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The Golden Olde - On the road

СообщениеДобавлено: 17 дек 2016, 19:25
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The Golden Olde - On the road
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Today marks a milestone and a new chapter our lives as we begin a new treasure hunting saga in our new motor home. Last night we spent in Sinton, Texas at a RV park by a golf course. It was the winter hangout of many of the snowbirds from the north that don't care for roughing it in the cold! Tonight we are parked in South Padre Island off the tip of Texas and hooked up and wired in as I write this article. We have a 30-foot, Ford V10 powered motor home, and we are pleased to have our friends James Mayfield and his wife Jean down from Kentucky. James is an old hand at doing this but we are novices and sure enough we didn't bring the connections that we need for sewer hookup, the converters for all the strange plug-ins that you find at the RV parks and especially the long wires that you need to reach the boxes.

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The road into the island was full of young people loaded down with iceboxes and loads of wood for campfires on the beach. Spring break was in, and this was the place for the big one. We walked to the beach over the huge sand dunes and soft sand trail to see the beach full of young people but few in swimming. I sat and watched to size up the beach and analyze the hottest hunting spots. The wet sand was hard packed, level, and no cuts. The people were all up into the soft dry sand and mostly located in one area. There was hardly place to stand in among them. I could see that the little gold ankle chains, earrings, and neck chains should be buried in the sand in abundance with a few rings too perhaps.

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The tides are not as good as I had hoped and a brisk cold front blew through to lower the warm tropical temps to around 60 this morning. We hit the beach and there were few people on it but soon discovered that someone must have followed up the party last night because the beach was typical of one that had been hunted hard. There were few coins and a lot of trash and beer cans. I found a few coins but my wife found a 10K Gold ring and James's son Jonathan found a silver ring. All in all it was not what we had expected but I suspect that someone had swept the beach last night and done a good job.

There are more options and other stretches of beach however that may be loaded and virtually untouched so we have hope yet that we may locate some good finds.

(Follow-up) This morning we hit the beach again to be astounded by sheer numbers of hunters. Every time I plan a trip to a beach all I find is more hunters!! Drat! I stopped counting when I got around a dozen and all of them were very close by. Nevertheless, good technique will pay off some. They didn't seem to be finding anything of value but a few coins. One fellow with a CZ20 looked to know what he was doing but the others seemed to be mostly coin hunters. The wife and I found some coins but again I was scooped by her and she found a silver ring and not to mention a $20 bill!

Lessons Learned: Something for you to remember when you first walk out onto a strange new beach is that you should hunt for about 30 minutes and then stop and then analyze the history and the probable finds if you continue to hunt this beach. You should pay very close attention to the depth of finds, the patterns of finds, the number of finds, and lastly the quality of the finds themselves. In this case I correctly analyzed this beach because I realized that there were an extreme low quantity of "fresh drop". Fresh drop is determined by the number of people using the beach and the type of these people(kids, families, or tourists). I figured that there were a great number of kids who loose few items of jewelry (except silver) but that the fresh dropped items would be mostly coins and a few silver things in one given day. You rate the hunting pressure accordingly: Lots of likely fresh drop but you found the beach 98% clean means you not only have an abundance of daytime hunters but you also have nighttime hunters too. These are the ones that get 98% of the fresh drop. Families will drop more on any given day and the quality will be much higher. The highest fresh drop will be tourists and the only crowd that will produce a high tally of quality gold. By the word tourists I do not mean the spring break kids. The depth of the finds were almost all very shallow with the exceptions of a very, very few deep nickels that no one found. The number of finds was very low, the quality was very low, the pattern of finds was only in those spots where all the other hunters missed. Correctly analyzed this beach was the worst beach that I had ever hunted with the highest hunting pressure. I had miscalculated on my site for the spring break party and I should have emailed more of the local area hunters for more feedback before I left. Needless to say it was a great experience and a lot of fun. I talked to one hunter shortly before we left and he said that he had seen over thirty hunters on the beach and he hunted it nearly all night. It would have been more fun to bring back a ton of golden goodies however, and I plan to obtain more information before my next beach outing. All was not lost as I discovered the ruins of a very old Spanish Mission and also found some farm fields that should be loaded with Texas and Mexican Army finds. I hope that this story will provide you with the information that you will need if you want to find your own "golden beach".

