I must admit there have been a few times this year when my choice of metal detector has let me down at certain unexpected good sites, but when you use one metal detector the majority of your metal detecting time you will struggle away from where your metal detector usually shines.
Using one type of metal detector you really feel comfortable using makes sense, especially if the metal detector you use is perfect for detecting the main thing you normally search for.
For me that main thing in south Florida is modern gold jewelry at tourist beaches, unfortunately tourist beaches happen to be very trashy sites littered with all types of undesirable junk.
To find gold jewelry at tourist type beaches you often have to go thru a lot of trash, including clad coins, fish hooks, bottle caps, tin cans and pull tabs, just a few things a VDI screen on a metal detector will help you identify.
Read outs on a metal detector screen such as target cursors, ferrous & conductive numbers, target depth etc come with a price, the trade off is target identification and target separation over target depth.
The alternative for me is searching in an all metals search mode digging everything or using a pulse induction metal detector, still digging everything only digging it deeper.
In my opinion no metal detector is good in every situation so it makes treasure hunting sense to use a metal detector most suited to detecting what you are searching for in the places YOU search.
You may struggle away from your comfort zone, but you can adapt when you know what your favorite metal detector is capable of doing and sometimes just as importantly what your metal detector is not capable of doing.
Knowing you have to adapt to a different metal detecting situation shows you understand what it takes to detect what ever it is you are searching for under difficult circumstances.
Perhaps even a change of search mode or search coil is just what the doctor ordered to help you detect something good if you are struggling in a difficult to search area.
The more I travel to different areas to metal detect the more I value and rely on different size search coils to help me find stuff at problematic sites.
In this already busy year of traveling to metal detect I also know it pays not to test or try new equipment on the road, sticking to familiar metal detecting equipment helps to get the job done.
A busy year of traveling to metal detect has reenforced how important it is to play the averages away from home, rejecting a bare minimum of trash using average size search coils.
So much about metal detectors and search coils is site specific, something to think about if you search a wide variety of sites.
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Fighting for scraps
I took this photo at one of my favorite heavily hunted beaches because it reminded me of detectorists who flocked to this beach that day, one after another buzzing around trying to get lucky.
The day I took the photo I didn't get lucky but I recovered a nice Spanish treasure coin from the late 1600s, I do not class the recover as lucky because I have previously recovered many similar treasure coins from the exact same area.
The reason I went there was because I have recovered many Spanish treasure coins at this site, not because others have found Spanish treasure coins at this site.
Getting to know a productive site starts with research and putting the hunt in treasure hunt, not waiting around for favorable conditions or hitting a site hoping to get lucky detecting with the beach hunting crowd.
I imagine 90% of detectorists hitting a heavily hunted site are hitting that site because they heard someone got lucky there so they hope to get lucky.
The other 10% are there because they probably know it is a good site or area from their previous recoveries at that heavily hunted area and they probably do not rely so much on luck.
If you follow "Hearsay" stories the only thing you often end up chasing and finding is your own tail.
The small percentage of finders find and the majority of hunters keep hunting at sites that see many detectorists.
One way to insure you get on the right side of that treasure hunting equation is to research sites and search a wide variety of sites.
Or you could wait for a blogger or a metal detecting forum member with a lot of posts instead of finds behind their name to tell you when the "Conditions" are favorable to recover what you hope to find.
Nothing beats knowing why you are searching an area and knowing you are capable of recovering what you are searching for at a wide variety of sites.
This is a much better treasure hunting strategy that will not leave you feeling like you are just searching for left over scraps or hoping to get lucky.
Research, site reading skills and knowing your metal detector manual by heart put you to the front of the pack at heavily hunted sites, especially if you are at those sites as a repeat finder!
I search some of the most heavily hunted shipwreck and tourist beaches in the world and I try to run a tight ship, pun intended!
I avoid posting or sharing recent finds in all the excitement to avoid giving productive areas away or a repeat of being followed to sites by lazy beach hunters.
