Beginners luck

Have you ever noticed how some beginners have the most incredible good fortune.
People making incredible finds who have only been metal detecting a short time. 
In my opinion, the main reason why beginners are able to make incredible finds is because they are newbies. 
I use tales of fantastic "beginners luck" as motivation to keep thinking and treasure hunting outside the box. 
I really do not believe there is such a thing as beginners luck, novice beach and shallow water hunters make the find because they are not preconditioned to search in a certain way. 
They have probably never heard of the list of things that you are supposed to do by detecting forum experts and bloggers before you can find treasure.
Search two hours before low tide, use a super large search coil, dig everything,  etc
Beginners have no sense of beach hunting right or wrongs, they are prone to do what other beach and shallow water hunters have forgotten to do.
They go treasure hunting regardless of the conditions or place they are about to search. 
With no preconceived best things to do and best places to search on the beach, they go out and have so called beginners luck.
Most times in obvious places that seasoned beach or water hunters would probably have over looked anyway.
I always avoid box hunting and try hard to hold on to a beginners simple view of beach and shallow water hunting.  
Maybe that is why I am so lucky, I never do the expected and think like a beginner with a free mind. 
the next time you go to the beach, free your mind and try thinking outside the box.
Ask yourself where would a beginner have beginners luck? 
It is probably in an area on the beach or inside the water where others would not think to search.

Keep moving

Try to move around as much as possible, avoid going back to the same beach over and over again just because you made a good find there in the past. 
You can always tell a beach or shallow water hunter that moves around a lot, by the variety of their finds.
People who specialize in finding one type of find, such as old silver coins or gold rings often go back to their comfort zone of a beach they are familiar with.  
Weekend warriors often make this mistake, taking the easy approach of following the detecting crowd to the same beach every Saturday or Sunday morning.
Searching the same beach day after day in the hope of finding another old silver coin is like waking up in the movie Groundhog Day. 
This kind of narrow thinking leads to a lack of variety in your metal detecting finds.
I love searching for Spanish silver reales on shipwreck beaches in Florida, I know the beaches that produce them but I never go back day after day regardless of the conditions. 
I make my Spanish treasure coin hunting a part of my bigger beach and shallow water treasure hunting plan, searching a variety of beaches leads to a variety of metal detecting finds.
If you want to make good finds on a regular basis, you are going to have to stalk and chase those good metal detecting finds down.
I firmly believe that you will find this a better beach and water hunting strategy than waiting for treasure to show up on the same beach every day. 

These three gold chains were found on three different beaches, two of the gold chains were found on beaches that are not detected as often as larger tourist beaches in the area. 
As you can see by this photo, moving around is a good gold jewelry hunting strategy. 
Its tempting to go back to the same beach when you find something, even more tempting when you find something else.  
Before you know it, you are like a gambler playing the slot machines feeding money into the slots because you got a little payout.
Just like the slot machines, beaches that do not pay out very often are best left for small time gamblers.
Play to win on several beaches, where there is not always a beach hunter waiting for a different result every day. 

How to read the beach and water.

When people ask me how I am able to find treasure on a regular basis on some of the most heavily hunted beaches in the world, my answer is simple. 
I combine my basic metal detecting techniques with my beach and water reading skills to out hustle the competition for metal detecting finds. 
Hard work, determination and using your metal detector correctly will greatly increase your finds, but make no mistake, beach and water reading skills are very important. 
No amount of pounding the beach and water will work if you do not know how to put yourself in position to find treasure. 
Reading the beach and shallow water is a treasure hunting art form by itself.  
I remember back in the old days seeing veteran beach hunters walking onto beaches, looking around on the lower beach and walking straight off. 
It took me many years to figure out why those old timers took a pass while I wasted my time searching sanded in conditions. 
Now I am the wily beach hunter that surveys the lower beach, knowing what to look for before getting my search coil wet. 
Today I am proud to announce the upcoming release of my latest beach and shallow water metal detecting book, aptly called "How To Read The Beach And Water."

90 pages of beach and shallow water reading advice, including my personal detecting techniques and tips for searching prime beach and shallow water hunting situations. 
I will be putting more information on my website and Facebook page in a couple of days. 
Whether you are a beach or shallow water hunter, you need to be able to recognize and know how to take advantage of prime treasure hunting situations and hot spots. 
A combination of a prime beach hunting situation on an old hot spot of mine, rewarded me with 50 pieces of gold jewelry in a 22 day span towards the end of last year.

These gold jewelry finds were just a few of the 6.5 ounces of scrap gold found last November.
Never under estimate the importance of beach and shallow water reading skills, the more you know the less you have to rely on luck. 

