For the past two month I have been water hunting exclusively using my friends Excalibur 1000. I have had a wonderful opportunity to hunt Florida Gulf waters From knee deep to chest deep, from dead calm to breaking waves and strong currents and rips. Throw in a liberal dose of stinging jellyfish, itchy seaweed and other marine life and I have pretty much experienced it all.
We've covered every beach from Pensacola to Destin Florida at three to five hours a hunt. Afternoon hunting here can be brutal with high humidity, bright sun and high temps, but the rewards are many. The water in this part of the Gulf is usually crystal clear (In chest deep you can see your coil rub the bottom) and emerald green, with some of the cleanest and whitest sand beaches in the world to frame it. Water temps in the summer in the 80's. This is our tourist season in the Northern Gulf and the beaches are crowded with visitors and locals alike.
But as a detectorist I have not gone the beach way. My passion has been finding old sites in out of the way places. I purchased my GT to hunt for coins and relics in the dirt. with some sand hunting thrown in. But the pull of the tide is strong when its at you door step only 15 minutes away. After one session of water hunting with the Excalibur (waist deep) I am hooked.
It also clarified my thinking about water/dirt hunting in general. After years of hunting the dirt, including parks, home sites historical area, etc., one thing is painfully obvious. Old coins and relics removed from the ground are non-renewable resources. I dug a 1858 half-dime from one of my sites and it will not be replaced by another. There might be others there to find but no new ones will be lost to replace them. My point is that productive sites are becoming harder and harder to find. A few months ago I found a nice Liberty half and some silver dimes in an area park. No Walking Liberty will replace the one I pulled and the odds against finding another at that park went up much higher. Most park hunting has turned into clad hunting (OK Fun, but no chicken dance). This IMO is the great attraction to Beach/Water hunting. Good stuff is out there. Gold and rings and other good things. I've read posts by the Va Beach hunters referring to the MINE. Actually a better term might be The BANK with new deposits of good finds made regularly.
I know that not everyone has access to beach hunting and I'm sorry about that but your welcome to visit my beach anytime. Maybe leave some and take some. As for me I'm jusr doing the water thing from now on.
One final comment. After 50 plus hrs with the Excal1000 with modified straight shaft and yellow headphones I'm not overly excited about it. The headphones don't fit very well and the sound (compared to my Grey Ghosts) is poor. The tones I get with my GT are way better. Except for one clear GOLD tone I got which actually turned out to be gold. A nice 14K neck charm. I also think I might prefer an 8in coil. Anyone like to trade an Excal for a GT. My GT will be on the classifieds. Also all my attachments. See picks below.
Swinging in the water.
Don
We've covered every beach from Pensacola to Destin Florida at three to five hours a hunt. Afternoon hunting here can be brutal with high humidity, bright sun and high temps, but the rewards are many. The water in this part of the Gulf is usually crystal clear (In chest deep you can see your coil rub the bottom) and emerald green, with some of the cleanest and whitest sand beaches in the world to frame it. Water temps in the summer in the 80's. This is our tourist season in the Northern Gulf and the beaches are crowded with visitors and locals alike.
But as a detectorist I have not gone the beach way. My passion has been finding old sites in out of the way places. I purchased my GT to hunt for coins and relics in the dirt. with some sand hunting thrown in. But the pull of the tide is strong when its at you door step only 15 minutes away. After one session of water hunting with the Excalibur (waist deep) I am hooked.
It also clarified my thinking about water/dirt hunting in general. After years of hunting the dirt, including parks, home sites historical area, etc., one thing is painfully obvious. Old coins and relics removed from the ground are non-renewable resources. I dug a 1858 half-dime from one of my sites and it will not be replaced by another. There might be others there to find but no new ones will be lost to replace them. My point is that productive sites are becoming harder and harder to find. A few months ago I found a nice Liberty half and some silver dimes in an area park. No Walking Liberty will replace the one I pulled and the odds against finding another at that park went up much higher. Most park hunting has turned into clad hunting (OK Fun, but no chicken dance). This IMO is the great attraction to Beach/Water hunting. Good stuff is out there. Gold and rings and other good things. I've read posts by the Va Beach hunters referring to the MINE. Actually a better term might be The BANK with new deposits of good finds made regularly.
I know that not everyone has access to beach hunting and I'm sorry about that but your welcome to visit my beach anytime. Maybe leave some and take some. As for me I'm jusr doing the water thing from now on.
One final comment. After 50 plus hrs with the Excal1000 with modified straight shaft and yellow headphones I'm not overly excited about it. The headphones don't fit very well and the sound (compared to my Grey Ghosts) is poor. The tones I get with my GT are way better. Except for one clear GOLD tone I got which actually turned out to be gold. A nice 14K neck charm. I also think I might prefer an 8in coil. Anyone like to trade an Excal for a GT. My GT will be on the classifieds. Also all my attachments. See picks below.
Swinging in the water.
Don