Never over estimate the competition

I hear many beach and shallow water hunter's complaining about the high number of people metal detecting now on the beaches of Florida.
I am sure it is the same on many beaches through-out the world, the number of people beach and water hunting has increased.
That does not mean your jewelry and coin count has to take a hit,  increased competition just means that  a few of the easier to find targets are skimmed off beaches.
When you use a good metal detector, and you are experienced, try not to give the competition too much credit.
For example, if you arrive at the beach and see other people already metal detecting, there is no need to move on.
Who says the competition knows what they are doing?
I was faced with the same situation last August,  arriving at a beach to metal detect and seeing five people already beach and water hunting.
My day could not have got off to a worse start, after locking my keys inside my vehicle!
Now I was standing on the beach walkover in my wet suit with my detector and scoop, looking at people already detecting the site and I could not drive to another beach if I wanted to.
Luckily, thanks to a friendly beach jogger who allowed me to use a cell phone, I was able to call my wife at 7am on a Saturday morning.
I told the wife that I would metal detect in the water until she drove the half hour to the beach to rescue me.
Not wanting to crowd the other shallow water hunters, I moved into the deeper water and started to move away from them.
The other water hunter's were staying pretty close to shore, and getting in and out of the water, wandering around in the dry sand, then returning to the water.
Not exactly the best plan of action,  and observing them for a while I decided to move a little closer to cover the waist deep water they showed no interest in covering.
I was happy I moved a little closer to shore, which is where I found this heavy 18K ladies ring with 2.5 carats of diamonds.

About 10 minutes after finding the diamond ring, I saw my wife waving to me from the top of the beach.
I walked out of the water and put the ring in her hand,  and in an instant the early morning phone call that ruined her Saturday morning sleep in was forgiven.
The diamond ring appraised for $4850.00,  readers of this blog should use this ring as motivation not to let the sight of other people metal detecting put you off searching a beach. 
A good metal detector is the hands of a confident beach or water hunter, out trumps any amount of competition. 
Heavy competition, sanded in beaches, just makes returning home with these type of finds even sweeter.