Coverage is everything

Time to get caught up on beach and water hunting questions after spending the last two weeks in England. To answer Jerry from Mississippi, in my opinion ground coverage or the way you cover the beach is the most important factor at heavily hunted beaches.

I had permission to search a pasture in England that had obvious signs of having been searched previously, kind of like walking on a beach and seeing scoop drag marks and refilled holes.

Just like I do at beaches in Florida, I relied on thorough ground coverage to detect targets behind other hunters.

I like to say, its not how much ground you cover, its how you cover the ground.

This 1862 half penny was recovered between two holes that had been filled in, who knows what the other two targets were, but a third target was left behind. 

It happens a lot at the beach if you are not careful, unless you take your time and try covering smaller areas really well.

A less is more way of covering ground, gives you the best chance of recovering targets at various depths. 

Almost all the items I recovered in this farmers pasture were deep targets, probably left behind by other hunters trying to cover too much ground.  

The slower and more thoroughly you cover an area, the more you take advantage of the size of your search coil when using larger search coils. 
Deep targets will always be missed at the beach if you cover ground too quickly, but searching slowly and methodically should help you avoid traveling across the beach too quickly.
You never have to be the first person to cover an area, you just have to be the first person to cover the area correctly.
Now I am back I am looking forward to seeing gold in my scoop, there will always be something to detect at the beach, especially if you give your metal detector a chance to detect it. 
Oh and can you believe I was actually disappointed seeing the 154 year old victorian coin I am holding in the photo, even though my detecting time on this trip was very limited I forgot just how much England spoils you when you are metal detecting.