8/18/13 Report - Media Story on Treasure Coast Diamond Ring Returned & Tips for Working Hunted Areas

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


WPTV did a piece on Michael E. finding and returning a $4000 diamond ring that was lost and found on the Treasure Coast.  I mentioned that story a few days ago.  Here is the link to the news story.

The video comes on after the advertisement.

http://www.wptv.com//dpp/news/region_martin_county/jensen_beach/florida-man-digs-up-buried-treasure-of-a-lifetime-gives-it-away-after-message-finds-him

When I originally gave the story I said I hoped the media followed up on it.

Thanks to Bernie C. for submitting the link and Michael E. for the good find and his good act.

The video and article did not mention the St. Lucie Metal Detecting club and some other things.  That is not unusual for the media.  They have their own ideas of what should be included in a story.



Detectorists sometimes get discouraged by competition.  They show up at the beach and see two or three other people coming off the beach and think they might as well turn around and go somewhere else.  That isn't necessarily the case.

First, nobody can cover an entire beach.  There is just too much area.  But I wouldn't cover the entire beach even if I had the time.  Some spots are better than others, and I'm all about trying to identify and hit the best spots.

I'm don't worry much about the competition.  I've never felt it was much of a concern.  As I said the other day, I tend to specialize in finding those spots that are neglected by most others.

I've mentioned many times about the beach being a dynamic system.  That means it constantly changes.  As a result, hunting the same spot after it has been hunted can be like hunting an entirely new area.  It is the same area, but, like I said, things can be changing. 

I thought I'd give you some tips on how to deal with competition today.

First, is timing.  Take advantage of the fact that most detectorists are creatures of habit.  Many will show up at the same beach at the same day of the week and the same time of day.  If you are dealing with competiton, get to know the competition.  I don't mean what you might think I mean by that.  I don't mean to talk to them and get to know their name and things like that.  I mean get to know their detecting habits.  It isn't usually all that difficult, even if you never see them.  You can get to know them by their footprints, drag marks, etc.  Get to know when they detect and make consider your timing.

You can tell a lot about who was there before you even if you never see them.  How many targets did they leave?  What types of targets did they leave?  Is there a disproportionate number of nickels, for example?   Do they grid a small area or cover a large area loosely?  Do they work the dry sand, wet sand, or water?   Do they miss pull tabs, iron, big objects, deeper targets, or whatever?  All of that tells you something that will help you make adjustments and take advantage of the situation.

What areas did they detect and what areas did they miss?  You can sometimes tell that from tracks, uncoverd or refilled holes, or from remaining targets.

If you get to the beach early in the morning or after a rain or strong wind, it wipes the slate clean and makes it easier to tell what happened after that.

After gathering information, make adjustments.  If the others miss a lot of deeper signals, you might decide to select another detector, adjust your settings, or just focus on hearing those faint signals and deep targets.

I don't mind if someone leaves a lot of trash, which tells me they probably also missed some targets, and I don't mind if they left a clean beach, which makes it easier to focus on deep targets.  Either way there is an adjustment that you can make to take advantage of the situation.

Of course, all of that assumes that you decide to stay at that beach and hunt it rather than moving on.  Moving on to another beach can be a good option if you decide that detecting conditions might be better somewhere else.  I often take a look at a beach and move on without ever taking my detector out.  I'm not set on detecting beach X or Y, but make adjustments according to what I see as I go.

One good technique for dealing with competition at top beaches that I often like is to detect the perimeter.  Even if an area is very heavily detected, those that detect it often end up spending their time in a well defined area.  One technique I've used with remarkable success is to define the cleaned out area, and thoroughly detect around the perimeter of the cleaned out area.

In the past I told about one beach that I stopped at when I was traveling up by Pensacola.  There was a picnic area by the causeway to the beach.  I stopped there and started to detect in the water.  I could quickly tell that the area was pretty well cleaned out.  I noticed that there were two pilings in the water and found that the cleaned out area was a rectangular area with the two pilings being two corners of the area.  Inside the rectangle was clean, but just outside that area there was junk.  I decided to detect right around the borders of the rectangular area and in a few minutes came up with three gold rings.  All three were within a couple of feet outside the area that somebody obvoiusly detected on a regular basis.   I never saw them there, but I could tell what they had done, and adjusted accordingly.  They actually helped me out by helping me narrow down the area where remaining targets were likely to be found.  That is an illustration of what I am talking about. 

One of the areas that is most overlooked by other detectorists is where the water gets deeper than chest high.  Some guys do very well by specializing in deep water where many other detectorist do not detect.

Another of my favorite techniques is to hunt an area that is in the process of changing.  It doesn't matter if someone detected the area a half hour ago if another six inches of sand has been removed, or if new targets have washed up in that last half hour.

Others will also miss targets if they are moving too fast, discriminating, or just not scanning thoroughly.  All of those are things you can take advantage of. 

I have no problem following right behind people that do those things.  And I'm not insulting anyone here.  I'll follow myself too.   By that I mean, I'll go back over the same ground time and time again if it seems warranted, especially when I wanted to move fast the first time for some reason, maybe to do some sampling, or if the target density was high and I moved a good number of surface targets on the first pass.  Also, I'll go back and cover the same ground again if it was a high density target area and if the sand is moving as I detect.

Being worried by the competition is more of a psychological thing.  Yes, they might get some targets.  That's OK.  No problem.   Just analyze what is going on, make the necessary adjustments, and take advantage of the situation rather than getting discouraged.


Not much has changed on the Treasure Coast lately.   Erin is now a depression and moving west, but is still a long way away.

Another disturbed area that might form just came off of Africa.

That is it for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net























WPTV did a piece on Michael E. finding and returning a $4000 diamond ring.  I mentioned that story a few days ago.  Here is the link.

The video comes on after the advertisement.

http://www.wptv.com//dpp/news/region_martin_county/jensen_beach/florida-man-digs-up-buried-treasure-of-a-lifetime-gives-it-away-after-message-finds-him

Thanks for Bernie C. for submitting the link. 

The video and article did not mention the St. Lucie Metal Detecting club and some other things.  That is not unusual for the media.  They have their own ideas of what should be included in a story.






Jim M. sold the detector I mentioned was for sale two days ago and has a stainless steel scoop for sell on eBay.  It is item no. 141040416069.