Beach Hunting ?'s

P.I.'s detect deep without much effort on the users side from the point of view of setting controls etc. All metal though so if you just wanted to work land or the top of the beach that can be loaded with iron, ringpulls and other rubbish you have to expect to do a lot of digging though experience does give an idea of what a target is before you dig.
With your Whites you can expect excellent performance both in the water and on the wet sand where many machines either won't work or work poorly (unless you pay for a twin or multifrequency VLF).
On the dry sand the person with say a 250 will be whipping along in front of you picking up less rubbish and the recent shallow losses but you will pick up everything they do and more at greater depth. It will be hard work but its possible. If you do get a discriminator for the dry sand to avoid the pesky ringpull you may find that down the line you will drop the discrimination to minimum and decide to dig the ringpulls so that you don't miss the many gold rings that mimic ringpulls as far as the detector is concerned.
For the cellar holes you really do need some discrimination so I would say your right you do need two detectors or go for twin/multifrequency.

missdibba said:

Hi, 
        I posted on here once before, but not since the forum has changed. I have finally managed to save enough money for my detector. yeah!! , and I decided on the Surfmaster P.I. BUT ,  today I was reading the boards, and I see some suggest the P.I should really only be used in water?? I live in the northeast on a beach, hence my wanting a detector, and I want to detect dry sand, and low tide maybe into shallow water. Since I am a beginner though, I don't think I have any business trying to detect in chest deep water.lol. There are undertows up here, and since all my friends think all think I am a dork, lol, I don't think I will have anybody to detect with. Although I am weakening my friends down, one actually agreed to come. Is there a different detector one would recommend that may be cheaper???This way I can purchase an Ace 250 or a cheapo on ebay so friends can come with.

additionally
I was with my friend in no where Maine, and there are tons of cellar holes , and old homesteads behind her parents house on their property, which they said they wouldn't care if I detected. So I was thinking If I got a cheaper detector for beach, a second one could be used on an occasional outing off the beach. My budget is aprx 700.00. 

So I guess my questions are.... sorry so long

1. Should I go for a cheaper beach detector, so I can buy a second for occasional off beach hunting? or should i go ahead with my original purchase of p.i and use it off beach since I don't plan on doing much on land hunting.

2. Since I hope to get my detector in the next couple of weeks (before tourists start showing up : ) ) I was wondering what additional accessories would any of you reccomend for beach hunting ??? or any general advise.

I am really excited to start detecting, when I was a teenager I was digging a flower beds with my mom, we lived in the first cotton mill in America ,old, old house. and we dug up a bunch of old medicine bottles from 1800's.Well that did it, I love history so I continued to dig holes in the yard, which i am sure she wasn't pleased about lol, and found a bunch of pottery , old fence, even some bones (my mom told me to put the bones back in case they weren't animals lol, ) imagine what I would have found if I had a metal detector !!!


Anyway thanks for reading ,,,, looking forward to the advice !

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Welcome to the forum Missdibba..

I wouldn't use a PI in the dry sand, it would drive you crazy with all the trash it would find... I personally don't even use it in the wet sand but you can but again pulltabs and bottle caps and tiny pieces if iron tend to live in the wet sand I only use my PI in the water and if I was to hunt the wet/dry I use my other detector...

You can buy 2 detectors if you like... a great beach machine is a IDX PRO from Whites although they stopped making it you can still find them around new... They go from dry to wet with little or no problems and they are a great land detector as well....

Why not buy 1 machine now and save up for another as you go... Personally I was a long time dirt digger and when I found my first ring in the water last July I have only hunted the dirt twice since then... There is so much jewelry and coins in the water- as long as you know where to hunt- that I really have no interest in land hunting anymore...

The PI is a deep machine and if you are going to hunt in the water you won't go wrong with it... after a while you can tell the slight differences in the tone of what your going to dig... I can tell between iron and a coin by the slight change in the tone and I know when its going to be deep or shallow... I have found about 6 rings in the dry sand, another 6 in the wet and 90+ in the water... Where would you hunt with those odds? For me everytime I hit the water I expect some type of jewelry and I am rewarded almost everytime out. If you do get into water hunting you need the best scoops and best equipment, you can't go cheap but all it takes is 1 good hit to pay for your investment

BTW... Most beaches are hit the hardest during the winter its because this time of the year you get the most sand movement and it changes by the day and direction of the wind and currents and best tides are minus tides to hunt... I will be going out almost every day this week to take advantage of the minus tides because it allows us to get out where the old deep gold is waiting.

You could also look at the Whites BeachHunter and use it as your everything detector... Its not as deep as the PI but you will be able to at least tell what you are about to dig up by lights...

You mention cellar holes my partner and I have about 2 dozen to detect but the pull of the water keeps us in it

The guys have said it all pretty well. Give me a call and we can discuss a deal on two detectors and try to keep in your budget.

860-623-1153

Cfmct-PI said:

You mention cellar holes my partner and I have about 2 dozen to detect but the pull of the water keeps us in it

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Craig... you're gonna end up with all the bugs at them cellar holes if you play in the water too long. 

Thanks for answering my questions !! craig I will definately give you a call in the next
two weeks. actually at work we get points for different things, and with these points we can buy things. There is nothing really exciteing to buy, but they do have a bounty hunter metal detector , i know its cheapo , cheapo but i might get it for my friends to use if they wanna come along.

Is that a promise?