Beach Hunting ?

[luckysgirl]

I have been fortunate enough to be able to plan some family visits, vacations and trips to several beach areas. The detector that I have is a Whites XLT. I would like to purchase another one that is geared specifically for the sandy beach areas. Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[camb1]

What are looking to spend? Are you going to detect shallow water?

 

[luckysgirl]

What are looking to spend? Are you going to detect shallow water?

I will only be shallow water/beach detecting. I have as of yet not been able to do any under water detecting. I do plan on trying it someday tho. I would like to keep the price in the area of $1000.00. I think that would give me the option of a nice variety of choices.

 

[coin finder]

Hi. How you doing, This is coin finder, if you are looking for a Very Very Good Metal for the Beaches (sand & water) I have the (beachunter ID 300) AND It work Great ! I have found alot of coins Rings and my old Friend mr (pullTab) Hope this help you (its a Whites Detector) AKA Joe..

 

[erikk]

if underwater detecting (SCUBA) is in your future you can't go wrong with a Minelab Excalibur. It is submersible to 2oo feet as opposed to the BH300 @ 20 and you will be able to tell the difference between good targets and most bottle caps which are starting to become a big problem in some areas HH

 

[Sandman]

For dry sand the Sovereign GT is the weapon of choice for many. For water the Excal 1000 is the waterproof version that many of us use. I also use the Tiger Shark as a back up. There are a lot of good choices.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Re.: coinfinders advice on the Beach-hunter ID: Be careful on that one, as it doesn't work well on mineralized beaches. Ok, I suppose for white sand (low mineral) beaches, but when you encounter cinimmon colored to gun-powder grey sand beaches (increasing amounts of minerals) it will start to flake out.

The Excaliber is a good all-around beach machine, but the tones will drive you banannas at first. Once you tackle those, you'll like it. The XLT you already have can be used for the beach too, as long as you're careful not to splash the box (wrap it in plastic bags if need be). For the wet salt beach, just be sure to disc. out #s 00 to 03 or so (that's the wet salt #s) and turn your sens. down to about 50-ish.

 

[luckysgirl]

Re.: coinfinders advice on the Beach-hunter ID: Be careful on that one, as it doesn't work well on mineralized beaches. Ok, I suppose for white sand (low mineral) beaches, but when you encounter cinimmon colored to gun-powder grey sand beaches (increasing amounts of minerals) it will start to flake out.

The Excaliber is a good all-around beach machine, but the tones will drive you banannas at first. Once you tackle those, you'll like it. The XLT you already have can be used for the beach too, as long as you're careful not to splash the box (wrap it in plastic bags if need be). For the wet salt beach, just be sure to disc. out #s 00 to 03 or so (that's the wet salt #s) and turn your sens. down to about 50-ish.

I will be detecting the ocean beaches....those have salt. It sounds as tho the Excaliber or Sovereign is what I should check into then. It will be hard to practice with them here in Indiana tho before I leave. First trip is in April for sure with one pending in March. What about a pinpointer? Do I need one of those for sand too ?

 

[eathabs]

I never brought my pinpointer to the beach as digging is so easy. Sturdy sand scoop will come in handy though.

Hal

 

[Monty]

Fisher 1280Z comes to mind if you want good discrimination. Monty

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Luckysgirl, if you're just going for a random trip now and then to the beach, from inland states, why don't you just use your XLT? Do you plan on snorkeling or submerging your machine in some way? If you're just going to detect the wet sand (and don't anticipate dunking or in some other way needing a water-proof machine), then just use your XLT's "beach mode", with whatever adjustments might suit the particular beach you're at.

 

[scubamike]

I really like my garrett sea hunter.

 

[luckysgirl]

Luckysgirl, if you're just going for a random trip now and then to the beach, from inland states, why don't you just use your XLT? Do you plan on snorkeling or submerging your machine in some way? If you're just going to detect the wet sand (and don't anticipate dunking or in some other way needing a water-proof machine), then just use your XLT's "beach mode", with whatever adjustments might suit the particular beach you're at.

I have had a couple other people suggest that to me also....Do you know the adjustments that need to be made on it to "suit a beach"?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Just start with your XLT's factory pre-set "beach mode". If you start getting false signals, a few things to try: 1) make sure you're not contacting (touching) the coil to the wet sand with your sweeps. Ie.: "hover" a fraction of an inch over the sand as you swing. If that doesn't clear up un-repeatable falses, then 2) turn the sens. down to 50 (I think their factory preset is 60, if I recall) and turn down your pre-amp gain to a mere "1" or "off". If that doesn't calm down falses, you can go into "low transmit mode" (be sure to re-ground balance after doing this).

Other changes you can make if you get falses while going over wet foot-prints, or while going in and out of the ebbing surf, is to disc. out #s 00 to 03. Those are your wet salt #s. But it's possible that a teensy fine earing stud or find wire platinum ring *could* have read down that low. So I usually elected to keep those #s edited IN, and just re-swing over suspected targets. If a flutter dissapeared on subsequent passes, then perhaps it was just a momentary adjusting over wet salt and minerals.

If the beach(es) you go to are gunpowder grey or black in color, then you may need a pulse machine to cut it. This is very rare, but I have heard of some beaches, in some states, where the sand is just that bad. About the only time I see that here in my part of CA, is when hunting in gully washes after storms (where creeks and culverts drain out onto the beach). Usually you can lower your sens way down to compensate, but I have seen it so bad, that not even that works. So in some rare cases, a pulse is needed. For just random trips to the beach though, your XLT should be just fine. If you were going to be hardcore, and expect to max out on everything in every beach type, then you could get expensive and crazy and buy all sorts of other machines