Gridding Beaches

[Coins4Cheese]

When I detect at beaches, I tend to always grid them. I feel that I'm not getting the most out of that beach, due to the small area that I detect in. What are your techniques when detecting a beach?

 

[Sandman]

Everyone of us uses different methods from wandering around dragging the coil behind us to going slow as heck and making sure to over lap sweeps by 50% or more. Use what ever method that you feel comfortable with. I change methods depending on how I feel or what the weather is like. Some hunt in a W pattern and then concentrate on the line where the targets are found.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Sandman is correct (as usual)...There are many ways to hunt a beach.....In front of high dollar condos I will grid them sometimes, it is easier for me since I always use at least the WOT 15 inch coil on my Excal or the SEF Butterfly 15x18 inch coil on my Sovereign..

Sometimes I will also walk the water line in a short "W" pattern to see where the targets seem to concentrate.

I will also walk bigger "W" patterns and when I hit a target I will spiral out from it looking for more targets in that area dragging my scoop so I can maintain the proper spiral.

I try to read the beach, looking for cuts, holes and depressions and area with concentrations of heavier shells and objects. Reading the shallow water to watch how the water acts will reveal holes that I will hunt,

In the water I try to concentrate on the area where I see the most people at and hunt those areas first.....When I find a good target in the water I will work slow and spiral out from it as well to see if maybe there are more in that area......

Good luck and good hunting..........

There are many different zones to a beach, and many different ways to read the zones.............

 

[DrJoePrime]

I'm a relative newbie (3 years) but I have my own particular ways to do a beach.

The dry sand during summer crowds I take special care to follow along the blanket line which takes 3 or 4 swatches along the busiest stretches. The wet sand I usually go adjacent to where the sand starts being dry and use that as a guide. When I hit a particularly good spot I go towards the ocean and back until things peter out.

I have a question. At my local beach there is a detectorist (with a PI machine) who doesn't seem to be a newbie but he literally FLIES through the dry sand of the beach with his coil swinging about 6" above the sand. The first time I saw him I just chuckled since it is a funny sight. But I've seem him a number of other times too and he's always doing it the same way...and come to think of it I've never seen him digging ..just traveling. He travels so fast I've been unable to stop him to talk with him. Any ideas? Is this guy looking for shallow gold?

HH Joe

 

[petersra]

Doesn't seem like a well thought out approach to me. Typically, PI units have to be used at a slower pase than VLF units and depth is depth whether it is through the air or sand, so obviously he is only hitting on the surface finds when he is finding something. However, even a blind hog finds a nut some times and he may find enough to keep him coming back for more.... Or, he doesn't have his detector turned on, and he is just looking at the eye candy... .......

 

[petersra]

I was at a new beach once and did the 'W' pattern from dry sand to waters edge looking for the 'target zone'. Passed right through this area without finding a single target. On my way back through the area, a woman stopped me and asked if I had found a gold stud diamond earring. She said her friend lost one in the area the night before. So I began gridding the area where I had done my 'W' pattern just hours before and found nothing. This time with a thorough grid, I found over $3 in change and 2 earrings. No gold or diamonds. I could see the target holes popping up everywhere around the 'W' pattern, just not where I swung my coil. Just goes to show you that anything less than a thorough grid, overlapping every swing, and you are liable to miss targets.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

When I see someone hunting in this fashion, I know he will find very little if anything and I can hunt in his footsteps as if he was never there.......Many times they are swinging in a 160 degree arc.............

 

[wildman4910]

I have seen a few "power walking detectorists" to, always good for a chuckle.

 

[OD_hunt]

When I detect at beaches, I tend to always grid them. I feel that I'm not getting the most out of that beach, due to the small area that I detect in. What are your techniques when detecting a beach?

Hi Coins, I have often wanted to ask the same question... But I've learned that there's no single correct method as mentioned above. I will almost always start at the place I know is the most frequented, usually on discrimination to grab the recent drops. Depending on time available I will often come back to areas that are really good i.e. deliver coins every 500mm and search that in 'all metal' really slow and carefully. My patterns vary, but mostly I walk lines from the high-water mark to knee deep water and back up on a new line - basically gridding and covering every inch. I always think "How did I miss that?" On quiet or unknown beaches it's different behavior again... HH

 

[sandsifter66]

I guess every one has his own way to grid a beach. I change up from walking the water's edge to 1' deep to 2' deep etc. then try where every one else walks and looks for shells. I try to go to the beach most people use. When I grid I drag my left foot so you can see where you have been in both directions parallel to the beach or up and down. Especially if I think there is a area where someone told me that there may be something of value. I also watch where people sit on there towels and around the beach chairs that are rented out. Games that are played on the beach by crowds are also good places to look and where ramps and main entrances are next to the beach access parking lots are. Some beaches they run the machines over and filter it out. I guess to get the cans and trash that people bury. Good luck there it seems they get everything except the very small things. My White beach hunter will find any thing small and deep better than large items seems. They keep slipping thru my sifter.
If one thing doesn't work change.
Thanks
Sandsifter

 

[47thelement]

GREAT TOPIC!!!

Thanks for the input

I'll be hitting the beaches next week for the last time until March. Hopefully I finally find that elusive gold

 

[JerseyMD]

In wet sand I walk an "S" pattern until I hit a target then work out from there. Seems to work ok for me.

 

[Sandman]

Sometimes when water wading I use a buoy like the one pictured to mark a spot and then I would circle around and set the buoy in another area and cirle that. This can't be used when the beach has a crowd as everyone will try to steal your buoy.

Once while diving in 6 ft. of water before a drop off I looked up to see a girls legs hanging off my dive float. She swam for shallower water and that is when we learned she stole one of my extra diving weight I had left in a zippered pocket on the float.