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Last Friday I went to my PCSC meeting in Downey, California and saw our panning contests for the year. We also had our displays of the month but I forgot to get the picture. Part of my display was telling everyone about the Golden Heart Return. Thank you for all that looked at that thread and made comments about gold was coming to me soon. That, a rocket launch and the tides motivated to get out to the beaches after the meeting on Friday night. The launch schedule was for 12:47 AM. By the time I made it back to Santa Monica is was almost 11 PM so I just went to the beach. There had been some nice waves come in, but the beach had been detected! I decided to continue anyway. Earlier in the day I had detected a park before the meeting using the Equinox 800/6. I got the quirky idea that I wanted to leave the small coil on as I had found 4 gold rings on the beach with it the first time I used it nearby. So off I went to see the rocket launch and detect. Detecting on the beach with a 6 inch coil as opposed to the 15x12 is naturally quite different. The lightness of it can make me swing it too fast but it is sensitive enough and can go 7-8 inches deep on a quarter. It is a bit fun. When it was time for the rocket launch there was a delay of 30 minutes. It caused me to walk up the beach closer to the Santa Monica Pier. I wanted it in my pictures with the rocket. I had seen one before by 'accident' out detecting one night when I didn't know the schedule. This one I had the schedule on my phone. I detected my way up the beach and got a few coins and then a nice high pitch. I had my light off but I could still see something hanging from my scoop. It turned out to be a 25 inch, 17 gram, .925 silver, round, box chain with a little pendant. It had been washed up with the waves and missed by some of the other detectorists looking further down the hill. I can only imagine what they got. Yahoo was all I could say. A few minutes later the rocket did launch and I made a video. It is a little long. The rocket becomes visible about the 1:50 mark. I didn't realize that the formatting would not be full screen. This video makes it very difficult to see. It looks much better on my phone. I've seen several of the SpaceX launches now from Vandenberg and Santa Monica. They normally head south so they get closer during the launch. These launches remind me of watching the Apollo launches when I grew up in Florida. After the launch I detected more and found the stainless-steel ring pictured. It was successful for the night. The next night, Saturday I decided to use the 800/6 on another beach. At first it was not able to find any targets. I wondered if I had the coil working correctly but then I found a 'wet patch.' I was standing in the waves with my boots on getting wet but finding just about all of the coins and trash within a 50 ft area. I had the right coil for this job. My calf boots were filling with water but I was still getting targets. A combination of wind, waves and tide moved this patch to a spot where I could detect it. I found 6 $1 coins which I don't normally find. All of it was shallow. Each wave would move something else up. These are rare times but I was glad I had the small coil. I walked away several times to find another wet patch but there were none so I returned to find more. That was my session. Sunday night I decided to see if more targets had been missed. I walked about 5 miles with very limited success. Detectorists must have known there was not much about because I didn't see anyone or any dig holes. At the end of the session I heard a 6 and it was solid. I was hopeful it would be a ring and it was. I didn't realize it was gold until later. As I was circling the spot where I found the ring ... the battery icon started blinking and the volume crashed. I had just found the ring before all power went out. I've learned a lot about the 6 inch coil in the last 3 days. I found one part of an aluminum can at 15 inches and if you go really slow you can find coins at 10 inches. It is easy to use on the slopes and cuts and it detects 'bigger' than its size. I can hear a target/break in the threshold by getting within 7-8 inches of it while swinging fast. Then it becomes like the moth to the flame of enhancing the target location. This small coil is a tool and if I know there are big waves and moving targets again I'll use it. I think it can also help on detecting a long cut where the wash downs and the wash ups are shallow and quick to recover.

Absolutely brutal day today, it started out at 42, and the wind kicked up to 20mph on my way back to hunt the water at the beach. The river is still about 50 degrees so that wasn't so bad, but I have Reynaud's in my hands and feet, so if they get wet they turn white and when they warm up the pain is pretty rough. I wanted to hunt the water at the big beach, but the wind was sending 2-3 foot waves into it. It's not very apparent in this picture, but the river was angry. I was hoping for additional low tide due to the wind, but here was out of the question. The current was strong as well with the outgoing tide. I opted to go to another part of this beach further south, it's kinda protected, but only renters and locals go there so I had to lower my expectations for anything great. At least the water was flat. There is a ridge where you park that blocks the wind down on the beach, and the beach angles westward so the waves go right on by. There are breakwater rock piles which also helps. It may look sandy but under the thin veneer of sand is black muck and rocks which made scooping really tough. Where there aren't rocks there are those pesky pebbles. ? I had to keep stopping to warm up my hands, again there were lots of jellyfish. The wind kept blowing my stuff over when it managed to dip below the ridge, so in 6 hours I didn't get too much, but I went home happy. I got very little trash: Just a few tiny bits and no iron or aluminum. Today's haul wasn't stellar but I got some pretty good stuff: Over two bucks in modern coins, a black Tungsten carbide ring that fits me (a brassy 89), and I got a 72 and dug the sun pendant and really tiny chain. It looked like zinc when I stuffed it in my pouch, but I got a surprise when I cleaned it up! Both the chain and the charm are 925 silver. I didn't expect that but the day ended up a good one despite all the difficulties. I was hoping for gold but pretty much didn't think I'd get any in this spot.

