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Beach Detecting Lesson


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Not many finds posted lately so I thought I would share mine.

Headed to Hawaii for a Spring Break Vacation in April. Took my trusty old Excalibur with me on this adventure as it is a really good beach/surf detector.

With all the new detectors being released lately I contemplated getting something new for the trip, but decided that I don't beach hunt enough to justify it. Instead I replaced the stock S shaft with a new Pluggers carbon fiber four piece dive/balanced shaft that I purchased on Ebay. Normally I like a S shaft but the Excal is really heavy and the new shaft is a blessing. Liked it so much, maybe for next year I will add GG head phones and the PP mod.

Really planed to get into the surf this year but end up with a bad case of ReanalGlacoma ( could not see getting my ass in the water) Alcohol may have been involved. So I ended up spending my time dry sand hunting. WOW the beaches seem to be really worked over this year and pickings were slim, not even a lot of trash.

I did come up with the usual lots of clad and some junk  and several cool relics but not much to brag about until the morning I happen to stroll down to the area the surfers head out from. I saw the beach had washed out about two plus foot overnight.

I had been over this spot the day before and not much. But wanted to see if the wash out changed anything and to my surprise the area was loaded with coins ( still no silver ) And jewelry. Hit a nice little silver toe ring a few silver ear rings a silver clad ring and my first gold ring at the beach.

The lesson here is anytime the beach changes dramatically get in there! Its kind of like taking a bulldozer to the tailing piles.  

 

                                                                                            Excalibur with the new shaft

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Beach that washed out.

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Finds from the washed out beach.............And the fist gold from the beach. WooHoo:biggrin:

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HH everyone.

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Nice work. I'll bet that made your trip. Is that another guy with a metal detector in the second photo? If so the early bird gets the worm so to speak. It amazes me how a giant beach can be cleaned out so well. The wife and  recently went to Carmel Ca on a little 3 day trip. I was very excited as I don't get to do much beach hunting. The beach there gets thousands of people. Long story short it It was pretty much cleaned out. I was digging the faintest of targets just to have something to dig. Got some clad and one piece of junk jewelry. I saw a couple locals while I was there working the beach with their CTX's . Best part was when a lady approached me and showed me a gold butterfly pendant she had just found on top of the sand.

 

strick

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It is all about storms and "beach cuts" versus "sanded in" beaches. When sand goes away, you can find a lot - years of accumulations. When sand moves in, it covers those layers, limiting finds to sparse recent drops.

Congrats though on first Hawaii gold!

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Strick, that guy with the metal detector is a resident homeless man at that beach. His name is Seafa and his dog is Tahini. Ended up paling around a bit with him turned out to be a good guy. He has a cheap Bounty Hunter and I helped him set up and run that detector. I gave him all the change I found, on the day I left stopped and said good buy well he gave me beach glass and some nice shells he hade stashed in his pack, I don't think he has much so that touched me.

Rob, I was on Maui, West side. Lots of newer mega resorts there. I stay in an older hole in the wall place but I can be in the mayhem quickly. I did go to Kanapalli beach on day. That is a large beach with thousand of people and it must get a regular go thru, I believe I got 36 cents there and really not any trash. Metal detecting there was boring but the scenery was a saving grace. 

Steve, That  really taught me to study the beach and pay attention to the subtle things more than just having the most expensive detector. I started studying the tide tables after that.

Here is a link to some good beach detecting info the author talks a lot about reading the beach changes. http://web.archive.org/web/20090406024500/http://thegoldenolde.com/oldego3.htm.

Hope next year I find one with a big rock attached to it.

 

 

 

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