Issues with salt water

[Warrant]

I noted a post in the forum regarding the conductivity of saltwater and how it disrupts the metal detectors. I tried the beach two week ends ago myself and had next to no luck at all.
are the general line of detectore basically not operational in wet sands and water at the oceans edge or was it just me and a cleaned out beach?
I can hunt the dry sand and find items just don't seem to get any hits in the wet sands and water of the edge of the sea. Opinions?

[Steve in PR]

I can only offer an opinion in that I have hunted in water and in dry sand.

I can only theorize that if your detector is made for water detecting, that it will hunt equally well in dry sand or water and that the level of mineralization will depend on the type of sand that you are hunting.

I understand that San Diego beaches contain a lot on magnetite. That might make any detector go loopy, I think. Feldspar (Aluminum Silicate) too! (California Black Sand)

A lot depends on where the sand comes from. Whether it is eroded from the surrounding land or is deposited from the sea. That will give you a clue as to the mineral level of the area.

I have seen some other discussion about mineralization problems and it seems more prevalent in the northern climates. Volcanic areas like Hawaii excepted.

You don't say where you are hunting, ocean, lake, pond.

I think sand movement is the most important factor. If the beach is calm most of the time (like a small lake) then it possibly has been picked clean of the "low hanging fruit".

If the area is subject to a lot of wave action and current, you should be able to find something at low tide or after a storm. I find my best finds in the water about waist deep.

That's my 2 cents.....

[dewcon]

your options are to get a multi freq detector or PI. The multi detectors compare freq and if they dont agree salt is disc out. the beach for the most part is very low minerazation so mosture/salt is the problem. salt falls in the middle of the range for single freq detectors (5 to 7 kHz) so its not auto disc out because targets like gold fall there also. What you were experiencing is normal. for the most part a single freq detector will do fine in dry sand... the problem is you have to be where things are mostly lost, at low tide thats close to or in the water.

[TonyinCT]

What detector are you using ?

[Joe(TX)]

I use a Whites 4900D PRO PLUS in the TR mode on the wet salt water beach. The TR mode can balance out the effects of Salt water thru the discrimination dial. Also it can be set up in the all-metal mode with SAT. This is a very deepseeking and versatile detector. Besides being good at the beach, I can go relic or coin hunting with the same detector! And this very modest priced detector can keep up with the Big Boys costing much more! Just my experience and my 2 Cents!!! JOE








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[Warrant]

Originally Posted by TonyinCT

What detector are you using ?

I use a bounty Hunter 505. It's my first detector and has done quite well in the field and in non-salt water enviroments. The beach I was hunting is around Goat Rock and Bodega Bay California. I hunted in both the Disc and Auto modes.

[lil al]

hi warrant i have the ace 250 and live at the beach ive learned that if i turn my disc down to about 2 or 3 and keep my coil about a half inch or so off the wet sand i have the occasional false signal but still do well near the waters edge (found a 4 ounce sinker about 8 inches in wet sand) hope this helps.