9/30/19 Report - Stratigraphic Discrimination For Metal Detecting. Big Tides and Surf Predicted.

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

A few days ago I introduced the term stratigraphic discrimination to refer to selectively ignoring a particular layer or layers of ground.

There are times when you might be interested in only one or more layers.  For example, if you are interested in old items at a land site, you might ignore surface targets.  I mentioned the Surface Blanking feature of the Royal Sabre detector from the 1980s that provided a Surface Blanking function for that purpose.  While I haven't seen a surface blanking setting on other metal detectors, many do give a depth reading.

There are times when you might choose to hunt only for surface targets, such as when you are hunting a specific item that was recently lost.  In that case, you would ignore all of those more faint detector signals that night indicate a more deeply buried target.

On a beach the situation can be a little more complex due to the frequently shifting sands and changing of layers.   On the Treasure Coast the brown/orange deeper sand is often associated with old shipwreck items, however the same old items can end up on or very near the surface.

These days a light-colored sand from recent renourishment projects is often seen covering the dunes and the beach.  In most cases that sand is a bad sign, however there can be times when good old targets can end up laying on top of that sand.  That can happen, even though it is not common.

In the past I would never ignore deep targets, or any target for that matter, but as you know, deep targets on a beach can be very difficult to recover, especially when near the water's edge, and sometimes you might not have time to spend on a target like that, especially when there are easier good targets.

People are usually very focused on deep targets on a shipwreck beach, but in my experience most of my shipwreck finds have not been real deep.  In fact, many have been laying on or very near the surface.  My usual strategy is to focus on those areas of the beach where coins and such things can be found very near the surface.  I've mentioned before that I've eye-balled several reales over the years.  They were just laying there to be easily seen.  Hunting those types of areas is what reading a beach is all about.

There are times when I will try to get the very deepest targets and struggle to get the maximum depth out of a detector, but it is my opinion that the deepest targets represent a very small total value compared to the total value of near surface targets and take a disproportionate amount of time to find and recover.  Still, if you have the time, there is no reason to leave anything.

I'm not saying that I never go for the very deepest of targets.  There are times when I do, and when I do that I have some reason to believe that it will pay off.   I have reason to believe that those targets could have a high value and there are not equally valuable targets in the area that can be recovered more quickly.

Let's say I have a good coin hole, and the top layers have produced some very nice targets and the signals are becoming more scarce and faint.  Then I might change my settings and search techniques or even switch metal detectors that will be more effective on the deeper and fainter targets.

I often use one metal detector for general scanning, but will then switch detectors when I have reason. It is my opinion that constantly seeking the deepest and faintest targets is not efficient.  That can be a poor use of your time.  Techniques and strategies can be situational.  That is why I often like to do a little scanning, which provides additional information on the situation.

If you want to do stratigraphic discrimination and use the depth readout to do it, you might want to test the depth meter on your metal detector to become more familiar with the peculiarities and how accurate it really is.  That is something that I hope to test some day on the Equinox.  Perhaps you will want to test your own depth meter and offer some of your observations.

I could at this point get into some details on the shifting layers of a beach, but that will have to wait for some other time.

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Here is the predicted surf from MagicSeaWeed.com.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

They are predicting some pretty high surf for later today and tomorrow.   It has been pretty breezy lately, and we are supposed to have a very high tide today.

I'm curious to see what, if anything, will happen to the beaches.

You can't go home again because it never leaves you.  TG.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/21/15 Report - Beach Conditions Still At A 2 Rating. Finds Being Made. Beach Configuration.

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

Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.

What I wanted to show in this first pictujre is the crease at the water line.  I don't think there is a term for that, so I'll have to make up my own.

You will find the same front beach configuration including the crease on the beaches of South Hutchinson Island as well as those as far away as Turtle and Seagrape Tails.   That is a good distance, and they aren't even the same type of beaches (as I classify them),  I find it interesting that beaches so far apart developed in exactly the same way and exhibit such similar features.

The pile of sand in front of the beach is protecting the beach from the waes to some extent.  The waves are breaking farther out and then the surge is rolling in over that pile of sand.

At the crease there is a thin layer of sand over shells.  The front edge of the crease is being pealed away and the shells pushed up onto the beach in some spots.

There has been a lot of targets near the low tide line - both in St. Lucie and Indian River County beaches.

Cut Over Three Feet High Just Behind the Crease Shown Above.

There was a lot of fishing litter (sinkers, spoons, etc.) close to the crease as well as a good bit of iron (nails etc.).

