Spent a week on the florida beaches with a f-44 and NEL sharpshooter coil... heres a recap....

[Mark ( ohio )]

First off let me state and I know fisher does NOT recommend the f-44 for salt water beach hunting////// with that being said here's what I noticed thru-out the week..

A) The detector ground balanced perfectly fine in the dry sand areas.. readings were 55-62...very little was found in the dry sand with a single penny shown for my efforts and some misc junk here and there...

B)The detector will also ground balance in the semi-wet/dry areas too...

C) the unit will not balance on wet sand // nor can you hunt the damp-wet sand areas...all you will get is continual beep readings of 19... at times I felt I had a good target on a swing, but going over the area with several swings, the reading went back to the number 19..

So.. in conclusion the NEL coil worked perfectly, no issues at all. Detector picked up some junk targets at deep depts.. All in all, for fresh water beaches it should work pretty good and if ya get caught in the rain, so what.

Mark ( ohio )

 

[rob.ream258]

Ohio Mark - Having lived in Panama City for the past 20 years I completely agree with your entire post. From the lack of finds, ground balancing easily on the dry, and the continuous 19's on the wet.

I can't vouch for the F44, but it is possible to calm down the F75 in the wet sand by dropping the GB down to around 15 and the sensitivity to 50-75.

As for the beach, the 19's, and lack of finds I hope explain some. I have a tool made for gold prospecting that looks like a mini pickax that has a strong magnet on the end. I use the magnet to grab all the stuff when I did a hole. I've never been to beaches other than the panhandle, but the beaches here have a ton of very small metal flakes. The magnet on my digger works well, with most but with small gold hanging in that same range it's real hard to pass those signals up. To explain the lack of finds....................because EVERYONE has a metal detector here and the dry stuff is pounded all the time. The sand does move around and cuts are formed, but you have to be the first one over that piece of sand and very lucky. I've hit quarters 18 inches (the handle on my digger is 14) down that have been there a while so it's just allot of persistence and luck. I like to setup some fishing poles, the beach umbrellas, and start hitting the sand in search of treasures. Swing some, fish some, relax some...............and a cool beverage when in the shade.

Hitting the beaches here with the intent of finding good stuff is a tough call..............especially if your coming from hours away. I have found gold and silver in the dry stuff, but not as I would like..........