I love firm bottoms !

Now I have your attention, if you are a beach or water hunter it is important to understand the relationship between a firm bottom and success with your metal detector.

I’m always looking for a firm or hard bottom when I hit the beach because I know the harder the sand I am walking over is the more chance I have of finding something good.

When coins or jewelry are lost at the beach, they eventually sink deeper until they hit a deep layer they cannot penetrate.

Coins, jewelry and artifacts always find a base layer where they remain until some lucky beach or water hunter comes along with a metal detector to rescue them.

Many tourist beaches are heavily hunted now, but more people swinging metal detectors does not always decrease your chances of being successful if you can read a beach and know where the best potential sites are within a site.

Firm sand or packed shell under foot is a good sign, so too is coral or coquina exposed on the lower beach or inside the water.

Ripple troughs and other areas on the beach carved out by unusual onshore wave action are often firmer under foot than surrounding areas. 

Rocky areas on lower beaches or shallow water hunting sites are always the dogs danglies when it comes to detecting coins, jewelry or artifacts, they are impenetrable collection areas.

You need a certain set of target recovery skills to recover targets from these type of areas also a variety of target recovery tools.

If you carry a flat head screwdriver, needle nose pliers and a mask and snorkel, you probably already know what I mean about searching for hard bottoms.

Some of my best beach and water hunts occured because I found a firm or hard bottom stacked with targets that could not sink any further. 

If an area of the beach is tough digging it’s worth digging, if it’s almost impossible to detect and recover targets in it’s worth detecting and recovering target in! 

Do you go to the beach to cover as much ground as possible or find the best ground to cover? 

Searching for a firm or hard bottom will help you detect and recover the most targets. 

Interested in metal detecting ?

If the title of today’s blog is exactly what you are interesting in doing I have a few words of advise for you before jumping into the proverbial deep end.
Metal detecting is a fantastic hobby but it is not as easy as it looks, it’s not about going out and buying an expensive metal detector and location location location.
It’s more about researching areas potentially hiding what you intend searching for, learning to use a metal detector correctly, site reading and site selection skills.
I always tell people to read the best metal detecting book in the world, unfortunately I didn’t write it as that book is the instructional manual that comes with the metal detector you choose to use.
Read it, read it again and read it until you know how to set your metal detector to suit the search site, when you fully understand the manual you will know how to make incremental control settings that make a difference.
Local research is easy, head to that building called the local library, they have books full of old photos  and you can look at the old photos and go follow up those leads with your metal detector and find lots of good stuff lol
Site reading and observational skills come in time, they lead to site selection skills and an increase in good metal detecting finds.
You can now hit the ground running although I always  recommend walking slowly as you metal detect.
Metal detecting has been very good to me, heck it’s my profession now but I guess it’s better than working for a living lol
Build on good foundations and I can tell you that you will find what you are searching for, it’s not about covering ground everyone else covers and swinging a detector for hours hoping to get lucky.
Remember research, metal detector knowledge and basic techniques lead to success at metal detecting. Success breeds familiarity with site conditions needed to have success locating stuff and before you know it the metal detector and digging equipment are tools
You are the key to success at metal detecting, the more you learn the less you have to rely on your metal detector.
I hope you are even more interested in metal detecting now, get yourself a metal detector read the all important book and find places to use your research to the max.