Beach Gold - a Guessing Game

Depends on a lot of things, how much trash there is at the beach, how often it gets hunted by other detectorists etc etc so it's hard to guess how much gold you'd find.

Ok, let's say you find a gold item every 4 hours. (You must be REALLY lucky to average that) That's 50 gold items in total for the 200 hours, right? If the average weight of each item is 4g, that's 200g in 12k gold.

Right now gold is at about $42US dollars per gram, so $21 for 12k. So that's 21 x 200 = $4200

That's assuming there aren't any diamonds involved, or the rings aren't from expensive companies like cartier.

lytle78 said:

Since I spent my career buying and subcontracting, I spent endless hours doing worst case analysis on deals. Silly me, before you enter into any arrangement - do a best case analysis - if everything goes pretty much to plan - what is your gain - is it worth the cost/risk.

So let’s pretend I just had a chance to get the world’s best beach detector for gold jewelry ( if such a thing existed) and let’s pretend that I had 200 hours a year to detect at a high traffic beach. How much gold should I expect to find?

Let me know your thoughts - and remember, that this imaginary detector will be approximately twice as effective as any detector you have used previously at finding gold jewelry (kindly spare the lectures on whether such a thing is possible - let’s just assume - for the purposes of the game - that it exists)

What would I expect to earn in 200 hours - let’s try and normalize - say 12 karat gold (an average). How many rings at what average weight equals how many grams of 12K - feel free to go ahead and use one of those on line calculators to turn it into $, but remember, grams of 12K.

Post your guesses.

Click to expand...

You are asking a totally impossible question. I can give you an answer. You can expect to find absolutely NO gold. Gold is not the norm now. New age metals have taken over. A lot of folks have metal detectors also.

I probably can safely say I put in 200 hours a summer. My best summer was 27 thousand dollars. Last summer was almost 6 thousand. My lowest summer was 3500.00.

There is absolutely no rhyme or secret to finding gold. Except in my case being able to go where nobody else can. I can find old gold.

If you are out there to just find gold, you have the wrong hobby. You are supposed to be out there for relaxation and fun and a chance to dig up the unknown.

With the shifting sands on ocean and big lake beaches, you absolutely never know when you will hit a cut with POSSIBLY old gold in it.

If you don't put the time in you won't ever find anything. But expecting any amount of gold is totally unrealistic.

The little game I posted is intended to be played by experienced beach detectors. My experience is that folks who put in hundreds of hours a year are serious beach hunters and the only thing which keeps them out there is the thrill of that treasure in your scoop. I am not addressing the folks who visit the beach once or a couple of times a year and amuse themselves with a detector while the wife (or husband) amuse themselves otherwise.

I doubt that the search for “fun and relaxation” will have someone put in 200 hours a year swinging a detector and carrying a scoop. At a minimum of $3500/year, you are clearly getting more out of it - congrats!

I posted this for a reason, to demonstrate the degree to which gold is found at the beach by experienced operators. The price of the most expensive equipment on the market is easily amortized by the amount of gold found by hard-working and knowledgeable users.

I also specified a not-yet-existing superior beach gold detector. You pointed out that you find old gold with your current equipment. Superior equipment may well allow other experienced operators to find significantly more and also smaller gold, including old gold.

In any case, thanks for answering my “imposssible question”!!

lol I've got no clue. This is just one of many hobbies

Everyone has a little bit different style to detecting - weekend warriors, dry sand, wet sand, wading, scuba, some focus on detecting other states/countries mostly, some only storm chase etc etc...

Basically I'm not sure there is an "average" detectorist to build a baseline, we're all above average anomalies

If I find gold then great, if not, oh well, I enjoyed some saltwater and got a bit of exercise.

You're just trying to trick us into giving away secrets...I'm on to your scam...you already HAVE the special detector, don't you?

Well I'm going to ruin your fun...here's the detector you're referring to...admit it...



