Searching with a metal detector on the beach is fundamentally different from searching for old coins outside the city. Beach search on the beach, a hobby for people who are not embarrassed by the prospect of hundreds of questions asked by vacationers and just onlookers on the beach, although it is possible to reduce these questions to a minimum. To do this, choose the weather that frightens the standard layman and boldly go on the road, drizzling, windy, sunless, simply vile weather is one hundred percent suitable.
To search on the beach in the sand, any ground metal detector, even the most budget one, is suitable, this is due to the fact that the depth of the finds in the sand is usually not great, although of course there are exceptions, but there will be no mention of them. A standard Garrett ACE 250 or Teknetics Alpha 2000 is enough, during my first steps in the search, I spent the whole of September on the beach with my ICQ, those were wonderful times.
Reel Size Requirements. As we know, for more accurate target identification, it is necessary to minimize the hit under the searchcoil of more than one target, and since our beaches hide a large amount of metal debris, we must be wise in choosing a searchcoil. So, a beach search coil doesn't have to be big! For an ellipse - no more than 6x10 inches, for a round one - no more than 8 inches, the ideal size is about 6 inches.
coil type requirements. Coil type - for the beach, many advise only mono coils, but I do not adhere to this opinion and I think that the type can be used both Mono and DD.
Detector Frequency Requirements. As we discussed above, you can search even with the cheapest ground metal detector, but if you have the financial ability, then it is better to choose a metal detector that can operate at a high frequency, 13 kHz, 15 kHz, and even higher. First, the high frequency is geared towards better detection of small targets such as earrings, chains, small rings, etc. The second advantage is that it clings well to objects with an average electrical conductivity, which is gold. The third advantage is the improved separation of metals. The fourth advantage of a high-frequency coil is its high immunity to electrical interference, which can be sufficient in urban conditions.
What finds can be made on the beach - the lion's share falls on beer caps, not one modern beach can do without them. After digging out the cover, do not throw it in the sand, but rather take it with you and throw it in the trash can. After the lids, comes the modern trifle. For an average hour of searching on the beach, you can collect about four hryvnia. Unfortunately, gold rarely comes across, and in order to dig it out, you need to pull out more than a dozen, or even a hundred caps from the sand. As one of my acquaintances says, the one who does not dig out the lids does not find the golden rings. Well, here's how lucky, because another friend of mine claimed that for the whole summer in which he visited the beach every day, he found no less, but about 300 grams of red metal.
A tool for speeding up and facilitating the search for targets in the sand is the scub. Scubas are manual and on a holder, like a shovel, homemade and factory. If you don’t have a scuba then grab a pinpointer, because it’s very difficult to find something small in the pouring sand, it happened that I tried to catch a Ukrainian coin of 10 kopecks for several minutes.
Search in water. If you want to go deep under water at least a meter, then you need special equipment, approach and good experience. The searcher makes the decision to dig or not based on the sound of the detector alone, which requires a good understanding of the detector. A budget detector is not suitable here, both a symbiosis of ground and underwater Garrett AT Gold, and a purely underwater one, for example, Minelab Excalibur II, are suitable for underwater search. It is also necessary to have a scuba with a handle, without it there is no point in poking into the water.
A professional treasure hunter, the owner of the only treasure hunt office in Russia, Vladimir Poryvaev, told NV about one of the aspects of his unusual profession - "beach search with a metal detector."
- I can't get anything. When I didn’t have a metal detector, I still couldn’t sit still - I caught crabs, caught up with fish. And then this lesson came, - Vladimir recalls the beginning of his career as a treasure hunter. – Every year, for more than 15 years in a row, I travel to the Crimea during the beach season and search for “beach gold” - decorations that people lose when swimming in the sea and sunbathing on the beach.
– Do you really lose so much that you find something every day?
