Unreasonable Expectations of a Beach Hunt?

Skippy SH13

Bronze Member
Feb 18, 2015
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Metal Detecting
So... I have this dream... I'm 8 hours from the coast, and I dream I go there, and find like 3 gold rings and a watch every visit I make to the beach. WHy? Because every video I look at for beach hunting, they find like 3 gold rings and a watch, though admittedly, sometimes the watch is just a band, and sometimes the watch is a knife.

In my brain, if I go to the beach, I'm guaranteed to find some jewelry.

I have the sneaky suspicion that my brain is lying to me. So... Here's the deal. This is what I find and my averages per hunt. I'll list the item, and then list the frequency of finds, and estimated hours to find one. I'd love it if you could do the same.

I LAND HUNT ONLY and to date, have only hunted (and rehunted some up to 20+ times, always finding new stuff) the local city parks and schoolyards:
Each Hunt averages about 2 hours.

Gold rings: 1 ring for every 20-25 hunts (40-50 hours per ring)
Silver rings: 1 ring for every 15-20 hunts (30-40 hours per ring)
Silver Bracelet/Chain/Pendant: 1 for every 10 hunts (20 hours per piece)
Other Quality Rings (Tungsten, Titanium, Cobalt, Stainless Steel but nice, etc): 1 every 5 hunts. (10 hours per ring).
Junk Jewelry - 1-2 pieces per hunt.

Silver coins - NEVER
Clad - approximately $2 per hunt.

Adding them all up, I seem to average about 1 good piece about every 2-3 hunts (4-6 hours), but make around $8-$12 in clad during that time.

What does your profile look like?
 

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Good stuff metaljunkie.

Thanks for posting your odds. and AMAZING results in Silver in hunts. Location location location!

I am at roughly 80+ hunts for this year. Probably averaging 4 hours each hunt. So around 320 hours of fun. I usualy go out after work at night. Mostly all parks and two water hunts.
I am at 8 gold rings and one gold chain. Also 6 silver rings and roughly 65 silver coins so far. So almost one silver every hunt!
I have been mostly rehunting old parks I have done before. I believe that is why my silver ring count is low. Most silver rings I find are trapped in the roots of the grass. Also I have concentrated maybe 30% of outings just digging mid tone gold signals. So maybe every 3-4 hunts I hit gold. If ONLY going for those signals. But yes, dug a ton of tabs also...

I have tied my gold ring count for last year. Way less silvers though. I got 165 last season, when these parks were more or less vergin. Not any more....
 

OOh. Those are GREAT rings!

And I believe it. I pulled 17 rings total out of one small park this summer. And by small, I mean I could walk around the perimeter in less than 5 minutes. I just kept going back and hitting it, slowly and carefully. a BUNCH of pulltabs, but it paid off (and now the park is uber clean). Found 5 in one trip, pretty much one to 3 every trip until I'd cleaned it out good. 3 gold rings (one was my lifetime find with 81 diamonds 14K), 5 silver rings (3 of them REALLY nice), a bunch of mens rings (titanium, stainless, tungsten), and a small group of junkies. I also found a sterling chain bracelet, and sterling cuff bracelet. It was an amazing park. I even got my first Kennedy half (clad). I was so sad when it finally got played out!


I know this is gonna be hard to believe but....my compadre and me hit a dried up swimming hole here in my county. Previously, I found two rings (one titanium with a diamond and one 925 with a red stone) on a scouting expedition by myself. I took my compadre with me the next time and lo and behold!! I found 5 rings ( three 925 and two stainless steel), he found 2 rings (both 925) for a grand total of NINE rings out of this area!! Well, we went back again with visions of rings in our heads and .....nada, zilch, nothing!! This had to be a "virgin" area....we're gonna try it one more time just to make sure....phew!! I get all worked up again, just tellin' about it!!View attachment 1215119View attachment 1215120
 

Sounds like a killer month!

I've really enjoyed the gold rings I find, but I've discovered that I REALLY like the silver ones. They're typically chunkier. Most of the gold rings I've found are thin tiny things at less than 2 grams... My last Silver ring (which I thought was a rolled soda bottle top it was so huge in the dirt), came in at 8 grams.

Love this hobby. I can't believe the longer I get into it the more I LOVE it. Never had a hobby like this. Usually I burst, flare, and fizzle on a hobby!

I had my best month ever last month: 17 silver coins & 5 silver rings.

I hunt after work during the week, maybe 6 hours... as much as possible on the weekends, maybe 12 hours. Maybe 18 hours a week.

I average: 7 silver coins and 1.5 silver rings per month. I have 2 gold rings in 18 months, however, I just started to dig the mid tones this spring.

It's all about where you get to hunt. I hunted NJ & Philly two weeks ago... 14 silver coins and 3 silver rings in 2 days! The local boys took us to their best spots.
 

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