Need some advice on metal detecting on SW Florida Beaches

[southfloridabeachhunter]

Well it has been awhile since I last posted. I moved down to Indian Rocks Beach in Florida between St. Pete Beach and Clearwater beach. I am basically retired and I own the Sea Hunter and the Ace 350. There are more metal detector guys on this beach and their are some real pro's. They all use Minelab's either Excaliburs or Sovereigns. Aaron is definitely the most knowledgeable metal detectorist out here who uses the Excalibur. Honestly I am ready to trade in the Sea Hunter and get the Excalibur. PI's are so labor intense!!! I didn't listen to anyone really, but Garrett salesmen, distributors and a few others. I have EVERY tool one can have even
Clive Clynick's book "pulsepower! finding gold at the shore with a Pulse Induction Metal Detector." I have the 8" and the 10" coil and I use the 10" coil mostly.
If you are not familiar with IRB (Indian Rocks Beach) it is laced with tons of iron. ALL I find is sparklers, iron pipes 2' down in wet sand, barnacles attached to iron, iron pieces. I have been doing this now since Jan 3rd every morning when the sun rises (I live right on the beach so it's my back yard.)
I have the threshold or sound down to silent about 2 and the elimination down to 2, so I can pick up everything. And I have the mode on Standard to go deep.
Maybe I am not detecting in the right area's, but I follow the shoreline like the pro's are doing on this beach.
So honestly does the Sea Hunter work or not? How can you tell if there is an iron target or not? I'm honestly thinking about buying an Excalibur or Sovereign GT.
Anyone have any real advice. Thanks

 

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[stevemc]

First, you need the threshold up where you can hear it buzzing. A deep target will not really blast, but it will just make the thresh hold go up slightly, if you have it silent, you will miss deep things. Do you have the Sea Hunter mark II? If not that is your problem. If so, they are good. The discrimination on all the Garrett PIs, is not good for finding jewelry. It actually eliminates that first. Have that as high as possible, or least as possible disc. And deep is not necessarily good, it is probably a slower pulse which will go deeper than a fast pulse. What you want is not so deep, and a fast pulse. I dont have the manual, but you need a fast pulse. Maybe there is a better mode. Deep is not what you want, you want to find gold jewelry. Maybe you are not scrubing the bottom with your coil, maybe not sweeping close together, you almost have to overlap to hear the deep stuff. Walk slowly and cover all the ground. You wont find any gold if you aren't going over it.

 

[DewGuru]

Your not finding anything as it's not the time of year in the area your in. The conditions are horrible with the sand. There are very few recent drops (to almost none) due to the water conditions, temp, and lack of swimmers. What is out there, will be buried under the 12 foot of new sand piled on top of them over the last 3 months. Until season starts up, or a ripping surf comes calling (which aint gonna happpen in our area), thats just the way its gonna be. Best bet is to stay home for another month. You'll find more action in the dry sand right now -- and with that PI, prepare to dig. I know nothing of the Garrett, but use a PI in the same areas as you, and then some, and generally do well, but due to all of the above, its tough for me as well.

You'll find on all PI machines, iron is a skippy signal. Even moreso when you dig the hole. One minute the signal is here, and then its over there. It's as if it were jumping around the hole, and thats a sure fire sign of a signal you dont want. 1 dig, scan, if jumpy, move on down the road.

 

[CASPER-2]

I get gold behind those Excaliber guys all the time - most run their discrim too high and miss gold with the junk
and they lose depth and I get deep gold down there a lot too - I use Pi and CZ21's down there
and when i use my CZ's I run in all metal most of the time
dig it all and take everything you can out

 

[stevemc]

When you say you are following the shoreline, what exactly do you mean? Are you at the waters edge? Or just out from it? I never heard following the shoreline. You have to be out and looking for a washed out area. A cut through a sandbar, the trough got deeper after a storm, the shore has a drop off just offshore where there wasnt one, that kind of thing. If a foot of sand gets washed away by strong tides or storms, you have to be out there in it. Some places are just flat sand and no washed out areas, move on to the next area. You have to know how each area is laid out, depth wise. If a beach normally has just sand bottom, but now has shells or rocks, work it. Some places are just slowly getting deeper, and if you went there and it now has a deep trough, work that. A negative low tide is best. It has a lot of knowing an area and working it and knowing when to leave and go to another spot, and so on. Of course you have to go where there is or was a popular swimming spot, or something like that. Access for people to swim. If you hit a deep spot and start finding coins (except new pennies) and lead sinkers, work it. Pull tabs and can scraps, not so much, leave that if that is all you are finding.