At the beach shown here, there was a long coin line up the slope a little ways.  Many of the coins and other targets in the coin line were under a foot or so of sand, which was covering a layer of shells.  As you get farther from the crease the layer of shells was under more sand.

Simplified Illustration Showing Side View of Beach Such As The One Shown Above.

The brown line shows the cliff and slope down to what I'm calling the crease.

Under that is the shell line, which I doubt is a actually a straight line, but it appeared to be fairly straight today - just going from what I observed when I dug holes down to the shell later.

As you go back from the crease the shell line was deeper under the sand, and the targets were generally deeper.  There were a few exceptions where coins were more shallow and a couple very near the surface.  The surface coins were up closer to the cliff and towards the middle of the line.

If you didn't have a deep seeking detector, you wouldn't have found many of the coins in that coin line.  I got really tired digging so many deep coins.  I'm getting too old.

I haven't really analyzed all of this thoroughly yet.  I think that the surface coins were more recently washed out of the cliff.

I've seen many times when a lot of targets were resting on top of a deeper layer of shells,  That definitely appeared to be the case today.

I suspect that closer to the cliff there are lot of targets on the layer of shells that were too too deep to be detected.  They can be exposed if and when some of the top layer of sand on the slope is moved. That could happen for a distance along the slope or as a dip in one area.

I didn't plan to get into all of that and maybe should have waited, but that is what I was thinking about today.

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After a very slow summer I finally increased by beach detecting conditions rating.  I think that was the first time since about January.  Anyhow, I said yesterday things would be found and I would stick with my 2 rating.  There were more finds today.

Captain Jonah sent me this report.

I myself didn't find much but I was witness to at least 5 cobs found this morning beaches looked worse this morning. But just goes to show treasure is being found. X2 1/2 reales x2 1 reales and X1 2 reale. One lady was showing me her finds and was so surprised when I picked up a Spanish 1/2 out of her find she had no idea ,I made her day. I'm sure more will be found. Thanks.

Thanks a lot for the report.  I need to get reports to get a feeling about how accurate my ratings have been.  I go on my own observations, but it sure helps to have reports from other people.

Congratulations to that lady who found her first reale.  That is always fun.

The next two days the beaches won't change much.  The surf is supposed to be about the same and the wind is supposed to be about the same.  I'll stick with my 2 (improved) beach conditions rating.

Sometime in the near future I'll post a poll to get some numbers on how much was found this week.  It sure has been a pleasant change.

I was busy today, and it took me a while to do that simple illustration, so that will be about it for today.  Hope I didn't make too many mistakes.  I got a lot of good stuff that I put off posting after the beach conditions improved.  I'll eventually get back to it.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/29/14 Report - Big Cuts On A Few Treasure Coast Beaches This Morning. Level 2 Beach Detecting Conditions On Treasure Coast.

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

The main topic for today is the erosion caused by yesterday's North winds.  There is good erosion on some beaches, but not all.  Nonetheless, I'm not expecting much in the way of centuries old stuff showing up yet.  It just doesn't seem to be quite enough, yet you might be able to find a very few spots where conditions are affected by some local feature that produce something very old.

 The top picture shows a cut that is about five feet high.  It was photographed this morning near low tide.

The top step of that cut was created a few days ago, and the bottom step was created late yesterday or last night.

While some spots did erode last night, beach conditions did not change a lot last night.  The beaches were generally not much changed since yesterday except for a few short areas.

This morning I saw two beaches with cuts up to five feet high.  As I said, that was not all new erosion.

Notice the different layers shown in the last photo.  You can see part of a shell layer near the toe of the cut.  It was composed of large shells.

That beach also had a lot of shells near the water line, along with a few fossils.

There is still a lot of sand on the beach front, and the slope in front of the cut is not firm.

When you see the cuts it looks good but when you investigate the sand in front of the cut, not so good.

I'd give this a level 2 beach conditions rating.  In the terms that I have been using I'd call it a minimal two - almost here but not quite.

I've been struggling with the terminology  for a level two rating.  I think I'm going to start calling it "slightly improved" or "transitional."  It is definitely better than a level 1, but not yet good either.  And the word "fair" doesn't seem quite right either. 

Well that is the main thing for today.  You might be able to find an isolated spot where something centuries old will pop up but that will be rare at this point.  In general beach conditions are just slightly better than poor despite the relatively big cuts. 

On the Treasure Coast we're supposed to have a 3 - 5 foot for at least a few days.  Unfortunately, the wind direction will be more Easterly later today.  That is not encouraging.  I'd rather have continuing North winds.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comast.net