Balanced finds

I believe that you can tell a lot about a beach or shallow water hunter by their metal detecting finds. 
Have you ever noticed how some beach or water hunters find a lot of gold bands, while other beach hunters find more clad coins or silver jewelry. 
Once you really know your metal detector, hone your beach and shallow water hunting techniques toward finding small finds.
Yes that is not a typo, concentrate on trying to recover small finds at the beach.
Gold chains and thin ladies gold rings are some of the most difficult finds to recover on the beach and in the water. 
These difficult to detect pieces of gold jewelry are often the most valuable and sought after kind of metal detecting finds. 
Small finds like this high karat gold ring with a table cut sapphire found on a Treasure Coast Spanish 1715 fleet wreck site beach in Florida.

Once you start to find the hard stuff, the big fish will jump into your scoop basket. 
I never go to the beach searching for big gold, I look for small gold knowing the big gold will be found if it is there.
A good balance of beach and water hunting finds is a good sign, it means that when beach erosion occurs you have a better chance of being successful. 
You will have a better chance of recovering gold jewelry on a cut tourist beach, a better chance of recovering treasure coins and artifacts on a cut shipwreck beach.  
The advantages of being able to find a variety of finds and not just one type of find become clear when Davy Jones locker opens up.
One of the major reasons for an imbalance of beach hunting finds is incorrect metal detector sensitivity and discrimination settings. 
A simple sensitivity and discrimination test with your metal detector on the beach with objects that you have difficulty finding will give you the answers to why you struggle to find them. 
When is the last time you went to the beach just to test your metal detector settings? 
My guess is hardly ever.