Claim jumpers and competition at heavily hunted beaches

Mike from New York asked me how I deal with people who jump straight in front of you when you are detecting at the beach.
This beautiful and heavy 18K gold ladies ring with diamonds and yellow sapphires should answer the question, nothing beats sticking to your game plan and picking up trophy finds behind inconsiderate beach or water hunters.

On the morning I recovered this bling ring, I was slowly searching in a straight line inside the water close to shore.  
Five members of a metal detecting club from the next town walked onto the beach, the group watched me from the lower beach as they prepared to get into the water. 
After clearly seeing what direction I was moving towards, the group of water hunters waded into the water a few yards ahead of me and took away the area I was about to search. 
The group spread out and proceeded to search in front of me zig zagging through the water.
I checked out the competition, they were traveling through the water too fast and a couple of the water hunters directly in front of me were using inferior metal detectors to the one I was using. 
After about an hour they turned around and made their way back towards me, I was approached by one smiling member of the group who asked me if I had any luck and started laughing. 
I normally would never show any other beach or water hunter anything I find, to avoid motivating them to return to search the area.
On this occasion I broke Gary Drayton rule number one, I decided to wipe the smiles off their faces by showing them this ring and a 22 K gold wedding band I had also recovered following the inconsiderate water hunters. 
The two gold rings in my hand left the group scratching their heads in disbelief, and no doubt gave them something to think about on the long ride home. 
This happens to me a lot at heavily hunted beaches, it happened last Sunday when I recovered five pieces of gold jewelry in the high tide line.
Another beach hunter saw me digging targets, the guy walked over towards me, jumped in front of me and and started searching the same line.
Luckily this person was in a hurry and was just as sloppy as the water hunting group.
If this happens to you, my advice is to always remember that it is not how much ground you cover, it is how you cover the ground.