For this reason you see that multiple people here are recommending NOT getting a beach pulse machine. Like the sandshark and various other maker's beach pulses. Yes: You will have no way to discern iron vs. conductive. Other than 2nd -guessing signals.
But this needs a little fairer treatment: There are SCORES of pulse users on So. CA beaches that DO QUITE WELL. In fact, some of the resident long-time experts as a matter of fact. And some of them have actually gotten the ability to pass a lot of nails. Although I'd question if the sound tricks aren't going to make them miss a gold stick pin, or a funky wadded up necklace, or other such object that might mimic the sounds of nails. And also: while there are So. CA experts who do quite well with them, and aren't *too* bothered by iron, yet truth-be-told, I bet there's some erosion conditions that would cause them to wish they had a standard machine.
Example: I was hunting underneath the manhattan wharf/pier years ago, following stormy rain and erosion. The street culvert water outflow had carved a channel which pulled out a path of sand right under the pier there. I got down in there with my discriminating machine and was pulling coins, even back to silver coins, wheaties, buffalos, etc..... And all-the-while, I could see that the nails were so thick, that they resembled toothpicks lying all over. Then a guy swinging a pulse came walking down the beach, and we compared finds. I pointed to where all my old coins were coming from and invited him to join me. He lasted about 3 minutes.
But on the "up" side, pulses can handle very nasty black sand, and don't miss dainty fine chains, earing studs , etc...
But for me, most all my wet sand beach hunting is strictly looking for when there's storm erosion. And in such conditions, depth is no longer the name of the game often-times. In those conditions SPEED becomes the name of the game (how many targets can you harvest before the next high tide chases you out). And if the ratio were even as good as 1 nail per 5 conductors, to me, that's still time-lost when I could have been bagging more conductors. But that's just me. As I say, others down there do good with them. Up here @ Monterey bay a few have tried them, but they are usually forced to stick to the cleaner "bay watch" style beaches. And have to shun the beaches that allow bonfires (which introduce nails), or had history of burned down wharves (which introduce nails), or beaches with industrial type history, etc... So ca has a lot more "touristy clean" beaches, so admittedly the pulse can come in handy on some beaches there. Also some beaches down there are notorious, after erosion, for becoming almost gunpowder grey in color (extreme minerals). Like Dockweiler. And if so, your discriminating machine will be foiled with only a few inches depth and difficult to use. So in conditions of sand mineral/color like that, I've sometimes wished I had a pulse
It's also got an annoying long "tail" on the signals. That's fine on the beach where the targets are spread out , but can be annoying when trying to isolate targets in junky turf, urban old-town demolition, etc.....
As an aside on the Excalibur: If that's the route you choose to go, be prepared for a long learning curve (depending on what machines before this you are accustomed to). The best way to get used to it on the beach is start out in all metal (aka pinpoint) mode. Check each signal (x marks the spot @ 90* angles) in disc. mode. If it nulls out , it was iron. By doing this for a few hunts, then pretty soon you will evolve to where you just keep it in disc. But otherwise, if you start off in disc., the sounds can be very hard to get used to.[/QUOTE]
Sure, some do very well with PI machines......and they dig all kinds of crap to prove it. If you're willing to do that, you'll have success too, but, I'll dig more "good" targets with my Excalibur (or E-trac,CTX, CZ21,etc) over a given period of time than a PI user will. Less bad targets dug = more good targets dug all things being equal. Now are there certain conditions where a PI might be a better choice? Of course, and if you want to have one for that rare occasion, by all means keep one in your closet for that day. For regular use, a multi-frequency discriminating machine is the way to go IMO. Some of our SoCal beaches might be geared for tourists, but, that doesn't mean there isn't a bunch of iron in the sand. Lots of our beaches have fire rings (and when they don't, it doesn't stop people from making their own!) and super junky areas. We've also had many piers destroyed by storms over the years, scattering iron debris all over the place. As for learning to use the Excalibur, it's very easy to get used to.....as long as you hunt in pin point. (which is where you should hunt 99% of the time) Run it as hot as you can without falsing. When you get a target, flip the switch to Disc. If the sound is still there, dig it. If it disappears, dig deeper until you find it again. If it nulls, move on to the next target. I can't remember the last time I had to change any settings on mine. I run it flat out as hot as possible in all but the most nasty black sand. Even there, I can usually just slow the sweep speed and keep the coil at an even height to eliminate the false signals without having to change settings. If you hunt in Disc, you'll have to get used to the constant change in threshold tone, which I find annoying, and you'll give up at least 2 inches in depth over the pin point mode. If you get a big coil for it, such as the Coiltek WOT or NEL Attack, you'll get at least as much depth as most of the PI machine. The exceptions I know of are the GPX series, GPZ 7000, and ATX. Those will go deeper at the cost of your sanity and endurance digging those 3 foot deep holes!
