How to find valuable targets before the competition

Trusting in your metal detector and using a little metal detector discrimination will help you make the most of your metal detecting time at the beach.

The old metal detecting adage you have to dig it all does not apply to tourist beaches or other areas you are not likely to recover old artifacts.  

Metal detector technology has really changed over the last decade making it easier to reject objects at the beach you clearly know are not valuable targets.

I consider every piece of junk you dig at the beach to be one step further away from putting you and your search coil over a good target.

For years I have used my favorite metal detector the Minelab CTX 3030 to take full advantage of the competition at heavily hunted sites, where I know at least a dozen regular beach hunters hit those sites hard.

I know other people using metal detectors will not pass up digging quarters, dimes and pennies, so I leave them behind for other beach hunters because I did not become a beach treasure hunter to search for chump change. 

When I check targets on my CTX 3030 screen and interpret target audio tones I can easily tell if my search coil is over a wide variety of coins and I can pass on scooping them up.

You can have those I say to myself as I push on for platinum, gold and silver jewelry the high value targets I go to the beach hoping to find.

Yes I am sure I do miss the odd piece of silver too, but very little of the silver jewelry I recover avoids the scrapping process anyway.

Now I know more than a few beach hunters will be reading this blog thinking about hitting the comment button with a "What if you miss this or that" question, but seriously you cannot worry about missing the odd high value target by digging every piece of junk at the beach.

Digging hundreds if not thousands of small pieces of iron, bottle caps, hair pins, fish hooks, corroding pennies and chump change every year will not justify your metal detecting time wasted digging junk you really do not have to waste time on.

I make the most of my metal detecting time by only scooping probable high value targets at tourist beaches or other heavily hunted sites. 

I wonder how many people have followed me metal detecting at a tourist beach and mistakenly believed I was not that good of a beach treasure hunter because of the amount of coins I left behind for them?

Perhaps it was just a metal detecting ninja trail of clad coins, bottle caps and unwanted junk I clearly knew was not platinum, gold or silver,  thanks to well trained ears and a darn good metal detector with an array of discrimination bells and whistles.

Again, why dig junk at the beach when searching for platinum, gold or silver jewelry?

Cherry pick the good targets and enjoy the fruits of being a discriminating beach hunter, platinum and gold bands are some of the most common jewelry finds if you get to them before the next beach or water hunter. 

Remember, every piece of junk you dig at the beach puts you one step further away from what you are really searching for so the faster you learn how your metal detector responds to junk targets compared to good targets the better.

Use a metal detector like the Minelab CTX 3030 or Minelab Equinox with visual target IDs and excellent audio target tone IDs and you can set yourself apart from the beach hunting completion. 

You sometimes have to dig the trash to get to treasure, but only when you search for old coins and artifacts. 

Learn where and when to use discrimination to increase your chances of detecting and recovering precious metals at crowded beaches.

For more metal detecting tips and tricks check out my beach treasure hunting guides at www.garydrayton.com

    

In my opinion target separation is always more important than target depth when it comes to searching for jewelry at popular beaches.

The opposite applies to searching for old coins and artifacts at less trashy beach sites known for shipwrecks or beaches with a little history. 

It still surprises me just how much value is put into target depth at popular beaches by people searching for jewelry with a metal detector.

From experience I can tell you the hardest jewelry to detect is often the shallowest jewelry as if it is hidden in plain sight.

No doubt a lot of gold I have had the good fortune to recover at beaches was simply missed and left behind by speedy beach hunters or people swinging their metal detectors like golf clubs.

Perhaps some gold was also left behind by beach hunters who simply got bogged down digging deeper clad coins and junk instead of eventually running across the gold I detected.

