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Dry Beach
On a dry beach, salt is not as much of an issue so the sample delay can be minimized,
usually to 7 µs. While beaches often have a fair amount of trash, a beach scoop makes
recovery fast and easy so All Metal mode is recommended. The use of Tone or Mute
mode is more beneficial in an area with a lot of iron targets (e.g. near fire sites). For
fast coverage use a brisk sweep speed, coupled with a high ATS setting.
Wet Salt Sand
Here the salt begins to be an issue. Depending on salinity, 7
µs may still work or you
may need to increase to 7.5 or 8 µs. Trash is not as prevalent as it does not tend to
settle into the wet sand, so All Metal mode is preferred. This is also where deeper
targets are likely; slow down the sweep, using an ATS of 8 µs or lower.
Surf Zone
If you are in the active surf with the coil in (and out of) the water, then the salt
problem is magnified and 8 µs is likely the minimum delay that will offer reasonable
stability. Pushing the coil through the water demands a much slower sweep speed,
and the ATS should be reduced accordingly.
Shallow Water
If you are wading in water, the coil has a large volume of water over it. If the surf
swells, the constantly changing volume of water can create slow false signals.
Increase the ATS to minimize the falsing, but keep in mind that sweep speed is
extremely limited and reducing ATS will impact depth. It may be better to attain an
“ear” for picking out a target signal in the middle of swell noise. A delay of 9-10 µs
may
be necessary.
Volcanic Black Sand
When hunting extreme black sand beaches using Volcanic Sand mode, all the above
scenarios still apply, but in addition the pulse delay may need to be increased even
more.
