Yesterday afternoon I was actually disappointed that I only returned home with four pieces of gold jewelry, I was expecting to find more.
My beach and water hunting time has been very limited lately, only having 3 hours to water hunt I relied on my knowledge of local beaches and the extra low tides of the full moon.
I waded waaaaaay offshore at low tide, to an area in the water that has a coral ledge.
I have found a lot of gold jewelry in the past at this site when no sand was covering the ledge, I ran across this offshore coral ledge back in 2007 and it has been productive for gold jewelry during sanded in beach conditions.
Yesterday the coral ledge was covered over by several inches of sand, but it was possible to use a scoop to recover targets.
Standing chest deep on the coral ledge, I recovered targets by "Bobbing and fanning" literally bobbing down in the water and fanning sand off the target area.
All of these coins in the photo were recovered bobbing and fanning, 32 quarters, 32 nickels and 29 dimes, I threw all the corroding pennies in a trash can before leaving the beach.
93 coins for the parking meter and 4 pieces of gold, 1 silver ring and three lead fishing weighs.
This just goes to show just how many targets you can detect if you try different methods of beach hunting, even on quite heavily hunted beaches.
I saw three other people metal detecting closer to shore, doing the usual stuff, walking in straight lines close to shore hoping to get lucky and find a piece of fresh dropped jewelry.
If I was a betting man, I would wager I found more coins and jewelry than all the other three water hunters combined.
By the amount of targets I recovered, I was probably the last person to detect that area a few full moons ago in the summer.
When you learn about the make up of beaches in your area, you will know the best times to hit them to take advantage of certain areas.
This is just one example of how knowledge of your local beaches can be just as important as knowing how to read the beach and water.
Local beach knowledge is the reason why a local beach or water hunter, always has an advantage over raiders from out of town.
Full moons, high surf, calm water, all help you to put gold in your pouch when you know where to search and when to search.
When I take my CTX 3030 and 17 X 13 inch search coil to the beach, I know I am going to be in for some hardcore digging.
The winter time in Florida is the best time for beach treasure hunting, I spend the majority of my metal detecting time searching for Spanish treasure coins and artifacts in the winter.
An all metal search mode and a large search coil are a perfect combination for getting down into deeper layers of sand where many treasure coins and artifacts are found.
You need the surf and wind to help remove sand from the beach, but when the beaches are eroded you are ready for action when you have an extra large search coil.
Many beach and water hunters shy away from large search coils, because they are not known for being very sensitive to small targets.
Two search coils I have been very impressed with are the Coiltek 14 inch "Wot" coil and the 17 X 13 inch smart coil on my CTX 3030.
Both search coils are capable of finding large targets at depth, and small shallow targets.
You do not have to sacrifice small targets like silver half reales when searching for large deep targets like silver eight reales.
A few years ago I found a single link of a 14K figaro gold chain, at quite a good depth using a Wot coil on my Sovereign GT.
I found small treasure coins and artifacts on Oak Island Nova Scotia at very impressive depths using the 17 X 13 inch coil on my CTX 3030, both inland and on the beach.
The iron spikes in this photo were found earlier in the year on the lower beach, opposite a Spanish galleon from the early 1600s here in Florida.
Digging knee deep holes for iron ship spikes is no fun on the lower beach, but you never what other valuable target may be resting close to iron in deeper layers of sand.
I talk a lot about discrimination and trying to find gold jewelry in amongst the trash on tourist beaches.
In my opinion, discrimination and smaller search coils are the way to go on trashy tourist beaches.
Searching for old treasure coins and artifacts on shipwreck beaches with little modern trash calls for pure depth, especially when you know the large search you are using is also sensitive to small targets at reasonable depths.
Nothing beats a good pulse induction metal detector for depth and sensitivity to a wide range of targets.
The VLF metal detector in all metal with an extra large search coil is a good alternative option for beach or water hunters looking for more than a little extra depth.
No matter what metal detector you use, an extra large search coil is a good investment if you search beaches with a little history.
This summer I went water hunting at one of favorite small beaches, in the hope of finding high end jewelry lost by people using the beach from a private beach club.
