First day at the beach with the Sovereign GT

[Paulmarr]

Hi guys

Today I had my first detecting session with the Sovereign GT I picked up yesterday.

As you can see it is a bit more complicated than the Ace350 I cut my detecting teeth on... And as I am a slow learner I set it up for discrimination for dummies as per the manual and my son took me to the local beach for a little practice.

Well, I can tell you it didn't disappoint! Second target in I got my first shilling!

It has been said that once you break the pre-dec bubble they just start coming - and after Saturday's six pence today was no exception .... I found the shilling, a three pence I can't read yet, a ten/twenty/and one cent coin (brown bugger) - but I also got a small signet ring that looks silver, a plated spoon, and a variety of junk.... Even what looks to be a horse's head broken off from something bigger

All in all I was impressed at the detection depth and discrimination of iron - so glad I was able to leave the tent pegs, sparklers, and other assorted junk I used to dig. A couple of the targets were in shallow water so being able to detect on wet sand is really the go. I love beach detecting now - just need to find some gold like sonny boy!

 

[Danmuss]

Good find mate, beach detecting is fun..i have a Garrett AT Gold and plan on doing some water searching, should be fun ha not sure how to dig targets under water tho but il try

 

[silver]

Apparently it's all to do with the shell grit line and the ripple field, that's how you reduce your search field to the best chance. Nice hunt though.

 

[silver]

Danmus, I have a normal sand scoop(metal) and I'm able to put my foot in the handle part and dig targets this way(hurts your foot after a while though). You can of course buy a long handle sand scoop(supposed to be much easier), you just keep your one foot just before the target and slip the sand scoop in under it, a quick check with the detector tells you weather the target is still in the sand or in your scoop. I wear a bumbag with a zipper for storing my finds(but I stand up to my neck in the water)

 

[Danmuss]

ah ok mate, good advice..il look into getting that scoop

 

[Heatho]

Well done, nice work on the Shilling.

 

[Goldpick]

Yes, beach detecting is great, don't have to worry about hot rocks and all that sort of stuff. Lately I've been finding the shell grit line doesn't tend to hold too many heavies, the odd 50c/20c coin, but mostly lighter junk like bottle caps and sparklers, I found the titanium ring in the shell grit layer. Most of the good heavies are defintely in the ripple strips, but as of late, I have found it a bit hard to cover a lot of ground, I tend to turn up too late just before low tide changes over, requiring some speed detecting (need a decent long handled scoop)

The Sovereign looks the goods so far, will be intersting to see how east you find it to use over time.

 

[silver]

I guess the finds in the ripple field area close to where the other sand meets it probably give up the goodies if its slowly eroding back revealing freshly uncovered deeper areas that have been left untapped for a while, whereas the rest of the ripple field may have been gone over by others. I found a silver ring just above the ripple field as a young fella, I saw a perfect circle in the sand just above the tide and when I first retrieved it I thought it was a hose fitting(and that was just specking).

 

[Danmuss]

Hey guys
Anychance I can get some information on good areas to search on a beach, example use mention ripple field and shell grit line, etc, I don't know what this means..
Im new to metal detecting so not really clued up on it all yet, only know the basics like hot rocks..
I usually only search the soft sanded areas, but now I have the AT Gold im moving into hard sand and water

 

[Heatho]

Yes, beach detecting is great, don't have to worry about hot rocks and all that sort of stuff. Lately I've been finding the shell grit line doesn't tend to hold too many heavies, the odd 50c/20c coin, but mostly lighter junk like bottle caps and sparklers, I found the titanium ring in the shell grit layer. Most of the good heavies are defintely in the ripple strips, but as of late, I have found it a bit hard to cover a lot of ground, I tend to turn up too late just before low tide changes over, requiring some speed detecting (need a decent long handled scoop)

The Sovereign looks the goods so far, will be intersting to see how east you find it to use over time.

A beach I detect in Sydney has the occasional hotrock every bit as nasty as the goldfields, was a volcanic dyke nearby, red clay with chunks of ironstone in it.

 

[Heatho]

Hey guys
Anychance I can get some information on good areas to search on a beach, example use mention ripple field and shell grit line, etc, I don't know what this means..
Im new to metal detecting so not really clued up on it all yet, only know the basics like hot rocks..
I usually only search the soft sanded areas, but now I have the AT Gold im moving into hard sand and water

Sometimes I'll do diagonal lines from top to bottom until I find where there are patches of heavies. Whenever we get an East Coast low with lots of erosion is the best time to go out, just detect along the base of the eroded sections.

 

[silver]

Danmus how are you mate, I hope this is easy enough to follow.
Where the angled wet sand meets the flat bumpy wet sand is the general area in discussion, if you look along the beach in this area you will see shell and grit lines that go along the beach on the angled wet sand area(you are looking for the lowest one of these towards the sea), and you will notice that the flat area of wet sand is all rippled(that's the ripple field) so the area between the lowest shell and grit line and the ripple field(a couple of runs into the ripple field as well)is the spot you are after. Remember to look for all this at low tide or you will see nothing.

 

[Nugget]

Hey Silver, can I ask why all the bold text? It kinda throws me off a little when trying to read your post 8)

 

[Sa_bogan]

I must say that the GT was going to be my first choice for a beach detector but ended up getting the Excalibur for a good price. It's almost weightless due to the way its balanced and he got the version with the straight shaft with rear mount. Also has the ability for silent search after you get the threshold right, just switch to silent search and no more buzzing in your ear. Now with our 2 detectors we should be able to pick what others left behind

 

[johnh001]

This maybe a stupid question but has anyone tried a yabbie pump in the water at the beach?

If so, was it successful?

 

[silver]

Sorry Nugget Just the highlights of the text, for a quick perusal or to retrieve the relevant info just read the highlighted text
It may just be how my brain works(is it only me)

Hey Silver, can I ask why all the bold text? It kinda throws me off a little when trying to read your post 8)

 

[silver]

Yep, but I only got Yabbies. Actually it would work alright on the wet areas, but it might break a necklace if it only hooked onto a bit of it. It may have a usefulness in the event that your detector worked well and deep, let us know how you go if you decide to try it yourself.

This maybe a stupid question but has anyone tried a yabbie pump in the water at the beach?

If so, was it successful?

 

[johnh001]

I think I will, report back on how it goes

 

[Escada]

Some nice finds! Good job!

 

[Kingsolomon]

Sorry Nugget Just the highlights of the text, for a quick perusal or to retrieve the relevant info just read the highlighted text
It may just be how my brain works(is it only me)

Hey Silver, can I ask why all the bold text? It kinda throws me off a little when trying to read your post 8)

Hear what your saying nugget .. But it helps with highlighted stuff... ( especially after a few beers) .. Didn't need to re-read it and the post brought a few things to light... And while some of the suggestions are in bold... I suggest reading between the lines as well.
Some good tips there....

And it's not only you...