The all metal advantage.

Although I find at least a pound of modern gold jewelry every year, my real passion is metal detecting on the beaches of Florida for old Spanish treasure coins and artifacts.  
I can still walk off a Treasure Coast after spending hours without a signal and have a smile on my face, mainly because I enjoy the thrill of searching for old finds. 
Unlike modern jewelry hunting, finding old Spanish treasure coins and artifacts is much harder to do on a regular basis. 
You are definately more dependent on the wind and waves when beach hunting for old finds in Florida. 
To insure I have the best chance possible, I always search known shipwreck beaches using an all metal search mode. 
Using just a little discrimination, may cause you to miss an old find, especially if an object is encrusted  with coral or sand. 
The longer and deeper a target is buried in the sand on a shipwreck beach, the more likely a target has of being encrusted, or attached to iron when found.
I usually take my Minelab CTX 3030 and 17 X 13-inch search coil with me to the Treasure Coast when searching in all metal for deep targets on the beach. 
This hurricane season I will be taking my Minelab GPX 5000 with me when I know the beaches are eroded, a highly respected deep seeking beast of a pulse induction metal detector. 

The Minelab GPX 5000 is primarily regarded as a gold hunting machine, but my new investment will also hit on very deeply buried iron and bronze objects, like this "Arrow head" ship spike.

Large bronze, copper or iron objects found on beaches known for old shipwrecks, are an excellent  indication that you may find treasure coins in the area. 
If you are lucky enough to start finding heavy objects trapped in deeper layers of sand, forget about moving on. 
In my opinion, it is better to hammer a promising area, than trying to cover the rest of the beach. 
Change to a larger search coil if you can, notice the 18 X 12-inch search coil in the photo. 
Although I am constricting myself to searching away from the water with the non waterproof GPX 5000, I will never have to worry about being one of the first people to search an eroded beach. 
I will be able to take my time detecting targets that are simply out of detection range to most metal detectors on the beach. 
As I mentioned in my previous blog about using discrimination, there are beaches that using a discriminate search mode is the best option. 
Not being a one trick pony, I search plenty of beaches that an all metal search mode is the best option to maximize my Spanish treasure hunting time.