It is hard to say what your problem is, not knowing anything about your machine.? I did a little looking around on GOOGLE and can't find much.? Accept a couple of vague ads on eBay for the model. I couldn't even find a manufacturer site that might have more info.
Being that I am not that familiar with all the machines out there, I don't know what to say.?
You seem to be using some good logic, regarding where you are looking.? Unless, there are a lot of other people searching area.? Maybe it is hunted out and you just need a new, fresher place to search.? ?When I go out on the beach, I think of the same sorts of areas.? I look at the layout of the beach and determine where the activity has been.? Where people have been playing frisbee,volleyball, digging or laying in the sand....? ?I look for the primary traffic patterns around the area, say from the beach up to a concession stand, pay phones, drinking fountains or play lot... up to the parking lots where people will remove their keys from a purse, beach bag, their pockets etc., and loose other items in the sand.?
It could be just understanding your machine, or how you are searching.? I don't mean to sound as though I am questioning your experience and all but you simply didn't mention if this is the beginning of your interest in detecting or if you have been doing it for a while.? So, pardon me if I go a little basic here.? ?
First, I would say, don't get discouraged.? I have a Whites XLT and the first couple times out on the beaches in Florida, I had the same sort of results.? I had another detector before that, and only found 1 thing with it.? I eventually gave up detecting and put it in the garage where it sat for almost 30 years.? ? Later, I got a rekindling of my interest from seeing a Whites ad on TV.? I went out to find the old detector and descovered that it had been dumped during some cleaning.? I had hoped I could get it working again but, Oh Well.? ?I then bought the XLT and tried again.? This time, I read some and realized some techniques that I probably hadn't thought of when I was a kid, nearly 30 years earlier.? ?Over a little time now, I started getting much better results.? Every time I go out, I figure I will find a couple bucks in change.? I still find a lot of foil, wire, pull tabs, beer caps and other junk.? I just keep going ahead though as, even much of the junk, has an interesting quality to it.? I usually take my finds home and photogrph it before separating out the good stuff and tossing the garbage.?
Note all the junk and non metalic stuff.? I pick up everything that I find.? Even some of the neat rocks that come up in my scoop. I figure my best prize from my searches is the escape that I get from things around home and the exercise and enjoymnent of being out doing something.? ?So, again, just keep at it and, hopefully you will begin to have some better results.
Think of how fast you are searching.? Slow down if necessary.? Make sure you are hearing things that you are going over.? Sometimes I have found myself going so fast that I may be passing over a lot.? Do you use headphones?? Personally, I am a little hard of hearing, especially to certain frequencies.? I find that sometimes, the ambient noise on a beach (waves crashing, seagulls, screaming kids....) can drown out some faint signals, causing me to maybe miss and pass over some good stuff.? ?By wearing headphones, you might hear some of those weaker signals.? ?Sometimes they can be the better stuff.? As you are walking along, covering the area more slowly, sweep the detector in a back and forth arc in front of you, overlapping your sweeps and rows.? With the coil as level as you can.? Don't let the coil go too high off the surface also.? If you find a coin, search your area again when you are done.? Sometimes someone takes their keys out of their pocket and might drop 3 or 4 coins in the same spot.? ?I have found, up to, 6 quarters in the same hole.? What I usually do, when I find anything on the beach, I mark that as a center point and radiate out from there.? Just in case other items were lost in the same area.? I will usually cover, heavilly, an area about the size of 2 or 3 beach towels etc.... an area where a couple people might have been sitting and lost a few things.? ?Also, to start, dig everything you find.? Some things can be decieving.? If your detector IDs targets, like a penny, it could be something else.? If your detector has ID, You might get a reading for foil and it could turn out to be a nickel.? A lot of people say they don't find many nickels.? I find the reason is that often the targets that ID on my display as foil or pull tabs actually turn out to be nickels. Many people, considering that foil and pull tabs are junk, will ignore them.? Thus, they could be ignoring rings and nickels and other items.? ?
Another thing, does your detector have depth indication.? That can be a good indicator but don't take it as gospel.? ?I have found, several times, that a quarter at 1.5" turns out to be something much bigger at 6 or 7".? ?Often that might be a soda can but once did turn out to be 2 nice diecast cars buried side by side.?
