Some thoughts on the beach....

[jbow]

First off it is HOT in Florida in late July, too hot. I'd rather sit on the balcony in the shade and do research with the binoculars.

I hunted a little. We went to Mexico Beach, FL. I took three machines. The SovereignGT, F75 LTD, and White's V3. First I tried the V3 and really wasn't impressed. It worked great on the dry sand but was really chatty in the surf especially in and out of the water but some staying in the water and it was (for me) too heavy and not balanced well enough for ease of use. The LTD was just too sensitive to EMI or whatever... it wanted to chatter everywhere. As usual I ended up using the SovereignGT for what little sweating... er I mean hunting I did. The Sovereign makes a little noise going in and out of the water but once it is in the water it is as quiet and it is out of the water and chest mounted I could hunt the surfline but that really isn't where I needed to be so I mostly hunted the dry sand... found hand fulls of quarters, dimes, and nickels. The beach seems to be the one place where people don't carry very many pennies.

I cannot understand why so many people tear the pulltab off the can and throw it on the ground. I cannot understand why people go to such a beautiful palce and throw their Bud Light bottlecaps down on the beach... their canopy or beach umbrella blows down an is damaged and they leave it to lay there until someone else cleans it up. What is wrong with people?? I guess it is a symptom of our society. Everything is someone else's responsibility. The "Nanny State" will take care of it.

Then there were the BP workers... what a freaking joke they were. They were mostly fishermen from Mobile and westward. Regularly they would ride down the beach on their Gators, up by the dunes, never even looking down at the water... just riding and talking. Same thing with the ones who walked. I watched them, they never looked at the surfline and in fact walked well up the beach from the surfline, looking straight ahead and talking to each other. What a scam! Some may disagree with me but I think this is what is wrong with America, no one takes responsibility. Building a fishing business on the coast where you know there are oil rigs is taking a calculated risk. The two biggest industries along that part of the gulf coast is oil and fishing... sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. FWIW... BP was putting families up in 1,250.00 a week condos when 650 a week places were vacant all around. Then again IIRC we have a government type administering the funds... so nuff said. Oh.. we talked to someone from Pensacola who told us it was common over there for the people cleaning the beach to, when they spotted a tarball, to kick sand over it so they wouldn't have to bend over and pick it up... this is what they saw over there. Sound's about right...

As long as I am cynical... why do so many people come to a beautiful white powder sand beach and treat it like their personal landfill with their pulltabs, BudLight bottlecaps, cigarette butts, their broken canopies and chairs... all left for someone else to clean up.

Then there were the other detectorists... one with an Ebay Special, one with a White's black box, one with a White's Beach Hunter ID (who never got near the water with it), and one with a higher end Garretts. The Garretts guy was obviously a land hunter because he had a belt with a kneeling pad, a pistol probe, lesche digger, pouch, and three or four other things hanging off the belt. To a man... they all had a horrible swing with the middle of the swing 6 to 8 inches above the sand with the ends of the swing about a foot above the sand. I didn't see them dig anything. Only one had a dry sand scoop, the others were using a hand. The Garretts guy walked about 10' one way then stood under the pier for about 10 minutes, hunted about 10' the other direction then walked up on the pier to the surf line, looked down the beach both ways then walked back up to the condos/houses and i never saw him again... did I mention he was outfitted to a "T" even with a sunhat and neck shade. the biggest thing I couldn't understand was the horrible swing they all had. The guy using the White's with the black box (MXT, V3, XLT or something) was not only swinging the coil way too high but at a noticable angle with the forward edge pointed up. Amazing... I guess it is encouraging for those of us who keep the coil flat and skim the sand from end to end of the swing.

All things considered... I could have hunted more but it was mindnumbingly HOT but when I did hunt I found plenty of clad... but swimming with my 7yo grand daughter and doing bikini research was more enjoyable.

We stayed across the street from Brad Baxter. He turned out to be a nice guy, we talked a bit when he'd walk his dog. He did 7 yrs in the NFL as a running back and I asked... he isn't hurting and didn't blow his money. He has a cattle ranch in Texas and a trucking business. 11 rushing TDs in '91. Not bad... my wife asked if we should be asking for an autograph and he offered one but I didn't get one... I guess if i'd had a card i'd have asked.

It was a nice trip, too hot but good for reading and research... and for being amazed at poor technique.

The biggest thing I learned is that the next time I go to the beach I will have either an Excalibur or a CZ-21 so I can get out in the water when the little kids pull the rings off mommies greased up hands and break the gold chains off when the waves hit and they grab and hold on to mom and dad.

Oh.... and i'm going to try not to go in late July ever again... just too hot and in Florida at the beach the sun shines from everywhere. Here it just shines from the sky. There it shines from the sky, the water, and the sand... I got a tan in the shade.

J

 

[boxofchocolates]

Yes Julien a water detector is nice cause I get in the water to cool off.......I'm in south GA. so a couple hrs I can be at a Fl. beach.......I use the bhid it works fine for me when I can go beach hunting but have considered the excal.......hh......Dan

 

[jbow]

Where are you? I grew up in Moultrie and my folks still live there.

J

 

[boxofchocolates]

Near Waycross

 

[therover]

Are COMPLETELY at the opposite ends of the spectrum environmentally. I guess in the middle is tourism, where oil disasters screw it up totally, where great fishing and sea food drive it up. More people go on charters, eat out, etc. while the oil disaster keeps em away.

