MontAmmie

21 minutes ago, Deft Tones said:

I bought mine new about 10 months ago based upon the reputation for a dedicated salt unit when we're on vacations

Where on earth did you find a new one for sale and do they have another one???!!!    I thought Minelab discontinued them years ago?

It was a whole nest-full hatching out.  And since they were hatching in the daytime, there was a whole flock of seagulls picking them off as they came out of the sand.  Feathered rats!  Anyway, some other people helped after they realized I wasn't totally nuts, and most of them made it to the water.  I think the main hatching season is from June to September for the loggerheads (like that one).

5 hours ago, Deft Tones said:

Deus performance in the wet sand at Daytona beach, FL, was poor for me. 

I compared the V3i, Sovereign GT, and Deus there earlier this year, and in the dry sand it did reasonably well but still got smoked by the two multi-frequency machines. In the end I found the Sov king of depth and stability anywhere at the surf/shoreline but chose the V3i in the wet to dry sand only because I have a 15x12 SEF coil providing better coverage than the stock 10" Tornado on the Minelab.

If I were to chose only one of these for the beach, Sovereign GT, hands down.

 

You know, Deft, I've been looking at those old Sovereigns on Ebay.  The Infinium finds stuff in the wet sand and surf, but the bottle caps drive me nuts in the dry.  And there doesn't seem to be that much here to find in the water.  It seems that either people don't swim here alot because of our rough surf, or our fluffy sand sucks it right down halfway to China as soon as its dropped.  Maybe a little of both.  The DFX is great in the dry, but in the wet sand-not so much. And it's heavy.  I like to ride my bike to the beach, so I need a really good lightweight detector that will do both wet and dry sand. Waterproof is not a must-have.  Just one question.  Can you tell it's a bottle cap with your Sovereign?  If I can weed those things out with one like I do with the DFX I'll start shopping for one.  There are guys that live here who swear by them and won't use anything else.  Thanks!

Total haul metal detecting on the beach this morning: 12 cents, one spark plug and 3 bottle caps.
The looks on people's faces when they saw me waving my coil in the air and screaming at seagulls like a banshee: priceless.

22 hours ago, strick said:

Funny I was going to say something like that. One of mine might be on the market soon. Good luck out there!

strick

Please let me know when/if you decide to get rid of it!

On 8/27/2017 at 8:02 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I do that sort of stuff all the time and sure would enjoy hearing your report. 

 

The test patch will have to wait.  Sadly, my 5 week old mono coil decided to go bonkers on me today.  Happily, I called Garrett and they are sending out a replacement right away!   I don't want to compare a mono on the DFX to a DD on the Infinium.  Hey, we gotta be just a little bit fair to the old geezer and give it a chance!

Steve, you get the frowny-face emo for dangling "your" bigfoot coil out there, then snatching it away. 

On 8/24/2017 at 3:17 PM, 1515Art said:

I'm thinking at some point a CTX type detector will be a good addition, just waiting to see what the new release has to offer from ML.

 

Yeah, I'm waiting for Sept 16 too.  Should be interesting.  At the very least, maybe it'll make the used CTX's get a little more reasonable!

On 8/24/2017 at 8:14 AM, strick said:

 Another thing I will say is that bottle caps sound off great with the Deus (somewhere in the 80's if I remember right).

strick

Thanks, Strick, no Deus for me!  Our main form of beach trash here is bottle caps.  Lordy, I hate those things.  I think the pull-tabs all get cleaned out since I don't know of a detector made that can tell one from a gold ring.  That's why I drag out the DFX for the dry sand.  You get a high squeak and the VDI numbers are all over the place.  No question it's a bottle cap!

On 8/24/2017 at 4:08 PM, Swampstomper Al said:

 

I have absolutely no complaints about my AT Pro on the beach; it works great everywhere from the cross-overs to knee-deep surf & beyond (along with working well in parks etc. too..) Based on its proven performance to me, if I didn't already have it I'd get a Max.. Still may, some day..

Swamp
 

I was looking at an AT Pro for dry sand, but I've heard lots of people say it doesn't like salt water.  One guy that hunts a beach here nearly every day won't even go near the wet sand with his.  Maybe he got a "bad" one?  I've heard rumors that the AT Max does better with salt water?  I think we're starting to see some sand movement.  Day before yesterday I found 11 big lead sinkers all in one area about the size of a dinner table.  No gold after I cleaned them all out though. 

The more I read about other detectors the more I appreciate my well-used, geriatric DFX!   I think I'm going to do a test this week on a section of "my" beach.  Go over it with the DFX, then the Infinium and see what the DFX misses.  I'll report my results.

Thanks ya'll and happy hunting!

Any of you Deus owners tried it out on wet salt sand?  I need something lightweight for trashy beaches (yeah, I'm a wimp-ette).  I love my Infinium for the water and wet sand, but the bottle caps drive me nuts on the upper beach.  I've done tests and bottle caps and gold rings sound identical (of course they do, it's a PI machine!).  If the bottle caps drive me crazy at the ocean beach, I have a feeling the Infinium is going to be almost useless when we go to fresh water beaches next summer.  My old DFX is great on the dry and will tell me instantly if it's a bottle cap.  But at 5 lbs, it wears me out quick.  And it really doesn't get much depth once I start wandering toward the surf line.  I need a light VLF that will do a good job on any beach. Maybe the new AT Max? CTX 3030 (it's kinda heavy too)?

