Discovery 3300 and 2hrs at the beach

[Aces High 333]

This was more of a fact finding mission than an all out hunt. I wanted to see how the detector can handle wet sand and the dry sand at a salt water beach. The tide was out so I started out on the wet sand about 5ft from shore. Using no-motion (pinpoint) mode I set the manual ground balance to 12 o'clock. I held the coil 1/2" above the sand and press pinpoint. I adjusted the ground balance some and it's a little touchy. What I ended up doing is leaving the setting at 12o'clock and pressing pin point just barley above the wet sand. This made ground balancing easier. My sensitivity was set one notch down from max. I started swinging and if I swung to close to the sand I would get a slight tone so I kept about 1/2 above the sand. Took two steps and then I got a "BOING". The boing is very different than a light tone. Reminds me of my old White's. It's like the detector is saying " Hey!" . Dug, found a penny about 3" down. OK, doing good. Started again and another two steps and "Boing". Dug down, found a ring at 4". cheap ring, but a ring is a ring. A little more hunting and I found sinkers, pulltabs and screw caps.
I decided to try motion all-metal mode. I kept the sensitivity the same and started swinging. I was get low tones. My #1 iron was sounding so I "Zapped" it. That worked very well. I got a few pulltabs ranging from 2 to 5 " down. I got a good high tone in the 25cents range. Switched over to pinpoint and "BOING". That turned out to be a 1oz sinker about 6" down. Switching between motion(all-metal) and no-motion(pin point) in wet sand the targets are about equal as far as depth. From what I can see there's no gray area, either you have a signal or not.
I spent the last half hour working up to the dry sand. On dry sand I was picking up clad and trash(PT and SC) down to 8" in all-metal. Did get a pea size weight at 5". Pin point was picking up targets below 10". I didn't have my scoop or bigger digging tool so I didn't get to it, probably a can.
Overall I am very satisfied with the performance. Yea, I'm not getting a nickle 10" in wet sand. But I'm not using a 12" coil nor did I expect it from this detector. I have a 4" coil but it reads a little off on target numbers. Anyone else has this issue?? Next thing I believe is a bigger coil....

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Thanks for the nice report! How BH detectors perform in salt is asked frequently, but the concensus usually is that they won't perform well. While it's unknown if there were deeper targets that were missed, it does appear that your machine took a depth hit in the wet sand, but held it's own in the dry stuff. The fact it was able to detect, that's the important thing.

Did you try it with coil raised any higher? This may allow further increases in sensitivity or decreases in disc level, and may help more with a larger coil. My info says the salt effect is weak and does not extend very high above the sand.

Only freshwater beaches here, so I may never get to actually test what I preach! I appreciate the informative post!
-Ed

 

[Aces High 333]

After some electrolysis and sos pad. Its a .925 silver ring. Will post pic soon.

 

[BH_Landstar_]

The coils that you have for your Landstar can be used on the 3300.

I had the Legacy 3300, same as the Discovery 3300, I found it worked very well on the beach (wet or dry), and in parks it's a coin killer, will find coins all day !

 

[Aces High 333]

That 4" coil is great. The numbers is a little off compared to the 8". I just have to make an mental adjustment when using it. Still got your 3300??

 

[BH_Landstar_]

As of today it will be sold (the Legacy 3300), I moved up to the F4 Friday of last week and it's doing just fine. I've used the F4 3 times and found a 1960 Qtr 3 silver rings and $16.00 in clad coins.

 

[Aces High 333]

Good deal.... I have my heart set on the F5. I did want the Time Ranger or Land Ranger but after swinging the 3300 for 2 hours and no arm fatigue. I'm sticking to the lighter machines.