Heavily hunted beaches are some of the least productive beaches in the long run, so I generally avoid searching them unless I have a reason to be there.
Fighting over scraps is not my style, I prefer researching and discovering the next productive site knowing exactly where everyone is going to search given the opportunity to go beach hunting.
Just like the bees in the photo, you can buzz around with the crowd or you can do your research, become proficient using your metal detector and drink from the well where ever and when ever.
If you follow "Hearsay" stories the only thing you often end up chasing and finding is your own tail.
The small percentage of finders find and the majority of hunters keep hunting at sites that see many detectorists.
One way to insure you get on the right side of that treasure hunting equation is to research sites and search a wide variety of sites.
Or you could wait for a blogger or a metal detecting forum member with a lot of posts instead of finds behind their name to tell you when the "Conditions" are favorable to recover what you hope to find.
Nothing beats knowing why you are searching an area and knowing you are capable of recovering what you are searching for at a wide variety of sites.
This is a much better treasure hunting strategy that will not leave you feeling like you are just searching for left over scraps or hoping to get lucky.
Research, site reading skills and knowing your metal detector manual by heart put you to the front of the pack at heavily hunted sites, especially if you are at those sites as a repeat finder!
I search some of the most heavily hunted shipwreck and tourist beaches in the world and I try to run a tight ship, pun intended!
I avoid posting or sharing recent finds in all the excitement to avoid giving productive areas away or a repeat of being followed to sites by lazy beach hunters.
Heavily hunted beaches are some of the least productive beaches in the long run, so I generally avoid searching them unless I have a reason to be there.
Fighting over scraps is not my style, I prefer researching and discovering the next productive site knowing exactly where everyone is going to search given the opportunity to go beach hunting.
Just like the bees in the photo, you can buzz around with the crowd or you can do your research, become proficient using your metal detector and drink from the well where ever and when ever.
Friday, May 15, 2020
Ring hunting 101
Rings are by far the easiest items of jewelry for a beach hunter to detect, if you know how and where to find them.
The how is easy, cover the beach sweeping slow and low until you put your metal detector search coil over one.
The where is also easy if you select the right sites to search, its obvious by the bling bling on the cover of my Jewelry hunting book I believe in the famous real estate mantra location, location, location.
I look at rings as easy targets for a beach hunter to detect because they are highly attractive metal objects to a metal detector, objects made of precious metals formed in a circle shape.
It does not get any better than that, the shape of rings and the highly conductive metals they are made of make it more likely a beach hunter is going to detect quite a few rings if they choose the right sites to search.
Coins are another example of easy targets for a metal detector to detect at a beach, flat and round shaped.
Im my opinion, beach jewelry hunters are their own worst enemies blaming poor beach conditions and even their metal detecting equipment for a lack of ring recoveries.
There is no such thing as poor beach conditions, unfavorable beach conditions are just opportunities for hardcore beach hunters to recover more rings.
Back in 2007 I recovered 274 gold rings as a weekend warrior only searching beaches for an average of six hours every weekend that year, I recovered 12 gold rings in one morning at one local tourist beach.
The kind of ring recovery success that gets you kicked off metal detecting forums because they believe you own a jewelry store lol
Searching for rings at tourist beaches, use a good VLF (Very low frequency) metal detector that allows you to use a little discrimination, the old timers "You have to dig it all" in case you miss something of value is bad advice at tourist beaches searching for rings.
Every rusty fish hook or crusty bottle cap you stop to dig prevents you from returning home with a platinum, gold or silver ring.
Any experienced beach hunter should know the difference between a fish hook, bottle cap and gold ring right? they probably do but they still stop to dig junk instead of moving on.
If you are using any one of todays good VLF metal detectors there is no excuse for digging undesirable junk at the beach.
Will your metal detector misidentify the odd ring on the edge of detection depth, sure but you should never worry about the rings you cannot detect, get busy digging the rings you can detect!
As for location, you have to search where you are likely to detect whatever it is you are searching for.
