2/20/15 Report - Strategic Decision Making. Knowing Your Beaches.

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

A few days ago I posted a chart showing that some of the most valuable rings are smaller.  I also showed the effect of two different discrimination settings in that chart.

In order to select the best detector settings, it helps to know the beach and what it most likely holds.  It usually takes more than one visit to determine the type and amount of junk that will be found on a particular beach, but it usually takes more visits to get a good feel for what type of good targets you can expect from a particular beach.

To give you a few examples of different beaches, there are some beaches where you'll find a good number of big bulky class rings.  For example Fort Lauderdale, back in the day when that was the place to Spring Break, was very much like that.   There were a lot of class rings, but relatively few engagement rings or quality gemstone rings. 

As you probably know, that has changed.  Now Fort Lauderdale draws a different crowd, and you won't find as many class rings, but you will find more engagement and other types of rings.

Beaches frequented by wealthy patrons do not generally produce a lot of bulky class rings, but they do produce gemstone rings, large men's rings and even a few Rolex watches.  Beaches like that might not produce a large quantity of good finds, but the quality can quickly make up for that.

Hollywood beach back in the eighties produced a good number of cheap bands.  Often they were gold plated, and if solid gold, seldom more than 10K.  The numbers were good but not the quality.  There were also a few high school class rings found there, but not the numbers you would find at Fort Lauderdale back in the day.

What I'm saying is that you should get to know your beaches and what kinds of targets are likely to be found there.  It can take a while, but you can not get an complete understanding if you always discriminate out an entire range of targets.

If you need to use discrimination, and you probably know that I try to discourage using too much discrimination, take into account the types of objects that you are likely to find or not find at a particular beach. 

If you are at a place where there are very few small valuable pieces, a strategic decision might be to focus on larger targets.  That might mean you can use a little more discrimination.

It also helps to know the predominant types of trash at a particular beach. It usually doesn't take as long to get to know the predominant types of trash, but you will need to check at least a few times without discrimination so you know what is or isn't there.  

The predominant type of junk at a particular beach is not only determined by the activities that take place there, but also by the detectorists that work the site and how they detect.  That depends to some extent upon what type of detector they use. 

Some beaches are very clean these days.  They have been cleaned by detectorists who do not use much discrimination.  Remember, there is no reason to use a lot of discrimination where there is no junk. 

Most beaches are predominated by a few types of junk. Some beaches have mostly one type of trash, while others have multiple types.

Some beaches have a lot of pull-tabs.  Others have a lot of beer bottle tops.  Others have a lot of small pieces of iron. 

One popular tourist beach on the Treasure Coast has virtually no trash in the middle 50 yards or so. The same beach, though, has tons of bottle caps just to the north of that.  And to the south of that middle section, not as many bottle caps as to the north, but a good number.  That beach has very few pull tabs now.  A few years ago it had tons of pull tabs.  

As you move from one part of that beach to the next, you might want to make some adjustments to your settings.

That is what I'm talking about - getting to know your beaches - both what is there and what is not there.  Once you know that, you can select your discrimination and other settings more strategically.

--------

Here is more on the Minelab GPZ 7000.  They are really promoting this.

http://www.minelab.com/products/gold-detectors/gpz-7000

--------

On the Treasure Coast today (Fri.) we'll have around a two or three-foot surf.  The tides are big though.  We'll have a good negative tide.

Yesterday morning William M. observed a cut that went from two inches to two feet in about twenty minutes.   You might have noticed the northerly winds yesterday morning.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net