Specific Gravity and absence of beach targets....Explain...

[Newfiehunter]

Recently I've heard about a term...Specific Gravity...which means how an fast an item sinks or floats in water. Silver has a specific gravity of 10 while gold has a specific gravity of 19 while platinum has a 21 specific gravity. If it is less than 0, it means it will float...

Now I know this is a little unrelated..but how long does it take for a gold ring or silver ring to sink..in sand on a beach that would be out of reach of a detector? For example a if a mans 14kt wedding band is dropped near the water on a beach last summer, how long will it take for it to be out of a detectors range? A month, 6 months, a year? There must be many factors involved....wave action on the shore, storms, heavy foot traffic, density of the sand etc.... Are the majority of the rings you find on the beach freshly dropped? Just curious...

The reason why I am asking this question is because I tried a beach hunt today for the first time in awhile, hoping to find some jewelry. My detector was fine and it was running in all metal mode. The beach is quite popular in the summer with very few, if any metal detector users here. However there has been no usage of the beach after all winter. What perplexed me was the absence of targets, even junk targets like bottle caps and pulltabs especially as I approached the ocean. The very few targets on the beach that were found were closer to land. Targets such as bottle caps and some coins that were found really deep about 7 inches or more which led me to believe the targets sank deeply in the sand in a short period of time. The deep coins were recent also. So can wave action from storms during the winter take targets out to sea from the land or bury the targets quickly? This is a question for all of the seasoned beach hunters who can explain this phenomenon. I'm baffled.

 

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[bigscoop]

I certainly have acquired much knowledge with regards to beach hunting since posting this thread....Will have to certainly make an investment in an underwater machine..The question is now..which one? In the summer, it is too hot to go coin hunting at old homesteads that is usually overgrown and really don't want to take a chance dropping a land unit in the ocean. When I see some of the beautiful rings that you guys post on here...it does make me feel I should expand my horizons!! All of your advice and opinions will certainly be used when I try beach hunting again. Thanks....

Try a new "Which Water Machine" thread and offer up some of the details about the beaches where you live, i.e., sandy, rocky, etc. You will get a lot of great input and might even find a few experienced people who water hunt in your area.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

The hole i talked about was that way, you went from lower calf to waist and chest deep in maybe 2 steps and when you walked out you were back to calf deep. The hole was gone in a couple days, we are talking a hole ever bit of 120+ ft long and 30-40 ft wide and 3.5-5 ft deep.

 

[Newfiehunter]

I have a Vibradetector which is very similar to a mini metal detector/pinpointer and is pulse induction....It has limited depth but it is waterproof to 30 feet. It would be good for getting into areas where a detector cannot, into crevices. Would it be of any use?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I have a Vibradetector which is very similar to a mini metal detector/pinpointer and is pulse induction....It has limited depth but it is waterproof to 30 feet. It would be good for getting into areas where a detector cannot, into crevices. Would it be of any use?

Its a pinpointer, i have one as well, but depth is really only about an inch. I dont even take mine with me.

 

[OBN]

Couple good post,

The Best...test of ring migration..this will vary from place to place due to so many varibles

Your experience with gold ring travel and sinking in saltwater "SAND&q ...

Seeweed Ray of the OBX

http://www.outerbanksnc.net/beachtips.html

 

[lookindown]

The hole i talked about was that way, you went from lower calf to waist and chest deep in maybe 2 steps and when you walked out you were back to calf deep. The hole was gone in a couple days, we are talking a hole ever bit of 120+ ft long and 30-40 ft wide and 3.5-5 ft deep.

Treasurehunter, do you think those rings accumulated in that spot by moving there or do you think they were all dropped at that spot. I think rings move around and gather in low spots and my friends think they go straight down. They dont think rings gather in pockets. They say if you removed all the sand down to the hardpan you would see rings evenly distibuted down the beach. They dont think stuff gathers up. I know all beaches are different and even the same beach is different day to day. There are no set rules and people have different ideas about what happens to a ring when is dropped. What do you think?

