Wet sand advice

Vermonster said:

so now I can venture into the wet sand. Tried it the other day, and got zero targets in an hour. Moved to dry sand, got tons, the detector works great. So, maybe it's bad sand conditions, or user error.

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Vermonster said:

Ok, here's the scoop (no pun intended... ). I just moved from the F2 to the Sovereign XS-2A for the beach, so now I can venture into the wet sand. Tried it the other day, and got zero targets in an hour. Moved to dry sand, got tons, the detector works great. So, maybe it's bad sand conditions, or user error. Below is my setup. The red is similar to how I worked it. I went as close to the water at a 0 low tide, to the hardest packed wet sand I could find, and went in a straight line. The yellow is the towel line. The green, that is the slope down to the water, a pretty decent one here.

So, do I go straight like I did (red), and just hope for better sand conditions? Or, do I go up and down the slope in a pattern similar to the green lines? I do notice as I get further up the slope, I start sinking more, to a point my feet are 4-6 inches deep in the sand, so that's obviously no good. Anyway, opinions? Best pattern to tackle the beach? Going out again this Friday, so want to make the best of it and at least et some sort of target in the wet sand. Thanks.

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Kapidr said:

I like to do an S shaped very wide grid search like the green line until I hear targets and then stay in that line. If it's mushy that's bad yes usually. I like to hit in front of run outs so if that is how my beach looked today I'd have been mostly where the blue lines are.

For wet sand hunting the targets tend to line up if they've been there awhile so you can be one foot off (Too high or too low) and miss an entire row of targets and think there's nothing at that spot.

Fresh drops though can be anywhere.

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Kapidr said:

I like to do an S shaped very wide grid search like the green line until I hear targets and then stay in that line. If it's mushy that's bad yes usually. I like to hit in front of run outs so if that is how my beach looked today I'd have been mostly where the blue lines are.

For wet sand hunting the targets tend to line up if they've been there awhile so you can be one foot off (Too high or too low) and miss an entire row of targets and think there's nothing at that spot.

Fresh drops though can be anywhere.

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Crumble said:

I always move like the green line in the picture. Usually there is a line of targets parallel to the water that has a higher concentration of targets, have to find that line before walking parallel to the water.

Sometimes a beach just gets pounded by a bunch of other guys, and you won't find targets no matter what you do. Since you found a lot in the dry sand, I am guessing that you just walked the wrong line. Next time, walk like in the green line, walk kind of fast and swing kind of fast, I'm sure you will find targets. If you start hitting targets and they are all in a line, walk that line. Make sure you are keeping the coil low to the ground for your whole sweep, and not golf clubbing it.

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FelixtheCat said:

What Crumble and Kapidr said. I would also like to add that once I find a level that shows some type of heavier objects in an area I will stay working that level until it gets quiet. that to me indicates some type of change and then I go back to a wider pattern until I find the new working level again.

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robby4570 said:

Like I told you in another thread, I run my Sovereign Elite wide open, full volume, barely audible threshold, max sensitivity not auto, NO disc and NO notch, variable and all metal to hunt, when I get a target I switch to "DISC" from "ALL METAL" to check out the target. I listen for faint changes in the threshold to indicate the deepest targets and really check these spots well, maybe even removing two or three scoops of sand, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't, but I don't leave any good targets that way...

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Crumble said:

That Sovereign has the Dixie mod, you should set threshold barely audible in all metal and then switch to disc so the threshold goes silent. It's slightly deeper that way. With the Dixie mod it can act weird if you try to hunt with a threshold.

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zeemang said:

Since you are between hunts right now set yoursef up in a quiet spot, turn the machine on, set up a steady low threshold and rest it on a table or something. With the headphones on wave a coin close to the coil and slowly further and further away until you just notice it "a disturbance in the force" type signals. Get used to THOSE signals...
I know this seems silly, but it gets you used to hearing things that almost are not there, that way when you hear them in the filed you recognize them as a signal and not as static or something...
GL!

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low tide said:

All great advice BUT different times/conditions dictate different strategies. If it were so easy everyone would be killing it!

Right now on this side of town it's the Law of Percentages and pure luck.... Several months ago I was finding 2 gold rings a week sometimes 3. Right now I'm lucky to get 3.00 in change... Don't get so hung up on the parallels of the surf but instead look for low spots, dark colored water that is turbulent. Get in it! If the sand is fluffy and or like soft oatmeal, split! Don't waste your time. Ideally you want hard, low level sand and rocks. If you don't have that then look at the slopes. Look at the recent high/low tides. Were they drastic? If so, get out in the water. If you hunt where everyone else hunts then you're no better than the rest of em in way of odds. I try to hunt in more challenging spots and areas that others don't wanna get into because they might get wet or it looks to hard.... Those tends to be the honey holes. And when you find one, keep your mouth shut, don't post video's of it on Youtube and work the snot out of it until conditions completely dry it up. THEN feel free to post your video's, etc...

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robby4570 said:

It's hard to argue with success, and those three are successful. I hunt very much like they do and a "grid" (the blue "S" pattern) works best for me. I do hunt straight lines if I am going from the truck to the area I want to hunt, because, if I'm on the beach I'm swinging that coil.

Like I told you in another thread, I run my Sovereign Elite wide open, full volume, barely audible threshold, max sensitivity not auto, NO disc and NO notch, variable and all metal to hunt, when I get a target I switch to "DISC" from "ALL METAL" to check out the target. I listen for faint changes in the threshold to indicate the deepest targets and really check these spots well, maybe even removing two or three scoops of sand, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't, but I don't leave any good targets that way...

Click to expand...

zeemang said:

Since you are between hunts right now set yoursef up in a quiet spot, turn the machine on, set up a steady low threshold and rest it on a table or something. With the headphones on wave a coin close to the coil and slowly further and further away until you just notice it "a disturbance in the force" type signals. Get used to THOSE signals...
I know this seems silly, but it gets you used to hearing things that almost are not there, that way when you hear them in the filed you recognize them as a signal and not as static or something...
GL!

Click to expand...