10 easy ways to miss gold and silver jewelry on the beach and in the water.

Here are 10 common mistakes many beach and water hunters make when searching for jewelry that can easily be avoided. 

1.  Same place same time.

You would have to be very lucky if your jewelry hunting strategy is going to the same beach at the same time.  Predictable beach and water hunters are easily beaten to jewelry by other local beach and water hunters, who can time their hunts to beat you to jewelry because they know your jewelry hunting times.

2.  Same turn around points.

Metal detecting from the parking lot to the pier and back, or in between the two furthest beach entrances, assumes gold and silver jewelry is always lost between two points.  
Next time you go to the beach, check out how many sunbathers and swimmers like to use the outskirts of the beach, not everyone likes being close to other people on the beach. 

3. Same size search coil all the time.

Versatile beach and water hunters use different size search coils to suit the conditions present.  Whether that means owning more than one metal detector, or using a metal detector that allows you to change search coils when the beach or water conditions change.  Never use a large search coil on a trashy site, or a small search coil on a wide open clean beach. 

4. Loose lips.

News travels fast today,  your jewelry finds will take a sharp drop in numbers if you tell other beach and water hunters the exact location you recovered jewelry.  
Don't ask and don't tell,  or you will run the risk of wasting your treasure hunting time following other peoples false leads. 

5.  Bad timing 

Nearly as bad as going to the same beach at the same time is only low tide hunting.  
Go to the beach regardless of the tide times,  not just two hours before low tide.  
While you are sitting around waiting for low tide,  people not limited to low tide hunting like me are finding gold and silver jewelry before you get there. 

6.  Walking and swinging

A metal detector detects metal under the sand, that is of course if you give the metal detector time to work, it helps if you sweep your search coil low, level and slow.   
Being in the same place you receive the signal also helps, instead of three yards past the place you first started swinging your search coil. 
Many beach and water hunters sweep or swing! their search coils far too fast and high to detect jewelry. 

7.  Over use of discrimination 

Unfortunately to find jewelry, you have to dig certain trash targets.  The less discrimination you use, the more jewelry you will find. 

8.  Relying on luck

There is always a certain amount of luck in jewelry hunting,  but the more you rely on your beach and water reading skills and your basic metal detecting techniques, the more jewelry you will find.  
Instead of relying on luck to be in the right place at the right time, try putting yourself in the right place more often using your jewelry hunting skills.
Get the best of both worlds, be a good and lucky treasure hunter. 

9.  Local beach knowledge 

If you do not learn how to read your local beaches, you will always be chasing with the jewelry hunting pack for scraps.  A window of good jewelry hunting opportunity closes just as easily as it opens up, learning how the wind and waves effect your local beaches will help you to predict good jewelry hunting opportunities.  

10.  One dimensional treasure hunting

Stop ignoring large parts of the beach, dry sanders, wet sanders and water hunters. 
Jewelry is not all lost in one area of the beach, so why just search one area of the beach?