Vaquero on the Beach?

[kimbershot]

I use a Garrett Sea Hunter in the wet wet sand area at low tide on my local salt water beach--it's relatively junk free. If/when I move up to a dryer area--I dig dig dig--mostly bobby pins and assorted crap. It's great exercise--but leaves a lot to be desired. I will be getting a Vaquero this month for coin/relic hunting on dry land but I'm curious as to how the Vaquero would run on dry sand--maybe even touching a few wet spots--could I expect to eliminate some of the non productive exercise?

Personal experiences would be welcomed.

 

[Neil]

Absolutely, in the dry sand it will work fantastic. Get the 10X12 DD coil for it. Touching on any wet sand is gonna make it false so lower the sens a little and you can also compensate by raising the disc a little. You will have to adjust it to your own conditions. Ive used both the Vaquero and Tejon on the beaches, expect to find some earrings and smaller jewelry others have missed. Your also gonna dig the heck out of small foil but your gonna also eliminate alot of small iron. I would set your disc up against small gold instead of relying on the iron setting on the faceplate. Also supertune it and run it as hot as you can in the dry sand, you will be using a scoop anyways so the pinpoint feature your loosing doesnt matter(pinpoint buttone will scream at a high threshold setting).
I also removed the coil cover on the 10X12, thats a pretty thick cover and you can really feel how much its lighter to swing by removing it and you wont have to clean the darn thing out every hunt.

 

[Minas man]

I have swung a Vaquero for 5 years and on Dry salt white sand beaches have had no problems but the key is Dry . I am looking for a companion detector for the Vaquero and have ruled out a PI detector for the reasons that you have stated. I love the V on the dry sand it is such a light weight power house that I can swing it all day.
I hunt the beach with the V in All Metal mode by pressing the pin point button and when a target is found then I release the button and........ voila....... I am in Discrimination mode just above iron. At that point slow down your speed and thumb the discrimination.
All the best on the beach.

Minas man

 

[Minas man]

Forgot to mention that when using the pin point AM method described above I set the threshold to barely audible so it is not blasting your ears out. Neil gave you great advice too.

Minas man

 

[hihosilver]

n/t

 

[REVIER]

Found my first gold ring in the dry sand with my Vaq and the standard coil.
It was really, really tiny, at least 8" deep and I found it in disc because it was a loud and clear repeating signal so yea, the Vaq will work fine in the dry sand.

 

[ken ward]

Minas Man... What kind of precautions do you take with your V at the salt water beach.. Don't you get salty spray or a mist in the air.. That could really mess up the inside of the control box. I want to use mine at the beach,, but I am afraid I might get cerosion inside the box... I am back in the Philippines for the winter... KEN

 

[thump7]

Lets be truthful here, the vaq will hit on small gold in beach sand. But the key is all-metal. Lets face it, in dry sand any detector can hit on rings and coins. Where the vaquero has a bit of an edge is in the AM mode. Run in AM listen for the teeniest of signal. Check to see where the threshold starts to rise as you slowly sweep the coil over the target. If it starts to rise when the edge of the coil is close to or touching the target, it is iron. Iron pinpoints big whereas non-ferrous pinpoints small.
Finding small gold will have you digging everything anyways. Unless of course you well verses in the ways of the compade..... Which works pretty good on dry sand as well.

 

[Minas man]

Minas Man... What kind of precautions do you take with your V at the salt water beach.. Don't you get salty spray or a mist in the air.. That could really mess up the inside of the control box. I want to use mine at the beach,, but I am afraid I might get corrosion inside the box... I am back in the Philippines for the winter... KEN

Yes Ken you have to be cautious about the salt water and the Vaquero faults in wet salt sand so that keeps me away from the waters edge and spray. Down on the Florida Gulf coast the beaches are so wide that it is easy to stay in the dry sand.

Thump7 Very good points about AM mode and Vaquero's audio response to good targets vs iron. My twist on that is using the pinpoint button to access AM while in discrimination mode as mentioned above the reasoning that it speeds up the discrimination process.

Minas man