Three lines, and confused as to which to follow

[flgliderpilot]

And experiment in hunt lines...

I changed the title but for whatever reason it didn't change in the thread list...

Over the past two days I've done some experimenting on my heavily searched beach. I've never had success water hunting, and I just can't tell if it's because it's a) cleaned out b) sanded in or c) I'm in the wrong spots. I decided to experiment and try each area over two days.

Day1 :

2 miles on the towel line (dry sand). A few dimes.
Searched the tide line (the seaweed line) found a few dimes and a quarter and a lot of trash.
Searched the wet sand, 10' below tide line. Found around $1.00 in clad, no trash, this seemed to be most promising.
Searched in the water, waist deep, deepest spot between sand bar and shore (it was mid tide so this was the deepest I could go) no finds.

Day 2:

Searched just outside the sand bar, water hunt at low tide, chest deep. Worked a mile up and back. One quarter, and one strange 45 hit that I was sure was gold until I spent 45 minutes trying to dig it without success.. then as it got louder it went from a solid 45 to bouncing between 30 and 81. I decided it was a metal flake from a ship wreck and moved on.. we get a lot of those on this beach and this is how they sound).

On a side note, I had been considering buying a Garrett Sea Hunter for water detecting before I purchased my AT Pro. I just happened to get a chance to try one yesterday and I'm glad I did, it was heavy, the shaft flexed like a noodle (a crazy amount, worse than a HF detector), and there was no useful discrimination. If I were diving it would be ok, but add gravity and trash and it is a lesson in frustration. I gave up on it in 30 seconds. My AT pro felt like a ninja sword after that. Use the right tool for the job they say.

Today was a tough day of water searching.. I brought my daughter along and she didn't want to detect, so she rode in an innertube tied to my backpack with a short length of rope. Try fighting the waves, digging with a scoop, swinging a detector, and having a 14yr old on a tube yanking you off your feet as the waves come thru

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[dewcon4414]

Im assuming you are in salt water. "Use the right tool for the job they say." If you really believe this then the AT Pro isnt your answer IN or near the water either. The beach can be like the weather....... if you dont like it, wait because it changes quickly target wise.

 

[jyt2017]

Garrett makes a few fantastic machines, the at pro being one of them. Garrett also beefs up its selling point to be salt water friendly.

Well it's not good in salt water at all. So all those hours you searched. Not wasted...just need a deeper machine for where you are.


Then while learning new machine it will take a year or so you can learn the beach...again study it every chance you can. Follow tides and swells.


If the beach is nourished with sand it could be part of problem too. Sounds like you are on right track, just need a better beach machine and more time an effort.

Hh gl -Joe

I changed the title but for whatever reason it didn't change in the thread list...

Over the past two days I've done some experimenting on my heavily searched beach. I've never had success water hunting, and I just can't tell if it's because it's a) cleaned out b) sanded in or c) I'm in the wrong spots. I decided to experiment and try each area over two days.

Day1 :

2 miles on the towel line (dry sand). A few dimes.
Searched the tide line (the seaweed line) found a few dimes and a quarter and a lot of trash.
Searched the wet sand, 10' below tide line. Found around $1.00 in clad, no trash, this seemed to be most promising.
Searched in the water, waist deep, deepest spot between sand bar and shore (it was mid tide so this was the deepest I could go) no finds.

Day 2:

Searched just outside the sand bar, water hunt at low tide, chest deep. Worked a mile up and back. One quarter, and one strange 45 hit that I was sure was gold until I spent 45 minutes trying to dig it without success.. then as it got louder it went from a solid 45 to bouncing between 30 and 81. I decided it was a metal flake from a ship wreck and moved on.. we get a lot of those on this beach and this is how they sound).

