Follow your instincts

Sometimes it is tough out there and you have to rely on your instincts to beat "Sanded in" conditions.
Last week I only had one chance to metal detect for a few hours on Sunday morning.
I have been finding gold jewelry on my recent short beach and shallow water hunting outings, but I had to rely on my instincts to keep my gold streak going on Sunday morning. 
My early morning hunt was looking like a wash out, I had not found anything on the beach in the dark at low tide and the sun was rising.
I decided my best chance of finding gold was to spend my final hour in the water.
I know my local beaches are hammered over the weekend, but sometimes it is not possible to search everywhere.
The jet ski rental site had not opened and I figured my best shot was in the water before anyone arrived to set the rental area up for business. 
The area between the jet ski rental buoys is off limits during the day time.
Both the beach and shallow water were sanded in badly, but when you are searching for "Fresh drops" sanded in conditions are not important. 
My strategy worked and my gold streak is still alive, thanks to this 18K gold grill and a handful of quarters. 

You always have a chance of finding gold or silver jewelry when easy to detect targets like quarters are in an area.
Maximize your metal detecting time by searching less hunted areas if you can.
Sometimes the obvious place to search on the beach is not always the most crowded area. 

Heavy competition

The expensive 18K gold, yellow sapphire & diamond ring below is a good example of having confidence in your own metal detecting abilities. 

The story of this ring is in a couple of my books about dealing with competition for metal detecting finds.
A few years ago I was searching along the first drop off inside the water on a popular south Florida tourist beach.
Several members of a local metal detecting club walked into the water a few feet in front of me and completely cut me off, by taking away the area I was going to search. 
While the club members plowed through the water ahead of me, I methodically plodded along in the waist deep water.
The group of water hunters returned to where I was still metal detecting, and one of the group laughed at me and asked if I had found any leftovers. 
I do not normally ever show people my finds on a beach, but I made an exception this time to help wipe the smile off the club members face.
I also showed a 22K gold wedding band to make the car ride home a little more depressing for the group who were going home empty handed.
No matter how many people are metal detecting in one area, the person with the better search technique will always be more successful. 
Never let other beach or water hunters throw you off your game plan.
Just because other people have walked over the ground ahead of you, does not mean the ground has been searched correctly. 

High and dry

Local beach and shallow water hunters tend to have short memories, it is sometimes all about the moment. 
The more you get into beach and shallow water metal detecting, the more you follow the most recent beach weather and run the risk of box hunting. 
Its easy to do, the surf may be too high for water hunting and local water hunters either sit at home or hit the wet sand.  
When the surf dies down, local water hunters rush back into the water, but I do the opposite.
Rough surf equals good wet sand and high tide line jewelry hunting for several days. 
You never know how much jewelry was pushed up onto the beach during the period of rough surf, you also never know where it was deposited. 
A calm ocean is just too an attractive prospect to die hard local water hunters, which takes a lot of the competition out of the running for beach finds. 
Although you never know what your water hunting prospects are going to be after a few days of rough surf, a patient beach hunter can pick up jewelry on the lower beach many days after the surf has died down. 
The water hunters who say "It is all in the water" obviously have not seen the inside of my wife's jewelry box full of lower beach found gold jewelry.

The same applies to older areas or less metal detected beaches where full moon high tides hit the back of beaches.
Old silver coins and jewelry may be discovered almost anywhere on the beach, and sometimes many days, weeks or months after they were deposited there. 
Try not to discount a perfectly productive area of the beach all together, just because another area is suddenly more attractive.

Rejecting pennies on screened metal detectors

Many beach hunters who search on busy tourist beaches turn to screened metal detectors to help find treasure amongst the trash.
I use a Minelab CTX 3030 in Florida on many of my favorite jewelry hunting sites.
People who do not like screened metal detectors, rightly say that rejecting pennies will result in missed gold, especially low karat gold jewelry with high amounts of alloys in the gold mix.
There is a simple solution to rejecting pennies without missing gold using a screened metal detector.
Do not block edit discrimination patterns and use your ears!!!!! 
When you know the FE - CO numbers of a penny, there really is no need to manually edit a discrimination pattern. 
Use the audio tone to confirm the penny numbers on your screen. 
Even if a piece of 10K gold jewelry shares the same numbers and location on the screen,  an experienced beach jewelry hunter should be able to identify the gold ring by the tone. 
Beach hunters using screened metal detectors to search for modern gold jewelry, should always use their ears and trust in target audio tones when choosing not to dig pennies on the beach.  
There is always a simple solution to most beach hunting problems, if you are not afraid of using the latest technology to find treasure. 