Preparing for Spring Break

СообщениеДобавлено: 17 дек 2016, 19:26
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Preparing for Spring Break

It is that time of year again and there will be many opportunities for you to mop up all the left over goodies. Some of you are still snowbound and it looks like it will never be spring. Down South we have only had a few hours of mild winter and have passed up spring and now it is summer! I planted my spring garden of tomatoes and my carrots and radishes are up just fine. For all you that have cabin fever you too can find a way to be hitting the big time and picking up wads of coins and jewelry all it takes is planning and the air fare to a warm beach.

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Spring break here is March 11th to March 22nd and I imagine most warm beaches will be flowing over with all the young folks. You too can be there and have a great way to start your treasure hunting year. You can get an idea by emailing some of the beach hotels and see if they are all filled up for Spring break. Gee whiz, when I was in high school I felt great to have a day off to go fishing at the creek. It is hard for me to imagine how those kids get all the money to spend on a holiday. I expect that it is a first step into a life of slavery and indebtedness. One that is easy to get into, but not easy to free yourself from.

The water is extra warm in the Gulf of Mexico and I imagine that it is in South Florida also. In Florida, Daytona beach and Fort Lauderdale will be hot spots as well as many others. I have my choice picked out and it should be really good. Remember you can hunt after a rain shower or early in the morning. I have been known to hunt in among them and have done pretty well. They seem to drip silver items everywhere and always bring all the towels down from the Hotel and leave them on the beach. I have often wondered why the hotel people don't walk across the road and pick them back up but they never do.

When you hunt the dry sand be sure to remember to look for the little nests where they laid on the beach. You may have to get up early as I do to beat the beach machines. They drag the sand and cover up the spots where people lay and that makes it much harder to find anything. Face it, you need a break! Make the scene this year and to your part to clean up after the kids mess! Just bring plenty of sunscreen and shorts.

I have the beach that I want to hunt in mind, and plan to go and stay for a while and just relax and enjoy happy digging. Now, a word of warning... If you dare to hunt among the kids then just look the other way when one of the girls runs topless across the sand. Keep the coil to the soil and your mind on the find!

Golden Gales

СообщениеДобавлено: 17 дек 2016, 19:34
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Golden Gales
It was one of those days that I really did not want to go beach hunting. It was very cold and gale force winds were screaming outside but we finally decided to chance it and to go hunting anyway. We drove through the pre dawn darkness and as we drove over the high bridge to the island the strong winds threatened to blow our little car over. It shook it severely! Down to the beach we went but couldn't park where we generally do because the gale force winds blew tons of very dry sand which would cause a car to get bogged down into the sand quickly. We drove to another location that did not have so much dry sand piled up and parked. No sooner had we parked but the car was shaken violently by the winds in the darkness and as we looked toward the lee side of the car we could see the dry sand had piled up like snow all along the windows. We looked at each other and really just wanted to turn around and go home but finally we opened the doors and strapped our equipment on to see what was there.

The wind chill was 28 degrees and that wasn't the problem. You couldn't even open your eyes because of the sand but we squinted some and walked slowly down to the water in the darkness. The first sign of dawn was barely visible in the eastern sky and I could see that the wind had blown out the water some and I saw a likely place to work close by. I waded in the water and listened closely for a good tone but either the cold or the wind which was blowing so hard caused some falsing in the detector. I gave up the water and worked near it and got a good pulltab tone. It was still dark when I tried to dig but the wind kept blowing the shovel away from where I placed the shovel and I could barely hold it in place before I started digging. What problems! Finally I dug over a foot deep and in the darkness felt around for the target and was surprised and somewhat startled to find a nice (silver) ring. I put it in my pouch and walked down to a likely spot to try but my darling wife had decided that I was having too much luck I guess so she cruised right in ahead of me. I turned back to my previous digs. In only minutes she came back toward me grinning and I knew that she had found something nice. She opened her hand to display a beautiful (diamond?) ring and well over a half caret!

