March Beach Hunting Totals

beachclad

Full Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2020
Messages
125
Location
South Florida
March was on pace to be my best month of finds before the virus hit. By the end of the 3rd week, I had already passed my clad total for February. Had the beach stayed open, I would have made a strong push for $70+.

My clad total for March:
Dollar coins: $1
Half dollars: $0.50
Quarters: $35.50
Dimes: $14.20
Nickels: $4.00
Pennies: $1.73
Total: $56.93

It was an increase of $6.74 (13.4%) from the previous month.

Year-to-date:
marchclad.jpg



I also read three books on metal detecting during the month:
1. Gold Beneath the Waves by Jim Brouwer
2. Hardcore Beach Hunting by Gary Drayton
3. How to Read the Beach by Gary Drayton

The books were good but didn't contain any significant revelations. The tip I found most useful came from Drayton who suggests going slow over productive areas. His motto is that he prefers to cover a small area well than a large area poorly. I was able to find targets from areas I thought I had covered thoroughly using this technique.

Notable finds for the month:

Mar-finds.jpg


The usual toy cars. This time a tank and a truck.

Foreign clad from Colombia, UK, EU, and two other countries I'm forgetting now.

My first half dollar. I knew it was something unusual when the VDI came in at a solid 32-33. I never get quarters that ring up that high (usually 29-30). I thought for sure it was a silver coin, but no luck. It was a '71 Kennedy half with a copper/nickel composition.

Jewelry finds included mostly junk.

My only silver piece was the small rosary necklace pictured above, stamped .925 (thought it was .945 at first). The way I found it was a complete fluke. I was digging a mid-tone target near the end of a night hunt and after digging the hole, the target disappeared. I re-checked the hole and the areas around the hole, but the signal was gone. I thought it was strange but figured that it was either a tiny piece of aluminum or a false signal. I was about ready to wrap it up for the night and moved on. I dug several more targets as I walked toward the exit. I stopped by the beach showers to wash my scoop and coil. I walked over to the parking lot where my bike was parked. I leaned the scoop against the wall and as I was packing the headphones in my backpack, I glanced over at the scoop and noticed something shiny tangled up in the holes. I thought "no way!" and noticed what looked like a necklace tangled up pretty badly around the holes. I figured right away that it was probably the target that "disappeared." What's amazing to me is that I dug a few more targets and washed the scoop with running water and it managed to stay clinging to the scoop the entire time!

I also found a giant men's ring that almost gave me a heart attack. I was searching the wet sand in front of a high-end tourist hotel/resort and I get a dime signal. Out comes a giant honker of a ring that I thought was a class ring. It was dark and I didn't have a light so I was going by feel. It felt big and heavy with something like a stone on top. I put it carefully in my backpack, crusted sand and all, instead of in my finds pouch. I searched the area around it in a circle and then debated whether to leave the beach and examine it at home. I thought for sure it was a huge gold ring and I wanted to celebrate. Good thing I stayed. When I get home, I discover that the ring was a hideous hunk of garbage. Most of the plating was stripped away except for some gold near the stone that was now jagged and almost sharp enough to cut your finger. The stone was a Roman warrior, intaglio style. Had it been real, it would have been an "art deco" style vintage ring and worth good money. I was pissed. Who would wear this fake junk to a nice hotel beach?!

My best ring was a large black wedding band with a "carbon fiber" pattern. It has the words "I Love You" engraved on the inside in white cursive letters. Heavy. Not sure what metal it is. Looks brand new. I was hoping to find a marking or a brand on it to boost its value, but it had nothing. eBay searches show that it retails for less than $20 as an unbranded Chinese knock-off. I think some major jewelers sell one similar to it for over $100 as "Tungsten".

The closest I came to gold was a ladies stackable L-shaped ring that weighs 1 gram. It has a reddish film on it that I couldn't remove, from what looks like a "rose gold" plating (not sure). It's pitted and tarnished but has a goldish hue to it. No hallmark. I found a version of the ring that is 10k or 14k (I forget), but I also found another version of the ring that is plated. Either way, the ring is practically worthless in that condition and the melt value would be negligible even if low carat gold.

Finally, I found a lot of oddly shaped pieces. I tried digging weird jumpy signals. The hoop earring pictured above came in as a low single-digit VDI that dropped into iron. The silver gem pendant necklace was a jumpy 6-14 signal that sounded like a bottle cap. So did the charm bracelet. The tiny "diamond" studded earring came in as a low jumpy 4-8 signal.

Misc Finds:

Mar-misc-finds.jpg


The best find of the group was a pair of working JLAB Bluetooth earbuds. I thought they were toast when I found them but was pleasantly surprised when the LED light started flashing. I cleaned the earbuds with alcohol and they work great! I was actually going to buy new earbuds and I'm glad I found these for free. Low latency too, so I think I can pair them to the Nox.

Other than that, it was more of the same. Sinkers, lures, bottle openers, glasses, vape, etc. I found a cool iron hook while using all-metal mode. Maybe I can use it to hang my detector on the wall?

Weirdest finds were two "Felix pennies" (as they are called on this forum) with some very oddly shaped appendages growing out of them. Coral? They represent the most extreme examples of the side effects of currency debasement. I'm keeping them.

Recap

Q1 (January, February, and March) Jewelry finds:

Q1-totals-jewelry.jpg


I could open a fake jewelry store at the flea market pretty soon.

Q1 (January, February, and March) clad finds:

q1-clad.jpg


I estimate there are ~1,000 crusted pennies in that 24 oz. container. I hate those things.

That's over 2,600 targets pictured.

***

That concludes my post. I've probably dug close to 5,000 targets by now if I include all the pull tabs, bottle caps, etc., that I throw away. Still no gold. I must be very, very unlucky.

I watch a lot of YouTube videos to see what other detectorists do. I don't understand how some of them casually find gold rings laying around on every other video they post. I always think: How is that possible?!

My outlook for April is bleak with all of the beach closures. It's a certainty that my clad count is going into a recession along with the U.S. economy. The chances of finding gold this month are not good.
 
Amazing finds and a great write up. That metal with hair think looks like a fishing fly. The hook probably rusted off. I like that iron wall hook too.


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For sure you had some good work outs and not a bad haul on the dollars. I am seeing a lot of good targets that lead to gold. It's going to happen for sure at the pace your going..

I watch a lot of YouTube videos to see what other detectorists do. I don't understand how some of them casually find gold rings laying around on every other video they post. I always think: How is that possible?!

.

Lots of factors but I think the biggest is Location. "Casually" I'm not sure about that, it's a lot of work. Me, I try and put myself in the right spot at the right time then my skill (I guess you would call) kicks in... The lead up to being able to do that........ I must do the time to locate a potential spot.

I don't see to many of us having a good summer until all of this C19 is cleared. I'm grounded for sure. Always next year, I hope.
 
I really like your write up. Looks like many of our hunts on here. You are on the road to finding gold. It WILL happen for you. I didn't notice how often you hunt on consecutive days however. Do you do this ?
Tips : don't believe all those crazy YouTube videos. If you are finding rings and heavier targets , that's good. But I would recommend you hunt that same spot the next day or two as well. Pay careful attention to any sand movement. If I'm on a hot location , I will go there the following days until it's cleaned out. You may be surprised. If you find 1 ring , often there will be another within about a 40' radius.
Good luck !
 
Great write up and as been said just stick with it-seems like the gold shows up when you least expect it. Put yourself in places with the best chances of yellow being there and eventually it will end up in your scoop. GL
 
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