Old news

Always try to do your own research when it comes to reading your local beaches. 
Relying on old news of cuts or eroded sections of beaches from local detecting bloggers and metal detecting forum posters is just that, old news!
Nine times out of ten, the people reporting a cut or beach erosion have already hammered the site to death. 
The icing on the cake is a posted find that was made when the person first discovered the cut, usually the day or so before they posted a prime beach hunting situation.
Photographs of  beach erosion posted by a bloggers or detecting forum member get passed around and quickly searched by people lurking for such an opening. 
In my opinion,  always rely on your own local beach reconnaissance, its always the best way.
If you want to get serious about finding treasure on a consistent basis,  you have to get to know your own local beaches.
Most importantly, you have to take the time to learn what winds and surf effects your local beaches.
Try checking out beach webcams, and try checking in on your local beaches more regularly, even if you do not have time to metal detect. 
At least you know will get a better feel for the area and who knows maybe you will see something you can act upon a little later.  
If you don't do your own recon and gain beach and water reading skills, you are at the mercy of forum posters and local beach bloggers. 
The people who are out on the beaches hammering places before posting teasing photos of beach cuts, and of course mysteriously not blogging or posting until a day or so after a storm. 
I know I have probably written this before, but the best time to go treasure hunting is anytime.
Other beach and shallow water hunters beach ratings are just that, other peoples beach ratings. 
Discover your own prime beach and shallow water hunting situations, by getting beach savvy and knowing what to expect from high winds, high surf or a combination of both on your local beaches. 
Treasure awaits the person with the keys to unlocking Davy Jones locker,  never wait for someone to show you the door and hand you the keys. 

The scoop on scoops

Part time beach and shallow water hunters like myself, need to make the most of their treasure hunting time.
It makes treasure hunting sense that the more targets you are able to recover, the more chance you will have of finding something good.
The less fatigued you are while metal detecting, the longer you will be able to stay out on the beach searching for treasure.
There is no way around the fact that a beach and shallow water hunter needs a long handled beach scoop.
Preferably two long handled scoops, a stainless steel one for water hunting and an aluminum one for beach hunting.
You can tell a lot about the competition on the beach by the scoop they are using, a shiny new detector and a coffee can size sand scoop are not a good combination. 
Choose a scoop that can handle the local beaches you search,  if you need a stainless steel lip welding on an aluminum scoop, you need a stainless steel scoop! 
I own three long handled scoops, an aluminum for dry sanding, a stainless steel for water hunting and a lighter stainless steel for wet sanding. 
My favorite scoop is this stainless steel T Rex open style basket scoop, perfect for beach and shallow water hunting.  

I scooped up this $150.00 pair of Rayban sunglasses using my T Rex in the shallow water recently,  open basket style scoops help to cut down on damage to good finds recovered on the beach and in the water.  

One large bite out of the sand with a large open style scoop basket is better than having to take two or three stabs at recovering a target using an enclosed style scoop basket. 
You invest a lot of money on waterproof metal detectors, why not make things easier by investing in the right kind of target recovery tools. 

TMI

The initials TMI stand for "too much information" and it can come back to bite you if you are not careful.  
As you probably know by now if you have been reading my blog or my treasure hunting books, I do things a little differently to the majority of beach and shallow water hunters. 
I lean more towards the treasure hunting strategy of finding gold and making sure I give myself another shot at recovering more gold the next time I return to the same site. 
It is fun to share your best treasure find stories and photographs with other beach and shallow water hunters, but if you want to protect your productive sites, you have to be careful not to let your guard down. 
Unless you like company and sharing your hot spots with many other people, always make an effort not to include easy to identify beach markers in your beach photos.  
I never tell anyone the exact location of anything I find unless it has an historical connection to a time or place, like my Spanish 1715 fleet emerald treasure ring. 
My second favorite beach find, my 1836 gold five dollar piece came from acting on careless beach hunting information posted on an internet metal detecting site. 

After dinner one evening with my laws, I was checking out a beach hunting forum on my iphone, an internet site that has a few Florida members who post finds. 
I remember thinking Bingo! as I read one post and told the wife I just had to go beach hunting that night after returning home.  
I recognized the unusual find and I recognized the area in question from a few careless details given by the poster on the metal detecting forum. 
I recovered some amazing treasure finds following the clues left by the other beach hunter, it took me 22 straight evenings searching 3 hours at a time to completely search the area to make sure I left nothing behind. 
As you can see by the photo above of just a small few of the artifacts recovered,  it was worth the hard work making the most of this eroded section of beach. 
The icing on the cake was the very same person posting that it was impossible to discover an old gold coin on a beach down this way. 
Be aware that there will always be someone lurking ready to take advantage of too much information when posting finds on the internet. 

Diversify

As you can see by these photos, I try to make the most of the area I live in by going exploring and trying out of the way beaches.  

Just because you are a beach or shallow water hunter, does not mean you have to go to the same beaches all the time. 
During slow sanded in conditions is the best time to try remote out of the way beaches.
It is amazing some of the stuff you can find on remote beaches, you wonder how the those objects ended up in the middle of nowhere. 
If you do not have any mangroves or off shore islands to explore, try inland freshwater sites in search of old swimming holes.
Taking a chance and trying other forms of beach or shallow water hunting charges your treasure hunting batteries.
The risks are minimal if you venture out during sanded in conditions or if you are in the midst of a finds slump. 
The rewards are great if you are lucky enough to find a beach or swimming hole that has probably never seen a metal detector. 

Doing a little research on the area you live in should provide you with a few good treasure hunting leads to follow. 
I know of many people that got into beach and water hunting and found some really nice finds in areas that the average jewelry and coin hunter would never have thought to search. 
Sometimes beach and water hunters can be there own worst enemies by going to the same sites over and over again.
Try to explore and add new sites, no matter how many productive sites you already have. 
Beach and shallow water hunting is a bit like investing in the stock market, the more diverse portfolio you have, the more chance you have of making a profit. 
Remember why it is called treasure hunting, you have to hunt for the treasure!