Hi diannecal, welcome!
Have used a Sea Hunter Mark II for a few years. My buying decision was partly based on the big volumes of trash at the beaches here (visual) and the belief that the Discrete Trash Elimination mode would save me a lot of digging time and to a certain extent it can, has and will continue to. But, I found soon after getting it there is also a very obvious (not to me before buying) downside to it all and that is iron, iron and more iron.
So, on an average hunt with the Sea Hunter I will end up with much more trash than with the Ace 150. I am generally a dig all targets kind of person though and have found many rings around iron targets too. China is closer to us but my Sea Hunter wants to take the long route down, real fun when it's good metal, not so much fun when it is iron near Shanghai.
Suggest you prepare your mind and body for that. Having said that though, you now have a very powerful machine, very well designed for the beach and in the water. By living near a beach (hopefully a popular one) you have a great opportunity to regularly learn about what is below the sand and some patterns will emerge the more you hunt.
Re. pinpointing. Not as big a thing at the beach as with a nice manicured lawn i.e. you probably won't be using a screwdriver to pop out coins at the beach. But you can save time by turning the coil on its edge and pinpointing a target that way, in the sand you have just scooped from a hole. I have a small but powerful magnet on my shovel and it saves lots and lots of time and knee bends. Tend to use the shovel more than the sand scoop because of the type of sand/ground we regularly hunt i.e. wet to dry sand.
Suggest you read the section in the manual (page 6), carefully study the graph re. Discrete and Standard modes and choose your settings to suit your conditions and target material. My settings are often Standard Trash Elimination, with Elimination at zero or up to 2.
Hope that helps and you get out there often. Look forward to your future posts.
Won't post a pic of finds from last year as John suggests, because I don't like to show off.
Oh well, okay, just a little bit of bullion bought with some of the coins from last year, and some sinkers that John wants me to send him for some strange reason, maybe cabin fever or lack of salt water?!
HH
. By the way, any women hunters out there? Thanks for any help you can offer.
(just love these smileys) The pictures are such an inspiration. I will keep you posted about my beach hunts although I won't be going into the water anytime soon. TOO Frigid!