Wait a minute

On a recent beach hunt I hit a place with five people already searching the area, not unusual for 7 am at a south Florida tourist beach.

Six people metal detecting and no other people using the beach on this day in the middle of the week.

After scanning the beach with my twin optical scanners, a potentially good jewelry hunting spot was picked out. 
Fifteen minutes later this gold ring was rolling around in my scoop, but I was not smiling.

My well trained ears told me not to believe my eyes, I used my hand as a second opinion and the ring was dropped into the trash pocket of my finds pouch.

After returning home my trusty metal detecting ears were proven right, the high tone and light weight of the ring were dead giveaways to this being a fake gold ring.

Afterwards I got to thinking how instead of a disappointment, the fake gold ring was a testament to target ID skills learned.

I did not need a VDI screen with Conductive and Ferrous numbers or a target cursor to tell me what I had detected, although I was using a metal detector with a VDI screen.

This experience hammered home the importance of not solely relying on display screen read outs.

Yesterday I was reminded of the fake gold ring recovery after giving a detecting lesson on the Treasure Coast of Florida.

Instead of walking along keeping an eye on my metal detector screen, I kept an eye on the shell line I was searching along. 

I picked up several cool sharks teeth and a nice shard of Kang Hsi pottery from a Spanish 1715 fleet wreck.

Earlier I stopped to dig a broken signal that gave a slight scrappy blip from one direction, it turned out to be a nice little decorative bronze fastener from the same 1715 wreck.

Difficult for my metal detector to identify at depth, but not for my bat detecting ears.

There is a lot to be said for the most important detecting equipment you take to the beach, your ears! 

With experience spent using a metal detector at the beach, you will find they are your most reliable treasure hunting equipment. 

Kind of summing up beach or land hunting, you and your search skills are what really matters, your metal detector is just there to help you.