"Dig it All" or Discriminate - That is the Question!

[certman68]

To be or not to be, to "dig it all" or discriminate, that is the question (Apologies to Mr. Shakespeare).

I've seen conflicting approaches to beach and water hunting in this forum and others. Some choose to discriminate targets to avoid iron, bottle caps, etc and hopefully not gold and silver.

Others dig everything arguing that the beach is a relatively easy place to do so. Why risk missing a gold ring due to questionable discrimination after all.

Let me get to the point. I want to improve my recovery ratio which to me is the number of gold/silver finds vs. number of targets dug. I could improve my ratio in three ways.

One, by buying a Stealth or similar scoop and stick with the "dig it all program" = $400 (I currently use a Sand Shark)
Two, by buying a unit the discriminates (Excal 2, CZ 21), thereby saving time by theoretically not digging up junk and covering more ground= $1500
Three, by buying both the scoop and a unit that discriminates = $2000

The scoop seems to be a "no brainer". My question is whether discrimination is a worthwhile investment for Florida beaches from the waterline to snorkeling depth (just over 6 feet for my height).

I know this the classic PI vs. VLF question but I'd love to get more information from actual owners of both regarding why they prefer one type over another especially if you feel your ratio increased by using one type vs. the other. How do we know that discrimination is really working? I've seen posts indicating that discrimination is less reliable as target depth increases. I'm not sure if this is true or not due to my own ignorance and lack of experience.

Many thanks. I apologize in advance for the $%#& storm this may create.

 

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[ivan salis]

THIS SUBJECT COMES UP ON LAND BASED NON BEACH --IN FLA TOO --- my school of thought is this , time management * time is one thing you don't have a "unlimited" amount of -- and since most folks have a limited amount of time that can spend metal detecting -good time management means you want to find the most amount of "good targets" during your hunts , and spend no or very little time digging crap targets wasting "time"....wasting time leaves you with less time to dig "good targets" ,,,so -- you must figger out how to not dig crap targets in the first place * that mean you gotta "discrimate" ---proper discrimation with a quality machine will cull very few gold items ---now the "tipping point" effect comes into play --- are you the type of person that wants 100% of any and all gold items and are willing to dig lots of trash to get it , thus wasting a lot of time digging junk ?? or are you the type of person that wants to dig say 80%+ "good targets" only and is willing to give up a "possible" item once in a great while to avoid buttloads of trash and to speed up your hunting and good finds ratio? ---only you know you and what type of person you are and thus whats best suited for your use..

remember this easy exsample -- when I was using a ace 250long ago .. due to its limited sorting ability (12 blocks) --pulltabs /nickles / some gold items all rang up in the same block ==the only choice was --dig it all ---now later on fast forward to the delta 4000 --it has a 0 to 99 numbers display ( thus more than 8 times the "sorting" spots ) -- so now a nickel or 10 k gold is 58 --typical pull tab is 60 --14 k is 64 --18 k is 68 ... now is it possible that you can get gold item that comes up as a 60 (pull tab number normally) yes but not too often -- will you dig a whole lot less pulltabs by not digging 60's oh without a doubt

funny you want the two high value metals that are at the low end (gold) and high end (silver) of the metals charts --- as you discrimate metals fall out of detection range --- first iron , then aluminum , nickles, gold, zinc cents ,copper /clad coins , silver

oh and its a well known fact that some metal detector freq are better at cutting thru high mineral beach conditions than others and for detecting gold as wel

 

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[makahaman]

When it comes to the beach and in the water I would dig it all, you'll never know what you might find! Quite a few times I've found gold right next to big pieces of metal underwater because both were heavy! So I would dig everything when it comes to the water, your in there so why not. Make the extra effort and the results will pay off...

 

[cudamark]

It's mine!!

Haha!
Would like to see a pic?!
Do you hunt in Santa Ynez often? See that your from San Diego?

I posted a photo on here a while back......I'll see if I can find it again. I hunt SY valley whenever I get up that way. My parents were both born and raised there and I still have family and friends in the area. Oh, here's one of the ring photos I have.

 

[surfnturf]

Thanks for the pic!
Cool ring!!
PM me when you visit and we can get a hunt in or two!!