Regarding the Lack of Finds on the Beach

[Sand Swinger]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol.

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

 

[Spill]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol.

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

They have machines that clean the beach now and I'll bet that's the biggest impact. You can go miles without even a beep on the jerz shore now.

 

[Sand Swinger]

They have machines that clean the beach now and I'll bet that's the biggest impact. You can go miles without even a beep on the jerz shore now.

Beach cleaning machines play a part, but I don't think they're the biggest impact. They only clean dry sand and only down a couple inches or so, as they're just trying to remove daily surface/shallow trash. If they try to dig too deep, they'd get stuck. For reference, ever see a tractor pull?

Even though there's monster machines with insane horsepower & torque pulling weighted sleds, the sled has an arm/blade that starts to lower. At some point, it contacts the surface and once the blade digs in too deep, the monster truck stops and can't pull any further. Also, those cleaning machines only work dry sand, not the wet or shallow water, so the wet/shallow water is untouched by the machine.

After those beach machines finish cleaning the dry, that's the time to crank up your detectors sensitivity and listen for deep targets.

 

[Exceplicted]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol. In fact, I’ve recently tried energycasino, and it’s surprisingly engaging—like detecting, but with a digital twist. You can still get a thrill without leaving home, though obviously, you can’t dig up rings there!

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

I think people have really become more careful with their belongings.

 

[Crunchyhippo]

They have machines that clean the beach now and I'll bet that's the biggest impact. You can go miles without even a beep on the jerz shore now.

This is why I almost never detect in the dry sand anymore. Between your points and the fact that I always only find trash in the dry sand, I've moved almost solely to either the water or the surf.

 

[ashtonevans]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol.

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. If previously the wet zone and water were available only to owners of expensive Sovereign or Excalibur, now every beginner with a budget device can safely search for gold where there was almost no competition before. In addition, cashless payment and the rise in prices for precious metals are really forcing people to hide jewelry in safes, which greatly reduces the number of valuable finds. Searching with a metal detector on the beach has now become something like a gambling game, where you have to hope for luck and storms, and to relax after a hard day on the sand, you can check out https://icasino-reviews.co.nz/iwild-casino-no-deposit-bonus/ where there are good no-deposit bonuses for a pleasant pastime. But perseverance and understanding of the bottom relief still decide more than a new device. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

Have you tried searching at night during high tide?

 

[Sand Swinger]

Have you tried searching at night during high tide?

I've hunted during night a few times over the years. It's relaxing & quiet, but for me, I like to see what I'm doing and be aware of my surroundings. Personally, I never worry about "competition". If there's 10 other guys on the beach, the majority, 8 or 9 of them are hunting the dry. Maybe 1 or 2 are down on the wet. But I never see any of them out in the water. And the wet & shallow water is where I hunt with my Dual Field PI & Sovereign Elite, so doesn't bother me one bit if there's 20 other guys up on the dry, lol. And 99.9% of the time, once I step into the water, it's just me out there, so no competition.

IMHO, experience trumps the number of other hunters. Most of them are looking for fresh drops, but I'm looking for deep targets & listening for faint whisper signals. Even when I see another hunter on the wet, they're usually bebopping around & moving fast, so I know they're missing a ton of coverage. I don't think they realize that the faster they move, the harder it is for them to properly overlap their coil, so their coil winds up moving over the sand in an S pattern, which means they're missing probably at least 50% of the sand they're walking over. It might look like they're "covering" an area to most people, but to me, I know they're only covering 1/2 of the sand they're walking over. I like to follow behind these guys with my PI & sensitivity cranked up as high as I can get away with. I'll work slow so I can overlap my coil and hit all the sand they missed by being in such a big hurry. Remember, the tortoise won the race, lol.

 

[PenguinDetectsCA]

I've hunted during night a few times over the years. It's relaxing & quiet, but for me, I like to see what I'm doing and be aware of my surroundings. Personally, I never worry about "competition". If there's 10 other guys on the beach, the majority, 8 or 9 of them are hunting the dry. Maybe 1 or 2 are down on the wet. But I never see any of them out in the water. And the wet & shallow water is where I hunt with my Dual Field PI & Sovereign Elite, so doesn't bother me one bit if there's 20 other guys up on the dry, lol. And 99.9% of the time, once I step into the water, it's just me out there, so no competition.

how's it going nowadays?