PS.  The Infinium has already paid for itself!  

On 7/19/2017 at 0:43 PM, Swampstomper Al said:

You are extremely fortunate, Mark.. Around here I'd say it's easily over 500 to 1 (including bottle caps) for silver anything much less gold rings, which is in the four-figure ratio, possibly beginning with a " 2 "..

One would think especially on the beaches Au would be popping all the time.. But it hasn't been, especially in recent years.. Closest beaches to me are what I call "working man" beaches.. Tungsten and the like far outweigh gold rings these days, and junk jewelry far outweighs silver..

Swamp

I'm about to conclude that nobody ever drops anything on our beaches except pull tabs and bottle caps.  I flew home on Tuesday and yesterday I was ready to hit the sand after a week in Tennessee.  5 hours and three beaches yesterday around Melbourne.  My fantastic haul consisted of :12 cents, 1 costume earring, a piece of a junk chain bracelet, 8 pull tabs, 6 bottle caps, one tent stake, and one small chunk of melted aluminum.  On the plus side, my new Infinium shaft is a big improvement on the stock one, that chain piece was about 6 inches down in wet sand (), and I probably worked off about 2 bites of one of those slices of mom's pecan pie that I shamelessly indulged in last week.

I seem to attract the attention of every kid on the beach.  Their mommas have probably drilled into their heads to stay away from men they don't know (as did I). They've seen people with detectors on the beach, have a zillion questions about them and an older lady that looks alot like grandma is fair game!

I think I'm getting the 8".  Thanks, Steve!

I wonder how the stock coil would compare to the monos in the same test.  Thanks for the chart, Steve.  Which mono would you pick for moderately rough surf (waves are usually around 2 ft)?

Hi Ya'll!  Well, I'm in Tennessee this week visiting with the family, so all I can do is read the forum and look wistfully at tide charts 'til next Wednesday.  I'm shopping for a mono coil for water detecting when I get home.  That stock coil is pretty hard for me to control in our usual rough surf.  I've heard the 10'x14' is the best for beach/ocean, but it doesn't look any easier to sweep with than the 10' x 14' elliptical.  The 8' would probably be easy in the waves, but it looks like you'd give up alot of coverage area per sweep.  I've ordered a straight shaft, so that will probably help a bunch too.  I'm starting to see Steve's issue with the limited coil selection.  If only there was a 10" or even a 12"!  I'm leaning toward the 8" right now. It would probably be more useful in Grizzly Gulch, Montana for the small gold.  As always, thanks for any input.  You guys are awesome.

2 hours ago, Swampstomper Al said:

Glad you like it.. Now you know why you couldn't have mine..  Works equally as well inland as it does in salt (see above..) Only thing I'll add is to not take all reverse signals as Gospel..

Swamp

Al. your mono coils want to come hang out at the beach all day with me and my Infinium. 

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Performance of the TDI and Infinium is close, but there is no ability to manipulate ground balance on the Infinium (it's automatic tracking plus "lock") directly which is one of the things that makes the TDI different. The TDI also generates a single tone, either high or low, depending on the target. The Infinium generates a dual tone in each target, high/low or low/high. This doubles the noise in dense trash, and there is no tone suppressing switch (referred to as a conductivity switch on TDI) so you always hear it all. The bottom line is the Infinium can find the same items as the TDI but has less tuning options and the nature of its audio response make it more challenging in dense targets.

The main Infinium advantages are waterproof and simplicity of operation.

Dense targets are not a problem on our beaches and in Montana!  I'm really glad I got waterproof, although I think I will need the 8 inch mono coil.  I got out about waist-deep yesterday and moving that 10x14 DD through the water was tough.  We did have some 2-3 ft waves, but that's just normal for here.

Thanks everybody, and especially Steve, for helping me pick my Infinium!

Well, the Infinium arrived this morning, and I just couldn't wait to get some sand on the coil.  So I headed for the closest beach about 1/2 mile from our house and hunted for about 3 1/2 hours. I didn't get past knee-deep as I was just trying to find some targets to dig and get used to it first.  First impressions of my new Infinium:

1.  I don't like the stock shaft at all.  I'll be upgrading that thing ASAP.

2.  Hip-mounting the control box is the way to go.  My arms and shoulders are usually hurting after 3 hours of swinging the DFX, but after some food and iced tea I think I could take the Infinium out again!

3.  This thing goes deeeeep.  These are guess-timates on depth, but a lead sinker at about 10 inches down in wet sand? pull-tabs at 8? There were a couple of targets I just gave up on because my scoop wasn't up for it (gotta upgrade that too).  The Infinium didn't find any gold or silver, but it found an abundance of junk, so the good stuff will eventually show up in the scoop too. Looking at my junk pile, I would estimate that the Infinium found me about twice as many targets as the DFX did in wet and damp sand on the same beach in the same amount of time.  Yay!

