A ? For all you beach hunters

[Vdubguy]

So, do you detect in one long walking pattern? Basically just taking a long walk with a coil in front of you?

OR

Do you grid off an area, say 50'x100', and just concentrate on that one area?

Thanks in advance and HH

 

[Terry Soloman]

Grid, grid, grid! DO NOT just walk up or down the beach in one direction or the other! Pick yourself a 50-yard long beachfront, and start gridding it. You start at the wet sand high mark and detect right into the water thigh-deep, move over a step and detect right back up to the high wet sand mark until the whole 50-yards or 5-hours is done.

 

[lookindown]

I walk in a straight line, sometimes I zig zag back and forth, I grid back and forth from knee deep to neck deep, I go all over the place...I know gridding is the most effective way to hunt but its not fun to me and I do it for fun...If I start hitting targets I slow down and cover an area thoroughly, otherwise Im all over the place like the squirrel on the movie Ice Age.

 

[signal]

There is no one answer here. Typically I have limited time, say 2-3 hours. Gridding an entire beach (our beaches are big, with people everywhere) is not feasible.

I will typically hit the high traffic areas, entrances, towel line, near pier, etc. Those produce the most finds for me, since I am using a VLF. I can hit the wet, which I often do, and definitely grid it when I do, as this area is much smaller. Depending on the mineralization the AT Pro may or may not be difficult in the wet.

Often I hunt in the evenings, when people clear out. I have the high traffic areas to myself. If your going to hit the wet, hit around low tide so you can get maximum area to work with. There is a lot of stuff lost in the dry sand/towel line. There is a lot of stuff in the wet too, depending on how the beach erosion/building is happening. It takes some time to figure out the dynamics of how beaches erode/build and once you do you will understand where is going to likely be most productive. if there are deep cuts, I go right for those. If its sanded out, then I just hit my towel line and other high traffic areas.

 

[GatorBoy]

A lot of how I cover an area depends on what I'm hunting for and how the beach is at that place and time.( I typically hunt older items)
I change with nature as does the beach.
A loose pattern is what I do when an area looks good..until I locate targets then move to an expanding circle and eventually a grid if it seems sensible.
I only go straight to a grid if I already know an area was producing while conditions were the same recently or it's a historical hot spot.
Even then I look for cuts,flat spots,shell layers..ect..

 

[Sandman]

Beaches are just fun to hunt and to much thinking cuts down on the fun. I've used grids in the past and just kind of walk in a W pattern along the wet sand line. A lot depends on the time of day too. But it is more fun when the girls are there.

 

[redcobra8u]

Grid. Only way to get it all.

 

[lorraine]

I grid.

But before I start gridding, I walk the length of the beach line where the water meets the beach...then:

I select an area about 12 yrds x12 yrds at a time ( could be on either wet sand slope, dry sand , or muddy flats), and move in a square formation from the outer perimeter to the final bit of inside the square.

Then I move on to another 12 x12 and do the same.

I drag the scoop behind me and make sure that I over-lap the scoop line from the previous go-around so as not to miss any of the area.

It is interesting how many times I have found treasures "over the scoop line" that I was sure had the coil over it the previous go-around.

Having said this , now I'll say that I'm doing nothing of the sort since both my coils are "in the hospital" ...all kinds of problems, but hope to get them resolved soon and then be back out there.

Good luck

Lorraine

 

[bigscoop]

I think you can see already that there are several modes/moods of hunting. A good target only needs roughly an inch of space to hide it, having said this, every inch you pass up may be that inch of space? But just how practical is it to always cover every inch of beach? Might not seem so monotonous if you're not doing it every day but when you are doing it nearly every day it can get extremely monotonous.

I think that once you learn an area beach you begin to grab a much better feel/perspective for that beach, which helps tremendously. I think there is a big difference/advantage for the hunter when walking onto a beach and he can say, "man, that section is really sanded in" or "geez, that section really got stripped," etc., etc., etc. So I really think your question is dependent on how well a hunter knows a particular beach and all of its quirks. Even so, it only takes an inch of sand to hide a gold ring and that gold ring could get lost anywhere on the beach.

So I think the answer you're looking for is actually largely dependent on the conditions being faced and then the hunter's personal mood/judgement at the time of the actual hunt. With experience comes the ability to better read a beach and I think most experienced hunters rely quite a bit on their personal beach hunting experience. i.e., sometimes the hunt is a serious hunt and sometimes it's just an exploratory adventure dependent on the conditions being faced.

In reality, even with experienced hunters, every time you step onto the beach it's a crap-shoot. It's just that the experienced hunters maintain slightly better odds.

