Black Sand Beach Detector?

I would like to pose several questions:

Assuming a moderate to heavy mineralized ocean beach, dry, wet and water, what currently manufactured detectors are most effective? What do you use and why? I know Pi's will be high on the list but which ones and why? (as much as I would like one, Aquastars are no longer made.....)

How ineffective, depth etc., does a vlf become as the GB is increased in heaver mineralization?

Depending upon the degree of magnetic/black sand..... can quickly render a VLF IB quite ineffective. For a PI (that is available on the open market).... I would recommend the White's TDI or any of the Minelab PI's.

For VLF...... the Minelab E-Trac/Explorer

I would add the Garrett Infinium to the list, just because it's the only water proof PI out there with ground balancing (that I am aware of). When I hear beach, I hear water, and that means a waterproof unit has to be up on the list.

Im hearing a few more users are out there with the Etrac/Exp on the beaches.... but it still seems the Sov is king along with the Xcal as the must have. Just curious BBS vs FBS which is the better on the beach? I know the BBS Sov has preset channels at 1.5 increments and the FBS is random. The forums really seem to push the mass movement toward a given machine.... i noticed that swift shift to the Xcal as well as now to the Whites DF.

Dew

Dew,

I have both an E-Trac and a Sov Gt, that I have used on salt water beaches, and I think the E-Trac is deeper and is a bit more stable. I usually run the E-Trac wide open in manual sensitivity and the Ferrous/Conductive ID numbers are very useful in trashy spots. The E-Trac with the Sunray 8 inch coil is killer....deep and separates very well and that is what I mostly use when beach hunting with that unit.

Saying that, after yesterday, I have now been resolved to the fact that my E-Trac will be left home on salt water beach hunts. That environment is too harsh and since the control box cannot be taken off the unit, as well as not having a very well made cover for it, I am not risking that unit to be busted up via the sand and salt air. There were several times where I swung the sand scoop over my shoulder and sand and water just missed hitting the screen ! I don't want to be so careful and aware of how I have to hunt due to the possibility of messing up my unit, when I am out there.

I think when you boil it down, for salt water beach hunting, a water proof unit is paramount, with a non-waterproof unit that can be taken off the shaft and sealed very well ( or one that is very water resistant like the CZ6a), second. Just having the ability to totally rise the entire unit off with fresh water with either a hose or buckets of water, is a major plus.

I did a head to head test early this season. Detectors used was CZ-21, Excal 1000, ETrac and a AT Pro. The sand quality was a marble looking with the black and tan sand. Using one target "small channel set diamond ring". Burried the ring with a string that was marked every inch. Settings for each machine was normal beach settings. Nothing elaborate. Goal here was to see what machine would "CEARLY" sound off on the ring the deapest. The CZ was the clear winner. Solid two tone both ways. Ring was in the 8-9 inch mark. ETrac and AT pro gave a broken one way signal but nothing you would stop and dig. Excal didn't make a sound.

Don't underestimate how well the CZ can handle the black sand. Even in the low tide silt that is black and grey it does well. I really expected the Etrac and Excal to do better.

EZ...I have learned the standard beach setting on the E-Trac is not a very good program for optimal performance. For me, hunting wide open, multi tones, in manual sensitivity at the highest without compromising stability is the way to go on the E-Trac for my beach hunting ( as the commercial says, results may differ in your neck of the woods !). When I first got my E-Trac I loaded up the beach program and tested some gold targets and they did not come in clear at all compared to running pretty much wide open. Anything hitting clear and solid with the ferrous and conductive numbers in the range of gold will come in a lot better than running the beach program due to some targets possibly being close to some of the discrimination points in the beach program setting.

Stating that, my CZ's are still by far my number one VLF units for the beach. The best thing about those units is how simple they are to set up. Not much to do but ground balance them and run at the highest sensitivity without falsing.

I also learned that hunting in black sand environments with a CZ, a lot of deep targets will give off a low tone iron sound amongst the high tones. I dug a lot of deep quarters the other day in a black sand environment that were giving high tone hits about 70% of the time, with a low tone mixed in. Normally I would pass up some of those, but decided to check them out due to the conditions being the way they were, and ended up digging about 10-12 really deep quarters that sounded like that. Not sure if there was some iron nearby, but I do feel that the conditions of the sand ( as well as the coins ) caused the low tone hit every 4th or 5th sweep when checking out the target from different angles.

Therover61

Have you experianced the same mixed signals with gold at the beach "CZ" ? The beach settings i used on the ET the day of the test was right out of Andys book. The CZ still hit it clean before any of the other machines would. The ETrac was the machine that found the test ring in the first place "in dry sand".

Every gold that ive found this year at the beach. Has always given a solid repeatable two way mid tone. Never bouncing no matter the depth. Are you finding the same thing ?

EZ

EZ,

I would say 90% of the gold targets I have found with my CZ's hit as mid tone. I have found 2 bigger rings that had mid to high bounces but I cannot say if it was because of the conditions, allow of the jewelry or swing speed. Since I dig any mid tone, mid to high or high tone on the beach, it's all good.

Since I have had my E-Trac and experimented with a few programs and discriminate patterns for beach hunting, I have found for me the most optimal way to run is wide open with only 2 black bars across the bottom with the highest sensitivity on manual I can run. But as mentioned, my E-Trac will now be land hunting only unless is super clear out and I bag it good. No way I want to bust up that unit in the salt environment. I have plenty of other units that can stand those elements a lot better.

Therover

Try this with both the ETrac and CZ. Take a pull off tab "beaver tail" and test it with the ETrac should come in at about 12-26. Now take a heavy gold ring such as a big mans gold ring or class ring. Something that will come close to the ETracs 12-26-12-28 mark.

Now take the same ring and put the Disc on 2 and see if the CZ will pick it up. As stupid as it sounds the CZ target line threw me for a loop. I never really paid much attention. 0-1 Disc is what i run at. But Iron then pull off tab then foil. All my land based machines including the ETrac has the beaver tails much higher on the gold scale.

Hunting a wash out over the weekend running Disc 2 and digging only the repeatable mid tones. Lots of targets/trash. Small 10k "reads as foil on the Etrac 12-05"

EZ,

Will do on the testing.

When beach hunting with my CZ's, I always run the discrim at 0 but will check out a few gold rings that I have that look similar to the one in the pic and see what they come up as on the E-Trac and CZ in discrim 2. Just remember that running in 2, you may miss some gold targets.