4. Iron junk wasn't really a problem.  I didn't try that reverse-disc thing on every target, so I dug two nails that I probably would have passed by with the DFX. One of those nails did that "double signal".  I dug it anyway to see what it was.   

5.  I'll have to rig an external speaker of some sort on it before next summer.  In Montana, people are not the top of the food chain, and I need to hear what's sneaking up behind me.

6.  All that stuff I read about "hard to learn"?  Nah, it seems pretty simple to me, but I've only run it at the beach, so that might be the reason.  It is a little bit noisy in the shallow water, but when it hits a target for real, you know it!  I was running the DFX pretty hot anyway, so I was used to it and it didn't bother me at all.

7.  Gotta dust off that PADI card and probably take a refresher course at the local dive shop.  This thing is going to be awesome in the water!

8.  If there's a speck of gold left in a river in Montana, my Infinium is going to find it for me.  It LOVES lead sinkers, which, from what I hear, are the redneck relatives of gold nuggets.

The bottom line is that I REALLY like it.  We all know it's a numbers game.  So what I'm thinking is that double the pull-tabs will equal double the goodies in the long run. I can't wait to get in the water with it! 

Ya'll have a great weekend!

Ammie

Nice ring, Strick!  I haven't found any gold since that tiny little 22k pendant 3 weeks ago. 

2 hours ago, deutran said:

In NSW Australia's south coast

Wow, I thought all Aussies were civilized folks.  I guess you have a few crackpots no matter where you go.

8 hours ago, strick said:

The watch is brass I believe...If it were gold or silver I might try to work on getting it opened but I don't want to break the only intact watch I've ever found lol... So it will sit as is....Thanks for looking

strick

You have more fortitude than I do, Strick!  I don't think I could let it sit there not knowing the maker, how old, etc.  LOL!  The art deco stuff on the side view looks vintage 1920's to me.  Awesome!

Awesome silver dollar, Strick!  What's the pocket watch made of?  Did you get it open yet?

6 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

Hi Ammie,

The only time you have a real chance of finding anything from the 1715 fleet is during a hurricane or an exceptionally strong storm that cuts the beaches down a very long way. Over the years as you probably know, the dune line on A1A has eroded back quite a bit as well. At the colored beach site, the only time the old timers get excited is when the cut is so deep, the old highway starts to show. Best of luck…

 

I probably won't even waste my time on the Treasure Coast, Flak.  The only Spanish gold I'll be hunting will be the rings that fall off the tourists from Spain vacationing at Cocoa Beach. 

12 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

The beach areas around the 1715 wreck areas (and you know where they are, but generally from Gold Beach to the North past Sebastian Inlet), are among the most highly regulated beach areas in the country - with good reason obviously - there have been many amazing finds both on the beaches and out in the lease areas. 

I don't advocate making the wreck areas a total free-for-all for anybody with a boat and a metal detector.  But something more reasonable like "no detecting with scuba gear" in those areas would make more sense.  The State of Florida lures in the tourists (and their dollars)  with websites like this: http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/florida-beaches/florida-treasure-hunt-east-coast-shoreline-treasures.html and dangle Spanish treasure as bait (nearly every day!)  And let's face it, the chances of those tourists actually finding anything on the beach except crusty pennies are slim, at best.

Only two sentences on the whole page even mention the fact that you can't wade in ankle-deep with a detector. "Treasure salvors still have leases to search the waters, so stay on the beaches beyond the surf line." and "Not only do finds large and small continue on a daily basis, you get to keep what you find while metal detecting Florida beaches (note that this is on the beaches only; not in the dunes, the water or any state parks) for a few miles north and south of Sebastian Inlet – the epicenter of what’s become known as the Treasure Coast."  So, what exactly, does "a few miles north and south" cover?  2 miles?  10 miles?  And to me, the first sentence kind of implies that water detecting in NON-LEASED areas is ok.

You would think that the state could at least provide a map of off-limit areas, or come right out and say "no detecting in the water", if that's the case. Of course, that might discourage some of those treasure seeking tourists, and we can't have that, can we? 

Ya'll have a nice day, and stay safe if you're out there swinging a detector.  It's hot, so drink plenty of water and take rest breaks.  Heat exhaustion can sneak up on you really quick if you're busy having fun!

Ammie

10 hours ago, strick said:

Sounds good but you need a better beach scoop.... That one looks hard on the back......just saying 

strick

It has another section for the handle that makes it longer.  I just forgot to bring it that day.

On 6/30/2017 at 6:04 PM, deutran said:

Hi Montammie

I have experienced many instances of harassment over the years whilst beach detecting but also many great times.I've had young thugs throwing beer bottles at me,Someone called the police on me one night and told them I was swinging a shotgun.I had a guy run up and grab the detector shaft and start swinging it wildly in front of his mates.But the many nice people far outweighed any issues.Most people showed interest in the hobby or when explained understood the pastime.

Since moving to the goldfields over 7 years its been sweet sailing as there are many like minded people to meet.

Was this in California?