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Hello All, Just a warning for anyone wearing unsupported footwear! The "malady" referenced above can hopefully be preventable, or at least reduced, for us "older" folks here!! I have occasional flare-ups, if I don't pay attention to my footwear support! My sandybeach footwear, hit me with a vengeance today! As I (stupidity) thought, I was healed enough from a less severe bout, from about 2 weeks ago! I had switched from "water shoes" to above the ankle neoprene "dive boots" with a non-skid bottom, to keep all the sand from grinding my toes to hamburger, on beach/surf hunts last year! They are flat bottomed with little support! And that was with inserts! My initial half mile walk was fine, with only minor discomfort! But upon my first "deep" scoop with that foot, I felt a pop, and it felt like someone had just "shot" me in the heal! But I continued to hunt with the after-effects anyway! Not smart, but I was just starting! You know how it is! Let's just say, the rest of the hunt, and return trip, along with the rest of the day, has not been fun! I'll probably need a few cortisone shots, crutches, and a new pair of "water boots"! If anyone has some "tried and true" suggestions to keep the support, and the sand out, on and off shore, I'm all ears! Thanks!!👍👍

Well my first hunt I stayed up on the dry. Terrible, recently replenished. Check trouble finding coil. Next day ,went to wet sand to breaking surf. My previous settings for mild soil wasn't working like I'm used to. Got things quieted down some but getting noise when slapped by waves. Made a few adjustments and that baby became quiet as can be. The only area that started producing was on the surf line. Now I'm finding deep quarter's, and nickels, dimes. Strangely the pennies wernt much deep and seemed to be recent drops. So, production started picking up and today a two Silver Ring day. Pictured are the settings that I found to be the best for now. Second picture today's finds. The deepest targets started by the faintest of tone (signal) even this deep the Tar was giving me the plus numbers as best expected tho of cause not locking down until a couple scoops. By biggest problem is my scoop isn't big enough. I am completely confident in this machine and having a lot of fun. Got two more hunts down here.

Just giving some thought to the future and what will be left to find. Gold nuggets are a vanishing commodity so what about a new beach PI Minelab? I know there are a couple of guys out trying to use the 6000 on the beach but at $6000 a copy that is a bit of a high price point for a beach machine. I like my 800 and my 3030 at the beach but what am I missing a little deeper? I tried the AQ limited but I got a lemon and I soured on it quickly. Should I try one again? I live at the beach and spend 90+% of my time on wet/damp sand. Hard to break old habits now.

Got out really early today, it's my last full day here. walked the towel and tent line, there isn't much left. Dug a couple of pennies and a few other things, I dug a working Space Pen, a wired toe ring, broken white metal fish ring fragment, a costume earring, and a nice little Case USA jackknife. It was abused, I'll have to straighten the blades. Ran into a detectorist at the hotel, he is a local who comes up now and again. He had a Minelab Sovereign and the largest coil I've ever seen, about 15-20". He was dragging his shovel behind him to know where he'd been. He showed me a gold plated pendant and a gold ring, he had to dig a huge deep hole to get the ring, I think. One of his holes was enormous. As I've written, targets are deep here. I'm guessing some are deeper than the Equinox goes. This is my trash: found a "spill" of Matchbox style cars all in the same place about 4". I cleaned them up and left them for kids. Won't lie, I dug two of the bottle caps. Rest were on top. Some of the pull tabs were too. For some reason bottle caps weren't throwing much of an iron tone today. Lots of boat brass and copper deep here. My wife took the space pen, she wants one. I geared on the other guys' line of digs and followed the low tide way down the beach, where I got the large gold hoop, it was a broken 5 and very deep. Only "gold" I found! Got one of the pennies out there too, nothing else but small brass and copper plates. I was kinda disappointed. Better luck next year! 😀 It's been a great trip.

Are you planning to hunt the beach? Have you ever traveled a long distance and have been disappointed by the accumulation of sand? Search for the beach you want to visit in Instagram. Recent posts can help you understand the state of the beach without having to go directly. You can see almost real-time beach images with uploaded photos by Instagram users. Only popular beaches can see your recent photos. I choose the beach in this way. Sometimes you may find yourself in another person's instagram.