 

[hubcap76]

I know your pain Lorraine, my land machine has been down a couple months with coil issues. I am fortunate to have the excal as well, and wen luckier to have an extra shaft to use since mine broke today. Lol

I'm random on my searching, depends on my mood, the concentration of targets. If I'm dry sanding ill grid, we have a fella who only dry sands moves light lightning and pendulum swings the air every morning, takes me 6-8 hours to hit the main entirety of the dry sand and takes him all of 2 hours. When working wet I tend to go slow and even slower if I am finding decent concentration of targets, until I find that I'm a side stepper angle walk as I swing, until I can determine where majority of targets are being distributed. No method in the water exempt slow and slower for me.

powered by pull tabs

 

[G.I.B.]

It depends on the crowd in front of me if I go around them or back the other way. Then when I turn around, it depends on that crowd.

I was heading down a little roll slot just below the surf break. A very large woman in a waaaay too tight size 100X bathing suit walked into the surf from the beach.

She apparently had little feeling below her taste buds. She stopped just a bit past knee deep. She musta thought she was a bit deeper.

I can only assume at this point that the leg fat caused a different pathway as an artesian well bubbled forth in the upper back end of her suit as a wet spot grew at an astounding rate.

Self convinced that she was properly immersed, she shook herself a little, and walked back up the beach and sat in the sand to dry.

... I went the other way.

noooooo amount of gold was worth forging ahead.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I usually grid in front of hotels both in water and on wet sand. I also walk the water line, found lot of jewelry in the water line where water and wet sand meet...

 

[Vdubguy]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I went out to the beach today only to find six cents and a tent stake in a not crowded portion of the beach. I thought to myself, how will I even make a dent in this vast area of sand with an 11.5inch coil, haha. Still fun as always.

HH

 

[CASPER-2]

SALTWATER HUNTING - I GO OUT CHEST DEEP COUPLE HRS BEFORE LOW TIDE (SO WHERE I AM AT - AT HIGH TIDE ID BE OVER MY HEAD - BY LOW - I'D MAYBE BE WAIST DEEP OR LOWER) I WALK IN A STRAIGHT LINE AND LOOK FOR AN AREA WITH FINDS - WE DONT GET CUTS OR BLOW OUT UP HERE MUCH (SAVE FOR NORE'EASTERS IN WINTER)
IF I FIND AN AREA WITH A FEW FINDS - I WILL THEN GRID THAT AREA - IF IT GETS QUITE AGAIN - WILL CONTINUE ON - I WILL PICK A SPOT TO WORK TO - THEN WILL MOVE OUT WITH THE TIDE MORE AND DOUBLE BACK TO MY STARTING POINT (IT'S STILL GRIDDING REALLY - JUST ON A WIDER RANGE)
DOWN IN FLA. - I WILL DO STRAIGHT LINE THING AND WEARING A MASK (HOPING FOR GREAT VISABILITY) WILL LOOK AROUND FOR HARD BOTTOM AND THEN RACE TO THOSE SPOTS AND WORK THOSE HARD - HOPPING FROM SPOT TO SPOT
IF IT'S COMPLETELY SANDED IN - I'LL ZIG ZAG SHALLOW TO DEEP HOPING TO FIND AN AREA
SMALL FRESH WATER SPOTS - I WILL GRID THE BEACH INTO QUARTERS USUALLY - I'LL DO HALF FROM WAIST TO JUST OVER MY HEAD - THEN THE OTHER HALF WAIST TO OVER MY HEAD - AND IF I HAVE TIME OR I CAN TELL OTHERS HAVE NOT BEEN THERE - I WILL THEN DO HALF WAIST TO ANKLES AND THEN THE OTHER HALF -- BUT MOST FRESH WATER SPOTS AROUND ME GET HAMMERED BY ABOUT 10 OTHER GUYS IN THE SHALLOWS - YOU GET THE GUYS WITH LAND MACHINES GOING OUT UP TO THEIR BOX - WEARING A MASK - OUR FRESH WATER SPOTS ARE VERY CLEAR WATERS - I CAN SEE WHEN I GET IN EARLY MORN - IF SOMEONE HAS BEEN THERE EARLIER THAN ME OR THERE THE NIGHT BEFORE - SO THAT WILL AFFECT HOW I WORK TOO (EVEN IN SOME OF OUR CALMER SALTWATER SPOTS - YOU ARE ABLE TO SEE SCOOP MARKS FROM LARGE SCOOPERS FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE)

 

[CASPER-2]