Too bad you can't shut down every rig, pay every employee their salaries, until each rig is inspected the way it should be. Problem is, BP and others have oil contracts with the government, to almost exclusively supply the military with fuel, so that idea is shot.

 

[jbow]

I think the real problem is that the only thing anyone is really worried about is perception... about what people see. That is the reason BP used excessive dispersants with the approval of the Coast Guard... because they didn't want people to see a huge oil slick on the surface. IMO, they should have used no dispersants, let all the oil come to the top and burned it. Rounded it up and burned it. That was the plan that was in place but the Obama administration told them they couldn't burn it... and it went on for about a month with no one doing much of anything. It was really a comedy of errors. LA was trying to protect the marshes and the EPA and Coast Guard were getting in the way, i'm sure they were being told what to do and not do by the Obama people. Then Riley in Alabama got enough booms, or whatever they called them, to protect Alabama's shoreline... then James Carville came out crying about, "we're dying down here"... a few days later the Feds took the booms from Alabama and moved them to LA. What is going on now is pure crap, they don't know where the oil went, can't find it in the gulf, it's not on the beach and the "workers" are vacationing on the beach at the expense of BP. I am pretty well convinced that we have seen the last of this particular oil... it will continue to vanish as nature cleans itself... heck, that much oil seeps from the floor of the gulf every day... just not all in one place. I am a believer in the abiotic oil theory, I don't buy the whole "fossil fuel" thing. Abiotic makes much more sense and there is also no "peak oil" if it is abiotic. Think about this: if oil is fossil fuel how the heck did it get three miles under the floor of the sea when the sea floor is already two miles down...?? It seeped down there by gravity (even though it is lighter than water) but at the same time it is so pressurized that it comes screaming out and up if we drill into it?? Yeah, that makes sense.

I buy BP gas whenever I have the chance. they need the money.

J

 

[jbow]

I think you've told me that before. When I was at Albany Jr College and ABAC I knew a couple of good guys from Folkston. I'll have to pull an old annual and see if I can get a name....been a longtime though and that year I switched my major from music (voice) to PARTY and joined a RnR band... it was fun from what little I remember... it was 1970 after all... huh?

J

 

[hershey1]

You're Soveriegn is an excellent machine. Following the tide out with the Soveriegn would have been a great tactic if it was'nt so hot. This time of year a good water machine is the ticket. Quality time with the grandkids trumps hot hunting anyway. HH

 

[Dig]

Here in Florida we don't call that "Hot", we call it " Tropical"

 

[goodmore]

People are pigs with their trash. I always get a little chuckle when I read on this forum about whether a certain beach allows metal detectors. IMHO all beaches should welcome us with open arms. Many of times after digging up a sharp piece of trash and seeing a kid playing 25 ft away I just shake my head. Sometimes I see people looking at my water shoes. Like they almost want to chuckle. I feel like getting a T-shirt made up that says " If you could see what I dig up you would have on water shoes too".

 

[boxofchocolates]

That reminds me of some of the trash sharpe objects I've removed to the trash can one little item was a small piece if board with a rusty nail sticking straight up.....now it was so coroded that it was almost needle sharpe
Shew that would have made a nasty wound......hh.....Dan

 

[Dig]

What about all the lead.....I have close to 30lbs of fishing lead from this year alone. makes you wonder what all that lead dissolving into the water systems does to us as we swim in it.

 

[EROK]

n/t

 

[Dick from NC]

We have the same problem on the North and South Carolina Beach's where the beach goers leave all their trash on the beach for some one else to clean up, and they even have trash can out on the beach. I don't mind the weekend metal detectives and their high swing that means more for me to find.

 

[thevacantface]

It is amazing how disgusting people are that they don't pick up their trash. The most baffling thing to me is the burried soda cans when there is a dumpster not 30 feet away and its on their way back to their cars. How is it easier to dig a two foot deep hole and throw your cans in that than it is to walk over to the dumpster. Any beach that doesn't allow a metal detectorist is just stupid. I am not hard core about my hunting, but over the past two years, I have a 5 gallon bucket that is nearly full of the metal trash I have dug, and that doesn't include anything too big or heavy to go in my pocket, soda can, or anything that is light or paper based, all that stuff just goes in the normal trash for me. So I have 5 gallons of bottle tops, rusted nails, and other garbage, I think its worth the little handful of gold that I have found. I don't have a problem with any other metal detectorist, they can hunt however they want, except for those people who cherry pick an area, they only pick up the coins and jewelry and will rebury anything else they dig, I have seen it plenty of times, just go detect someone elses holes if you see them in the hard sand, you might be surprised at the fact that a bunch of people sharing our hobby are just as bad as the rest of those who discard trash at the beach.

 

[TRIPLE-SSS]

I get to the beach early in the morning and see all the trash people leave behind, cans, bottles, dirty diapers, paper,used charcoal dumped on the sand, broken plastic chairs,clothes,flip flops,empty food cans and the list goes on and on. The county has a clean up crew every morning to clean all this garbage that people leave behind, just wandering what their homes look like. It's just so sad why people do this to our pristine beaches . I live in Texas and this holds true for just about all the beaches along the Texas coast. There are people who do care and do respect the beaches but than there are the ones who just don't give a damn. I wish that someone from the state would monitor and enforce our states littering law at our beaches and maybe teach some of these goofballs a lesson.
TRIPLE-SSS

 

[John(Tx)]

I know what you mean, they do the same thing at out local beach but getting the state involved would be the wrong thing to do, they would probably ban metal detecting like they do everything else.....HH