Superior beach detector

Whenever I beach/water hunt I usually average about $1 an hour LOL. Glad I'm not in this for the money. Obviously whenever you hit on gold your per/hr goes up. Even when /if this fictitious detector is dropped off by the next alien visit then it will be years before the operator learns how to use the machine to its super duper gold finding ability unless of course that is built in so no learning curve to be factored in. Hopefully this new machine will have the ability to automatically find and get permissions with all the old gold and silver since there seems to be much more time involved in this hobby before the hunt than actually spent doing it . Oh and hopefully it will have a civil war setting as well so I can finally find some of that without researching and digging too much junk I can just go right to it. Now obviously I'm just messing with you. Metal detecting tends to have a snowball effect just like every other hobby I've gotten involved with there is always something that I can add that will make it better. A new better machine? A better digging tool? A Kayak and misc other assorted related waterproofing accessories LOL. Its all about the thrill of the hunt and not knowing what lies ahead. Every find is like the prize at the bottom of a cracker jack box.Anyone thinking this hobby can or would be a wise investment move will see a 99.9% probability of disappointment. Most people watch youtube and Facebook and forums and all they see is all the change and rings and old silver coins and run out and spend $1000 on equipment expecting a return on their investment. Unless the price of pull tabs goes up soon most of us will be happy with a dollar an hour return lol. Best advise I can give is don't overthink it. That $50 10k pinky ring will look like part of the crown Jewels when you dig it up guaranteed.

The problem is conditions would not be predictable enough to make any kind of calculation. There could be 100 gold rings dropped a day but if the sand mix is so soft they sink out of detector range within minutes of being dropped it would be darn near impossible. However, when it washed out closer to hard pan or a clay layer you could absolutely clean up in any given day...

Just take a look at the RING DADDY page....... and you get some idea as to how many gold rings a person can find in a year. Tom D once said...... with the current machines we are mostly RING hunting. So im assuming a LOT would change from this detector.

Conditions change yearly around me which affects my finds..... be it weather, sand, people, competition and time out there. I can say id starve if i had to rely on my detecting..... When i think about buying a detector...... there is more research into the machine. Because if i buy it....... im comparing it to what i have and what it ALLEGEDLY offers. Will it do as well as what i have..... because what i have pays for its self several times over.... even with repairs. Let me say....... the purchase of a NEW machine thus far has NOT increased my annual finds .... SIGNIFICANTLY. So..... is it the learning of the machine, me, or thus far are all machines created equal?

So dew....play the game...

Give us a number!

lytle78 said:

So dew....play the game...

Give us a number!

Click to expand...

3



R5

Dont listen to these fools, you should make a cool million dollars an hour.

With a TDI on a heavy traffic beach during summer season I average around 200g of gold/pt/pd.
This # might vary due to uncontrobable variables but... 200 is the average for inseason. Only PI hunting.
If it's a beach with decent wave size I can expect 3 to 4 necklaces, usually 7g and woman's. . and yes rick if the manta can be shipped international I'll be buying

This will blow your mind.

There is different kinds of gold.

Say what?

Find 1715 Spanish fleet gold.

Love the topic! A Gruesome Gold Guessing Game! I also work and detect greatly considering and examining the ROI...Lots of other successful outdoor pursuit oriented individuals do this subconsciously... Its a way for a person to adjust the format/gear to maximize results/time/effort...This has been going on since the dawn of Time for subsistence hunters, panhandlers, salesmen, etc...

200hrs of beach hunting gold...busy beach? Yeah, a guy should get at least 6-8 gold bands..bummer is a lot of them will be low weight wimmins not really worth the focus/effort....(reasoning/experience/math following)...

200hrs represents a LOT of sand! At the average Human walking speed of 3.1mph, lets say we are at about 1.5mph in full hunting speed, a slow stroll....Thats 300 MILES! So lets say for easy math, your beach stretch is 1.5 miles long...down and back on the towel line equals 3miles per day and 2hrs expended....also, to fill the 200hr requirement, it would take a guy 100days or a little over 3 months!

OK...so now a guy takes beach conditions/weather/events/crowds into the account and doesnt go every single day, just on the GOOD ones...so yeah, a couple of years to fill that 200hr requirement...up here especially, really only @30 days of solid packed beach action crowds where a guy must go out every day if possible, but only for that time frame that straddles July Aug..then you smoke jump and spot hop depending for a few more days on either side of that peak season allowance...

Beach Hunting Gold is a huge effort and one helluva awful ROI experience! No matter what magic rig you have, thats not the primary quantifyer to finding more gold...Up here, You gotta be super 'fast and first' in before 50 other coils descend upon the place! Our drops here in season have a shelf time of about 8hrs...especially with the damned Ringfinders getting called in to help on the Gold ones!

Up and out before the Sun, Barefoot, loose shorts, super light fast rig with the longest possible lower rod to sweep a 12' arc, super light fast scoop..(modded/cut F70) Yep, a guy can walk 100miles of sand in one month barefoot and hunt it (thats only 66hrs of wasted time I coulda been sleeping, + 12 Dubble A's).......