– In our traditions, going to the beach, leave a minimum of clothes and a maximum of jewelry. And on the beach there is little garbage that interferes with the treasure hunt. Basically, these are labels from cans and corks from beer bottles. Of course, sometimes instead of gold you find children's toys, women's hairpins, cutlery and foil from sweets and cigarettes, which you always have to unfold - often the most valuable is wrapped in it. Once I unwrapped the foil, and in it - 50 dollars. The beach and coastal zone is a crowd of people.
And the area is very limited. It makes sense to explore only those places where people sunbathe, and a small coastal area where they swim. The number of finds is distributed approximately like this: 70 percent I find in the water and 30 percent on the beach. My daily catch is up to 10 grams of gold. And not only scrap, but also gold jewelry in excellent condition. And besides gold - modern coins of 200 rubles.
– And where do you put the coins?
- If they lay in salt water for a long time, then they are faded, "eaten by the sea." A person will hardly take them from you. And the machines are accepted without complaint. There are always a lot of vending machines in resort places - you can buy coffee, chocolates, pull out a toy from a slot machine. My daughters leave Crimea with 10-20 soft toys each. But coins for me are pampering.
– What is real?
- Real gold. Well, silver, of course. As for 30 percent of the jewelry found on the beach, they are lost by smart people who know that they will go into the water, there will be a temperature difference of more than 10 degrees. The blood vessels narrow sharply. And the larger, the more massive the ring, the easier it is lost. During water fun, chains are torn, earrings are unfastened, but first of all, of course, rings are instantly lost. Therefore, smart people do not go into the water in gold jewelry. They take them off, put them in a pack of cigarettes or in the back pocket of their shorts, wrap them in a blanket and go for a swim. And when they come out of the sea, they forget about their actions. In Russian traditions, there is also the custom of a plentiful libation on the beach. When the gold is remembered, the kids were already running around the place, or they put on shorts to go for cigarettes, and took them off again, or shook out the sand cover. In general, in the end everything goes to me.
– When you walk along the beach with a metal detector, don't people get excited?
- Of course, when there are people on the beach, it happens that I ask them to move. I don’t climb under a deck chair, I try to follow the rules of decency. But basically, of course, it is better to search on the beach after 6-7 pm, when there are still two hours before dark. And later I use a headlamp. Two of my daughters also got hooked on the beach search.
– How old are they?
“Four and a half and eleven and a half. The eldest on land overtakes me easily and naturally. And under water, she uses a “childish” way of searching - she either simply collects jewelry from the bottom that lie on the surface, or stands upright and erodes the ground with flippers. If there are coins and decorations, they will jingle, and it remains to collect them from above. But this, of course, is a prank. Basically, my daughter climbs with my device on the sand. And you know, the Lord loves children and drunkards... My best finds were not sober, and she, like a child, is sometimes amazingly lucky, right down to finding rings with diamonds. I once had an interesting case. I'm sitting on the beach and getting ready to dive. I put on a belt with weights, put on fins, I check the instruments. Before you go into the water, you must definitely check the device - you never know, suddenly it flooded and does not work. I bring it to the lead weights - it squeaks. I lower it next to the sand - it squeaks! I scoop up a handful of sand and pull out a huge gold chain with a giant cross on it. I didn't dive at that time. But I dive thanks to the second category of vacationers.
– How do vacationers from the second category lose gold?
- They are not as wise people as the first ones - they go into the water without taking anything off. In the water they dive, somersault, play, drown each other, row vigorously with their hands. As a result, gold remains in the sea, and there is much more of it than in the sand.
– What is the search technology?
– The most favorable coverage for the search engine is sand and small pebbles. To search in the water, it is very important to lie tightly on the bottom so that the body does not drive in a wave. In the water, the finds are distributed approximately like this - at a depth to the waist, there are mainly children's jewelry. The main valuable finds go in a strip at a depth from the "children's" to approximately one meter 80 centimeters. Further, mostly heavy wedding rings of those who really swim. The width of these strips on different banks can be different, the main thing is the depth.