Sadly, there was no choice today but to hunt a really infested area, littered with aluminum and tons of new sand brought by the Harbor's arm shape and the last prevailed wind too... I was in a so and so Mood, between the idea to leave at the first trouble and go back home before the 9.am empty handed cause of bathers already there😑. I realized with all that horrible hump, to go way farther and to straightly use the tank, at least to avoid the fuc....g murky water on the shore...30 minutes later, after only three holes....hereunder the conclusion... RAW footage, Sorry

Here's my collection so far..

Well, this was my final beach hunt on this beach until after Labor Day. I needed 5 silvers to make it an even 200 from this beach this season. I made it out in the sun longer than I thought I would – from 8 AM until 3 PM. Got a farmer’s tan in one sitting. 😄101 coins including 4 silvers. I did not make 200 no matter how hard I tried. So 199 it is, and I am happy for that, considering the number of visits I missed due to Covid restrictions. I just could not squeak out that one more silver. It’s funny when you stay in the sun digging all day, strange things happen to you on the trip home. Like scratching your back and your hand cramps closed. So, you use you other hand to open it and then that hand cramps shut Dehydration, even with 64 ounces of hydration drinks, just doesn’t cut it. I’m fine now but getting old sucks! 😡First target of the day was the Walking Liberty Half. Then a lull and I knew it would be a long day. Managed 2 nicer condition (and dated) Buffalo nickels. Pictures were taken when it was getting dark, so the are a bit rough. Later I’ll post all the silvers for the season and total for the other seasons combined. One thing I can say about the GPX is that it can find the half dollars like no other machine I have used, including the Equinox. Best of luck to you guys that can continue hunting beaches. I will be rooting for you to get gold 👍

I went out to what may be my last visit to my silver beach before opening day. It is a lot busier with preparations going on for Memorial Day, but If I am lucky, I may sneak in one more visit. I only need a couple more silvers to make 200. Lucky my wife went along as the heat was starting to get to me. It was nice to have someone be able to go back to the car and take some of the heavy targets and bring me back drinks. Hunted from around 8:30 to 3:30. I was toast after that. I started out again looking for low conductors and on my second hole I found the 10K Class ring. Hopefully, an easy return since the full name was engraved in the ring. Because of that I ended up digging a lot more iron than I wanted to. I was not planning on clearing areas of iron, but finding the ring made me change my plans. I did not get a lot of good targets this time around by clearing iron. Almost all of the silver found was not near any iron. Weather definitely played a part in how fast I dug targets. Full sun all day and hotter than they said it would be, probably around 70, with almost no breeze. So that beach still has good targets for me, but much harder to get in quantity. I guess I will be doing parks or cellar holes on my days off from now on. Time to put away the GPX and pull out the Equinox and learn some new tricks for the parks.

I got a chance to go out this morning and hit one of my favorite beaches. It was not long before I got a large 13.2 g tungsten carbide ring. That was a good sign. As it turned out it was a lot of walking before I got another ring. It was about an hour later. By this time I had tried my normal beach patterns of zigzag and gridding. Targets were few but I could see in the distance a bit of a slope to the beach. I was hopeful of some sloping targets. They were also out of pattern. It was then that I tried a new, more scientific pattern. It is one that you haven't heard described here very often or at all and just as soon as I tried it I found my second ring of the day. It is the heart ring that looks gold (#2 on the 800) but it is both too light and not marked. Anyway I continued the new pattern and approach to the beach. I got some quarters and then another ring (the little silver) and then the deep heart with .925 silver chain that says Italy. I went back down the pattern and it kept producing the fishing lure and a couple of other things. This is just the greatest way to detect a beach. Let me share with you what I did. While I was detecting someone came by on an electric bike. They left tire tracks. I used these tracks to tell me where the break in the sand was and that kept me on pattern. I first went in one direction along the bike tire tracks and then came back in the other direction. I was careful not to step on the tracks so that my markers would not be erased. At first the tracks were pretty good at the same distance from the water but the rider decided to go up over the slopes. That made me question this method but I kept going. I diligently swung on one side of the tire tracks and then the other. If I didn't get anything I would go back a full swing away from the other. When you get a chance to follow some tracks make sure you save one 'pass' for going directly over the tire tracks with your swing. That is where the good stuff is. What can be a better pattern on a beach than this? It is very scientific! Never trust your detecting to random, unscientific patterns again. Follow the bikes ... or tire tracks in the dry sand. That works too. 😇 Anyway ... here was the good stuff.

