Carrot at the Beach

[BallsDeep]

Considering the Garrett Carrot. I have never used a pin pointer at the beach, usually kick the sand around till I find what I'm after. I can see the value but afraid that it will just end up expensive unused gear in the garage. Am I missing the boat on this? what are y'all using and is it really that much of a time saver? oh, and any tips to keep from losing the damn thing would be helpful LOL

[sphillips]

Maybe you wouldn't need it if the target is very near the surface, but most of what is dug is not, its deeper. I could not detect the beach, park, field, etc without a pin pointer, need it to pin point the target in your pile of sand or dirt

[vinnywop]

While I don't always use a carrot at the beach, I do use it everywhere else 100% of the time. Makes recovery much faster/easier so you can spend less time doing recovery and more time hunting. As far as not losing it, I use a lanyard with a flexible cord and secure the lanyard to my belt loop and keep the carrot in my cargo pocket.

[pepperj]

Considering the Garrett Carrot. I have never used a pin pointer at the beach, usually kick the sand around till I find what I'm after. I can see the value but afraid that it will just end up expensive unused gear in the garage. Am I missing the boat on this? what are y'all using and is it really that much of a time saver? oh, and any tips to keep from losing the damn thing would be helpful LOL

Have you used one else where?

It's defiantly a time saver in the sand/dirt and yes it can drop out of sheath/pocket/pouch/left behind at last hole. Being orange it's an easy to see/retrieve.
Once a person switch they find that it's an easy method of recovery over other tried-true methods of retrieval regardless of dirt/sand conditions.

[noladirtdigger]

I always carry mine, it speeds up recovery time on small items in the sand. I use an outboard kill switch lanyard to attach mine to my pouch. Yamaha makes a good one, but there are also some good generic ones out there.

[Peyton Manning]

I don’t see the point of one at the beach, a sand scoop lets you shake the sand and reveal the target

[smokeythecat]

I like mine. I have it on a cord to keep from losing it.

[pepperj]

I don’t see the point of one at the beach, a sand scoop lets you shake the sand and reveal the target

Good point-if one had a scoop to begin with.

[zigzag]

I agree with Peyton Manning. I see guys using a pinpointer in the sand that have a scoop and it seems time consuming and you have to bend down. I could probably use a little more bending down to slim down but it just isn't for me.

[sonnar28]

I always have a Garrett carrot on my belt at the beach, and use it mainly when going after deep targets that disappear (which side of the hole do I need to work) or when the target is not obvious after a "scoop and spread" in wet clingy sand. It stay attached to my belt with a Nitecore NTL20 Coiled Tactical Flashlight Lanyard with Belt Strap.

I also velcro a one inch round disc neodynium magnet to the battery cover end of the carrot to quickly grab those tiny wire fragments that sound good with a PI but are camouflaged in dark wet sand.

I only use the carrot when needed, maybe 20% of the time. But it has kept me from walking away from small gold.

[claire]

I never use my pinpointed at the beach. To me it is unnecessary and time consuming. Use it 100% of the time when dirt digging, which I do much less of

[Irishgoldhound]

In the park yes, at the beach no no no. I don’t bend over ever. In the park I use knee pads and get right down on the ground, saves the back. Sand scoop and or floating water sifter only at the beach.

[Xraywolf]

I used to be one of the guys saying "never saw the point of using one at the beach" but I found that was an error, I see the point now and yes it can be a major time saver. In fact sometimes all I carry [dry sand] is the pinpointer and a 5 in 1 tool for digging, can find 90% of targets in seconds vs scoop, shake [if able, wet/compacted sand does not shake], rescan hole, scoop again, wheres the target ?, rescan, scoop, kick sand around ect.

As far as how you take it out with you, thats on you. I usually have pants or shorts I clip it to. If you detect with Speedos you might have to improvise.
For guys that can't/won't bend over, obviously not an option.
I don't bend, I crouch, same as if I'm at work. Crouching is somewhat of a relief after alot of walking, to a guy who can't or won't crouch, sounds to me they are on their last legs and probably should not be out forcing themselves to walk and lug around a heavy sand scoop.

So to summarize, if most of what I am detecting is pure dry sand, I may take the scoop. If its likely i'll get into wet sand, I'll use the pinpointer and leave the scoop in the truck. Scoops can be a major pain to lug around on dry land after a while, not so bad in the water. Have never used the pinpointer in the water, you'd basically have to snorkel to do that. It is small and light enough to take along even if you think you won't be using it - And a genuine Garrett [as opposed to one of the made in china ripoffs] sell quick for close to what you paid for it, so no need to fret about possible wasted investment.

Be advised, pinpointer may or may not interfere with your detector, really an annoyance more than anything, as the pinpointer is not on until you are looking for a target with it, but the chattering detector will annoy you quick. You'll have to find your own work arounds if this is the case for you, they tend not to interfere with other Garrett products but most others do. Simplex went so far as to introduce a software update which allows you to mute the detector just because of this issue, and it works good, so long as you remember to unmute it when you are done.

[Irishgoldhound]

Not going to bend over to pinpoint at the beach. If I can’t find it or catch it in the scoop, I move on. I’m not worried about missing that one little diamond stud. If It keeps falling through the scoop and I can’t find it by spreading sand out fast enough, I move on. Most of these elusive signals that fall through the scoop are usually small pieces of lead, 22shells, aluminum or foil anyway.

[Thebigd81]

I don't use the lanyard I just throw it in my pocket. I don't see how you could possibly lose it unless you forget to pick it up after digging but even then it's in my hand I recover the target and the carrot goes back in my pocket