How far do you travel to detect?

[Crunchyhippo]

I'm curious how far others drive to get to the beach they detect at? The two nearby beaches near me are both dead as far as finding gold and silver (Clearwater and Indian Rocks - I have 36 trips to prove it), so I'm considering beaches further away to see if they're any better (they can't be any worse).

Is anyone familiar with the beaches just north of Sarasota? I.e., Anna Maria/Manatee County/Holmes beaches? Are they overrun with detectorists, too, or is there still something there still left to find? I'd just be happy to get regular signals in the water/surf to dig. I'm thinking of making a trip there one weekend to see.

 

[ncsuwolf]

Depends……my beach hunting only coincides with a family trip (gives me a reason to get out of the beach house and spend time with kiddos). For other detecting I’ve travelled up to 5 hrs. Granted that was a 2-3 day event and on a “good” site.

 

[Sandinmypants]

I drive 4 hours to see my sister--Oh sure you do---The wife does not fall for that anymore

 

[Sandinmypants]

I drive 4 hours to see my sister--Oh sure you do---The wife does not fall for that anymore

 

[surfnturf]

instead of farther away - how bout farther out
snorkel - snuba - scuba or hookah (nemo)
I hunted clearwater yrs ago - totally clean chest deep on in
mask and snorkel out to my limit at low tide = gold and silver

 

[Sandog]

Are you sure you mean Venice Beach? Its 180 miles from Venice Beach to Sebastion Inlet and 1715 site. Venice is on West coast of Fl.

Sorry if that was confusing. First sentence was a question. Second sentence was the answer to the original question, "I'm curious how far others drive to get to the beach they detect at?" Actually the closest would be more than 4 miles, because that's as the crow flies, and I would have to drive either north or south to cross the Indian River first.

 

[TORRERO]

Thanks for the advice. To give you an idea, I get about 3 signals an hour at Clearwater Beach and Indian Rocks Beach. That's in the sand/surf. In the water, it's about 1-2 signals an hour.

Woo, that's slow going ...

 

[Sand Swinger]

I'm curious how far others drive to get to the beach they detect at? The two nearby beaches near me are both dead as far as finding gold and silver (Clearwater and Indian Rocks - I have 36 trips to prove it), so I'm considering beaches further away to see if they're any better (they can't be any worse).

Is anyone familiar with the beaches just north of Sarasota? I.e., Anna Maria/Manatee County/Holmes beaches? Are they overrun with detectorists, too, or is there still something there still left to find? I'd just be happy to get regular signals in the water/surf to dig. I'm thinking of making a trip there one weekend to see.

I drove about 130 miles on Monday to hit a beach I've always done well at. Very familiar with the area as wife & I used to have a 2nd house there. But this time, I was using my "new to me" Dual Field PI, so it was mainly a testing/getting more familiar with the PI type hunt, especially since Erin just paid us a visit. Found a lot of bobby pins and wire, which would have nulled if I was using my Sovereign or X-Terra, but since this was a PI, I was digging everything to learn the tones that various targets make. Was out deep in the wet during low tide, but only lite stuff was out there, no heavies, which really surprised me.

 

[russau]

I've flown to several places ,i.e. Alaska, Cal., Washington Fla. Washington D.C., BUT mainly I drive and pull my 18 foot enclosed trailer to my locations, I.E. All of the Mid-west, Mo., Ill., Ks., Ohio, Indiana , Georgia, Alabama, ...... well you get the point ! It's a lot of 16 hour drives by myself and I usually meet up with some friends for our 2 week stays and we usually do our Hooka diving with our 4 inch dredges . BUT now I'm to old and beat up to do this anymore and now my buddy's are in the same boat or have passed away! I ended up selling it all to another guy from the Chicago Il. area and I wished him luck ! Now it's the honey do's for me and I'm running out of steam for that ! Many , many great memories and friends along the way! and old age can't take that away from me (for now ! ) I wouldn't trade it for all the rich's of the world !

 

[UnderMiner]

Metal detector is just in the car all the time and often only gets used whenever I happen to be in an area that seems like it may yield something, but this is often an optional activity second to the main reason I am actually in an area for. Exploring the woods, trails, hiking, going on lakes and rivers, metal detector is with me, but isn't the reason I'm in these places. If I see ruins or old marking or signs of past human activity while on my adventure the metal detector is just another tool used to decipher and explore with.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

I drive 1,000 miles to get to the Clearwater area and spend 5 months MDing. Sarasota area seems ideal given the miles and miles of beaches. Not much north of Clearwater, anyways, except for Honeymoon island beach and much smaller beaches north of Honeymoon. Go for what Casper-2 said and get in water and go deep. Also one of the best strategies is to grid the local beach a section at a time, Gold is there, but never easy to find.