• Forum server maintanace Friday night.(around 7PM Centeral time)
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Question for the California Beach Hunters Out There

Hi All,

Pretty new to detecting and Very new to California.
I can only say Tom knows what he is talking about.
Beaches are my favorite place to hunt.

New with a detector, It's a easy score. Most beaches will have targets. Get to know your machine in the dry on bottle caps and a little clad.

A little more advanced start paying in the wet sands. See how you and your machine can work with the surf. I started out just walking down the surf line, Not knowing what to look for. Stumbled on a couple of targets. Noticed not near as many bottle caps, But vast stretches with nothing. Read Tom's article, Started going on low tides, Started noticing the low spots in the beach. If you look down the wet line and it's straight, It is not going to be a good hunt. If you see a big shallow spot that leads to a cut in the dry sand, you have found a spot. Normally I will see many of these when I see one. Check them all from the water to the dry. Normally get to the beach 4-5 hours before low tide. If you do not see any productive spots move to a beach down the road.

Have not played in the water seriously. Waves are just too rough and water too cold.

Will say I had a ball in Santa Cruz over the weekend. Found a beach that looked good and one 20 by 20 stretch of beach had 20 targets and a silver ring.

It's all about learning, Your Machine, The beach your on and How to survive the surf.
Hope this helps,

David
 
I still tend to disagree with this post. Let me give you an example :

One of the best "glory days locations" of our area, has ironically been at one of the dumpy lame "locals only dog-walking" type of beaches. Yup : No hotels, no amusement parks, not the oldest, blah blah. Yet it's provided some of my peak coin-count days (and a few of the gold coins that my buddies and I count among ourselves).

So on the one hand, it's the knee-jerk reaction to rush to the location that are A) most touristy, B) most affluent locales, C) most recreational (eg.: amusement parks, etc....), D) oldest (as opposed to locales which didn't seem to get populated till after WWII- ish).

But at one particular "dumpy locals modern beach" in my area, has ironically had the highest coin counts of any of the local md'rs recollections. Why ? : Because it faces an open window to the ocean, and is thus most-prone to perpetual in/out erosion cycles.

Granted, this perpetual sand movement of eroding and in-fills means the silver coins are worthless grey sand-blasted disks. Doh! And yes, if the area isn't affluent or touristy, then sure, your ring ratios drop down .

But still, when it comes to choosing "which beach do I go to when the swells/storms are hitting ?": The affluence, the history, the tourism-levels, etc.... are utterly meaningless. Because if mother nature isn't eroding there, then it simply doesn't matter what the history-of-the-beach-goers is.
History of beachgoers is of paramount importance. So the flip side of what your saying is that you would rather go to a beach with a MONSTER cut and NO HISTORY of people. Where there are NO targets. Tom , is this what you want me to believe ? I will choose a beach with a history of people , rich or poor , cut or not. YOU can hit the beach with 8 foot cuts and no people to lose anything.
 
... and one 20 by 20 stretch of beach had 20 targets and a silver ring....

D-murphy, welcome to FMDF. You're encroaching dangerously close to my hunting grounds if you are in S. Cruz. Thus kindly send me 30% tariffs, and there won't be any problems. Ok ? :laughing:

As for the grouped targets @ S. Cruz Boardwalk main beach: Yup: There's been times where, what you saw is multiplied by 200 coins (and a gold ring or two) at organized lines or scallop-pockets. That you just waltz spot to spot and harvest.

The trouble with all these "glory stories" is: Needless to say, they are random , rare, and infrequent. Doh ! But once you've ever been in such zones, it's as if you'll never want to return to random dry or wet ever again. Doh !
 
History of beachgoers is of paramount importance. So the flip side of what your saying is that you would rather go to a beach with a MONSTER cut and NO HISTORY of people. Where there are NO targets. Tom , is this what you want me to believe ? I will choose a beach with a history of people , rich or poor , cut or not. YOU can hit the beach with 8 foot cuts and no people to lose anything.

Hey there Kob, who said anything about "no people" ? :?: If you re-read, you'll see I was referring to low-traffic/low tourism/new beaches. Not "no people" beaches. Right ?

Let me give you an example: In my part of CA, there's the heavy tourist spot zone of Santa Cruz Boardwalk . AKA "Santa Cruz main beach". It has tons of history, lots of swimming (it's the warmest waters of the Monterey bay currents), and the most tourist traffic.

Thus, by your reckoning, it would be the best, at all times. Right ?

But I can tell you for a fact that there's been many times, that during storm episodes that strike CA, that some lame ho-hum beach further south (Moss Landing, or Marina, for instance) might be the better beach to be at. Just depends on where mother nature is eroding.
 
Sorry Tom , but that's not how I read it. Yes , just because a beach has "people history" doesn't guarantee jack squat. Huntington. Santa Monica , etc where you get 100k+ peeps over a weekend sometimes is barren. Even in the dry. Crowds or cuts don't guarantee nothing. It's about increasing your chances. Maybe I misread or didn't get what you initially said. But I will always go to a cut 1st on any beach.
 
Well Tom, If we every meet will have to buy you lunch or something.:beers:
Went to a different Santa Cruz beach this week and had a ball.
First day out with the 15in coil on the NOX and almost paid for it.
I did notice that as soon as the waves stoped cutting into the cuts the targets slowed pretty fast.
So dead low might have it’s times, but following the tide out works well at times.

Looks like the evacuation order was lifted for Bodega, Will be up that way tomorrow.
 
Well Tom, If we every meet will have to buy you lunch or something.:beers:
Went to a different Santa Cruz beach this week and had a ball.
First day out with the 15in coil on the NOX and almost paid for it.
I did notice that as soon as the waves stoped cutting into the cuts the targets slowed pretty fast.
So dead low might have it’s times, but following the tide out works well at times.

Looks like the evacuation order was lifted for Bodega, Will be up that way tomorrow.

Hey there D-murphy, is there erosion going on in S. Cruz somewhere ? That's ~45 min. north of me. Haven't been paying attention to the beaches around here lately. Been mostly land-hunting. Surfer reports have looked lame, so I haven't even been paying attention to the beaches.
 
For a newb, have been having fun.
A couple cuts and low spots.
Has been some good high tides this week. Detecting is the best I have seen it.
Last 2 hunts, 1 Gold, 1 Silver, and almost $12 in clad.
Have not hit the main beach. Can not stand to pay for parking.

Will give a report from Salmon Creek when I get back today.
 
For a newb, have been having fun.

A couple cuts and low spots.

Has been some good high tides this week. Detecting is the best I have seen it.

Last 2 hunts, 1 Gold, 1 Silver, and almost $12 in clad.

Have not hit the main beach. Can not stand to pay for parking.



Will give a report from Salmon Creek when I get back today.
What was the report on Salmon Creek?

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top Bottom