Salt Water Beach Hunt with GB SE ver 3.0

[autopilot42]

I am going back to Nags Head for Spring Break and had a question for you all. When up in Duck over Thanksgiving the year before last I took the Bug out on the beach to see how it would do. The machine is very stable over wet salt sand and I understand you will lose depth on low conductors because of ground balancing to the conditions ie Salt. I was in damp sand not totally wet and if I remember right the bug ground balanced at about 15. I got a loud signal that came in at 76 so I was pretty sure it was zinc and thought it was close to the surface due to the VCO audio banging in. As I took my sand scoop and started to did down the audio from the target kept getting softer and I thought it might be a ghost signal but it was still reading in the upper 70's 74-78 . As I scooped away more sand my pin pointer would not pick up anything so I had to swing the Bug again and was getting a lower signal yet but the Tid still held in the upper 70's so I continued to dig. Finally I came up with a zinc penny at a measured 10 inches and the audio I was getting off the target was soft just like you were doing an air test at that distance. Does any one have an explanation for this or does the salt conductivity have to do with this. The sand was damp when you scooped it, the sided of your hole did not fall in but there was no water in your hole. It seemed odd to me but I am not use to the beach I mostly relic hunt around Fredericksburg VA. Thanks for your help. I know the machine is not meant for salt conditions but did OK. The targets where few and far between since they add sand to the beach but Sandy took most of it away. When my boys went to throw football there was not much sand if it was high tide. I was using the 11DD coil.

HH
Bob

 

[Tom Slick]

I'm not sure what help you're looking for. Sounds to me like you're doing everything correctly. 10" on a zinc in damp beach sand is excellent for a single frequency detector. Shows how well the G2/GBP work at the beach on both the wet and dry sand. I'm able to use whatever detector I want, and the GBP has become my favorite dry sand saltwater beach detector. I still prefer a multi-frequency detector for the saltwater wet sand.

 

[autopilot42]

Tom maybe I wasn't clear in post above but was wondering if it was common for targets in sand to hit like they are on surface but once the sand it disturbed meaning your first scoop, The target then sounds like it is alot deeper. The thing I like about the bug is usually you can get an idea of target depth due to the audio response.

Thanks

Bob

 

[pasttom]

From my experience I'd say yes it is pretty common. In addition, the target often actually drops deeper as the sand is disturbed depending on a couple of variables. In water it is very common especially with a lessor scoop. In very dry sand as well- same scoop issue. But you probably already knew that.

 

[Tom Slick]

What Pasttom said.

 

[autopilot42]

I thank both of you for your feedback. It looks like I need a PI or multi freq for what I am after.

Thanks again

Bob