Beach hunting always legal??

[Ret64]

Excuse me if this is a worn out topic. I'm new to metal detecting and the forum.
My first question ever is this. Are public ocean beaches always legal to search on in California?

I live on the central coast of California just south of the Big Sur run. We have almost entirely public beaches around here...everywhere except where the multimillionaires live on the beach, like in Malibu two hours south of me. Anyway, I'm an early bird riser. The little misses and I get up at 3 am on weekdays, and I'm retiring in 2 weeks. So, I can easily get to any number of beaches at sunrise . Summer's coming, and I'm a happy guy.

I just bought a Garrett Ace 350 for my first detector. I thought it would be a good general purpose detector for a newbie. I know I'll have to stick to dry sand on the beach until I decide to get a pulse induction detector, but there are lots of other sites besides the beaches around here.

Thanks in advance for any advice you all can offer me.

 

[handsoap]

Welcome. Which part of the central coast are you from? Sounds like San Simeon or Cambria. In general, those areas should be fine, but just realize any area that is a state park or national park is generally off limits in California as far as I know, and this includes some of the beaches. Like I know in morro bay there are state beaches. I used to live around where you are, and it's better around there than in the Bay Area. In San Fran, most of the beaches are off limits and the rangers will take your detector.

One last thing, I would recommend not wasting your time with wet sand. Only Pulse indicators work effectively in wet sand.

Good luck

 

[Tom_in_CA]

ret64, you don't say what entity's beaches you are asking about. Eg.: city beach? county beach? state beach? federal beach? private beach? Because there's multiple entities that administer various stretches of beaches, up and down our coast. But to cut-the-the-chase: City, county, and state beaches you can hunt till you're blue in the face here, and no one ever cares. Federal *might* be a different stories, for CA beaches run by the fed (fortunately, that's very few of any of our beaches here, haha). I say "might" because .... some have gone unknowingly to fed beaches here (because they simply didn't know any better), and no one ever said "boo" there either. But .... if you're looking for the technical answer, just avoid fed beaches here, and all else are fair game.

Handsoap, what I've just said appears to contradict what you've just said. In your answer, you're saying that state of CA parks are off-limits? Well, maybe the inland parks, but no, not the salt-water beaches they administer. It's always been that way (that you can go and never be bothered), so .... let's keep it that way and not ask for clarification And as for "detector confiscations" for md'ing beaches "most of the beaches" around SF: Can you cite any such incident of anyone ever having their detector confiscated at any beaches there? Yes there's a few federal beaches immediately adjacent to SF, and yes I have heard of some "scrams" (but oddly, others, who didn't know any better, went un-bothered for months...). But detector confiscations up there? No, I have never heard of that. Perhaps someone who simply couldn' take a warning, or was in some way being obnoxious ?

 

[cudamark]

Welcome. Which part of the central coast are you from? Sounds like San Simeon or Cambria. In general, those areas should be fine, but just realize any area that is a state park or national park is generally off limits in California as far as I know, and this includes some of the beaches. Like I know in morro bay there are state beaches. I used to live around where you are, and it's better around there than in the Bay Area. In San Fran, most of the beaches are off limits and the rangers will take your detector. One last thing, I would recommend not wasting your time with wet sand. Only Pulse indicators work effectively in wet sand. Good luck

I agree with what Tom said and would add a couple of personal observations of my own. I've hunted a lot of Ca beaches and have never had a problem....anywhere. That said, I personally know a couple of people who have been "hassled" at a few beaches by overzealous MP's, Rangers, and/or private security guards. The extent of the "hassle" was to tell them to beat it. With the MP's and rangers, that's just what they did, they moved on to another beach. The run-in with the private guard, they told the guard to "get lost" and after the police were called by the guard, they were allowed to continue hunting as there wasn't any restrictions and the guard had no jurisdiction in that area. Now keep in mind that some beaches have a curfew but I've still never had a problem even during curfew hours. I've been asked a few times "what the heck are you doing here at 3 in the morning?" I just tell them I'm looking for a lost ring. I've never been told to leave or that the beach is closed or any other such nonsense. I think they just have those ordinances to keep people from camping or sleeping on the beach. Just be nice, answer their questions without being a smart aleck and don't argue with them, even if you think you're in the right. There are plenty of other places to hunt. Also, you don't need a PI machine to hunt the wet sand or water. A BBS, FBS, or some other multi-frequency VLF machines work great in that area. In fact, at most of our beaches they work better because you can ignore iron with one.

 

[mchesser]

Here in Florida, you dont get hassled much on beaches. Public access to the beach is a pretty well protected thing. If your hunting a State Park beach, you have to stay east of the high tide line and your good. Stay away from wet sand unless
you have a PI detector or one thats designed for a salt water environment.

 

[Ret64]

I live in Nipomo. Thanks for the info. It never occurred to me that some of the beaches would be state parks. I'll have to find some kind of map or something that will designate the beaches up and down the coast here as state parks or not.

Yeah, a pulse induction detector is next on my list. It makes total sense to have one when you live so close the ocean. As my first detector, I just wanted to get a good one that is versatile because I want to do a lot of relic hunting as well as dry beach hunting. I like going out on the deserts here in California and in Arizona, Utah. Want to do lots more now that I'm officially retired as of 4pm tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Ret64]

Tom_in_CA, I'm beginning to see from your response and some others that it really pays to be well-informed about these laws. I recently read a book about detecting for caches and how the research is the most important part of the search. This kind of falls in the same category.

The closest beaches to me are Jalama Beach, Pismo Beach, Surf Beach in Lompoc, the super long beach in Morro Bay, Cayucos Beach, and the Guadalupe Beach. Incidentally, Guadalupe Beach gets interesting when you walk on it south for about 1 or 2 hours. You have to climb some very steep areas, almost cliffs, and when you get to the top, you can find evidence from when the Chumash indians were up there a couple hundred years ago. It may be worth seeing if detecting is legal there and.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Retro, you do not need to "see if detecting is legal" there. It is. State of CA owned/administered beaches have never been a problem and are detected ad-naseum. None of those beaches you list are federal, right? What mchesser wrote is only as it pertains to FL, and was not directed at CA. And no, you don't necessarily need a pulse machine here on CA salt-water beaches. I mean, sure, you can get one if you want, but then the downside is, you won't have a way to pass nails/iron (except if you want to try to 2nd guess sounds all day long). Regular machines can hack all our wet salt beaches here, except in a few odd locations and/or times. Like next to gully washes on the wet, after storms. Or up high at the base of a cut after severe erosion (but a few feet away will be no problems).