I have not posted in a few days. I have had a cold so I have not been able to hunt either. We did have some weather that is always good for detecting. The winds have been from the North Northeast for the past few days and the waves were in the six to seven foot range. This will usually wash treasures onto the beaches but it has been washing other things onto the beach.

On my drive down the beach, I started to notice quite a few Portuguese Man o War jellyfish. This can be common with strong winds. The strong winds seem to wash them ashore but there were other things washed up as well. I saw several dead puffer fish, then a shark’s head and quite a few dead birds. I have never seen this many before. Then I spot a big dead sea turtle. Something is not right. The next thing was kind of a shock not one but three dead bottle nose dolphin washed ashore. I have only ever seen one dead dolphin in my entire life and now three in one spot over the past few days. Hopefully this does not get worse!

No matter how much you educate yourself. No matter how much knowledge you choose to absorb. Mo matter what kind of metal detector you have, it all still boils down to odds or luck.

Sure knowing how to read the beach will increase those odds and your luck will improve but it all really comes down to you moving your metal detector coil over that buried treasure. If you do not do that then you will not find anything. You have to get out there and hunt that treasure.

I have spoken in the past about looking at the beach and studying it. Try to find what looks like any low spots. This time of year, the winter, the beach is being changed and sometimes those changes are quite drastic. I found a strip of beach the other day that was cut really hard. What does that mean? It means that the beach has been eroded and a lot of sand has been moved.  How do I know that this beach had been eroded? Well it was pretty obvious.

This section of beach typically has  a nice gradual slope as you approach the water.  I have found gold quite often at this beach but only when the beach was not a gradual slope. It has produced treasure for me when it was more like a 35 degree angle going towards the water.

When I arrived there yesterday, I did what I always do. I got out of my car and surveyed the beach  looking for any signs of change.  When I first arrived, the beach looked flat, very flat but upon closer inspection it was just the opposite. I looked south and saw steep slopes. I looked north and too my surprise I saw large cliffs  where the water had eaten away at the beach. These areas are by far the best. These cliffs were over three feet tall. That means that over three feet of sand has been removed and carried out to sea or down the beach.  I was excited. I hit the area pretty hard and was finding lots of green coins and old big fishing weights. These weights are always a good sign.  If you start finding a lot of fishing weights, you will almost always start to find other heavy metals like gold and platinum. I worked this nice cut beach for about three hours and came away with some pretty cool finds.

Check out this picture of the how much sand was removed at this beach. My scoop in this picture is over four feet tall. Also something to notice are the layers of sand. Notice the top layer and then underneath there is a fine white layer of sand. That layer had been buried for a long time! The seas are supposed to increase to six and eight feet over the week. If they come from the right direction, this section of beach just might become a gold mine!

I know it might sound funny but there are some common unspoken rules about metal detecting. I guess you could refer to them as Metal Detecting Etiquette.

The first unspoken rule would be to fill in all of your holes. That is right you made the hole now you need to fill it back in. It would not be nice for anyone to come along and trip over the hole that you just dug.

The second unspoken rule is, If you see someone else metal detecting. Do not come to close to them with your detector and by all means do not get right in front of them and then continue to go ahead of them right in the direction that they were heading. This is beyond rude and some guys out there will not take this kind of thing lightly.  Do not move in on someone else’s area and keep your distance. A polite distance would be around one hundred feet.

The seas have been rough and have also been reshaping the beach. I found some interesting cuts today maybe tomorrow I will post some of the things that I found.