Written by the TreasureGuide for the Exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report
You might be interested to know what you miss. You know - all the gold coins, gems and great treasures of the world you passed over. Or maybe you'd rather not know.
I'm being a little provocative, but it is for a reason. We never know what we miss. We know what we find, but seldom do we find out what we missed.
Decades later I still remember a time when I was metal detecting on a crowded Hollywood beach. A fellow laying on the beach in his bathing suit asked me if I could detect his watch. I said, "Sure." He had me turn my back while he buried it. He smoothed the sand over the area to disguise the spot, then told me to find it. I confidently turned around and started sweeping ahead.
The area I had to search wasn't large. He didn't get up and go anywhere, but I passed the over area and didn't hear a thing. He uncovered the watch and I was really surprised that I somehow missed what I thought was such an easy target.
Now this was back decades ago, not long after I started metal detecting, and I'd like to think that I would definitely under the same circumstances find the watch today, but over the years I've paid a lot of attention to how items are missed. I've learned that there are many ways to miss good targets, and I believe that we miss a lot more than we'd like to think. I've remained very sensitive to how easy it is to miss items, and often check myself. It is not unusual for me to throw out a coin or other item on a beach, then close my eyes and proceed forward in a normal pace to check myself.
I've followed other good detectorists using excellent metal detectors down the beach and found good things they passed over. It is not unusual. And I've gone back to areas I've detected before and found things that were missed.
It is very easy to miss things on a beach. There is just too much area to cover well, and it is easy, and sometimes even a good idea, to move quickly over a lot of area. You might not always want to cover every inch, but instead just get a sample of a particular area, so you might strategically pass over some things.
And then there is discrimination. That is something that can be used strategically, but the purpose of discrimination is to miss things. But sometimes you miss things that you'd actually like to have.
Again - you don't know what you miss. It usually remains a secret. You can be happy with the thing you found, not knowing that you could have just as easily found something much better. Maybe it was under your coil, and you still missed it, or maybe it was only an inch to one side or down one inch more.
I know how easy it is to miss good targets. That is why I'll check and recheck some areas.
There is one area of my own yard that I've gone over with various detectors several times in the past. It is where people, before I moved here, parked their cars on the lawn and lost coins. I found more coins in that area than anywhere else in my yard. After years I recently went over that area once again and found a penny that I missed several times before. That reinforced what I knew - how easy it is to miss things.
There are a lot of ways you can miss things. Poor technique, strategic decisions and nature can all play a roll.
Going back to Hollywood beach and the missed watch, I now know a lot more than I did then. I suspect that my sweeps were simply not close enough together. I was probably moving too fast. But I think I was using the Fisher Aquanaut 1280, and it could have been during the days when I was using discrimination. I certainly didn't know at that time what to expect a watch to sound like. I now know that depends upon what the watch is made of and how it is laying. I've investigated that a lot in more recent years and produced some posts and YouTube videos on the subject.
We all know how important a proper sweep is, and the importance of overlapping sweeps and keeping the coil even across the ground. There is a big difference between quickly sampling an area and getting complete coverage. In fact, you can't get what I'd call complete coverage. You can completely cover surface area, but your depth is very limited. There is always depth you are missing. And you might be surprised by the shape of the cone of sensitivity under your coil. You might think that you get a certain number inches consistently, but it can vary quite a bit depending upon soil conditions, the coil's cone of sensitivity, and other things.
There are many ways to miss things. I recommend being aware of that. Check yourself. Don't be afraid to go back over areas you've detected before.. Use the same detector and vary your technique and settings, and use multiple detectors.
There are many ways and reasons you can miss perfectly good targets. I can't go over them all today. But as inconvenient as the truth might be, it can be helpful to be aware of what you might miss and the many ways things can be missed.
I don't know how I missed the penny in my yard so many times, but I used a newer detector the last time. Maybe that was the reason I found finally found that penny, but it could have shifted position in the ground or something too.
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In response to my post discussing railroad lead seals, DJ had the following to say.
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Looks like we'll get some wind from Elsa this afternoon.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
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| Source: Magicseaweed.com. |
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net