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

It’s summer time. Tides out two hours before sunrise. Beach fills up with swimmers and tanners staking claim to real estate early while there’s a few free parking spots left. I wanna get there before low. Head lamp. 10” coil. Swing wide, flat and fast. Sensitivity on 24. I know that little chirp means something was just outside the coil path and reach back taking a half step.
I see those people you’re talking about all around me. Look more like they’re cutting hay. I know the regulars. The newbies. We are SO sanded in the regulars aren’t even showing up much. The newbs are in the dry. I was just drafted into child watching for a few days so I went today in the rain. It ended exactly when I claimed my usual free parking spots 🙏. An hour before low I was gridding 200 yard stretches at the water line covering two access areas. When the tide changed I started 75 yard paths on ONE access spot until I got near the dry then went to the other. Not another detectorist all morning. I managed two rings and left as the sun came out and the cattle started swarming in. Speed. Coil size. Tactics. I change them up all the time. There will be plenty of time for low and slow when it’s 20* out and only a few die hard show up. That’s when I score my $1,000 and up prizes. But that’s just me. To each his own. BTW. Both finds today were fairly OLD. One was 925. Brillo pad and bench buffer shined the right up. Today made #68 & 69 since I got the Xtera a year and a half ago. The beach is like a box of chocolates. 🏖️

 

[Crunchyhippo]

Another thing i have noticed over the last few years is...
Not as many people wear jewelry to the beach as they once did.
I think this is due mainly to 2 reasons...
Gold / jewelry are not as trendy as it once was so less are buying / wearing it. (its coming back now though)
And the other reason is ... people are now "hipper" to the losing it factor.
I think more people think of this now more than they once did due to its value etc.
More people these days know that wearing jewelry at the beach is very risky.
now....
There are those who dont care or wear it all the time no matter what etc.
But the tan liners and smart ones are the first to take it off... or not wear it it all.... at the beach that is.

I see people wearing jewelry all the time at Clearwater Beach, even if it is junk jewelry. But I still never find anything, not even junk, much less the real thing. I also try and hunt where others don't - makes no difference. My last three, multi-hour beach trips in the wet sand/water netted me zero jewelry of any kind. Only a few coins, plus the assorted pull tabs and small pieces of crab traps. That's why when I see someone consistently claiming to have found six or seven rings, a gold necklace, and more on one trip, I just consider it envious storytelling to get attention that he would otherwise never get.

 

[Crunchyhippo]

Ok guys, I don't detect but I do live in Florida a couple blocks off the beach. I think down here in Florida a lot of your targets are getting buried very deep by all the beach "renourishment" constantly going on here. It's a money grab being fueled by the millionaire's who live on the beach. They have figured out how to get the State to fill their beaches with sand at the taxpayers expense.

I sometimes wonder how much gold and silver is buried too deep to find, that will never "come up" to the surface, ever. Stuff that was lost 50-100 years ago by beachgoers in days gone by that's just too deep to find, even with our modern detectors. If only I had been an early detectorist in, say, the early 1980s, and bought a White or Garrett detector and gone to the popular beaches then. Imagine the dropped jewelry that no one had ever looked for. Because I never, ever remember seeing a detectorist at the beach at that time.

 

[doverturtle]

This is why I almost never detect in the dry sand anymore. Between your points and the fact that I always only find trash in the dry sand, I've moved almost solely to either the water or the surf.

I found 5 rings in the dry sand a few weeks ago. I have noticed more people shifting to wet sand when detecting and ignoring the dry sand.

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

I sometimes wonder how much gold and silver is buried too deep to find, that will never "come up" to the surface, ever. Stuff that was lost 50-100 years ago by beachgoers in days gone by that's just too deep to find, even with our modern detectors. If only I had been an early detectorist in, say, the early 1980s, and bought a White or Garrett detector and gone to the popular beaches then. Imagine the dropped jewelry that no one had ever looked for. Because I never, ever remember seeing a detectorist at the beach at that time.

None. Sooner or later the right storm will come from the right direction and tha gold doesn’t come up. The sand goes down. Once objects hit hard pan, clay, rock, shell, it stops. And sits there patiently waiting for you. You have to be in the right place at the right time. My oldest modern find (if that makes sense) was a gold class ring from 1900, on the beach. My oldest find was a king George copper scuba diving in salt water rapids where kids jump off a bridge. Most likely was waiting there since before there was a bridge. What baffles me is how a beach can be totally sanded in and I find what’s clearly and OLD ring. All I can think is they wash down from the high ground during super high tides.
I watched them pour sand on Wollaston Beach in Quincy MA when I was little. Every day the yellow ish color came closer to our house. Then one day after a storm it was ALL gone. Solid rocks of every size. Today was all fresh drops. A few days ago was two OLD rings in the same area. I just try to go every day. The beach is like a box of chocolates 🏖️

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

A different twist to what Casper-2 said earlier is that legacy finds, items lost long ago, have decined especially in regularly hunted areas. Metal detectors became popular in the 1960s-1970s with the advent of tectnology and IC circuits; although physicians were the first to actually use a "metal detector" to find the bullet in President Lincoln's head ca 1865. In was unsuccessful. So before the 1960s lost items basically accumulated on beaches for say a few hundred years. As sand churns over the years and as there are more hunters searching for the same thing in similar areas, at some point (now) even so-called legacy finds from even 60 years ago have become extinct. When was the last time you found a silver coin on the beach (extinct since 1964 we'll say)? On the Florida west coast/Clearwater beach area I have found maybe 5-6 silver coins in the past 1,000 hours of hunting. But the silver coin finds do increase, substantially, where I hunt "unusual" spots (where I've never have seen detectorists before)...but these spots are getting more difficult to find as well. PS I have hunted beaches in state parks in Ohio and it was not productive at all. Perhaps too many Detectorists here in Ohio...