.ROI considerations are important, beach hunting is low ROI for gold finds..lucky if they all total 400bucks....The only reason I do it at all is for the towels/empty cans/shoes/cellphones/bycatch misc...thats where the REAL money is...comparatively speaking, I probably make a grand/season off of that stuff! $5/hr is about what a guy can expect in this Sport! That would be good money if Beach Hunting wasnt so hard! Wet Towels are heavy!.

There doesnt seem to be any magic to what you can find when. Ive had poor summer months....... then in the winter when no one is in the water.... i get a crazy good month. Why... tide swings, sand movement or did all the competition dry up? I like Tom Ds 40% rule....... "If the PI unit is less than 40% better ...than the VLF unit, I have found that the VLF units ability to ID iron.... makes up for the PI's shortcomings via the time-savings by virtue of NOT digging ferrous targets...…. and finding the non-ferrous targets at a faster rate with a VLF ID-capable unit."

Also the saying 10 percent of the people find 90% of the gold may well be true. With that 40% rule you have to assume the guy using it is a quick study. Thus far ive not found any machine i picked up to make a HUGE difference in my finds at the end of the year. Im pretty consistant as to how many hours i put in. Not sure if we are just RING hunting a new machine would change my finds much......... but new machines like the Nox or Manta with the potential to find MORE gold in the smaller range could increase the over all total weight at the end of the year........ by 40%.... because those are the targets now left behind.

To answer your question: How much gold should I expect to find?

If you have never hunted a beach and hunt like some of the dirt diggers i see out there....... buddy you are in trouble even with the best machine.

Beach Hunting is not Water Hunting!

...Beach hunting is about the worst ROI/effort in all of the subset genres of this Sport! All that walking and slinging! And If you gotta pay to park, come home exhausted with nothing to show for it, ROI negative, you may as well Golf!

Just like Golf, Beach Hunting requires No real skill involved, just physical fitness and a high tolerance for pain/disappointment

...The ONLY reason I do it at all is because there is a lot of beaches here and I live real close, I'm up early everyday, and I commonly find half bottles of free beach alcohol...you never find a half bottle on the Golf Course, just empties

lytle78 said:

Since I spent my career buying and subcontracting, I spent endless hours doing worst case analysis on deals. Silly me, before you enter into any arrangement - do a best case analysis - if everything goes pretty much to plan - what is your gain - is it worth the cost/risk.

So let’s pretend I just had a chance to get the world’s best beach detector for gold jewelry ( if such a thing existed) and let’s pretend that I had 200 hours a year to detect at a high traffic beach. How much gold should I expect to find?

Let me know your thoughts - and remember, that this imaginary detector will be approximately twice as effective as any detector you have used previously at finding gold jewelry (kindly spare the lectures on whether such a thing is possible - let’s just assume - for the purposes of the game - that it exists)

What would I expect to earn in 200 hours - let’s try and normalize - say 12 karat gold (an average). How many rings at what average weight equals how many grams of 12K - feel free to go ahead and use one of those on line calculators to turn it into $, but remember, grams of 12K.

Post your guesses.

Click to expand...

Mmm Great Question. I would find 5000000000 pull tabs,, 80000000000000000 twist off beer tops(all gold colored), 4000 tent stakes, 600 pennies, 57 what ya doing's?, 500 you finding anything?, 45 absolutely beautiful booty(bounty shots), and 3 silvers and 1 gold.

Mud-puppy said:

Love the topic! ..especially with the damned Ringfinders getting called in to help on the Gold ones!
:

Click to expand...

I've heard people have started putting them on wild goose chases with cranks calls. If they want to feel good about themselves let them volunteer at the salvation army or local nursing home

Mud-puppy said:

Beach Hunting is not Water Hunting!

...Beach hunting is about the worst ROI/effort in all of the subset genres of this Sport! All that walking and slinging! And If you gotta pay to park, come home exhausted with nothing to show for it, ROI negative, you may as well Golf!

Just like Golf, Beach Hunting requires No real skill involved, just physical fitness and a high tolerance for pain/disappointment

...The ONLY reason I do it at all is because there is a lot of beaches here and I live real close, I'm up early everyday, and I commonly find half bottles of free beach alcohol...you never find a half bottle on the Golf Course, just empties

Click to expand...

Free Booze is always a good find!