Is Beach Detecting Just Easier?

[mn90403]

I did find the thread.

 

I also took some new tests.  My hearing has not gotten better.  Maybe I'll over amp the next time out.  Years ago I used noise cancelling headphones with a volume control.  Now may be time to make sure all exterior and internal noise is away from me when detecting.  It can't hurt.  The big and loud targets take care of themselves.  It is those subtle sounds I don't react to.

You heard a variety of soft sounds but had some difficulty when there was background noise.

 

[mn90403]

Here is an Aussie product for boosting.  Anyone down there use them?

https://www.nuheara.com/usa/products/iqbuds-boost/

[Northeast]

11 hours ago, mn90403 said:

There would also be less trash.

I agree, there 'should' be less trash...but there often isn't.  

It amazes me how many patches I used to go over that were supposedly flogged but I'd still pull heaps of trash out.  Any one of those items could have been a nugget but they generally aren't.  

I'm not doing that so much these days but when I only have the time for a quick, short hunt I still hit those spots and still find targets.  

[fredmason]

Mitchel 

what is happening in your head while nugget hunting?
if you have some internal dialogue going you likely don’t hear the really faint signals. It is very difficult to stay focused...

I know that when I get distracted by stuff I don’t do as well....

if I am not thinking about gold I probably won’t find much...

I don’t think all these opinions will help much, they seem to irritate you...only you can figure this out....
Trust  your equipment...don’t doubt yourself...there are more nuggets waiting for you.

fred

[flakmagnet]

I have hunted with my hearing aids on while wearing headphones and have also taken them off doing the same. I use an amp and feel that, in both situations, the amp more than compensates for my hearing loss, which is also in the high frequency range. If you have an amp, I would say use it…all the time. 

I think it's harder to hear the variations in the threshold that can signal targets when it's highly mineralized etc. where the threshold won't settle down. After awhile that constant pitch change blurs my ability to be able to pick out subtle tone shifts. I do what Fred does, I just take a few minutes and take the phones off and relax for a few minutes. It helps a lot. Just a thought. 

 

[WesD]

Hi Mitchel, You just need to live closer to the gold.  Eventually you would  get on a fresh patch. No need to struggle listening for whispers then.  Thats the secret of most these consistent guys. They live on it, or near it, and get out every week hiking the hills.  You are a great detector operator and more experienced than most.

[afreakofnature]

Its the opposite for me.  Nugget shooting is way more successful than on the beach.  I want a gold ring and a reale.  Can’t seem to put my coil over one.

[mn90403]

Well, during today's beach hunt my thoughts were of 'the game' and how to play it.  Thoughts of all sports came to mind as I was listening to the smooth, mostly uninterrupted threshold of the beach sand.  We've had a storm but not many targets came with it.  I know this because places where I normally hunt had few targets and others detectorists didn't find them also.  There is something confidence building about seeing a few un-refilled dig holes about.  If there are not many then the guy before you didn't get much and he would have missed me asking him "What is good about leaving an open hole?"

Anyway, I know what many targets can be and what few targets can be.

A theme running through my mind today was 'how do I be competitive' with either the ground or a fellow detectorist?  This can help with the concentration if done properly.  While I was detecting I started to rank the areas we hunt or the settings which are somewhat like Steve's categories in the forums except I rank it according to WHERE the hunt takes place.  Let me rank (easy to hard) them in order of difficulty for me:

1. Blanket Line Dry Sand

2. Parks and Playgrounds

3. Wet Sand Beach

4. Old Relic Fields and UK Sites (I haven't done this yet but maybe?)

5. Nugget Hunting 

I can't resist comparing this to something I do several times a week which is play billiards.  This is also a skill and luck 'sport or hobby' as you might put it.  (Andy's brother is a professional and we have compared the concentration in pool to nugget hunting.)  How would I compare those games to detecting?

1. 8 Ball (easy)

2. 9 Ball

3. 10 Ball

4. 3 Cushion Billiards

5. One Pocket (the most difficult game on a pool table)

For those of you not familiar with one pocket, it is a game where you and your opponent each has only one corner pocket at the bottom of the table where you can score points.  The other 5 pockets on the table are not used and any ball that drops in those pockets (except your opponents corner pocket) are replaced on the table.

Without going into all of the details and strategies of offense and defense in each game, I've tried to rank then in order of difficulty for semi-pro types of players.  One pocket is the king.  Nugget hunting is the king.  All of your skills and equipment are needed to succeed at both them.

This now comes to the point of comparison.  One pocket players learn by watching and doing in much the same way that detectorists learn from each other.  But there are some players that just have the 'magic' and no matter how much you watch and learn you still need them to open up to you.  They have subtle moves and techniques that they don't share with everyone and especially to their tournament rivals.

Metal detecting and pool playing at the highest levels requires good fundamentals.  I sometimes find myself playing pool and wanting a good smooth stroke (you have to hit within a .5 mm spot sometimes) and follow through like JP's coil control teachings.  Hitting a shot with extreme 3:00 English on it as opposed to centerball is like JW finding tiny nuggets in cracks on bedrock with maximum sensitivity.  Using an X-Coil is like using a low deflection, carbon fibre shaft.  You just learn how to get the most out of what you have and you try for more.

We all have limitations.  These limitations can be frustrating and irritating sometimes.  I keep expecting a 'break out' that improves my technique which in turn leads to more consistency which translates into more wins and more nuggets.

Wes has touched upon the greatest truth of the matter.  I need more practice.  I need to live closer to gold like both JP and JW and many of the rest of you not to mention Walker and Lunk who live the life of a detectorist for more than half of the year.  And then there are Klunkers who have to think about detecting for half a year before they can get out and do it.

If I sound and say I'm irritated, I am.  But it is not at any of you as much as it is myself.  I've probably had more lessons about nugget hunting than any person alive and I still haven't found any 'magic' I can teach.  I have no seeming command of my nugget finding.  I can tell people a lot of what others have told me but that doesn't put anything in the poke most of the time.

I hope I stop this search for the holy grail sometime soon and just take it one day, one hour, one swing at a time.  Results are or aren't in my control.  As Steve and Fred say, just slow down and play more battleship.

[fredmason]

And stop thinking so much!