Making a Living

[jangles]

Are there any beaches in FL where I could make a meager living living out of my van and swinging a BH id? Maybe enough for batteries food and gas?
How is miami beach for hunting? 8)

 

[FloridaBill]

Are there any beaches in FL where I could make a meager living living out of my van and swinging a BH id? Maybe enough for batteries food and gas?
How is miami beach for hunting? 8)

NO not week after week

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Are there any beaches in FL where I could make a meager living living out of my van and swinging a BH id? Maybe enough for batteries food and gas?
How is miami beach for hunting? 8)

If your detector is good on batteries, your van gets close to 20+ mpg, and you maybe eat only 2 meals a day at MacDonalds, you could get by, .........................while you starve to death.

 

[Mr.Jody]

Justlike they said above......"NO"
To many everyday beach hunters around here. Plus believe it or not, finding stuff at the beach is down.Alot of people are not even going to the beaches because of the economy...less people at the beach,less of a chance of finding stuff...

 

[finderzzs]

And if it rains for days in a row, you go hungry. Hate to "rain" on your parade, but were all wishing we could do the same thing. Maybe in Asia where there are no detectors Good luck if you try.

 

[retiree]

I would have loved to try that when I was 18. A little too old for that now.

 

[SaintSea]

God... I loved that!
Well put.
Ruth

 

[Willy]

Diversify. If you want to make a living MD'ing, don't just pigeonhole yourself into only beach hunting. Think of all the other places you can detect. Also, Rotten Ronnie's is NOT the place to eat, or any other fast-food joint. Shop the loss-leaders at the supermarket. Also, there's no shame in picking up temp./odd jobs. Done right, and I've been doing it for 23 yrs now, you can live a pretty comfortable life. Done wrong and you'll be sitting on a street corner panhandling. ..Willy.

 

[The Beep Goes On]

The only people I've heard of that do that, and not always successfully, are resort hunters. Like Cancun, or somewhere. They know the hotels, they know the clientele, they know which hotels have safes and which ones don't, they swing all day long. It only takes one or two nice pieces to get by for the month, but I expect they're pretty territorial and there is probably some tough competition.

If you found a spot that produced well that was relatively unknown (like Finderzzs) you could probably milk it for a while and get by, but probably not year round. I've toyed with similar ideas, but I like keeping my hoard intact too much to want to sell any of it

HH!
Beep

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Are there any beaches in FL where I could make a meager living living out of my van and swinging a BH id? Maybe enough for batteries food and gas?
How is miami beach for hunting? 8)

The question was "Are there any beaches in FL where I could make a meager living living out of my van and swinging a BH id?" If the question was "can I draw my retirement, work or work part time and metal detect to supplement my income by hunting the beaches then of course the answer is yes, that is what we are all doing on this board.

No one here told you no to discourage you or to protect "our beaches from you finding our stuff", we just gave you an honest answer to your question.

Can you make a meager living, living out of your van and playing the lottery? I would say no, but your welcome to try.

If I was living in Colorado, personally myself, I would look into hunting for gold in the streams, creeks, and canyons there or in the four cornors area, but that is just me....I'm already planning on moving to the West when I retire, Utah/Nev/Az border area probably...........

Either way I wish you the best of luck on what ever you choose.

 

[retiree]

Ok. all of you talked me into it. I'll tell the wife tonight. Wish me luck while I hide the frying pans.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Don't hide them, bring them with you your going to need them, you need someway to cook the fish that wash ashore....

 

[guzz1]

There is no way but , I admire the thought of it ..At least where I live to many folks in the treasure hunting game . I get to the beach and there's 20 hunters out there ahead of me . That decreases your odds big time . You have to pick the right time to go , like 2 am in the morning. Good luck guzz

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Hummmm 2:00 am waist to chest deep in the Atlantic, not a good idea. Hummm 2:00 am waist to chest deep in the Gulf, nope I will skip that too. Things that go bump in the night in the waters here have big teeth.....LOL

Don't want to be looking like Floridabills avatar for real....


Guzz1, I thought you were moving up north, did that change...?

 

[FLauthor]

Not in Florida but you could on the beach in Nome, Alaska. Prospectors set up claims on the beach and using a high banker sluice and a Camel Wheel, they usually pull 1/2 to an ounce of gold dust a day. And at $900 an ounce, you could eat well. The season is short usually May to September but the daylight is nearly 24 hours. Every year the gold that is found is replenished from an unknown source.

 

[digum smacks]

i know one person who does that.his name is mark and he carries a parrot on his shoulder.he doesnt like to work too much but he takes jobs here and there.i know one of the best hunters out there he got 150 gold rings last year.do the math 12/150=12.5 a month.3.1a week.depending on the weight avg.ring roughly 4-6g some more some less.18g=roughly if 14kt 10 0r 11g pure at whatever price of gold is say$900 oz between $200-300 a week minus gas, food ,and whatever else batteries etc.also you will find roughly$500-700 in change a year.not much money to live off of and i guarentee no one on this site found that many rings.so my answer would be no.to make a living would be too hard.but its good for extra money and its a whole lot of fun

 

[sniffer]

the only thing is, if you had to do it year round, it probably wouldn't take very long and it wouldn't be fun

 

[TheSleeper]

Not to disagree with you gentleman but yes it can be done.
Several things have to be taken into consideration:
1. No perm home, no mort payments, no outside bills
2. Your van needs to be a stealth camper, complete with potty microwave, inverter for elec, and most importantly a coffee pot
3. You need a better detector, sorry, plus u need atleast 2, one a dry machine and second a water machine, plus backups are reccommended
4. You camper is setup to charge your spare bat sets while u hunt, solar panel works great
5. WiFi laptop so u can send and receive emails and check current spot prices on gold and silver
6. You must have a base camp somewhere, parents home, girlfriends, ex girlfriends etc
7. A bank acct that has offices up and down the coast
8. Contacts in different towns up and down the coast
9. Do not limit yourself to one area, research lakes, swimming holes etc there are over 10,000 miles of beaches saltwater or freshwater in this country.
10. Learn your equipment because you will be competing at almost every beach with the local hunters
11. Realize you will be working harder doing this then most that punch a timeclock, are you up to that physically
12. Realize you will be working 7 days a week (hate calling it work but it isn`t easy)
13. You need a good grub stake to hold you til the finds start coming in, remember you are traveling so gas, food and necessities will have to be paid before u start making good finds

These are just the basics there are more it is not easy but yes it can be done.

 

[lowtones]

I know someone who does it in florida exactly as you described and does pretty good making a living.
lowtines

 

[jangles]

Wow I did not expect to get so many interesting and creative replies! I was just daydreaming, you know being landlocked in CO makes me dream of the surf. I have an M6 for dry land and would bet a BH or something for the surf and that is where I would do most of my hunting as the weekend warriors are in the sand. I would have a side gig as I sell satellite tv and I have a website doing wedding photography which gets me about 15 weddings a year which I would have given up. OK back to reality living in the van sucks, I prefer my big bed and the comforts of home...oh well it was nice dreaming a little...thanks all ..I think I'll go look for some clad!
John