We went back to the car to take the magnifying glass and look at our prizes. My silver ring turned out to be 14K gold and a nugget ring too. In the dark the gold nugget ring had no gold color and looked to be only silver. That is a problem sometimes working in the darkness and you can't tell what you have until the sun comes up! Her ring certainly looked like an expensive diamond that might be worth over two thousand dollars and it was 14K too.

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Needless to say we cut the hunt short because of the cold and blowing sand and headed back with our treasure to have a jeweler look at the stone. We were chattering about our finds and having a good time but when we got back and took the ring to a jeweler he pronounced Cubit Zirconia, drat! Anyway we had a good time and found two 14k rings in only a short time. We saw no one on the beach that morning and all the other hearty hunters had the covers up over their heads snoring away. The old beach sometimes rewards hunters who will dare to hunt in extremely bad conditions but no one wants to do it here. Only one other local veteran of the beaches will come out sometimes when it is bad, but all were still sleeping this morning.

Before you hunt the great salt beach

СообщениеДобавлено: 17 дек 2016, 19:35
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Before you hunt the great salt beach
Where the sand meets the sea
Everyone who ever used a metal detector hears the storys of the salt beaches and wants to try their luck there someday. The salt beaches are truly an attractive place to hunt with the gentle sounds of the sea and gulls flying around but beyond all that you will almost certainly walk out onto that large expanse of sand stretching for endless miles and be somewhat intimidated by the size of it.

You may have brought that detector that your brother-in-law loaned you or the one that you picked up at the pawn shop for $25 dollars and it will truly be tested today. The beach always looks about the same but everyday is different from the next and every year is different from the following years. The problem is that there are too many variables like winds, currents, rainfall, and storms. Each shapes and changes the beach.

First before you begin you should only be hunting a very active portion of the beach either now or one which has been active in the past. If it is summer and the crowds are still there you might want to wait until early morning to avoid the crowd or shortly after a rain. There will be lots of coins dropped into the soft dry summer sand and are easy to find but you should have a dry sand scoop to locate them. In very dry sand you can chase a coin around forever! Sometimes I take a shovel and dish out the sand over the top of the other sand but it doesn't work too well because of the weight of the coin it just dives for cover!

I see lots of people use dry sand scoops in wet sand and that is entirely unsatisfactory. First of all you have to stoop and put out lots of effort to cut through the wet sand and over time you will tire too easily. Most detectors will complain loudly like a tree full of magpies if you get it too close to the salt water. Most detectors will not get the depth necessary on dry or wet sand. Many of the best finds are out of range deep.

When you venture out onto the sand for the first time don't just start swinging. Stop and look for five minutes at what you see. Look at the beach in detail and there is a huge amount of detail to see. Look to see at the level of the beach. Does it lie flat? Is there a long slope to the water or a short one? Look at the waves and see which direction they move. Look down the beach and look to see if there are dips in it. The dips might be caused by heavy rains that washed down the sand level to where you might be able to find some old coins. Look close to the water and do you see nothing but water lapping at the shore or do you see a second line of water running back from the beach. All these things are extremely important and they are what you should pay attention to when you get to the beach. To teach you faster then keep a beach journal and write down the date, wind direction, and all the notes that you can about the beach condition.

That is the best way to start but if you are on vacation and are only there for a day or two using a questionable detector then just stay in the dry sand but look to the line where the people lay on the sand and walk down that line for a good long way before you try it elsewhere. The waters edge is not for beginners and has to do with the sea level and where exactly the level is compared to high tide and low tide. It might look good to you but even if your detector worked there without chattering and even if it would detect deep you still would not know where the water line was in relation to the beach and that is very important. Everyone who thinks that they are a beach hunter heads for the waters edge and the waters edge is over hunted and stripped out generally. It is good only in times when the tide is exceptionally low and only when it has NOT been that low before. If it goes out that far too often then the hunters will strip everything out there too. That is why you need to keep records and aside from records pictures are invaluable!!

Everyone has heard of the jewelry at the wet sand and the edge of the water and if you want to hunt it then you have to outsmart all the other hunters. You must be there at the low tide peak if it is midnight, on the backside of a Nor'easter with the winds screaming and times and conditions like that. Your first time to the beach should be for two reasons. For informational purposes to save for reference and to have some fun and pick up some new coins. Bring some bread and feed the gulls and take time to relax to maximize your trip. Remember everyone hunts the beach but most people make huge mistakes and may never come close to understanding the complexity of it or finding the treasures.

