First time out.

[buckmild1]

Went to the beach today but they raised the fee from $4 to $5 and I didn't have an extra buck. went on the causeway beach and found alto of junk. not a single coin. Was hoping to find some change to get out on Honey Moon Island. But I had fun with the kids just the same. Using a Bounty Hunter Quick Draw 2.

 

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[True_Metal]

Arghhhh! The scourge of detectorists the world over, the never ending pull tabs. At least you got to get out. Beats a day at work any time. Welcome aboard.8)

 

[Zeke]

You gotta PAY to detect on the beach?? That bites!!!

 

[bergie]

You should descriminate out some of those things so you don't spend as much time digging junk and cover more area to find the good stuff. Do you need any assistance with doing so? Plenty of help on this board.

 

[Lowbatts]

Seeing all those pulltabs tells me one thing, there wasn't gold under your coil today, you'd have hit it. Actually, I consider it good hunting. Just bad location. You're well on the way. Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[True_Metal]

Lowbatts is right. You wouldnt have missed any goodies by digging every signal which is evident that you did.

Bergie has a point. You might try upping the discrimination, but go easy, because too much and you will null out any gold /jewelry signals. You will find some nice stuff if you keep at it.

 

[lab rat]

Beach sand is usually pretty easy digging-- I dig ALL pulltab signals-- virtually all gold rings I ever found fall right at that signal range. Its possible that the timing wasn't right-- seasonal wave action may settle the rings and coins deeper, and the pulltabs (being light-weight aluminum) stay close to the surface. You might experiment with burying a nickel and see how deep you can still find it with your detector.

 

[buckmild1]

I wasn't to sure about the discrimination. I wanted to find a dollar in change so I had my son digging everything. I wish I did have some coins to test but was not prepared. There is always next time. I could have gone ten times faster without my son but he was having so much fun. the beach we were on was a causeway sort of beach that leads to Honey Moon Island.And was where all the jet skis and beer drinkers go. I do have a question though. If i discriminate out the tabs will I also discriminate out coins?? I tried it with my wedding ring and it definitely didn't detect my ring. Do I turn up sensitivity while I turn up discrimination?? Sensitivity seemed to go crazy if I turned it up at all on all metal and especially with the coil in the salt water. Got allot of false signals. Also what sort of tools for digging do you use?? I was using a plastic hand garden shovel and plastic hand rake. Is there a plastic sifter basket type scoop with a long handle and holes that I might use? It was really hard to even find the drink tabs in wet sand. When I get an upgrade metal detector I would like to give my son the Bounty Hunter. Looking at the surf pro cause I want to do some snorkel detecting in shallow surfs. What metal detector do you use on or in the beach? Does any one here detect in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and are any beaches off limits to detecting? I am hooked and my kids had a blast. Turned a bad day into a good day even though we didint find a keeper.

 

[Lowbatts]

I use a plastic scoop and a metal scoop. Both are manufactured for that purpose. You can fab one yourself. I've seen all sorts, coffee cans with hardware cloth, pvc piping and hardware cloth, usually 1/4" mesh. I did fab a small one out of a large plastic coffee mug with fine mesh for those sites that for some reason always seem to have the small charms and finer gold pieces.

 

[True_Metal]

I dont know bout your detector but on mnine i can turn the Discrimination and notch to max and not lose silver quarter, dime and penny signals. Nickels are cancelled out and any fine jewelry are cancelled, also. I would imagine gold coins would be nulled out too, though i dont have any to try it on. Experiment with your machine on all the settings till you know exactly what is cancelled and where the settings were when the items were nulled out. If your using a meter, make a log of the number readouts for different items and carry it with you to reference on the site. Dont rely on you meter as what was said befoe gold jewelry will read very close if not exact as pull tabs. Use your gut instinct on a questionable target and dig it, as digging a pulltab or other junk beats walking away and always wondering if you let some nice gold trinkets get away.

 

[lab rat]

What kind of detector are you using? If you are getting lots of false signals in/ near salt water you probably don't have the kind of detector you need for beaches. Should have a multi-frequency or PI unit to do well near the wet sand. That doesn't mean you can't find something nice, but it won't be easy.

Usually if you turn up discrimination you are losing sensitivity, as discrimination uses a lot of power in the computer, vs. down in the coil. You can turn up both, but if your unit is confused by salt it probably won't do much good.

 

[Dragon]

Why certainly you have to PAY to park at, or use the beach (that we already paid for by the way ). BTW, that does help PAY the guy to re-adjust the sand with his tractor and cover up the goodies even deeper!

 

[buckmild1]

I am currently using a Bounty Hunter Quick Draw 2. I know it's not the best but it will have to do for now. I want to get either a Surf PI Pro or a CZ-20 to do some under water hunting. Wife said I gotta liquidate some of my other abandoned hobbies if I want to go big. Which wont be a problem. The beach I wanted to go to is actually a state park hence the 5 dollar fee. They said you can metal detect as log as you don't go on the dunes. no one is allowed on the dunes so I don't see any problem with that. As far as discriminating I will be a little better prepaired next time. Didn't have any change to bury and test with. Also had my four kids and wife in tow.

 

[Beach_hunter]

What state park charges you 5 bucks. I'm right here in Safety Harbor. Sounds like your getting in some quality time with the family, thats important.

 

[buckmild1]

Hey Tampapi, Honeymoon Island and Fort Desoto are both state parks. Thats why the five dollar fee is charged. You can metal detect at both parks but at Fort Desoto you have to register at the entrance.

rtde3, Yeah man I cannot wait to get a CZ-20 I want to do some snorkeling with it and coin shooting. Should be able to get it in either Feb or March. Thanks for the info.

 

[Keith IL]

If you've got your son digging then keep digging the pulltabs,bound to be gold sometime it's a game of %
Good Hunting

 

[OnionRings]

Buck, I would turn the discrimination to zero and dig everything it takes a lot less effort to dig in sand then dirt and you won't miss that gold ring.

With the BH at that setting dig all those soild signals and leave the broken one alone

Onion

 

[cedarratt]

You'd think that they would give you a dollar for performing that public service of cleaning up all that trash. lol

 

[piratepete]

you can really tell that a lot of people are too cheap to buy glass bottles...lol.