Beach Detecting Information and Questions

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Sounds like a nice trip for you and the family Paul, nice haul for your first time out, pity about he predictable unreliability of the Victorian weather ruining it for you.

Good luck next time yo go out. that brass sinker thing looks like a door knocker to me but its a bit small..

Cheers, Tone
 
You could be on the money there Duck, it could be a clapper!!

Brass or Bronze is a very common material for bells.
Could be from an old school bell or of someones boat..

Or dare I say, given the location, off a replica trophy Bell from Bells beach surf comp??

Cheers, Tone
 
I just love beach detecting, there I was today at Bribie Island, walking along the beach with about 20 stray kids following my every moves, and the same amount of fathers with the same keen interest and there wives still sitting on the beach thinking (now some peace and quiet), A little girl came up to me and said Excuse me sir did you find a silver ring with a blue love heart in it cause I lost it. Unfortunately I said no and said that's ok, I am playing over here if you find it, so after another hour of finding buttons, drink lids, odd coins I found a little silver ring with a blue love heart, but the girl had left. On the way home I stopped off at seven-11 to get petrol and who was paying for there fuel but the little girl and her mum, I said I found your ring, and after paying for my fuel I walked back to the car and gave it to her, I didn't find a fortune today but finished feeling good
 
Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone knew the weather conditions that will take the sand away from the beach. I cant find anything online but i might not have the right termanology. thanks
 
Hi Kirk

Adelaide beaches have been sanded in since summer and without a big storm will continue to be sanded in :(
 
thanks, guess ill have to wait, not finding much at the moment with how sanded in it is.
 
Hi guys with today being a great sunny winters day, i thought i would hit the foreshore along my local beach! Bad idea I could not believe the amount of people on the foreshore and walking along the beach even though it is school holidays! So I went down to the beach, it would have to be my 10th time there, in the 6 weeks I've had my Detector, as I have stated before I have found a few coins in the first few days but nothing lately and I'm noticing more people with metal detectors on the same Beach! Today I found 7 coins and 4 tent pegs! I don't think many people would have been down the beach in the last 10 days with our wild weather? I have noticed there is a lot of erosion, so would these items been there the last time I went to the beach or would they been deeper down and with the erosion of the sand easier to find?
Or I had a Lucky Day
 
Yes the coins all 5c 10c are all green, very hard to even call them a coin any more! And 2 pegs were rusty!
 
Much easier to hit the beach at night, no one to hassle you, less distractions, and you pretty much have the whole beach to yourself. Coin locations can change on a daily basis, depending on the tides, weather and erosion. Any erosion may expose new finds, wheras the targets you were previously detecting may well have been moved to a different location, be deeper down, or even out into the surf. I wouldn't worry about other operators on the beach, they never get everything, and the beach is quite a large area to totally cover. Sometimes the lowest tides will conveniently occur at night, exposing low tidal flats that hold many of the heavier targets, so don't be afraid to grab your gear for a night hunt.

The only way to have a hope of figuring out what your beach is doing with respect to grading of targets, is to grid up several areas to see where they may be occuring, especially any low spots, cuts, or where a rocky or clay base has started to protrude through the sand. Often after stormy weather you will see clued up local operators quickly hit any cuts that have appeared in the beach. This is usually evident by filled in detector holes at the base of the cuts, where coins and jewellery have dropped out of the newly eroded sand. You simply have to be at the right place at the right time, hence why it is important, if possible, to visually check out your local beach on a daily basis.

Beaches tend to do a very good job at grading items from lightest to heaviest. If you are picking up smaller/lighter coins, try further towards the waterline to see if the larger/heavier coins start to appear, and even further down for heavier items again (thinking lead, silver gold). Some heavier items may still be found at the top end of the beach, all depends on when they were dropped, if they have fallen out of exposed sand banks, or whether there is a rocky/clay base under the sand to prevent them from being washed out any further. Whilst these are just general observations, sometimes good targets can appear anywhere on the beach, with no real reasoning behind that being the case (call it being lucky).

High tide periods can also be a pain if operating a single frequency VLF detector, as usually half the beach is soaked in salt water which will cause falsing, and greatly affect the depth performance of your detector. It may appear dry on the surface, though dig down a few inches and you will soon find that water will start to pool into the hole. This will only leave you with the top portion of the beach to detect with any sort of respectable depth penetration. :)
 
Ok guys,

Newbie here,

What do you guys take to the beach to do your detecting?

I assume Metal detector, some sort of scoop and maybe a pin pointer and some sort of pouch.

Whats your setup for the beach.

What do you look for at the beach?

Is there a certain way your do your searches?

How do you know what beach to search at?

Are you in the water guy or dry sand?

so many questions.

There should be a sticky for this sort of simple newbie questions!

I checked if there was a thread on this but could not find one.If there is point me in the right direction!

thanks

Mixo
 
I start at the access track, where the trsck stops and the beach starts. Then I head off to one side and follow the edge of the dunes or vegetation. I do a sort of slow walk/shuffle so i leave a visible track so i can see where i have been previously. I do like a 30 metre run before turning back to the starting point.
Running parallel to the water saves having to ground balance so often.
I only take a scoop generally no need for a pinpointer as the digging is so easy and there is no need be delicate with the dig. A pouch is necessary for taking rubbish away if you dont have enough pockets.
 
So on Saturday the brother in law and myself went down to the beach for a quick swing. He has an SDC and i have the cobbled together F1a4 with an 11" mono. We spread out and he starts digging straight away(near the main beach entrance) and finds, tent peg.

I wonder off down the beach and try another less used path through the dunes, and find a tent peg. then two more. Then I find three predecimal coins, a shilling a sixpence and a threepence. All in the same area.

Other than the coins just junk, but a guy came down and asked whether we could find a necklace for him, in shallow water off the beach, apparently platinum. But lost two years ago.

Question is is it worth doing the area close to the water at low tide? does stuff sink or does it get washed up the beach?

Any tips for good areas on a beach to look for?

Thanks

James
 

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