Folly Beach, SC and ID Edge results

[riverguy]

First of all, it is a great vacation site. Had great weather and spent 3 nice days on the beach.

Now on to metal detecting. I printed out the tide tables and knew the low tide times and hit the beach.

Turns out the Fisher ID Edge will just not work in salt water. It would not ground balance in the wet sand or the water even turning the sensitivity down to lowest setting. Got constant false signals and could barely pick out anything except one large rusty 3" nail. Tried it in all modes, all metal, you name it. Nothing worked.

Back up on the dry sand, the detector worked normal just like using it anywhere else but salt water. Maybe that is why most beach hunters us PI machines.

Also saw every morning and evening 2 - 4 guys hitting the beach with their metal detectors. Since I was not doing much metal detecting and just sitting in a beach chair, I watched them. Lots of swinging and very little digging. Since we stayed at the Holiday in by the pier, this is the heavy concentration of swimmers and the guys swinging knew that. But the volume of guys swinging seem to keep it clean. Talked to one guy and he said in one area someone seems to have salted the area with new bobby pins. Hmmm, sounds like a variant on the bb post.

I spent some time by the volley ball net in the dry sand and found pop tops and bottle caps. I will not post those pictures, because I am confident most of you guys know what they look like.

Anyway as my neighbor said, its part of the learning curve. The picture I uploaded is two guys swinging in the morning.

My advice to anyone going to the beach with a Fisher ID edge, don't waste your time. Of course I did not buy the Edge for beach hunting. I bought if it for hunting around Atlanta and it does a very good job in that environment in my opinion.

 

[thinkin2]

Sorry you didn't get to hunt much, riverguy, but hope you enjoyed your vacation anyway. The saltwater beaches are a different environment for sure and the right equipment makes all the difference. Of course, the beach does constantly change so some days will be great and some will be just a good walk. Since I live only 10 minutes from Folly I may have been one of the guys you saw. Don't really know but if it was over the weekend it I wouldn't have been there. Also, don't ever think the areas are hunted out regardless of how many beepers you see. Everybody always misses something and when you stop and think about it the beaches are a really huge area. Plus, don't restrict yourself to the areas around the Holiday Inn and the Folly Pier either. Vacationers rent most of the beachfront houses all up and down the beach. As for the bobby pins I think the PI units just love them and have no trouble finding them. I don't think the beach has been salted with them though. I'll let you know tomorrow though because I plan to hunt in the morning with one. Hope you come down again sometime.

Jerry

 

[tvr]

I don't have an ID edge, but with both the Tejon and XL Pro, I did better over the wet sand if I balanced them over the dry sand and then went to the wet and did not change the ground balance. It also helped to run discrimination up to low foil range and not just at small iron. Could not run all metal well, but could hunt and do OK on depth but not great. Don't know if any similar techniques could help with the ID edge. The CZ's I have balance over the wet and behave very well, but they are a different animal!
tvr

 

[deerman]

I agree with tvr as you should have been able to gb in the dry sand and then work the wet sand ,also if your setting in dis were just at iron you were
to low and should have been at about +3 or 4 and that would have gotten rid of the falseing as the detector is very sen to the salt and thinks of it as a
TARGET so if you reject the target(salt) you should have been able to run the detector in the wet sand sorry you did'nt get any loot and hope you had fun anyway

 

[dirtdigginlady]

I was in Folly Beach a few weeks ago and you are so right about the bobbie pins. I told my friend if I could find the woman who had lost all those I'd shave her slick as a ribbon lol. I hunted with the MXT and the White's BHID. I found lots of coins (actually got tired of digging coins) and found one gold 14 K ring, a silver charm with sets (but doubt they are real diamonds haven't checked) and my friend found one ring. There were more people detecting there than I'd ever seen on a beach at one time before.

 

[riverguy]

I was there Thurday night, friday, sat and sun morning. The guy finding the bobby pins it was at low tide, under the pier about 10 feet up from the water. If I lived near the beach, I would invest in a good beach machine, but I only get to the beach once every 3-4 years. Also anyone going to Charleston, the 1741 middleton place plantation is a great visit. Of course no metal detectors. But what a thought thousands of acres and 200 or so that were lived on since 1741. And the center place or city center place restaurant is the best non-fancy food and priced $8 for a meat and two vegs. Other restaurants over priced and not very good food was locklears and Blu in the Holiday inn.

Anyway thanks for the advice. I had fun, a good vacation and I agree, people keep losing things. that is proven to me over the summer at several public volley ball courts. And yes, I have found stuff I have missed on a volley ball court since rings and coins don't go below the sand and in the dirt in one week.

 

[goldnugget]

I really miss going to Folly Beach this summer, but then I go alot in the Winter, Too bad you didn't go to the North end and see if any C.War Bullets are showing up. This is where I usually go. Only if I had a boat to the Glory Hole across the channel. I,m still waitng on a Good N'Easter. Planning on attacking the North End of Sullivan Island at the inlet for old coins soon-goldnugget-Charlotte,N.C.--gosports1@aol.com