A combination of high moon tides and northeast winds this past Wednesday created ideal conditions for beachunting along the New Jersey coast. I received an excited call Friday night from my hunting partner, Betty Sullivan, who owns a house at the shore; "Aim, ya GOTTA get down here! The beach is giving up a lot of stuff!" Well, you don't have to tell me twice. My bag was packed in a New York minute, and my car was pointed east the following morning. When I arrived, Betty showed me what she had found so far, which was pretty impressive, since we normally wouldn't consider hunting the beach in April. The sand on the northern beaches is very loose, and whatever is dropped shakes down deep pretty quickly, so we usually reserve beach hunting for the summer months, searching for recent drops. UNLESS we have conditions like these, in which case there is no better time to hunt the beaches! After "oohing and ahhing" over Betty's finds, we headed to the beach, where the seas were still pretty angry,
and wooden stairways were left to dangle precariously in mid-air,
after having the beach sucked out from underneath them. The sea had cut into the dunes, creating shear sand walls 15 to 20 feet high,
and chunks of sand containing coins and jewelry would break off and tumble to the base. We had a blast scooping the targets from these mini-sand avalanches! Alas, Mother Nature is fickle, and when we returned today, the conditions had changed, and the sand was bereft of targets :(. Here's a pic of what we found Saturday, and a shot of the better finds, including 3 14kt gold rings, an 18kt gold pendant, 5 silver rings, 5 silver religious medals, 1 silver earring, 21 silver coins, a sterling silver spoon, and a set of silver military bars. Betty had 2 days' jump on me during the peak conditions, and found all the gold and most of the silver. We LOVED the X3's on the beach! Light, stable, deep, precise and weatherproof (important when you're assaulted with sea spray!) The targets were anywhere from surface to a foot or more deep, and they came in loud and clear! What a pleasure the X3 is to use! It will be a long time before we see these conditions again, and I'm glad we were "in the right place at the right time." I sure hope the Easter Bunny brought me some mineral ice. My calves are killing me!

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After a monster fall on some ice in my driveway this morning and wrenching my shoulder, I popped a couple of Advils and headed out to pick up Betty for a day at the beach. It was the first time in a month the temps climbed above freezing, and we aimed to take advantage of the "balmy" weather :). We arrived 2 hours before low tide, and hit a spot no bigger than an average front lawn that produced like crazy! We were using our X3's on the saltwater beach along the water line with discrimination on 4 and sensitivity on 8. Both detectors ran smooth and quiet, and picked up some very deep targets. Betty's first signal was a 14kt Mother's ring with 3 stones. From then on, it was a blur of coins and jewelry until the tide came in. I found a heavy 14kt ring with diamonds set in the initial "K." Betty then found a 14kt engagement ring with a small diamond and several silver toe rings within about a 5 foot area. It was my turn next to find a 10kt ring with a light blue stone. There was also plenty of junk jewelry, keys, sinkers and copious amounts of coins. Betty pulled another white metal ring (hopefully white gold) and 3 silver coins. Have you ever had a day of detecting so good that you couldn't stop digging, hours passed like seconds, nothing in the world mattered except the next target, and you were so euphoric you felt like a blithering idiot? That pretty much sums up the kind of day we had - fantastic! Funny thing is my shoulder never hurt the whole time I was detecting, but now it's sore as heck! :)

We had heard the sand was frozen, but the only treacherous part was the ramp leading down to the beach.

If you look closely, you can see a small cut with the beach sloping down to the gravel line at the water's edge. Most of the targets were found in this area.
The only other occupants of the beach were seagulls and a few starfish. I love the beach in winter!

How May I Help You? I got a giggle out of this find, as that's how I answer the phone when Troy transfers the calls to me. Did you plant that there, Troy?

Hehe.
Lastly, the good stuff!

