It is ABSOLUTELY typical, Chase. The salts in the water, held in solution by the sand are electrically conductive. VLF detectors react to them as if they were targets.
Add to this, in varying degrees of severity, the effects of "black sands", or magnetites in the sand/soil matrix. This is essentially iron based compounds in the sand, either naturally occurring or as the result of long eroded steel and iron. In concentration, this stuf is highly conductive and can big-time mess with your detector.
To reduce these effect, you have to turn down the gain or sensitivity on your detector - sometimes quite a bit. Fiddling with your discrim can help too. Also, re-ground balancing will help, if you have that feature. However, you can find yourself repeating all this "knob tweaking" ALOT as the concentrations of salt and other minerals in wet tidal sands vary from spot to spot.
A better bet is to stay in the less wetted sands - those in which you can get the smoothest operation, i.e., get as wet as you can without all that falsing. Stable detector operation at the highest sensitivity level possible is always the goal.
Then, work the dune lines after storms or unusally violent high tides, cuts after the tide has ebbed to it's lowest and wherever the heaviest concentrations of beachgoers gather - after they have left, of course. Alas, dryer sand means more foil and other common trash. C'est la Vie.
It's best if you can have a pulse induction unit, as they are NOT effected by all this salt and sand phenomenon AND they punch deep. With them, you can get as wet as you wanna! They also add more cost to your hobby, more equipment to keep up with and they dont discriminate well, if at all.
Beach hunting is a mixed blessing - there are some great finds and times to be had there, you just gottsta pay your due diligence and know the answers to the right questions.
Hit the forums and read the beach and sand hunting articles. It'll come, man.
David
