Beginners guide to beach hunting

Here are few tips for people thinking of buying a metal detector and searching for Bobby Dazzlers at the beach.

The number one question I am always asked by people thinking of getting into the hobby is what equipment do I need? 

I guess the easy answer would be the same equipment I like to use, but it is not that simple because location and intended types of treasures vary so much. 

What equipment or search techniques may work well at one site may not be the best choice at a different location, this is probably the main reason why people struggle first starting out metal detecting at the beach.

Like getting involved in any new thing it may seem confusing at first, but here is the skinny on beach treasure hunting for newbies. 

You really do not need much to start beach treasure hunting, just a decent metal detector, digging tool and a beach.

I always advise people new to the hobby not to go crazy on the initial equipment purchases, just in case metal detecting or beach hunting is not for you. 

In my opinion it is important to first figure out what the beaches you intend to search could possibly hold, then research what type of metal detector will help you find what you are going to search for.  

The next step after researching metal detectors is to choose a target recovery tool to help you dig up what you have detected at the beach. 

Any garden spade from the local hardware store will do for digging targets until you figure out what type of long handled beach scoop will work the best in the areas you search.

Eventually you will see a long handled beach scoop saves you time and energy retrieving targets, but first you have to research what type of scoop is suitable for your local beaches.

Talking of local, visit your local metal detector store if you have one in your area because they will help you with all your metal detecting equipment choices. 

Next up is practical reading material and the best book you will ever read as a beginner is your metal detector manual, the basic search techniques described in the manual are actually very good. 

Avoid copying search techniques used by other people metal detecting at the beach, 90% of new beach hunters make the mistake of  believing other beach hunters know what they are actually doing. 

You will see many different search techniques used at the beach, from people using metal detectors like they are swinging golf clubs to people who look like they are taking part in a walking race. 

Develop your own search techniques from information contained in your metal detector manual, slow methodical grid type coverages are normally the recommended ways of metal detecting at the beach.

Only buy metal detecting accessories when you know why they will help you find what you are searching for at the places you intend to search. 

They say imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery, if you have a veteran beach treasure hunter in your area check out what equipment they use and more importantly how they cover the beach.

You will always run across chatty beach hunters with plenty of advise for you, but it is the quiet beach hunters who avoid the interaction that will give you the best advice if you can get them to open up to you.

Let your research on equipment, search techniques and search sites be your influence, avoid the mistake of only searching the same sites the same way every time you go to the beach.

Take it from me beach treasure hunting is fun and rewarding pastime, fresh air, nature and Bobby Dazzlers what is not to like right?

Just because you are using a metal detector it does not mean that is your only way of detecting treasures at the beach, learn to be aware of non metallic treasures found at beaches.

Remember to keep your eyes on the sand you are walking over and you will have a chance to pick up all kinds of amazing things, from shells and fossils to money and artifacts.

Beaches all around the world provide unique opportunities to people who know how to use a metal detector with good search techniques. 

So what are you waiting for? 

                                                

   Available soon at www.garydrayton.com 

How to find old coins and artifacts at the beach

The answer to the title of todays blog is easy, you have to search where old coins and artifacts were probably lost.

There are beaches all around the world holding old coins and artifacts, from treasure coins and old jewelry to buckles, buttons and weapons. 

Research is obviously the first step towards searching for older finds at the beach, knowing the history of a beach and what you are like to recover in certain areas if you put your time in.

Anyone can recover modern coins and jewelry at the beach, but it takes a lot longer to become proficient at recovering old coins and artifacts on a regular basis.

It also takes a certain dedication and love of older finds to stay the course knowing you could probably find modern coins and jewelry a lot easier, but when patience and persistence pays off there is no better feeling than holding a treasure coin or artifact in your hand that was lost hundreds of years ago at the beach.

Committing to searching for old coins and artifacts means in my opinion buying into two basic rules of beach treasure hunting, treasure is where you find it and treasure is often where they say it is.

Treasure really is where you find it because you made it so and probably because you did a little search and decided to try searching somewhere different for something you would like to discover.

It really can be as simple as that, for example many years ago I read about ships timbers from the late 1500s early 1600s discovered when a large beachside construction project was being built.

Knowing the area, the next time that beach was eroded I recovered a Spanish silver eight real coin, the date on the coin proved the beachside construction treasure ship story was indeed true.

Research, rumored shipwreck, mother nature and metal detector all working in harmony to infect me with a "Spanish fever" I have never recovered from.

