Skate

Thanks for the extra info Steve. It's been years since I owned a Whites but I remember those who had one just raving about the Bigfoot coil. The ultimate beach sweeper.

Prop,

I would suspect that your beaches are going to be money beaches, specifically old money beaches. Also it's important to remember that sand moves not only daily but historically. What I mean by this is erosion from 100 years ago can and does look entirely different that what it does today. An example of this is happening right now in my county. I live across from a canyon that is basically sandstone and the city of Malibu(or LA County) is currently trucking that sand in to replenish the beaches down south of us in Malibu. The current erosion is happening so fast and at such a volume that they can't keep up. By altering the natural movement of sand they are obviously alternating the makeup of that particular location and just like my beaches are now different yours may have looked completely different during the roaring 20's. Cities/counties are notorious for jumping the gun on sand replenishment. About 20 years ago Ventura was in a panic over parts of certain areas losing sand and now there's parts where they're now having to remove sand because there's just too much and the movement was all natural.

I'm not sure what kind of scoop you have but I would make sure it has an angular shape rather than the wide mouth so you can get into the rock layer. There's nothing worse when you're hunting in a rocky stretch to push into the back of a wide mouth scoop and have your foot and ankle try and separate because your foot twists off the back. If this hasn't happened yet you'll know it when it does. John Volek makes a good one (xtremescoops.com) and I'd recommend the Surfmaster type.

I think your beach situation is going to net you some awesome finds and I would bet old money. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Skate

double post ☹️

Even though your area is challenging try and look at it as a classroom every time you're on the beach and simply learn something new. Vary the sensitivity to see how that affects the performance as well. By learning to detect where conditions are difficult you'll be light years ahead of those who've never had to deal with that kind of stuff as you move from beach to beach.

For me iron has the slightest of grind at the end of the tone as it relates to everyone's beach nemesis, bottle caps. I purposely dug as many as I could in the beginning just so I could differentiate the tones from a new one to a rusted one or slightly rusted one. I can now with about 95% accuracy tell if it's a bottle cap just by sound alone. If I have time I'll still dig them just to remove them so I don't run into them the next time I'm at the beach.

Getting the coil clean from sand or salt is a pain. I hate it when I'm sweeping in the high tide/towel line and the top of my coil seems to collect a pound of extra sand. I'm thinking of drilling a couple of small holes into the skid plate to allow for the water to drain. HH and keep asking questions.

Best

Skate

Rules say post to relevant information/items of interest. Fits the bill with me. 

I hope I'm not violating any rules by posting this it's not mine nor do I know the seller but I was browsing Metal detectors for sale and I came across this: https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/spo/d/los-alamitos-whites-metal-detector-xlt/6916021862.html

I am posting this because included in it is a bigfoot coil and when I used to run a couple of Whites machines I remember folks raving about the Bigfoot coil and for what I understand the coil alone is quite pricey nowadays.

Best

Skate

It's hard to tell what your beaches look like but on mine the key is sand movement as in is the sand being moved out or has it been moved in. The way to tell is to look at the water 30 yards out and determine it's color. If it's brown it's likely sand has been moved out. If it's nice and blue and clean/clear sand has been moved in or up onto the beach.

Most generally when sand has been moved in the low to high tide area is squishy/mushy and my feet sink in 3-4 inches which obviously means your targets are also an extra 6-8 inches deeper than they were on a prior tide cycle.

Beach hunting success comes down to being able to read your beach. I detect mine early in the morning but I like to go visit during the day to see where my local depositors are hanging out. On a good cut most of your folks will create a towel line at the top of the cut especially if they have kids so they can see them playing in the water. Your discreet sunbathers usually hang out towards the back of the beaches and they lose rings usually due to taking them off to put sunscreen on and forgetting they left them in a chair pocket or on their towel. Lastly do a survey of where the tides seem to hit so you can see where people play in waist deep water and what a 2.8 or a 3.4 high tide looks like at your beach. The last two rings I found for clients were both lost at the waist level on first high tide mark. I was able to locate them during the first low tide just in the wet sand. I have another one tomorrow morning where it was lost shin deep at 1st high tide(2.8 feet) and I'm hopefully going to be able to hunt the wet sand rather than the shore break which completely sucks. 

You probably knew all this but I thought I'd chime in.

Best

Skate

The best detector is the one you have the most time and confidence in. I took the time to learn the Deus and I was rewarded greatly. When I used it it was the best detector out there.....for me.

When the equinox came out I invested hour's after hour's learning it, not the buttons, programs etc., but what a good and bad target sounded like in each of the programs. To this day all I do is select a stock program based on the location I'm detecting and do a noise cancel, ground balance and go. I wouldn't know iron bias other than to sit here and tell you I'm definitely against iron, always have been and always will be. I'm an ironphobe.

The best detector you will ever own and use is the one between your ears. The deus, nox or the makro just tells you what it thinks might be in the ground, it's up to your experience via hearing and digging that makes all the difference.

I don't want to be the best at knowing what a particular detector can do, I want to be the best at using that detector.

Well we are in the July/August production zone so here's hoping units are being mass produced and boxed getting ready to go out. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a buyer on this one as my hunting has become nearly 90/10 beach to land. I love my 600 with the 15" trash can lid for a coil but I would really like to get deep in the wet sand with a PI. I hope that any of you who know a little more about dates for release will continue to bounce this thread.

