Tips For Hunting The Pounded Beaches Of Lake Erie

HistoryFinder89 · Jan 9, 2014

Hey Folks, I rarely ever post in the beach and water section. The reason why is because I rarely ever hunt the beach. Since I started in 2010, I have always been looking for old coins and relics, therefore I have hunted on land only. But, I see everyone's awesome beach hunts on here! And it makes me want to try hunting the beach a little more. I was wondering if I can get some tips from those of you that hunt the beaches, preferably the Great Lakes. The few beach hunts I have had over the last few years, haven't resulted in very much. The funny part is the one time a few years ago, before I started detecting, there was erosion on my local beach in the spring, and my brother finds two mercury dimes lying right on the surface of the sand, and he doesn't even detect! So I know there are old coins somewhere in the sand in this beach. But I also know that it is nearly the number one most pounded beach in my area! Even clad is hard to get here! But anyway The water is all iced over by now, so I can't get in the water, and there are huge mountains of ice, on the shore by the water, so I can't hunt that. But the dry sand is okay farther away from the water. The last time I went there, there was a layer of rocks, closer to the water, near the ice mountains. And this layer of rocks was going along the lines of the beach. I figured that this layer of rocks would hold the heaviest coins and jewelry. And it did, but it was all 1970s clad. But the good thing is though that it was red 1970s clad so it has been there for about 30 to 40 years. I just need to find the layers that hold the coins 20 to 40 years older than that! This beach is as old as the 1920s. I know this because I have found 70 to 90 year old silver coins on the land of this park. I just want to know the secrets to finding the older layers of the beach. Keep in mind also that this beach is very trashy with melted aluminum from the beach fires held in the summer here. I am an expert at land hunting, finding hundreds of silver coins since 2010. But sometimes I'd like to find oldies on the beach too, but it is just a different world. That is why I need help from the beach hunters. I'd like to start hunting the beaches of Lake Erie. Any tip for finding the oldies? Will they be deep? I would get very deep signals on this beach, and I dug a few of them, but they would always end up being melted lead. Any help is much appreciated. Thank You Very Much and HH Everyone!

ScubaDetective · Jan 9, 2014

Here are a few tips. We have at least one detectorist on here (Ice Scratcher) that does GREAT in Lake Erie. I hunt lake St Clair and Lake Huron and sometimes Lake Michigan. I have only hunted lake Erie once.

Are you in Ohio or Michigan. In Michigan ALL the shoreline is public. ONE thing I would not do is concentrate ALL my time at public beaches. If you walk down the beach you will sooner or later find a place LOTS of people played at in the past that just do not do it now.

Do you wade or just hunt the sand? Getting out in the water with a good water machine makes a TON of difference. Lots of land detectorists hit the dry and wet sand. Only a few venture out into the water.

Dig everything. Lots of iron to mask good coins and rings. Remove a piece of iron and you just might have a good target nearby. I have done that countless times in the great lakes.

Hit the same place over and over. One day you might find a ton of sand. Another day it might have gotten washed out with a storm. Look for cuts where you find small stones instead of sand and hit those areas hard.

I have been to a park here on lake Huron where the sand was 3' deep. I have also been to the same park where there was NO sand and only clay. The gravel pockets gave up ring after ring and silver coin after silver coin. Without a detector we would just fan the gravel out of the clay pockets and pick up coins and rings. This year the park was completly sanded in. Who knows what it will be like next year. We have all the old silver out of it though. Maybe some new rings have burried themselves deep in the sand.

Go to your local library and find pictures along lake Erie. You MIGHT be surprized to find there used to be lots and lots of hotels and resorts on it that are long long forgoten, have burned down or demolished and now a private home sits on the property. You can't believe how much of that I found up in this neck of the woods. RESEARCH RESEARCH and MORE RESEARCH might give you a HUGE advantage.

NOBODY gets it all. ALL the beaches are a metal detectorists private bank. The get deposits in them most every day. Its up to us to make the withdrawls.

Hope this helps and happy hunting!!

HistoryFinder89 · Jan 9, 2014

ScubaDetector said:
Here are a few tips. We have at least one detectorist on here (Ice Scratcher) that does GREAT in Lake Erie. I hunt lake St Clair and Lake Huron and sometimes Lake Michigan. I have only hunted lake Erie once.

Are you in Ohio or Michigan. In Michigan ALL the shoreline is public. ONE thing I would not do is concentrate ALL my time at public beaches. If you walk down the beach you will sooner or later find a place LOTS of people played at in the past that just do not do it now.

Do you wade or just hunt the sand? Getting out in the water with a good water machine makes a TON of difference. Lots of land detectorists hit the dry and wet sand. Only a few venture out into the water.

Dig everything. Lots of iron to mask good coins and rings. Remove a piece of iron and you just might have a good target nearby. I have done that countless times in the great lakes.

Hit the same place over and over. One day you might find a ton of sand. Another day it might have gotten washed out with a storm. Look for cuts where you find small stones instead of sand and hit those areas hard.

I have been to a park here on lake Huron where the sand was 3' deep. I have also been to the same park where there was NO sand and only clay. The gravel pockets gave up ring after ring and silver coin after silver coin. Without a detector we would just fan the gravel out of the clay pockets and pick up coins and rings. This year the park was completly sanded in. Who knows what it will be like next year. We have all the old silver out of it though. Maybe some new rings have burried themselves deep in the sand.

NOBODY gets it all. ALL the beaches are a metal detectorists private bank. The get deposits in them most every day. Its up to us to make the withdrawls.

Hope this helps and happy hunting!!

I live in Western NY. When I would hunt the beaches, I would stay in the dry and wet sand. Never in the water cause I don't have a water proof machine. But every so often these rocky cuts in the sand would show up, but I could never find anything old in them, just clad. I know however, that this beach has had tons of people coming here since the 1930s at least. I have pictures of the beach in the summers of the 1940s, with huge crowds of people there. Thank you for your help Scuba, I highly appreciate it!

cdv · Jan 9, 2014

You are right, the old coins are there but they are buried under the sand. The picture below is from a cut at Lake Erie a few years ago..... this cut was about 8 foot at the time of the picture.... you see the tree line in the background of the picture, that is where the cut ended up the following weekend..... my best day on old silver and a few gold rings. There is now over 20 foot of sand where I got those silvers and numerous wheat pennies. Unfortunately cuts like that happen when the lake isn't frozen with the winter storms.... however, the ice will push the sand and change the beach come spring so watch for that too.

GL
Cliff

HistoryFinder89 · Jan 9, 2014

Awesome finds! That's what the beach looked like when my brother found the two mercs on the surface. I know there has to be more somewhere at my beach. The sand is moved after the winter thaw usually here.

Tips For Hunting The Pounded Beaches Of Lake Erie

HistoryFinder89

Elite Member

ScubaDetective

In Memory Of

HistoryFinder89

Elite Member

cdv

Elite Member

Attachments

HistoryFinder89

Elite Member

Similar threads