I love the thrill of recovering expensive pieces of jewelry and I know my wife and daughters are not going to be happy with spring breaker or surfer crowd rings lol so I hit beaches popular with middle aged or older people.
Do I miss the eye candy sure, but I do not miss the more valuable rings at beaches that attract an older crowd, I should add I am happily married with children so I only ever check out scantly clad ladies at the beach with one eye.
Rings are recovered at the beach when you hit the right areas with the right metal detector searching over the sand slowly, insuring you detect circles of precious metals.
The slower you search an area the more small gold you will be able to detect, which is important as the most valuable rings often weigh the less with thin platinum or gold bands holding precious stones.
Detect the thin bands and you will have no problem detecting larger or chunkier rings, beach hunters who only find large rings should stop to think why they struggle to find smaller rings.
No doubt the answer is related to location, metal detector or search techniques and all of these things can easily be corrected.
Remember it is often the precious stones that make an expensive ring expensive, not the precious metals content so it is very important for a beach jewelry hunter to detect what I refer to in my beach hunting guides as small gold.
Many of my of most valuable Bobby Dazzler rings are just a plain platinum or gold band with prongs holding large diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, amethysts and other precious gems.
If you need help putting your search coil over rings, I know a guy with a website and a jewelry hunting guide who has recovered thousands of rings at the beach.
available now at www.garydrayton.com
The how is easy, cover the beach sweeping slow and low until you put your metal detector search coil over one.
The where is also easy if you select the right sites to search, its obvious by the bling bling on the cover of my Jewelry hunting book I believe in the famous real estate mantra location, location, location.
I look at rings as easy targets for a beach hunter to detect because they are highly attractive metal objects to a metal detector, objects made of precious metals formed in a circle shape.
It does not get any better than that, the shape of rings and the highly conductive metals they are made of make it more likely a beach hunter is going to detect quite a few rings if they choose the right sites to search.
Coins are another example of easy targets for a metal detector to detect at a beach, flat and round shaped.
Im my opinion, beach jewelry hunters are their own worst enemies blaming poor beach conditions and even their metal detecting equipment for a lack of ring recoveries.
There is no such thing as poor beach conditions, unfavorable beach conditions are just opportunities for hardcore beach hunters to recover more rings.
Back in 2007 I recovered 274 gold rings as a weekend warrior only searching beaches for an average of six hours every weekend that year, I recovered 12 gold rings in one morning at one local tourist beach.
The kind of ring recovery success that gets you kicked off metal detecting forums because they believe you own a jewelry store lol
Searching for rings at tourist beaches, use a good VLF (Very low frequency) metal detector that allows you to use a little discrimination, the old timers "You have to dig it all" in case you miss something of value is bad advice at tourist beaches searching for rings.
Every rusty fish hook or crusty bottle cap you stop to dig prevents you from returning home with a platinum, gold or silver ring.
Any experienced beach hunter should know the difference between a fish hook, bottle cap and gold ring right? they probably do but they still stop to dig junk instead of moving on.
If you are using any one of todays good VLF metal detectors there is no excuse for digging undesirable junk at the beach.
Will your metal detector misidentify the odd ring on the edge of detection depth, sure but you should never worry about the rings you cannot detect, get busy digging the rings you can detect!
As for location, you have to search where you are likely to detect whatever it is you are searching for.
I love the thrill of recovering expensive pieces of jewelry and I know my wife and daughters are not going to be happy with spring breaker or surfer crowd rings lol so I hit beaches popular with middle aged or older people.
Do I miss the eye candy sure, but I do not miss the more valuable rings at beaches that attract an older crowd, I should add I am happily married with children so I only ever check out scantly clad ladies at the beach with one eye.
Rings are recovered at the beach when you hit the right areas with the right metal detector searching over the sand slowly, insuring you detect circles of precious metals.
The slower you search an area the more small gold you will be able to detect, which is important as the most valuable rings often weigh the less with thin platinum or gold bands holding precious stones.
Detect the thin bands and you will have no problem detecting larger or chunkier rings, beach hunters who only find large rings should stop to think why they struggle to find smaller rings.
