salt water beach obsevations, questions

[dmger14]

I have metal detected Ocean City Maryland with my AT Pro for over 10 hours total now. My STAVR Scoop Evro Excavator was an excellent choice. I am able to get little chatter in the surf but it's tough when the surf isn't really calm and I didn't do it much at all. In dry sand, quarters, dimes and pennies are easy to detect. Nickels hit where pulltabs do and I have avoided some hits around 53 figuring I'd pass the chance of a nickel to avoid effort on junk. Idiot me! I figured gold bands hit like mine-67. But I just found out my wife's band hits at 53 and diamond ring 49 (I was digging high 40's but not 53). Live and learn! Question: are gold bands and rings so heavy they sink to below detection depth after a short while in DRY beach sand? I'm sure they are detectable for a few days at least but do they quickly sink? I did find one ring but it looks like junk. I also found about $10 worth of change overall. One other observation is sometimes I get a hit that indicates a coin that I miss on the first scoop, and it doesn't ping clearly with a number after that. When I stick with it, I do find the target even if it's an inconsistent faint beep for a while. Also, coins might jump a little on the reading (i.e. 81 to 84) but bottlecaps and cans jump 20 or more on the scale.

 

[dmger14]

Forgot my other question. Is it worthwhile for rings etc. to cover the wet sand downslope to the surf or is gold almost always in the low spot in the water itself, making the downslope a low probability area? At this beach, the downslope is probably 10 degrees. I will be searching and reading as I'm sure these issues have been covered (including where and how to detect in the surf), but any tips on dry and wet sand for rings and chains would be appreciated.

 

[fongu]

I've never detected salt water before, but in Mr. Garretts book on water hunting, he suggests hitting the low spots where the tide comes in and I see a lot of people talking about hitting the cut and I don't know if this is a low place or not. If you're finding nickels, you will find the gold. I found one ring at 8 inches and another at 10 inches in freshwater with my At/Pro. I go by the tone of a find quite a bit and I don't know how to describe it to you, but after awhile when you get a certain tone or a pip, it will tell you to dig and you will be rewarded for your effort. Happy hunting.

 

[dmger14]

Thanks! I realize low tide is the ticket but with family here I need to go when I can regardless of tide, rarely after a storm and just do what I can. With help from people here I can gb on wet sand with pretty high sensitivity. Low spots are tough b/c they are down in the moving water and waves and not so easy keeping the coil at a steady height there getting pushed around by the water. I am good just above the high tide mark on dry sand where people set up and am very happy with the AT Pro on coins and found ones that were deep and there a long time other detectors must have missed. I will dig 53s from here on out, that was stupid novice mistake. Also, I am paying close attention to tones and readings for future reference. I'm learning!

 

[mudslingers8]

Gold comes in at 30- 81 plus depends on the size and base metal. Dig it all on the Beach is the best advice you can be given.

Mudslinger

 

[dmger14]

I am going in a few hours to a new place on the beach and will report back. BTW, another guy said all he ever got were coins on dry beach. I know most are lost in the water but surely some in dry sand and I hope they don't sink too quick. They have sand skimmers here but hey don't go very deep. I find lots of coins in their pathway.

 

[BigCatDaddy]

Don't pass anything up!! Use the VDI's to make an educated guess and then scoop it, Gold hit's all over the place, you gotta scoop everything...except those bottlecaps!! Use the Tone Roll Audio for those wretched things!!

 

[dmger14]

Thanks! Will do! To be honest, not too much junk here - even pulltabs. I'm fortunate.

 

[mudpuppy]

Theres gold up on the dry, and no it does not sink, in fact, it may get exposed or covered depending on the wind and how long its been there. Some folks take their rings off and put them in a shoe, or on the towel, or in an empty cigarette pack, or something like that when they go swimming, and sometimes they get lost up on the dry, so a fellow can just hunt the dry and find gold, sometimes big gold, like chains and whatnot. I hunted the dry for gold 2 years straight and it taught me a lot about people and what to look for.
Mud

 

[dmger14]

Thanks Mud! We (me and my 13 yr. old) got $2.94 in change in about 3 hours. The stretch of beach we were on had way fewer coin hits and we saw 4 other people detecting. Nothing but coins, foil and tabs.