Anyone suggest settings for beach hunting??

[treasuretrover1]

I'm new to this machine....I don't find it too hard to operate at all. Just wondering what else I can do besides using the jewelery mode. All info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Doug

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Doug, for the beach I would forget using any preset mode and just go with IM in -16 (effectively ALL METAL) and run the sensitivity up as high as you can and have it be stable, say maybe 28 in the damp sand and a little lower if need be in the shallow water. I would run the Gain at around 7 or 8 and do Ferrous tones. Then listen to what you run over and dig what sounds good. Basically, jewelry can come up anywhere in the range. Especially if you're dealing with chains, stainless watches, small gold, earrings, etc. And there usually isn't a lot of iron at the beach, though if you need to you could back the IM off to maybe 14 or 12 if you need too. But I prefer to listen to all and dig selectively both at the beach and usually on land, unless conditions are too rough for that. Particularly this time of year, there are a whole lot less targets here on our beaches than there are in the summer, so digging it all is what I usually do at the beach. On land I get a little more selective. And if your beach has a lot of pennies and you choose not to dig them, you can learn where they read at and avoid a lot of them. But if they're all corroded and bubbled up you will have to dig some because then the start to mimic the more desirable targets in signal and tone anyway.

I know a lot of people read about running in IM -16 (which again, at MINUS 16 means you're running in Iron Mask mode with NO iron mask, so same as All Metal) and say what is the point of having a $1200 machine and not using all that sophisticated discrimination. Well, you can still do that because you're still getting ID in that mode but you're hearing everything. And then you can decide (and learn) what to dig a what not to dig. And me, I like the Dual-Digital mode more than the Smartfind. I find that I get more out of the numbers. But be careful at the beach...on land when you see a 00-29 you can usually bet it's something good. But with gold and other jewelry, having something like a 15-03 or a 10-05 doesn't mean you don't want to dig it. You should definitely lay out every bit of jewelry you can get your hands on and test it prior to doing any beach hunting, so you know what you're looking for. I find that to be a help with any machine...testing with those things you're looking for most.

Hope that helps...

 

[Joe G]

I'm only 8 months or so into the Exp II but I can definitely agree with Mike. I just work in IM-16, gain mostly at 7, ferrous tones and sensitivity as high as possible while still somewhat stable, deep on, fast off. However, I run in audio 2. Audio 2 is a bit strange at first, but it really "locks" in on targets; hard to explain. As Mike said, there are much fewer targets this time of year so I also basically dig anything that's not iron. I happen to think it's good practice. If you're digging dirt, you're not going to dig every "iffy" signal but at the beach, targets are fewer and digging is pretty easy. Why not give it a shot? I dig my fair share of trash but I've dug some pretty lousy signals that turned out to be gold and silver too. My friend Steve said the best discriminator is a digging tool. A LOT of truth in that statement (wise man).

 

[treasuretrover1]

Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time to help me out! Well appreciated!

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

You're quite welcome. And as Joe pointed out, Fast Off and Deep On is good...it's what I do too. I tried Audio Two and wasn't crazy about it but will admit I didn't give it much of a chance. I think GraveDiggerMax also likes that. I may have to try it again.

Please read the links below when you have time...they helped me greatly and I'm sure you would benefit from them.

This is pretty much the setup I use:
http://mikesweather.metsite.com/detectin/html/charles_rock_solid_setup.html

It came from here:
http://mikesweather.metsite.com/detectin/html/explorer_xs___explorer_ii.html

These are also very good:
http://www.bdomineau.com/index.html
http://www.detectorgear.com/

 

[Ocean7]

well I would try what Mike said but if you get a lot of falsing all over the place - you may have to run at IM @ -10/-12. I've been to beaches with high amounts of black sand and that's what I experienced.
good luck!

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

We don't have much black sand here on our beaches. But there is a black sand line that usually shows up somewhere above the wet sand and a little below the dry. But that's where I think IM -16 comes in the handiest. Because if you DO run the iron mask there, you get a lot of nulling. And if the machine is nulling you are more likely to miss a good target. I've pulled a buttload of coins and a few nice rings out of black sand using the Quattro and the Explorer II with no discrimination in that situation. That works in high trash areas too and heavily iron-laden land hunting spots. It's all a matter of how much crap you're willing to listen to in order to get to the good stuff. I don't find that running IM -16 ever creates falsing though...that's a symptom of too much sensitivity. The only thing running low iron mask does is to let you hear all the iron. In the end though, there is definitely "more than one way to skin a cat" with the Explorer II. That's what makes it great.

 

[ED-NH]

I agree with most of the suggestions. I too use IM but at 14-15 depending on the nulling I get. Deep on/fast off, ferrous tones and sensitivity as high as allowed. You get to know the sound after a while and can almost tell a high tone with very low/right ID will be a bottle crown cap.... Good luck out there and dig it all if you want to pluck some gold out of the pull tabs.

 

[Ocean7]

well I'll have to try that next time I run into this situation. My mode of operation is not to dig all trash or every target but just the opposite. The setting I mentioned (IM@-10) came directly from my MD'ing dealer via a cell phone call right on the beach, and seemed to fix the problem. But I did lower the sensitivity some too.

hmmm well i'll keep that in mind for future black sand huntiing.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Well, do give it a try...you might be surprised. Because by raising the level of iron mask, all you are doing is nulling out the iron in the black sand. Which puts the detector in a null. Which makes it likely you will miss a target being masked by the black sand.

Also, I don't dig all trash or every target by ANY means...not on land anyway. But at the beach, if you don't dig the trash you don't get the gold...period. There is no metal detector made that can tell a gold ring from a pull tab with any level of accuracy. Yes, you might identify a certain type of pull tab that reads exactly the same way every time on a given machine. But gold jewelry is so varied in size and compostion, that it too can read exactly the same or close enough to known trash items so as to make you miss them if you discriminate. Nobody I know that hunts the beach successfully attempts to discriminate out aluminum trash because gold and aluminum will both come in similarly, all over the range of the machine. And small gold, chains, and stainless items such as expensive watches will also come in as iron in many cases. So digging everything on the beach is pretty smart, particularly the lower range stuff like aluminum trash. The things I don't dig are what I KNOW to be pennies, bottlecaps, or foil. And I know how these come up on my machines with a fair amount of certainty. But never for 100% sure. And the best diamond rings out there are usually right in the same range as foil signals and small aluminum. One thing for sure I know is if you disc out aluminum trash you will miss 90% of the gold rings out there too. You may be fully aware of this for all I know, but I would sure hate for somebody that didn't know to think it was smart to not dig trash at the beach.