Where the sand meets the sea

СообщениеДобавлено: 20 дек 2016, 16:55
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Where the sand meets the sea
Everyone who ever used a metal detector hears the storys of the salt beaches and wants to try their luck there someday. The salt beaches are truly an attractive place to hunt with the gentle sounds of the sea and gulls flying around but beyond all that you will almost certainly walk out onto that large expanse of sand stretching for endless miles and be somewhat intimidated by the size of it.

You may have brought that detector that your brother-in-law loaned you or the one that you picked up at the pawn shop for $25 dollars and it will truly be tested today. The beach always looks about the same but everyday is different from the next and every year is different from the following years. The problem is that there are too many variables like winds, currents, rainfall, and storms. Each shapes and changes the beach.

First before you begin you should only be hunting a very active portion of the beach either now or one which has been active in the past. If it is summer and the crowds are still there you might want to wait until early morning to avoid the crowd or shortly after a rain. There will be lots of coins dropped into the soft dry summer sand and are easy to find but you should have a dry sand scoop to locate them. In very dry sand you can chase a coin around forever! Sometimes I take a shovel and dish out the sand over the top of the other sand but it doesn't work too well because of the weight of the coin it just dives for cover!

I see lots of people use dry sand scoops in wet sand and that is entirely unsatisfactory. First of all you have to stoop and put out lots of effort to cut through the wet sand and over time you will tire too easily. Most detectors will complain loudly like a tree full of magpies if you get it too close to the salt water. Most detectors will not get the depth necessary on dry or wet sand. Many of the best finds are out of range deep.

When you venture out onto the sand for the first time don't just start swinging. Stop and look for five minutes at what you see. Look at the beach in detail and there is a huge amount of detail to see. Look to see at the level of the beach. Does it lie flat? Is there a long slope to the water or a short one? Look at the waves and see which direction they move. Look down the beach and look to see if there are dips in it. The dips might be caused by heavy rains that washed down the sand level to where you might be able to find some old coins. Look close to the water and do you see nothing but water lapping at the shore or do you see a second line of water running back from the beach. All these things are extremely important and they are what you should pay attention to when you get to the beach. To teach you faster then keep a beach journal and write down the date, wind direction, and all the notes that you can about the beach condition.

That is the best way to start but if you are on vacation and are only there for a day or two using a questionable detector then just stay in the dry sand but look to the line where the people lay on the sand and walk down that line for a good long way before you try it elsewhere. The waters edge is not for beginners and has to do with the sea level and where exactly the level is compared to high tide and low tide. It might look good to you but even if your detector worked there without chattering and even if it would detect deep you still would not know where the water line was in relation to the beach and that is very important. Everyone who thinks that they are a beach hunter heads for the waters edge and the waters edge is over hunted and stripped out generally. It is good only in times when the tide is exceptionally low and only when it has NOT been that low before. If it goes out that far too often then the hunters will strip everything out there too. That is why you need to keep records and aside from records pictures are invaluable!!

Everyone has heard of the jewelry at the wet sand and the edge of the water and if you want to hunt it then you have to outsmart all the other hunters. You must be there at the low tide peak if it is midnight, on the backside of a Nor'easter with the winds screaming and times and conditions like that. Your first time to the beach should be for two reasons. For informational purposes to save for reference and to have some fun and pick up some new coins. Bring some bread and feed the gulls and take time to relax to maximize your trip. Remember everyone hunts the beach but most people make huge mistakes and may never come close to understanding the complexity of it or finding the treasures.

Working the big beach crowds

СообщениеДобавлено: 20 дек 2016, 16:56
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Working the big beach crowds

There are about three times a year here that the big tourist crowds show up on the beaches. At first I went to the beach with the crowds to take pictures and see where they were centralized mostly but after a while I started bring my detector along. I would leave in the early evening and arrive just before they started taking up the umbrella's. I would walk back behind the umbrella line down to the better parts of the beach so as they started leaving with the iceboxes and kiddies I would move into the fresh beach nests where they played around all day.