Your choice of metal detector

When I used to post on the internet metal detecting forums, I always made a point of staying out of the "What is the best metal detector for beach and water hunting" threads. 

People on the detecting forums can get pretty bent out of shape about metal detectors, and always need the last word as to why you should, or should not use a certain brand of metal detector. 

All unnecessary drama, with so many makes and models of metal detector you can use on the beach and in the water. 

I believe, that your choice of metal detector is just as important as beach and water reading skills. 

It is always best  to choose a metal detector that you feel comfortable using, not the one other people say you need. 

In my opinion, it is important to use a waterproof metal detector for beach and shallow water hunting, but If you want to use a land machine there are no rules saying you cannot.

I used a chest mounted Minelab Sovereign for years and did quite well with it, both on the beach and in the shallow water.

Because south Florida has a summer rainy season, it was always a hassle worrying about getting hit by waves and caught in sudden downpours, especially when metal detecting long distances from beach entrances.

For the last couple of years I have only used waterproof metal detectors for beach and water hunting

My Minelab Excalibur has always been a work horse for lower beach and deep water hunting and my very versatile waterproof Minelab CTX 3030 does everything my Sovereign did and much more.

I doubt I will ever take a non waterproof metal detector to the beach again, but that is my choice and it best suits my beach and water hunting plans. 

I remember when I first got into Spanish treasure hunting on the Treasure Coast beaches of Florida, I met some people metal detecting that made a point of telling me I needed to buy this or that metal detector.  I still do lol! 

The old timers I knew had been searching those beaches for years, they were not so chatty and only used one or two makes and models of metal detector.

I knew certain veteran beach hunters had found some pretty impressive finds over the years, and that was one of the things I took into account when choosing my first metal detector for beach hunting.

Certain metal detectors have a reputation for being good metal detectors for beach and shallow water hunting. 

Certain beach and shallow water hunters have a reputation for big treasure finds,  sometimes its easy to put two and two together when choosing a metal detector. 

High tide hunting

My detecting time has been limited just recently, due to work and preparing my latest treasure hunting  book for release.  
I have only been able to detect for a few hours on the last two Sunday mornings, but each time I made it count. 
Last weekend I found a 1 ounce platinum ring, and yesterday morning I found an 18K gold ladies ring with 84 diamonds.
I had to make a decision the night before,  to search on the high tide or not.
As you can see by the ring in this photograph, I made the correct decision to go metal detecting on the beach at high tide.

I have found many gold rings searching on high tides, it is actually one of my favorite times to search on the beach.
You see far fewer beach hunters at high tide, maybe they hang on the internet metal detecting forums and think all the gold jewelry is in the water?
The best high tide jewelry hunting is always after several days of high surf,  when jewelry is pushed up onto the beach.
I also found a couple of silver ear rings and a nice pair of sunglasses washed up in the high tide line.
There were three other beach hunters at the beach I was searching, all with headlamps on in the middle of the night.
I took my Excalibur but chose to use my CTX 3030 so I could concentrate on "Cherry picking" the likely gold targets before the competition.
Using the Target ID numbers and my custom gold tone allowed me to quickly cover a couple of productive sites for gold jewelry. 

The gold and diamond ring is a good reminder that it is always time to go beach hunting.
I could have easily hit the snooze button and waited for the tide to go down and have more beach to detect.
I try hard not to be a "Box hunter" by going detecting regardless of the tides or surf height.
It keeps you on your toes and well prepared, when you do not know whether you are going to be beach or water hunting, wet sanding or dry sanding.
It also leads to discovering a variety of metal detecting finds.

Search patterns on the lower beach

You can increase your metal detecting finds on the lower beach by simply using a different search pattern. 
If you only search in a straight line along the lower beach, you are box hunting.
Just like using the same control settings on every beach, using the same search pattern will lead to missed treasure hunting opportunities. 
The size of your search coil, metal detector sensitivity level, surf washing over the wet sand, type of sand on the lower beach, will all determine the best search pattern to use.
Large search coils and straight line hunting in the splash zone will lead to false signals, especially on the end of each sweep. 
Too high a metal detector sensitivity level will also have the same negative effect on your wet sand hunt. 
Black sand and straight line searching on the lower beach is made worse by using a large search coil.
I see many local beach hunter's walking down to the lower beach and robotically searching parallel to the water.
They search in straight lines, no matter how high or fast the water is moving over the wet sand, or the size of search coil being used.
Use an East to West directional search pattern on the lower beach, when the conditions say you should.
Avoid box hunting in straight lines on the lower beach to have a chance of finding gold jewelry in the wet sand.
14K gold chain without a pendant, found in the wet sand using a search pattern better suited to the fast water rushing over the lower beach.