Manti, NOX, Legend, Cuda, Impulse AQ... cjc

In my last post, I wrote that I was going to take advantage of the full moon low tide, and because it's going to rain on the day I wanted to go (favorable wind), I decided to go to the beach today. Nice warm October day, started out at 64 and went up to 87. I rigged up the Deus 2 with the 9" coil, the new black waveguide, and used the BH-01 bone conduction headphones. I wore waders because the river is still full of jellyfish and the water is getting colder. This is just a small spot in the water. There were thousands. The largest one I saw was about 5" in diameter, and they kept getting stuck to my detector and scoop. I had my CooB Shark V10 with a SteveG carbon fiber handle. I also had a floating sifter ala The Hoover Boys. The tide was going out when I got there and the river was flat, no real wind today. The tide was a bit higher than I encountered last Monday, but I was going in the water and didn't care. I have to give y'all that do this all the time credit, water hunting is twice as hard as beach or relic hunting, even without waves. Some boats came by and added that element ? you feel like you're moving around on another planet and people are pushing you around. ? The 9" was much easier to swing than the 13" elliptical I normally use, and I was tweaking up a new water only program that worked very well. I dug maybe 7 pieces of trash today, no aluminum pull tabs or iron - just weird bits like a large capacitor, a sinker, a broken brass knob, and some odd bits of copper. I threw it out at the beach, it was all in the pockets on my chest waders. The D2 was really finding coins today, I felt like someone was there before me because they left a lot of pennies. Ended up with 8 Zincolns and 3 copper memorials. Some were pretty deep, but I never completely submersed the D2 so they were fairly easy to dig. Here's the total haul today: I was after gold and I got it. Got a nice solid 59, and three or four scoops later I had this 10k college class ring: It has 7 diamonds, I'll have to find my tester to see if they are real, but I'm pretty sure they are. It's dated, has "AB" for Bachelor of Arts, and has initials inside, I'm pretty sure I have already located the owner and will return it. ? it is a woman's ring. Also got this gold plated Disney pendant from the movie "Frozen", too bad water got to the picture and the gold plating is off in a few spots, it looks a lot better than it does in this photo. And last I got a pretty rare token: A Bally game token that is a 72 in rarity on Numista. The stuff people lose in the water... ? I didn't hunt the beach and only got 3 sections of the water done, I'm sure there are other finds out there so I may go back, but I was done after 6 hours.

... That despite some of my fields opening up, I really needed to get to the local large beach to get another hunt in. I generally respect and follow those feelings, a long time ago I had a feeling I should stop at a particular store to buy a lottery ticket, didn't, and someone won a million from that store that very day. ? Since then I act ? Got there around 8AM this morning, it was windy and 42 degrees, but there were no clouds and I was dressed "warm enough", I put a Columbia fishing t-shirt under my long sleeve T, and had other warm stuff on. The waves were pretty high, I thought the tides were pretty low, lower than usual anyway, so off I went. Today I just hunted the cuts and the "surf", this is a river. Got a few coins, all really deep, some as deep as a foot. Had the D2 with my beach program, and the 13". I wasn't planning to go in the water. It was all clad at first but I got a few surprises later, we've had a lot of storms and wind lately. First interesting thing I dug was way down the beach, I was talking to a nice lady and got a 64, a pull tab signal on the Deus. I've been reading @Compass's excellent post: "How Many Pull Tabs?" I decided to dig them all today. That and foil, Zincolns, everything. Dumped out my scoop and got this nice gold plated silver earring: I'm going to have to check the large sparkly stone but I'm pretty sure it's a CZ. Still, first silver of the day ? Hacked around for quite a while longer, just finding coins here and there, and finally got to the section of beach I started at, I noticed the tide was much lower than it was when I went along the water, swinging the coil out over the waves which had become slack. I haven't seen the tide this low in a long time, it's probably a fall thing. Went right to the end and got a 93, thought I had another quarter. ? Instead I got this nice .925 Quinceañera ring, sadly two stones are missing but the rest are in good shape. Went back the way I came hunting the new cut, and reversed for one last pass on the other side of the building. I got a 47 in the water and thought, "That's way too clear for foil", got my shoes and socks wet digging this little beauty out: 14K gold ring with a pink/red stone. I'm going to have it tested by my local jeweler who is always interested in what I find to see if it is man made, a garnet, or a ruby. Whatever it is it fits my wife's pinky and she is one happy woman. ? Not that big a deal but it's the first gold ring I've found this season, I guess another visit with waders and the 9" coil is in order! Now the coins, got the usual one of everything and 3 wheats, the oldest was 1921: Here's the trash, guess you have to dig to get. ? Follow your hunches, y'all... ?