 

[seeker41]

because of a rings shape i do not think gold rings are moved much at All by water/waves/current. quarters dimes and pennies have a flat surface and the water/waves/crrent can move these items. i believe the sand around the ring/encompasing the ring is pushed and pulled and that moves the ring. while this is going on the ring is constantly heading for hard pan. once it hits hardpan it is not moved until the weather conditions are severe enough to move a very large ammount of sand which takes the ring along with it.
great thread thanks for starting it!

 

[Smoogle]

got your monies worth on this thread eh? You and I and others, (reason for a forum I guess) now have food for thought - will munch goldies thanks.

 

[davidfl]

because of a rings shape i do not think gold rings are moved much at All by water/waves/current. quarters dimes and pennies have a flat surface and the water/waves/crrent can move these items. i believe the sand around the ring/encompasing the ring is pushed and pulled and that moves the ring. while this is going on the ring is constantly heading for hard pan. once it hits hardpan it is not moved until the weather conditions are severe enough to move a very large ammount of sand which takes the ring along with it.
great thread thanks for starting it!

well said i tend to agree with you on this statement david

 

[hobbit]

Have any of you guys ever tried Andy Sabich's bobber method from "Advanced Water Working Techniques"?

 

[The-Bone]

one more thing to consider is WHERE you hunt..the beaches up north have much greater wave action than those of the southland. I've already been standing in the wet sand in Jersey where just a trickle of water from the waves was washing up on my feet while being pelted in the head with shells and stones by each breaking wave. Looking at most beaches from Va. to Fl. as a comparison is like looking at bath water. There is absolutely no way,IMHO, that a ring lost in the water up north stays where it is dropped for very long.

 

[bigscoop]

one more thing to consider is WHERE you hunt..the beaches up north have much greater wave action than those of the southland. I've already been standing in the wet sand in Jersey where just a trickle of water from the waves was washing up on my feet while being pelted in the head with shells and stones by each breaking wave. Looking at most beaches from Va. to Fl. as a comparison is like looking at bath water. There is absolutely no way,IMHO, that a ring lost in the water up north stays where it is dropped for very long.

I think everyone is right to a point. With enough force being applied anything is going to move. Mining operations used Hydraulics to cut into mountains. On the other hand, the basic theory behind gold panning is that the heavier sediments will settle to the bottom. Drop a heavy gold ring on a calm freshwater beach and the only place it can go is down, and it's sink rate is going be determined by how hard or soft that bottom is. However, once you step into the ocean it comes down to the amount of force and disturbance mother nature is going to apply and the general makeup of the surrounding ocean floor. As far as items settling in one place, if you have enough force working as a funnel, then items can be funneled by that force. In one of these post someone said something to the effect of "knowing your beach and the way the water effects it" and I think that pretty much sums it up.

 

[JMW]

Awesome post guys! Bigscoop, you hit the nail on the head. Each beach is different but knowing the subtleties of each makes all the difference. Some of my favorite beaches have definite areas where rings and coins are funneled and deposited in pockets containing both recent and older rings/coins. Mother nature, tides and prevailing winds can be powerful forces that move mountains of sand and everything contained within.

 

[harryb007]

Maybe it is time to take them gold dredges to the beach and sluice the beach material.

 

[bigscoop]

Thought of this post the other day while i was hunting a section of beach that I hunt quite often. It had been about a couple of weeks since I last hunted this section of beach but I was still routinely finding targets 3 - 8 inches down on the wet sand slope, a few targets were even deeper. Did I and other detectorist miss all these targets before? Not very likely since it is hunted quite often. Just a good example how things are subject to moving all the time on a beach when there's enough force or turbulence present to move them. Also a good example of how quickly items can get covered over in the sand once they are lost. One never knows what he's going to find or where he's going to find it at when there's changing currents and turbulence involved. Come to think of it, I don't recall the last time I saw a target sitting on top of the wet sand before I dug it. That alone should tell you something.