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Safe travels Ammie! We never did meet up this season. I did get acquainted with Terry S though....super nice guy; and have you been over to see his finds?! Impressive! I found my 1st silver ring up at Canova a few days before he found his gold one recently. I'll be heading back west in a month or so; looking forward to my more familiar nugget hunting. Good luck in Montana ?⛏

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43 minutes ago, IdahoPeg said:

Safe travels Ammie! We never did meet up this season. I did get acquainted with Terry S though....super nice guy; and have you been over to see his finds?! Impressive! I found my 1st silver ring up at Canova a few days before he found his gold one recently. I'll be heading back west in a month or so; looking forward to my more familiar nugget hunting. Good luck in Montana ?⛏

I haven't seen Terry's finds, except on youtube.  He's a hoot and I always enjoy talking to him about beach detecting. I wish I'd known you were at Canova and congrats on the ring!  But it was probably one of those days when we were out running and gunning and trying to get everything ready to leave anyway.  I didn't get to hit the beach much the last week we were there.  Good luck to you in Idaho, I hope we both find some big ole nuggets this summer!

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  • 2 weeks later...

We are now in New Smyrna Beach, FL, parked here for a week. We successfully retrieved the Polaris from the shop and the damage to the bank account wasn't too excessive. I wasn't terribly impressed with Stuart and Jensen beaches.  The tide tables said 1-2 ft waves and I would really hate to see 3-4 ft waves.  It was ROUGH, with a sharp dropoff at the water line, but the locals said it gets really calm in the summer.  I'm guessing it might be due to sand bars which probably form offshore in the summer and are absent in winter/early spring.  I hunted Jensen, Stuart, Santa Lucea, and Hobe Sound beaches and only found trash, clad, and one tiny 925 kiddie ring. I only went out to about knee deep, because I am really nervous about drowning my non-waterproof headphones, (hello, MineLab?).  That tiny silver ring is worth a mention, not because it was anything special, but because it was two scoops down.  I thought it was a dime, since it rang up at about a 24, and I wouldn't even swear to that, since I was fighting rough surf to extract it.  Yes, my 800 found that little thing at least 6-8 inches down in salt water/ wet sand. (:ohmy:)  I thought it was a washer of some kind until I found the 925 stamp on the inside.  Still no gold yet for the 800, but I think that's due to my recent (lack of) choice of hunting locations more than anything. 

Santa Lucea/ Bathtub beach was interesting for the rock formations and I would have taken a photo if I hadn't left my cellphone in the truck.  It kinda reminded me of So Cal, on a much smaller scale, of course.  Definitely worth a look if you're ever in the area.

I will be hunting a Smyrna beach tomorrow and hope to make at least one expedition up to Daytona Beach, if the weather improves.  It has rained here almost all day.

I can keep writing about our travels and metal detecting adventures, if anyone is interested.  Maybe Steve could re-name the thread Ammie's Travel Blog or something to that effect.

Ya'll have a good week and happy hunting!

Ammie

 

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Hi Yall!  We're still parked in New Smyrna Beach.  So far I have hunted the area of Flagler Boardwalk, and Daytona Beach.  Still nothing but clad and trash and, oh yeah, a flatware spoon.  I probably went to the wrong area yesterday at Daytona Beach.  I tried my luck at the small section where the local hunters have been finding old silver coins.  I won't give away their secret, but it's easy enough to figure out where, if you look at a few you tube videos.  There was another hunter there with a CTX and he said the locals had cleaned it out.  After I wasted about 2 hours, I figured out that he was probably right, since even the pull tabs were few and far between.  Daytona Beach as a whole might have some great possibilities, but it also seems to be well-hunted with some seasoned pros all wielding CTXes.  Hubby counted about half a dozen hunters in the one small section that he drove the truck on while I was looking for/not finding the old silver.  I would imagine that anything that gets dropped would be scooped up pretty quickly.

Flagler Boardwalk Beach seemed to have less hunting pressure, but also far less bling-loving tourists to drop things. I only hunted the dry and wet sand and didn't find much. I really wanted to hunt the water, but it was kinda rough and the first time that icy water sloshed over the top of one of my dive boots I changed my mind.  :biggrin:  The high temp on Wednesday was only about 65 degrees with a frigid 20 mile an hour Arctic breeze blowing right out of the North and I couldn't believe all the people with nothing on but skimpy little swimsuits swimming in that cold water!  I had on sweatpants, a t-shirt, pullover hoodie, waterproof socks, cotton socks, and 5 mm dive boots and I never did get hot.  I guess I'm just a wimp-ette!

