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Is Beach Detecting Just Easier?


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11 hours ago, mn90403 said:

There would also be less trash.

I agree, there 'should' be less trash...but there often isn't.  

It amazes me how many patches I used to go over that were supposedly flogged but I'd still pull heaps of trash out.  Any one of those items could have been a nugget but they generally aren't.  

I'm not doing that so much these days but when I only have the time for a quick, short hunt I still hit those spots and still find targets.  

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Mitchel 

what is happening in your head while nugget hunting?
if you have some internal dialogue going you likely don’t hear the really faint signals. It is very difficult to stay focused...

I know that when I get distracted by stuff I don’t do as well....

if I am not thinking about gold I probably won’t find much...

I don’t think all these opinions will help much, they seem to irritate you...only you can figure this out....
Trust  your equipment...don’t doubt yourself...there are more nuggets waiting for you.

fred

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I have hunted with my hearing aids on while wearing headphones and have also taken them off doing the same. I use an amp and feel that, in both situations, the amp more than compensates for my hearing loss, which is also in the high frequency range. If you have an amp, I would say use it…all the time. 

I think it's harder to hear the variations in the threshold that can signal targets when it's highly mineralized etc. where the threshold won't settle down. After awhile that constant pitch change blurs my ability to be able to pick out subtle tone shifts. I do what Fred does, I just take a few minutes and take the phones off and relax for a few minutes. It helps a lot. Just a thought. 

 

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Hi Mitchel, You just need to live closer to the gold.  Eventually you would  get on a fresh patch. No need to struggle listening for whispers then.  Thats the secret of most these consistent guys. They live on it, or near it, and get out every week hiking the hills.  You are a great detector operator and more experienced than most.

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Its the opposite for me.  Nugget shooting is way more successful than on the beach.  I want a gold ring and a reale.  Can’t seem to put my coil over one.

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Well, during today's beach hunt my thoughts were of 'the game' and how to play it.  Thoughts of all sports came to mind as I was listening to the smooth, mostly uninterrupted threshold of the beach sand.  We've had a storm but not many targets came with it.  I know this because places where I normally hunt had few targets and others detectorists didn't find them also.  There is something confidence building about seeing a few un-refilled dig holes about.  If there are not many then the guy before you didn't get much and he would have missed me asking him "What is good about leaving an open hole?"

Anyway, I know what many targets can be and what few targets can be.

A theme running through my mind today was 'how do I be competitive' with either the ground or a fellow detectorist?  This can help with the concentration if done properly.  While I was detecting I started to rank the areas we hunt or the settings which are somewhat like Steve's categories in the forums except I rank it according to WHERE the hunt takes place.  Let me rank (easy to hard) them in order of difficulty for me:

1. Blanket Line Dry Sand

2. Parks and Playgrounds

3. Wet Sand Beach

4. Old Relic Fields and UK Sites (I haven't done this yet but maybe?)

5. Nugget Hunting 

I can't resist comparing this to something I do several times a week which is play billiards.  This is also a skill and luck 'sport or hobby' as you might put it.  (Andy's brother is a professional and we have compared the concentration in pool to nugget hunting.)  How would I compare those games to detecting?

1. 8 Ball (easy)

2. 9 Ball

3. 10 Ball

4. 3 Cushion Billiards

5. One Pocket (the most difficult game on a pool table)

For those of you not familiar with one pocket, it is a game where you and your opponent each has only one corner pocket at the bottom of the table where you can score points.  The other 5 pockets on the table are not used and any ball that drops in those pockets (except your opponents corner pocket) are replaced on the table.

Without going into all of the details and strategies of offense and defense in each game, I've tried to rank then in order of difficulty for semi-pro types of players.  One pocket is the king.  Nugget hunting is the king.  All of your skills and equipment are needed to succeed at both them.

This now comes to the point of comparison.  One pocket players learn by watching and doing in much the same way that detectorists learn from each other.  But there are some players that just have the 'magic' and no matter how much you watch and learn you still need them to open up to you.  They have subtle moves and techniques that they don't share with everyone and especially to their tournament rivals.

