The Best Metal Detector for Saltwater and Beaches

The Best Metal Detector for Saltwater and Beaches

Beaches are one of the best places to metal detect because of their popularity over the years. People lose all kinds of things at the beach, and, of course, things wash up on the shore, too. Beaches are especially known for “fresh drops.” Imagine a beach filled with hundreds of people each day being tossed around by waves and slathering their bodies in sunscreen. It’s a perfect storm for finding gold rings and chains.

Being able to manually adjust ground balance is important when you’re detecting at the beach. Saltwater affects best metal detector in the same way highly mineralized soil does. It becomes difficult to focus on valuable items when those items are surrounded by so much potential noise. A multi-frequency detector will be very useful because the ground is continuously changing at the beach, from dry sand to wet sand to surf. Ground tracking is another important feature so that the machine itself can detect what kind of soil or sand conditions you’re on as you hunt.

Beach detectors need to be waterproof. A wave could knock you down while detecting and ruin any machine that is not waterproof.

Picking out the best equipment for the beach

The most important consideration for hunting on the beach is to understand how to deal with the minerals that you will find there. Salt water and the so called “hot rocks” that you will find at the beach are necessary evils that must be dealt with.

Salt water amplifies the normal ground minerals causing many land based detectors to chatter and provide false signals. This can be down right frustrating when you are just trying to have fun! Thankfully there are two ways to combat this. If you are on a budget, you will want to consider a Very Low Frequency (VLF) best metal detector that has a ground adjust control.

The ground balance feature will allow you to essentially tune your detector for the level of mineralization on the beach. Most entry level best metal detector feature a preset ground adjust. While these units are good for most conditions on dry land, they will prove frustrating to use at the beach. A best metal detector with a VLF circuit and a ground adjust control will give you a fighting chance at the beach. The absolute best units for the beach feature circuitry use Pulse Induction (PI) technology.

These types of units simply ignore the effects of minerals and allow you to just pick up your detector and start finding treasure. If you will spend the bulk of your time at the beach, this is the best type of best metal detector for you.

Coil size

What is the best Coli Size? , Smaller coils are generally more sensitive to smaller targets. They are also easier to use when pinpointing, lighter and have better target separation. For this reason, they are a great choice if there is a lot of trash at your beach that might hide real targets.

Bigger coils are heavier and less effective at target separation. They are also more difficult to swing for long periods in water, as there is more resistance due to the larger surface area.

There are some advantages though. A larger coil usually provides greater depth, which can help find treasure other detectorists might miss. They can also cover a larger area in less time.

In reality, most stock coils are somewhere in the middle of these extremes. And if you’re serious about detecting, you’ll probably want to get a selection of coils to suit different situations and targets. But it’s something to keep in mind when buying.

There’s also no “best” option here – you just need to think about the type of target you want to hunt with metal detector. If you’re not in the best physical shape, a smaller coil might be more enjoyable to use though!

Minelab Equinox 800