Thursday, January 7, 2016

Using search patterns at the beach

Andrew P and James J asked me what type of search patterns I use on the dry sand, wet sand and inside the water.
This question  is a tough one as there are so many things that dictate the search pattern you use at the beach. 
There could be a lot less beach to search at high tide, or if the beach is packed with sunbathers, or erosion on the lower beach could make it impossible to step up or down a vertical wall of sand.
The search pattern I use the majority of my beach and water hunting time is ironically a box shaped search pattern.
I am fond of saying "Hunt outside the box", but I spend the majority of my time at the beach searching inside small boxes. 
If you have read any of my books or previous blogs, you will know I divide large sections of a beach up into smaller sections and try to cover less ground thoroughly. 
Hammering smaller sections and cleaning areas out of targets by imagining the search area is a box and gridding the box shaped area, before moving on to the next small section (Box) of beach.
Sometimes because of the reasons stated previously I get squeezed into searching along one straight line at the beach, but I prefer to double back and use shorter lines. 
Getting back to the question in hand, I use the search pattern that best suits the situation I am facing at the beach.
I rarely know before hand what search pattern I will be using before I walk onto a beach, but I know I will for sure be using some type of search pattern.
I do not meander around at the beach without a plan,  because the tighter you search an area the more chance you have of finding something good, especially at known productive sites. 
Just remember to be a successful jewelry or coin hunter at the beach, it is not how much ground you cover but how you cover the ground. 
Try to walk off a beach knowing that if the targets you were searching for had been there, you would have found them. 

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