Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Hard packed sand with sea shells? Where are the heavys?!?!?

Jimb0

Jimb0

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Messages
87
Location
Miami, FL
Hey guys. Question for you. I hunted Marco Island, FL on Thursday for 5 hours and didn't have much luck. I found a fresh belly button ring in the first 3 minutes and then a bunch of garbage for the remainder. A little clad but nothing special.

At first glance conditions seemed great. Hard packed sand at low tide. A ton of nice sand ripples perpendicular to the water where the waves keep hitting the low spots. However Marco Island has very "Shelly" sand. You can put the scoop in an inch and then you hit this hard packed shell matrix that is very difficult to cut through. I'm a pretty strong guy and this beach kicked my butt.

So the question is, what does this hard packed seashell matrix mean for heavy objects? My findings were pretty mixed. I had lights and heavys all over the place. At the low tide mark. At the high tide mark. In between. At 4" and as deep as 18". I have a feeling Marco island is pretty picked over, it's nothing but retireees living there. Plus the fact that there have not been any storms and the quantity of people replenishing the beach is fairly low.

Any comments from you experiences folks?

Thank all. Happy new year!
 
I have this one beach that I hunt, with this really compact black sand right on the surface, no soft white sand really to speak of, and objects seem to sink through it so slowly that it takes a long time for the objects to sink out of range. In turn the place is pretty picked clean, even coins are rare at this beach.
 
For me most of the time its like hard pan and i get mostly floaters.... targets with surfaces that move around, coins, pull tabs, aluminum, ect. What kills me in those areas is a scoop that isnt designed for that..... really frustrates you. Objects sink to their equal weight.... UNLESS they hit hard pan or a surface target that prevents their movement.

Dew
 
If you are hunting the wet sand don't use your scoop. Go to Home depot and buy a short handle shovel ( Waist High ) not the small military size. You will dig faster in hard pack. Dig target flip over, go over hole, pile, use your foot to spread out, eyeball target bend down once to pickup kick sand back in and move on to the next target. I use a SS also and using a pulse is not about fast detecting but fast target recovery!
 
only been hunting for 2 months usually chest high and around low tide.
i have found nothing.
the sand in the water is packed tight and i am sure that the swift moving currents and strong tides sweeps everything out of my range.

i find all my targets from ankle deep water to the dry sand.
if i was a scuba diver i would try a couple of hundred yards out to find dropoffs and slower water near the bottom.
this tactic would in my opinion could prove very lucrative.
i saw a vid on utube about 3 or 4 guys that hit the beach every weekend and their finds were amazing!
one guy had over a lb of gold for the year and the others not too far behind.
i think over 90% was jewelry.
of course they didnt share any info, where or how they hunt, but my feeling is they find these dead zones in deeper water off the more popular beaches.
yesterday i was out for 5 hours and watched saw 2 guys in a rubber raft anchor about 200 yards off shore.
didnt pay much attention so the next time i looked up the raft was empty and a dive flag bobbing in the water.
not sure if they were spearfishing or hitting their honey hole.
i use a sh11 and yes i do very well in the dry sand.
GL2U
 
I believe the guy you saw on you tube was chicago ron... he hunts a lake where a lot of people swim and such... and yes he does awesome!!! You can watch some more of his videos and he gives pretty good ideas like working the cuts and whatnot... he is also a member here and I'm sure he would give you some tips if you ask... good luck and happy hunting!!!
 
the beach i have been hunting would not be cundusive to his advise and yes i know who he is and saw some of his vids.
my take is you gotta hit knee deep and below and head in toward the part of the beach where people camp.
the tide and current are just too strong to hold keepers, even gold.
i think that the tidal pulls on the bottom take items out to areas that either drop off or settle in areas that are deep enough were currents and tides are not a factor.
i call these dead zones that lie hundreds of yards off shore hence the bounty that is found after a hurricane wakes them up and moves them toward shore.
just my theory.
gl2u
 
Conditions sound right, probably just gets hit hard by the retired folks like you thought....maybe try deeper out?
 
KWA said:
the tide and current are just too strong to hold keepers, even gold.
i think that the tidal pulls on the bottom take items out to areas that either drop off or settle in areas that are deep enough were currents and tides are not a factor.
i call these dead zones that lie hundreds of yards off shore hence the bounty that is found after a hurricane wakes them up and moves them toward shore.
just my theory.
gl2u
Click to expand...

Thought provoking theory. Have you discovered any of these dead zones yourself yet? :wow:
 
only in my head:lol:
no i am not a swimmer and too poor to retire but am actually looking at learning to dive and weigh the costs vers the return.
i am 90% sure that my theory is correct.
the video i saw on you tube, you may be able to find it, was of 4 professional looking guys in a high rise office showing their year end findings.
90% was jewelry and one guy had over a lb of gold.
these guys only hunt on the weekends but as i said they reveal no tactics or strategies
like i said only been at this a few months but when the tidal action is swift and the sand is hard even in chest high water i cannot imagine any light weight jewelry staying where it is dropped.
gl2u
 
Yeah he posts videos on youtube (chicagoron?), he also shows videos of his hunts, and they definitely aren't diving. They are hunting waist deep like the rest of us.

Some guys are good at finding the spots that hold the heavy stuff. Detecting isn't just wandering around randomly at low tide and hoping to get lucky. The most successful hunters know how/where to find the heavy stuff, and hit those spots slow and hard.

I'm still working on my heavy item finding skills...

I do agree that out right past the break (outer sandbar), there is probably tons of good stuff.
 
yeah thats it seems to me they search the big lakes but you could dwarf.
gl2u thier finds in fla
 
KWA said:
the beach i have been hunting would not be cundusive to his advise and yes i know who he is and saw some of his vids.
my take is you gotta hit knee deep and below and head in toward the part of the beach where people camp.
the tide and current are just too strong to hold keepers, even gold.
i think that the tidal pulls on the bottom take items out to areas that either drop off or settle in areas that are deep enough were currents and tides are not a factor.
i call these dead zones that lie hundreds of yards off shore hence the bounty that is found after a hurricane wakes them up and moves them toward shore.
just my theory.
gl2u
Click to expand...

A lifeguard at one Florida Panhandle beach told me that tidal action moves stuff into the dip on the other side of the third sandbar at his beach. That's 12 - 14 feet + deep. I don't dive.
 
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