8 hours ago, sdbirder said:

Any clues/ideas on if the Vanquish is going to be better than the Equinox 800? I was just about to buy my wife a EQ600 for beach detecting together. I may hold off now if the Vanquish is going to be better and give her my 800 instead...

Get the 600, put a 15" coil on it and you have beach machine, for her, for you, as a main go to or as a backup. It's a little heavy so a swingy-thingy might also be required. You can easily pay off the machine with what you find today rather than waiting for months on "what might be".

I use my 600 with the 15" exclusively in the wet and dry at the beach and it's done well for me. I know many will argue with me about settings and programs but all I've ever done is use beach 1 for dry, beach 2 for wet. If it chatters too much I turn down the sensitivity and ground balance it again. I can't think of a better machine than the Nox for just going and detecting. Best to whatever you decide.

I think the ads while corny, weird and loopy have done their job in that there's a 21 page thread on what many (I included) think is the preeminent metal detecting forum on the web.

I'll buy it solely if it can work in the salt. I use my 600 for water currently and my 800 for everything else.I am notoriously hard on my equipment and if it's a poor mans equinox but can take a beating I'll add one to my stable of detectors.

That's what makes this the best hobby out there. Variety of finds and at any moment you could uncover a piece of history, a family heirloom, a precious coin, 22k of AU or a piece of canslaw. That must have been a roller coaster or emotions on that hunt. Congrats!

No Russian collusion here

That is a find! Thanks for sharing as it helps keep us going when it's hot, dusty and the digging is hard.

6 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Skate- dunno if you remember me but I was helping out Andy as an assistant instructor during that XP bootcamp, glad you found it worth it.

Haha I figured that was you! I had a great time. Definitely a bucket lister to get to go detecting in Gettysburg with you and Andy. Our world keeps getting smaller and smaller.

I wanted to say that if you have the chance to go to one of Andy's XP/Minelab bootcamps it's well worth the cost. I had the pleasure of going to Gettysburg in November 2017 and it was memorable. I found the "neatest" item (wheat penny flattened by a train) and a fired 3 ringer. Andy and his wife do a great job of entertaining you and teaching you at the same time. Good time great people.

my concern was for your toes or a possible shinner should you miss with the pick. As for the hunt, I sure would. I'd rather be able to make a bit of a mess than have to worry about a manicured lawn.

Great hunt! Love seeing the variety of finds. 

It came in at a solid 16 but only at the head of it. It was parallel to me and my swing because it was up against a retaining wall so I was only able to get the top of it as it had a larger end cap if that makes sense. Initially I was looking for a screaming high tone and after 10 beer cans and old cat tins dug I decided to look for anything solid. I have heard from others that PVC tubes are more common now.

As an ending to the story this was shared with me yesterday. My client had always been told by her dad that she couldn't sell the property until they had recovered the money. For 8 months the property had been for sale and no one had shown the slightest interest. I found the money around 4:30pm that day and literally within 20 minutes after she had received 2 offers for it. Call it coincidence if you will but we're believers so in hind sight we knew the one had to happen before the other one could.

Just now, Noah (FL) said:

I’ve never known anyone who is allergic to gold but it is an actual thing.  Apparently some folks get a rash or hives like symptoms from having gold in contact with their skin.  

Interesting. Apparently my wife is symptom free ?

I actually didn't re-check it because once she saw it in the scoop it was back on her finger! As I left it really struck me that if I had just been out hunting I probably would have passed it by figuring it was junk. Gotta dig them all.

1 hour ago, steveg said:

I am not familiar with "ring finders."  I belong to "lost my stuff," but not familiar with "ring finders."  Is that just a local group, or is it national?  I'd like to join...

Steve

Ringfinders is owned and run by Chris Turner. I've got nothing but good things to say about it and him. It's international, there are folks all over the world. PM if you'd like more details.

As for the ring and what it rang up as, a 2/3. The tone was solid but it consistently hit a 2, 3 and then settled on 2. It was in the sand and when it first sounded off I thought foil but I was going to dig no matter what but a 2?

I thought this would help some of you who pass over tones/signals because of the way they sound or more importantly because of the way they SHOULD sound. If this was just me hunting at the beach I'm thinking tin foil all the way and might pass it by. I have no idea why a silver ring would sound off as this one did. Crazy.

I got a call early this morning to find a ring for a lady in Oxnard. Big diamond ring, silver is the metal, stamped .925.

By the way I found it haha. Obviously using the nox.

I'm curious what you think the Nox pegged it at.

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts. It was my best day detecting ever for sure. My problem now is going to be topping it. I know I'm going to go back to digging a single merc or rosie now. ?

The pipe was buried about 8 inches and I found the top part of it first length wise if that makes sense. There was so much trash in the ground and EMI to deal with so the Nox definitely helped discriminate. 

The pipe was approx 36 inches and the coins were placed in it in groups. The first 12 inches were all morgan silver dollars. Many were dated in the 1880's. The next 12 inches had walker and franklin halves and the top 12 inches were all barber, merc's and rosie dimes.

It was such a cool feeling to see the coins pouring out. Lot's of mixed emotions amongst us. For the gentleman's daughter(grandma) it was getting to reconnect with her dad again, to realize that even though he was gone and passed away he was still looking out for his child. The adult great grand kids were amazed that all those stories about grandpa turned out to be true and as for me, I got a chance to help return what was lost and possibly lost forever as the house and property is for sale. 

Finding someone's ring is great especially when they're thinking all is lost but this was another level of great.