Sand Sifter
New member
Here's a tip for those new to hunting beaches, especially on dry sand. I started hunting beaches probably about 14 or 15 years ago, and in my first year, I was primarily hunting dry sand. There was 1 thing that first year that would drive me nuts. I'd get a good signal, take my first scoop of sand, and dump it out. I'd scan the dumped sand with my detector, no signal, then I'd rescan the hole and the signal was still there. So, I'd take a 2nd scoop, dump it out, run the coil over the sand, no signal, so back to checking the hole, signal was still there. So, I'd take a 3rd scoop, dump it out, run the coil over the pile, no signal. Then, I'd run the coil back over the hole and there was no signal. What?? Where did the target go??
I'd recheck the sand I pulled from the hole, move it around with my feet, nothing. Rescanned the hole, nothing. Was this a ghost signal of some type? Where the heck did the target go? It was such a good, solid, repeating signal, but it just seemed to vanish into thin air. This happened trip after trip, until one time when I got another vanishing target, out of sheer frustration, I angrily shoved my scoop back in the hole, grabbed some more sand, dumped it, scanned that sand, and what do ya know, the target was in that last scoop of sand. After looking at the target, and thinking about it for a bit, I was finally able to solve the mystery, so here's the answer for any of you who may be new to detecting on the beach.
If you get a good/solid tone, you start digging, then the tone seems to vanish after digging a few scoop fulls of sand, put your scoop back in the hole, grab another scoop full of sand, dump it out, run your coil over the dumped sand, and 99% of the time, the target will be there and I'll bet it will be a coin. What was happening was the coin was lying flat buried in the sand, so you received a good initial signal. After you removed a scoop or two of sand, you were still getting a good signal over the hole because the coin was still lying flat, but it was still deeper down, your scoop just hadn't reached it yet. But at some point, your scoop will get down to the right depth.
But sometimes, the coin may not wind up in the scoop. Sometimes, the scoop pushes the coin aside and instead of lying flat, it may now be standing upright on its edge. Your detector coil had no problem detecting the larger surface area when the coin was lying flat, but now that it's standing on edge, it's much more difficult for the detector to see it, because it would have to be able to detect metal with a surface area that's only the width of a coin. There's not enough surface area left for the coil to see, especially when the coin is deep down in the sand, so you lose your signal and think that the target just vanished. But 99% of the time, it's still down there in the hole, it's just standing upright, so it's much harder to detect, especially since it's now probably deeper than it was to start.
So, when your target seems to vanish in the hole, stick your scoop back in, grab more sand, dump it and check that pile. I can't believe how many times I've done that, and the coin was in the last scoop full of sand.
I'd recheck the sand I pulled from the hole, move it around with my feet, nothing. Rescanned the hole, nothing. Was this a ghost signal of some type? Where the heck did the target go? It was such a good, solid, repeating signal, but it just seemed to vanish into thin air. This happened trip after trip, until one time when I got another vanishing target, out of sheer frustration, I angrily shoved my scoop back in the hole, grabbed some more sand, dumped it, scanned that sand, and what do ya know, the target was in that last scoop of sand. After looking at the target, and thinking about it for a bit, I was finally able to solve the mystery, so here's the answer for any of you who may be new to detecting on the beach.
If you get a good/solid tone, you start digging, then the tone seems to vanish after digging a few scoop fulls of sand, put your scoop back in the hole, grab another scoop full of sand, dump it out, run your coil over the dumped sand, and 99% of the time, the target will be there and I'll bet it will be a coin. What was happening was the coin was lying flat buried in the sand, so you received a good initial signal. After you removed a scoop or two of sand, you were still getting a good signal over the hole because the coin was still lying flat, but it was still deeper down, your scoop just hadn't reached it yet. But at some point, your scoop will get down to the right depth.
But sometimes, the coin may not wind up in the scoop. Sometimes, the scoop pushes the coin aside and instead of lying flat, it may now be standing upright on its edge. Your detector coil had no problem detecting the larger surface area when the coin was lying flat, but now that it's standing on edge, it's much more difficult for the detector to see it, because it would have to be able to detect metal with a surface area that's only the width of a coin. There's not enough surface area left for the coil to see, especially when the coin is deep down in the sand, so you lose your signal and think that the target just vanished. But 99% of the time, it's still down there in the hole, it's just standing upright, so it's much harder to detect, especially since it's now probably deeper than it was to start.
So, when your target seems to vanish in the hole, stick your scoop back in, grab more sand, dump it and check that pile. I can't believe how many times I've done that, and the coin was in the last scoop full of sand.