If there is one thing I deeply hate, it is mingling with the crowds invading the beach when with the harness I have to reach the hot area avoiding unnecessary wasting of time with questions I have answered hundreds of times. Now, to paint the picture in detail, imagine something like 81F in the shadow, in October, on a Sunday and the people like flies everywhere along the coast. This time, however, I had to give in to temptation and return to the spot where until Friday I had been scouting about 14 grams?... Having to keep away from the vicinity of the sandbar and fu##ng people swimming over my head, I lost at least 3/4 of the available air in the cylinder when on the way back leaving the beach, with now 20 atmospheres remaining, a perfect 40 interrupted me... As usual the camera died I don't know how much time before the almost two hours I've been downthere.? So this is what remains about today?‍☠️

Finally, two decent sessions with Deus2 and Ctx, in about 4 hours on the bottom. Maybe the first productive week after a long period without the magical color. Of course, the camera battery was dead?

Ok, been teasing this for a couple of days now, so here it is. ? I haven't been to this campground in a year, last time I came back with around 200 coins and a gold ring. Sad I didn't get any gold this year, but what a hunt! I dig a lot of trash at this place as a favor to them, mostly nasty sharp iron and bottle caps in the sandy spots where many go barefoot. There is a beach at a pond, 3 tot lots, a volleyball court, a "Gaga" ball court, and a bocce court, all with beach sand. This is a typical dump after hunting. I pretty much knew what everything was when I dug it. Yes, the Deus 2 is that accurate. ? It's a huge campground with about 1,000 spaces for RVs, most are seasonal or permanent, but there are still plenty for transient camping fans. I went for a rally my RV Dealer sponsored, one of the few that gives back to their customers. There were seminars, raffles, events, and prizes galore. Also a huge discount on camping, so we stayed 2 extra days for a total of 4 full days. As usual I asked permission to hunt, and they gave it willingly. I leave no trace whether digging or probing, so I don't get turned down. Discipline is everything in detecting, from caring for your gear to caring for your permissions. I brought my Deus 2, the WS6 Master, and my Equinox 600, intending to test them all, and use them where they shine. Honestly I did the most with the D2 and the 13" coil, that combo allowed me to quickly move through a particular area and get the heck out before people wanted to use it. I got up at 6am every day and got out there by 7. Well here we go. I'll look back on previous hunts here but I think the D2 really was the tool to use there with it's accurate IDs and extreme depth. Lots of the coins were dug at 8" or more, there weren't many fresh drops leaving me to think others are grabbing the surface finds. In 4 days of hunting a few hours a day I ended up with 337 coins! I'm pretty sure this is a new record for me. $26 in quarters alone. I had to stack them to get them to fit the photo! For digging tools I used my Predator Barracuda, a composite trowel for off center or deeper retrieval and fast pinpointing, and @kac's fabulous Park Probe. I used the shovel anywhere the grass was just a mix of common grasses, and the probe in the groomed areas where there was golf course creeping bentgrass. I don't think there will be any complaints! I could have dug plugs but anything that the MI-6 reported as deep I left there. In the photo above I also got 3 rings and a chain, all junk. One coin I got in the pond almost gave me a heart attack, I think others have found these and had the same reaction: It's a lot "golder" than it looks, the eagle and stars made me gasp. It's even kinda heavy. Turned it over and saw this: "No Cash Value". ? Things that make you say ?. I'll post observations in the D2 forum, suffice it to say that the 9" XP coil was fine, but my trusty old Equinox 600 just could not compare. I learned a few things about dealing with EMI and trashy areas I used my beach "Hoover" program on the D2 for all my hunts, it was quite an eye opener. ? If I had asked to hunt the campsites I would have come back with twice as many coins or more, but I would have had to stay longer!

