When Hunting a Beach It's All About the Sand.

[bdahunter]

Surf Pirates know that Low Tide is the tide to hunt because more of the beach is exposed and more of the bottom is accessible. The change of the tide also affects which part of the bottom is most stirred up by the wave action, exposing loot. The sand does move with every change of the tide but the real question is how much does it shift and is it enough to uncover buried treasures? As the seasons change so does the prime area to work a beach if you are going to have the greatest chance of success in getting at the loot. Winter storms are generally more prevalent than in the other seasons, depending on your location as hurricanes become a factor as well. Large movements of sand are more likely to stir up a beach and bring targets into detecting range. Gold and Silver are heavier than the surrounding sand so they sink until they find a level of sand compaction that will support them, usually this is beyond the detecting range of your detector so a major movement of sand may remove the overburden and allow you to get to the good finds. I've attached an illustration of a typical beach and the effects of storms on it to help explain what I mean.







Figure 1. The coastal sand-sharing system, fair weather and foul. In fair weather, collapsing breakers and tides move sand onto the beach from offshore bars (A), sometimes creating a narrow tidepool on the beach (B). In foul weather, spilling and plunging breakers erode sand from the beach and carry it offshore to form sandbars (C). In major storms, high waves and tides move sand over and between sand dunes to form overwash fans behind the dunes (D). Overwash events often carry sand onto roads and buildings built close to the beach.

The area between the beach proper and the 1st sandbar is the 'Lane' and the area between the 1st sandbar and the 2nd sanbar is the 'Mine', both prime hunting areas for a Surf pirate.

Cheers,

BDA

[EBCIII]

Thanks for the info BDA! I have yet to hunt the beach. I plan on doing it this summer. Now if you did not have a water machine, (I run a X-Terra 70). For your 1st trip to the beach how would you approach it? My in-laws have a place at Emerald Isle. I get free use of it, so tht is where I will hunt, Beale.

[ERnurse]

Very cool. Thanks.

[bdahunter]

The X-Terra will handle the salt water (sens -15, beach mode, ground tracking - ON, Pattern - 1) as far as detecting in it, with one provision - Don't Get the X-Terra Immersed. You can adapt your machine to water hunting with a water proof housing but you would have to make it yourself and if it fails all bets are off as far as the warranty. Stay shallow or only in the wetsand at first until you become familiar with the quirks of hunting a salt water beach.
I've been hunting in mild conditions and been caught off guard by a rogue wave that came out of no where (or so it seemed), picked me up and threw me 6 feet onto a coral head. I was bruised (ego too) but my Excal was undamaged, your X-Terra would be a door stop.

Good hunting,

BDA

PS: I can point you in the right direction if you want to try to waterproof but it's a lot of work unless you live near a beach and really there are waterproof units out there designed for this purpose.

[EPC Guy]

BDA - do you have any recommendations for wet sand hunting with my Prizm III? On dry sand it works like a charm...but since it's a "turn-on and go" machine my only tuning options are disc and sensitivity...it doesn't work well on wet sand...am I leaving the sensitivity setting too high? (about mid-range)

[SandSkimmer]

Great advice..... thanks

jT

[prizm-pal]

Bda thanks for posting that I will be waiting for nice big Noreaster here and look for the signs... after I swing the snow shovel Jerry and I will be off to beach! Brr cold and windy there this time of year! Just gotta suck it up! Later!

[bdahunter]

Originally Posted by EPC Guy

BDA - do you have any recommendations for wet sand hunting with my Prizm III? On dry sand it works like a charm...but since it's a "turn-on and go" machine my only tuning options are disc and sensitivity...it doesn't work well on wet sand...am I leaving the sensitivity setting too high? (about mid-range)

I'm not familiar with the Prizm machines but assuming it is a cousin to the ACE250 as far as basic circuitry, I'd say it's about the sensitivity. I run my ACE in the shallow salt water and on the wetsand without problems if I knock the sensitivity down to 3 - 4 bars. Be careful with your swing speed or that will give it fits too, especially at the end of the swing. This isn't land hunting and your detector has a lot more info to deal with so slow it down and pretend you're spray painting with the detector, feather the end of your swings and go fairly slow.
We can talk about other techniques later but please read thegoldenolde.com for a lot of the basics on beach detecting, good, solid, straightforward advice from Old Norm, may he r.i.p.

Cheers,

BDA

[bdahunter]

Originally Posted by prizm-pal

Bda thanks for posting that I will be waiting for nice big Noreaster here and look for the signs... after I swing the snow shovel Jerry and I will be off to beach! Brr cold and windy there this time of year! Just gotta suck it up! Later!

Be careful out there Chick, that water is darn cold and a couple of the pirates I know up your way have had run ins with rogue waves that near swept them out to sea. It's awfully hard to swim in hip waders when they are filled with freezing cold water.

Tomorrow is Another Day but Dead is for a Long Time,

BDA

[EPC Guy]

Originally Posted by bdahunter

I'm not familiar with the Prizm machines but assuming it is a cousin to the ACE250 as far as basic circuitry, I'd say it's about the sensitivity. I run my ACE in the shallow salt water and on the wetsand without problems if I knock the sensitivity down to 3 - 4 bars. Be careful with your swing speed or that will give it fits too, especially at the end of the swing. This isn't land hunting and your detector has a lot more info to deal with so slow it down and pretend you're spray painting with the detector, feather the end of your swings and go fairly slow.
We can talk about other techniques later but please read thegoldenolde.com for a lot of the basics on beach detecting, good, solid, straightforward advice from Old Norm, may he r.i.p.

Cheers,

BDA

Thanks, BDA - I'll cut back on the sensitivity and see what happens!