Update on South FL detecting and finds

[Surfline]

I wanted to update the forum on a recent detecting trip to Miami and Key Biscayne. Bottom line, the beaches and shallow water appear fairly clean, and where targets were detected, they were beer bottle caps, pull tabs, costume earrings, or clad. Experienced hunters appeared to know what to and what not to dig. I came to this conclusion after using both a pulse induction unit or Excalibur II. I decided to leave my Equinox 900 at home on this round as I think it is fair in saltwater (let me know if you disagree).

Areas covered include dry sand, wet sand/surf, or knee deep (also not willing to go waist/chest deep).

My thoughts are this: Either another detector make/model could have found small gold or silver (chains), the beaches are heavily hunted, less people are wearing or can afford gold/silver with current values.

The only possible thing I would try would be a Manticore or Deus II to pick up fine chains, which may be missed by others.

I also think timing is important. I’m hearing about detectorists going out at 3-4am etc hunting, or at night. My opinion is that I would be hesitant to hunt in the late or very early hours in Miami and not worth it to me.

I would be interested in the forum’s opinion on going to the manticore or Deus with maybe higher probabilities of success.

Thanks,

Surfline

 

[TORRERO]

I wanted to update the forum on a recent detecting trip to Miami and Key Biscayne. Bottom line, the beaches and shallow water appear fairly clean, and where targets were detected, they were beer bottle caps, pull tabs, costume earrings, or clad. Experienced hunters appeared to know what to and what not to dig. I came to this conclusion after using both a pulse induction unit or Excalibur II. I decided to leave my Equinox 900 at home on this round as I think it is fair in saltwater (let me know if you disagree).

Areas covered include dry sand, wet sand/surf, or knee deep (also not willing to go waist/chest deep).

My thoughts are this: Either another detector make/model could have found small gold or silver (chains), the beaches are heavily hunted, less people are wearing or can afford gold/silver with current values.

The only possible thing I would try would be a Manticore or Deus II to pick up fine chains, which may be missed by others.

I also think timing is important. I’m hearing about detectorists going out at 3-4am etc hunting, or at night. My opinion is that I would be hesitant to hunt in the late or very early hours in Miami and not worth it to me.

I would be interested in the forum’s opinion on going to the manticore or Deus with maybe higher probabilities of success.

Thanks,

Surfline

Sounds like my last 10 years of beach hunting 🤷🏼‍♂️😂🤣

 

[CASPER-2]

I wanted to update the forum on a recent detecting trip to Miami and Key Biscayne. Bottom line, the beaches and shallow water appear fairly clean, and where targets were detected, they were beer bottle caps, pull tabs, costume earrings, or clad. Experienced hunters appeared to know what to and what not to dig. I came to this conclusion after using both a pulse induction unit or Excalibur II. I decided to leave my Equinox 900 at home on this round as I think it is fair in saltwater (let me know if you disagree).

Areas covered include dry sand, wet sand/surf, or knee deep (also not willing to go waist/chest deep).

My thoughts are this: Either another detector make/model could have found small gold or silver (chains), the beaches are heavily hunted, less people are wearing or can afford gold/silver with current values.

The only possible thing I would try would be a Manticore or Deus II to pick up fine chains, which may be missed by others.

I also think timing is important. I’m hearing about detectorists going out at 3-4am etc hunting, or at night. My opinion is that I would be hesitant to hunt in the late or very early hours in Miami and not worth it to me.

I would be interested in the forum’s opinion on going to the manticore or Deus with maybe higher probabilities of success.

Thanks,

Surfline

I ...9 times out of 10...down in miami area do pretty good
I hunt in all metal - I try to dig it all
I was down there once and met 3 guys hunting in like waist deep water - inbetween tides
they seemed to be "cherry picking"
Bad for them - good for me I wear a mask and snorkel...so i could see their scoop marks and
their foot prints (sunrise - so bottom was undisturbed except for us) I went slow
in some of the spots they had hit and got gold. Some guys fly like a bat outta hell and
believe they get it all (they miss stuff down deep)- some cherry pick and believe they dont miss gold.
They miss small rings and chains that read as foil, can pieces or other low #s they pass up.
1 - if you pick out ALL that small slaw = you wont hit it every time you go there
2 - if you pick up all the other junk = same - you wont hit those targets everytime you
go back there and you have piece of mind that hopefully you got it all
3 - there are spots that have deep targets under that soft sand - ive found them
4 - ive read in books and heard many guys say -"dont waste your time on the sand bars"
WRONG! ive got plenty of goodies on and just off sand bars -a friend of mine - at SOBE
hit the sand bar at low tide - his son was picking on him - told him he was wasting his time ...he got a blast and thought he had a can - turned out to be a huge 18k white gold chain - at todays prices = bout $10,000. worth of gold

