTX 3030 and spent 7 hrs cherishing my new environment — a whole mile of pure white sand and surf. The water was a warm 66 deg with small surf; my wetsuit shortly and long wetsuit pants proved sufficient for a long day in the water.
It is winter down here and few people, except for tourist, hit the water. Pickings are slow and far between; going 5-10 minutes without even a hit. But my 17” coil on the CTX covers a lot of ground and the coins were coming, albeit slowly. About 4 hrs into my hunt I snagged my first piece of jewelry this MD season — a small tungsten wedding band.
About 5 minutes later I got a good solid signal (12) on the CTX and at the bottom of sand scoop appeared a thick gold band. The band is marked 14K and the two side stones test as diamonds. The center stone is jet black. The ring weighs in at a hefty 10.42g.
Day 2: Low Tide
The next day I decided to hit my favorite low tide beach with threatening skies and high winds keeping people away from the beach. The day turned-out to be one of those fishing weight days — all day I was finding fishing weights, 13 to be exact, and except for the usual coins nothing else; read no jewelry. To complicate matters, my CTX 3030 died. Just wouldn’t turn on; nothing. The day before (read above) I had taken it for the first time in the water since getting it back from Minelab for repairs (water intrusion into the speaker) this summer. Back to the shop. Have to rely on the NOX 800 with 15" coil.
Day 3: During the Wash
High winds were out of the ENE and conditions were favorable for a very low low tide. I ignored for the moment the 46 deg temp and 20 mph winds. The surf report predicted ½ to 1 ½ ft surf and I planned another day in the water — way out there where it usually would be over my head and where few hunt. But when I arrived at the beach, the waves were breaking on the far sand bar like there was no tomorrow, heck they were 2 — 3 footers. Dang it was cold. Gasp, I contemplated turning around any going home. But I regained my sanity and nixed the deep water. Because of the blowing wind and chill factor in the teens (or so it seemed) I donned not one but two wet suits; my 3mm full suit and my 3 mm shorty. My 3mm suit is 10 yrs old and has age cracks (dry rot) and didn’t provide much protection from the chilling wind. Luckily I had my shorty in the truck.
Because my CTX 3030 died the day before, I used my Equinox with 15” coil to cover the wet sand and very shallow surf as the waves rolled in. It was a great day for MDing given the temp and wind — not many people ventured onto the beach in early morning and I was free to grid the tidal zone in relative peace.
The NOX 800 is known for detecting small pieces of gold (and small pieces of junk as well) and the NOX 800 didn’t disappoint today. My first piece of jewelry was a large Man’s silver ring with large yellow stone (7.52g).
Next came two small costume rings (moon and moon and star), palm tree pendant and small mermaid pendant.
A small 14k gold pendant with center diamond (about 0.1 ct, 3.5g) let itself be known but wasn’t easy to find with caked sand concealing it in the sand.
Talk about small and light weight; my next gold discovery was this small 10k gold ear ring (0.54g) with 25 small clear stones believed to be diamonds.
My last nice find for the day was this interesting silver ring with 3 moveable metal bands.
As for junk, my smallest find of the day was this 0.03g scrap piece of aluminum that was about 2mm across.
Also found about ½ dozen small (3mm) aluminum discs that weigh in about 0.13g each.
During the wash hunt, I used the dump sand — kick sand — sweep — kick sand —etc technique to recover targets. My Pointer was extremely helpful in finding targets too small to localize in the sand. Most of the junk and good targets I found would not have been recoverable in the water since they would have simply passed through my sand scoop that has 5/8” holes. I guess this is one of the draw-backs to having a detector that detects real small targets; it is very frustrating or impossible to recover such small targets in the water. First time in the water with the NOX, I found the NOX 800 and 15” coil to be easy to use and operate in Beach mode and in salt water with Sensitivity running from 19 — 23. Recovered some fairly deep targets as well (12 — 15”).