Now sometimes I pay a price for this method and I have noticed that a certain amount of kids will simply delight in running wildly by me and splashing my clothes with water. The aggressive children will do this every time and the others may gather around and crowd me to the point that I can't even swing my coil or dig a pulltab. When it gets this bad I ask them to back-off some and give me room. Out of that group there is always a few that will not and get very close to the hole to grab what ever I dig up. Those are the more aggressive and the best thing is to move on quickly. Last night however I got a glimpse of Generation "Z" and the worst case of aggressive children that I have ever witnessed. I was water hunting and pretty far out too when a certain kid insisted on following me and splashing me continually. As I moved away he dug up a huge hand full of sand and shell that he threw at my back as hard as he could and he hit me in the head and I might say it was quite a wallop! The single parent stood on shore and watched dispassionately

As a comment all I can say is we have really changed a long way from kids who you would "see" but not "hear" as I was told to be as a child. We were told to be especially quiet around guests or strangers and respectful and never to speak where they would hear us. We would have to exit the house without slamming doors and make no noise. I was born into a generation where kids did the chores and helped to contribute to the family and not heaped with gifts and money and ignored. I suppose that parents are really happy with their kids and some of them are very nice kids, but I will avoid certain kids like stepping around rattlesnakes!

There are a few pieces of jewelry around these sites and lots of coins but basically I go to watch the crowd and how much jewelry they are wearing and note the water line and where they are swimming in the surf. All these things will be important later in the year. The centralized locations of gold will not change much but the sea will cover the gold with sand quickly and soon it may be out of range unless there is a heavy storm surf. Since I hunt the winter too I want to know how much gold was in the water in the peak times.

I have studied many of the beach hunters that come to the beach and have noticed that their biggest hang-up is the fact that they really don't believe that there is gold there. They may hunt for a couple of hours and then when gold doesn't pop right up and sing for them they get disgusted and leave. As I work the crowds I am stopped along the beach in the evening by people who have lost things in the surf. I always go look but often the current will sweep the lighter things away and I don't have much luck in finding their lost items.

In the winter the low tides occur in the early morning but in summer here they occur in the late evenings and they are somewhat rare also. The people will sit in the shallow water and play around in the sand and often that is where they loose their gold items so as the sun is setting I am working along the wet sand and shallow water to pickup the days lost items before the sand covers them too deep.

Many times during the year I go to the beach when no one is there and the conditions have changed and I too become somewhat plagued by the thought that there may be no more gold where I am hunting and that is why it is so important to see people wearing the gold and playing in the water. You have to fix those pictures in your mind and hold them to reinforce the idea that there is still lots of gold that has not been found. It is simple in a way... "You have to believe that it is there" and if you don't you will come back home with pulltabs and crusty pennies. That seems to me to be much like fishing and hunting because if you just go with no belief then you will likely not find anything. It seems to mean a lot of difference especially fishing to believe that you will catch something good. I suppose you might say that is one thing that I do that a lot of other hunters don't do is go to see it for myself and as for myself it really helps!

Pennies from heaven

СообщениеДобавлено: 20 дек 2016, 16:57
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Pennies from heaven
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Every now and then when I don't think that the beach will shape up to suit me I get a big surprise. It was like that here and we haven't gotten a drop of rain for over three months and then it came. It rained hard for a couple of days and the beach got over seven inches of rain. I have seen the beach in the winter when the big rains come but rarely in summer here. Water pools up and then runs like a river down to the sea and when it does it cuts right through the sand to leave lots of little washes and some really big cuts in the beach.

I was sitting around feeling bad because I couldn't go hunting and then it struck me that the washes would be back again! Sure enough as I got to the beach early this morning and the beach had a lots of water that had run over it and cut into it. I suppose that the parking lot fills up to the brim and then it rains very hard and it begins to overflow. As the overflow trickles across the sand it takes a few grains of sand with it as it makes it back to the sea. As the first water moves across the beach it begins a cut and then the water that is piled up in the parking lot begins to flow with a lot of force across the beach taking several feet of sand back to the sea.

The rains came with some wind and the downpour also took some sand from the face of the slope that meets the water line. There was no telling how much sand had been removed from it because the water had been very high and took more sand off too. All in all, it was pretty much a virgin beach today and there was lots of beach that had coins and jewelry in it that was worked to death a week ago.

