Big Boys Hobbies

A Little Beach Help

atexaspete

atexaspete

New Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Messages
22
Location
Virginia Beach
Just started getting to the beach with my new (to me) excal II. Have run it in both disc and pinpoint with equal results. Experimenting with sensitivity, starting around 5 and playing around back and forth.
Problem is that I'm not hitting very many targets on a beach that (in season) has tons of traffic. So far for 3 trips I have probably not had more than 100 targets. Most of those were foil/paper that comes on some gatoraide type drinks, some fishing lures and weights and 10-15 clad coins.
I guess I need some help on where to concentrate my effort. There is probably 200 yards of beach from the boardwalk to the water. I've tried to find a more productive "zone", but no luck.

Thought maybe some of you more seasoned beach hunters could help me eliminate some of the sand. I'm not hitting the water yet, since it is pretty cold, so it's mostly either wet sand or dry sand.

Thanks in advance,
Mike
 
DSandman said:
Did you hunt the part of the beach they replenished last year?
:?:
Click to expand...
Not sure where that is, but I hunted twice at VB from the pier north to maybe 27th street. The other two trips have been to chic's about 1/4 mile east of the BBT. First trip there was only to test the machine (didn't have a scoop then). Pretty much the same results both places.

Thanks,
Mike
 
Sounds like you are doing as well as anybody at the "Land of Nada". Most of the best stuff is in the water, but during season you get more hits out of the water as far as what I have seen. :grin:
 
Friend, those are good hunts and good targets. I assume the fishing weights were in the wet sand. When digging fishing weights. You are close to gold. Slow way down and cover it,,,,those foil targets, never pass them. Small gold sounds like foil,,,,keep swinging and gold will come,,,GL HH
 
Your hunts were about as productive as my last few. The ocean is doing irradic intervals of pushing sand on and pulling sand off the beach. So targets are temporarily being exposed and in as little as one high tide later, can be buried under inches or even several feet of sand.
 
That's more targets than I have found in 2 mile stretches on Waikiki. Granted, there's a million people metal detecting Waikiki, but it is what it is. I have yet to find anything in the dry or wet sand. Everything I find comes out of the water. I run sensitivity pretty maxed out, low threshold, and disc at the lowest it goes, which looks like 1. When I had a coil cover on it, I couldn't nearly run the sensitivity as high. Losing my coil cover in the water is the best thing that could have happened. Haha.
 
Well, what I seem to be getting from the responses is that my number of targets is either average or better. I have to admit that is a little disappointing for now. I suppose that I expected I must be doing something wrong. Comparing the sand to what I was used to in playing around in the parks. On a typical couple of hours in the parks I have hunted, I would hit on over a hundred targets and after discrimination, would probably dig 50-60% (being coins). True that most of what I am finding is modern clad with a few trinkets of junk jewelry, but the number of targets is what I am used to.

Guess I'll just keep trying. I'm still a little confused about "where" in the sand I should be concentrating. Of the targets I have found at the beach, I can't see any sort of pattern or zone to home in on.

Mike
 
Mike, you have one of, if not the best wet-sand/water beach machine out there.

Running the Excal in all-metal mode should make you feel better about finding targets. Lord knows there are plenty of junk iron targets on our beaches. If you aren't finding it, keep adjusting the settings until you find the detectors sweet spot.

Many of the articles on sand/water hunting talk about what areas seam to collect targets, and of those areas, equal size/mass objects, e.g., lead sinkers with nickles, quarters and gold tend to collect near one another. Based on probability, I believe that to be true, however, when I run in disc mode, it is harder to find groupings of such items. So it seams like I'll pickup a pop-top (which easily floats) next to a lead sinker, or the jewelry I've found has been all alone...and the nearest target is 75 yds away. If I back out and run all metal, I then see a w-h-o-l-e new picture of whats beneath the sand.

-David
 
You might want to check out other spots too. You are very lucky where you live. You have the bay and several other beaches. Keep in mind that most gold drops sink until sand moves. It might be good one day and real poor the next. You have several spots I would try if I still lived there. Look at a map of Willoughby Spit. There is a small locals beach on the bay side near the bridge tunnel. People have swam there for years but I doubt anyone ever hunts it. Lots of places like that if you do the research. Might be nothing but sinkers but you never know. Part of the hobby is trying to find spots others pass on.

If I was hunting the ocean front I would hunt along the water. Go 3 hours before low tide and hunt 4 hours. Good luck! I think Max has already gotten it all though. :laughing:
 
The best way to learn were to hunt and how is watch your competition.

A few things about VB, treasure can be any were, anytime, it's one of the most hunted beach's on the east coast, winter is not the best season to hunt, what helps... a good storm, winds, to shake things up. And it took me 3 months to find my first real Gold treasure when I started in 2007, June I started and no gold till late Aug.....And that was a few miles North of you..

Remember Max is out there everyday, watch his vid's, he has one Gold for the year I believe, and he know where it can be if it is.
 
I hunt from Jensen Beach south to Juno and North all the way to Daytona. I had some fun in Daytona about a week ago after leaving Kellyco. Found mostly clad and a stud earring.

Today I was in Ft. Pierce north of the power plant. I walked for several miles and only had 5 hits. It is a matter of luck and catching the tides right. Keep hunting you will start seeing good results.:D
 
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