Another Dry Sand Beach Hunt Today At A Mineralized Beach. Two Things I Noticed...

[Critterhunter]

Even using the 12x10 today, which is known for handling the worst of grounds at higher sensitivity settings, I had to ride sensitivity at about 3PM. A rarity for this coil at probably 98% of my land sites to ever have to ride this low, despite how bad the minerals can be at some of my hunting grounds on land. But this sand at this beach...It's got even the GT and the 12x10 dragging their feet to fight through...


In minerals such as this beach if the target sounds loud enough to be about 5" deep or less, then if it's giving me a sick or warbly (or even nulling) sound then it's going to be odd shaped junk of course like globs of aluminum. Easy enough to tell that based on volume at the end of a long day when you're wanting to be more picky about what you are going after.

Yea, I know...scoop it all on the beach, but after several hours baking in the hot sun gridding out this place scooping every thing above a null, I was hungry and tired and just wanted to finish my grid so I could leave. Too many blobs of aluminum junk keeping me from leaving any time soon, so I decided to play a game and guess what each target would be- odd shaped junk or something round like a coin, or at least more uniform in shape like a pull tab.

Sure enough it wasn't long before I had enough of that because it wasn't getting any less hot out and I wasn't getting any less tired or less hungry, so with about 5 more rows to go to finish this grid I figured I'd play the odds and not scoop 100 more odd shaped pieces of junk that I knew were going to be that.

Only targets I planned to still scoop that sounded sick were about 6" or deeper in sound, because due to these minerals I knew a coin, a tab, or more importantly a ring could easily do that one way nulling, or scratchy/warbly type deal from certain angles. Yep, be aware of the minerals at both your land and beach sites, because if you get picky in the wrong situation you might pass up a good coin or a ring where the depth/mineral thing is driving even the Minelabs a bit "iffy" on target quality at depth. Some of the coins I scooped past 6" or so I would have bet were going to be crown caps or some other piece of junk giving me a false coin hit, and some of the round and square tabs I popped that were intact I would have bet were going to be oddly shaped pieces of small bits of aluminum or something.

I'll re-grid that last little stretch where I got picky on stuff less than 6" on another day. Normally I scoop even almost a complete null that breaks threw into discriminate in any kind of way, because I keep hoping for a broken ring, or say a gold chain or a tiny gold earring that is reading down into the iron zone. So far most of those have been the odd bobby pin that will break through, or as said these deeper coins and tabs and other "good" targets that should have gave me a banging rock solid signal from any direction but did not.

So what did I get today? Zilch, other than an apron full of aluminum and other junk, and a small handfull of coins. I keep expecting a ring in the dry sand because I eyed a junk one last year and also scooped a plated gold one that had my heart going for a minute. Just not panning out that I'm finding rings in the sand this year thus far. Lord knows I've done my share of filling up the garbage cans. Anybody else have good luck on fresh water beaches in the dry sand like say along the towel line? It would only figure people would fling off a ring walking out of the water or rubbing sun tan lotion on, playing frisbee, digging with their kids in the sand, or say hiding a ring under their towel and forgetting about it.

 

[Smudge]

On the beach, you really can find anything at any time, but when hunting the dry sand, your best bet is to find the "towel line," that area where beachgoers spread out their towels.

It is usually a more narrow line than you might think.

And that is typically where you get your best hits.

 

[Jack Flynn]

I find most all of my stuff at the mommy line. Where mommies sit in the water and play with their kids. Usually about a foot and a half deep. if the freshwater lake in low due to the drought find that line. I realIly don't think a towel line exists on most fresh water beaches. Not in my experience anyway.

 

[Critterhunter]

Thanks for the tip jack. Yep, the one gold band I found a few weeks back was right at the "mommy line" about 2 feet from the beach or so if that. Either she was playing with her baby in the shallow water or she flung off the ring walking out of the water.

Far as the towel line goes on fresh water beaches, it's odd but there is an element of human nature involved. Everybody seems to lay their blankets down about the same distance from the water. Roughly I'd say like 20 to 30 yards away or so. Sure, not everybody does, but when I've watched I'd say 75% or so of the people always seem to set down about the same distance away from the water on my fresh water beaches.

That's usually where I find my most coins, and also where I found a plated gold ring last year. I of course don't hunt with swimmers around. I hunt at sunrise for 3 or 4 hours and then leave before anybody shows up when the beaches are open, but after they close you are allowed to hunt them any part of the day.

One beach I know of doesn't care if you hunt there during swimming season mid day, but I stay well away from people, because it only takes one complaint and then everybody gets banned. It's a huge beach and 99% of the people stay on the side where you walk in at, so during swimming season if I show up mid day I make a B-line for the other side where nobody is at.

I'm just not having much luck finding any rings in dry sand this year on fresh water beaches. Just wondering if anybody has better luck than I seem to be having this year hunting the dry sand.