Five Hundred and Sixty Two Coins (562) from Machine Gun Beach in 6 Days (27.5 hrs)!

[LawrencetheMDer]

Went to Machine Gun beach, nick-named because of the large number of junk targets; the standard detector sounds like a machine gun as the coil takes a single sweep.

Decided to take advantage of the Manticore’s discrimination ability as well as 2-D display to reduce junk targets.



Based on the VID for gold rings and, separately, the VID for junk (pull tabs, pulls only, tabs only, push-tabs, push only, tab only, bottle caps), I configured the 5-section discrimination pattern on the Manticore to minimize junk (76% predicted successful filter) and minimize cutting out gold rings (17.5% predicted loss).



Well, I didn’t find gold but got a great workout digging 118 coins the first day and 562 coins over the 6 days! No sure but 118 may be my all time high. Even pulled off another day over 100 coins. All the junk wasn’t so fun, but still a workout. To make matter worse, almost all the targets (>95%) were embedded in a clump - short grass with roots in a sand-soil mixture making it impossible to shake apart in the sand scoop. Every clump had to be dumped out, broken up by foot, spread apart and then searched by Pointer to find the target. Went through 2 batteries on my Carrot Pointer.



Finds Day 1

20 – 0.25

24 – 0.10

10 – 0.05

64 – 0.01

118



Finds Day 2

8 – 0.25

10 – 0.10

3 – 0.05

67 – 0.01

88



Finds Day 3

23 – 0.25

20 – 0.10

18 – 0.05

20 – 0.01

82

One junk ring



Finds Day 4

31 – 0.25

29 – 0.10

0 – 0.05

18 – 0.01

78

Two silver rings



Finds Day 5

9 – 0.25

13 – 0.10

14 – 0.05

69 – 0.01

105

One silver ring

One SS spinner ring

$5.00 bill floating in with tide



Finds Day 6

13 - 0.25

14 - 0.10

12- 0.05

53 - 0.01

92

One silver ring

Two junk rings



I’m going to rest for a while. Hope I got the pics right...close enough...

Happy Hunting.

 

[KOB]

That's alot of targets for not 1 gold.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Good play-by-play recap. What you are describing is what they used to call "ring-enhancement programs", in the 1980s/90s. Yes you'd loose a large percentage of gold rings (I'd put it closer to 50%) by using those edit programs. But you save an AWFUL lot of time not digging the commonly recurring junk items. Bummer that it didn't bring you any gold though .

 

[The Lama]

Please tell me you didn't disc out pulltabs

 

[hoser]

That is an impressive haul. Well done.

 

[Cfmct]

Felixthecat will be jealous of you finding all the pennies named after him... maybe he will trade one of his detectors to you for the zincs...

 

[OBN]

Wow, when you says days, can you translate that to hours? No matter, You got my vote for hunter of the Month! Gold or No Gold!

 

[jimsvillage]

I'm impressed !!

 

[bluebird66]

Wow, great job!

 

[MasonDixonMding]

I’m not sure if that sounds like fun or work. Great job

 

[Cfmct]

You probably missed gold if you hunted on the beach.... some gold will come in the pulltab range... there is no reason to disc anything out anything the beach except for ferrous targets... I have found plat rings in pulltab range and gold in beaver tail range...

 

[Diga]

Wow that's a lot of digging!

Nothing personal, but to me digging 562 coins on the beach, without even 1 gold, would be a bummer.

I would go over it again and avoid all the time wasted digging corroded coins, by digging only from just above ferrous, to just under zinc.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

You probably missed gold if you hunted on the beach.... some gold will come in the pulltab range... there is no reason to disc anything out anything the beach except for ferrous targets... I have found plat rings in pulltab range and gold in beaver tail range...

You could not hunt beach w/o eliminating some of the pull and push tabs - about 10-20 per swing! Also had to swing real slow w "5" recovery. I estimate eliminating about 76% of tabs and 17 1/2% of gold rings with my discrimination (between 30 - 47 on Manticore). The graph below will tell you the number of gold rings screened out (roughly 30 - 50).

 

[Compass]

Sounds like you are playing the percentages game which is what many of us try to do depending on the situation. If I understand the graph correctly I think what some of the posters here are thinking is that when there are that many targets they would take it one step further and maybe only dig targets below 30 since that is the range where most of the gold rings are.
It is a controversial strategy since you will give up most clad, bigger gold and silver but the thinking is that when there are hundreds of targets to be found there is probably some gold around and it is more likely to be small than large. You can skip the time and energy it takes to find 200 quarters ($50) and maybe find that small gold ring (at least $50 and maybe even thousands if it has a nice diamond!).
If you read Crumble's recent post about his epic hunt (23 gold in 2 days!!!) you will see that he mentions skipping the high conductors. He left all the dimes and quarters for the other hunters.