Got down to Florida from Ohio on Dec 11th and had a real itch to hit the water ASAP. Hit the water with my CTX 3030 and spent 7 hrs cherishing my new environment — a whole mile of pure white sand and surf. The water was a warm 66 deg with small surf; my wetsuit shortly and long wetsuit pants proved sufficient for a long day in the water.
It is winter down here and few people, except for tourist, hit the water. Pickings are slow and far between; going 5-10 minutes without even a hit. But my 17” coil on the CTX covers a lot of ground and the coins were coming, albeit slowly. About 4 hrs into my hunt I snagged my first piece of jewelry this MD season — a small tungsten wedding band.
About 5 minutes later I got a good solid signal (12) on the CTX and at the bottom of sand scoop appeared a thick gold band. The band is marked 14K and the two side stones test as diamonds. The center stone is jet black. The ring weighs in at a hefty 10.42g.
Day 2: Low Tide
The next day I decided to hit my favorite low tide beach with threatening skies and high winds keeping people away from the beach. The day turned-out to be one of those fishing weight days — all day I was finding fishing weights, 13 to be exact, and except for the usual coins nothing else; read no jewelry. To complicate matters, my CTX 3030 died. Just wouldn’t turn on; nothing. The day before (read above) I had taken it for the first time in the water since getting it back from Minelab for repairs (water intrusion into the speaker) this summer. Back to the shop. Have to rely on the NOX 800 with 15" coil.
Day 3: During the Wash
High winds were out of the ENE and conditions were favorable for a very low low tide. I ignored for the moment the 46 deg temp and 20 mph winds. The surf report predicted ½ to 1 ½ ft surf and I planned another day in the water — way out there where it usually would be over my head and where few hunt. But when I arrived at the beach, the waves were breaking on the far sand bar like there was no tomorrow, heck they were 2 — 3 footers. Dang it was cold. Gasp, I contemplated turning around any going home. But I regained my sanity and nixed the deep water. Because of the blowing wind and chill factor in the teens (or so it seemed) I donned not one but two wet suits; my 3mm full suit and my 3 mm shorty. My 3mm suit is 10 yrs old and has age cracks (dry rot) and didn’t provide much protection from the chilling wind. Luckily I had my shorty in the truck.
Because my CTX 3030 died the day before, I used my Equinox with 15” coil to cover the wet sand and very shallow surf as the waves rolled in. It was a great day for MDing given the temp and wind — not many people ventured onto the beach in early morning and I was free to grid the tidal zone in relative peace.
The NOX 800 is known for detecting small pieces of gold (and small pieces of junk as well) and the NOX 800 didn’t disappoint today. My first piece of jewelry was a large Man’s silver ring with large yellow stone (7.52g).
Next came two small costume rings (moon and moon and star), palm tree pendant and small mermaid pendant.
A small 14k gold pendant with center diamond (about 0.1 ct, 3.5g) let itself be known but wasn’t easy to find with caked sand concealing it in the sand.
Talk about small and light weight; my next gold discovery was this small 10k gold ear ring (0.54g) with 25 small clear stones believed to be diamonds.
My last nice find for the day was this interesting silver ring with 3 moveable metal bands.
As for junk, my smallest find of the day was this 0.03g scrap piece of aluminum that was about 2mm across.
Also found about ½ dozen small (3mm) aluminum discs that weigh in about 0.13g each.
During the wash hunt, I used the dump sand — kick sand — sweep — kick sand —etc technique to recover targets. My Pointer was extremely helpful in finding targets too small to localize in the sand. Most of the junk and good targets I found would not have been recoverable in the water since they would have simply passed through my sand scoop that has 5/8” holes. I guess this is one of the draw-backs to having a detector that detects real small targets; it is very frustrating or impossible to recover such small targets in the water. First time in the water with the NOX, I found the NOX 800 and 15” coil to be easy to use and operate in Beach mode and in salt water with Sensitivity running from 19 — 23. Recovered some fairly deep targets as well (12 — 15”).
Upvote
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Sorry to hear about the CTX. 