I love hunting the wet sand at the beach but I am fortunate to have a few lakes to detect when conditions are sanded in. My last trip to the lake produced 3 more gold rings but the best one was a deep class ring that I am guessing was lost many years ago because it is over 40 years old and has very little wear. It's a hefty little ring at 14.4 grams and has a name in it so I have already taken steps to locate the person who lost it. I found this ring in an area that I have hunted many times before but this one was deeper than most and found using the "all metal' mode of the Excal. I usually hunt lakes using some kind of discrimination because of the trash but this find may encourage me to go back and try for some more deep targets and just tolerate all the trash.

Rainy morning here in the Mid Atlantic, but I timed it perfectly so I would miss the rain. It was 64 when I got there, but the sun came out later and it was perfect for detecting. Targets were hot from the rain. V2 is no different for me than the earlier version, they didn't change anything or much, yay. Today I tried lowering sensitivity to 87, and found iron wrapped less. It still hit coins at 10" at least. There were no events at this beach last weekend, so I didn't expect much, and really didn't expect to be the only one there all day. The tide got extremely low from the wind, so all the right things happened. It was also a bit sanded out by the wind from Lee. Didn't dig much trash, just the usual junk and annoying .22 short bullet shells that are everywhere here. Here's the haul, 6 earrings, one pair. Unfortunately none are silver or gold. I even got more copper memorials than Zincolns! 8-7. ? I found the first tiny butterfly with the clasp on it, so I was pretty sure I'd find the pair, and I was right. Got at least one of every coin, so I wasn't missing anything for sure. Best find of the day was a 64, it was just too solid and clean for a pull tab: Moroccan 1 Dirham, worth about 10 cents US. It's at least 2002, and features Mohammed VI on the obverse. Exactly the same size as a US quarter, and made of copper/nickel. Parts of Morocco were destroyed recently by earthquakes, so it's kinda ironic to find a coin from there, never seen one. I find the strangest stuff at this beach. ?

Two things motivated me to go detecting yesterday, Hurricane Idalia missed us by about 50 miles, so the weather was perfect, and we had a Blue Moon Tide so it was extremely low. Otherwise I didn't expect much, as this beach gets hit hard on the weekend and Monday. The weather last week was kinda miserable with the hurricane's approach. Tide was high and it was pretty windy when I got there at 7am but would be negatively low at about 10, so I hit the high beach for a while. Got some coins and a couple toys, some pretty good coin spills but not like other hunts. I was using the Hoover program on my Deus 2 with a new twist, sensitivity low, Audio response at 6, and I set Magnetic Reject to "Accept". This is an old steamboat landing place so there is a lot of black sand, I figured I'd try it. Thanks again @midalake, I'm really dialing this in. ? Here's the total take, kinda surprising. Got a pretty good amount of clad over my 6 hours there, I even hunted the southernmost beach. Got the obligatory Hot Wheels, guess a kid did some sorta voodoo with the bus, and the toy fire truck was over a foot down. The lighter is a really nice torch lighter. But here is the highlight of the trip, the four objects in the bottom right corner: Because the tide was way out, I got a strong 60s signal at the waters' edge and after about 4 scoops dug this 1941 Mercury dime! Got my shoes wet because I wear them instead of sandals due to the nasty pebble beach. Oh well. Once I got the dime out I got a another 70s signal immediately and scooped out this old silver filigree crucifix, I'd put it in the 1920s but it could be older or about the same as the dime. It has the same patina as the dime and no hallmarks so I'm assuming it is silver. It weighs about 1-1/2 grams and the dime is 2.2. Went a little further and got a pretty solid 47 signal, and after scooping a ton of muck, pebbles and fine sand I got this tiny gold ring, again no hallmarks: You can see above it's no bigger than the dime, it weighs about .3 grams. I'm not sure if it's gold but my wife likes it. ? She has a "nose" for that stuff ? The last real shocker was this old Navy button top with some gilt still on it, apparently the back was lost or rotted away. This is not a high end beach but you just never know what interesting stuff you will find if conditions are right. ? I've found really old coins and all kinds of crazy stuff here. If anyone knows the best way to make silver silver again I'm all ears! Or eyes. ? Trash was just a handful, got some Peloponnesian pull tabs and sinkers and zipper pulls, the new beach nightmare.