It is quite a hike to the private beach, but it is often worth the extra long walk when you find something good.
After walking to the destination, I got straight into the water to cool down and see if I had left enough time between visits to the site.
Unlike busy public beaches, small private beaches take longer to restock with lost coins and jewelry.
A small thin 18 gold diamond band was a good sign, a second diamond band followed before things started to quiet down.
After gridding the water opposite the private beach club with very few signals, I made my way back to the area I recovered the two thin diamond bands.
Circling and wiggling my search coil between raised sand ripples on the ocean floor, I picked up a faint signal which I assumed was the missing piece of a three diamond band set.
The heavy platinum band rolling around in the bottom of my scoop was a pleasant surprise, and a perfect example of why big pieces of gold or platinum are easier to find when you have your metal detector tuned correctly to find small gold.
This has happened to me too many times for it to be a coincidence, I say again small gold leads to large gold.
Large gold and platinum bands, are often recovered from deeper layers of sand than small pieces of gold jewelry.
Although small and large gold may sound the same on your metal detector, if you cannot hear small gold, you will certainly not hear large gold, or platinum in this example.
I dare say 80% of people reading todays blog have never taken small pieces of gold jewelry to the beach to see if you can actually detect them, take a broken gold band to the beach for a real eye opener.
Place the small pieces of gold jewelry in plastic baggies, just in case you do have difficulty recovering them.
Testing your metal detectors response to small gold will tell you how you are going to do with large gold.
Tweak your metal detector sensitivity control, try difference sweep speeds, see how a different size search coil works, anything that helps you detect small gold.
Where you find high small gold jewelry, large gold jewelry is often hiding in the same area at a deeper level.
Do not be surprised to find both small and large gold sounding the same, if you know how to recover the harder to detect small gold.
I try to set up and tune my metal detectors towards finding small pieces of gold jewelry.
If you click on the link to my website, you will see plenty of photographs of ladies rings with precious stones.
Over the years spent beach and water hunting, I am happy to say my jewelry finds have got smaller and more expensive.
If you are finding a lot of thin ladies rings, you are probably using sound beach and water hunting techniques and have a metal detector you really like using.
Thin ladies rings with precious stones are harder to find with a metal detector, than large gold wedding bands and class rings.
A beach or water hunter who can find small pieces of gold jewelry, will have no problem finding large chunks of gold jewelry.
Here is a photo of some chunks of jewelry, recovered while searching with a small gold jewelry mentality.
When I am invited to speak at metal detecting events, I often wear my Rolex Submariner, 18K gold chain with diamond mariners cross and antique 18K gold jade & diamond ring.
You cannot beat wearing a few trophy beach and water hunting finds, to get the point across about learning how to read the beach and using good metal detecting techniques.
Having the skills to recover small pieces of gold jewelry, like thin diamond rings, will lead to big gold jewelry finds.
Finding small gold is important for a jewelry hunter, it will help you to recover a large variety of jewelry.
Not just gold wedding bands, or class rings, which many beach and water hunters have no problem finding, using a wide range of metal detectors.
Finding a quarter or half ounce of gold is a nice pay day worth hundreds of dollars, finding a thin ladies ring with a nice diamond can be a pay day worth thousands of dollars.
Think small gold, find big gold, get the best of both pay days.
I will start todays blog with a question, and give you the answer at the end of the blog.
What is the best clue to the area shown in this photo being a gold trap ?
Hard packed sand on the lower beach, helps to trap gold in place for beach hunters.
I saw two gold traps on a local thanksgiving day beach hunt, an eroded section of upper beach with a three foot cut and a hard packed shell area close to the waters edge.
I knew from experience that my best chance of finding gold was using an east west directional search pattern, from the base of the cut down to the hard packed sand next to the water.
The cut appeared to be a couple of days old and was not very productive, but the hard pack sand towards the waters edge held many deep targets.
Lead fishing weights were a good sign, and so were the encrusted "Greenies" in the area.
Green encrusted coins and lead, are often the best indicators to a beach hunter that gold is also trapped in place.
It was not long before an 18K gold bracelet came out of the area, followed by a 14K ear ring.
