First Beach Dig

[Nuggatory]

Hi, people.

Just thought I'd share a few pics with you all from my first beach dig with my new XT70 .

The beach I chose was Frenchman's Bay at La Perouse, on the northern side of Botany Bay. I chose this site as it is away from the "madding crowd" as I just wanted to give it a test run, although I was hoping to find a few coins.

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On arrival I fired up the beeper, set the Ground Balance to Beach, the sensitivity to 15, auto noised cancelled did an auto ground balance, and it came back with a figure of 8 for the GB. This surprised me as (and I don't really know why) I was expecting a higher figure. Anyway, it all seemed nice and stable, so off I went. I searched in Coin & Treasure mode in disc pattern 1, but occasionally when the threshold was blanked I switched to Pinpoint and dug anyway, just to see what came up.

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I searched the beach for probably about 3 hrs in total and didn't cover one quarter of it, so I'm thinking I'll head back there when my shift work allows.

This is what I came up with:

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An odd assortment of expected beach junk, with a few interesting finds in between. If anyone has any ideas about the odd shaped piece of metal on the right in the following picture, they would be much appreciated.

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I'm guessing both pieces of metal have a high copper content due to the green corrosion on them. Only after I had finished and was driving home did i ponder the possible significance of these finds. Now I have a very good imagination and I was thinking that maybe the square nail I found was from some of the first settlers in the area, and the strange piece of metal in the previous pic was from a belt from one of the soldiers who landed here with La Perouse just a few days after Captain Cook landed on the other side of the bay in 1788. Wellllll, ....maybe

And yes, that is a tent peg. The find that really made the day for me was the bright, shiny 2005 50 cent piece. I had just decided to call it a session (as my feet were already sunburnt) and just as I decided to throw the towel in and accept that I wasn't going to find any coins, this steady signal came thru the headphones. (I had it on 3 tones). It came up as TID 26, if I remember rightly. It was about 10 inches down, so pretty deep, and sitting almost vertically in the sand. I had waved the X-70 wildly over the target before I dug, trying to get the TID to change, but it did not jump 1 number. I didn't have the TID Stablilty on either. This is one sweeet machine, and I'm looking forward to taking it out again soon.

Later, guys, going to have some well earned

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I was watching a DVD last week that my brother had put together with help from other members of his hang gliding club (Lower Blue Mountains Hang gliding Club). Part of that DVD was of some pretty crazy flying over and around Bumborah Pt. While looking at it, I couldn't help but notice the beach that they were on; right next door to where you were detecting! The building in the picture looks like it featured in the DVD as well.
You might have to have a crack at Maroubra beach instead, as it would present better pickings. I had a go at Bondi beach in the early am(4) between Christmas and new year. After 4 hours, I'd only picked up $7.80 and a working mobile (handed in). Should have gone in the early evening instead. Did better at Nth Cronulla and Cronulla with a total of $38 give or take a bit.
I can't blame you for letting your imagination run away a bit, considering the location. Good luck with figuring it out and good luck with the 70.
Mick Evans.

 

[Beale]

Looks like a nice run on the beach! Aday spent on the sand is a good day. Nice find on the coin, good luck with future hunts, Beale.

 

[Nuggatory]

Hey, thanks Beale. Couldn't agree with you more! I will keep posting, as long as either the finds or the scenery is vaguely interesting!

Mick, damn, 4am? I thought about going to Bondi after Australia Day, but I work shifts and having finished late on Fri night and having to work on Aus Day, I didn't make it. Guess i haven't really got the bug yet . And hang gliding, well, that is one crazy hobby! (Sorry, I have a hard time flying on a 747, and while I think hang gliding would be fantastic, I'm really not ready to take that on ) And I think your right. That beach IS near the one I was on. Are you telling me your bro glided from the Blue Mountains to Sydney?!? That sounds pretty awesome to me!!

Seriously, Bondi makes a lot of sense if you are in Sydney, but I remember reading a post in these forums somewhere about some locals who go over Bondi pretty regularly. Actually, might have been your post, now that I think about it, but I can't remember exactly I guess I'm not too surprised when you said you didn't get much off of it, as I've assumed it would be on of the most popular beaches for every beach activity, including detecting. I read your post about your trip here to Sydney too. Good job!! Sounds like a good haul down at Cronulla. I'm reasonably familiar with the Eastern Suburbs (or city) beaches, so I reckon Bronte, Tamarama & even Clovelly are worth a go,as my theory is they may not be as hardly worked as Bondi. (I'll check this out within the next 12 months). I might even stop in at Cronulla on the way down to Wollongong soon.

Nice haul from the park., I haven't tried the park near me yet. I'm going to look for gold soon. WIll be using just the stock 9" 7.5kHz, will see how it goes. Have you been out to Canbelego at all? I notice some new gold prospecting companies have started to develop interests in the area, so might be worth a look.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys, and will (hopefully) be posting more pics soon.

Cheers,

 

[nugget71]

n/t

 

[Kiwi]

Hi, sorry people a little off the subject, but just want to know if the ' snake man' still does his shows on Sunday at La Perouse ??

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

There was something about him on the Sydney news about 12 months back. I can't be sure, but I think that he finally retired after doing the show for many years.
Mick Evans.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Yeah. When I got up at 3am to go there, similar thoughts ran through my head! Actually, if you hit the beach in the early evening, after a run of hot days, you will do well regardless of how many people detect there. It gets 40 to 50 000 people on a good day. I just had problems trying to work around the lack of parking and non existent public transport after 11:30pm. Next time I'll just catch the train and knock off at a reasonable time.
Some spots well worth a look, would be the parks behind the beaches; particularly the one behind Tamarama beach, as there are a number of large community events that are held there. Given that a lot of detectorists that hunt beaches are generally lazy, you will probably find, that you may even do better in the parks, than the beaches.
My brother probably wouldn't mind having a crack at flying down to were I mentioned, but I think that CASA would have his guts for garters! Especially given that Sydney Airport is almost next door. they were just flying the dunes and had to keep under 300 feet. Something else on that note. That spot, was probably the birth place of hang gliding, given that Bill Moyes flew the first untethered flight at La Perouse!
I haven't been to Canbelego. I seemed to have been spared the gold bug. Mining generally seems to have go into overdrive. There is a large gold mine that opened last year near West Wyalong, which is only 3 hours south of here.
Mick Evans.

 

[Nuggatory]

Hmmm, some good thoughts there, Mick. I haven't done a park hunt yet, so I will consider those places you mentioned.

It's a pity they stopped the trams running down to Bondi years ago, I reckon they work great in Melbourne.

I think your right about CASA too! :grin: I didn't know that about Bill Moyes tho.

And I haven't REALLY got the gold bug yet, although I plan to give it a chance to bite over the next 12 months to 2 years, as I will probably spend at least 1 lot of holidays in Vic, not too far from the goldfields. But I guess being new to , it all looks good to me at the moment.

Thanks for the tips and encouragement guys. What a great forum!

HH