The coins are arranged differently - most of them are opposite the descent from the embankment to the beach. There are also a lot of coins in the breakwater zone - before leaving, people come to the sea, throw a coin from these places and leave to get ready for the road. In these places, a metal detector is not needed, you can simply tear the ground with your hands and get coins. In one breath of air, I get up to three coins. At a depth of two meters, you work on breathing, no scuba gear can be used, because you have to literally climb under the feet of swimmers.
– And how do swimmers react to this?
“In the summer, I shave my head and grow a beard, so when I suddenly emerge in a wetsuit and mask, people start screaming in fright. Well, even when I lie motionless at the bottom, people also start screaming that there is a drowned man, or they are trying to pull me ashore by the fins.
– And when the swimmers leave you alone, how is the search going?
– When you work on the breath, the main thing is a very clear localization of the object. For this, I have a white stone in my hand. For example, I started to rake the ground, but I do not have enough air. I leave the stone in place, inhale another breath of air and return to my white stone. This is especially important when the sea is stormy, so as not to be carried to a new place. From equipment I have a mask with diopters (since I wear glasses). In order for me to comfortably spend about 40 minutes underwater, I have a wetsuit with special holes for scuba gear. But this is optional. I am attaching nine kilograms of weight to my belt in order to lie powerfully at the bottom and not “wobble” from the wave. I lie down on the bottom and slowly crawl. In front of me is a metal detector the size of two large soap dishes, and I slowly monitor the ground in front of me. Hearing a trill, I rake the ground, find a coin or jewelry there.
– Is it possible to search only in the sea?
- If the search area is not the sea, but ponds, lakes, bathing areas in central Russia, then the efficiency is many times greater there. The sea throws out gold, and gold has been accumulating in ponds and lakes since the 1920s and 1930s. I had cases when in one "dive" lasting 40 minutes I lifted six wedding rings. But this work is more serious and more difficult - there is more silt.
– Do people turn to your office for help in finding lost things?
- With a request to find a loss in the water - about ten times a season. On average, I find about 70 percent of lost things. At the same time, we stipulate that everything that I find apart from this belongs to me. And the lost thing is very clearly described before starting work. For example, once during such work I found five rings, but I didn’t find what was lost, it didn’t work out. Often right on the beach they approached with requests - look. Found, gave away for free. So I'm not quite a lost person for society ...
Neva time - Elena Kiseleva.
Of course, in addition to searching in the old days, many treasure hunters try their hand at beach search. Although there are many lovers of old-fashioned digging, there is also a special caste of search engines - those who purposefully search for jewelry on the beaches. If you take it even steeper, then there are also such gold diggers who specially go at the end of the beach season not only to the south of Russia, but also to Europe. Needless to say, all this is not in vain and the finds of beach diggers are sometimes very significant.
We will not consider "cool" beach search professionals, since such people work purposefully, they have serious equipment, costs, and, accordingly, serious finds. And what can an ordinary fan of "roaming around" with a metal detector on the beach find?
The first thing that is most often found on the beach is a walker, that is, modern coins. People undress, put their clothes on the sand, and change spills out of their pockets. These are rubles, 2 rubles, kopecks and, of course, metal tens. And if the jubilee dozens were made of bimetal and the signal to them is peculiar, then the modern 10 rubles are so small, they are made of steel and sound accordingly. But it does not matter, you will find a couple of dozen of these coins and understand their signal, in the future you will already be sure that you are digging an iron ten.
In addition to walking, there are a lot of traffic jams, both beer and any other. And if beer caps sound special, after a few pieces you already know that this is a cork, then a vodka cork is a different matter. Of course, they are not so frequent, but sometimes they come across.
Also from the annoying and useless finds on the beach are labels from Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other drinks that are in aluminum cans. Beer, by the way, is also sold in these. And drinking a beer on the beach in the height of summer is our audience's favorite. They litter the beach, so the searchers on the beach do a good deed - they clean the beach from metal debris.
