As a form of metal detecting, beach metal detecting has grown immensely in popularity over recent years. Not only is it a fun, healthy, outdoor activity but with more and more people on public beaches these days it can be profitable as well.
Here are some basic tips to help you enjoy and profit from detecting on the beach and sand:
1. While all-round detectors have led good finds, to be really successful in beach metal detecting you need a specialized detector. Using normal metal detectors make it more difficult to find valuable targets in a sandy, wet environment.
If beach metal detecting is/is going to be your main focus in metal detecting then acquiring a purposed designed detector will make your hobby more enjoyable and profitable.
2. Beach metal detectors do the same job as other metal detectors ie. Detect metal, but with one significant difference.
They are designed to work in and around water, particularly salty water. Because of the electrolytic substances in salt water, normal metal detectors sometimes are thrown off the signal.
The regular metal detector operating in a salt water environment may not give true readings for metallic and nonmetallic elements.
You can set your beach detector to basically ignore metal-like substances and focus on looking for true metal objects.
3. When beach metal detecting you are normally looking for coins, watches, earrings, rings and other types of jewelry etc. These types of items are what people tend to lose most often on their day out to the beach.
4. The best time to scan the beach is near the end of the day when the bulk of the crowd has gone home.
It is best if you can detect the beach before there has been a major shift in the tide, before the waves buries the lost items any further or washes them away, making them harder to find. Even so, anywhere between the low and high tide water mark you can still make some valuable metal detecting finds.
