Beach hunting in Florida with my F5

[WisconsinMD]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the MD craze and been researching for about a month on what MD was right for me. I picked up the Fisher F5 and was wondering the limits to beach hunting it has. As in can I go in the water with it since the heads waterproof and if so how deep. I realize the control box isn't waterproof hence I don't wish to fry my first MD.
My friends and I will be going to Florida in March and making it a MD trip for the most part and been searching out some great places to go. I'm committed to MD since I spent the $$ to buy one my other two friends will be borrowing there MD's and I don't want them to get bored. I'm hoping they find more than I do, so they catch the bug and buy there own too. Well any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff

 

[Joe_TNTX]

Jeff,
I'm at the beach now at Isle of Palms near Charleston, SC with my F5. This is my first trip to a beach with a md, so I do not claim to be an expert. The F5 works great in dry sand although all I have found is clad coins. I found that the F5 will ground balance down near or in the wet salty sand, but I have only hit one target being a nickel very shallow. I got suspicious after a lot of scanning in the wet sand near the water line and decided to do my own test by burying a coin. I was dissapointed in the results. I could detect a dime about 4 inches at best. Down in the wet sand 6 or 7 inches nothing. I had the sensitivity high and only iron discriminated out. Threshold at 0. The salt concentration is high here - my pinpointer beeps whenever I stick it in the salt water.

I'm doing more research on hunting in the salt water and I think it takes some special design for that purpose. The F5 does great in the dry sand but I think the targets are too far down for the F5 to overcome the effects of the salt water conductivity. You may want to do your own testing when you get to the beach to establish how well it will work in the beach where you are going. (I also brought a F2 with me, and it also works in the dry sand and beeps in the wet sand -- reducing depth helps but no better depth than the F5)

I like the F5 a lot, but I think hunting in the salt water is a challenge.

 

[WisconsinMD]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the response. I'll have to take advice and do some testing while were there. We will have to see how well the F5 stands up to the 2 White detectors my friends will be using. Hoping for strong storms at night and sweet sunny days. Either way it's gonna be a blast I'm sure. I'll post my test results after we return as well if we find anything. I think being our first time out we're going to just hunt in all metals mode and dig everything lol either we will find good stuff or we clear the beaches for everyone else lol Well thanks again for the post Joe and HH in SC. March cant get here soon enough.

 

[Joe_TNTX]

I'm sure you will have a great time. The weather is great here this week and the wind has died down making the low tide farther out. I think I will try some different settings and maybe try holding the coil a bit higher than normal and see if I can get through the salt water. All metal mode did seem to work a bit better. In the dry sand I generally disc out iron, gain up to 99 no problem, no notches. The beach here is remarkable clean of trash (a good thing I think), but have found a few tabs and bottle caps as well as mysterious pieces of metal. No silver here so far - probably becaused this strip was re-sanded big time in 2008. I visited another island beach (more public access) and found more clad in 30 min than in 3 or 4 hours out here. So location location , etc is important. I will look forward to your results and maybe I can learn the "secret" to beach hunting in the wet salt area.

 

[WisconsinMD]

hehe well any pointers will be welcomed here hehe I been doing tons of research and reading and watching video's but it only makes me want to get out there even more lol. It will be my luck I go to FL and find tabs and bottle tops all day lol well it wont matter I made the investment into buying one I wont give up on it lol. So if any Floridians see three goofy looking guys running around on the beach looking confused as to what the heck is going on lol please stop us and give a quick lesson lol We will be the guys in shorts in the 45 - 50 degree weather hehe in Wisconsin that's a heat wave and take full advantage of it lol. Well HH everyone.