IVE ARRIVED AT SOME SPOTS AND THERE ARE GUYS IN THE WATER AND I SEE THEM GRIDDING A SPOT - DEEP TO SHALLOW BACK TO DEEP
OR DEEP FOR ABOUT 50 YRDS THEN BACK AND FORTH AND WORK THEIR WAY IN - LETS SAY 50 X 50 AREA - THEN THEY WILL MOVE DOWN
NOW IF YOU DO THIS - LETS SAY YOU GET IN 2-3 HRS BEFORE LOW TIDE (I KNOW EVERY BCH IS DIFFERENT) BUT THEIR ORIGINAL START POINT - DEEP LETS SAY CHEST DEEP AREA 2-3 HRS BEFORE LOW - MAY BE 2-3 FEET DEEP BY LOW TIDE - SO UNLESS THEY HAVE THE TIME TO GO BACK - THEY JUST MISSED A LARGE AREA THAT HAD 3 MORE HRS TILL LOW - IF IT TOOK THEM AN HOUR TO HIT THAT FIRST GRID PATTERN - THEN THE SECOND GRIDDED AREA THEY WOULD FINISH LETS SAY AN HOUR BEFORE LOW - SO NOW THEYRE IN THEIR 3RD AREA AND NOW MAYBE THEY ARE GOING OUT TILL THEIR FULLEST RANGE - I DONT KNOW MANY GUYS THAT GO BACK AT LOW AND HIT OUT WHERE THEY STARTED
I DO STRAIGHT LINE AT WAIST DEEP AND DEPENDING ON THE BEACH - WILL WALK A MILE - THEN TURN AND FOLLOW THE TIDE OUT - AT ABSOLUTE LOW -AT MY LIMITS - I WILL GO BACK TO STARTING POINT AND WORK FROM WHERE I STARTED - AND WORK THE SHALLOWS
BUT LIKE I SAID 10 TIMES MORE GUYS HITTING THE SHALLOWS (AND I KNOW - NO ONE GETS IT ALL) WORKING THE SHALLOWS FOR ME IS "PLAN B"
WET SAND IS PLAN C AND DRY IS PLAN D (SEEING ME IN SHALLOWS IS RARE - PEOPLE THAT HAVE MET ME CAN TELL YOU - SEEING ME IN WET - A ONCE IN A YEAR THING - SEEING ME IN DRY - ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE )
TO EACH HIS OWN THOUGH - OTHERS HAVE TRIED MY WAY - AND IT WOULD WORK AT ONE SPOT - THEN AT ANOTHER IT WOULDNT
YOU ALWAYS GOT TO BE WILLING TO CHANGE IT UP - ALWAYS TRY AND HAVE A "PLAN B" - OR JUST BE FLEXIBLE
SOME OF THEOSE GUYS THAT TOOK THE TIME TO GRID THE WAY I MENTIONED - I'D GO BY THEM TO WHERE THEY STARTED AT LOW TIDE AND CLEAN UP OUT THERE - I GOT 3 GOLD BANDS AT ONE SPOT - AND LATER GUY ASKED ME HOW I DID CAUSE HE SAW ME DIGGING ALOT - AND I TOLD HIM
"GOT 3 GOLD" AND HE SAID "HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THOSE" AND I TOLD HIM "WHEN YOU WERE IN THAT AREA - YOU HAD 2 MORE HOURS TILL LOW...AND I GOT THOSE AT LOW AT ABOUT CHIN DEEP AND IT WAS WAY OVER YOUR HEAD"
ALL I CAN SAY IS - MY WAY WORKS FOR ME - ALWAYS HAS
AND LIKE POLITICS OR RELIGION - WOULD NEVER PUSH ANYONE TO MY WAY OF THINKING

 

[Boatlode]

A lot of how I cover an area depends on what I'm hunting for and how the beach is at that place and time.( I typically hunt older items)
I change with nature as does the beach.
A loose pattern is what I do when an area looks good..until I locate targets then move to an expanding circle and eventually a grid if it seems sensible.
I only go straight to a grid if I already know an area was producing while conditions were the same recently or it's a historical hot spot.
Even then I look for cuts,flat spots,shell layers..ect..

This^^^^. If there are no obvious features, I'll do a zigzag pattern until I find heavy stuff, then concentrate on that zone of the beach.

 

[73dguard]

Do you find a higher yield in the same honey spot right after a holiday weekend like the 4th than you do after the summer season ends?

 

[sponge]

Casper, thanks for that post. Appreciate you sharing that technique.

 

[Mr.Excavator]

I do both, it just depends on what the terrain is like at the time I am out there. If I do not want to travel a long distance then I GRID what is in front of me, usually in front of the hotels or walk out areas. If there are a lot of people out like yesterday then I will travel the waters edge in and out of the water.

 

[toni&kirk]

I grid, my husband never does and we find about the same amount of stuff. I found a fake doubloon that was a blast just moseying down the beach. It feels incomplete if I don't grid but just going with the flow leads to stuff too. I don't stress about it. I believe we will find what we are meant to however we choose to do it.