Amy - Feb. 4, 2004

Betty and I headed out today with open minds. Our minds were open because we didn't know where we were going to go! First we stopped at some dirtpiles. Nothing. On the way to our next site, we stopped at a yardsale and I picked up some scrap gold :). By the way, I had an excellent goldsale day yesterday, and will post the pics when I get a moment. We then stopped at a farm and were given permission to hunt the fields. After about 2 hours, the property owner changed his mind and asked us to leave. Not the first time a property owner has gone schizy on us. There was another time we were given permission, and about a half hour into the hunt, the property owner came flying out yelling, "I said you could metal detect - NOT DIG!" We're still trying to figure that one out! Hehe. Before we were asked to leave, we did manage to find a few good things with our Shadow X3's. Betty found a large cent and a button (we need help with that one), and I found a 1/4 reale (no date, but it's an early one) and an Indian Head. Too bad we couldn't have stayed longer :(. Our final stop was the place where I found the Indian Department button, and I pulled a baby batwing buckle and Betty dug a pocketknife. The weather today was perfect for hunting!

Oct. 17, 2004

Being that it rained all week, and Betty and I didn't want to slog through corn fields or be mistaken for deer in the woods, we opted for the third alternative - THE BEACH! It wasn't exactly the perfect day weatherwise (rain, rain, go away), but we suited up and headed out for a detecting fix. I was using the X3 with the DD coil, and Betty used her X3 with the 7" coil (at least the Shadows are weatherproof!) Here's what we saw when we stepped onto the beach:

1 - These are not cuts. They are a result of bulldozing sand out from under the boardwalk and lining it up along the upper slope of the beach. Here's a pic of the boardwalk sans the sand that used to be underneath:

2 - Normally, waves crash on this beach, but due to the minus low tides, the water gently rolled in:

3 - Here's Betty holding up her second silver of the day!

4 - Betty digging another target. Note that the "coin line" was about halfway between the bottom slope of the beach and the tide line. And yes, we filled in every hole :)

5 - Together, we scooped up 29 quarters, 35 nickels, 96 pennies, 29 dimes, 7 tokens, 2 silver Washington quarters, 3 Mercs, 2 silver Rosie's and assorted fishing lures and sinkers.

6 - Here's the 7 silver:

7 - I LOVED using the DD on the beach! The signals are crisp and clear, it goes VERY deep, is VERY stable, covers a larger area and pinpoints better than any DD I've ever used. It's a winner! To show how sensitive it is, the last picture is a tiny turtle I dug that kept falling through the scoop. It's next to a dime for size comparison. Finally, our backs and the rain caused us enough misery to call it a day, but what a fun day it was!

Dec. 11, 2004

Betty and I hit Seaside yesterday. Betty got the gold and I got the silver. Betty found a nice gold pendant, and I found a silver dime and a wheatie. We both found about $7.00 in change. It was WINDY! Ivan's the next storm that promises to stir things up by the end of the week. The Federation Chapter hunt in Wildwood this Saturday could be interesting...

Sept 6, 2004

Posted By: Amy
Date: Wednesday, 23 March 2005

Very special thanks to John and Rose K. and the entire DIV committee for organizing a fabulous and flawless event! Betty and I brought home not only relics, but also memories that will last a lifetime! It was wonderful meeting some of the names on this forum and reuniting with quite a few also. Betty and I dug 3 huts (we found on Eagle I cuff in one!) and were given expert guidance throughout the entire weekend. To witness a Civil War camp literally rise from the ground through all the relics found is nothing short of awe inspiring. I just can't say enough about how well the hunt was run and how helpful everyone was. Thank you again John, Rose and the DIV committee for the opportunity, the memory and the experience of a lifetime! It was an honor and a privledge to be a part of such an historically important event, and Betty and I had a blast! Here are my finds. I'll help Betty post hers soon.

Posted By: Amy
Date: Saturday, 26 March 2005, at 3:56 p.m.

As you can see, Betty was a busy little digger at the DIV hunt! I almost rented her out a couple times to help others dig their huts. Hehe. Not only is Betty a skilled, dedicated digger, she is also the best hunting partner in the world, and even took over the wheel for me for a while on the drive home when I started nodding off. Hehe. Way to go, Betty!

