Here is a simple way to find low spots in the sand, that usually hold hoards of beach treasure. Sometimes these depressions are subtle. When you’re out on the wet sand, pay attention to how high the waves are pushing the water up on the beach. The ocean/water level will remain uniform all along the shoreline, so if the beach remains level, the line of the water that moves up on the beach should be like a fairly straight line running up and down the beach.

How to spot low points when beach detecting

If, when looking down the beach, you see a small section where the water is pushing up the beach further than the surrounding water…. good chance that’s a low area. The water level of the ocean remains constant up and down the beach so the only way water can continually move farther up the beach is for the beach to be lower in that area. Obviously, the calmer the ocean, the easier it would be to detect a low spot.

It has been said, although I don’t necessarily agree, that most beaches are sterile (no good targets) down to just beyond the distance where targets might be detected. A small drop in the sand of an inch or so might be all you need to get a hit on a good target that you might not otherwise hear.

To hobbyists like us becoming proficient at metal detecting and maximizing our time out means everything. It means the difference between making a few good finds, or finding a pocket full of trash.

The first step to becoming successful at metal detecting period, is knowing your metal detector! You need to learn your metal detector inside and out. Learn its settings and what each setting does. There are other articles posted on our site that go in depth on this subject, this is not one of them! I will assume that you have been using your metal detector long enough and already know enough about your metal detector to tune it accordingly.

This tip is actually a vary simple concept that should be easy enough for anyone to grasp. So lets begin with one of the most important aspects of this metal detecting tip.

You need to set goals for each outing! Its that simple, set goals for each trip out and follow those goals as best you can. In order to do this you should take a couple things into consideration, the most important of which are where you will be metal detecting and what it is you would like to find. For example, if you will be metal detecting a turn of the century town square you will most likely be targeting old coins, so silver and other high registering metals should be on the top of your list. Where as if you are heading to the beach for a few ours of detection time your targets are most likely going to be of the gold jewelry variety. So targeting gold and lower hitting metals should be your goal for your time out.

Im sure you see where I am heading here, if not lets continue laying all of this out….

One of the biggest misconceptions in metal detecting circles around the globe is that you have to run your metal detector wide open and dig everything in or to be successful. This is just not true and especially not true to the hobbyist that has a very limited amount of time on his or her hands. To people like us discrimination is everything!

If you have a limited amount of time and you are metal detecting at the beach, hoping to find a nice piece of gold you dont want to waste your time digging a pocket full of clad. Eliminate clad out of your diet completely and dig only the targets that are potentially gold. By doing this you will not only maximize your time, you will also maximize area and improve your chances of finding gold.

This concept works extermely well for the hobbyist that is pressed for time, which includes the vast majority of us. If you fit into the person with allot on his or her plate category and dont have much time to go metal detecting I encourage you to give this a good run on your next few metal detecting trips. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at your results.

GROUND BALANCING. ## Some people seem to have problems with ground balancing a manual ground balance detector. To do this is really an easy operation. The first most important thing is not to think that it is going to be hard. If you do this you will only talk yourself into it and it will become hard. Ground balancing is a operation whereby you compensate for any ground effects that interfere with the detector being used. If this is not done properly, noises will be caused whilst detecting and the real targets will not be obvious.

The way I instruct people to learn this function is as follows and I believe it is an easy way to remember. I first set up the audio threshold so that you can just hear it. Next I instruct them to only listen to the threshold when the coil is being brought down towards the ground, indicating to never listen to what happens when the coil moves away from the ground. I then explain that it is like a radio, that is when the audio becomes to loud you turn it down and when it becomes quiet you turn it up. This is the same principal with metal detectors.

When bringing the coil down towards the ground and the audio threshold decreases, then turn the ground balance up, which is normally clockwise. If the audio threshold increases when the coil is being brought down towards the ground, try another spot just slightly away from that spot. The reason being that they may be trying to ground balance over a target. If it still increases, then turn the ground balance down. This is done until a very slight positive signal is obtained when the coil is being brought down towards the ground. This is a very slight increase in audio threshold. Most areas require a slight positive ground balance but we have found several areas in Victoria where a slightly negative ground balance is required.

With a manual ground balance detector, ground balance will have to be adjusted more often, if the ground mineralisation varies a lot. With an auto ground track detector, it optimises for ground effects (averages out ). With a manual ground balance, precise ground balance can be achieved but the operator must work at it. If remembering this way of ground balancing, that is if a radio is too loud you turn it down and if it’s too quiet you turn it up. This is exactly the same with detectors. The most important thing to remember, is to listen to the audio only when the coil is being moved towards the ground and never when the coil is moving away from the ground.

GENERAL MAINTENANCE. ## After using a detector, especially when beach hunting, pull the stems apart and wash them in fresh water. It’s surprising how many people fail to do this. If this is not done, after awhile the stem will seize due to sand binding them tight and sometimes will become virtually corroded together making it very hard to separate when required to do so. Its also a good idea to wipe the whole detector and coil over with a damp cloth using fresh water.

Always use a coil cover when detecting. It’s surprising how many people fail to do this. We often see units come in that have not used coil covers and the coils are in very poor condition. Usually we find the bottom of the coil extremely worn and even worse, the sealant joining the two halves of the coil together badly cracked or even the coils cracked. If moisture happens to enter the coil through these cracks. it could mean the end of the coil. If one intends to sell the detector at a later date, and the coils are damaged, don’t expect a good price as it makes it hard to resell in this condition.

If storing a detector away for any length of time, please remove the batteries. It’s still surprising how many detectors are coming in for repair due to batteries leaking. Battery leakage can cause severe damage to a detector and can become very expensive. Prevention is better than a cure and is also cheaper, so don’t leave any batteries in a unit when storing as you are only asking for trouble.

BEACH DETECTING. ## Detecting on the beach can be done with any detector, but if you are not using a detector designed for coin hunting you will have to dig every target. It is preferable to use a detector that has discrimination to eliminate some of these nuisance targets.

Using the older style T.R. discriminator, you must keep the coil at a constant height otherwise noises will be heard when the coil is moved up or down in relation to the ground surface. I found the best way to use these older style detectors was to detect in the ” All Metal ” mode ( known also as G.E.B. ) and when a target is detected, I would then switch to T.R discrimination and check the target. A technique called ” Scrubbing ” is really worth learning as you will find that you locate many more targets. I did this in both V.L.F. and T.R. mode. Scrubbing is where you keep the coil on the surface all the time. Make sure that you are using a coil cover, otherwise you will wear a hole through the coil. My coil covers use to last me about four months, but the extra targets I found more than paid for it.

When working the wet sand, always work towards the water and going away from the water. There are two main reasons for this. The first being when you move the coil left to right, the moisture contents of the sand will be more constant side to side than working parallel to the water. By working this way, it will reduce noises that are caused by the changes in moisture content. With motion detectors, which most coin machines are today, false signals can be obtained at the end of each swing if working parallel to the water. Working towards and away from the water should stop this. Another thing also to remember is not to use too much sensitivity, as this could also make the unit unstable as well. Most detectors these days have more sensitivity than is normally required.

The other reason is that if you work parallel to the water, you could be missing all the good targets. By working towards and away from the water, you will notice that usually a pattern will form on the good targets as well as the light rubbish. By observing this, sometimes you can actually discover where all the good targets are, and you can work this area. This can sometimes become very rewarding.