A lesson with Erosion

[low tide]

I've been detecting for a couple yrs now and today I REALLY thought about erosion while detecting a beach that I absolutely killed late winter/early spring. Now it's completely worthless.

Shortly after the king tides of Southern California last December and early January I went to a beach that I usually had so/so luck on. When I walked up to it to scout it out (without my detector) my jaw dropped! I mean it fell off my face.
This area went from a very mild slope into the ocean into a 6.5 ft cut of sand that went down into bedrock.. HOLY #$@#... I drove home like greased lightening thinking "Why the hell aren't the local MD'ers hitting this yet?" I rushed back and in 20 minutes I had 40.00 in change and 3 gold rings. I'm not kidding. I continued to hit this 100 yard wide section of beach for about 2 months nearly every day not telling a soul. I came out with most of the rings that are in my signature below....

After March I saw that the sand was coming back. The stupid bulldozers were messing up the natural lines of the water and the cut finally disappeared in way of yet again, a gradual slope.
I left it alone and went to another HIGHLY productive beach that was giving up stuff from the late 1800s... Yeah you heard that right... In So Cal....

Anyways, today (after 3.5 months) of not hitting this honey pot of a beach, I went back... OMG... It's sanded in about 3 ft at the water lines and at least 5 ft at the upper towel lines.
It was only a 0.3 low tide and as I was about thigh deep I looked around and realized that in January the same spot that I was standing in had to be a -1.5 low tide in order to reach. This is because a huge sandbar had now formed, keeping the much higher tide line back ....
Needless to say, I came out with aluminum that filled two hands cupped together, 3 pennies and that's it!!!

I learned today that you can hunt as HARD AS YOU CAN and as good as you think you are, but if the conditions aren't right, you are wasting your time.
Sure you might get VERY lucky and find a recent drop but it's not likely.

The good news is that the beaches are once again becoming busy and the weather is heating up.This yr I'm gonna be casual in the summer and will be putting it into BEAST MODE come late fall.https://youtu.be/_6ambWo5vQY

 

[FelixtheCat]

I'll have to admit that I know about erosion and I have read about erosion. The 2 times I looked for it in my hunts in the last year I actually came up with a gold ring each time so erosion theory does work. I have noticed that the beach that I went to yesterday faces SE winds which I believe helps sand it in in the summer and hence my overall lack of targets in yesterday's hunt. When the winds are coming from a different direction in late fall and winter the finds increase. However, as sweet as finding yellow is, and trust me, I LOVE finding it as much as the next pirate, it does not dictate my hunts. The hunt is my joy. I am lucky to be able to hunt year round and find gold without needing erosion. My scoop hasn't seen yellow in over a month now, and although I am disappointed in that, it is not enough to make me drive around and just look for beaches that are eroded. With all that said, I hope I can score some yellow tomorrow morning!

 

[romyrome]

I've been detecting for a couple yrs now and today I REALLY thought about erosion while detecting a beach that I absolutely killed late winter/early spring. Now it's completely worthless.

Shortly after the king tides of Southern California last December and early January I went to a beach that I usually had so/so luck on. When I walked up to it to scout it out (without my detector) my jaw dropped! I mean it fell off my face.
This area went from a very mild slope into the ocean into a 6.5 ft cut of sand that went down into bedrock.. HOLY #$@#... I drove home like greased lightening thinking "Why the hell aren't the local MD'ers hitting this yet?" I rushed back and in 20 minutes I had 40.00 in change and 3 gold rings. I'm not kidding. I continued to hit this 100 yard wide section of beach for about 2 months nearly every day not telling a soul. I came out with most of the rings that are in my signature below....

After March I saw that the sand was coming back. The stupid bulldozers were messing up the natural lines of the water and the cut finally disappeared in way of yet again, a gradual slope.
I left it alone and went to another HIGHLY productive beach that was giving up stuff from the late 1800s... Yeah you heard that right... In So Cal....

Anyways, today (after 3.5 months) of not hitting this honey pot of a beach, I went back... OMG... It's sanded in about 3 ft at the water lines and at least 5 ft at the upper towel lines.
It was only a 0.3 low tide and as I was about thigh deep I looked around and realized that in January the same spot that I was standing in had to be a -1.5 low tide in order to reach. This is because a huge sandbar had now formed, keeping the much higher tide line back ....
Needless to say, I came out with aluminum that filled two hands cupped together, 3 pennies and that's it!!!

I learned today that you can hunt as HARD AS YOU CAN and as good as you think you are, but if the conditions aren't right, you are wasting your time.
Sure you might get VERY lucky and find a recent drop but it's not likely.

The good news is that the beaches are once again becoming busy and the weather is heating up.This yr I'm gonna be casual in the summer and will be putting it into BEAST MODE come late fall.

I'll post up a video of my outing later today.

Nice Read I Look Forward To Your Video

 

[Steve]

good luck

 

[Ice Scratcher]

Sometimes a guy can find a lot more gold if he looks for iron first..

<°)))>{

 

[Vermonster]

I learned a couple lessons about it, like you. First.was, what to look for in an eroded beach. I too showed up to a beach in Socal in late November, didn't recognize it. Hunted a huge cut, and in 40 minutes, had an 1897 and 1898 silver dollar. Second lesson I learned is that I should never have left that beach after an hour, because when I got back, a couple weeks later, I couldn't find a thing.....

 

[low tide]

Yeah, I've learned that 3 things make for successful hunting. Gear, knowledge, and timing... miss any one of those 3 and it's luck.

 

[garviso8]

I'll have to admit that I know about erosion and I have read about erosion. The 2 times I looked for it in my hunts in the last year I actually came up with a gold ring each time so erosion theory does work. I have noticed that the beach that I went to yesterday faces SE winds which I believe helps sand it in in the summer and hence my overall lack of targets in yesterday's hunt. When the winds are coming from a different direction in late fall and winter the finds increase. However, as sweet as finding yellow is, and trust me, I LOVE finding it as much as the next pirate, it does not dictate my hunts. The hunt is my joy. I am lucky to be able to hunt year round and find gold without needing erosion. My scoop hasn't seen yellow in over a month now, and although I am disappointed in that, it is not enough to make me drive around and just look for beaches that are eroded. With all that said, I hope I can score some yellow tomorrow morning!

the problem with the beaches we hunt is that erosion is not as common as it is in other beaches I find myself having to settle for negative tides instead.in the few years iv'e been detecting i have yet to see a 3-5' cut on the beach in the summer like you see in some of these post and don't get me started on those darn tractors that move sand around on the beach .. oh well I guess tourism has priority most of my finds come from dry sand around the towel line as they call it. hh

 

[dirtydog]

Great finds LT. We would have to have a category 25 hurricane in FL to get a cut that deep.

 

[rreahard]

Yeah, I've learned that 3 things make for successful hunting. Gear, knowledge, and timing... miss any one of those 3 and it's luck.

Yep! Better luck next time!!