Anyway, going back to Flagler today, my salt water hunting is about to be over and done until this fall.  :sad:  Hope ya'll are having a good week and happy hunting!

Ammie

Flagler Boardwalk Beach, Wednesday, April 11, 2018

 

New Symrna Beach.jpg

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Thankyou Ammie for posting this series of adventures. Please do continue to write about your travels and beach-hunting experiences. It's interesting exposure to areas that I'd otherwise never know about, and I enjoy your writing style. :cool:

Jim.

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Hey Ammie, thanks for the travel posts.  Please continue.  When I was younger I too lived the nomad life in an  old 1984 Dodge van.  Was a great life and I did meet a lot of great people also.  Saw a lot of this amazing USA.  I stopped traveling when I was 70, time to put down some roots.  Now at 81 I'm  getting the footloose  urge again.  Looking for a small MH now and think I will take off again.  Good luck and have a bunch of fun,  life's too short.  Best,  Keith

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Hi everyone!  We left Florida behind and are now parked in a COE campground at Lake Lanier, Georgia.  Tomorrow I will be conducting a bit of an experiment with my 800.  The Army Corps Of Engineers has cracked down considerably on metal detecting in their parks in the past few years.  There are only about 8 small beach areas in which they still allow it at this lake and I've heard that those beaches are hit pretty hard.  Soooo, I think this might be a pretty good test of my 800's ability to find things that other detectors have not.  Someone may have already been over these beaches with an Equinox, but I doubt it.  It's been a very cold spring here so far, from what I understand.

I was going to go detecting in some local parks, but I made the unfortunate mistake of asking first. :angry:  I told them all about how neat I am and how much trash and sharp objects I haul away.  Here's the email reply that I received a few days ago:

Hello Ms. Young,
Thank you for asking.  We do not allow/permit metal detecting and/or digging in any Forsyth County park.  
Thank you,
Tracie Goforth | Administrative Specialist, Senior
Forsyth County Parks and Recreation Department

I was really nice in my reply and told him I wouldn't be visiting any Forsyth County establishment for any reason, including spending my tourist dollars.  I think there should be an internet database of places where our hobby is allowed and where it is prohibited.  I would be more than happy to boycott any cities and counties where we and our detectors are not welcome in their parks.  I think that other detectorists might be willing to do the same.  What do ya'll think?

So it's going to be a nice day tomorrow before another cold front hits here and I have a beach picked out to hunt.  The high temp on Thursday is supposed to be 61 frigid degrees.  I'm starting to wish we hadn't left Florida so soon!

Happy Hunting Ya'll!

Ammie

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Hi Ammie… thankyou for another fine installment to this thread. I do envy your freedom to travel to new places and detect those lovely beaches, especially where it is reasonably warm and sunny. We are still experiencing winter conditions, highly unusual for April in central Ontario.

I agree with you that it may have been an unfortunate mistake to ask for permission to metal detect in the parks. While I realize that this may not apply in your case, I was once told the same thing by a municipal employee despite that there are no bylaws or regulations banning the use of metal detectors in the local parks.

Years ago I was detecting the beach shallows in Arrowhead Provincial Park, Ontario. The park manager informed me that metal detecting was not allowed because they didn’t want arrowhead artifacts disturbed. As a biologist and former MNR employee, I explained to him that the park was named for the prolific growth of an edible water plant named Arrowhead, and not for native arrowhead artifacts. That discussion was followed by a more relaxed conversation about mutual acquaintances within the MNR, our experiences, and so forth. As I was leaving to meet the wife and kids, he said that it would be OK to detect the beach. Incidentally, at least at that time, there was nothing posted to prohibit the use of metal detectors in that park. 

Nowadays Ammie, I don’t ask for permission. I do check provincial and municipal websites regarding any rules or regulations prohibiting metal detecting. If there is nothing listed there or posted at the park itself, I presume there is no issue with metal detecting. Of course historical sites, private property and so forth are strictly off-limits. 

Looking forward to your next installment to this thread, meanwhile good luck with your continuing detecting adventures. :cool:

Jim.
 

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