Been a busy summer.... finally back in the water, just starting to get out once a week . My 5th trip out for the year, been to this spot with the Excalibur last few weeks, bleak ..So I went in with the AQ and Eric Foster 10 inch coil as a last effort. Came across a small area on the slope that held some deeper targets........after a hour a small 10k came up, 3 scoops, maybe 12 to 13 inches down..hoping the open area moves or opens up a little more, not many heavy targets. Mostly wheat pennies and merc dimes, no quarters and only one nickel. I did dig a few pieces of crab pots only because they were deep faints.. I do skip all shallow targets since the target history of this beach with the excalibur told me it could be iron....

A rare early medieval gilded silver brooch has also been found A rare early medieval gilded silver brooch was also found by a member in the same area shortly after the dig, which is decorated with snake heads and will also be going through the treasure process. Cai said that the brooch could be dated between the late Norman to early Medieval period of 1150 to 1350 and would have most likely belonged to an individual of high status. The brooch, he said, was a particularly rare item to have found and could indicate that the area is an "important one" with two potential treasures having been unearthed within weeks of each other. Elizabethan ring with links to noble Shropshire family found in field By Megan HoweNorth ShropshirePublished: Jan 28, 2022 A metal-detectorist has unearthed a rare Elizabethan hawking ring most likely belonging to a member of the noble Grafton family of Shropshire

Shame on me for running this so close to my other post, but I went to my local big beach (1 hour drive) again today using the Deus 2 with my "Hoover" program, which is now turn on and go, except when there is black sand in which case I turn down audio response to 1. Got up at 5am to be there by 7, and met my goal. Nobody was there, not even walking the sidewalk. Tide was going out, and there was no wind at all. It was about 72 when I got there, but in two hours it jumped up to 82 and humidity was 80%. Now I understand why y'all in Florida don't get out even when it's 82. ? Absolutely brutal. I hacked around the smaller of the beaches but the most popular first, there are a few stores and restaurants so it gets the most traffic. Lucky for me I did that because the bigger beach had been hit hard, I almost found nothing there later. Found a few coin spills and some Hot Wheels of course. ? I went to the bigger beach and by that time the tide was out, lowest tide I've seen in a while. Got sick of zigzagging the high beach, there were holes everywhere, and some of them not filled in. ? The only thing that amused me here (it was about 92 then) was this sand castle Chichen Itza: I ran the entire shoreline at the water which was full of jellyfish and got some junk and maybe one coin but nothing to speak of. Coming back along the first beach I got some small jewelry, and wished I could get in the water because that's where the good stuff is. By then people were coming to the beach (not many, first day of school here) and a couple kids got nailed by jellies, so that wasn't an option. Went to the other side of the casino, found some coins and talked to some nice folks, even recommended a detector to a mom whose kid is interested in detecting. Told her to get him a ML X-Terra Pro. ? After reading what y'all write about that detector I may ask Santa for one ? But I love my Deus, and you'll see why. First the trash, low tide is really weird here, why would anyone bring an old antique fuse to the beach? ? Not much crap for 6 hours of hunting, pull tabs sound like pull tabs, and bottle caps aren't even a thought. For some reason though, pull tabs in the water are 71+ but 63-65 on the beach. ? they're still brassy sounding but I always check the ones I see so I can say with a fair amount of confidence that I can skip them for the most part. Now the finds: 45 coins, two Hot Wheels, a small toe ring (plated copper), and a plated earring with a fake opal. I had decided to stay another hour, and it was a good thing I did because about 16 of the coins came from one spot, including 2 one dollar coins: A John Adams and a Sacagawea dollar. ? At first I was just getting 93 after 93, and then sometimes 95 and 98. The 13" nailed them all, and I didn't leave that 3x3' spot until there wasn't even an iron tone ? I think I got a nickel and a dime there too. What a way to end what was kinda a boring mundane hunt! Got another couple dimes and left. Here's a gratituitous swan photo:

Last night I just had to get OUT and detect. We haven't had many waves but you just have to get out in the night sky and low tide and detect. A few dry sand coins and then only a nickel for over a mile. On the way back I got a bit of an iffy signal and it turned out to be a corroded, copper cross. At least it was something. While I was digging it around 1 AM a guy came up to me and just was asking questions. I told him about the energy needed to make targets get washed up. I showed him what I found and upon his parting he wished me good finds. That was nice. About 20 minutes later I got a 12 with the 800/11 and dug down about 7 inches and discovered this 'thing' I've never seen before. It's a ring but for two fingers. Then I couldn't read it to know if it was real or not. I couldn't make out a k so I thought it might be cheap. When I got it home I could see some workings and also read 417. It weighs 6.7g. The internet says it is 10K. Yahoo! It has been a few months since a gold ring ... that this one is a double. But what do you call it? What are the key words? I found this one online for sale from a pawn shop. It is 3.6g. Solid 10K Yellow Gold Two Finger Bar Ring 3.6gr. Size 5 | eBay