Treasure was and continues to be found where it should obviously be at a place with an historical connection.

You have to put the word hunt in treasure hunt searching for old coins and artifacts, following the clues discovered but probably never fully understood in the early history of an area.

The more historical area leads you follow the more old coins and artifacts you are going to recover because you put yourself in place to have success.

When other metal detectorists question where and how the heck you recover old coins and artifacts at the beach, it is almost certainly not at the beaches they search. 

Known treasure sites are not half the fun of unknown or rumored treasure sites, the finds are sweeter and more frequently available, assuming you have the savvy and will power not to post recent recoveries.

If like me you are into old coins and artifacts, research and compile a list of local areas of historical interest so when the conditions are right you can recover a piece of the past.

The more areas of interest you have to try the more likely you are to recover what you are searching for.

Remember treasure is where you find it and often where people previously said it could be, prove them right!

 

                                                         available at www.garydrayton.com 

Stay in your lane

As the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait and that is often the case for beach treasure hunters who stay the course at heavily hunted beaches.

I use a variety of search techniques at tourist type beaches searching for platinum, gold and silver jewelry.

The conditions present at the time dictate what search pattern I use, but once I start to grid an area I always stay in my lanes no matter who or how many other people are at the beach using metal detectors.

It is always better to cover a good area thoroughly than a good beach sloppily, instead of picking up the pace rushing around because I see other people are metal detecting I actually slow down.

I always have supreme confidence in my site reading skills, search pattern and metal detector helping me to get the job done.

Not even a little competition will throw me off the way I know is best to grid a potentially good jewelry spot, I stay in my lane searching methodically no matter what because I have found so many magnificent pieces of jewelry sticking to the beach hunting plan.

Staying in your lane is how you consistently find jewelry behind or in front of the so called competition.

Meandering around on the beach searching from the waters edge, walking up towards the top of the beach and back down to the wet sand willy nilly is only going to effective search strategy if you are very lucky.

A better beach hunting strategy is to divide the beach up into smaller search areas, pick the area that looks the most promising and use a search pattern to grid the smaller section of beach.

Maintain tight lanes and only move on to a different search area when you know you have completely gridded the section you chose to search.

If you have to sample areas before choosing a section of the beach to search you need to brush up on your site reading skills.

I often recommend novice beach hunters zig zag along the lower beach until they run across a target rich area, but once you learn a few basic beach reading skills, zig zagging and sampling areas are not necessary. 

Top pocket jewelry finds are the rewards for staying in your lane at heavily searched beaches.

Diamond rings like this 18K gold Bobby Dazzler come to those who rely on site reading skills and patience.  

This diamond encrusted designer ring was recovered searching an area a local metal detecting club hot shot told me not to waste my time searching because they had just covered it. 

The thoughtful person who told me not to waste my time had covered the beach but not the most promising looking section of the beach thoroughly.

Stay in your lane or lanes and reap the jewelry hunting rewards from covering promising looking areas at heavily searched beaches thoroughly. 

For other tips and tricks to searching heavily hunted beaches check out my beach treasure hunting guides at www.garydrayton.com 

 

Game of tones

If you want to have success searching for gold jewelry at heavily hunted beaches you have to rely on target tones to get you to gold before the competition. 
After time spent using a decent metal detector even a novice beach hunter should know the difference between common metal objects detected at the beach, allowing you to "Cherry pick" the targets most likely to be gold.
When I first started using two legendary Minelab metal detectors the Minelab Sovereign and Excalibur I used to play a game of tones jewelry hunting at heavily hunted tourist beaches.
With no VDI screen ferrous or conductive number readouts to influence me, I would try to guess what every metal object was before scooping them up.
It didn't take long before I was guessing the correct ID the majority of time and I decided hunting by ear had many advantages and ultimately rewards at Florida tourist beaches. 
I knew I had truly mastered my Sovereign and Excalibur when I could easily identify the difference between a one cent coin and a 10K gold class ring or a thin gold wedding band and an aluminum ring pull.
With time under my belt relying on target tones instead of target numbers like so many beach hunters do now, I was able to kick serious beach hunting butt on any beach with other people using metal detectors.
I considered every junk target scooped put me one scoop further away from the gold I was searching for, it did not make sense to stop and scoop a detected target I already correctly guessed was not gold.
Instead of spending 8 to 12 long hours a day digging every darn target hoping to get lucky like so many full time beach hunters do, I relied on my choice of metal detector and time spent target testing at the beach, but most of all I relied on my game of tones to find gold sooner rather than later.
If someone told you that a certain metal detector could tell you when your search coil passes over gold you would want to buy that metal detector in a heart beat, well guess what those type of metal detectors do exist if you read the metal detector manual and bother to learn what they are telling you when the search coil passes over metal objects. 
Searching heavily hunted beaches for gold jewelry requires you to work smarter not harder, using target tones to influence your digging decisions.
I have heard all the old school excuses to dig every metal target at the beach, just in case one turns out to be a deep misidentified gold ring or a broken piece of gold jewelry, but in my opinion you cannot worry about targets on the edge of detection range or anomaly targets.
Gold jewelry at busy beaches is lost frequently and often referred to as "Fresh drops" so if a beach is heavily hunted the chances of detecting deeply buried gold are reduced. 
Like I say in my beach treasure hunting books, some of my best finds were relatively shallow targets, recovered buried from 1 to 6 inches of sand. 
The reason I am able to show the gold is because I got to the gold while other beach hunters were wasting time digging obvious clad coins and other junk targets. 
Nothing beats the thrill and satisfaction of knowing you have detected gold before you even dig it up.
Try the game of tones guessing game then wait until you correctly start guessing the shape of metal targets before you dig them up, that will really freak you out lol 