In another recent article I spoke about the hurricanes that tear into the beaches but the heavy rains do a job on it in a smaller way. I walked into the largest cut which was over two feet below the beach chairs and umbrellas which set well above me. I was picking up a few coins and then I dug this deep object which was completely encrusted and black but I could see that it was a disc about two inches in diameter and looked like a large coin! I have a feeling that it is very, very old.

The sun came out and the rainwater everywhere turned into instant steam and I began to boil. All together we picked up two rings, a pretty silver necklace and heart pendant, and a nice mans silver chain bracelet. The heat was oppressive and we had to leave the beach but I wanted to tell you about this opportunity so that you will not miss it. The large old coin also rang up in the gold range so there is no telling what it is. There was a pirate camp only two miles from the spot and I am sure that they scampered all over the beach for years.

As I set here typing this article the huge coin object sits in electrolysis boiling away but I have never seen so much of the black crud that clings to the old things like this one. It was very hard to make contact with the object to attach the metal clip and it still had a heavy coating on it but I got one little place to contact it and it started drawing current on the battery charger.... Yes a battery charger! I am not going to let this thing drain all my batteries and it will take some serious current to be able to cook off the black crud. I will post a follow up when ever it gets clean enough to see and let you all know what it turned out to be. Probably an old washer, but maybe this is the good one. I hate waiting........

Treasure in a time warp

СообщениеДобавлено: 20 дек 2016, 16:58
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Treasure in a time warp
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This article is to prime you for the main event of beach hunting when all the years of learning and gaining experience come together for an extraordinary door into the past. Consider our sand beaches which are loaded full of hundreds of years of historic artifacts. The more that I learn about the beach I see how quick that the deep sand beaches swallow all the dropped artifacts of each generation that comes to sun and swim. It has been this way for centuries and that is not the major source of artifacts but the tens of thousands of shipwrecks that have been buried below our shores for hundreds of years. Maps of shipwrecks show up like sunbathers along all our beaches and many have been tossed up and destroyed in storms wrecking the ship and sinking the cargo right there on our beach.

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This is the treasure, as layers of ancient coins and gold jewelry from long years ago that have been buried very deep under many feet of sand are still there and waiting for someone who knows when to reach it. For all of us who know, we watch patiently and wait. It may not happen for twenty or thirty years but when it does the door into history is open and there is treasure

I am talking about the kind of beach erosion that only occurs in the most severe conditions. When a hurricane or typhoon spins up the wind and seas they can cut right through the sands of history and just like a time warp they can take you back in time hundreds of years. You can then easily reach objects that have last been held by people long ages ago. Of course it depends on the intensity of the storm as to the amount of erosion and the type of beach because you may have bedrock only a little way down on your beach and some of the treasure may have already been recovered years ago.


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This picture represents only mild erosion
Due to the position of the storm and its counter clockwise circulation (as in the case of hurricanes) you will often see an onshore flow as the storm approaches your area and then after the eye passes the wind switches and the offshore flow begins. Now we are talking about a Strong offshore flow of perhaps a 150 mph wind. The onshore flow has overflowed the beaches and pounded the shore with extremely powerful waves and storm surge where the dunes may be stripped completely away. The onshore surge has cause severe beach erosion and removed the sands that covered our treasure and exposed shipwrecks and old coins not to mention the gold jewelry of centuries and it is just laying there exposed on the sand, bedrock, or clay bottom. The thing to know and the key to this treasure is knowing when and how you should go about recovering it and how long it will be there. The sand in mild beach erosion may be replaced in only a year or two but the severe erosion may take ten years or more to replace. It is possible in severe erosion to cut the beach down far below the erosion that these images depict.

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After the eye has passed a beach and while the winds are still blowing strong just stay home and dry, but pack your beach equipment and enough food to prepare to stay a while if necessary. As the wind drops below hurricane velocity to where you can drive on the highway safely you can prepare your way and watch for road closings and flooding. It seems that a rental would be in order of a small truck with a high enough bed to roll through the water and make you way to the seashore before the barricade's are set up to block anyone access. Since you should stay well clear of all homes and wreckage so not to be confused with someone looting the area you should move quickly to the beach area. As the winds subside into gale force the beach or what was the beach will look far differently from the beach that you recall. It may have been stripped of almost all sand and only rocks, mud and perhaps the old wooden timbers of the shipwrecks will be exposed along the beach. At this time you may not need your metal detector as a 5 gallon bucket will do. You should find the area littered with more treasures than you will be able to pick up easily.

