The following story from several years ago is a perfect example of detecting outside the box.
I was water hunting at a popular south Florida tourist beach, in the distance I saw a group of full time water hunters.
The three water hunters were spread out and using a short east to west directional search pattern, trying to cover as much water as possible along the beach.
I rarely cover large areas, so it was not long before the other water hunters were upon me.
One guy took his headphones off and told me he was a moderator on an internet detecting forum, and how his water hunting buddies had cleaned out the area over the previous two days finding two small gold bands.
I thanked him for telling me that I wasting my water hunting time and told him I will search the area just in case they missed anything of value.
He assured me they were expert water hunters using pulse induction metal detectors and leave nothing behind.
My plan was simple, to cover the area of deeper water past the buoys the group of water hunting buddies were using as search pattern turn around points.
This 18K white gold ladies ring with 80 diamonds appraised at $3600.00, the ring was found only a few feet past one of the buoys, thanks to the box hunting style of the group of water hunters.
I hope this story highlights several things for lone beach and water hunters like myself.
1. Just because other people are searching an area ahead of you, it does not mean the area ahead has been searched correctly.
2. Groups of beach or water hunters tend to think alike and all search the same way.
3. A "Weekend warrior" has just as much chance of recovering valuable finds as full time beach or water hunters.
4. Avoid using search patterns that rely on the same turn around points.
5 On heavily hunted beaches, always search past obvious beach markers, such as lifeguard stands, fishing piers or buoys.
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