Luckily for me, there are more water hunters than beach hunters at a majority of the local beaches I like to search.
I class myself as a water hunter too, but I would never ignore gold traps on the lower beach caused by rough surf, the same rough surf that has caused water hunters to stay away from the beach.
I could not imagine ignoring the lower and upper beach, especially gold traps like the ones I saw on thanksgiving morning.
Hard packed sand and shells on the lower beach, are often the strata where heavy objects settle or get trapped after sinking past mushy sand during sanded in conditions.
When one area closes ( the water and water hunting) another area of the beach opens up, if you know what to look for and when to take advantage of it.
The answer to my question at the beginning of todays blog is my size 10 dive boot print.
Anytime you walk on a hard packed section of a recently "Sanded in" tourist beach and you barely leave a boot print, get ready to recover gold.
I love searching trashy beach sites, where patience, persistence and perseverance are the keys to finding gold jewelry.
If I have a hunch gold is the area, I will resort to wiggling gold, standing still and slowly wiggling my search coil in short sweeps in a full circle around the area I am standing.
I listen patiently for low tones, while ignoring high tone coin signals and the obvious blanking of ferrous targets using the CTX 3030 in my modified preset Beach Mode.
The secret to using this search technique is to keep your search coil moving slowly but not to step away from the search area until you have detected in a full circle around the area you are standing.
It is very rare to see a beach or water hunter not moving, the majority of beach and water hunters keep moving, especially when they run across an area stacked with pennies and bottle caps.
When you know what gold sounds like, and you know there is a good chance gold is in the area, why move away?
I wiggle in a circle, step away and wiggle in a circle again, only stopping to scoop low tones using my CTX 3030.
The majority of low tones using the CTX are either aluminum pull tabs, can slaw, nickels or hopefully gold.
My slow wiggle search technique helps me to avoid target masking at trashy beach sites, gold being masked by both iron and larger non ferrous targets.
The short slow wiggle aids recovery speed, your recovery speed is the time it takes your metal detector to detect another target after the last target was detected.
The day I found this 22K raw emerald pendant while water hunting with my CTX 3030, I could have easily walked away because of the high volume of targets in the area.
Instead, I decided to spend a full two hours wiggling around for gold close to the very trashy beach entrance.
Notice how my CTX was able to detect the thin gold wire holding the raw emerald.
When you go to the beach to metal detect, there are no written rules to beach and water hunting.
As Jack Sparrows mate would say "More like a set of guidelines!"
I often use my Minelab CTX 3030 when I am instructing people on how to use the Minelab Excalibur.
It is just easier to detect and identify a coin on the beach using the CTX 3030, then afterwards have the person I am teaching listen to the tone of the coin with the Excalibur.
This is a neat trick you can do with the CTX 3030, because of the FE /CO number read out on the display screen.
I tell the person I am training, exactly what type of coin is buried under the sand, before asking them to scoop it up to confirm the coin denomination.
On an Excalibur training session yesterday, I told the guy to ignore the pennies I marked with an X in the sand and keep moving.
He scooped several pennies up, before trusting my 12-36 and 12-37 penny IDs on the CTX 3030 screen.
The Excalibur instruction took place on a popular SW Florida tourist beach, a place where the CTX 3030 really makes life easy for a beach hunter.
I consider clad coins on a tourist beach nuisance targets, as finding platinum and gold jewelry is my main objective.
Although I prefer to hunt by ear, yesterday was the perfect scenario for hunting by numbers because of the high amount of clad coins on the beach.
Ignoring high amounts of easy to identify clad coins, will allow a beach hunter to concentrate on searching for lost jewelry.
I would rather return home and spend my time counting and cleaning jewelry, than wasting electricity tumbling coins and keeping a clad coin count.
There is a reason why my bank safety deposit box is full of beach found jewelry, I am pretty fussy about what I allow to distract me from searching for jewelry on tourist beaches.
Every clad coin a jewelry hunter stops to dig on a tourist beach, is one distraction further away from reaching their real goal of finding jewelry at the beach.
Heres a couple of 18K diamond door knockers recovered over the last 18 months at one of my favorite beaches.
