mikenannie
Tenderfoot
- Aug 14, 2006
- 7
- 0
- Detector(s) used
- White M6
Beach Hunter ID
(1970's Compass Judge series, then 1980s Teknetics)
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I've been using metal detectors since the mid 1970s, but only in the past 10 years or so have I used a water machine. I mainly use it on vacations to Michigan, and hunt various beaches along the Lake Michigan east coast. My struggle is that I rarely find anything of value. We're getting close to our annual vacation again and will be in the Ludington / Manistee area and I want to do what I can to try to avoid another year of finding nothing 
So I'm here to ask for help
I hunt with my Dad and we work together using my Whites Beach Hunter ID. I believe it's a decent machine and it seems to have pretty good depth. However, having hunted both the Ludington State Park and Manistee MI beaches over the past 10 years, during our family vacation, I have never found anything of value. Lots of rusty metal though. I believe these beaches get enough use during the summer that there has to be stuff there to be found and I've had people approach me and tell me that they, or someone that they knew, has lost something on one of these beaches. So, what are we doing wrong?
We have hunted from the shore out to about shoulder deep, using every possible pattern in the water to try to cover enough ground. We typically hunt for 2-3 hours at a time as well.
Some questions for those who know Lake Michigan (or have similar experience).
1. How fast is a ring lost in sand too deep to locate with a machine? (my machine?) Seems like the sand moves very quickly out from under your feet as you wade through the water. Dad thinks that stuff sinks in the sand so quickly that it's difficult to detect before it's too deep to find. True?
2. Where is the most productive area of the water? We watch the swimmers, and see many adults moving out past the trough into the sand bar that's about 100 yards from shore (varies). We have hunted this trough before, and the sandbars, but still found nothing. (A few years ago, I did locate a wedding ring for a man who had just lost it, gave it back to him, and he gave me $20 But that was our only gold anything.
3. What is the 'cut' and is there one on Lake Michigan beaches? Is the 'cut' where the waves cut into the sand and create a 6" to 1 1/2 foot hump just above the wet sand on the beach? Is that were we should be hunting?
4. Do we need a better machine? (Tiger Shark, etc.)
As you can see, having never found much of anything of value, I'm at a loss on how to improve our chances of success. I'll admit that other than this week's hunting each year, we don't do much else in terms of water hunting, but, given 30+ years of metal detecting experience, I'm pretty confident that my skills with the machine are adequate.
Thanks in advance for any help!
So I'm here to ask for help I hunt with my Dad and we work together using my Whites Beach Hunter ID. I believe it's a decent machine and it seems to have pretty good depth. However, having hunted both the Ludington State Park and Manistee MI beaches over the past 10 years, during our family vacation, I have never found anything of value. Lots of rusty metal though. I believe these beaches get enough use during the summer that there has to be stuff there to be found and I've had people approach me and tell me that they, or someone that they knew, has lost something on one of these beaches. So, what are we doing wrong?
We have hunted from the shore out to about shoulder deep, using every possible pattern in the water to try to cover enough ground. We typically hunt for 2-3 hours at a time as well.
Some questions for those who know Lake Michigan (or have similar experience).
1. How fast is a ring lost in sand too deep to locate with a machine? (my machine?) Seems like the sand moves very quickly out from under your feet as you wade through the water. Dad thinks that stuff sinks in the sand so quickly that it's difficult to detect before it's too deep to find. True?
2. Where is the most productive area of the water? We watch the swimmers, and see many adults moving out past the trough into the sand bar that's about 100 yards from shore (varies). We have hunted this trough before, and the sandbars, but still found nothing. (A few years ago, I did locate a wedding ring for a man who had just lost it, gave it back to him, and he gave me $20
But that was our only gold anything.3. What is the 'cut' and is there one on Lake Michigan beaches? Is the 'cut' where the waves cut into the sand and create a 6" to 1 1/2 foot hump just above the wet sand on the beach? Is that were we should be hunting?
4. Do we need a better machine? (Tiger Shark, etc.)
As you can see, having never found much of anything of value, I'm at a loss on how to improve our chances of success. I'll admit that other than this week's hunting each year, we don't do much else in terms of water hunting, but, given 30+ years of metal detecting experience, I'm pretty confident that my skills with the machine are adequate.
Thanks in advance for any help!
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