Claim jumpers

When you search on heavily hunted beaches, you get to see some people do some strange things, one of them is jumping in front of you and take away the area of the beach you are searching.
This has happened to me on several occasions when beach and shallow water hunting, especially with people who hunt in groups of three or four.
I have found through the years that these type of people are better walkers than treasure hunter's.
I actually get a laugh from the guys who race up behind me on beaches to overtake and search the beach ahead of me.
Every foot of sand they travel faster over,  is a foot of sand not covered and searched correctly.
Sometimes I stop and pretend I am digging a target, just to let them get further ahead of me.
Never allow other beach or water hunters to put you off your game, instead try slowing down even more and concentrate on your sweep speed and search coil control.  
Let other beach hunters race around and sloppily try to cover all the ground ahead of you.
I say it is not how much sand you cover with your legs, it is how much sand you cover correctly with your search coil.
Beach and water hunters that spend more time watching you than their hunting buddies, are no real competition for metal detecting finds.
Always recheck any areas on the beach you come across that have obviously been disturbed by other people metal detecting.
Trash targets laying next to dug holes is unfortunately a common sight on many beaches, trash left behind by people trying to cover large areas of the beach before you.
Place the trash in the trash pocket of your finds pouch and recheck the area for missed targets.
If you frequently search the same beaches, you are doing yourself a favor by removing trash left behind by sloppy beach or water hunters.
Of course, nothing beats going home with a nice piece of gold jewelry missed by the hasty competition.
The story of this beautiful 18K yellow sapphire and diamond ladies ring is in my "Hardcore Beach Hunting" book.

A group of 5 water hunters decided to enter the water 10 yards in front of me and completely took away the water ahead of me, but I got the ultimate revenge.
Finding a large heavy gold ring behind them using sharper water hunting skills, I rarely show my finds at the beach, but I made an exception that morning.
I am sure they enjoyed the ride home together knowing they had missed a $3600.00 piece of jewelry.