Minelab Excalibur II beach and water hunting tips

Here are a few tips for Minelab Excalibur users. 

1.  Use the search mode that best suits the beaches you metal detect. 

This means hunting in Discrimination on trashy tourist beaches and Pinpoint (All metal mode) on less trashy beaches. 
There really is not that much of a depth advantage between the Discrimination and Pinpoint search modes on the Excalibur II to warrant digging all metal targets on tourist beaches. Unless you think all gold is magically trapped in the 10 to 12 inch depth range.   
You run the risk of getting bogged down digging junk targets in your search for deep gold, instead of eventually finding easier to recover shallow gold targets covering more ground. 
Know your beaches and use your knowledge of the local beaches and conditions to influence your choice of search mode.
Use the Pinpoint (all metal) search mode, or reverse hunting technique on less trashy beaches, especially on beaches known for old finds.
Old coins and artifacts are often encrusted in sand and coral, or attached to iron, the extra digging associated with using the Pinpoint search mode is worth the peace of mind knowing you are leaving anything good behind. 

2. Use it like you stole it! 

Get out of Auto Sensitivity as soon as you are comfortable using the Excalibur II, you get much better depth under normal beach and water hunting circumstances using manual sensitivity settings. 
After you turn your Excalibur II on, turn the Sensitivity control in small increments until it is a little chattery, back the sensitivity setting down to a point where you only get the occasional false signal when sweeping the search coil. 
You should be riding your sensitivity as hot as possible, and be prepared to tweak the sensitivity control over the course of a beach or water hunt. 
Adjust your sensitivity at least every half hour when covering large areas, or when you go from the water or wet sand to the dry. 
If you run across black sand, do not be afraid to try Auto sensitivity, it is better to sacrifice depth and find shallow targets, than find no targets at all by running at too high a sensitivity level.  
The car low beams being better in fog is a good way of explaining the problems of using too much power in black sand. 

3. Silence is not golden

When searching in trashy areas, you need to kill your sweep speed, or risk missing valuable targets.
Once your threshold (back ground noise) drops out when using the Discrimination mode, you are not detecting anything except iron! 
The time it takes for your threshold (back ground noise) to return, is commonly referred to as your metal detector recovery speed.
A slow recovery speed can make you miss gold, even if your search coil passes directly over a piece of gold. 
The bigger the iron object, the more chance you have of missing gold in trashy areas.
You can improve your recovery speed by sweeping your search coil very slowly in trashy areas, ultra slow sweep speeds on trashy sites increase the chances of picking up a partial or full gold signal response.
If you are not hearing a threshold, you are not actually detecting anything until the threshold returns. 

The Minelab Excalibur II has a great reputation and loyal following amongst beach and water hunters, when you use one you will know why. 

All of these tips and many more can be found in my Minelab Excalibur Pro User Guide, available on my website book page at www.garydrayton.com or all good metal detecting stores. 

Putting your search coil over gold

Yesterday morning I went to a popular tourist beach to search for gold jewelry, surprisingly I had the beach to myself. 

I never saw one other person metal detecting on this busy south Florida beach,  and then it dawned on me why I had not seen other people metal detecting.  

It was approaching high tide, maybe if I had waited around until two hours before low tide I would have seen other people metal detecting on Sunday. 

It still amazes me how much gold jewelry I still recover on heavily hunted beaches, I guess I am lucky the local beach and water hunters do not read this blog lol! 

The beach I visited for three hours early on Sunday morning, usually has more water hunters than beach hunters. 

Even though it is a busy beach, most people metal detecting are either water hunting with the navy seal look in deep water, or beach hunting by walking a straight line in the wet sand and running to the next beach to walk in another straight line. 

The water was sanded in, but I have always found plenty of gold in the wet and dry sand, so that is where I began my search for more gold. 

This is one of the good things about being a versatile beach hunter, not being a one trick pony blindly searching the same way every time. 

I decided to search the place on this beach that other beach and water hunters walk away from, the busy beach entrance. 

It was very early in the morning, the perfect time to search the beach entrance without getting bombarded with "What are you looking for?" questions.  

The 14K wedding band was recovered close to the water, trying to beat the full high tide to the area. 

The 10K ring with small diamond chips was recovered along the high tide line, the 18K band was recovered mid beach up in the dry sand. 

Three gold rings from three different areas of the beach,  no silver jewelry and not a lot of junk, but stacks of clad coins. 

