Beach tests follow up

I received quite a few messages about my previous blog regarding metal detector test settings out on the beach.  
As a hardcore beach and water hunter, it is encouraging to see that other beach and water hunters are looking for an edge over the competition.
If you are a gold jewelry hunter, some of the items you should take down to the beach for testing are thin gold chains, with and without pendants,  gold hoop style earrings with the closing bar open and thin gold ladies rings. 
Notice the gold jewelry hunting pattern here, SMALL thin pieces of gold jewelry, odd shapes too.
If you are searching for old treasure coins on shipwreck beaches, worn thin silver dimes or tiny flat silver pendants work just as well. 
Forget about testing for depth, there are just too many variables in true depth testing, such as the way the test object is buried in the sand.
Surface testing is the way to go, you have to be sure you can pick up the test object on top of the sand first. 
It may surprise you how the signal response from a closed gold hoop earring to an open gold hoop earring differs, the same applies to gold rings that have a section of the band missing.  
Try the test gold chain bunched up and rolled out, do not be surprised if you cannot detect the gold chain without the pendant. 
We invest a lot of money in our metal detectors and spend countless hours on the beach and in the water,  it makes perfect treasure hunting sense to see what we can and cannot detect. 
Testing during sanded in conditions will earn you more money in the long run than metal detecting during the sanded in conditions. 
Whenever you try a new search coil it is a good idea to test it on the beach first, before using it in a real good beach hunting situation like a cut beach. 
You can also test on the go and I often do out on the beach and in the shallow water.
If I am searching a cut and I find a nice gold ring or an old coin, I place the find back on the sand and sweep my search coil over it to listen to the target response again. 
I raise my search coil to test how deep I could have found it and I also test the responses from various sweep speeds. 
Of course you can only do that when no other beach hunters are around, remember my golden rule of never telling anyone where you found anything. 
If I am shallow water hunting, I only drop the the find back into the water in calm surf conditions when I know I can safely recover it. 
You can learn a lot about the depth and sensitivity capabilities of your metal detector out on the beach and inside the water.
I must admit I get a kick out of reliving the moment after the recovery, especially when it is something like this recently found heavy 18K ladies ring laying next to the hole under the water.