Mineralize Sand at the Beach/How to Deal With It?

[unearth]

Having some problems with mineralization at the beach. Tried different setting changes, but still having some problems. Would like some ideas on how best to compensate for the mineralized sand on the So. Cal. beaches I hunt. Thanks for any help you may have.

 

[Mark kus]

Here in Ct we have back and red sand some of my favorite areas to hunt sometime I lower the sensitivity that helps here..

 

[lytle78]

Black Sand will severely reduce depth of detection on any VLF IB detector. GB and sensitivity adjustments can help some, but at Coronado Beach in San Diego, my Nox detected a nickel at 11” in the air and only 7” in the sand.

 

[bklein]

Was watching Robert Ferguson’s recent video which had black sand and his EQ was getting so chatty I think he gave up on those areas and went to areas with less of it but the EQ was quieter. Thing is the good stuff was probably in the black sand. He didn’t comment on what settings he tried. What GB mode works best?

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi unearth. You need to specifically ground balance any patches or sections of black sand that you encounter. Hopefully you are not running tracking. Decrease your sensitivity.
Also, beaches should be searched going sideways, not high to low or visa versa.
The ground is much more uniform running along the beach than it is going high to down to the wet sand. The wet sand has it's own ground balance, you prob know this.

 

[unearth]

Hi unearth. You need to specifically ground balance any patches or sections of black sand that you encounter. Hopefully you are not running tracking. Decrease your sensitivity.
Also, beaches should be searched going sideways, not high to low or visa versa.
The ground is much more uniform running along the beach than it is going high to down to the wet sand. The wet sand has it's own ground balance, you prob know this.

Hi Mass SaltH2O. I am not running tracking and when you say sideways, I take it to mean parallel to the water, which I do, sometimes. I will endeavor to remember this action. Also, ground balancing when coming across black sand is something that I have lacked in doing. I will take your insight to my next beach hunt. Thanks

 

[laplander]

Having some problems with mineralization at the beach. Tried different setting changes, but still having some problems. Would like some ideas on how best to compensate for the mineralized sand on the So. Cal. beaches I hunt. Thanks for any help you may have.

What problems are you having? Lack of depth, chatter ….

 

[midalake]

Having some problems with mineralization at the beach. Tried different setting changes, but still having some problems. Would like some ideas on how best to compensate for the mineralized sand on the So. Cal. beaches I hunt. Thanks for any help you may have.

I have moderate black sand here. Beach 2 is a must with keeping the recovery speed at 6. Ground balance in manual set a 0, Then the only thing left to do is dial your sensitivity down until it is huntable. GO SLOW in black sand and remember that target numbers will be jumpy and possibly not correct. Good luck!

I would NOT try to ground balance the black sand as others suggested.
Dave

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi unearth. You need to specifically ground balance any patches or sections of black sand that you encounter. Hopefully you are not running tracking. Decrease your sensitivity.
Also, beaches should be searched going sideways, not high to low or visa versa.
The ground is much more uniform running along the beach than it is going high to down to the wet sand. The wet sand has it's own ground balance, you prob know this.

Hi Mass SaltH2O. I am not running tracking and when you say sideways, I take it to mean parallel to the water, which I do, sometimes. I will endeavor to remember this action. Also, ground balancing when coming across black sand is something that I have lacked in doing. I will take your insight to my next beach hunt. Thanks

Sure. My pleasure. Let us know how it goes.

 

[unearth]

Having some problems with mineralization at the beach. Tried different setting changes, but still having some problems. Would like some ideas on how best to compensate for the mineralized sand on the So. Cal. beaches I hunt. Thanks for any help you may have.
What problems are you having? Lack of depth, chatter ….

It seems a lack of depth, but I'm not sure how you really judge that without having someone with another detector with you and comparing. Maybe there hasn't been any deep targets under my coil, OR, the targets are to deep for the detector to detect.
I'm not having a lot of chatter. It seems to come and go. I'm guessing each patch of black sand could affect the detector differently. That might account for the chatter coming and going.

 

[okara gold]

How did I deal with it? I bought a PI machine. I used to live in the Adirondack Mountains in NYS. They are loaded with iron ore. The areas where the water met the sand and where the wave action on the lakes accumulated the black sand was heavy and thick, up to 3 inches in places and ran quite some distance. I was using an Excalibur at the time and it worked well in the water away from the shallows. Upon approaching the wet sand from the water, or trying to hunt along the waters edge, caused a huge loss in depth and erratic behavior. I was lucky if a nickel could be detected at 5 inches. Surely I thought something was wrong. I sent the machine to Minelab to have it thoroughly checked over just to be sure and it was in perfect working order. It was the heavy black sand that caused all the problems, not the machine or operator error.