4/13/19 Report - Revisiting Factors For Successful Detecting. Whats Different: Now and Then.

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

Recent Falcon Heavy Liftoff From Kenny Space Center

Thanks Alberto!  Great photo!

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South Hutchinson Island Beach As Seen Yesterday.

One thing that impressed when I saw the above beach heavily eroded a couple weeks ago, is how much sand there is on our beaches now.  Like many beaches along the Treasure Coast, this beach was renourished a year or two ago.  The cliff you see is in renourishment sand.  I don't know where it came from.

But what struck me most is when I looked at the first condo you see to the south.  I remember when there was a rock outcropping exposed all the way back almost to the condo about twenty years ago.  I wish I knew what year that was.  But back then, around the same time, Jensen beach was eroded back to the seagrape trees, and north of John Brooks the erosion was all the way back to very near the condos.

People sometimes say that most of the treasure has been found.  I don't buy that.  Obviously some of it has been found, but I don't think that is the big problem.  I think the big problem is all of the sand.

This year we saw some pretty big erosion at John Brooks and Frederick Douglass, but nothing much was reported found.  I believe the reason for that is that the erosion was into renourishment sand.  It didn't get down to the older layers of sand.  The erosion was far from where it had been in the past.  As recently as 2004, when we had the hurricanes of Francis and Jeane, John Brooks was eroded all the way back and under the board walkway.  That is much farther than anything we've had in more recent years.

On beaches like John Brooks on South Hutchinson Island, you don't have high dunes behind the beach to erode and dump new targets on the beach.  And it is unlikely that many old targets will show up on the beach while the renourishment sand is piled up on the beach and in front of the beach.

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I developed and presented a metal detecting success formula in this blog.  One of the advantages of doing something like that is that it really forced me to think it through. And then when it is communicated, it is open for review, criticism and discussion, which leads to additional refinement and improvement.

My success formula, as I posted it in the past, is as follows.

S = L x T x Sk x E x D.

I defined Success as the number of finds. I suppose it would be better to define success in terms of total value.  Value, of course, is subjective.  (You might be interested in my post on metal detecting math.)

L is location. T is time spent detecting. Sk stands for skill level, D, the detector used, and E is amount of effort.

I discussed those factors to some extent in previous posts. I talked about the effort factor in my 1/9/18 post, for example.

Extreme effort can really pay off.  That refers to really pushing the boundaries in a variety of ways.  I've discussed that before and won't get into it now.  Extreme effort can be limited by your determination, physical fitness, and courage, or  should I say stupidity.

D is for the type of detector you use and its capabilities - not how you use it. How you use your detector is part of the skill factor.

I wanted to revisit the formula and refine it a little more.

The factors on the right side of the equation are listed in order of my estimation of their relative importance.  Location is the most important factor in my opinion.  If you are not where the targets are, none of the rest matters much.

All of the factors interact.  If you have a quality detector, it still doesn't matter much unless you know how to use it well.  The skill factor interacts with the detector factor. 

The factors that I have been thinking about a lot lately are the Location and Time factors.  I mentioned not long ago the importance of the time you spend scouting around and how that time can be as important as the amount of time you spend detecting.  Time spent on the beaches and time spent scouting the beaches can dramatically improve your chance of being at the right spot at the right time.  

The time factor includes time spent in the field as well as time spent actually detecting. It also includes research and information gathering.  Therefore to be more specific, my time factor includes three factors: time scouting (Ts), time detecting (Td), and time gathering and assimilating information (Ti). 

I have some things to say about scouting beaches, but I'll keep that for another time.  Scouting interacts with beach reading, which is a part of the Skill factor.  

You might think I'm making much about nothing, but if you take time to think it all out in a clear and specific way, you'll notice things and increase your understanding even when you don't realize it.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net