Gold Is Gold!

[mn90403]

I was out early this morning on a negative tide.  I got started about 3:30 AM and ended about 7 AM.  I was using my new metalless boots.  The Equinox will not tolerate a boot with metal.

I walked for about a mile before I found my first and only quarter.  Someone had already been on one of my preferred beaches with a PI and they were leaving open holes everywhere.  Whenever I see these guys I want to walk up to them and ask them what would happen if they stepped in any of the holes they left.  They make no attempt to 'turtle' the hole so a jogger or old lady walker won't break something.  When these guys try to be friendly I avoid them because I have gotten into shouting matches of this subject before.  So please, if I can step in YOUR hole and feel a twinge of pain then I'm not your friend.  This goes for the desert too.

Anyway, I avoided this guy and got the hell back to a beach that had produced in the past but that was the way that I came.  Just before I left to drive to another beach I observed a difference in the bottom.  The other low (an ebb) had left a trough.  The waves all night before had little energy and I figured I would hit this and end my hunt for the day.  I crossed the point where I had gone right two hours before and I was now going left or south.  About 100 yards in I got a little 9-10 signal in Beach 1 and I was surprised to have a 2.2 g/10k/nugget style ring.  It proved to be a one off and when I finished that pattern I got out of the wet sand and used Park 1 on the dry sand until the end of my day.  (Less than $1 in change.)

It is always nice to see a full moon and get gold.

Mitchel

[MPL]

Congrats on the beautiful ring. Hunters who leave holes in the sand are a problems on the beaches I hunt as well. Its always the same few...

[Gerry in Idaho]

Well said Mitchel of the holes on both beaches and desert or even mountains.  So many other people use these places and when they see holes and then a detectorist, we all get labeled.   You noticed the low cut and it produced.  great dig.

 

[flakmagnet]

I also do not appreciate beach (or desert/mountain), hunters leaving open holes. More than worrying about adults stepping in them at the beach, I worry more about kids who do not look where they are going especially when they are playing in the water and why should they? I also noticed two guys who left open holes a couple of days ago at the beach and couldn't believe they did that right next to a huge crowd of kids having a blast being at the beach and certainly not looking where they were running. Dumb and selfish behavior.

[dewcon4414]

We have a lot of people dry sand hunting here........ so maybe its me but i dont mind the holes even thou it takes but a second to kick the sand in.   When it does bother me is near the wet sand where most of the walkers, runners, and older people walk.   Thats an area that ONLY we seem to dig in and is very visible.  We have a good many who do that before the sun comes up...... thats a safety issue.    The dry sand is a little different.......... we have tons of people with kids and even adults with SHOVELS digging hole that the tractor has to use the scoop to cover up.   Our holes up there barely get noticed..... unless you PP really really badly and dig to China.   Not like parks or places many dirt diggers go........ and the GP complain just because you are out of the ordinary.   Beach and detectors are just a way of life on the Fl beaches.

Great find........ ive got a few of those nugget rings.

[mn90403]

Dewcon,

You said it well.  Holes in the sand at the beach are just a part of the experience.  The beach, kids, castles and holes will always be what you expect.  Most are not 'dangerous' in my book and can be avoided.

The holes that get me the most are those sharp sided, 7-8 inch holes with little indication where they are.  Someone takes a scoop and sorts it more than a foot away from the hole.  The front of your foot goes all the way in or even your heel sinks in in a way that makes you look for the pattern that detectorist was going.

I grew up in North Florida and know the long expanse of beach sand that can be there at low tide.  Often times it is quite compacted so a clean cutting sand scoop could leave quite a divot.  Golfers replace their divots, so should we!

Maybe that should be our new mantra for these 'hole leavers' and we should just tell them:  Filling divots is more than for golfers!

Metal detectorists should fill divots EVERYWHERE.