This post is a bit late, it's been a hot and busy week. Got out last Monday at 6am to go to my local big beach, should have been pretty packed because the kiddies go back to school tomorrow. Glad I got out of education before the summer got cut short. ? My first surprise was that they raised the parking rate from $2 an hour to $3. Probably explains why there was no one there. No detectorists or people. ? It wasn't too bad a day, didn't get all that hot, but for quite a while I found nothing. I zigzagged the upper beach, even grid searched some sections, and the finds a started trickling in. I hit a Hot Wheel burial, and found a few coins. Came back along the surf line and did a little better. Here's all the trash: Just some odd bits and oddly enough some brass. And the finds, 5 more toy cars, two lighters, two earrings, a sizable child's ring, an aluminum pencil sharpener, a massive junk chain that gave a really odd brassy iron signal, and about $2.50 in coins. The hoop earring on the left turned out to be silver, .925 from Italy. So there's that. ? In 3 weeks I've found over 20 toy cars, is this a sign? ?

If y'all are following me I just got back from a week at Emerald Isle, and 3 days later went out to a local beach. I knew that going on a Wednesday wouldn't be great as the beach gets heavily hit on Monday, but I also know from watching the other detectorists there that they don't follow the tides. No one hunts the "surf" or the cuts made by tides. This is basically a river beach hunt. I knew I'd at least find something. Weather was good, not too bad temperature or humidity. Got there fairly early, a severe thunderstorm knocked our power out overnight so I had to wait until power was restored. May do some more of these mid week "cleanup" runs, it wasn't great but fun. ? The river was flat and the tide was soon to go out. I mentioned my D2 program is a "Matchbox Slayer", heh, yeah it is. Dug 9 more yesterday! Yikes. These cars ID anywhere from 90-95. I got at least 6 of them in one spot right at the water line. On the coin and jewelry side, not much, but the total finds to trash was over 50% so I'm happy: Got a small Pandora style "A", and a small charm. Zinc plated sinker was a 76. The keys were the only iron tone with high tone I got, it was curious enough to dig. The treble hook lure got me, hate those things. All this stuff came from the tide area, again more good finds than bad but I dug a bit more trash than I did daily on my beach trip. Just a handful. Anything with a fairly pure tone in the 60s I dig because of my white gold ring tests. As usual it was great to get out.

This year's Emerald Isle Beach trip is behind me, it's a place we go for my wife's birthday week, (?) and she doesn't mind me going out early in the morning and some evenings. I get up at 6, hop on the trusty golf cart, and go. I condensed this all to one post because quite honestly it wasn't a spectacular week despite finding a ring for a woman, and getting out as much as I did. By 10am the beach was packed, and I found I was pretty much the only detectorist on the beach every day, but don't know if anyone was nighthawking. I checked the beach cameras but didn't see anyone. After the nice woman posted my ring find on Facebook they started showing up. ? What I was impressed with is how my Deus 2 performed, I dug many coins at around a foot deep, and even buried my own gold ring about 8-10" in the wet sand and got a solid 64 both ways as a test. I've been tweaking a program I'll call "The Hoover" which seems to do very well at this beach and a couple others I've been hunting, but sadly I didn't find any gold that I know of. The best part of the program is the verifiable ability to skip most junk, I've had a finds to trash ratio of over 50% every time I go out. Iron is always iron, and aluminum is a touch trickier but once the sound of it becomes familiar, you can dig it all and see for yourself. ? My friends call it the "Matchbox Slayer", and you'll see why ? In 6 days this is what I got for non coin finds: An assortment of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, a pair of cheap but whole sunglasses, a very cool "Pill Fob" made of stainless steel, a working Casio watch, two lighters, and some small jewelry bits. The chain may be gold but the "E" pendant which probably was why I found it is plated. No hallmarks. Next are the coin finds: 138 coins, $13.68 in change. The darker coins are many of which I found at nearly a foot deep. The trip was not without something decent, my wife took a bracelet and a pair of silver earrings. ? ".925 IBB TH" Hallmark, Thailand silver, International Bullion Board. Here are the settings I was using all week: ********** "The Hoover" Based on Beach Sensitive Options menu: Audio 9 Audio filter 5 Audio type high square Display profile xy, I use this to push the ID and Ground readings to the corners which keeps the glare from hiding the numbers. Sometimes the graph is useful too. Fe tid on Menu: Disc 10 Full tones offset ft 0 Bottle Caps 5 Notch off Silencer 0 Sensitivity 95 Salt Sense 3 Freq Max 40 Iron volume 6 Reactivity 1 Audio response 3 Ground Balance menu: Tracking GB on Magnetic reject ********** Never really had to change much, and it worked well in the water too. If you try it PM me with questions, comments, and abuse ? I promise you'll find lots of Toy cars, they are going to be in the 90s.

