Need some advice for hunting virgin beaches in Africa...

Hello all... I am in need of some advice. I am an American living and working in Africa and I have access to lots of virgin beaches here in Mozambique. I have never seen any detectorists on the beaches I frequent so I brought my Garrett GTAx 550 w/ DD coil over to check it out. I have been out several times but am not finding anything but trash. I get a lot of false signals. I have noticed there is a lot of Titanium Ore that interrupts my hunting as well. Any suggestions? I am new to beach hunting. I have been md'ing for some time now but mainly soil in the midwest.

Thanks in advance. :happysmiley:

I wish you luck. HH, Hamid

You might try checking the local coins and seeing what type of metal these are, I went to Costa Rica and hunted the beach
and looking at my pocket change everything looked like good copper coins, only to discover that most of these coins are really Iron with a copper coating...
So my detector says "IRON" "NO DIG" ....
I don't know about Africa, but if a place is truly "Virgin" as you say....
I would expect thousands of coins and tons of trash and tons of everything in between...
Try a tourist beach, and see what you get... also some machines just make lots of noise on the wet sand... so
that might be your machine..

Watch out for the native sharks after they see what you are catching they will bite you hard

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Originally Posted by TORRERO

You might try checking the local coins and seeing what type of metal these are, I went to Costa Rica and hunted the beach
and looking at my pocket change everything looked like good copper coins, only to discover that most of these coins are really Iron with a copper coating...
So my detector says "IRON" "NO DIG" ....
I don't know about Africa, but if a place is truly "Virgin" as you say....
I would expect thousands of coins and tons of trash and tons of everything in between...
Try a tourist beach, and see what you get... also some machines just make lots of noise on the wet sand... so
that might be your machine..

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I am new to the beach hunting scene and have also wondered if I am using the wrong detector. I have done well with my cheaper model Garrett's in the states. It's relatively easy to pull out some coins, lead toys, rings if your hunting a nice spot. But here on the beach I am thrown for a loop. Lots of noise and trash. A lot of the "noise" that I have been trying to dig up turns out to be nothing. Even if it sounds great... O well. I'll keep at it. I know there were tons of Portuguese that vacationed here in the 50's and 60's... there has to be gold and silver in the sand! :)

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Originally Posted by trainer

Watch out for the native sharks after they see what you are catching they will bite you hard

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Thanks trainer... So far I have just been telling the "sharks" that I am removing trash... to keep our oceans clean. :happysmiley: So far... that's all I have done anyway... Oh and also carry a nice shovel with me... just in case. I usually hunt during the week anyway. Usually quite quiet.

I'm not familiar with your detector but you can do some experiments with silver/gold jewelery items or coins that you might have.

In general on a salty wet beach you want to lower the sensitivity quite a bit. In the dry sand it should work OK except for any black sand which is iron.

Try places that have or had lots of tourists.

Regards, Joe (California)

Good Luck

you might want to pic up a PI - it could be the sand and Pi's deal with black sand real good - plus you can do surf & water with it
if your not sure - pick up a used one on line

The problem is that you need an expensive hotel or resort to bring in the money. If its expensive they have a pool or pools and the average tourist thinks the sea is going to be knee deep in sharks so they tend not to venture into the sea. Suntan oil and a hot climate with water leads to ring losses in many parts of the world but the vast majority where you are, are not going to have much to lose.

In this case alone I would stick to a VLF on the dry sand but either get something deeper or go for maximum ground coverage by using a XLT +Bigfoot or Tesoro +Cleansweep coil. These are not heavy and will allow you to cover twice the area of ground. The only plus with digging the rubbish that you are is that you are both cleaning up the beach and there's the possibility of a good find under the rubbish thats masked at the moment.

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Originally Posted by U.K. Brian

The problem is that you need an expensive hotel or resort to bring in the money. If its expensive they have a pool or pools and the average tourist thinks the sea is going to be knee deep in sharks so they tend not to venture into the sea. Suntan oil and a hot climate with water leads to ring losses in many parts of the world but the vast majority where you are, are not going to have much to lose.

In this case alone I would stick to a VLF on the dry sand but either get something deeper or go for maximum ground coverage by using a XLT +Bigfoot or Tesoro +Cleansweep coil. These are not heavy and will allow you to cover twice the area of ground. The only plus with digging the rubbish that you are is that you are both cleaning up the beach and there's the possibility of a good find under the rubbish thats masked at the moment.

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Thanks for the info Brian. I am in an area that "used to be" a resort area for Portuguese colonists. There are several nice hotels in my area that used to thrive and are now mostly shells without roofs and windows. (no pools) I may not be extremely experienced but I know there is gold on the beach here. Even if its been sitting there since the 50's and 60's. I have made friends with many older residents who say the wealthy people back then used to flock here on the weekends. We'll see. Again, thanks for the info... I'll keep trying till I get some! Cheers!

There is a gentleman here named Peter Gill, he is from S. Africa, and has been hunting there for years. His screen name here is pgill. He also has his own website, although I can't remember it off hand. I'm sure you can google it under his name. He's one heck of a guy.

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Originally Posted by Diggit

There is a gentleman here named Peter Gill, he is from S. Africa, and has been hunting there for years. His screen name here is pgill. He also has his own website, although I can't remember it off hand. I'm sure you can google it under his name. He's one heck of a guy.

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Yeah, I tried making contact with him. He hasn't responded yet. Thanks for the comment! :thumb_up:

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Originally Posted by Selous1851

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Originally Posted by Diggit

There is a gentleman here named Peter Gill, he is from S. Africa, and has been hunting there for years. His screen name here is pgill. He also has his own website, although I can't remember it off hand. I'm sure you can google it under his name. He's one heck of a guy.

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Yeah, I tried making contact with him. He hasn't responded yet. Thanks for the comment! :thumb_up:

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No problem. And good name choice, Courtney Selous was a great man.

I use a Sand Shark for salt water beach detecting, the PI works well in salt water areas, picks up all metals.

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Originally Posted by Diggit

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Originally Posted by Selous1851

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Originally Posted by Diggit

There is a gentleman here named Peter Gill, he is from S. Africa, and has been hunting there for years. His screen name here is pgill. He also has his own website, although I can't remember it off hand. I'm sure you can google it under his name. He's one heck of a guy.

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Yeah, I tried making contact with him. He hasn't responded yet. Thanks for the comment! :thumb_up:

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No problem. And good name choice, Courtney Selous was a great man.

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Thanks, reading his two books about his first 20 years in Africa was very inspiring. It takes real guts to do what he did. I also am a hunter and enjoyed reading a lot about his experiences in the late 1800's. He contributed a lot to the study of natural history during his time. But most of all, it was amazing to see his passion about the formation of the British colony that became today's Zimbabwe. He helped advise Rhodes on all the details and helping to set up what is now Harare! Amazing times! :happysmiley: