Double search patterns and spirals

There are two eye opening things a beach hunter can do, one is place a gold ring on or very close to a piece of iron and the other is go back over an area they covered well from a different direction. 

The result of both eye opening tests will be a failure to hear the gold ring and no doubt hearing targets you failed to detect on the first sweep of an area, no matter how tight a search pattern you thought you had used.

When I search an area that produces what I am searching for, I always double back over the same area sweeping my search coil from a different direction.

Both the iron / gold ring and double coverage tests show what your real enemy is at the beach.

It is certainly not competition from beach hunters, our real enemy is iron masking at the beach.

Iron masking is the reason why you can detect targets in sand you thought you had just covered correctly. 

Iron signals over powering and masking other non Ferrous targets located close to the iron.

Double search patterns are the reason I cannot cover many of my favorite jewelry, coin or artifact hunting sites very quickly.

I spend time re-covering areas I have just searched from a different direction. 

When I detect a good target, I spiral out from the site I scooped the good target.  

I do this because I know objects of the same size of density often end up settling in the same area on the lower beach and inside the water.

Why walk away from a productive area, when there are probably more good targets in the area to be found.

Spiraling around a recovery location is useful if you find a pendant or a chain. 
There is a good chance the missing chain or pendant is close to the area you located the first find.

Here is a photo of three ounces of 14 K gold jewelry proving a spiral works, both pieces of gold recovered within feet of each other early last year.
The gold chain with sapphires in the clasp was recovered after spiraling out from the area I scooped the 1.4 ounce gold pendant.
I figured the gold pendant must have been attached toa sturdy gold chain and I guessed right.

I have recovered some mighty fine pieces of modern gold jewelry and superb old artifacts by searching over areas from a different direction and spiraling out from dug holes.

Don't walk away, double check and see if you just missed something on the first search or grid of the area.

Cover more of the ground and less of the beach!