Sand Shark ready to go!

[highlander1s]

Hi all, new to forum: I recently purchased a Sand Shark and can't wait to get to the beach. I own a Whites 6000 VLF and it didn't do real well the last time I was there. So this time I'm prepared, hopfully with all the research I've done it will pay off. I've hear a lot of good things about Tesoro SS so we'll see. I'll post my finds when I return.. I did do some MD (with my White) at an old civil war era home the other day and I could not believe my ears..with every swing, I mean every swing of the MD I got a noise, I even had the disc set all the way to 6 or 7 and still got junk noise. I am just really surprised, it was like being in a pull tab field. Anyway I'll get back here and post results next week. Happy MD'ing:twodetecting

 

[tvr]

Looking forward to hearing how you do with the Sand Shark.

 

[highlander1s]

Well I made it back. I tried the sand shark, and actually I got tired of digging. I found lots of change and bobbi-pins-nails-pulltabs-beer tops-soda and one silver neckless.. It worked great as far as locating metal one penny was at least 18". But is it common for them to chatter like crazy, I mean not hold a steady threshold tone. It kinda sounds like it's always readjusting the tone, and sometimes while searching it would give a loud noise like metal then go back to the regular tone. Anyway I had a great time and look forward to next year...maybe some gold next time...

 

[tvr]

The threshold on mine is not very steady. It moves about irregularly. I set it to barely audible over wet sand and if the waves are loud, I set it just a hair higher. Took me several hours of hunting with it before I was hearing deeper targets. The deeper targets move the threshold in a smoother way as the coil passes over the target even if it is a very small change. The normal threshold doesn't have the same change pattern; kind of choppy but not real regular. Sometimes the normal threshold variation makes me go back and recheck a small area when I think I heard a smooth change; then I also slow down the sweep a lot to be sure of what I am or am not hearing. If it repeats on coil sweep, I dig.

I have also had some interference; from other detectors, from some nearby push to talk radios when they are first keyed and one time something that I thought was a shallow target sound, but was too short of a burst and not consistent with sweep; so I raised the coil in the air for a few seconds and got more "hits". Since these random hits got fainter and then went away as a large boat / ship moved out, I think it was related to the boat.

I did have a hunt when the detector sounded off when waves washed over the coil and when I set the coil down on the sand. Unscrewing to coil connector from the detector and then reconnecting it solved that one.

I have found that I don't get as many tabs and bottle tops if I stay in the always wet sand and water with the Sand Shark and hunt the transition and dry areas with a different detector. Still get some junk, mostly hair pins, but not nearly as many tabs and bottle caps.
tvr

 

[highlander1s]

I do know on mine, the threshold was like you said "not stable". It was set to where I could barely hear it and the volume all the way up. I would get a loud spike every 2 or 3 min. on dry or wet sand. That is the only thing that concerned me. The waves made no difference as far as the loud spikes. On deeper targets there was a faint "hit" in the threshold so you really have to pay attention and get use to the MD. I couldn't believe the depth of some of the coins I was digging, very few were under 12". The hairpins sometimes gave a double beep but not always. I did find an extremely small silver clasp (neckless maybe) at 6"- 8". It's a great detector and would buy it again.