Metal detecting and pool playing at the highest levels requires good fundamentals.  I sometimes find myself playing pool and wanting a good smooth stroke (you have to hit within a .5 mm spot sometimes) and follow through like JP's coil control teachings.  Hitting a shot with extreme 3:00 English on it as opposed to centerball is like JW finding tiny nuggets in cracks on bedrock with maximum sensitivity.  Using an X-Coil is like using a low deflection, carbon fibre shaft.  You just learn how to get the most out of what you have and you try for more.

We all have limitations.  These limitations can be frustrating and irritating sometimes.  I keep expecting a 'break out' that improves my technique which in turn leads to more consistency which translates into more wins and more nuggets.

Wes has touched upon the greatest truth of the matter.  I need more practice.  I need to live closer to gold like both JP and JW and many of the rest of you not to mention Walker and Lunk who live the life of a detectorist for more than half of the year.  And then there are Klunkers who have to think about detecting for half a year before they can get out and do it.

If I sound and say I'm irritated, I am.  But it is not at any of you as much as it is myself.  I've probably had more lessons about nugget hunting than any person alive and I still haven't found any 'magic' I can teach.  I have no seeming command of my nugget finding.  I can tell people a lot of what others have told me but that doesn't put anything in the poke most of the time.

I hope I stop this search for the holy grail sometime soon and just take it one day, one hour, one swing at a time.  Results are or aren't in my control.  As Steve and Fred say, just slow down and play more battleship.

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Mitch,

I’ve known you for several years and have swung a coil or two within shouting range and have had you on hot nugget dirt.  Coil speed is the most important and then having your coil height either on the ground or no more than a inch above the ground constantly.  From Yuma to Rye Patch, slow and low on them old patches.  But, when I’m on new ground I’m at in fast past if the trash will let me.  But, my coil will remain low on these searches for that one Duck Nugget.  That one nugget, will change my gear back into Low and Slow.  You know where the old patches are at Rye Patch and many other patches throughout the Western States.  Sometimes you have to think outside the box of what others may not have done or detected to find gold.  Your in the right places and have the right equipment, the rest is all Mental.  Constantly, changing your settings doesn’t help you learn that 7000.  Stick with one or two settings and learn their sounds.  Them old patch nuggets won’t sound like a Duck nugget, it maybe just the smallest change in your Threshold.  If your out with other hunters, let them have you run your coil over their targets.  Finding your best settings for your ears is most important on undisturbed targets!  I think I have a couple marked on my 7000 GPS, I’ll send coordinates to you.  Don’t dig them, just tune your machine and remember the sounds...never know when I might need some gas money!  Good Luck

LuckyLundy

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On 3/9/2020 at 10:51 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

I do also have an ear for whisper signals, what I call imaginary signals. The ones where I go a foot or two before my brain says "was that a signal?" and back up and check.

Mitchel,  I have to agree with some of the comments mentioned too.

I also feel you have tuned the beach hunt (so much closer to you and 10X times more hunting than gold hunts) to your main focus.  As said by a few, the beach hunting style is so much different than swinging a 7000.  I have not hunted a beach with you yet, but know ground coverage is a big part of beach hunting.  I say it in reverse when chasing a nugget for most sites.  It is not how much ground you cover, but finding an old patch and covering that same ground (much smaller area too) very methodically, and slow.

Why is it that I can take a dink nugget and toss it in front of a new customer in a 10 foot square and they see it hit the ground, but can not hear it with their detector?  If I took a ring and tossed it 50 feet down the side of a beach, I know you would find it.  Your ear, mind and thoughts have been trained to listen for beach type targets on a pretty smooth (for the most part) surface.

In order for someone to find that little dink in a 10 foot area, they need to keep the coil scraping the ground (making more unwanted noise), overlap at least 20 to 30%, have perfect coil control, swing really slow and be willing to investigate any slight change of threshold.  So you think you did in fact find the target??? Now try to pinpoint and then get that dang little bugger in the plastic scoop.  I've watched customers spend 15 minutes on 1 BB signal.  I've even found a target, gotten it in the scoop and then tossed it back down, as I did not think it was in the scoop?  Ears my friend and then some luck.

I travel quite a bit and detect most everywhere and have been for many years.  Ancient Coins/Artifacts in England, Civil War sites back East, beaches all over the world, old coin and relics out west and gold nugget hunts where-ever there is gold.  Gold Nugget Hunting is by far much harder and takes the most patience of all, in my opinion.

Good post BTW.

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