 

[OBN]

My oldest modern find (if that makes sense) was a gold class ring from 1900, on the beach.

Love to see that one! I have a little collection of those oldies I've dug over the years and always enjoy seeing them from different areas

 

[surfnturf]

None. Sooner or later the right storm will come from the right direction and tha gold doesn’t come up. The sand goes down. Once objects hit hard pan, clay, rock, shell, it stops. And sits there patiently waiting for you. You have to be in the right place at the right time. My oldest modern find (if that makes sense) was a gold class ring from 1900, on the beach. My oldest find was a king George copper scuba diving in salt water rapids where kids jump off a bridge. Most likely was waiting there since before there was a bridge. What baffles me is how a beach can be totally sanded in and I find what’s clearly and OLD ring. All I can think is they wash down from the high ground during super high tides.
I watched them pour sand on Wollaston Beach in Quincy MA when I was little. Every day the yellow ish color came closer to our house. Then one day after a storm it was ALL gone. Solid rocks of every size. Today was all fresh drops. A few days ago was two OLD rings in the same area. I just try to go every day. The beach is like a box of chocolates 🏖️

Interesting 20 years ago I was EMT paramedic and my garage homebase was stationed on the Neponset River. I would stop and take breaks often at Wallaceton Beach until I got a call. That’s when I met a gentleman metal detecting with a Garrett 250 after chatting for a good 15 minutes he finally succumbed to show me what he had found. It was a simple 10k girls ring with an amethyst stone after that Frankenstein was created🏴‍☠️

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

Interesting 20 years ago I was EMT paramedic and my garage homebase was stationed on the Neponset River. I would stop and take breaks often at Wallaceton Beach until I got a call. That’s when I met a gentleman metal detecting with a Garrett 250 after chatting for a good 15 minutes he finally succumbed to show me what he had found. It was a simple 10k girls ring with an amethyst stone after that Frankenstein was created🏴‍☠️

Since mom died I seldom go to Quincy. Last time was last winter to see if I could find a sucrets box I buried there … I don’t know. 25 years ago? I found they planted all sea grass there and I suspect it’s illegal to disturb it. I paved off my steps and had ONE hit within a yeah foot circle. Gently probed and found some junk aluminum. I’m thinking maybe whoever planted the grass found that box full of wheat pennies, buffalo nickels and silver coins. It’s heart breaking how they’ve ruined the beach with all kinds of ridiculous, I don’t even know what to call them. People islands? Paved areas with no apartment purpose other than to take away parking spots. It’s sad. I may explore the place with my machine this winter.

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

Love to see that one! I have a little collection of those oldies I've dug over the years and always enjoy seeing them from different areas

It got sold with ALL my gold and silver when we bought this house. Silver was about $8 and I remember the guy saying “I never thought I’d see the day I’d be paying $400 to buy gold. 🙄. It was something to behold. The craftsmanship. No initials or anything inside it.

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

A different twist to what Casper-2 said earlier is that legacy finds, items lost long ago, have decined especially in regularly hunted areas. Metal detectors became popular in the 1960s-1970s with the advent of tectnology and IC circuits; although physicians were the first to actually use a "metal detector" to find the bullet in President Lincoln's head ca 1865. In was unsuccessful. So before the 1960s lost items basically accumulated on beaches for say a few hundred years. As sand churns over the years and as there are more hunters searching for the same thing in similar areas, at some point (now) even so-called legacy finds from even 60 years ago have become extinct. When was the last time you found a silver coin on the beach (extinct since 1964 we'll say)? On the Florida west coast/Clearwater beach area I have found maybe 5-6 silver coins in the past 1,000 hours of hunting. But the silver coin finds do increase, substantially, where I hunt "unusual" spots (where I've never have seen detectorists before)...but these spots are getting more difficult to find as well. PS I have hunted beaches in state parks in Ohio and it was not productive at all. Perhaps too many Detectorists here in Ohio...

Last winter when I was bored. Ran out to a dinky little local beach ten minutes away and found several silver coins. I don’t think anyone swims there. The locals just lay out and tan. Not a single ring.

 

[OBN]

It got sold with ALL my gold and silver when we bought this house. Silver was about $8 and I remember the guy saying “I never thought I’d see the day I’d be paying $400 to buy gold. 🙄. It was something to behold. The craftsmanship. No initials or anything inside it.

That was a good investment buying a home. I remember selling my 66 corvette and 69 camaro to put a down payment on my first home. Maybe one of the best things I ever done money wise.

It was something to behold. The craftsmanship.

14 years of hunting the Chesapeake Bay I'm blessed with a few of those. The older the more details..

Few of my favorites

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

That was a good investment buying a home. I remember selling my 66 corvette and 69 camaro to put a down payment on my first home. Maybe one of the best things I ever done money wise.

14 years of hunting the Chesapeake Bay I'm blessed with a few of those. The older the more details..
View attachment 2265006


Few of my favorites
View attachment 2265008View attachment 2265009View attachment 2265010View attachment 2265011View attachment 2265012View attachment 2265013

Wow 😳