First time on the beach with My Bounty Hunter - Fortune Hunter

[seanboy]

Well I took my Bounty Hunter - Fortune Hunter out for its first beach hunt this past weekend and either I need alot more practice or maybe a new detector ...

I want to say first of all that my detector seems to work great in the soil. Out of maybe 3 trips on soil I have pulled up a few bucks in change and some fake rings and other various goodies.

Ok, so I went to a beach about 15 miles south of Half Moon bay here in California. Its a spot where I used to camp on the beach for free and many travelers stopped to spend the day on the beach there. Since my last camping trip there a couple years back they took out the roadside parking and there is now no camping and fires aloud, so not many people visit anymore and who knows if it had been previously detected out since the crowds dissapted on that particular beach.

Ok so I started out detecting all metal and after about an hour I pulled up maybe 10 nails and a few bunches of foil. With that, I turned on auto notch but could not get a signal to save my life so I put my silver ring in a bag and buried it a few inches under the sand and nothing. The only way my detector could find it, is if I switched on all metal. Im not sure if maybe its just my detector or not.

FYI, I was not detecting underneath any water only on the beach. And also, all the nails I was finding were from all the wood burned from the campfires. I really want to find out if maybe I dont have the best detector for beach detecting because that is my main focus and pleasure when planning on purchasing a metal detector. Aside from civil war relics and such which I dont think I will be finding any of here in California.

[Cfmct]

Sean

Beach hunting is very competitive, with that being the case most of us use detectors that are going to see much deeper than your detector. Its probably one of the reasons you didn't find much. Most gold finds are going to be deeper than your detector can see anyway. The beach in question can be cleaned regularly as well and those beach sweepers take some stuff away.

[seanboy]

So when my detector is in All Metal find mode it detects deeper than when in Auto Notch mode? If depth is the problem I would be willing to put down some more $$ for another detector. Hello tax refund! =)

[TonyinCT]

CA beaches are known for the black sand they hold. The detector you have is very limited under these circumstances and only all metal will work to any degree. Unfortunately depth is sacrificed in disc. The detector is good for many soil conditions but salt ia altogether different.

[seanboy]

Thanks for the reply Tony, I send you a PM. It looks like I may have to upgrade but I will still keep this detector around as its pretty good working in the soil.

[Max-VaBeach-Va]

seanboy

here is a quote from a fellow floriday hunter

" Time is the only thing you never get back, why waste time using a cheap machine when you can have more fun and recover more with a better detector. "