Discrimination by use of a metal detector target depth indicator

I had a chance to do a little metal detecting on a recent overseas business trip and I relied heavily on my metal detector target depth read out while searching for old coins and artifacts.

It is amazing how many pesky bottle caps and pull tabs you find in off the beaten track sites. 

Often out of the way places you would least expect to recover the same modern junk I find on Florida beaches.

If the situation calls for it, I will discriminate by target depth when searching for modern gold jewelry at tourist type beaches, especially during heavily sanded-in beach and water hunting conditions.

Discriminating by target depth is probably a technique more known to people who search for old coins in trashy inland parks than to beach hunters. 

The basic premise is that you can avoid digging shallow junk targets by only stopping to dig targets with deep target depth readings. 

Old coins are not usually going to be shallow targets in a park, a trained ear can easily help pick out the tone of a silver coin in areas with large numbers of shallower modern coins.

At a sanded in tourist type beach, gold is found at deeper depths than common beach found clad coins. 

Gold being denser or heavier, sinks into fluffy loose sand much faster and deeper than clad coins. 

This helps explain why many beach hunters return home with lightweight junk targets during sanded in conditions, instead of gold.

I'm not much into returning home with chump change, which is why I often like to use a metal detector with a screen and target depth indicator at tourist beaches. 

I prefer to leave the junk and get the gold before the competition. 
Yes I know it's beach hunting heresy, but in my opinion you do not have to dig it all to have a successful beach hunt.

When you know gold is highly likely to be detected deeper than clad coins and pull tabs, don't dig any target registering near the surface, unless of course it sounds like gold. 

The time you waste digging obvious non gold targets eventually starts to eat into your precious beach hunting time.  
The more obvious surface junk you waste time digging, the further you will find yourself away from recovering gold as you run out of metal detecting time.

Back to my recent couple of short hunts during my recent trip, I used six inches as the likely modern finds cut off target depth. 

Every older coin or artifact I recovered had a target depth reading of nine to twelve inches, well beyond the modern finds cut off depth.

The next time you know you are digging shallow junk during sanded in tourist beach conditions, use that experience of yours to resist the temptation to stop and dig surface junk. 

Check out your target depth display and move a step closer to recovering gold. 

This is just an " Outside the box" technique that helps you adapt to a specific situation.