Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
I'm not always extremely careful with the wording in my posts. I do too many posts too quickly for that. I am usually pretty clear. I think, but sometimes I need to clarify what I meant and how I define the terms that I use.
In a post not long ago I used the term over-hunted. For me, over-hunted is not exactly the same thing as hunted-out. I use those terms slightly differently. Over-hunted is relative. It means that a site is hunted more than is warranted by the number of targets relative to other available sites. Hunted-out, on the other hand, means to me,that the good targets (however that is defined for the situation) have been removed. That is not relative to other available hunting sites. There are simply no targets in detector range at such a site. There will be some good targets on over-hunted sites, but fewer than at other local sites that could be detected.
Hunted-out sites might be hunted out, but things can change over time. Any site that has a good number of visitors that lose things will be over-hunted rather than hunted-out. Over-hunted beaches will generally remain over hunted even if there are a good number of visitors because they are hunted heavily relative to the rate of replenishment. So the number of available targets is kept low. That does not mean that you can not find anything on an over-hunted beach. It just means that you could find more at beaches that are not so heavily hunted.
If you are targeting old items on a shipwreck beach that has few visitors other than detectorists, that type of beach is much more likely to qualify as hunted-out because replenishment will occur much less often.
Any beach that has a good number of visitors that can lose things will be replenished on a regular basis and finds will be made. The real question then is, are there other beaches where you could make more good finds. There are a lot of factors that can be involved in site selection. I've discussed many of them before and won't try to get into all of that again now.
Hunting modern items is different than hunting old shipwreck items in several ways. If you are hunting modern items, they can be anywhere they are lost. Knowing how things are lost and where most good things are lost is the most important thing in that case. When hunting old items, knowing how items get moved by nature over time is a more important skill. Of course that knowledge also can be useful when hunting modern items if the modern items have been on the beach a while and especially if the the site was popular for years or decades. If a site like that has been heavily hunted for years or decades and you are hunting mostly recent drops, knowing how items are moved over time is obviously less important.
If you are near a popular beach and hunt modern items, you can hunt the same beach daily and still make good finds without any special knowledge other than knowing how to use a metal detector. Just cover the same area daily and pick up whatever is there. You'll eventually get to know that beach very well and it can work for you. You'll even pick up some rare or strange items if you stick at it long enough. The big thing is to be there and spend the time. Targeting items that are centuries old is different. You will be depending more on conditions changing to bring old items within detector range.
Some beaches have both old items and new items. One such beach is Wabasso. It occasionally produces old shipwreck items, but also has a resort and a good number of daily visitors. That makes things easier, however it is also heavily hunted, as you would expect of such a beach.
What appears to one person to be a hunted-out beach might not be for another more skillful person. On the other hand, an over-hunted beach is an over-hunted beach regardless of your skill level.
I hope that helps to clarify how I use those two terms. There is a significance difference between the two terms and the way I use them.
As I said, site selection depends upon a lot of factors, and personal preference, style and convenience are just a few of them.
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I always liked trying new and different types of sites. I often learned something when I visited a new site. While you might learn something from trying a different kind of detecting or a new kind of site, there is one short-term disadvantage. When you try a new site you obviously won't know the site very well. Therefore you will probably not be as effective at the new site as you would be at a site that you detect all the time and know very well. In time you'll learn to detect the new site more effectively, and there will also be the bonus of being able to take what you learned and applying that new knowledge or skill to your old sites.
Sometimes you can hit a super good find through nothing dumb luck. You just wander over to an area where there is no real reason that there should be anything good, and bingo. That happens more with recent drops than old items on a beach. Very old beach targets seldom show up any place other than where the forces of nature put them, whether you understand those forces or not. There are exceptions, of course, such as when someone else finds the old item and then drops it again. That is one example of how an old item can end up where you would never expect it to be. In that case, it becomes what I would call a "recent drop" even if it is a very old item. It happens.
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Santa dead?
Bones thought by some to be the bones of Saint Nicolas have been dated to the correct period of time.
Here is the link.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/12/06/santas-bone-dates-to-time-st-nicholas-scientists-discover.html
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We had some wind from the direction of the North Pole yesterday, but I did't get out to any beaches check.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
