The Crumb Trail

[mn90403]

I go to a local beach this afternoon and I head straight away for my normal pattern which is the waterline.  This is what I am familiar with as it is new territory on a receding tide.   That was the plan and I stuck with it in one direction of about 2 miles.  At the end of that walk I had about 3 cents!  Nothing, nada at the top or bottom of the beach slope.  I'm using beach 1 just about default.

Time to switch the pattern.  Too many people on the blanket line so it is time to split the difference between blanket and parking lot.  Finally a few targets.  Coins here and there and I just plod along in the soft sand which I dislike.  The wind is picking up and I'm about half way back to my starting spot and I see another detectorist out in front of some houses.  He could be on the wet also but today is a day to stay dry.  A few hundred yards further I come about a culvert which is directing the wind.  One side the sand is holding and the other it is blowing away.  That is when I saw my first crumb.  I was swinging and had gotten a couple of coins and then I looked down and saw a dime and 2 pennies with all the sand blown away from them!  Wow ... no one has been here recently.

I continue on in field 1 in this little area and I hear another target (18-19).  I can see the edge of a coin, no ... I know what that is because I've found them before in the surf.  It is a bus token.  I reach down and pick it up without using a scoop.  This one is in excellent shape.  Now it is time to grid the 20x40 ft area.  In less than 3 minutes I get a 9 and I look at my coil and I see the edge of a ring.  I see the portion of the cross.  I wish now that I had a camera to take a picture as I first saw it.  I don't so I quickly grab it.  It's 4.5g and feels good. 

I finish gridding the area and work another trashy area nearby.  I pull out a few coins from the muck and I'm on my way back.

These coins, token and ring could have been found with ANY detector but I was swinging an 800.  It 'challenged' me to find that trashy spot and use it and instead I went near and found a spot I might not have gone to with my CTX.

Coincidence?  Luck?  I found some clues and acted upon them.  Sometimes the detector doesn't matter.

Mitchel

[Skate]

A great detectorist is also a great detective. Think then swing!

Great recoveries Mitchel. beautiful ring.

[strick]

Nice work I guess you can call those Eolian deposits...

strick 

[flakmagnet]

Smart work and a readable post, thanks. It's interesting that you were using Field 1, I haven't tried that at the beach - yet.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Nice chunky ring, congrats!!

[mn90403]

1 hour ago, flakmagnet said:

Smart work and a readable post, thanks. It's interesting that you were using Field 1, I haven't tried that at the beach - yet.

 

Flak,

There are some beaches in Southern California that are very wide and sandy.  They have filled in over the last hundred years rather than disappear as some say.  In these areas I have started using the field mode and really like it.  

The day before this hunt when I was using it I found a 1953 'wheat at the beach!'

I had heard so many others use it and I had done some testing in a park and it works.  I haven't used it on the waterline much as I do use the beach modes there.

Mitchel

[Chase Goldman]

Use of non hot, non beach modes in dry sand can pay off.  I generally stay in Beach one if I am zig zagging between wet and dry sand, but if I am “staying dry” Field 1 is a good choicel.

Well played, sir.  Congrats.

[flakmagnet]

Yup, I tried Field 1 today on the beach in dry sand and liked it alot. Thanks for the tip! I also am frequenting So. Cal. beaches and am really hoping for some kind of storm that makes a good enough cut. I am sure the Equinox will kill it in that situation.

 

[unox]

Nice hunt, thinking outside the box does pay off. Really nice ring there mate