Betty and I took our usual Sunday evening sojourn to the beach last night, with Cooter from our club (any of you on the competition hunt circuit would know him, too) joining us. The sand was rife with change, and we all had full pouches of clad. Between us, we dug 252 coins. Betty found a silver star pendant, Cooter dug a silver eternity band with colored stones, and lo and behold!, I pulled a 14kt gold necklace out of the sand. It was a fun find because all I saw was a little bit of it at first, and then I started gently tugging it out of the damp sand, and finally the medal at the end popped out! It weighs 12.3 grams - almost a half ounce! I was using the X3 with the 10 X 5 DD coil, and man, was it smokin'! :) Here's the necklace:

And here's my pile of change. 24 quarters, 18 dimes, 15 nickels and 28 pennies:

August 29, 2005

Kudos to the Deep Search Metal Detecting Club for ordering up a perfect day at the beach and organizing a top-notch hunt! Luck was with me before I even turned on my detector as I won a 1919 1/4 oz. gold Sovereign in the first raffle! About 50 people attended with Betty and I representing Team Shadow East at this hunt while other Team Shadow East members were attending the Wildwood hunt. There were a good assortment of coins and prizes and a free lunch was also included. This club pays a lot of attention to details and is very attentive to their participants. Aside from typical silver, a lot of "big" coins were buried, such as Ike, Morgan and Peace dollars, and Kennedy halves. There were also older coins like large cents, shield nickels, Indian Head cents, seated and standing silver, etc. Betty and I had fun scooping up all kinds of coins, and we each won several nice token prizes.

Monte asked last week for a coil comparison for competition hunting, but first let me emphasize that the detector comes first, and the Shadow X3 and X5's are the best I've ever used for competiton hunting! Super light weight, a fast sweep speed, dead-on pinpointing, a frequency shifter that will eliminate interference from other detectors - all contribute to making the Shadows the #1 competition hunt detectors.

There are different schools of thought about which coils to use in competition hunts. A 5" or 7" coil will allow you the fastest swing speed and most accurate pinpointing. The 9" or 10 X 5 DD coils should be swung a bit slower, but they cover more ground and pinpoint extremely well. I've used the 7, 9 and DD in many competition hunts, but my personal favorite is the DD because it covers more ground and finds those coins on edge that others miss. It's a matter of personal preference and hunting style, but you can't go wrong with any of the coils as long as they're attached to a Shadow! Lastly, if you're attending a hunt that has a "deepseekers" competition, you're swinging the right machine :).

Here are pics of my finds followed by Betty's:

October 3, 2005

Shhhhhhhh...don't tell Troy I played hooky from work today. I told him I had Mad Cow disease, but I don't think he believed me :).

The winds have been blowing strong from the Northeast this past week, and if there's one word that can get a beachunter's blood boiling, it's "Nor'easter!" Betty and I took off this morning while it was still dark in order to scope out the beach 3 hours before low tide. We were greeted by angry seas, horizontal rain, chilly temps and 30 to 40 mph winds that could make your back say Howdy after leaning into and swinging a detector for 5 hours.

Here's the Michelin girls decked out in Cabella's finest (Betty on the left, yours truly on the right).

Our fine feathered counterparts "shadowed" us along the beach
What's this I see? Could that be GOLD at the bottom of the hole?
Let's have a closer look...

Yes! A 14kt gold man's bracelet! (It weighs 19.7 grams!) I also found a 1946 Rosie and a slew of other change and odds and ends. Everything was DEEP - about the 8 to 12 inch range, and our X3's with the DD coils not only performed flawlessly, but also took the punishment Mother Nature handed out and asked for more! Betty found 2 silver religious medals and a lot of other coins and things. Despite the weather, we had a great time and are ready to do it again in Ocean City on Sunday :). Time for a hot shower and some Mad Cow milk and cookies :).

Oct. 14, 2005

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