It was great to be out with a metal detector in my hand for the first time this month, and still good to see the glint of gold as the Florida sun rises. 

If you want to put your search coil over gold,  check out your local beach and water hunting competition, you may be surprised just how little of the beach they really cover. 

Avoid being a slave to the low tide, avoid only searching one area of the beach, becoming a versatile beach hunter is the key to putting your search coil over gold. 

 

Beach hunting at night

I love using my metal detector in the dark, especially when I am searching for jewelry on tourist beaches. 
That may explain why I am rarely seen by other beach hunters, I am usually walking off a beach with gold when people are showing up to detect at first light. 
I prefer to use my Minelab CTX 3030 when "Cherry picking" for gold or silver jewelry at night. 
There are many advantages to beach hunting at night,  including the following:

You are far less likely to be approached by people asking what you are looking for, or what are you doing when you detect on the beach at night.
When you have a few good finds to your name, you attract less attention from other beach hunters, helping to keep your favorite sites a secret. 
Not being seen too many times at the same site will help keep you out of other beach hunters conversations. 
You may find you are the only person searching the beach on a night time low tide, if the beach is cut or eroded beach, you have a prime beach hunting situation to yourself.   
Metal detecting on the beach at night, your competition is automatically cut in half on tourist beaches, as very few local water hunters are on the beach at night, they will be in bed!
The productive high tide line is all yours at night,  yes thats not a typo, the productive high tide line.  Chains, sunglasses, dollar bills, wash ashore at high tide, just begging to be picked up by an enterprising beach hunter who has the beach all to themselves at night. 

These are just a few of the reasons I like to beach hunt at night, or a few hours before sunrise. 
With the high number of newbie water hunters, and the die hard "Its all in the water" guys, metal detecting on the beach at night has never been so attractive. 
Use a discrimination search mode on trashy tourist beaches, or an all metal search mode and dig all targets on cleaner beaches with fewer trash targets. 
I hardly ever use a head lamp on tourist beaches, there is usually enough city light to see what you are doing,  although a little extra help from a head lamp does help during the final  target recovery process. 
This vintage 18K Cartier diamond and emerald ladies ring is a night beach hunting find from a couple of years ago. 

The ring was one of 50 pieces of gold jewelry I recovered night hunting at an eroded local beach, using the night or pre dawn hours to protect myself from being seen at the productive site. 
I saw no other people searching this beach at night, when mother nature opens this site up again, you can count on me to be metal detecting after hours and yawning most of the following day.  
I could write a book about some of the things I have seen on the beach metal detecting at night, and fill a photo album of bling recovered while the competition are tucked up in bed.  

Two examples of beach and water hunting outside the box

My 300 year old Spanish treasure ring is a perfect example of what is possible when you are not a box hunter.
This magnificent 22K inca gold 1715 fleet emerald ring, was recovered on a Treasure Coast beach back in the summer of 2005. 

I was one of the few people still searching for Spanish treasure coins and artifacts on the beach that summer. 
Just like today, there were many more water hunters searching tourist beaches for modern bling. 
I assume any Treasure Coast beach expert would have said their was little chance of finding anything during the sanded in summer months. 
Alternatively, here is an awesome old 18K jade ring recovered inside the water close to a rumored 1800s shipwreck in south Florida. 

Instead of beach hunting like everyone else after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, I braved the raging surf close to shore at low tide to mine a productive trough. 
No doubt, all the die hard local water hunters stayed at home until the surf calmed down. 
The attached photos of two bucket list old gold rings, show you what can happen when you think outside the box.
In true Jack Sparrow style, there are no pirate rules, more like a set of guidelines. 
Never get too wrapped up in following beach and water hunting guidelines, or you may miss what you are searching for.
Talking of box hunting guidelines, I wonder how many beach and water hunters are going detecting two hours before low tide today at their usual beach?
Or bothering to go beach or water hunting, because they read or heard somewhere that the beach conditions are not very good. 
In my opinion, anywhere, anytime, anyway, is the only way to beach and water hunt. 

Discrimination patterns on metal detectors with screens.

