5/24/17 Report - Vero Area and South Hutchinson Island Beaches. Capitana Crew At Work.

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

Turtle Trail South Tuesday.
Photo by Darrel S.

Darrel S. sent in some recent views of Turtle Trail yesterday (Tuesday)  In the one above you can see the shell piles that will be of interest to some of you.

Besides shells, you might want to check the shell piles for things such as small fossils, sea glass or pot shards.

Darrel sent in another excellent report today.  Here it is.

Not much change in beach past few days. Low was around 12:30pm.

Deep trench between shells and sand bar. Too mushy to work water edge.

Capitana was out.

My new 12x13 NEL Tornado worked as expected. At first, worked better in the drier sand. Amazed that it found small objects close to surface. Most larger coils lose the top few inches to sacrifice for going deeper, and require lowering sensitivity to work properly. I was able to work wet sand after pumping coil, readjusting threshold, and lowering sensitivity.  I will stick to the 12x8 coil rest time down here. Always have the CZ21!

Turtle Trail South Tuesday
Photo by Darrel S.

A lot of sand below the high tide line here.

Capitana At Work Tuesday
Photo by Darrel S. 

Thanks much for the photos and report Darrel.

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Things looked similar down on South Hutchinson Island Tuesday.

Walton Rocks Yesterday Near Low Tide.

Shells at Walton Rocks Yesterday.

Looked like the shell piles might have been heavier at Turtle Trail.  I would suspect similar shell piles at places like Ambersands, but didn't see it so don't know for sure.

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In South Florida one diver died and two more died in a separate boating incident this week.

Take shelter from lightning too.

Here is a link to a story about what it is like to be struck by lightning - if you live.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170523-what-its-like-to-be-struck-by-lightning

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A one foot surf is predicted for the next week or more on the Treasure Coast.  That means nice calm water.

We are also having some nice negative tides too.

I have some nice find pictures that I'll probably be able to post tomorrow.  A very nice diamond ring, a meteorite and some fossils.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/14/16 Report - One More Use For Test Targets. Call of Nature Leads To Important Discovery. Small Surf This Week.

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

Detectmg The Land Where My Ancestors Roamed The Frontier

I did some land hunting not long ago and posted a couple pictures from the hunt. I haven't done much land hunting lately - maybe only a few days a year.  I used a different detector than I usually use on the beach and found that I needed some refreshing.  I wasn't sure of some of the signals,

One of the things I highly recommend for most anybody, and especially beginners is using test targets of various types and under various conditions to really learn what your detector is trying to tell you.

In the past I talked a lot about using test targets.  I use test targets occasionally even with a detector that I've used a lot - not only to explore signals to various types of targets under different conditions, but also to test my settings during a hunt to see if they are the best I can get for the situation.

In this case there were ID readouts that were a little inconsistent.   There were some ID readings that jumped a bit depending upon where I passed the coil over some objects.  In order to identify exactly what that indicated, I used some test targets and placed them at different angles and then scanned them at various distances.

The depth of an object will affect the accuracy of the ID on some detectors, especially when the target gets close to maximum detectable depth.  The angle of an object can also affect the signal or readout.

The most simple way to use a test target is to lay the coin or object flat on the ground.  That is usually what is done.  Sometimes the object is buried, but almost always laying flat.

If you lay a test target on the ground you can see exactly where the coil is in relation to the target and how a change in relative position affects the signal.

Coins and other objects can be wedged against a rock or root and be on end or at an angle instead of flat.  That can affect your signal.  I think I've shown in the past how a coin standing on end can sound more like a nail or other long narrow target.

Partly due to the fact that I hadn't used that particular detector a lot recently and partly due to the fact that I wanted to investigate the cause of some mixed signals, I used test targets once again on that recent hunt.  I don't think there is any better way to get to know your detector than by using test targets, and I don't think most people do it enough.

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“Nature called, and Cliff walked up this creek bed into this gorge and found this amazing spring surrounded by rock art,” archaeologist Giles Hamm told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “A man getting out of the car to go to the toilet led to the discovery of one of the most important sites in Australian prehistory.”

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/MiamiHerald/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TMH%2F2016%2F11%2F13&entity=Ar25E4&sk=A211F79C

Thanks to Alberto S. for that link.

I know of a few times when Treasure Coast detectorists found reales when they went to relieve themselves.

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Darrel S. reports that Seagrape Trail is now open again.  Thanks Darrel.

We'll have a small surf most of this week, not increasing until Friday.  We'll still have some good high tides and a northeast wind.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net