New Sand Shark arrived today

[cdv1]

Well, the wait is over, it came today. As of right now all I can say is I'm thinking it will have a big learning curve and I only have a month till I head to Myrtle Beach for 8 days of walking in the wet sand and water. So, tomorrow I'll take it down to the river (closest thing I have right now in the way of water) and find some trash to learn on prior to a trip to Lake Erie Sunday to hit the fresh water beach for a more realistic trial.
Any tips you Sand Shark users have please feel free to lay them on me.. I would hate for the wife to show me up using the Ace 350 on the dry sands at Myrtle....LOL I can hear it now.... see you didn't need to buy that one.....

Cliff

[Sandman]

If you are using it at a fresh water beach you are in for a workout with hairpins. You can experiment with normal mode and VCO to see which one you like. If you are mainly thinking of hunting the dry sand to beat your wife to the most coins or such, think of getting the Clean Sweep Coil for the Sand Shark. It is 3"X18" and hot down the center. It will cover lots of ground fast to beat the completion.

[Adrian SS]

The Sand Shark is a nice detector and dead easy to use. The only thing I can think of while you are learning the machine is to not use the Pulse Width any higher than the prefered setting. this control adjusts the amount of tx power going into the ground and the higher you set it the shorter the battery life. If you are looking for very small or very deep items then using a longer pulse width will produse a slightly better response but just be aware that battery life is shortened.

[extractor]

[Smudge]

It will be an education for you.

I'm sure you already know that PI detectors do not discriminate, so if it is metal and you pass your coil over it, you will get a signal.

Just prepare yourself that you will dig more trash than you ever have before, but you will not miss a thing, including the gold.

It's all a trade off when you hunt for gold. Trash, and lots of it, will follow you wherever you hunt.

[cdv1]

Wow was that an experience using the sand shark at Presque Isle. I had a ball and learned alot and dug alot! First I taught the wife how to use the Ace 350 and once she got the hang of it I took off on my own. Total clad was $1.52 and I beat her by 6 cents.... probably because I was moving faster then she was in the digging department.
Now as for the Sand Shark, Terry, I see what you mean on depth. I dug a few holes that had faint signals and ended up around 20 inches, both cases were soda cans and it appeared to me that the tone got louder when I would recheck the hole prior to finding the can. On one other hit that was faint, the signal was gone after the first scoop which excited me. When I finally did find the treasure (lol) it ended up being one single loop of spring steel the size of a dime, my first ring with the shark! :-)

Two things I found out about the beaches at Presque Isle, one there is one heck of alot of rusty metal (from ships?) in the sand which really makes a PI a PITA to use there. The other thing I found was huge amounts of metal nuggets of what looks like molten aluminum on the beach, mainly in the surf area. The nuggets are very light and move with the waves which really makes detecting in the surf interesting since they are constantly on the move with the wave action. I took home 3 or 4 of them to see if they will rust in the air but so far nothing... one is very slightly attracted to a magnet the others aren't... I have no clue what they may be but they were interesting to find. There are so many of them you can actually watch them in the waters edge moving around.

Bought another scoop for the wife so she won't have to bend over so much and will probably be trying Presque Isle out again this weekend. With over 11 miles of beach to hit, I have lots more exploring and learning with the sand shark to do prior to my trip the end of August to Myrtle Beach....

Cliff

[N2CU]

Hey Cliff, isn't Presque Isle a state park? Is detecting allowed or did you have to get a permit?

[cdv1]

Yes Preque Isle is a state park but they allow mding on the beaches and in the water as long as it is before the lifeguards start work which is 10 am. Gives plenty of time for a morning hunt and I'm sure if the lifeguards aren't on duty on a particular day, it is fair game to hunt.

Cliff

[Terry Soloman]

Cliff, congratulations! As a Shark owner, I wish you gold, silver and diamonds! I have found that I like running in VCO mode now, although I stayed in Normal mode for the first 100-hours, learning what bobbypins and fish hooks sound like (a warbling, disappearing signal). You will fall more and more in love with your machine. You can see some of my recent finds here: http://www.terrysoloman.com/id20.html