Am I doing something wrong!

the dane

Junior Member
Joined
May 15, 2016
Messages
95
Ok today I had a day off work, I thought beautiful sunny day no rain in sight let's hit the beach! 10am I got my wife to drive me 8 kilometres up the beach and I'll walk home and collect as I go! (Had detector trowel and mini shovel) after 6hours I had found 3 sinkers a handful of cans and too big planks of metal really deep in the sand! Is there a good YouTube video on ground balancing I'm not sure if I'm getting that correct or not! I also did a few of the parks by the beach and the car parks, i was getting good sounds and numbers that should mean a $1 or $2 coin! My problem is people are watching me and I don't really want to rip the grass up! So i stop cutting fill the hole and walk on.
At the moment I am still using all metal as I'm only new to this still! I did see at least 10 other people with metal detectors, I should have asked one of them if I'm doing the ground balancing properly! My wife ring me 10 mins after she dropped me off and said, did I realise I had left my wallet on the dash of the car, and that she would come bring it to me if I wished? I said on the phone I'm guaranteed to find at least $5 or $6 for lunch or a drink! Haa how wrong was i? I did dig up an old shovel still with a handle intact! I carried it for around 1 hour and then I just left it in the sand dunes! Tomorrow after work I will hit our local baseball club and see if I can find anything, and try to to dig in the Grass with no one watching me! It's annoying because the first two times I used my detector I found money in the First 20 minutes both times, but I suppose that's part of the game! And any idea why there would be huge metal plates down the beach? I got really excited at one stage I thought it was guaranteed to be a ring or bracelet and it turned out to be around 8 inches deep a Woodstock bourbon can! Cheers guys as I said any help with the the balancing video would be good.

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I would not use all metal when working dirt, grass or anywhere away from the beach unless that is your intention. There are videos out there on cutting plugs I would watch some of those as well. Everything and anything can be under the ground or at the beach. I detected for 4 hours on Saturday for 4 pennies, a dime and a quarter. So patience and loving the hobby regardless of the prize is a must!
 
Which detector? Personally, i believe you were wasting time not swinging mostly dry sand in disc covering as much of that as possible during your walk about. You honestly need to learn the targets to a point in disc you can almost call them. The best place to do that is along the towel line, low tide or high tide line. That will be a better learning process and produce more than trying to hunt in PP in any trashy area. Learn to size a target and you wont be digging nearly as many beer cans. Learn a shallow bottle cap....... and most everything else.......dig it. If you know the beach is being killed by hunters then look for the out of the way places.

Dew
 
You're swinging a 505, right?

I suspect that you are swinging wayyyyy too fast, as do most new detectorists. Here's a search I did that may help you...

https://www.google.com/search?q=can+you+ground+balance+an+xterra+505

Also, you really need to learn how to "size up" your target before you go after it. No way a ring will sound as large as a beer can. When you find one of these booming loud targets, lift your coil up 4 inches or so and swing over the target again. If it's still booming, it's a big beer can and not a ring. I'd suggest that you stay working the beach for 40 to 60 hours of detecting and start working a grid pattern in one area (maybe a 20 x 60 foot area) rather that just meandering in a straight line home. Once you've covered that area, move on down and repeat. Definitely do NOT hunt grassy areas until you have perfected your plug cutting techniques in your own yard. Maybe this will help, there's a good video about plug cutting at the bottom...

https://mtldtktr.wordpress.com/2014/05/

or my whole blog starting here...

https://mtldtktr.wordpress.com

GL & HH!!

 
If you lift your coil up 4 inches or so and swing over the target again and it's still booming, it also might be a nice wallet or watch, so be carefull with that one ;)
 
Steve is correct, research the history, people / events / old history..the more the higher the chances... Detecting is very site dependent.
 
Which detector? Personally, i believe you were wasting time not swinging mostly dry sand in disc covering as much of that as possible during your walk about. You honestly need to learn the targets to a point in disc you can almost call them. The best place to do that is along the towel line, low tide or high tide line. That will be a better learning process and produce more than trying to hunt in PP in any trashy area. Learn to size a target and you wont be digging nearly as many beer cans. Learn a shallow bottle cap....... and most everything else.......dig it. If you know the beach is being killed by hunters then look for the out of the way places.

Dew

Xterra 505
 
If you lift your coil up 4 inches or so and swing over the target again and it's still booming, it also might be a nice wallet or watch, so be carefull with that one ;)
There's a difference... at lesst to us experienced detectorists. If you lift your coil and still can't tell a beer can from a watch or a wallet (an all metal wallet? One of those Iron Age things?) Then you NEED to dig it to see. I can pass on the cans though, thank you very much.
 
Cheers guys for that, and i have worked the ground balance out too! Ok after work today i stopped at a park with hardly any good grass next to to a school! I have read to dig all targets? There were heaps and heaps, i found 2 sinkers, a bullet and a $1! I did what you guys said and move the coil up 4 inches or so! But if iam getting a 30 then a 27 then a 42 then 18 then back to 30 in numbers would that be junk? Anyway enjoying the new hobby!
Cheers

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Personally, if there is a beach there id hunt on it. Less trash and dig it all until you know what you are digging by sound or TID. THEN move to those trashy areas where the TID screen will help you disc more of the junk.

Dew
 
Cheers just downloaded it! Also just watched a basic utube video, that gave some good pointers

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