Ive made some good finds over the yrs - Ive made my share of mistakes hunting - ive learned from most
and missed some good finds (a lot of the time because i didnt hit a spot cause i thought it
cleaned out or hammered too much) not realizing the hunters before might not have been very
good or had machines that werent

 

[The Beep Goes On]

Hunting during the latter part of the day into the night and using judicious, careful, thorough techniques with a familiar detector seems to be the way to maximize good finds. Hunting while the crowds are still there were some of my best days. The public beach is basically one of the only places you can detect without a care so there's a lot of competition. Casper-2 has some great points.

 

[Surfline]

I ...9 times out of 10...down in miami area do pretty good
I hunt in all metal - I try to dig it all
I was down there once and met 3 guys hunting in like waist deep water - inbetween tides
they seemed to be "cherry picking"
Bad for them - good for me I wear a mask and snorkel...so i could see their scoop marks and
their foot prints (sunrise - so bottom was undisturbed except for us) I went slow
in some of the spots they had hit and got gold. Some guys fly like a bat outta hell and
believe they get it all (they miss stuff down deep)- some cherry pick and believe they dont miss gold.
They miss small rings and chains that read as foil, can pieces or other low #s they pass up.
1 - if you pick out ALL that small slaw = you wont hit it every time you go there
2 - if you pick up all the other junk = same - you wont hit those targets everytime you
go back there and you have piece of mind that hopefully you got it all
3 - there are spots that have deep targets under that soft sand - ive found them
4 - ive read in books and heard many guys say -"dont waste your time on the sand bars"
WRONG! ive got plenty of goodies on and just off sand bars -a friend of mine - at SOBE
hit the sand bar at low tide - his son was picking on him - told him he was wasting his time ...he got a blast and thought he had a can - turned out to be a huge 18k white gold chain - at todays prices = bout $10,000. worth of gold

Ive made some good finds over the yrs - Ive made my share of mistakes hunting - ive learned from most
and missed some good finds (a lot of the time because i didnt hit a spot cause i thought it
cleaned out or hammered too much) not realizing the hunters before might not have been very
good or had machines that werent

Excellent feedback! I have snorkeled as well but hitting the more shallow targets, coins, buttons, etc. I also hunt in all metal mode but it just wasn’t my time on this round. I also agree on the sandbars!

 

[Surfline]

I ...9 times out of 10...down in miami area do pretty good
I hunt in all metal - I try to dig it all
I was down there once and met 3 guys hunting in like waist deep water - inbetween tides
they seemed to be "cherry picking"
Bad for them - good for me I wear a mask and snorkel...so i could see their scoop marks and
their foot prints (sunrise - so bottom was undisturbed except for us) I went slow
in some of the spots they had hit and got gold. Some guys fly like a bat outta hell and
believe they get it all (they miss stuff down deep)- some cherry pick and believe they dont miss gold.
They miss small rings and chains that read as foil, can pieces or other low #s they pass up.
1 - if you pick out ALL that small slaw = you wont hit it every time you go there
2 - if you pick up all the other junk = same - you wont hit those targets everytime you
go back there and you have piece of mind that hopefully you got it all
3 - there are spots that have deep targets under that soft sand - ive found them
4 - ive read in books and heard many guys say -"dont waste your time on the sand bars"
WRONG! ive got plenty of goodies on and just off sand bars -a friend of mine - at SOBE
hit the sand bar at low tide - his son was picking on him - told him he was wasting his time ...he got a blast and thought he had a can - turned out to be a huge 18k white gold chain - at todays prices = bout $10,000. worth of gold

