First time at the beach

[Ronstar]

Ok, so I have a couple questions now. This is my first outing with the Legend on a beach hunt. Not sure if I was set up wrong or what but here is my problem: apparently wet sand.

Low tide on Oregon beach so small pockets near the edge to play in, tried to remember the tidbits from beach hunters and what the manual says. Put it on Beach mode, All metal profile and did manual GB which showed 7-8 constant. Moved to Ferrous profile and started slow sweep in MW setting of the pockets and low spots but not a single hit on anything. Just an occasional 11 grunt and not repeatable. I tried GB again and 8 so staying steady. I did get a one time 36 but the second the coil hit the sand a loud high pitched squealing sound erupted. My first thought was surface but nothing there and not even anything sounding on the carrot. Moved the coil several times and still squealing. Moved ten feet over, same thing. Went back to target and just shoved the scoop down, bottle cap. Under these conditions there is no pinpointing ability?
Moved over to dry sand where all the cars are allowed to park. GB now 63 and steady and switched to MD and started getting more “normal” hits and sounds. Of course everything caps and tabs……
Hoping anyone with beach experience here can educate me a bit if this is normal or am I in some weird place.

 

[woodbutcher]

I think mode M3 was made to deal with wet sand and saturated places? What mode were you in?
I’ll hafto look at mine ,not sure you can run M3 in beach mode, maybe but I don’t

 

[Grunter]

The beach mode has a wet setting and a dry setting. The wet setting is the most stable even in the dry sand. The dry sand setting is nosey. Also, the all metal mode in the beach mode is terribly nosey and in my opinion is unstable.

 

[Grunter]

The first time I used mine on the beach SC it kept throwing 11 vid's and wouldn't settle down. I made adjustments in sweep speed, went to a 4 and dropped sensitivity to 21 and it settled down.

 

[Grunter]

I found approx. $1.35 in change, couple pull tabs, bottle caps, tent stakes a towel drop junk ear ring,couple of rusty nails and a beer can that I know was every bit of 2 feet deep. I noticed that when the Legend vibrates you need to investigate because when you take out some sand you will get a tone and vid.

 

[tvr]

I noticed that when the Legend vibrates you need to investigate because when you take out some sand you will get a tone and vid.

Very interesting and likely useful observation!

 

[JCR TX]

It is hard to understand how vibration could be more sensitive than audio. This is worth testing out some & could prove useful.

 

[tvr]

It is hard to understand how vibration could be more sensitive than audio. This is worth testing out some & could prove useful.

Perhaps an update will be in the works.

 

[Ronstar]

I’ve not updated to 09 yet…..
Im in MW mode when on the saturated wet sand. So far its been dead silent until I try to pinpoint a target and when I touch the coil to the surface it screams like a large surface target and unable to locate a target until simply scoop dug and 5”+ deep.
I went out again this morning and the same scenario so I manual GB and same 8 number. Tried MD and GB changed to 63, that shouldn’t be??????
Went over to dry sand and back to MD, now pretty much acting like normal detector and getting targets and pinpoint back to normal.
The thing to try now I assume is Sens and Threshold settings on wet sand and in MW. I’m not disappointed in this venture as its still a learning curve. Not understanding the screaming sound in MW and pinpoint but I’ll get it figured out I hope.

 

[Ronstar]

Well the week at the beach is over and no finds other than bottle caps and foil tops etc. weekend was pretty full of people kids and dogs, only saw one other detectorist and it was obvious he had no experience.

I did make a little headway with the wet sand pinpointing. By lowering Sens and Thresh I was able to quiet the coil to sand squealing. I could start about 8-10” above the surface and it only squealed from 6” down to 1-2” and then quiet to surface. All my junk finds were 2-3” deep but depth meter was on third bar down. Since I’m not a beach hunter its a learning curve but none the less it was finding targets. GB was anywhere between 7 and 11.
Dry sand was much easier to adjust to and GB was holding steady around 20. I still have no idea why over wet sand and in MD the GB would be 60s and in MW it was 7-8.
Still I got some time on the machine and the beach and had a good time with family.

 

[DigDog]

I’ve not updated to 09 yet…..
Im in MW mode when on the saturated wet sand. So far its been dead silent until I try to pinpoint a target and when I touch the coil to the surface it screams like a large surface target and unable to locate a target until simply scoop dug and 5”+ deep.
I went out again this morning and the same scenario so I manual GB and same 8 number. Tried MD and GB changed to 63, that shouldn’t be??????
Went over to dry sand and back to MD, now pretty much acting like normal detector and getting targets and pinpoint back to normal.
The thing to try now I assume is Sens and Threshold settings on wet sand and in MW. I’m not disappointed in this venture as its still a learning curve. Not understanding the screaming sound in MW and pinpoint but I’ll get it figured out I hope.

So basically it ran normal and stable on dry sand but not on wet?
I don’t know what the beaches are like out there. The regular ground has alot of minimization from what i heard

 

[Ronstar]

It was stable on wet sand in MW mode. Only oddity was the squealing (like a flat can on surface) when the coil touched the sand. I semi corrected that as stated above and I just updated from 07 to 09 yesterday so unable to make any comparisons. No idea yet why GB numbers diff in wet sand just by switching from MW to MD.