For more tips and tricks to searching heavily hunted beaches check out my beach treasure hunting guides at www.garydrayton.com 

I like mooning at the beach

I always have good luck at the beach during full moon tide cycles, especially on the lower beach searching for old shipwreck treasure coins and artifacts.
When extreme low tides occur due to a full moon they expose areas potentially off limits the rest of the month, especially in shipwreck leased areas where metal detecting inside the water is not permitted. 
Metal detecting is often a game of inches so several feet of the lower beach not covered in water during an extreme low tide can and often will make a different when searching beaches known to have shipwrecks close to shore. 
The same applies to tidal river hunting, I have searched in the middle of rivers along rocky river beds during extreme low tides. 
Potentially good beach hunting opportunities to look out for during extreme low tides are areas of exposed rocks, gravel or hard pack shell beds. 
Hard packed materials can trap and prevent old coins and artifacts from sinking outside of metal detection range on lower beaches, you just have to be able to identify these types of old coin and artifact bearing materials. 
Pay close attention to any area close to water that is lower than the surrounding area, a dip or a low spot where coins or artifacts may have been washed into, ripple troughs can also be very productive. 
I love seeing large rocks, pilings, docks or other man made objects exposed on the lower beach during a full moon low tide because they are all things that block the natural sifting and sorting process of the water. 
Any obstruction exposed on the lower beach can interrupt coins or artifacts from washing in or out in an area known to have seen activity back in the day.
My main two extreme low tide beach hunting strategies are to go for the easy to detect potentially non ferrous targets first and afterwards take out as many remaining targets as possible.
In other words do not waste valuable low tide search time digging surface junk or deep iron, get the low hanging fruit first then go for as many targets as you can before the incoming tide covers the area.
Search coil selection is key to having success during of after extreme low tide beach hunts, if an area is trashy or iron infested use an average to small size search coil.
If you know the area is not too trashy use a large search coil and go for target depth over target separation, digging all ferrous (Iron) and non ferrous targets.
These two hand made Spanish military buckles came off the same beach in the same general area two full moon low tides apart. 
Once a month one of my favorite shipwreck beaches is often open for business when I use a large search coil or a pulse induction metal detector, previous searches at this site have cleared the area of shallow trapped junk targets. 
Another good reason to take and throw junk finds away so you eventually make digging valuable targets more likely on prime treasure hunting sites. 

Check out the file marks on the one buckle and the pin still attached to the other, pulse induction metal detector rewards going for full moon "Deepies" on the lower beach opposite a Treasure Coast Spanish shipwreck.
If you want to enjoy the thrill of howling at the full moon on the beach with treasure in hand, go to my website and invest in a copy of my "How to find old coins and artifacts at the beach" 
Arrhooooooooh! 

