When I am not working on TV treasure hunting shows I am at a beach treasure hunting somewhere, either searching for old coins and artifacts or modern jewelry.
I always consider my time and how I can make the most of my site and conditions reading skills to have a successful hunt, I hate the thought of just showing up at a site hoping to get lucky.
I hit a wide variety of sites searching for a wide variety of things and I do not always use a metal detector to be successful, you'd be surprised just how many good things you can discover and recover at sites with more than one type of treasure.
Looking back this will go down as one of my favorite treasure hunting years because of the wide variety of finds I have recovered, the return on investment was outstanding and perhaps towards the end of the year I may post a few of those finds.
This year like previous years I paid no attention to the weather, tide time or surf height, I just went to sites and worked with what the site gave me to play with at the time I was searching.
I recovered some pretty amazing finds using my eyes, metal detectors, garden rakes, dollar store sifters, rock hammers, spades, hoes and hands, whatever it took to recover what I hoped to find.
In my opinion, there really isn't any bad time to go in search of something you would like to detect and recover, the reason I never have an excuse why I cannot go beach treasure hunting.
There is always a good return on your treasure hunting investment when you take the time to do research and you rely on your site reading skills.
Research and site reading skills really pay off to a beach hunter when prime beach treasure hunting opportunities arise, for example after coastal storms cause beach erosion or a busy three day weekend at a popular beach.
When and where do you go to get the best return on your metal detecting time are two of the questions you are faced with when prime beach hunting opportunities arise, when you have one or two known productive sites you are well ahead of the game.
The more known productive sites you have up your sleeve the better, one of the perks of not posting recent finds is giving yourself a chance to hit potentially lucrative sites without the sites being metal detecting conventions when you get there.
Your metal detector and target recovery tool are your main investment in the hobby and it is during prime beach hunting situations when you find out if your choice of metal detecting equipment is up to scratch.
You may have the opportunity to pay for your metal detecting equipment many times over with just one good find at the beach, now that is a really good return on investment I think you'd agree.
It happens, but you can increase your chances of paying for your time and equipment by researching the equipment you use, sites you intend to search and learn from every beach hunt.
I class myself as a hardcore beach hunter and I rely heavily on knowing how to read the beach and recognizing hot spots where I can potentially get a good return on investment.
Not every good find you recover at the beach is of monetary value, but you could say they are a good return on investment.
From meteors and fossils to semi precious gems and indigenous artifacts, good beach hunting finds are certainly just as rewarding returns on investment.
An investment in research and site reading skills always pays the best interest to a beach hunter.
Available at www.garydrayton.com
