Beach Hunting

[glenn3-88]

Been wanting to ask this question for a long time but feel it comes under the "dumb" category.
All that I read and see on here about "the most likely place" to find good finds such as gold
rings etc at the beach is close to the water where it is so wet. As this storm system passes
South Carolina I intend on spending a few days, tide times permitting, at the beach detecting.
The other day when I was down there the first "reliable" hit I got was exactly where everyone said
it would be, near dead low tide in the edge of the flats where the water was rushing in and out.
The only problem was that when I dig, the hole fills back up with wet sand. The item was showing
a depth of about 7 to 9". I use a scoop built by a guy in New Jersey. Has a 45 degree cut for the
mouth that is 9" long from bottom to top, it is 6" diameter and 11" long. I pretty much reach 10 to
11" down on my first scoop and in the dryer part of the beach rarely have to make more than 2 scoops
before I recover my target. MY QUESTION IS THIS. AFTER PINPOINTING, HOW DO YOU
RECOVER AN ITEM AT 7 OR MORE INCHES WHEN THE HOLE JUST KEEPS FILLING UP.
DO YOU JUST PASS ON THE DEEPER ONES THAT CANNOT BE RECOVERED WITH 1 SCOOP?
Another thing I notice is when you dig a hole higher up away from the water line, after about 12" of digging
and you start getting water seeping in your hole, it is almost impossible to pin point exactly where the
target is. I have missed the target before and find it in the wall of the hole but as far as it not being
in the wall, I am out of luck as my hand pinpointer can be stuck in the water and it shows it being
everywhere much like electrical lines would be downed in a storm. You may be several yards away
but you are still going to get electricuted. Where I am I hit several more good signals but did not even
try to dig them. Have any of you had that problem or do you just not dig anything over a depth that
you cannot retrieve on the initial scoop?

 

[lawsonland]

I think you are off on your pinpointing or it was a pull-tab. Pull tabs can sound good, when you go to dig because they are light they can float/move while you are digging. I have chased many pull-tabs because it kept moving. Most times they are pull-tabs but others times its a small earring

. Once you know the location if you are in very wet sand, surf after the first scoop if you didn't get it pinpoint again and dig quickly.

 

[glenn3-88]

Lawson, That's pretty much what I did. It continued to pinpoint well with good color and regardless
of what it was, it is an ongoing problem that when I find something close to water, if I don't recover
the first time, it's still there, it's still showing the same pinpoint position, it is not floating away, it is
deeper than I can get on first dig and before I can get another scoop full, the hole has filled up. What
I was asking is do others have that same problem and if so, how did they overcome it?

 

[KinTN]

-Make sure you are getting full depth out of your scoop. I mean bury that sucka Deep before levering it up.
-Scoop FAST! Sometimes you can rescoop before the hole fills completely.
-Use a water proof pinpointer to find the tiny items like earrings that fall thru your scoop. Also after a scoop, the sand isn't as consolidated and you can often shove the pinpointer into the hole a good depth to maybe help.
- Get a bigger scoop.

And if your pinpointing is indeed off a bit, continually rescooping will often get the target as the walls collapse into the original hole you dug.

 

[glenn3-88]

Thanks Kin. Good sound advice. I will be going again next week but have looked at the
forecast and it will probably be Thur Fri & Sat. I use the swell info site that surfers use
and that gives me a lot of info and the water and tide is not going to be right until near the
end of the week. I think what I should do is to get a good deep scoop like you say, throw
it to the side and get another good full scoop before I start looking for the item. Where I
am at the seashell bed is pretty deep and what I have found has so far has been sitting on
top of that bed of tiny sea shells. ((Things that are worth recovering)). I have been getting
a good deep scoop and dragging it out and dumping it and then re-scanning the hole as the
walls cave in. I can wobble it or use the pinpoint button on the CTX or my Propointer and the
item is still right there but I have been too slow on getting the second dip and a little on the lazy
side admittedly. Give you guys an update on how this works next weekend. I know I am in the
right area. I've had too much good luck there.

