Black sand, FL

So most folks think FL beaches are just pure white sand. Welllllll not always. On my two closest beaches this is what we get with erosion events. Normally I hunt the wet and dry sand with my Etrac. Since I run it pushing manual sense pretty high there's always a lot of chatter. I wonder if I'm losing some depth even though I'm still hitting strong down to 10" or so. Makes me think that there might be a justification for a PI in my future. What you think?

Can't hurt, go for it sm.

Nothing beats a PI.

You hear the fan boys of a particular brand pushing a particular detector for land detecting and the sales pitch from the fan boys when helping others is

"this is a great detector but its a beep and dig machine and you need to dig all targets". Mind you if you use the discriminator you loose depth and this is another story in itself.

Then for detecting in water you hear another group of fan boys from another brand pushing one particular machine with the statement "when detetcing in the water its a must have to have a discriminator".

1 plus 1 does not equal 2 with both of these scenarios when detecting. My mind boggles to whats being missed by VLF machines being used in the water.

My opinion is that nothing beats a PI for the water and even on dry sand but you will be very busy digging lots of targets and most will be rubbish. The reward you have with a PI is the depth.

In saying this though you need to make sure you have fast recovery tools such as an Indiana scoop for the water with a car tyre tube and a sieve inserted inside the tube held in place with

lots of silicone tied to your body where you can empty your contents into or a good easy to handle shovel for the dry sand. With a PI you need to get in and retreive the target quickly so you

move to the next target. I think Tom suggests a Pulse Rate of 10 is ideal for rings. I used to use a whites Pi 1000 and have just purchased a Garret Sea Hunter Mark 2 which has a pulse rate of 15 with

2 great features which include removable headphones and coil just like a normal detector.

Have fun that's what its all about.

Joe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2014 01:17PM by wolfau.

Some areas or for that matter certain days depending on what the waves bring in only a PI will work. Once met an old timer on a saltwater beach with a 1266 and he always done well but the chatter was unbelievable so whatever works on any particular day and beach....Eat your Wheaties as a PI requires a lot of digging...

An Etrac with the 10x14 Excelerator EQ2 DD coil will open your eyes in depth and separation on a beach or in a field/pasture type environment (black sand or not) ;-)

We have Black Sand on the big lake beaches here in MI too - many guys don't know it and/or refuse to believe it but I've dug down 2 ft and beyond many times and have seen it 1st hand.

I have tried to find the pulse rates for pi detectors but I cannot seem to find that information anywhere. The manuals do not say....

Erosion has taken place if you see this black sand.............. a good time to detect. Yes, sometimes a PI will punch deeper in this black sand. The CZ's and Minelabs perform fairly well though.

((( Yes, 8uS - 10uS pulse delay is ideal for wet salt environ ))).

Tom, some good erosion the last week north of you. I imagine it was down in your neck of the woods as well. I'm trying to balance the idea of sand density gradients with wether or not the added depth is needed. On Daytona, New Smyrna in these conditions the layers of large grain heavy sand is about 8 to 10 inches and that's where I was hitting the really crusty greenies at. Two lines of them. One about twenty feet below the eroded dunes and the other about two thirds down between high and low lines. A little lower then normal.

But no jewelry to be found over two days of hunting outside of a few pieces of old decayed costume stuff! So you ask yourself is it into the heavy course sand, am I not getting deep enough? Or is the black sand keeping me from seeing deeper gold? Or was it just not there? I was running manual sense at 26 and tolerating some chatter but good coin targets were still hitting strong at the 8 inch mark. 10 inches were iffy signals but I know my machine well enough to chase most of those. Using an Ultimate 13 coil. In our typical beach conditions I'm usually running deeper then that but then the course layer can be down 15 inches or more then, sometimes 2 feet.

Just trying to learn and thinking out loud. By the way, your video really shortened my learning curve a year ago and your personal advice has not been forgotten. That 5" coil is long gone!

Eric,

When you are hitting the greenies...... you are close. The biggest thing to remember is....... what are the density of the items being recovered. Greenie coins are medium density. Lead sinkers are just slightly heavier than the 'medium density' items....... and quite a bit below the denisty of gold; yet, certainly in the right direction.
Another question/clue is: Is the sand that you are walking on .... 'hard' ? If it's hard.... and you are leaving no footprints on it....... this is very compacted/dense sand............ capable of supporting higher denisty items.
Glad to know that you were capable of finding more than one sand trough strata. ((( More mother-nature 'clues'........ providing more places to hunt ))).

Thanks Tom. Yes the upper area was producing some lead fishing weights at roughly the same depth as the greenies and the sand was hard. It's sometimes surprising to me how marked the difference in the densities are when you're digging in this stuff. There's a hard line of demarcation between the sand types.

........ and this will also show with the targets being recovered. You may find a density trough whereby NO coins are being found............ only lead sinkers (and heavier targets). They (the lead sinkers) may be fewer..... and further inbetween; yet, the density delineation is exceptionally well defined. This trough(s) may only be a few feet wide; yet, run for a few hundred yards North/South ..... up/down the beach.