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Storms can cut like a knife into a beach and this road is mute evidence to the power
Now winter storms that frequent the eastern seaboard and the summer tropical weather that plagues southern California may do some beach erosion but a large storm will really do the job for you. The key to the whole idea is beach access and being "Johnny-on-the-spot" so to speak. Getting there too late might not get you anything for your trouble as the water rushes back in to cover the treasures and quickly begins covering it with sand again. You can see why this is not an easy task, but at the same time it is an opportunity most rare.

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From time to time there are modest storms or oceanic events that may cause some fair erosion and there is some sampling of the treasures that lie there and wait for the daring treasure hunter to take it. You can see finds of Spanish cobs, an occasional gold escudo or American gold coins to give you an idea of what may lie there but the mother load is under cover waiting. We see old Spanish treasure show up around Vero beach Florida up and down the beaches along there. The numerous old wrecks have deposited literally tons of treasure coins in the sands. Along the Atlantic beaches some coins are recovered as all of our shores have vast numbers of shipwrecks on them.

Now if you choose to hunt the storm ravaged beach you should be prepared and know what you are doing. The wind can just blow you into the sea and carry you away or the water surge suddenly and wash you off the beach beyond all rescue. Be advised this method of treasure hunting could cost you your life and make sure that you do so understanding that and that you go at your own risk. Under no circumstances go to the beach before a storm as the full impact of a huge storm is unlike anything you might imagine and you probably would not have a chance of survival. Make sure that the storm has well passed and that you monitor a portable radio for information on the storm. Many storms make erratic movements and could turn around and head back at you. Treasure is not worth a day of your life!

Opening Day!

СообщениеДобавлено: 20 дек 2016, 17:00
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Opening Day!
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This Memorial day weekend is the opening day for surf hunting as millions plan to go to the beaches. For water hunters this is the time that the gold supply gets replenished as the lessons of last year will be forgotten and swimmers will enter the water forgetting all about how easily the surf removes the gold from them.

Beaches having just gone through the massive changes of the last month due to the Vernal equinox and have returned to the summer configuration of cuts and sandbars under the water and much of the gold will roll into the cuts and be swallowed up several inches deep in only days. During the last month the tides have been abnormal and the currents on some beaches have increased terribly to cut through the sand again.

The beaches have warning flags to inform bathers of the dangerous nature of the undercurrent, however almost all will ignore it and some will swim into the riptides and be pulled into the deep water. It is extremely dangerous and many will drown. The danger is obvious if you try to enter the water with your surfhunting gear. I have my own way of telling me when I should leave the water. I have a large heavy stainless steel scoop and the riptide current will pull it so hard that is pulled out straight from me at arms length. This is too dangerous to remain in the water, or at least the deeper water. I take note of the direction because generally when this happens it is point straight out to sea and I am in a riptide. If this happens to you do not panic or struggle or try to fight it but just retrace your steps which led you into it and you will be quickly out of the rip.

It seems to me that the beach hunters have been multiplying in vast numbers and while there used to be only a very few that even knew how to hunt there is now a large group of new hunters and more and more competition for the gold. Up till now the surf has been so bad and the current so terrible that bathers were content only to walk into the water just above knee deep and stand around. The heat of the June sun will provide the reason for them to enter the deeper water even though it remains very dangerous.

There will be so many people in the water and walking along the edge that you should give up trying to hunt with them and wait until Holiday is over and then try your luck. To take advantage of the weekend go to the beach to mark the tide level and where the most active swimming areas are. You must separate the tourists from the local crowds as the locals will not loose much. Take pictures and let this be your guide this summer helping you to see where the crowds were after they have thinned down some. Take notice of how many are wearing gold into the water. If you don't see the jewelry on them in the water then don't bother looking for it. Chances are that they are just locals and they will loose very little.

