On Sunday afternoon I waded back out to an offshore ledge where I found a nice 18K gold wedding band and some old silver coins a couple of days earlier.
I had a three hour window of opportunity to recover more targets in the area using my Minelab CTX 3030, to help me avoid digging and wasting time on the 12 FE-36 CO penny signals.
The last time I searched the ledge I used my Minelab Excalibur, but decided I needed a little help with the pennies that I was afraid to leave behind because I know large encrusted 10K gold class rings often respond with a high tone.
I normally always hunt by ear, but this time I used one of my metal detectors visual target identification features to help in my quest to find more gold.
As you can see by this photo of two gold class rings weighing a combines 1.1 ounces of gold, I used my time wisely instead of digging too many pennies.
Target recovery is everything when you are searching in rocky stretches of water or on top of offshore ledges.
The more targets you can successfully recover in your allotted metal detecting time, the more chance you have of finding gold or silver.
The more versatile your metal detectors are, the more you are able to search in areas that other beach and water hunters have to leave alone.
This is what one of the class rings looked like after I fanned the sand off the area, this target rich ledge in plain sight from a South Florida beach, had not been detected for a long time.
I saw many other shallow water hunters hitting the main sections of crowed beaches on the drive up to this beach.
Some of the same water hunters who are always posting that the beaches are badly sanded in on the internet metal detecting sites.
It still amazes me how many less hunted but target rich areas there are, and only a short distance away from the detecting crowds.
The beaches are constantly changing, it makes treasure hunting sense that you constantly change your beach and water hunting tactics to find gold.
I took advantage of the extra low tide yesterday, by wading out to a coral ledge in the water.
It was the kind of water hunting situation where you need a snorkel and mask to help you retrieve targets.
Bobbing and fanning for targets in cracks and holes in the ledge, instead of using a long handled scoop.
I found two silver rings, three silver dimes and an 18K gold wedding band using my Minelab Excalibur II.
If you can get far enough out to search offshore ledges, they can be productive areas as they are only accessible to metal detect during extra low tides.
I took a flat head screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers to help me recover coins and jewelry stuck in the cracks and holes along the ledge.
Because of the location of yesterdays ledge, all of my afternoon finds were probably lost by swimmers out in the normally deep water.
Many water hunters do not have the patience to search ledges, but as you can see by the photo sometimes it pays to leave your scoop behind and try a different style of water hunting.
Anytime you can do something a little different from other water hunters in your area, you stand a chance of finding something good.
Local knowledge of your beaches and any unusual coral or rock formations inside the water will certainly help.
Using a metal detector with a small search coil is also important when spending time bobbing and fanning targets.
The small search coil becomes your pin pointer in this type of underwater metal detecting situation.
The more targets you can successfully recover the better, off shore ledge hunting is only possible during the low tide unless you scuba dive.
Ledge hunting is just another example of metal detecting outside the box.
I had a chance to go water hunting yesterday afternoon, to one of the sanded in south Florida beaches all the local detecting bloggers and forum posters are complaining about.
Sure the beach was sanded in, but instead of moving on or going home I just moved around.
One spot opposite a lesser used beach entrance had a few targets that I like to see, nickels and quarters.
Those two targets, especially nickels would never be found in numbers at a spot that had recently been hunted.
I know other water hunters "box hunt" on this beach, the beach has a crowded area that is heavily hunted with two clear turn around marker points.
I cannot mention the turn around points because it may give one of my favorite beach sites away.
This Tiffany & Co PT950 platinum ring was found only about 10 feet past one of the reference points many water hunters use as a turn around point.
The other heavy 14K gold ring with a 3/4 carat diamond was found in the same area along with several quarters and nickels.
Two nice rings and a bunch of coins, instead of searching where the average water hunter would search, I searched outside the turn around points and it paid off.
It also helped that I changed from my usual discrimination search mode to a wide open nearly all metal search mode.
The next time you are searching a crowded stretch of beach and using the same turn around points, think about what jewelry you may be leaving behind by box hunting.
For example, a lifeguard tower may be a box hunters usual turn around point.
That same lifeguard tower may also be an enterprising jewelry hunters best friend only a few yards down the beach.
Just like searching for modern gold jewelry on tourist beaches, lead targets are usually a good sign for a Spanish treasure hunter searching for treasure coins on beaches with a little history of old shipwrecks.
I always search in my Excalibur pinpoint mode or CTX 3030 Pattern 2 when searching for shipwreck artifacts.
The added depth and the fact that most old shipwreck artifacts often have a lot of ferrous objects in the surrounding area, make the extra digging worthwhile.
This photo shows a heavy discus shaped piece of lead which is a piece of lead bar shot.
Two disc shaped pieces of lead were attached by a length of iron chain or bar and fired out of a cannon to take out another ships rigging.
The long thick curved arrow head bronze ship nail is one of my favorite "ship spikes" and was attached to a clump of iron when originally found.
If you look closely you can traces of ferrous objects on several of these lead objects.
The encrusted musket balls and piece of lead in this photograph were all found on the same lower beach, the worked piece of lead was probably a sounding weight or perhaps a crude fishing weight.
If you are metal detecting on a beach known for old shipwrecks and you start to find old lead objects it is time to drop anchor and prepare to do some serious digging, do not walk away from the area.
Switch to an all metals mode and really clean the area of all metal objects, including iron.