Well kinda (but that's another story) 1 clad dime and 3 memorial pennies , a fishing sinker , an unfired 22 pellet rifle round . 2 1/2 pull tabs and a bunch of tinfoil balls one of which looked like it was turning back to aluminum ore! ( or maybe it was just BBQ sauce ?) and a few odd pieces of iron I haven't washed off yet????? About 3 hours in park1 sens 22 , f2=0 disc = off., the 6" coil on the fully updated 800 Swinging in an old campground (it was root city) I watched being built 60 years ago when I was a little kid 200 yards across the cove through mom's binoculars cuz I was too young to row that far ......somewhere in the wilderness that is the southern Maine coast..I was surrounded by old growth white pine that were protected by the King of England for ship's masts for exclusive use of the Royal Navy....My fave site 30' straight up a cliff from the water ,,,and only covered 1/10th of it. , (It's overlooking "my rock" , where I've been fishing for striped bass since I was 2. It was low tide 2 clam diggahs on the flats , one arrived by boat.........) It was sunny On shore S. <5kts 62* No pics.. I am unworthy. UH AYUH yup yup

Made it out for a day at the beach. It seems like ages since I been out. The crowds were starting to gather since the weather was perfect that day. I was able to hit my favorite stretch of the beach for the most part. I started out trying for silver but decided to concentrate on low conductors, hoping for some gold. Total of 40 nickels that hunt, counting the war nickel. I ended the afternoon digging for high conductors as well, and was rewarded with yet another half dollar. Using a PI, you cannot get away from digging the deep, rounder shaped big iron since it could be a deep half, so I dig it. Some of longer iron items and shallow smaller nails, I could have avoided if I wanted to. I did manage to find a nice 10K tiny gold ring, so that made for a great day. Average depth was about 14” on most items. The ring was fairly shallow, probably around 7”. Total coins I believe was 100, so a high coin count. The usual copper and lead bits also found. Most items were resting on the clay layer or near it. Great to get out and enjoy the day.

Found this on UPI. Beach hunter was able to get a phone back to the owner. Never found a working one here. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/05/05/Joe-Lynch-metal-detector-Fort-Myers-Beach-Florida-iPhone-Lacy-Moulton/7261620247188/

Went to a different, flat beach for a change of pace. I was going to wrap the GPX in plastic and go into the water a bit but found out my Detech coil needs to be weighed down in order to not float. Not a big deal, as it is a great coil and my favorite. I will know better next time and will weigh it down. Because of how flat the beach is, I expected and was granted, lots of bits of aluminum 😆. The number of coins was in line with how things seen to go for me on my area beaches. Found a bit of silver as well. Also found a ring which is either nickel or white gold. It is not as clean as I would expect gold to be, but maybe it is a lower karat. Just somehow reminds me of how some clad quarters look when they are tumbled a lot, coming out looking clean and not that red/green/brown look. Reads a solid 8 on the Nox. I still feel there should be some deep gold and silver there due to the deep coins and deep lead that is still left behind. Also, the number of pull tabs could have been gold rings as well. I do have to say one thing about the GPX line. They are very durable machines. I just hope the GPX 6000 is as durable. My 5000 has done a lot of deep woods hunting as well as the beach hunts. Things do go wrong with it (like the cam locks), but it always powers up and performs well. So, nothing earth shattering, but a decent day at the beach.

