Any good areas in South Bay, Long Beach or OC?

[yorkiemiki]

Hi I'm new here and I was wondering if anyone local to Los Angeles can sugest beaches or other places to go for hunting?

I was at the beach in LB all day the other day for about 6 hours and only found pennies, dimes etc.

 

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[redcobra8u]

Where there are people, there is treasure. Pretty much every beach from Newport to a Ventura are great places to hunt. Low and slow and dig everything.

 

[yorkiemiki]

True that. I'd guess that some people might know some spots that are better than others. I'm just a newbie recreational detector....Any other recommendations greatly appreciated!

 

[TommyB]

Areas where Tourist go ( around hotels, etc) are always a good bet. Do some cruising along the coast for places you might be considering and look for the crowds and check where the towel line is. Go back late in the evening or early in the morning. Go slow and low. Listen for 'ghost' signals. Could be a deep surprise. Good luck

 

[ScooperDave]

Definitely hit the beaches close to where you live first, learn those beaches and your detector inside and out. Towel lines, around life guard towers, volley ball courts are good areas to check in the dry sand. Check out beach surf cams so you can get a good idea of where all the people are congregating at the beach, then hit those spots up early morning or late evening. What kind of detector are you swinging? I've never hunted Long Beach but I'm sure there's some good finds there.

 

[yorkiemiki]

I have a cheap under $100 "Winbest" by Barska "Pro Edition Metal Detector". It says on it that it's got "water proof coils". Duno about that.

It actually picked up a lot of metal bottle caps and a couple pennies when I metal detected today and yesterday for about 3 hours in Long Beach. I went near volleyball courts, the pier (which is quite small).

I actually did the detecting during the day when people were out and about. I hit up some spots right after families or large groups would leave. Like literally minutes after haha... I think I'll go by the motto "finder's keepers" but I suppose if I find something of value to them I'll try to flag them before they get in their car...

After a couple fairly long days and tons of bottle caps I can tell you this... Long Beach's favorite beer is "Corona" followed by "Pacifico".


My find of the day was a nickle lol. I still had fun and found a costume earing, some large rusty bolts deep in sand, and a couple fishing hooks with large metal lures. Not what I dreamed of, but fun, and a few people were curious. I was actually surprised by how many rusty nails I found. Some right near where families were playing.... crazy!

 

[gold fever pete]

Yorkie, The things you find at the beach will amaze you. Long beach is hit hard by many, even in the water. Keep in mind that no one gets it all. Point in fact, I followed another hunter down the beach (wet sand) and was getting coins and even a silver ring. Make sure you fill your holes. I did that for the guy in front of me. HH GFP

 

[redcobra8u]

Yorkie, The things you find at the beach will amaze you. Long beach is hit hard by many, even in the water. Keep in mind that no one gets it all. Point in fact, I followed another hunter down the beach (wet sand) and was getting coins and even a silver ring. Make sure you fill your holes. I did that for the guy in front of me. HH GFP

I've done the same....including filling the holes. Pisses me off. Made sure to let the jack$$s know about it too...plus the 10k is passed over. Don't think he cared for me much after that lol....but these unfilled holes are what will one day be a problem for being able to detect at the beach.

 

[yorkiemiki]

Hey I have been detecting Long Beach a lot more. It's really hard to find anything good.

Been detecting a lot and just finding pennies and bottle caps mainly.

I think I need to just keep trying and not expect much or maybe long beach is hit too often? Maybe I need a water proof detector?


Thanks for the tips I fill the holes. What time do you guys usually do beach or ocean detecting? There are a lot of families out during the summer here

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[Tom_in_CA]

yorkie-miki, all the southern CA beaches (all of CA for that matter) are sanded in now. I mean, on the inter-tidal wet sand zone. There hasn't been any large swells or on-shore winds or storms. So most all the wet sand is going to be "sterile" right about now (unless some subtle movement is occurring perhaps somewhere). So I'm afraid you're going to be relegated to the dry sand for now.

Personally I detest dry sand hunting. Because you almost never get anything old, and because the finds are just randomly placed. Contrast to post storm erosion detecting, and you can dig 100's of targets from an area the size of your living room, as fast as you can dig. Once you've been in conditions like that, trust me: You'll never go back to dry sand hunting again! haha

There's a fellow in So. CA right now who's getting lots of silver coins (albeit just '40s/50s losses) from the dry sand. He found select zones where hard-pack/bedrock is within reach. But to get to them, he's got to use a super powered pulse machine, which can get coins down to 1.5 ft. deep! And at depths like that, he's pulling up silver dimes, quarters, a few halves, some jewelry, etc.... But it's only on select areas that weren't subject to past fill sand. Because in the 1940s and '50s, the army corps of engineers went along the coast there and make a bunch of jettys, breakwaters, harbors, etc... right? And that had the effect of backing up sand at certain beaches. Such that now, even major storms (of the caliber of the 1982-83 storms, for instance) didn't reach back that far anymore. Hence the dry sand sort of became "frozen" at that time. But it's only in select areas, at select beaches, and you've got to go wickedly deep to get that silver . And, of course, be willing to chase foot deep bobby pins, etc...

 

[yorkiemiki]

Excellent info Tom. Thank you so much. I guess I have a lot to learn. But you've helped my learning curve a lot.

I guess for now I'll keep trying until I can get one of those salt water detectors or the super powered pulse machine!!

 

[AT PRO user]

I like to hit my local dog beaches. People are active throwing balls or digging out doggy bags, lots of good opportunities for things to get lost. I've found by best gold at h.b. dog beach. I normally hit the beach around 4am or about 7pm.
Stick with it and your bound to find something. Happy hunting and good luck

 

[redcobra8u]

I'm still having some luck in the surf but Tom is correct, things are very sanded in. I've hit some recent drops and I think it's worth an hour at low tide to see what I can get. Dry sands have been great!