Metal detecting at beaches and in the water can uncover a variety of treasures.

Continued from Part 1

You can use a standard, all-purpose metal detector for beach and shallow water hunting (if your metal detector has a submersible search coil), but make sure no water gets into the electronic control housing. If you use a standard detector in shallow water, or near water, you should consider covering the control housing with plastic or buying a custom cover that fits your detector to prevent any splashing of water into the housing.

If you really want to get serious about shallow water metal detecting, consider investing in a hybrid land-water detector or even a fully submersible detector that can be used not only for shallow water hunting but also for underwater detecting (many models are submersible up to 200 feet) with no worries about damaging the electronics. Hybrid detectors feature splash-proof housing and headphones, but only the search coil and shaft are fully submersible.

For detecting in an ocean, saltwater environment, you might consider a pulse induction (PI) type metal detector. The PI technology cancels out the effects of salt and other minerals in the ground, while still being deep-seeking and highly sensitive to gold and other precious metals, although you won’t get the more sophisticated discrimination functionality available with standard very low frequency (VLF) detectors. This means digging up more trash, but it also may mean finding more gold rings and other valuable jewelry.

Examples of PI detectors are Garrett's submersible Sea Hunter Mark II and hybrid land-water detector Infinium LS.

Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II

Whichever brand, model or type of detector you choose for beach and shallow water hunting, for best results, select one that is appropriate for the location and environment that you will be searching. If you’re going to stick to the beach, a standard, dry land detector will work fine, although you may need to do some extra experimentation with the sensitivity, ground balancing and discrimination controls if you are searching in heavily mineralized sand.

If you venture into the water, make sure the search coil and shaft on your detector are submersible, and protect the control housing from splashing. A hybrid detector with splash-proof control housing and headphones is  ideal for a combination of land and shallow water hunting, while an underwater detector is mandatory if you want to take your quest into deeper water. Obviously, you should be extra careful not to drop a standard or hybrid detector into the water.

Recovery tools

The ideal recovery tools for beach and water hunting are a trowel and/or a sand scoop made of stainless steel or sturdy plastic that will hold up to digging in wet sand and withstand the effects of oxidation.

In the next installment of this series, we will examine search strategies for finding your share of the huge treasure trove of coins, rings and other items lost each summer at beaches and swimming areas. In case you missed it, click here to read Part 1.