LawrencetheMDer
Hero Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
- Messages
- 987
- Reaction score
- 2,417
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Ohio and Florida
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Manticore, Minelab CTX3030 w 11" and 17" DD coils,
Minelab Excalibur II w 10" coil, Equinox 800 (4) w 11" and 15" coils,
Troy Shadow x2 w 7" coil, Pointers; Garrett Carrot, Pro Find 35,
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Spent 10 hours over 2 days MDing on the west coast of Florida on a storm ravaged beach that lost most of the sand. The wind was blowing and the temp was in the 50s. Fist-sized stones were everywhere. Digging targets required removing the top stones first, loosening the remaining stone and sand mixture and trying to scoop into a stone laden beach. It was tough going given that I usually work on sand covered beaches where the scoop has no problems going down the full 12 inch length. I should have taken a crowbar along with my large scoop, hand trowel and large screw driver. Digging was brutal.
Here I sit writing this post with an open oozing callus on my left hand – forgot to change hands the first day of MDing after 5 ½ hrs. Also tore the fingernail off the middle finger of the right hand while digging with my hands into the stone laden beach. Lower back is stiff and it is difficult to get out of a chair – the result of repeatedly bending down to dig targets. Neck is also stiff – haven’t a clue why. Bottom of my feet are sore from walking on the stones with my Cressi hard soled diving boots. Lower arms are sore from swinging the detector and digging into the impossible beach. Face is wind and sun burnt and I can barely lift my arms to drink my morning coffee My wife said I over-did-it. Can’t wait till tomorrow when I return to the beach for more MDing. Live is good.
Oh, what about the finds and why would I continue with the “hardship? Averaged over 11 coins/hr (compared to about 7/hr on sandy beaches) and found 2 rings, albeit cheap ones. Given the shape of the beach, I know that there is gold to be found given the amount of sand removal – although brutal, these are the types of beach conditions one looks for in searching for (previously) deep targets. Much of the remaining sand is the deep darker sand. I also analyzed the dates of the found coins and they’re averaging about 5-10 yrs older, depending on denomination, than coin finds from other regular sanded beaches. There is lots of coin degeneration – 32% of the cents did not have identifiable dates and 12% of the dimes also did not have identifiable dates. This compares to seldom seeing such corroded coins, even the zinc cents, on sandy beaches. My detector is fully charged – my body will recover.
Here I sit writing this post with an open oozing callus on my left hand – forgot to change hands the first day of MDing after 5 ½ hrs. Also tore the fingernail off the middle finger of the right hand while digging with my hands into the stone laden beach. Lower back is stiff and it is difficult to get out of a chair – the result of repeatedly bending down to dig targets. Neck is also stiff – haven’t a clue why. Bottom of my feet are sore from walking on the stones with my Cressi hard soled diving boots. Lower arms are sore from swinging the detector and digging into the impossible beach. Face is wind and sun burnt and I can barely lift my arms to drink my morning coffee My wife said I over-did-it. Can’t wait till tomorrow when I return to the beach for more MDing. Live is good.
Oh, what about the finds and why would I continue with the “hardship? Averaged over 11 coins/hr (compared to about 7/hr on sandy beaches) and found 2 rings, albeit cheap ones. Given the shape of the beach, I know that there is gold to be found given the amount of sand removal – although brutal, these are the types of beach conditions one looks for in searching for (previously) deep targets. Much of the remaining sand is the deep darker sand. I also analyzed the dates of the found coins and they’re averaging about 5-10 yrs older, depending on denomination, than coin finds from other regular sanded beaches. There is lots of coin degeneration – 32% of the cents did not have identifiable dates and 12% of the dimes also did not have identifiable dates. This compares to seldom seeing such corroded coins, even the zinc cents, on sandy beaches. My detector is fully charged – my body will recover.
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