Ive made some good finds over the yrs - Ive made my share of mistakes hunting - ive learned from most
and missed some good finds (a lot of the time because i didnt hit a spot cause i thought it
cleaned out or hammered too much) not realizing the hunters before might not have been very
good or had machines that werent

I also appreciate your feedback on removing trash. Not only is it good for the environment, but you’re right, there could be good targets below it. Here is a pic of the pull tabs removed and clad as well as a large fishing lure that I removed from the sand, which could have prevented a serious injury and trip to the hospital for a beachgoer. When people ask what I found I show them the trash because it’s also helps with the perception of the hobby.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Just THAT time of year - few on beaches and fewer in water. Hunted 4 times this month, about 16 hrs, on west coast of Florida and targets few and far inbetween and no gold or silver to date. Totaled 99 coins and 4 junk rings. Most interesting find was a cremation tag from Akron Ohio, to be treturned to Gulf next week. That's all folks!!
These lack of finds are messing with my yearly averages of 99 coins/gold piece and 63 coins/silver piece for 2024.

 

[TORRERO]

Yeah on the beach I dig everything except iron. I you think there are small gold targets that read like iron, but the DEUS II can separate iron from gold… but like you say… just not many signals

 

[Surfline]

Just THAT time of year - few on beaches and fewer in water. Hunted 4 times this month, about 16 hrs, on west coast of Florida and targets few and far inbetween and no gold or silver to date. Totaled 99 coins and 4 junk rings. Most interesting find was a cremation tag from Akron Ohio, to be treturned to Gulf next week. That's all folks!!
These lack of finds are messing with my yearly averages of 99 coins/gold piece and 63 coins/silver piece for 2024.

Great feedback on the time of year. Winter waves do provide erosion but agree it’s been hard. By the way, I found a cremation tag many years ago and at first didn’t realize what it was. I put it in a clamshell and tied it with some degradable string and threw it back.

 

[Knight_of_Excalibur_II]

I wanted to update the forum on a recent detecting trip to Miami and Key Biscayne. Bottom line, the beaches and shallow water appear fairly clean, and where targets were detected, they were beer bottle caps, pull tabs, costume earrings, or clad. Experienced hunters appeared to know what to and what not to dig. I came to this conclusion after using both a pulse induction unit or Excalibur II. I decided to leave my Equinox 900 at home on this round as I think it is fair in saltwater (let me know if you disagree).

Areas covered include dry sand, wet sand/surf, or knee deep (also not willing to go waist/chest deep).

My thoughts are this: Either another detector make/model could have found small gold or silver (chains), the beaches are heavily hunted, less people are wearing or can afford gold/silver with current values.

The only possible thing I would try would be a Manticore or Deus II to pick up fine chains, which may be missed by others.

I also think timing is important. I’m hearing about detectorists going out at 3-4am etc hunting, or at night. My opinion is that I would be hesitant to hunt in the late or very early hours in Miami and not worth it to me.

I would be interested in the forum’s opinion on going to the manticore or Deus with maybe higher probabilities of success.

Thanks,

Surfline

I agree with most of your assessment.

In my ~1 year of hunting, the only solid gold I've found is a wedding band, which was a ring recovery- the couple lost it the day I was detecting, and a solid gold chain that's likely been sitting in the water for decades if not years. I have found other valuables, just very seldom precious metal jewelry. Your options as a detectorist for productive hunts are A: look for a prospective spot that hasn't been hunted heavily in a long time (usually less accessible, more off the beaten path), B: wait for a significant weather event like hurricane or tropical storm to move large amounts of sand, or C: look for extremely recent drops at densely populated beaches with high foot traffic. C is what makes Miami popular amongst detectorists despite the fierce competition. I agree with your assessment about precious metal jewelry becoming rarer due to rising spot prices, and reduced standards of living. Worth noting in my outings, as I have tried several beaches in south east Florida, is that they are for the most part, heavily sanded in, despite the wave action we get from winter swells. Maybe they just weren't strong enough this year, but that is my anecdotal experience. I know that we certainly don't get as much wave energy as the Pacific coast, and it has been a while since we've had a serious storm or hurricane hit SE Florida directly.