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What are you digging with?? ?When out on the beach, use a beach scoop.? ?It is so much easier and you will cover more area in less time if you are efficiently equipped.? ? You will also enjoy yourself more if it isn't that difficult.? That is why I always suggest for the beginners to start in sand so that they can get familiar with their machines in the easiest and most efficient environments.? You get far more searching per hour than if you were digging in hard soil or using a trowel to dig and sifting the sand with your hands.? If I get an item at 1.5 or 2 inches, I will skim the surface with my scoop.? Then sweep again with the detector.? If the target isn't there, I sift the scoop.? If the item is still there, I dump the scoop and scan the dumped sand with the detector.? Just to make sure a second item wasn't there. If the target is deeper, I plunge the scoop deeper as needed.? ?Other sand areas would be Volleyball Pits, Sand Boxes, Playgrounds etc.? Search areas where people are active, jumping around, diving, ie., volleball, swinging or hanging upside down.? Monkey bars and horizontal ladders, swings and other such play equipment can be good.? Don't ignore areas in front of park benches where mom or the nanny might be sitting watching the kids as they dig in the sand, loose toys....? ? Again, I don't want to assume you are a beginner.? You just didn't mention so I am putting it out there in case.? ?
Now, lets look at your detector.? Don't know what features you have and frankly, I don't know a lot about some of them but do you have preset programs?? ?My detector has several. Coin,? Coin and Jewelry, Jewelry Beach, Relic, Prospecting.? These programs are adjustments to account for certain conditions.? Jewelry Beach, for example is similar to Coin and Jewelry but it adjusts certain settings to account for salt in the sand and water.? ?Then the programs are designed to concentrate on certain types of targets while ignoring others.? ?Coin and Jewelry, for example, would reject or ignore many items of IRON composition, like the trash on the beach, to concentrate on coins and lost jewelry.? Or, especially large IRON items like some of the historical relics that you might be hoping for in a ghost town.? So, if searching in that environment, you might want to be using a Relic setting.? ?I think, Sensitivity will help for increasing your depth.? Check to see if your sensitivity is too high or too low.? I will leave that though for someone who knows more about those settings.?
Another thing you don't mention that I just ask to cover bases.? Did you buy this machine new?? or did you get it used.? Do you have the instructions?? If you do have the instructions, read up some to find out more about Discrimination, Sensitivity and some of the other settings.? ?There might be something there that would increase your success.? ?Also, think about how advanced the machine is.? Several of the Treasure Hunter models that I saw seem innexpensive and quite basic.? Could be that you are having the same issues that I had with my first detector.? ?It just wasn't that good.? Especially for searching in high trash areas like where I was looking back when I was a kid.? The area was where the school that I went to (Military School) used to have drills and war games during WWI and WWII.? Later, the trenches and fox holes that they had dug were all filled in with trash when the school dumped their garbage onsite.? ?All I ever found with the first machine was rusted pieces of old tin cans.? And a doorknob.? The only real find I ever found.?
If your machine is an innexpensive basic machine,? Maybe you might look at upgrading.? In the mean time, hopefully you just need to find the right location, understand your machine a little and perfect some of your technique.?
I usually hunt within 10-20 feet of the water, fuguring thats where most people will lay on the sand. However I must be doing something wrong - last time in 2 hours I only found 2 clad pennies...not counting the pulltabs and foil of course 
I'm thinking maybe it would be a better idea to hunt in the shallow water. I know from experience it's much harder to retrieve something dropped in the water - waves push it around and it could move a couple of feet from where you dropped it within seconds...So I figure more things must get lost in the water... Any thoughts ? Tips ?
THE DISCRIMINATION ALLOWS ME TO SWITCH OFF SIGNALS FROM CERTAIN TARGETS I.E. NAILS BOTTLE CAPS PULLTABS FOIL - THIS I DONT USE MUCH EITHER - I DONT DISCRIMINATE THE TARGETS, I DIG EVERYTHING JUST LIKE YOU SUGGEST. I DONT HAVE ANY INDICATION FOR TARGET DEPTH AND I DONT HAVE ANY PRESET PROGRAMS FOR BEACH, PROSPECTING ETC. 
ALSO MY MD IS USELESS UNDERWATER AS WE'VE BEEN SAYING SO I'D HAVE TO RELY ON SEEING COINS IF I DIVE WHICH WOULD BE HARD BECAUSE THE BOTTOM IS COVVERED WITH MULTICOLORED LITTLE STONES. ALSO MOST OF THE COINS WOULD BE IN CRACKS BETWEEN STONES SO THEY WON'T BE VISIBLE BUT WHO KNOWS IF THIS MAGNET IS REALLY THAT STRONG MAYBE IT CAN PULL STUFF OUT FROM IN BETWEEN ROCKS...WOULDNT THAT BE COOL 