Nothing too hard even for a rookie technician like me with not so High knowledge on boards whistles and bells... I'm Just posting a couple pictures at the end of the work, but really (again) misappointed regard the gasket system in the TDI beachhunter. To give some value to this post, I Just want to Say: please BE CAREFUL doing surgery on this control box, as the plastics are something to severely review to the death White's factory, now Garrett property. Not only the gasket tunnel between the upper and the lower part of the box is been made to create gasket's cuts and leaks at the first attempt to re-assemble the box, but even a Nightmare to get the job done without the o-ring moving inside and over the PCB when 6 of the 8 screws are already there again....😭. So this time I'm not so sure to have a leakproof TDI and I swear to want a detector.mod hard case for It. I Just don't understand why not to create a flat against flat surface with again a flat gasket in between😒😒😒. White's ...Come on! (I don't want to advertise for free or without Steve to be ok with these words) so Sorry for complaining with a self exposed solution to this bad thing...

Went out Thursday for a beach hunt at the usual place. It was a very busy week, and I was looking forward to some stress release, hopefully digging for some remaining silver. Kind of a random in how I was going to run my day, but I new I wanted to dig some large iron to see if it hid anything great. Just a couple of silvers for the effort and the usual clad with a couple of exceptions. I did get a nice gold wedding band with the initials of both people in it and a 52 (I am assuming the year they got married). What was odd though was the only other inscription on the ring, which was P11. I am thinking it stands for 11 Karat plum gold. That would be an odd Karat value. I had to wander around a bit more than usual and now the silver just trickles in. No heavy concentrations that I can see. I am going to try and get out Monday and do a long flat exposed beach if I can. Wrap that GPX nice and tight in heavy plastic and see if I can get some deep clad. It gives me a chance to try out my new scoop some more. I think I have only used it twice since I bought it. This is a fairly clean beach, so it is going to be a real test for the GPX. If I can score a lot of targets, then I know there is still a lot out there on those types of beaches. We will see. Hope the weather holds up and does not get too warm out there…. I like solitude 🙂

Getting ready to hit the beach this morning. Bringing a CooB scoop today and I had a thought - how far out do ya go? Is there a certain depth that is better than another? Don't want to "get in over my head" here 😀

Over on the 6000 threads they are showing a few pictures of attractive detectorists. (You don't need to know how to use a detector in order to be a detectorist.) One picture I saw had been significantly photo-shopped. There is a bit of grumbling about the use of models rather than REAL detectorists. Here is a REAL detectorist. I showed her how to hold the detector and the scoop! What a FIND! I had just a junk chain at this point but I hunted my way back to finish my 2 hour hunt and I got a small little hit. Sometimes you just have to go slow. It turned out to be a 10K .78g (.5 pw) earring at about 6 inches. This is my first gold in a couple of years with the Avantree headphones. They are quite a bit different sounding for me. It affects all the targets I hear and it also affects the pinpointing. I don't know if they are 'better or worse' than the Minelab headphones but they are different. As I was leaving the beach I got an odd signal which became more familiar but you just have to dig them once in a while. It got deeper and deeper so I suspected what it was and I confirmed it. A can at 20 inches or so. This was my haul for the 2 hours. There were a couple of steel earrings about 10 feet apart and a rusty chain which I scooped in half with the big scoop. That is a problem with the tank scoop. It will go through most everything. Be careful out there and never photo shop. Mitchel

The other day I was detecting on of the many beaches in Santa Monica Bay. Just like all other beaches of the world there are some unique features about it that we all learn. I was thinking about how much sand has been added since a swell event I detected about 6 months ago. I can see where that cut was and I see where the new beach line is and it is 25-30 feet in many places. Our wave pattern with the La Nina has sanded things in. We have earthquakes which raise our plate. How about your beaches from the old days? Before I started metal detecting I was a surfer. Many natural breaks have been there for years. I'm sure some are gone. Has 'climate change' changed your surfing spots? I know some beaches in Florida have had sand added for replenishment. I just read articles about North Carolina and salt intrusion killing coastal forests. They showed before and after photos. Do you have any old detecting photos that would show your beaches 20, 30 or 40 years ago?