 

[itsaring!]

Wow that's a lot of digging!

Nothing personal, but to me digging 562 coins on the beach, without even 1 gold, would be a bummer.

I would go over it again and avoid all the time wasted digging corroded coins, by digging only from just above ferrous, to just under zinc.

If you aren't searching for high K gold or gold coins, usually digging above fresh zincs is a waste of holes and drops success percentages way down if all you are looking for is gold. During summer some fresh drop silver rings can bring some bucks. During winter a lot of it in salt water is crusty grey. I got a winter scrap box with Tiffany in it.

 

[Cfmct]

You could not hunt beach w/o eliminating some of the pull and push tabs - about 10-20 per swing! Also had to swing real slow w "5" recovery. I estimate eliminating about 76% of tabs and 17 1/2% of gold rings with my discrimination (between 30 - 47 on Manticore). The graph below will tell you the number of gold rings screened out (roughly 30 - 50).
View attachment 591264

I hunt beaches like that.. and have for years and yes dig lots of trash, by cleaning out the trash one will hear the deeper softer hits in threshold that you won't hear... I hunt beaches loaded with garbage targets, but I bring home the gold... I will not disk anything out besides iron...

 

[KOB]

You could not hunt beach w/o eliminating some of the pull and push tabs - about 10-20 per swing! Also had to swing real slow w "5" recovery. I estimate eliminating about 76% of tabs and 17 1/2% of gold rings with my discrimination (between 30 - 47 on Manticore). The graph below will tell you the number of gold rings screened out (roughly 30 - 50).
View attachment 591264

Digging deeper into your post. By your numbers , you knocked out 93% of your chance of finding gold. No way would I ever do that. Because what I see posted is 93% trash in my book. You got a few spendable coins , a silver ring and a bottle opener. Alot of green coins which tells me - old. Granted you say pulltabs galore every sweep , but that's the kind of risk I'd take every chance I get. Because I'm after 1 thing only , GOLD ! Everything else is a by product. I can't recall digging that many quality INDICATORS and not finding at least 1 gold. Most of my killer hunts look like yours but with gold and more trash such as iron and tabs. And I use a PI , so I'm a digging fool. It's part of the game and I accept it. Ya gotta dig the trash if ya want the treasure.

Another thought if you have that many targets so close together : take a rake or even a shovel if the targets aren't too deep and bring up some piles. Knock them down with leg sweep , scan and see what you got.

 

[Compass]

"Another thought if you have that many targets so close together : take a rake or even a shovel if the targets aren't too deep and bring up some piles. Knock them down with leg sweep , scan and see what you got.
I thought about something similar - maybe using a drag basket but he mentioned short grass and roots with a sand/soil mixture so I don't think that would work.

 

[Surf Master]

Wow, when you says days, can you translate that to hours? No matter, You got my vote for hunter of the Month! Gold or No Gold!

He must be in his teens , or early 20s , go get the treasure bro . , you got my vote too.

 

[Diga]

Decided to take advantage of the Manticore’s discrimination ability as well as 2-D display to reduce junk targets.

Based on the VID for gold rings and, separately, the VID for junk (pull tabs, pulls only, tabs only, push-tabs, push only, tab only, bottle caps), I configured the 5-section discrimination pattern on the Manticore to minimize junk (76% predicted successful filter) and minimize cutting out gold rings (17.5% predicted loss).

The 2D display is an ID plotter. As such, it has no ability to distinguish between nonferrous trash and treasure, any better than tones and/or TID. In fact, it's easily argued that the 2D screen is less accurate on all nonferrous targets than tones and/or TID.

A main issue with air tests and TID, is that tester typically swings the object at a certain distance away from the coil, and with the object facing "flat" towards the coil. In the ground, if the object is closer or further to the coil, or the object is not lying flat (most won't be lying flat), then the TID will be very different.

I can see notching out high conductors if the beach is full of clad coins, for the reasons others have stated. BUT, if one is looking for gold, then notching out anything below zinc is a big mistake IMO. Granted, the reply to that would be, "If I don't try to notch out some foil or tabs, then I would be constantly digging foil and tabs". Well ya, that's the way it is unless one is hunting in the water.