"Where should I hunt for gold and silver at a beach?"
Hunting beaches in and out of the water offers some of the best potential for success.
Only a handful of metal detector hobbyists have had the success I have had since I started in 1982.
Being in the "right place at the right time", with the right equipment, was largely responsible for this success as was the amount of time I invested in learning beach dynamics and hunting.
Today there are few beaches loaded with goodies as my hunting grounds were back then.
Most of my recent finds are small, old and deep.
There are targets out there waiting for you, but you must pass the coil over them and understand what your detector is telling you to find them. This requires no small investment in time and energy.
Finding the “right place” to hunt requires intelligent study of beach dynamics both from a human traffic and activity, and a weather/water/ sand interaction perspective.
At a beach where human activity is greatest on the beach, that is where efforts are spent rather than wasting lots of time in the water. Other beaches may be primarily “swimming” beaches and efforts are directed into water hunting.
Most beaches are a combination of both, but have sections reserved for different activities.
Only by investigating these dynamics can you truly know the answer.
Migration and erosion of sand due to weather, tides and currents requires fairly constant observation and study and play a huge part in “gittin da gold”!!
Anyone can, and people sometimes do, buy any kind of detector and walk out onto a beach and in a matter of minutes recover gold or silver.
We can all dream, but in the “real world” of metal detecting, results are almost directly proportional to time and energy spent at study and intelligently hunting targets!
" what other factors might point you to a certain area?"
I see you checked out the second post and got a bit more info 64.
Other considerations might be depth of water at low tide. Shallower water allows different kinds of play contributing to lost items.
Heavy surf may steer families with small children to another beach or part of a beach more sheltered leaving the big waves to surfers who usually aren't into "bling"!
World wide, up-scale resort beaches attract a lot of activity of all kinds and are first choice for expensive jewelry, but competition can be fierce!
Fresh drops are the most likely target, trash is not as common as at public beaches and Excals seem to be the weapon of choice, but good PI machines often find those missed goodies that have settled in too deep for Excals.
The above mentioned "Family" beaches will have fresh drops during the "Season", but may yield deeper targets of value after the season to the hunter with a good PI machine who takes his time and listens for those small repeatable variations in threshold tone signifying a deep target.
Deep often = heavy, gold is heavy! Right?
In an area where the sub-strate is stone such as we have locally (See my recent post on this subject!), watch for the sand thinning out and stones being visible at low tide because then you are looking at "rock bottom" and targets will be more accessable than when they are under a foot of sand.
In this kind of sub-strate targets don't usually settle as deeply as they can in other bottoms and Excal is once again preferred, unless the area has been heavily hunted and then PI machines offer a depth advantage allowing recovery of targets beyond the reach of Excals.
In areas where currents flow parralell to a sandy beach targets can and often do travel from the spot they were lost to a basin or "catch point" where they can accumulate in a "Hot Spot" also known as a "Glory Hole" where a lucky (or smart, observant) hunter will fill his bag with goodies in a short time!
This doesn't usually occur where there is a stoney sub-strate though as the gems can settle into spaces between the stones where they remain protected from even the most severe storms.
Studying a beach before, sometimes during and after storms of varying intensities can reveal valuable information to the wise hunter related to the above scenario.
No doubt I have over-looked many bits of info of value that someone else will be willing to share and fill in the blanks.
I know my Friend Craig has successfully used the internet to research old, no longer used beaches, that have been bypassed by "progress"!
Beaches that in some cases have never had a detector on them!
Hopefully you new Hunters have learned enough from these short posts to start using your new-found "Hunters" eyes with confidence.
Now git out there an git Ya some!!
One last note to finish this thread from a reply I made to a post this AM for those who might otherwise miss it!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are posts among the various forums with the answers to just about any question you may have about the Dual Field and of course metal detecting in general.
I have found this forum to be a wealth of information and enjoy scanning through back pages to round out my knowledge.
This is one hobby where the more you know the greater your payoff!!
As for the Dual Field, another great source is books by Clive J. Clynick.
A couple of his recent books get into the Dual Field in depth!
[email protected] is the link for any of his fine Treasure Hunting Books.
