Lower beach target recovery tips

Yesterday morning I took a client out for a Minelab Excalibur beach training session,  the surf was really rough and the guy wanted to know how to search the wet sand. 
This was perfect timing for learning how to recover targets in the wet sand with rough surf rushing in over the area. 
We hit the beach about an hour after high tide and I showed the guy how to search the ebbing tide with his Excalibur II.
Here are three points I shared about recovering targets in the wet sand close to the waters edge. 

1. Choice of recovery tool

The guys long handled aluminum scoop had a small coffee can size scoop basket with a wire mesh bottom,  making recovering targets difficult. 
Heavier stainless steel scoops with a good size basket, are much better for recovering targets on the lower beach. 
They do not move around when hit by waves, and they are less likely to get damaged by coral or rocks on the lower beach. 
There is also less chance of damaging a valuable object, if you use a long handled scoop with a large scoop basket. 

2. Know the pinpointing sweet spot.  

Every metal detector has a sweet spot, an area under the search coil where a target has the strongest audio response when pinpointing a target. 
Under most Double D search coils, the sweet spot is under the center of the search coil, on Mono search coils it can be slightly off center. 
The more time you spend on the upper beach learning how to pinpointing targets, the better you will be at recovering targets in the wet sand close to the water. 
If your metal detector has a built in pinpoint option, use it! 

3.  Scoop and dump

Shucking sand over the area you are scooping while standing on the lower beach, is a bad idea if waves are washing in over the wet sand.
A gold chain may slip through the holes in your scoop basket, or a gold ring may bounce out of your scoop  basket, fall into the water and get washed away while scooping.  
The best way of recovering targets in the wet sand with waves rushing over the area, is to scoop and dump sand away from the target area. 
Scoop, recheck the hole and surrounding area, if you hear no signal from the target, it is probably in the scoop basket full of sand. 
Walk a little higher up on the beach, away from the waves and dump the sand, so you can safely recover the metal object. 
Never scoop shuck or dump targets behind or to the side of the hole with waves washing over the area. 

These tips will help make sure you do not lose small shallow targets on the lower beach to the waves, like these Spanish 1715 fleet silver reales.

The 299 year old silver treasure coins were found a few years ago in stormy beach hunting conditions, using my Minelab Excalibur on the Treasure Coast of Florida.