And finally, the very thing for which treasure diggers go to the beach is jewelry, which is lost on the beach in great numbers. It can be silver and gold, various products - chains, rings, bracelets, rings, seals, pendants, earrings and much more. Think for yourself - for 1 gram of gold in a pawnshop you can get about 1,000 rubles, of course gold of standard 585. I found a gold ring - it weighs at least 2 grams, raised a couple of thousand rubles. And if you lifted a 20-gram bracelet out of the sand, you figure out how much you can earn by selling this little thing to a pawnshop. A lot of. Therefore, the search for jewelry on the beach is so popular.
While vacationers are sunbathing and losing their gold, gold diggers with metal detectors are not drowsy and pick up what others have lost. This is their hobby, for someone a job that brings a tangible income. I also heard that some people go to the South, find so much gold there that they have enough money to fully pay for their trip and still have some left. So the search for gold jewelry on the beach is an interesting and profitable activity. sooner or later you will find a gold chain or a ring.
The summer season is just around the corner, hence the digging season. Of course, I understand that there are people who continue to search all year round, but this is rather an exception, at least for Central Russia. Accordingly, most treasure hunters go into hibernation for the winter: they put away the metal detector for storage until spring, clean their summer finds, study new information. But with the advent of spring, movement begins - in the fields, like rooks, the first representatives of the treasure-hunting brotherhood appear here and there, combing the first thawed patches and other accessible plots of land.
It so happened that the sandy banks of the rivers, first of all, of course, the beaches of the Volga, are the first in terms of availability for searching using a metal detector in our region. Naturally, the number of finds on the Volga beach cannot be compared with the Black Sea coast, but even here the treasure hunter can count on certain finds.
It is important to understand that, by and large, searching on a river beach in Central Russia and, say, on a beach in Feodosia are two big differences. I'll try to explain. The Black Sea beach is characterized by much more traffic, and, consequently, the number of finds is greater. If, when searching the Black Sea, you can safely count on finding a “saffron milk cap” (gold items), then on an ordinary river beach, of course, they come across, but much less frequently. The area of the surveyed territory also differs quite significantly.
But there are, of course, features that are typical for any beach search. In particular, in addition to the pleasure that you get from a pleasant pastime in the fresh air and contemplation of the objects found, there is still a place to be negative. And first of all, this great amount metal debris that beach searchers have to deal with - tabs from cans, all kinds of corks, cigarette foil, etc., can be listed for a very long time. The second factor is curious people, who, of course, are more numerous on the beach than anywhere else, and everyone strives to help you with advice, ask how much “gold” you have already found, or puzzle you with the search for some kind of object.
Of course, some of this can be overcome. For example, in order to filter out the maximum amount of garbage, it is necessary to correctly set the device settings. At the same time, it is important to maintain an optimal balance so as not to miss anything necessary, not to “cut off” some interesting things, and for this you need to know your metal detector perfectly. By the way, beach search is one of the varieties of treasure hunting, where, in my opinion, it is not so important how deep the device “sees” targets. Most of the objects are in the top layer of sand or pebbles, therefore, even entry-level metal detectors will do an excellent job.
It is also possible to fight with curious people resting on the beach, let's say, not 100%, but in part. Firstly, the best time to go to the search for the beach is in the morning or evening hours, when there are still fewer people. Secondly, bad weather, for example, light rain or just a cloudy sky, is not a hindrance for working with a metal detector, but it frightens vacationers at once. Thirdly, a stern, concentrated face, headphones on the head and a sharply honed shovel work wonders.
Speaking of shovels. A beach search with a metal detector invites us to abandon the usual shovel, replacing it with a stingy one. A scoop is a kind of scoop for a beach search, very convenient and, in my opinion, a necessary device. You can make a scoop yourself or purchase a ready-made one, where and how to do this, Yandex and its brother Google will tell you.