I use search coils designed for target separation when I search beaches known to draw large crowds and I use my ears as my main discrimination tool.
I also never worry about what I am potentially missing by hunting in the all metals mode or sweeping an extra large pizza box size search coil, I concentrate on detecting shallow or partially masked gold.
A lack of metal detecting finds always has more to do with site selection, equipment choice and search techniques than beach or water hunting conditions. 
For example, I often use small sniper size search coils in very trashy areas of the beach to spice things up.
If you sweep an 8-inch search coil at a trashy beach entrance you will find gold a 10-inch search coil will simply not be able to detect. It makes more jewelry hunting sense to try to detect and recover shallow gold than deep golden  trashy areas of the beach.

Look at using a small size search coil as driving with low beam headlights in the fog, reading less is actually more beneficial in the long run.
Think about it, if you search heavily hunted beaches why on earth would you be concerned about deep targets? 

Skimmers take coins and the odd piece of jewelry at heavily hunted beach sites, but they cannot get it all. 

Fresh dropped shallow gold is often hidden when it is laying next to a bottle cap, clad coin or other undesirable object, you have to give yourself a chance to detect that gold on the first or second sweep across where the gold has come to rest. 

Two sweeps and step forward or as I like to refer to it, rinse and repeat beach gold prospecting. 

I believe there is always something to find if you find a way to find it, you just have to put your search coil over it in trashy areas of the beach.

You can winkle gold out of the most trashiest of areas if you learn how to sweep slow and low using a small search coil. 

Note to speedy local beach hunters, I am that guy you see as you walk onto the beach and the guy you see in the same place you returned to after you took your long walk. 

I can tell you from experience gold likes to hide right next to objects that help mask it from detection. 

For tips on how to find gold jewelry at the beach, check out my beach treasure hunting guides at www.garydrayton.com  

 

Reading the competition

I recently went to one of my my favorite treasure hunting sites only to find two people already searching the area, I am an early bird so it was a double surprise seeing the site being searched and other people knowing about this hot spot. 

The first thing I did was acknowledge the other people searching the site with a friendly wave, the second thing I did was go about my business haphazardly like I did not know what I was doing. 

My sloppy search techniques probably helped the other searchers feel at ease while I sneakily determined if they really knew what they were doing and if they were at the site for the same reason I was.

It turned out they were looking for the same thing I was searching for but they were going about it in a completely different way, which I give them credit for and I will for sure give it a try myself.

When you search a wide variety of sites you can be sure other treasure hunters know about the sites you search and you will run across other people searching for the same things you hope to recover.

I am a like a sponge when it comes to treasure hunting, I really like studying or trying to "Read" other people I see searching the sites I have success at or hope to be successful at. 

Every year I find something I can adapt into my search techniques even if it is only a small wrinkle that helps me to recover more or better finds.

As strange as it sounds I would rather see people who really know what they are doing at many of my favorite treasure hunting sites, it helps to keep me on my toes and sometimes I try doing what I see other people doing and it works.

I would say 2020 has been a very successful treasure hunting year so far because of new things Ive tried and adapted instead of just doing the things I consider to be corner stones of my metal detecting foundation.

Closely watching other treasure hunters searching your sites will help you decide if they know what they are doing or if they are just hoping to get lucky skimming over a search site.

Tell tale signs of "Skimmers" include meandering around using sloppy search techniques, using unsuitable equipment and covering the ground too quickly. 

The real competition for finds at a site tend to avoid eye contact and small talk as they search a specific area methodically, they are exactly the type of searchers you should learn to read if you see them at sites you know hold what you are searching for.

Over the years I have learned that the only real competition you have is yourself when searching a site, but it can be really helpful to study the way other people searching the same sites as you go about their business, especially if you can add something that helps you at those sites.

Another thing I have unfortunately learned is 90% of the people you see out there searching for treasures are skimmers, so when you do see someone who obviously knows what they are doing they stand out. 

Perhaps things that do not at first stand out, such as sticking to one small area of a site or carrying and using unusual recovery tools, like they know where to find and how to recover it.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I say if one person can do something another person can so keep your eyes on the competition and never think you know it all, learn and evolve to be successful. 

For more tips to searching heavily hunted sites check out my treasure hunting guides at www.garydrayton.com