GL&HH Friends,
CJ
Hunting beaches in and out of the water offers some of the best potential for success.
Only a handful of metal detector hobbyists have had the success I have had since I started in 1982.
Being in the "right place at the right time", with the right equipment, was largely responsible for this success as was the amount of time I invested in learning beach dynamics and hunting.
Today there are few beaches loaded with goodies as my hunting grounds were back then.
Most of my recent finds are small, old and deep.
There are targets out there waiting for you, but you must pass the coil over them and understand what your detector is telling you to find them. This requires no small investment in time and energy.
Finding the “right place” to hunt requires intelligent study of beach dynamics both from a human traffic and activity, and a weather/water/ sand interaction perspective.
At a beach where human activity is greatest on the beach, that is where efforts are spent rather than wasting lots of time in the water. Other beaches may be primarily “swimming” beaches and efforts are directed into water hunting.
Most beaches are a combination of both, but have sections reserved for different activities.
Only by investigating these dynamics can you truly know the answer.
Migration and erosion of sand due to weather, tides and currents requires fairly constant observation and study and play a huge part in “gittin da gold”!!
Anyone can, and people sometimes do, buy any kind of detector and walk out onto a beach and in a matter of minutes recover gold or silver.
We can all dream, but in the “real world” of metal detecting, results are almost directly proportional to time and energy spent at study and intelligently hunting targets!
" what other factors might point you to a certain area?"
I see you checked out the second post and got a bit more info 64.
Other considerations might be depth of water at low tide. Shallower water allows different kinds of play contributing to lost items.
Heavy surf may steer families with small children to another beach or part of a beach more sheltered leaving the big waves to surfers who usually aren't into "bling"!
World wide, up-scale resort beaches attract a lot of activity of all kinds and are first choice for expensive jewelry, but competition can be fierce!
Fresh drops are the most likely target, trash is not as common as at public beaches and Excals seem to be the weapon of choice, but good PI machines often find those missed goodies that have settled in too deep for Excals.
The above mentioned "Family" beaches will have fresh drops during the "Season", but may yield deeper targets of value after the season to the hunter with a good PI machine who takes his time and listens for those small repeatable variations in threshold tone signifying a deep target.
Deep often = heavy, gold is heavy! Right?
In an area where the sub-strate is stone such as we have locally (See my recent post on this subject!), watch for the sand thinning out and stones being visible at low tide because then you are looking at "rock bottom" and targets will be more accessable than when they are under a foot of sand.
In this kind of sub-strate targets don't usually settle as deeply as they can in other bottoms and Excal is once again preferred, unless the area has been heavily hunted and then PI machines offer a depth advantage allowing recovery of targets beyond the reach of Excals.
In areas where currents flow parralell to a sandy beach targets can and often do travel from the spot they were lost to a basin or "catch point" where they can accumulate in a "Hot Spot" also known as a "Glory Hole" where a lucky (or smart, observant) hunter will fill his bag with goodies in a short time!
This doesn't usually occur where there is a stoney sub-strate though as the gems can settle into spaces between the stones where they remain protected from even the most severe storms.
Studying a beach before, sometimes during and after storms of varying intensities can reveal valuable information to the wise hunter related to the above scenario.
No doubt I have over-looked many bits of info of value that someone else will be willing to share and fill in the blanks.
I know my Friend Craig has successfully used the internet to research old, no longer used beaches, that have been bypassed by "progress"!
Beaches that in some cases have never had a detector on them!
Hopefully you new Hunters have learned enough from these short posts to start using your new-found "Hunters" eyes with confidence.
Now git out there an git Ya some!!
One last note to finish this thread from a reply I made to a post this AM for those who might otherwise miss it!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are posts among the various forums with the answers to just about any question you may have about the Dual Field and of course metal detecting in general.
I have found this forum to be a wealth of information and enjoy scanning through back pages to round out my knowledge.
This is one hobby where the more you know the greater your payoff!!
As for the Dual Field, another great source is books by Clive J. Clynick.
A couple of his recent books get into the Dual Field in depth!
[email protected] is the link for any of his fine Treasure Hunting Books.
GL&HH Friends,
CJ
I didn't have it but I did have 4 gold rings... I don't believe she lost it anyway...