The search technology on the beach is quite simple. Just combing the shore, which is a beach or is simply considered as such. It makes sense to mentally divide the beach into some zones. Let's say the bathing area is from the coastline and approximately chest-deep for an adult. Another question is that it is problematic to check this zone without having an underwater metal detector and is feasible only within the length of the rod of your device (from the coil to the block, as a rule, you can submerge it in water). It is in this zone that the probability of finding jewelry is highest, since people there are not so much swimming as swimming (jumping, raging, splashing), therefore, the ring can fly off the finger, the chain can break, etc.
Another zone is the beach itself, the area where people sunbathe, put out sunbeds or spread blankets. On the beach itself, there is more garbage, and the range of finds is much wider, but the quality is worse. Quality in terms of the fact that there are a lot of modern "walkers", while not the best safety. By the way, it’s more expensive to clean this little thing, but for those who don’t know, I’ll say that they are very reluctant to take it in the store (or don’t take it at all), but various vending machines (selling coffee, chocolates, etc.) are swallowed with a bang. Usually the width of this zone is limited to 15 ... 20 meters, well, or the border of the sand on the beach.
At the same time, one should not forget that various reservoirs (and rivers, and seas, and lakes) have been actively used by various people for many centuries as a road, so you can count not only on modern finds, but on old coins, crosses, etc. . And the older the settlement located nearby, the more likely it is to find antiques.
Separately, I would like to say that the search does not have to be carried out on the beach, you can do it just along the banks of the rivers. The rationality of this action is also associated with the active use of rivers and other reservoirs in antiquity, but this is a slightly different methodology, different principles, and I think it makes sense to talk about it separately.
On any, even the most "shallow" beach, there can be interesting finds
Russia is one of the most promising countries for finding gold. We are not even talking about the gold nuggets of the Urals, Siberia, the Far East - why climb so far? There is gold in every city, you just need to look closely. No, this is not a bank or a jewelry store, but the most ordinary city beach. Do not be surprised, it is the beach - after all, according to ITAR-TASS, on the shores of only Italian beaches there are lost things worth a total of 25 million euros. And this is one billion rubles!
Russian beaches are no exception. Moreover, there should be much more gold here: after all, only Russians, going to the beach, do not even think of leaving rings, earrings, bracelets, watches and other jewelry at home. Each of us must have heard from friends about jewelry lost on the beach. Here they lie and wait for someone to come for them. Perhaps it will be you. Why not?! You just need to tear yourself away from the TV, get up from the sofa and go to the nearest beach with a metal detector. In Russia, beach search is not yet developed at all, this is not America or Australia, where search engines examine the beach from morning until night!
I started doing beach searches with a metal detector about three years ago. Precisely tight, for the sake of gold. My friend Alexander told me about the richness of the beaches, while showing me a pair of diamond rings he found on the beach. Without thinking twice, we went to the familiar beach in Torbeevo.
Torbeevo is a recreation center near Moscow, I go there in a bathhouse to take a steam bath for the weekend. Even I, with my age-old search experience, did not think that this tiny beach, 30 meters long, would infect me with a gold rush. Having got used to the volumes of the beaches of the warm regions of Anapa, Thailand and Malaysia, I did not pay much attention to the local "small" beaches. And as it turned out, in vain. Already after 5 minutes, Alexander took out the first silver ring, moving away from the shore with a metal detector only knee-deep, followed by an earring, and then such a bite began, from which anyone would fall ill with a gold fever. And if you think about it, it’s not without reason that there are so many gold jewelry on such a small beach: after all, not ordinary vacationers, but quite wealthy people often come to the recreation center. And God himself ordered to swim after a bathhouse and a glass. So the same chains with gymnasts and bolts with stones remain in the water.
Until the very frosts, until the ice began to interfere with the search, every weekend we got out to various beaches of the Moscow region. My catch with the Excalibur metal detector that year amounted to more than 180 grams of gold jewelry, a can of silver, a can, I'm not exaggerating. All the finds will soon be seen in the Irkutsk Treasure Museum, you can come and see for yourself.
Of course, you can say that you have already collected everything, but that's the beauty of any beaches, that every year more and more lost jewelry remains on their shores.
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