This is a very smooth running and processing detector. In a way it's like the Manticore in that when you have some basic skills to work with these detectors will give you a lot of information. With both the key is to listen for peaked souding responses. This means the machine is processing something within it's ideal, optimized range ("clean metal" with the Manti). "Emenating" responsed (ones that are connected to the ground more) such as a hairpin don't re-acquire in the same consistent way. A target that's blended with the ground like a cap is a much wider response. (SAT notwithstanding). got this one yesterday down deep its 18k, 10.1 grams. cjc

Been camping at the beach this week, I found I'm the only detectorist hitting this place. Not getting a heck of a lot of incredible stuff, but I had a great thing happen today I thought I'd share. I was out on the morning grind, it's hot and humid here, days hitting 92 and 70-80% humidity. I'm taking a couple showers a day and going through a lot of clothes. ? I'm doing about 2 miles of Beach, I'll reveal the location in my recap. I was detecting the upper beach and saw a woman running toward me gesturing to get my attention. I walked up to her and she explained she was up all night looking for her daughter's ring that she lost in the sand yesterday, a gift for her 16th birthday. She said she was even thinking about going to Harbor Freight and buying a detector! She had called ring finders but didn't think the $50 minimum would be worth a disappointment as they had been looking all last evening and overnight, so she wondered if I would help her. I had my D2 with 13" coil and my excellent new program fired up, this program hit my own gold ring at over 8" buried in wet sand at the surf line with no variation in TID. Damn thing is a 64, so I'm glad pull tabs sound worse than the ring does. ? Y'all will see how I did when I post, trash to finds is off the charts. I love V1.1. She showed me where to look, unfortunately a woman was out there setting up for the day with a Beach sail and a bunch of chairs, but she said we could look and move anything we wanted to. Well it didn't take more than a minute or two to make one happy lady. Right next to one of the chairs I got an 81, instead of scooping I used my composite trowel and out popped the ring. The 13" nailed it even with the metal chair there. ? I'm pretty sure it was .925 with a man made ruby, but it could have been gold, she did say it was an heirloom. Asked the woman if it was ok to take her pic since it was my first retrieval, and she said sure! After giving me a huge hug, sweaty as I was, she said wait and she'd go get me a reward. I said "absolutely not, why don't you buy the woman who let us search around her stuff something". ? You can see the sand on her legs, poor woman was desperate. I was glad to help. She ran off to tell her daughter.

They say you have to dig a thousand pull tabs to find a gold ring. Today I reset the counter back to zero again with this chunky 10k.

It's always a good idea no matter the weather to hit the beach the day after the 4th of July. Brutal day today, 92 and about 60% humidity, no wind to speak of. It wasn't too bad in the morning, and I outlasted all the other detectorists, but by noon it was just plain nasty. The first beach was the large one using the D2. Ran into José operating the beach groomer, I've talked to him before, he has a keen interest in metal detecting and US history. We talked for a bit, he explained how the groomer worked, and said about the only thing it catches is chains, and it mangles them. ? He tried to let me hunt as much of the beach as possible, and worked around me. I was very happy. Despite the groomer being run over the entire beach, the finds just kept coming. Maybe it's the reason I found so much. Second beach was the small one, only a few kids. Over the 4th these beaches got really trashed, but were cleaned up by county employees or locals. Fireworks and trash everywhere. ? Here I used my Equinox 600 with a 15" coil that Chase lent me. Didn't take long to find out how much I prefer the Deus 2 with the 13" ?, it's way lighter and easier to use, also gives a lot more audio information than the Equinox. All I found at this beach was $1.26 in clad, the targets jump out because the beach is clean. I also much prefer the 10x5 Coiltek for hunting here if I'm going to use the Equinox. Trash was very very minimal today. I've got the D2 tweaked so that it really doesn't find much junk: Bottle caps were courtesy picks. Yes that is a live firework. So here's what I got 73 coins, about $8.50, a toy car, an old button and an earring that is just bling. The earring was over a large iron pipe and the Deus picked it out easily. José explained that the replenishment sand comes from a very old county here, so that explains the 1916 wheat I found nearby where I dug a 1916 Mercury dime a month or 2 ago. The button is very old. The little oval was from some sort of brass bracelet. Fun but very difficult day, about as bad weather as I would want to be out in.