                available now at www.garydrayton.com 

Searching during or after local beach closings

If traveling to search out of area beaches is not an option, a closed beach due to any event can really put a dent in your metal detecting plans. 
Sometimes beaches are closed to parking lot or beach walkway renovations, local environmental issues or to be rebuilt with tons of sand due to beach erosion problems.
What ever the reason for your local beaches being closed it can and often will lead to empty finds pouches for a while, so here are a few things a beach hunter can do to deal with beach closures. 
As I always say in beach treasure hunting books, searching a wide variety of beaches will help you to recover a wide variety of finds.
People who do not search the same beach every time they go metal detecting will not be effected by the closure of one or even two local beaches. 
Hopefully your local beach closing will force you to expand your horizons as a beach treasure hunter.
The closing of a tourist beach will certainly stem the flow of "Fresh drop" jewelry, but if you do not rely on putting your search coil over fresh drops at the same site every time you go beach hunting you wont be effected so much by a beach closing.
Not being the kind of beach hunter who only searches one specific area of the beach is an advantage when certain areas of the beach are closed.
For example, perhaps you can search in the water even if the beach is closed, perhaps the lower beach or water are off limits and you can search higher up on the beach.
These type of examples only work if you are a good all around beach hunter, not a one trick pony water hunter only searching in the water or a wet or dry sander only searching on the lower or upper beach. 
The word "Or" was used a lot in the last statement because or and either are two of my favorite words associated with beach hunting. 
It you can strive to do either this or that as a beach hunter you will do well and your wide variety of beach finds will show how you can deal with minor beach hunting inconveniences like beach closings.
You would be surprised how I have been dealing with my local beach closings during the pandemic, even more surprised by what I have managed to recover elsewhere because the beach closures forced me out of my comfort zone.
A beach closure should be the prefect motivation to expand your beach hunting horizons and hopefully discover finds in places you probably would never have tried if it wasn't for the blessing in disguise a beach closure can often be. 
When a beach is reopened perhaps you will have the problem of not being able to search it as often as you did because you discovered other areas or sites of interest during the closure. 
The point of todays blog entry is to open your eyes to the possibility of expanding your search areas and not being too reliant on one or two local beaches. 
Two things that should never hold a beach hunter back are sanded-in conditions and temporary beach closures, they are in my opinion just excuses for not thinking outside the beach hunting box.
I could be wrong, nah I just checked the finds cabinet Im right! 

Where to find large Bobby Dazzlers at the beach

I have recovered many large gold and platinum rings at the beach using my trusty Minelab metal detectors and many of these large monster rings came from the same area of the beach.
The area known in beach hunting circles as the "Towel line" the dry area on the lower beach where people lay their towels down. 
If you are going to the beach the safest place to lay a towel down is above the previous high water mark where it will not get wet. 
We have all done it, walked towards the lower beach and put our beach towel down for a relaxing time at the beach, then watched other people arrive on the lower beach and put their towels down not far away along the same line on the beach.
Call it a little base of beach operations, a place you staked out with your towel for your time at the beach.
People leave their towels to go swim, walk along the beach and return to base until they pick up their towel to got home.
From a beach treasure hunters prospective the towel line is an awesome area to score a big ring, the bigger the ring the more likely it is for a person to take it off before going for a dip in the water.
Big gold rings are easier to remove and put back on than thin gold bands, people are more likely to worry about losing a big gold ring playing in the wet sand with kids or taking a dip in the water.
The same applies to big gold or silver chains, people are more inclined to take them off for safety and put them in a shoe or cover them with an item of clothing before playing in the sand or swimming. 
The towel line everyone has created on the crest of the lower beach becomes a jewelry hot spot if you assume distracted or forgetful people will pick up and shake the sand off their towels when it is time to leave the beach.
If you want any further proof how potentially productive a towel line can be just go to a tourist beach to metal detect when rain is predicted to hit the area at some time in the day.
It does not matter if people are in the water yapping or swimming, the minute rain starts they rush to grab their towels and bags and head to the beach exits.
The heavier the shower, the more big gold rings tumble into the deserted towel line for a beach hunter to find. 
Out of the pound of gold I at least averaged every year beach jewelry hunting, Id say eight ounces of that gold came out of the towel line in the form of big gold rings taken off by people afraid they were going to lose their big gold ring in the water.
I have recovered many jumbo sized modern silver rings and chains along towel lines at remote Spanish shipwreck beaches where just a few sunbathers visit every day. 
If you want to find big rings at the beach you have to reason where and why, in other words why would someone remove a big gold ring and where would it not be safely returned to a finger.
The towel line at any beach visited by people is often the place I find big gold rings. 
Other reasons why big gold bobby dazzlers are lost along towel lines include drinky winky and kissy kissy, especially after normal beach hours at busy tourist beaches. 

This 3/4 ounce platinum and gold Bobby Dazzler was a couple of inches deep in the dry sand, gotta love the towel line right?