Our local beach has become a lot tougher in the past few years. It’s kind of funny to me because there are a lot of guys who consider themselves to be “pulse hunters” but they don’t really bring too much skill to the task. They dig everything–not bothering to size shape or contextualize their targets. They also leave all their garbage targets in the water–mostly caps. This has resulted in a site that’s “boiled down” to a ton of caps and pins. Few even have the skill to focus on the low ground. So now we have this army of hunters digging the same garbage”fluff” targets–again and again. These guys are not equipped to adapt to a changing environment by becoming more selective in what they dig. Digging everything with a pulse is usually a loosing proposition because of the factor of time. The key is to learn to focus upon the small, deep responses that are sitting in material which is solid enough to support gold. Time spent at the bench learning how various size objects sound at a given distance from the coil is time well spent. With a lot of pulses caps and pins can be readily distinguished. Just learning to turn a PI machine down will save a lot of needless digging. More information on understanding pulse machines and shorelines can be found in my books “Pulsepower: Finding Gold at the Shore with a Pulse induction Metal Detector” and “Water Hunting: Secrets of the Pros, Volume II”
All of my best and heaviest gold finds have been pulse finds.
Good Luck Detecting, clive