It's been raining a lot here, yesterday I had to cut the grass to get it done before the severe weather we're supposed to get this evening. I am posting this in the Deus 2 forum because I have some observations from today, I was using the D2 and the 13" coil with a customized Beach Sensitive program. I told Chase I was headed up to my local beach, and he got there early with me. It was hot and muggy but now and again it got cloudy and we got enough wind off the river to keep cool. Went through a lot of water today! Last weekend the beach was packed, and this weekend was too apparently. I like to go there early on Monday regardless of tide if it was sunny at all. There were not many people there as expected, I didn't see Chase but he was there before me. Went out to the motel beach, and my first find was a dime, and then I spotted a dollar in the sand. ? I knew it would be a much better day than I had last weekend. He finally appeared and we went down the beach searching different parts of it. Here's my observation; I found that audio response causes the detector to make a lot of extraneous noise if auto tracking is turned off. Turned it down from 5 to 3 and it got a lot better! It ran really quiet most of the time until I got over some black sand or a cellphone was nearby. Now the proof: Here's all the trash I got. The bottle caps were all sight picked, love the old round pull tabs that give off a beautiful tone without the brassy sound, some of the others did too, but I was after nickels and ended up getting some. The iron was so close to the surface I dug it. The rubber bat was just funny. ? Now the good stuff: 33 coins and a dollar bill, almost $6 in change and paper money. Best was the 1945 wheat. Old coins turn up here all the time. An earring that sounds good when dropped so I included it, a sight picked bracelet with beads and brass. 3 toy cars, the big pickup truck is a Hallmark Christmas ornament without the Christmas tree in the bed. It was a fun day, I hope the storms go by without incident.

A funny thing happened at the beach today, I was to meet up with Chase at a local beach, one I now dub the "Beach of Low Expectations". I was detecting the beach cut in front of a motel, and saw a flip-flop, a half empty Corona bottle, and an iPhone. Sure enough the phone worked, and had ID and credit cards in a pocket on the case. I asked a woman nearby if it was hers, and she said no, but she thought it might belong to a woman who was very drunk and noisy on the beach the night before. I took the phone to the motel office and asked if the woman was staying there, and the manager said yes, the people were still checked in. She said I could bring it up to her room, and mentioned they were trouble. I decided to take it myself being the fearless individual I am ? Went to the room and knocked, once, twice, finally 5 times when I heard "GODDAMN IT" and someone coming to the door. It was the woman, nearly naked, not sure if she was wearing much at all. I tried not to look at anything but her face, first time someone looked better in their license photo than in person. ? I said "You might want this back", and that was all I could get out, she said "Thank you", took it, and closed the door. Yikes. ? I went back out to the beach, Chase had got there, and I dug very little. ? .68, a copper arthritis ring (ID'd by my wife), and a bling earring. ?‍♂️ That was my Karma for returning someone's life. ? We still had a fun day, the weather was great, and there were lots of nice people out there today. I think we did better than the other detectorists from what they said.

On a camping trip to a campground that used to be an old hunting lodge, it's changed hands twice and is owned by a large company now. It's near the Outer Banks in North Carolina, this is my third year coming here. Beautiful weather this week, it should be a lot of fun. The campground isn't full at all, and the General Manager has graciously allowed me to hunt pretty much anywhere I want. There are 148 acres here, and a long stretch of waterfront but no beach. There are piers and the water isn't all that deep so I may go in the water at some point. ? Maybe. There has to be some jewelry out there. I didn't have a lot of time today because I got the green light at about 1pm, so I went to the volleyball court and the recreation area that has a few amenities. Dug a bunch of coins and this nice looking kid's ring. It's a little crab with some sort of stone, sizable and not precious metal. Next I went out to the tent camping area. I've found a lot of live ammo here from the old hunt club but not today. Got another bunch of coins and got my favorite find today, this really old signet ring. It's kinda beat up but it has a "V" on it, it appears to be brass but it's very thin and strong. I'll have to clean and test it when I get home. No hallmarks. Here's the total take for today, lots of old clad, a couple of nickels and copper memorials. I did get 8 Zincolns but left 3 in the trash: And here's the trash. Very little iron, but can slaw is still a problem.