On a side note, I had been considering buying a Garrett Sea Hunter for water detecting before I purchased my AT Pro. I just happened to get a chance to try one yesterday and I'm glad I did, it was heavy, the shaft flexed like a noodle (a crazy amount, worse than a HF detector), and there was no useful discrimination. If I were diving it would be ok, but add gravity and trash and it is a lesson in frustration. I gave up on it in 30 seconds. My AT pro felt like a ninja sword after that. Use the right tool for the job they say.

Today was a tough day of water searching.. I brought my daughter along and she didn't want to detect, so she rode in an innertube tied to my backpack with a short length of rope. Try fighting the waves, digging with a scoop, swinging a detector, and having a 14yr old on a tube yanking you off your feet as the waves come thru

 

[CASPER-2]

PM'ing you a link to articles ive written - some might help - some might inspire
there are a fair amount of TH'ers in your area - so you got competition from
guys to that have been doing this for yrs - so your options are try to go deeper than them
or hit the beach at the right place and right time and get fresh drops - tough
try and see what they are using
if possible stay all day thru high and low tides - see where people are at
towel line can change when tides change -
just because one area does not produce one day
does not mean it wont produce on another
so many people give up cause they don't get gold the first week - month or year in this hobby
so many think its so easy and for some it might be
for me - some think it comes easy - I'll tell you - most times its work
I go for older finds most of the time and I work hard for all the silver and gold I get
to me its the person(the talent) + the machine + the time put in- that = the treasure
and a little luck helps too
you can have the first 3 - but no luck that day
we all have off days
have seen some with little talent but great machine and a lotta luck
if you stick with the hobby - it will come

 

[TwoYewts]

Sage advice from Casper. I also live in an area that has more than its handful of hunters. I often find myself starting off the day staring down the beach and either seeing another hunter already working the beach or not long after I get started there will be a hunter or two joining me. I for one can tell you that thinking outside the box is what has worked for me. Take Casper's advice and go to the beach one day not to hunt; but, to observe. See where the families tend to congregate (mother's spfing up their kids = greasy hands = easily lost rings), see where college/young adults kids are playing football/soccer/Frisbee, etc. (running around/pushing shoving while sweating and greased up = lost rings/chains), where are the couples going to hide and frolic (disrobing and..well you get the rest = lost jewelry, just don't observe for long as you may get in trouble..hehe). I plan out my trips by hitting my outside the box areas first before attempting the towel line(s) etc that are typically worked first by the other hunters that are on the same beach. I then work those same towel lines and grid them the opposite direction that I see the other hunters working (so if they are going North/South. I'll do East/West.). Can't tell you how many times I will come across items they miss because the items are oriented a certain way in the sand that gave them a different signal or they bypass something without checking it first by "X"ing a signal.

Hope that helps and good luck! And like Casper said, everyone has their off days. I've been having a touch streak of late where all the jewelry I'm finding has been all costume...grr, hate that stuff.

Good luck and happy hunting!
-TwoYewts

 

[certman68]

Hi,

I'm in Tampa as well.

I did generally the same thing this weekend. I covered a section of the beach from the bottom of the dunes to the water. I dug every signal, primarily to prove to myself (and my wife) why I "need" a CZ 21 or and Excal

I didn't get in the water as the surf was too rough. Anyway, you can see all the junk I kindly removed from the beach as well as the cool shell casing I found and the clad. Nothing special. Has a good time anyway.

To your point on "lines" I start at the high tide line and if I find bobby pins, bottle caps, dimes or pennies I move a few feet closer to the water. If I find quarter or lead sinkers I'll explore that "line" or spiral out from there. Sometimes there seems to be a line of equally weighted objects, sometimes there isn't.

