Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Old Gold Scarf Pin from Lawnwood Park. Submitted anonymously.I was at the same beach today which was cut and which I showed in yesterday's post. One reason I returned to the same beach is that I detected an item yesterday that I couldn't retrieve and I wanted to bring my shovel so I could find out what it was.
Well, I brought my shovel and quickly located the item in the wet sand. The water was washing over the area but I thought I could get it if I dug hard. I put my detector up on the dunes and went back to the spot that I marked and dug quickly, throwing the sand from the hole up out of the water. After I thought I probably had it, I got my detector and detected that sand. Sure enough, there it was.
It wasn't anything much good, although it is a usable item. It was a Gator Digger. Not treasure, but it could come in handy. And it told me that there was stuff on that heavily detected beach that wasn't being picked up real quickly.
It was down a little over a foot I would say.
Sometimes you can find useful things. All the dive weights that I have were dug up, for example.
Anyhow, as much as the treasure beaches are hunted, there are still things that remain on the beach from day to day. It often surprises me that where there are so many detectorists how many targets are still out there.
That leads to my main topic today.
"Cleaned out" is a phrase that most detectorists don't want to hear. Hearing that phrase is enough to discourage some. I have another reaction. When I hear that phrase my ears perk up. Why?
Here's why.
First, it usually refers to a spot that has been proven to have been very productive at one time.
I remember one of the first times somebody told me a spot was cleaned out. I was on the beach and another detectorist came and told me he just cleaned out a spot. He said he got a bunch of coins and a gold ring. He told me where the "cleaned out" spot was. I got in my car and drove to the spot he told me about. In a short time of detecting I had a few coins and a few pieces of gold.
Most of the time when a site is said to be cleaned out there is something left. What is left might not be the easiest or most obvious targets, but there is usually something left.
There is something about a place with a lot of easy targets. When there are a lot of easy targets littering a site it seems that I don't hear the softer signals until after I've removed most of the louder targets.
I remember one day when I visited a spot where I got over three hundred coins the first day but no gold. I went back the second day and only got a few coins, but then I got some gold.
When you think you've cleaned out a good spot on a beach, go back over it - sometimes again and again. I think you'll find that you hear softer signals and get deeper targets that you missed at first. I don't know if it is a sensory/psychological thing or if it has to do with detector sensitivity, but it really seems to me that when there are a lot of loud signals I don't seem to hear or detect the soft whisper signals.
Another thing to try after "cleaning out" a good spot is using another detector on the same spot. Sometimes one detector will detect things that another won't under certain circumstances. And definitely turn the discrimination off and the sensitivity up as much as possible.
You might also change the direction of your sweeps. Go up and down the slope as opposed to parallel the water's edge, for example.
Here is another good thing about "cleaned out" sites. There are usually some obstacles that guard some targets. It can be bushes, rocks, iron objects, or almost anything that can cause people to miss things.
When visiting a site that has been "cleaned out" notice any obstacles and find a way to take advantage of those obstacles.
Sometimes you'll find that things are left under bushes or close to rocks, etc. Remove junk that could be masking good targets.
I won't give you all the tricks for hunting a cleaned out site, but here is one more thing you should know.
When you find a site that had a lot of targets, there are almost always other sites that are related to that site somehow that might have been missed.
To give a very simple example, I've mentioned before a shallow water swimming area that I visited and found to be very much cleaned out. After scanning the area quickly, I could tell that the "cleaned out" area was a rectangular area that was defined by the shore and two pilings. When I detected just outside the boundaries of the cleaned out area I quickly found a number of pieces of gold.
If there is an area that was at one time visited by numbers of people, there will be other areas nearby to check out. People didn't get to that one spot without going through others. You can usually find areas near a "cleaned out" area which could have been missed.
So the next time you hear someone tell you site has been cleaned out, instead of immediately throwing up you hands and giving up, start thinking about how you might be able to capitalize on the new knowledge.
Treasure Coast Beach Conditions and Forecast.
Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.You can see the sea weed, which indicates that sand was coming in. I would say that about a half foot of sand was added at the foot of the cut.
The wind is more from the east today rather than the northeast. That explains the difference.
Compare this photo with the photo of the cut yesterday.
The seas will be decreasing a little the next couple of days.
Beach conditions are deteriorating just a little. I'm keeping my 2 rating for today though.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
