I was detecting with a buddy at the beach a few weekends ago and after about 1/2 hour of hunting I stopped for a bit and looked up and saw he was several hundred yards beyond me and getting even further away. It made me start thinking about the different hunting techniques we were using and how we were approaching hunting differently.
That day I was going slow, overlapping my swings while making kind of a sine wave or S pattern as I moved down the beach while he was more or less working a straight line but was walking at a normal pace, not overlapping his swings, leaving about a foot or so gap between each swing. We both continued our hunting styles for the remainder of the day. He worked way down the beach from me, maybe covering a mile or more of the beach than I did but I covered the bit I worked much more thoroughly.
Now the beaches have been pretty sanded in lately since we haven't had any coastal storms work their way up the coast and both of us found plenty of light aluminum scrap. Most of what I found was that paper thin stuff that used to be soda or beer cans before the ocean beat them to a pulp but I did find some pull tabs and 3 nickels. He just found the aluminum and no coins.
This started me thinking about the merits of each hunting style. His approach would work well if he had come across a pocket of heavier stuff but my method worked to make sure I didn't miss anything in that day of meager finds. Which way would have you hunted a sanded in beach?
I've never hunted the beach, but I think I would probably hunt them the same as I do farm fields. I'm not a fast searcher, but I don't always hunt the same way. Sometimes I will grid an area, then meander for a while, then grid some more. Sometimes walk a sraight line, sometimes zig-zag, sometimes walk the perimeter. I do whatever strikes me at the time.
Keep the faith
I've never hunted a Beach either but I think I would approach it in the same way I do farm fields. I walk at a normal pace and look for hot spots. If it was for sure a hot spot like edge of wet sand ? lets say then I would slow down and overlap as you did. With me it's the needle in a haystack thing. When the area is vast gridding doesn't make sense to me until there's a reason.Even in a vast area there are places to go that you for sure want to hit to check them. In England they hunt hunt hunt the more targets the better dig them quick and move on. It's a numbers game. More targets for the day = more keepers. Then if you do hit a spot you circle and grid. Makes sense
I wasn't saying one way is better than the other. In fact I might hunt one way, one day and the other way a different day. I think they both have advantages or disadvantages. Though I guess I was also thinking about each hunting style given the sanded in condition of the beach.
Anyway that is a great thing about the hobby. As long as you are having fun it then there isn't a wrong way to hunt (as long as you keep your coil parallel to the ground)
I wasn't saying one way is better than the other. In fact I might hunt one way, one day and the other way a different day. I think they both have advantages or disadvantages. Though I guess I was also thinking about each hunting style given the sanded in condition of the beach.
Anyway that is a great thing about the hobby. As long as you are having fun it then there isn't a wrong way to hunt (as long as you keep your coil parallel to the ground)
I agree...I usually cherry pick a spot a few times then grid from different angles.
In heavy trash I slow way down and focus on separating tones.
But I always have fun no matter what I find