 

[lawsonland]

OK, If you are not in the surf, do what you just wrote,, scoop and dump and either do a quick check or just scoop again and dump.
Even if a little wavewater washes over itit should stay close to where its dumped

 

[glenn3-88]

I agree fully lawson. I see a lot of finds on here that people find on the beach and
assume most of them are in the dryer/wet portion of the beach then I find out that
people are actually hunting in the water with wet suits and it hits me that that's where
I need to be at this beach because it is very slanted on the dry portion but at low tide
it flattens out and that's where the good stuff should be. The waves on the south end
are usually pretty rough. I have fished it from the surf for years. That being said, I know
a lot about the tides and how the fish react to them with a definite lull in bites at DEAD
LOW TIDE. As you probably already know, there is an hour and 10 minutes that the
tide is neither coming in or going out. The ground at dead low is flat as a pancake.
It makes sense to me that objects that are heavy proportional to size could easily
be tossed around during the rise and fall but at dead low, they have to sink straight
down and get covered. Just the weight of a college or high school ring would cause
it to sink on it's own. It's like when you are standing in the water and all of a sudden
you stumble because the water has washed the sand from under one or both of your
feet.

Thanks a lot for both of you guys help.....!!!!

 

[Kieth-Tx]

With water hunting...you will get greater depth. Most of the places I water detect are either clay/sand or big shell and in these areas when you pull a scoop out, it does not fill back in quickly. But there is one beach near me that is fine crushed shell and it refills the hole FAST!!! I have found two ways to combat this.

1. As one of the guys mentioned....get a bigger scoop and dig it deep the first scoop. If the items are falling through the holes in your scoop...get some stainless steel wire cloth and attach to in the bottom area of your scoop.

2. When you get a signal and dig your scoop in....when you pull the scoop out of the sand...IMMEDIATELY shove your foot in the hole and keep it there till you know the item is in your scoop. If the item is not in the scoop, put the scoop right behind your imbedded foot and pull your foot out while pushing scoop down into hole. Sounds harder than it is.

Best of luck
Kieth-Tx

 

[glenn3-88]

Went yesterday and followed you guys adivce and it worked. However, I did not have
any great finds. But, I did get every target I targeted. Before I was taking a scoop and
checking the hole not noticing my dept gauge on the machine. This time, (again scoop
is 6" dia and bottom length is 11") if it read 6 to 7" I would make 2 immediate scoops and
would have the target. If it read 9 - 12" I would get 3 scoops one right behind the other and
again the target would be recovered. I think before, I was so use to hunting on land where
items are usually not more than 9" that I would take only 1 scoop expecting a seven inch
item to be in my scoop because the bottom lip is 11". My dumb mistake and I thank all of you
for your input. Another thing I found out after the hunt in talking to some of the surf fishermen
is that the recent storms, (the one in particularly prior to the big rains we got) dumped the sand
a lot farther out than normal. The ends of the sea walls use to have large rocks at the end of
them as added anti-wave/beach erosion objects. The sea walls at the end now are only about
3' out of the dirt and the rocks are gone with only an occassional one showing. However, on the
other side of the coin, the North end of the beach around Little River south had a lot of sand washed
out. Gotta cut grass today but hope to head that way tomorrow. Thanks again guys. All of you
have been very helpful

 

[Stogger]

One time I said "heck with the scoop" and used my arm! I found where it was and held my breath and just dug down until I could feel the piece of metal. In this case the reading was a nice 12-07 was a small piece of engine block. The scoop just couldn't get down there before filling up.

 

[glenn3-88]

Had much better luck yesterday. Again no great finds but did not miss a target at all.
Did find a love ear ring from the 1970's at 12". It is amazing what this machine will do.
Was using Andy's program at the time. Seems of all I downloaded for the beach, I come
back to Andy's as it offers much less disc. I found myself yesterday using P2 to search
and P1 to identify some iffy signals. Had to move to a new area of hunting on the beach
as Capitalism and Commercialization is quickly taking over all the beaches now. No where
to park!!!!!!!!DO YOU HEAR THAT SURFSIDE CITY COUNCIL

 

[glenn3-88]

Went again yesterday to a place that I always surf fished last year. You guys would not
believe the erosion that has taken place at the low tide level. And yes, normally you would
say that is good but this is not good at all. Where I fished last year has a drop off so steep
that if at high tide you were to wade into it like I normally do even in the winter, you would
drown. I walked up there from the street yesterday and there were many ladies out sun tanning
and guys out with their wives. I am not exagerating when I say what use to be a gradual slope
of the beach now has the drop off of a boat ramp and at the end of the white sand is a 2 to 3' dead
drop. At low tide, there are pieces of rusted metal sticking up out of the beach. The lower end of
the beaches, Murrells Inlet, Garden City, Surfside where I have been needs a bulldozer put in on
the dunes and pushing that white sand back down to the gentle slope it use to be. Again, no diamond
rings but had some worthy finds but all were on that slope where they were not suppose to be. Honestly,
for the entire length of 2 football fields that I overlapped my coil in the wet sand area all the way to the
surf, the only thing I could get a hit on was shivers of rust that looked like it flaked off of a sunken ship.