New To The Legend And Metal Detecting In General, What Are The Best Settings People Use When Detecting At The Beach?

[Chase Goldman]

9 hours ago, CTidwell said:

Aren't high freq's usually better for gold than low?

You are correct, though as mentioned previously gold conductivity target ID varies greatly with the mass, shape, and purity of the gold alloy so there is no ideal frequency.   Generally, lower frequencies get maximum ground penetration and depth vs. higher frequencies but they are less sensitive to micro targets and lower conductors like alloyed gold.  A large gold ring of higher gold alloy content that will ring up with a high TID might be hit deeper with a lower frequency setting or Park mode in dry sand, but it is not generally an ideal setting on a wet salt beach and will be less reactive to smaller gold.  Any single frequency or even "Park" modes on a simultaneous multifrequency (SMF) detector like an Equinox, Manticore, Deus 2, or Legend will run less stable in wet salt sand or saltwater than an SMF dedicated "Beach" mode that is designed to balance salt out.  So I don't know what the 800 guy on the beach was saying to the OP about 4 khz hitting gold better at the beach.  Perhaps he was trying to "throw off" a percieved newbie/competitor (it unfortunately does happen with unscrupulous detectorists when there's competition for scarce targets), was being imprecise about how he was actually using 4 khz with the 800 there, or he genuinely was misinformed.  Regardless, it appears to be a stunningly bad "general" tip to pass along (without specific context), especially since he was running a SMF detector with more optimal beach modes.

On the beach, higher frequencies do interact with salt more (for the very same reason they "excite" gold targets more) giving more ground noise chatter such that it's hard to run the machine in a stable manner.  So for single frequency machines that have multiple adjustable frequency settings you can get more wet salt stability by running the machine at lower frequencies but you do sacrifice depth and sensitivity on gold and lower conductive precious metals and micro-jewelry.  And if the machine is not designed to balance to salt at those settings, it may still run unstable.  For SMF machines, you generally can't get the machine to run stable in wet salt sand in the SIngle Frequency or non-Beach SMF modes.  OP apparently found this to be the case.

That's why on a salt beach, there really is no reason not to run the designated multifrequency "beach" mode if you are running in wet salt sand or salt water to get maximum stability and performance across low and high conductive targets.  Beach modes are not optimal for small gold and micro targets on dry sand, but will work.  Therefore, on dry sand, where salt stability is a non-issue, even at salt water beaches, run whatever frequency or mode is most conducive to the primary target of interest (low frequencies or SMF "Park" modes for deep high conductors like coins or higher frequencies or SMF "gold" modes for gold and micro jewelry).

HTH

[Sirius]

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[Sirius]

thank you for the clarification!