The truth about beach metal detectors

cappy

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Jan 3, 2015
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NE Ohio
Beach detectors can be put into four different groups.

Group one is the standard land detector with either a fixed ground balance or an adjustable manual ground balance that will not adjust for wet salt sand. Most land detectors and the AT Pro fit this group. You can successfully use these detectors on a wet salt sand beach, but you need to lower the sensitivity to where they quiet down enough to use.

Group two is the machines with a manual ground balance that will adjust for wet salt sand. The AT Gold, Tesoro Tigershark, and MX Sport as well as the non waterproof MXT and F75 are some examples. The problem with these machines is that the mineralization of wet salt sand beaches changes dramatically in very short distances. For example black sand balances very different than the white beach sand, trying to keep up in the streaks is impossible. Also damp sand balances different than sand awash in seawater. There is no way to maintain ground balance in the surf with these machines. You will find yourself reducing the sensitivity like in the group one detectors, although these detectors will not be as far out of balance as the machines in group one, and will offer better performance.

Group three is the multi frequency machines with automatic ground tracking made for salt water beaches. Minelab Excaliber and Fisher CZ 21 are examples as well as land/water machines like CTX 3030 and the non waterproof V3I machine. These machines offer the best salt water beach performance, but are expensive. If you plan to spend a lot of the time on salt water beaches, these are the machines to use.

Group four is the machines that use the pulse induction or PI operating mode. PI is immune to ground minerals and will deliver maximum performance on salt water beaches, and PI machines tend to go deeper than VLF machines. The big problem with PI machines is there is no discrimination. Some machines like the Garrett Sea Hunter claim to have some sort of discrimination, but if you read the reviews you will see that this primitive discrimination doesn’t work that well. Since the vast majority of beaches contain a large amount if iron trash, with a PI machine you will spend your time digging this trash at crazy deep depths. The VLF machines can discriminate out this iron, PI machines can’t. In the time it takes for a person with a PI machine to search 100 feet of beach, and dig all the iron trash, the person with a VLF machine can search 500 to 1000 feet of beach. At the end of the day who do you think will find more good finds?
 
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Great succinct write up there Cappy! Even up here on the Lake Michigan fresh there is magnetized black sand, we see Excals and CZ21's being employed with great results...You are right about finding a rig that suits the area and your own personal style...Some people like to work miles of dry along the towel line, smoke jumping from beach to beach and working very fast for fresh drops. Its a good strategy, but VERY strenuous...has to be done in season and early as possible...
Then, after the season, going into the water in some nice blow outs from the Winter storms is a good productive way to hunt here..but again, that also is tough duty, and cold!
Mud
 

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A month ago I had my MX sport at the beach and I had to keep my sensitivity low (less than 4) but it did fine in the water. I went in and out of the water and dry sand. I never moved my sensitivity up past 4 on dry sand and found plenty of deep stuff

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
Of course, when you refer to "beach" I am assuming you mean fresh water. If we're talking about salt, your scenario changes entirely.
 
Good write-up. PI's are the most stable but digging nails and staying on your feet due to the waves gets tiring fast. Luckily salt water takes care of metal pretty fast. Even with my M6's beach mode it will false at the wet/damp line and I usually find a middle ground between wet/dry and lock the ground track. It becomes a chatterbox but it picks up nickels pretty deep. I could imagine how difficult black sand would be. With the two machines I can cover a beach pretty well.
 
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