Those of us who hunt year around, earnestly look forward to the replenishment of the gold as we hunt every last item possible during the low tides of winter Take special care and be aware of the dangers. All beaches have their special dangers and here there is a number of them. Walk slowly and listen carefully for signals and remember that most gold will be fairly shallow under the sand and so should give a strong signal. I like to do a target profile even in the surf as the information that I can get from it baits my appetite for goodies. For instance the last thing nice that I found was a Italian wristwatch buried in the seafloor that gave me a coin signal. I moved the coil across the target both ways and analyzed the signal. Before I dug it up I had decided that it was a wristwatch! Try this and you will be amazed. I can generally tell a silver ring from a coin too. It takes lots of practice to achieve this.

Make this year a good one and have lots of fun but please be careful. There will probably be bodies in the surf around here for a week or more after this Holiday weekend and I wouldn't want to bump into you! One look at a bloated white corpse is a sight that you will always remember. Take care.

F O L L O W U P
The surf here has a RED flag for dangerous currents and a BLUE flag for poisonous Man-O-War jellyfish but that did not stop the crowds or me. Here is the picture of the Memorial weekend jewelry finds not including all the coins and other beach finds:
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Turning over the sand

СообщениеДобавлено: 20 дек 2016, 17:00
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Turning over the sand
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In the spring of the year after the vernal equinox the surf is rough and high for nearly two months and during the month of May here the currents in the surf begin to change the bottom of the swimming areas from a gentle slope into the deep cuts and sandbars we see in summer. At the same time that the sand is tossed onto the beach to build until the Fall

Today I could hardly believe how much the bottom had changed and although it was changing into the cuts and bars mode of summer there were deep holes being scooped out and in some places the bottom was like a minefield. The current was terrible and a strong riptide almost carried me out to sea. I have been waiting for bottom to change again as not only does it provide a cut for jewelry but also it digs deeply into the bottom that was filled in very shortly after the autumnal equinox last fall. Now last fall there was a mother load of gold dropped along the beaches into the cuts by the tourists and in only a couple of weeks the sea just filled in the cuts!

I have been wanting to return to the cuts and holes that the strong surf has made and look once more for the golden goodies that I know were still there for the most part since last fall. When gold is dropped so fast and then covered it may eventually sink in the sand out of range of detectors but if the currents remove the sand covering them I may once more get a chance to find them in range of my detector.

Some of the holes in the surf that are in the process of being dug may tend to average out in summer so it is a good idea to check them now. In some places the holes may cut down to a hard bottom of clay, coral, or rock so it may be possible to locate a great number of old coins and jewelry. Take care and watch out for the strong currents and it is a good idea to wear one of the inflatable life preservers that the divers use. You may be fortunate enough to have clear water but my surf is dirty and sandy. I recall one day last year when the surf was cutting a new bottom and I couldn't even walk because the seafloor was like a minefield with holes all over and as I would stumble away from one I would step into another. A good time of the year to take extra precautions.

Many who hunt the coastlines have such heavy surf that the only way that they can hunt it is to strap on divers weights to hold them in place while they scoop the rings. Remember that for surf hunting an opportunity may open up for only a short while and then pass quickly so it pays off good to make sure that you NEVER miss an opportunity!

When I was a child Galveston Island was vastly different than it is now. Now the beaches have eroded so bad that only a sliver of beach remains of the wide, clean sand beaches then. There used to be very small clams from one forth of an inch long to a half inch and they were colored with rainbow colors and could be found in millions along the shore. Now they are all gone, perhaps killed by pollution but I don't think so. In the past Galveston Island just pushed all the garbage off into the back side of the island into the water and the clams were healthy then. Now they have cleaned it up the clams are gone and all that remains of them is the huge mounds of the tiny shells when the surf digs them up again this time of year. That makes it hard to dig into the bottom in some areas because the shells won't fall through the scoop. I still hunt in the clamshells because I have found rings embedded in the thick piles of shells.

All our beaches are somewhat different but they all have many things in common. Watch your beach closely and note the date that you see the changes happen and you will find that you are building a resource to help you hunt the surf. It will help to tell you what time of year is best for certain places and under types of surf conditions. Make a log of when you found jewelry and just where you found it. You may notice as did I that it shows up in the same place next year!