So, I decided to try another beach to see if the conditions were the same to find silver. I spent about 2 hours there before I could not stand it anymore. For such an affluent town, the have the dirtiest beach I have ever detected on. The amount of junk targets and iron were overwhelming. I could not swing without hitting multiple targets. I got a bit of clad, and an 8-gauge shotgun shell casing, so I flew out of there. 🙄 The drive back to my favorite beach was now the goal to save the day. I wandered around for a bit with no luck, so back to the same area where I did good before. I expanded out a bit and the silvers turned to clad. Lots of dimes as expected, as they are hardest to find deep. Found a decent amount of silver. I did not take pictures of the trash, but here are all the good finds from that beach. My beach days are numbered, as the crowds are already starting to show up well in advance of Memorial Day opening. I may try another new beach next week for a bit and see what happens. Weather was beautiful…. The people ? - a bit strange. 😵

Finally got warm enough (and I had enough time) to hit the beach for 3 hours. Before I went out I stopped by the local Police department, asked where I can detect, and gave them my name. First thing I found was the small military button or possibly cuff or tack attachment. Not sure if it's Civil War era because I don't have my references with me. Found two pretty unrecognizable pennies, and to my surprise a 2003 one Rand coin from South Africa. There isn't a lot of junk on the beach, second photo shows the take. One gold pull tab! 😀 It's a really quiet beach. I was in more of a scout mode today, trying different levels of the beach (there is a 10 foot tide here), I walked about a mile up and back. I was hoping I'd find something military, there was a lot of activity here. Forts and Batteries everywhere! Of course I stayed out of the forbidden zones, and of course someone called the cops on me anyway - they told me someone would. Officer came out on a beach buggy, took a photo of me, radioed in, and left. They probably said "yeah, that's him!" 😀 Not a word to me. Word to the wise... Found one "hot rock", and had my first experience with black sand under the good stuff. Impossible to pinpoint in it. 😵 The one bottle cap was a 9. Beach mode 2 on the 600, F2/0. Sensitivity 21. I know I'm sacrificing some depth for the 50 tones and whatever else B2 does. It's kinda annoying I can't change to single frequency in this mode.

Finally got out again this afternoon. Beautiful warm day, great weather here. Went north on this beach today, didn't think I'd find much. Only went about 1/2 mile. Ended up with 2 more quarters, two dimes, and 6 ridiculously salt-crusted and corroded Zincolns, and an odd piece of soft metal that was a 15 ID. It unfolded easily. Junk take was pretty big, lots of sinkers. It's a REALLY clean beach, you know it when you found something. Found these odd storm wash piles that kept producing the encrusted pennies. I'll probably hit them again tomorrow.

How deep can you get on this??? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/possible-military-explosive-device-washes-ashore-on-florida-beach/ar-BB1fikoa?ocid=msedgntp

Went out to 2 different beaches for a mix of GPX and AQ hunting. Tony repaired my headphones for the AQ and also made me a spare set , along with 2 short cables, so I could zip tie the short cable to the machine, and so I would not break the M8 connector. The short cable also converts the M8 to an M12, a more robust connector going to the headphones. So, for the first AQ hunt in a while, I chose my “spot” to see if I could find any low conductors where the GPX had previously run the 18” DD coil. I did not find any coins in that area, but did find little bits of melted copper and lead. So, I ventured out a bit and found the silver Washington quarter,Mercury dime and all the rest of the other coins. I Later met up with a forum member - Jim in ma, at one of his spots. Thanks for the invite up there. 👍 I used the GPX to see if I could replicate the depth and coin count that I have had previously at my silver beach. This beach was smaller in the dry sand area, but the EMI was considerably less. The sand structure was different too, as I did not hit a clay layer or any of the other layers I was used to. But the principle was the same, and I did score a decent number of coins including the Mercury, silver war nickel & .925 ring. All in all, it was a fun time out.