I am often contacted by people who ask me if I could send them the discrimination pattern and settings I use on the Minelab CTX 3030. 
My basic starting point for a discrimination pattern to use on a trashy tourist beach is normally a cropped down version of the preset Beach Mode.
The basic starting point for a beach where I have a chance of finding old shipwreck coins and artifacts is a blank screen, or Pattern 2 of the preset Beach Mode.
From these two basic starting point patterns, I tweak my control settings to suit the conditions present, or the size search coil and targets I am looking for. 
I have no "Gary's Beach pattern"  because I do not think it is a good idea to pass around discrimination patterns and settings to people who search very different beaches all over the world. 
Earlier in the year I was talking at at a couple of metal detecting events, I was approached by a few CTX 3030 users who showed me discrimination patterns on their CTXs, down loaded from UK and US detecting forums. 
Some of their discrimination patterns were shockingly shaded out screens for US east coast tourist beaches.  
The heavily shaded out discrimination patterns, certainly explained why these CTX 3030 users were struggling to find gold and silver jewelry. 
I edited the heavily shaded out search patterns and gave control settings advice, hopefully helping the CTX 3030 users to see the benefits of testing targets and using moderate amounts of discrimination. 
If you are using a metal detector with a screen, it is always best to try the recommended preset discrimination patterns, but to test targets and create a safety non shaded area so you do not miss valuable targets close to shaded out areas. 
The easiest way of doing that without testing targets at the beach, is to trim the preset discrimination patterns, but you cannot beat actually testing the pattern by using a variety of the targets you are searching for. 
I see two very different views of beach and shallow water hunting, those in the dig it all camp and people who prefer to use discrimination. 
In my opinion, there are many different ways of using a metal detector with a screen, that is the beauty of  using a smart metal detector. 
You make the decisions and you can change the way a metal detector with a screen is used.
Just like the screen shot below, my normal response to questions about discrimination patterns is there is no one way, just your way and what works best for you on the beaches you metal detect on. 

Learning on the job

I like to believe I am always learning and evolving as a beach treasure hunter, open to different things and not standing still. 
I just could not imagine using the same metal detector at the beach, the same way, in the same area all the time. 
Versatility and the ability to change, are hopefully two of my strongest assets as a beach and water hunter. 
Every year I come across many different situations at the beach, certain things that may cause me to rethink my beach and water hunting strategy and run with something different for a while.
It could also be after trying a new metal detector or search coil, or simply a beach I had never tried before.
If you look at photos I post on the internet, you will see photos taken in the water, on the wet sand and up on the dry sand. 
I use different metal detectors, different size search coils, and search many different beach sites. 
Every year I recover a variety of finds and this year has been no exception,  with a heathy mix of modern and old finds. 
This year I learned a couple of good tricks that allowed me to recover a few metal detecting firsts, some of these finds I will reveal towards the end of the year. 
Earlier in the year I picked up a good trick on a beach with large rocks, I was able to detect above the rocks using my a very large search coil and still recover the targets I was searching for. 
You could say I used the large search coil to find shallow targets trapped in the rocks. 
In a six week period over the summer I used small search coils to recover 6 ounces of gold jewelry from  difficult to detect areas, in places other beach and water hunters disregard. 
My internet find posts are often followed with the questions, what metal detector or search coil was you using, and where on the beach did you recover them?
Of course, I get more than my fair share of beach and water hunters crying about my finds, but that comes with the territory. 
If you do the same things over and over again, you are probably going to get the same results over and over again. 
That is not a good thing for a beach or water hunter searching for jewelry and coins, adapting and changing techniques prevent long periods of not finding anything at all. 
When is the last time you tried a different beach or water hunting technique? 

Good foundations

Becoming a consistent jewelry or coin hunter is like building a house from the ground up. 
You cannot start building by adding the roof and interior decorations first,  you must start by creating a solid foundation to support the structure. 
Similarly, a jewelry or coin hunter must establish that foundation in technique before adding tricks or short cuts. 
In my opinion, the foundation you build is what leads to success in beach and water hunting. 
Far too many beach and water hunters look for short cuts when looking to build themselves into jewelry or coin hunters. 
You only have to look at internet metal detecting forums, to see how many people are willing to bypass building foundations to get ahead.
Wanting to know what metal detector will magically find gold without having to learn how to use it, advanced settings, hooked up with sites etc. 
There are no short cuts to jewelry or coin hunting success,  the foundation you build on is the only path to becoming a successful jewelry or coin hunter. 
When I consistently recover jewelry like these rings in this photograph,  they drive the local beach and water hunting competition nuts. 

My secret, I just stick to the basics, no short cuts or racing around trying to beat other people to over hunted beaches. 
Slow and low,  technically sound, I go to the beach to recover jewelry, not cover ground. 
Are you building solid beach and water hunting foundations, or looking for a roofer and interior decorator ?