Much less trash in the water. PM me if you'd like to go out sometime and try a PI machine before you invest in one. Happy to let you give it a whirl.

http://i.imgur.com/Bs9GHdn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kLqTxih.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/hgq05P6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/e8DL62B.jpg

 

[sandswimmer]

Sanded in and well hunted are a good guess. I'm assuming that since you live in Tampa, you are hunting Pinellas beaches?! It's an assumption since you're talking about "shipwreck" metal which I have never had a problem with on the central West coast?
We just had 3 weeks of WSW winds, waves and storms that pretty much kept people off the beach and out of the water. Even the dry sand was wet and hard day after day, not good for laying out a beach towel, and not much gets lost without the help of the usual sugar sand that swallows everything when dropped on it.
That swash between the beach and bar received lots of sand from the bar and beach during that time. Your best place to of hunted would have been the bar and the beach. Outside the bar was too ruff for most people, so it has not been producing. The only time anyone hunting the water could get out was the beginning of last week and it was detected by many hunters with cabin fever just itching to get out as soon as they could, myself included.
You also need to consider the detector you are using, It's not a salt machine...on the wet or in the water. Don't dis the SH because of weight and a flimsy shaft, just like the Xcaliber and CZ21 you can modify them for comfort and ease. A straight shaft and hip mount of the unit make them much easier to handle.
Don't give up, there is plenty to find in the dry sand with the 350, but consider looking for a dedicated water machine when you can fund it. GL SS

 

[flgliderpilot]

Thanks for the tips. I agree the AT pro may not be the best salt water detector, but for most of the beaches here which do not have black sand, it will detect as deep as I am able to dig. Now if I move up the beach to one which has some black in the sand, I start having issues. I don't primarily water detect so it's a perfect all around detector for me. I have found quarters, sinkers, dimes, etc all fairly deep so I know it's not a detector issue... I think it's a sand movement issue. I'm not hitting the right place at the right time.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Sanded in and well hunted are a good guess. I'm assuming that since you live in Tampa, you are hunting Pinellas beaches?! It's an assumption since you're talking about "shipwreck" metal which I have never had a problem with on the central West coast?

That swash between the beach and bar received lots of sand from the bar and beach during that time. Your best place to of hunted would have been the bar and the beach. Outside the bar was too ruff for most people, so it has not been producing. The only time anyone hunting the water could get out was the beginning of last week and it was detected by many hunters with cabin fever just itching to get out as soon as they could, myself included.
You also need to consider the detector you are using, It's not a salt machine...on the wet or in the water. Don't dis the SH because of weight and a flimsy shaft, just like the Xcaliber and CZ21 you can modify them for comfort and ease. A straight shaft and hip mount of the unit make them much easier to handle.
Don't give up, there is plenty to find in the dry sand with the 350, but consider looking for a dedicated water machine when you can fund it. GL SS

Thanks for the info. I'm not using a 350 btw, I'm using an AT pro...my 350 has been moved to the loaner shelf. Everything you said makes complete sense, thanks for your help. I've been wondering if I should have been on the sandbar itself, thinking that this is where most people are at in the water... but the little voice in my head kept saying that stuff would eventually seek the lowest point (shell layer) and not be on the top of the sand bar.

The metal I was referring to washes up from PAG all the way up to T.I., small flakes of rusty metal from what I believe is a sunken barge or something which was used to make an artificial reef. It's annoying because when it is deep it will first sound solid in the gold range, and then when you get closer, it will go high like a quarter... then dig more it will start bouncing with a lot of iron... but not until you've already dug a deep hole. :| When it's near the surface it's easy to identify and skip.

 

[jeepGold]

sell the AT Pro for 500 or so and get a used Excal for around 8-900. Do some mods to it for a few hundred and you'll be AMAZED at how fast you pay it off.

 

[flgliderpilot]

sell the AT Pro for 500 or so and get a used Excal for around 8-900. Do some mods to it for a few hundred and you'll be AMAZED at how fast you pay it off.

900-500 = $400 + $300 in mods = $700 :|

Will need to stay with the AT Pro for now.

 

[Escape]

Try fighting the waves, digging with a scoop, swinging a detector, and having a 14yr old on a tube yanking you off your feet as the waves come thru

Had to smile at the image of you digging with her in tow That is something to treasure.