Need help with Beach Hunter 300 ID

[Hotrod]

Hey everyone I'm new and after bouncing around in the forum landed here hoping someone might have some pointers for me. I brought this issue up in the general discussion forum but figure this is the better place.

My son and I recently purchased a Whites Beach Hunter 300 ID, which was brand new never used. We live near the beach in Southern CA and we wanted to treasure hunt both wet and dry areas as well as local parks.

Anyway we have had some good results with it in dry sand, and one silver ring find so far in the wet sand. However we have found it very challenging to keep the unit ground balanced and getting good target ID tones in the wet sand. I'm told the issue is highly mineralized sand on our beaches and this unit does not work in that type of sand. I guess I'm a bit puzzled why a good quality detector like this, which according to the Whites Youtube video is made just for beach use, is struggling to deal with the sand? Seriously they make a specific beach detector that is challenged by the sand? I find this hard to believe and think it's more the way I am setting it up.

Anyway thought I would ask if anyone has some pointers for me. I follow the directions for ground balancing and set the sensitivity on "p" then adjust from there. I have used disc. mode as well as all metal with similar results. What happens is when using in the wet sand or water we get a good tone response we dig and dig and find nothing only to not be able to repeat the signal again when we rescan the area. Often we get 5 or 6 solid tones in one area and find nothing then we can scan for 100 yards and get no tones. Like I said we have lots of success in the dry sand as every tone we dig on is metal of some kind.

Thanks for your time!

 

[Steve]

Take a ring and attach it to a string or fishing line. Bury it in the wetsand 4 or 5" deep. Gb the detector and scan the ring. Do oh hear the ring? Turn the sensitivity down if black sand in abundant. Keep cellphone off in pocket.

 

[ROBOTCOP13]

Try another location.

You may be experiencing EMI from Power lines, a cell tower, nearby radar site or military installation, airport etc.

 

[DaviDs]

Because it has manual GB (instead of auto) you will likely have to GB in the wet and then stay in the wet. Again GB in the dry and stay in the dry. You may also need to GB with visual changes in the sand color a d/or in increments of every so many yards.

Being a multifrequency VLF it can compensate for conductive salt but the mineral deposits are just an additional challenge. In other stable ground, white sand areas like say Clearwater Beach, FL, you may not ever need to GB.

 

[Rudy]

My son and I recently purchased a Whites Beach Hunter 300 ID, which was brand new never used. We live near the beach in Southern CA and we wanted to treasure hunt both wet and dry areas as well as local parks.

That's your problem right there. White's set a non-adjustable pre-amp gain in the Beach Hunter ID and it is set way too hot for most California beaches, with their heavy mineralization. I discussed it in this post https://metaldetectingforum.com/showpost.php?p=2499139&postcount=10

 

[Hotrod]

Thanks for the replies, never thought about the cell phone it is in my pocket will have to turn that off. We are about 10 miles from a naval base so I would think we are ok in that regard. I like the ring test idea, will try that as well to see what a good hit sounds like in comparison.

However after doing more online searching seems the model detector we bought is loved by people who are not in black sand areas.....never thought about location when reading reviews of beach detectors. I hope Rudy is wrong but getting that gut feeling he is accurate as to the machine. Too bad Whites does not let the consumer know with a disclaimer not recommended for highly mineralized sand....guess they don't want to lose sales.

We will keep working at it and see if we can improve things a little.

Thanks to all!