Am I beach metal detecting wrong?

Apr 1, 2020
10
12
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I use my equinox 800 pretty regularly on beaches in Southern California including Malibu, Coronado, and everything in between but I've only been finding coins and trash despite detecting in a wavy pattern where I go down to the water, then go up above the towel line and back down and I do that along as much of the beach as I can. I've only got some costume jewelry and a couple small pieces of silver, but nothing of real value. Anything I can be doing differently?
 

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Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,306
54,470
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Can't find jewelry if you don't put your coil over the jewelry, drop a ring in the sand and see what happens when you sweep over it. take a gold ring, tie dental floss or fishing line to it and bury it about 8-12 inches and see what the detector reads.

Luck has a lot to do with it as well as technique and experience.
 

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Back-of-the-boat

Gold Member
Apr 18, 2013
6,874
8,473
California
Detector(s) used
AT GOLD/Garrett /C.Scope cs4PI/Garrett(carrot) pro pointer/ 5x8 double d coil and sniper coil/Lesche digger/Lesche "T" handle shovel.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You also have a lot of competition out there on those beaches that get out before the sun ever comes up.
 

ARC

Gold Member
Aug 19, 2014
37,158
130,952
Tarpon Springs
Detector(s) used
JW 8X-ML X2-VP 585
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
" I've only got some costume jewelry and a couple small pieces of silver, but nothing of real value."

Yep... sounds like you are detecting correctly.

I will tell you this...
The more you put in... the more you can potentially get out... detecting / finding is not for the impatient and requires ALOT of time and efforts.
 

cudamark

Gold Member
Top Banner Poster
Mar 16, 2011
13,173
14,463
San Diego
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
XP Deus 2, Equinox 800/900, Fisher Impulse AQ, E-Trac, 3 Excal 1000's, White's TM808, VibraProbe, 15" NEL Attack, Mi6, Steath 920ix and 720i scoops, TRX, etc....
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Down in the wet and water, you might try Beach 2 for more stability. I can sometimes get away with Sensitivity set at 22. I also like 50 tone and the horseshoe on so I can hear the iron grunts, but, that can get some getting used to. If you have trouble with bottle caps, set the Iron Bias on F2@6 to help I.D. them. Then it's just a matter of digging all non-ferrous sounds and getting the coil over something good. Lots of competition on our SoCal beaches, so, good targets can be a little hard to come by. Good Luck!
 

pulltabfelix

Bronze Member
Jan 29, 2018
1,006
1,624
North Atlanta
Detector(s) used
Currently have CTX3030 and Vanquish 440.
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
yes there are early birds and night hunters. But targets on ocean beaches get sorted in the water and wet sand. Plus lots get sanded in and are not within any detectors depth range until the weather, tide, currents, wind, storms causes some severe beach erosion. And when that happens the experienced beach hunters descend on those beaches to collect the real goodies.
 

nuggetshooter323

Hero Member
Jul 22, 2005
963
869
Colorado Springs
Detector(s) used
The Legend, Anfibio Equinox 900, Gold Kruzer, XP Deus, ORX, Tesoro Tejon, Whites GMT, Falcon MD20, XP MI-6, Fisher F-Pulse, Pulse Dive, Vibra Probe, UniProbe.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I use my equinox 800 pretty regularly on beaches in Southern California including Malibu, Coronado, and everything in between but I've only been finding coins and trash despite detecting in a wavy pattern where I go down to the water, then go up above the towel line and back down and I do that along as much of the beach as I can. I've only got some costume jewelry and a couple small pieces of silver, but nothing of real value. Anything I can be doing differently?
The more hours you put into detecting, the more probable you'll find something amazing.
 

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