No doubt the answer is related to location, metal detector or search techniques and all of these things can easily be corrected.
Remember it is often the precious stones that make an expensive ring expensive, not the precious metals content so it is very important for a beach jewelry hunter to detect what I refer to in my beach hunting guides as small gold.
Many of my of most valuable Bobby Dazzler rings are just a plain platinum or gold band with prongs holding large diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, amethysts and other precious gems.
If you need help putting your search coil over rings, I know a guy with a website and a jewelry hunting guide who has recovered thousands of rings at the beach.
available now at www.garydrayton.com
Monday, May 4, 2020
A side order of gold
Side detection is not something you often see mentioned, but in my opinion it is an important to understand how it can be a big advantage at eroded beaches and in trashy areas.
Several years ago I bought and tried a metal detector I had my eye on for a while, but the lack of side detection caused me to sell the metal detector after only one month.
I recovered 39 pieces of gold jewelry that month using the metal detector, but I still decided to sell the metal detector after I detected a tin can.
Selling the metal detector came about because the edge of the search coil had to be touching the tin can to detect it, the tin can was detected under the search coil but that should really be a given no matter what.
The tin can experience showed me just how important side detection is and I learned from it.
I always used to think my favorite Minelab metal detectors stunk at pin-pointing targets, until I realized how good the metal detectors are at detecting targets away from the edge of the search coil.
For example, my CTX 3030 with an 11 inch search coil can detect a small size gold wedding band a good 3 to 4 inches away from the edge of the search coil.
That translates to a 14 nor 15 inch detection foot print when you sweep an 11 inch search coil across the ground.
Now you know why it is important to use a small size search coil in trashy areas, because of the amount of targets your Minelab can detect under the search coil and to the side of the search coil.
Kissing the base of a cut on an eroded beach insures you detect every target along the base of the cut because you have the added advantage of side detection.
In less trashy wide open areas, a larger search coil helps you to cover the entire area faster, assuming you have the advantage of side detection from your search coil.
I am a big fan of target testing on search sites to check the capability of metal detectors and search coils I use, better to test than potentially miss what you hope to find at the sites you search.
Lessons learned from target testing can be gold on future hunts, knowing you can detect what you are searching allows you to concentrate on reading the site being searched.
It is the less talked about things like side detection that can make a difference between a successful hunt and unsuccessful hunt.
available at www.garydrayton.com
Several years ago I bought and tried a metal detector I had my eye on for a while, but the lack of side detection caused me to sell the metal detector after only one month.
I recovered 39 pieces of gold jewelry that month using the metal detector, but I still decided to sell the metal detector after I detected a tin can.
Selling the metal detector came about because the edge of the search coil had to be touching the tin can to detect it, the tin can was detected under the search coil but that should really be a given no matter what.
The tin can experience showed me just how important side detection is and I learned from it.
I always used to think my favorite Minelab metal detectors stunk at pin-pointing targets, until I realized how good the metal detectors are at detecting targets away from the edge of the search coil.
For example, my CTX 3030 with an 11 inch search coil can detect a small size gold wedding band a good 3 to 4 inches away from the edge of the search coil.
That translates to a 14 nor 15 inch detection foot print when you sweep an 11 inch search coil across the ground.
Now you know why it is important to use a small size search coil in trashy areas, because of the amount of targets your Minelab can detect under the search coil and to the side of the search coil.
Kissing the base of a cut on an eroded beach insures you detect every target along the base of the cut because you have the added advantage of side detection.
In less trashy wide open areas, a larger search coil helps you to cover the entire area faster, assuming you have the advantage of side detection from your search coil.
I am a big fan of target testing on search sites to check the capability of metal detectors and search coils I use, better to test than potentially miss what you hope to find at the sites you search.
Lessons learned from target testing can be gold on future hunts, knowing you can detect what you are searching allows you to concentrate on reading the site being searched.
It is the less talked about things like side detection that can make a difference between a successful hunt and unsuccessful hunt.
available at www.garydrayton.com
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