Learning curve

tjc45 said:

So, last week brought a decent storm that took some sand off the beach. But, by my eye, not much of a difference from the week before. And, looking at the beach hunters face book page there was general agreement, not as good as we had hoped.

That said, with the low tide being out of sync with my schedule I decided to drive the Jersey Shore and check out the beaches to see what was what. On one beach that I hunt I noted it was as flat as it had been a few days before the storm. Walking that beach revealed no cuts, no increased slope and no shells or stones indicating the beach was down to hard pan. It was pretty soft all the way to the water line. There was one guy hunting. As I approached him he ignored me. I didn't have my detector with me, but still, hint taken. I moved on judging that the mid high tide wasn't hiding anything.

The next day i see a You Tube Video posted from the guy i saw on the beach. Turns out he had a good day. Clad and gold! Said he found a beach with a good cut. Ah, not the beach i saw him on or any beach within 40 miles. He was hunting a flat beach on the wrong side of the tide cycle.

So, I'm not questioning the guy's integrity on his posting, I want to learn. I want to see what he saw that I did not. What am I missing here? I passed on that beach.

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njal said:

Did he say when the you tube video was taken? Might have been weeks before? just a thought.

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therover said:

A beach does not necessarily have to have cuts in order to produce. It is more beneficial to hunt 2 hours prior to dead low, at low, and then an hour or 2 into the incoming tide.

Look for ripple troughs, hard sand and shells/rocks. Look for horseshoe type patterns of wet sand, where the sand is farther out into the water than the surrounding sand. Tidal pools and water filled depressions are also a place to investigate.

Winds can play major roles too. East and Northeast winds and much better than West winds.

Sometimes at the top of peaks and slopes there are targets that got pushed there and the water did not get to them to pull them back. The targets could have been deposited there at the highest tide mark and can stay there if there is not another high tide where the waves can get to the targets and pull them back towards the water, into the water, or bury them deep.

A couple of tip offs that the gold is deep and possibly out of range is if the wet sand is mushy or if you are finding pull tabs and foil deep. 12 inch zinc pennies in the wet, mushy sand is not a good sign.

If you are hitting fishing sinkers, nickels and green quarters...good sign.

Remember, targets get bunched up, so when you find a greenie quarter, fishing sinker or a nickel, start gridding that area and make sure to overlap your sweeps. Go slow..it's not a race.

I saw a hunter awhile back (Don Crosby, who has a book titled Metal Detecting on the East Coast beaches..which is a great book) go over a spot where several hunters already scanned. He found a sinker and a deep nickel and went really slow and gridded for about an hour....he found 2 gold rings in an area about 10x10. He showed me the rings and told me whenever you hit a nickel or sinker to slow down and grid. It was up at the mean tide mark, but the moral is that when you find targets like sinkers and nickels, to slow down and grid.

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