When mother nature puts old lead objects in treasure hunting play, never walk away as it may be your best chance of finding old gold or silver coins.
Use your scoop or spade to widen the area around the initial find. If you have a big search coil, now is the time to put it on.
Learn to recognize the importance of lead objects and how they settle in levels along with metals sharing the same weight or density.
Even if you do not find any old gold, the old lead objects are cool and interesting finds.
I just returned from a metal detecting event in Boston Massachusetts, and I learned a couple of very important lessons from my trip.
I always believed that I was a well prepared treasure hunter, but I got caught short on this trip with a short window of opportunity to metal detect somewhere different.
The last time I used my two piece long handled travel scoop was on a Caribbean cruise, I did not break it down after washing and storing it for the last 7 months.
My mistake led to the sleeve/ bolted connection completely locking up, caused by remaining sand and saltwater on the inside of the connection.
Of course I did not discover my mistake until it was time to pack my suitcase, luckily a good friend was kind enough to lend me his spare scoop.
I will not get caught out again, and I will make sure I never forget to break down all of my metal detecting travel equipment, including my metal detector shafts.
Simple things make a big difference when you travel to beach or water hunt.
Travel shafts, travel scoops and even find pouches have to be more compact, easier to pack and also lightweight to avoid extra baggage fees.
Another lesson I learned from my trip was one that I have written about in my treasure hunting books.
How a local beach hunter will always have the edge over strangers searching a beach for the first time.
I experienced the local beach hunters edge first hand after spotting a guy hammering one site and quickly moving on to another spot much further from the first site he had just searched.
The wily treasure hunter showed all the signs of being a savvy local beach hunter, he knew where to hunt and when to move on.
Even going so far as to avoid any kind of contact with me, I admired and respected his pirate style.
On the other hand, I met a couple of local hunters who went out of their way to tell me ( a complete stranger) all about their finds in the area.
I may have been caught short with my travel scoop but my travel intel was spot on.
A little trick I relied on before traveling was to google posts by local beach hunters close to this beach on the metal detecting forums.
Thanks to the internet I learned that things had been slow for quite a while on the local beaches and the trend continued through my only early morning beach hunt.
Lessons learned from my Boston trip, be better prepared to travel and detect, its good to be king of the local beach, and use the internet to find out what the locals are posting on the metal detecting forums.
One of the cool things about shallow water hunting is that look of gold and precious stones sparkling in the bottom of your scoop when you least expect it.
Most of the nice surprises in water hunting come from whisper signals, faint low or high tones that are on the edge of your metal detectors detection range.
If you are walking too fast through the water, sweeping your search coil too fast or not keeping your search coil level enough, I doubt you have experienced the thrill of finding gold jewelry by digging a whisper signal.
You may also miss whisper signals in rough water close to shore as you struggle against the strong current or rough surf.
This 18K gold ring with three 1/2 carat diamonds was found searching in rough surf last year, a few days after hurricane Sandy had passed by the South Florida coastline.
Instead of moving around in the water using a north/south or east/west search pattern in the water, I anchored myself in place using my long handled heavy stainless steel scoop.
With my body sidewards to the incoming surf, I swept my search coil slowly all around the position I was anchored in.
If I heard the slightest signal, I would slowly wiggle or hover my CTX 3030 search coil over the target to enhance and make the signal stronger.
The wiggle technique is something I am sure many experienced Excalibur and Sovereign users are familiar with.
I never stepped away until I could hear no other targets, I then repeated the small circles search a few feet away.
I did this unusual technique to combat the surf ,and to give me a chance to hear all possible targets in the area.
Most of the good jewelry finds from this hot spot were deep and would have easily been missed by a water hunter moving with the surf.
Another whisper signal I can clearly remember shocking me when I first saw it in my scoop was this 18K mans ring with a 5 carat emerald.
If you are fortunate to recover multiple gold jewelry finds in an area, try your hardest to recover the deeper and often bigger items of gold jewelry.
Bigger and deeper gold jewelry finds are not going to be a big blamming knock your headphones off signals, that is why so many faint whisper signals turn out to be good surprises.
I have so many beach sites that I search where I have not yet seen another person metal detecting.
Yesterday I picked up another couple of potential hidden gem sites to search, after stopping to let some people cross the road with beach chairs.
Both times I stopped to let people cross the road to go to the beach I pulled off the road and watched where they were heading.
I walked onto the beach at one of those small beach entrance areas and saw five people of people using the beach.
I assume that this little area probably sees about 10-15 people a day on the beach in season, or 280 to 420 people a month!!
Combine the two sites I discovered and that is a lot of gold jewelry that I now have the the best chance of finding.
The less competition you have, the more chance you have of finding gold jewelry.
If you know the competition by sight, where they hunt, what metal detector they use and their favorite times to metal detect, you need to do some scouting around for new sites.
Being well known at a site is the kiss of death for a gold jewelry hunter, the only way you get well known by the competition is because you are part of the crowd hunting the same beach.
I wonder where that guy is searching is a much better compliment to a jewelry hunter, it often means you are finding gold jewelry!
Heres an example of the kind of gold jewelry waiting for an adventurous jewelry hunter, willing to search a small beach that suited up water hunters would not give the time of day to because there are not lines or stacks of sun loungers on the beach.
Less beach goers, less beach and water hunters, often add up to more gold jewelry!
