Night park detecting with the Ace 250

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Unfortunately the charms are all cheapy chinese silver coloured metal and rhinestones, couldn't find any of them listed on the Pandora site, plus the copper under the silver coating was a bit of a giveaway. It costs like $5.40 for 20 of them! :/

Never mind, still happy with the silver ring.

Will also be hunting in jewellery mode from now on, as threepences seem to fall in the pull tab range, whilst sixpence and pennys fall up towards the 10c mark. Sixpence makes the bell tones go nuts, just as with $2 coins.

Also, the gold ring I found the other day seems genuine, it falls smack bang in the pull tab range, so if set in coin mode, I would have walked straight over it.(even though it was found with the Infinium).
 
Well it turns out out that a crappy gunk encrusted rinb that I found a few hunts ago, is actually a 4.20 gram, 925 silver ring. I decided to use electrolysis to see if any of the black encrustations would come off, and it worked wonders, a thick black sulphurus smelling cloud quickly eminated from the ring, to reveal quite an ornate old ring, with 925 stamped on the underside. Certainly pays to have a good look at some of your finds before discounting them as junk jewellery!

Original pic of the supposed junk ring on the right

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All cleaned up!

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Hallmark at bottom of ring, the 9 is partly worn off.

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If i was going to buy a detector for the salt
Water And beaches it would be the cz21.

These are used by professional deep sea hunters
And are built like a tank which are multi frequency
And its discriminator does not lose depth.

You also don't have to worry about as many seals
That may leak and are a multitone machine.

Whites also makes another multifrequency beach
Machine which has different led colours for different
Objects.

As i always say each to there own.
 
Another average night for the Ace down at the beach, hanging out for a storm or two to remove the tonnes of sand built up over the last few months to hopefully reveal some new coin fields. I continued my remarkably good run of commemorative coins again, this time with another WW2 rememberance 50c, centenary of federation $1, and the find of the night, an Argentinian 1810-2010 Bicentennial Peso, a first for me. :)

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Hi Goldpick

Nice finds! Hey - I am interested in your methods for night detecting. I know that when I go detecting in the daytime at the beach, some of the targets I find - their size and depth - would make finding them almost impossible at night. When I am digging - the green colour of some items show me where they are - I could not imagine trying to find them at night. Plus the rocks and stuff I have to dig through or move in order to recover the target would seem impossible to me at night. Not to mention anything lurking in the shallows of the water - crabs, etc - I wouldn't want to step on them. I am unsure if I understand why you would want to detect at night - but exactly how do you do it?

Using a pro pointer would be risky in that some holes I dig fill up with water rather quickly - mostly ground water in the sand - which would kill the pro pointer - so how to you identify the targets?

Cheers!
 
I guess it's a primeval thing, to go out to seek and find at night, who knows? :lol: Seriously, the main reason is to search and items when there is least traffic and more chance of finding something, before the possibility of other detectorists finding dropped item in the early morning or the following day. There are less distractions, allowing me to concentrate purely on target tones, I also find it a good release, a form of relaxation if you wish.

When detecting with the Ace 250, I am looking more for recent drops and the odd item regurgitated by the erosion of the beach. Since the detection of objects is limited with the Ace in wet sand, I mainly concentrate on dry sand and damp sand down to the low tide mark, reducing the sensitivity down to about third to cope with the salt, hence dropping depth capabilities down to only several inches in depth in the wet sand. No real need for a pinpointer in wet sand, just use the scoop, recheck the hole to ensure the target has been removed, then use the pinpointer to rummage through the excavated sand. As you may know, the pinpointer, when used in wet holes with collapsing sand, tends to false on all the salt water, hence making the pinpointer near useless.

On the other hand, when I take the Infinium out, I purely go down at times of low tide at night, exposing the sand bars, gullys and ripple strips, prime ground for a PI detector to find those deep heavy objects that are unable to be detected by the Ace. Also low tides on a full moon tend to be significantly lower than at other times, alowing access to ripple strips that are usually obscured by water. Another plus is the moonlight, which enables excellent vision when working the beach, with resultant shadows making it easy to grid up sections of the beach and cover every square inch.

As I do contract work, I can afford to spend extended times out at night, allowing for a sleep in the next day,and to attend to other duties during daylight hours. I am also a bit of a night owl, so late nights don't faze me.

As for identifying targets in wet sand using the Infinium, same deal as the Ace, pinpoint the target with the detector, use the sand scoop to dig on and around the target area, recheck the hole and excavated sand for the target, and keep scooping if it is not located. I have learnt to pinpoint pretty good with the Infinium now, and also going by the strength of the signal, I generally get a good idea of the likely depth to the target, something you learn after digging many a target, both good and bad. So I basically stay out of the surf at night and purely stick to tidal flats. Also having a fully water proof detector allows you to pretty much drop it anywhere when digging targets or having to accidentally drop it in the water.

I usually arrive as the tide is on its way out, allowing a decent window of opportunity to cover some ground. When the tide does come in, it usually does so pretty quickly, then I tend to venture from the tidal flats, up the low tide line, and cover the dry sand, gridding up the beach to ensure I don't miss anything.
I could image it would be a completely different scenario down Victor way, with rocky flats to deal with, and many trip and other present hazards (crabs etc) vs nice clean sand to dig through. :)
 
Goldpick i arrived at a beach on a warm night
around midnight.

There was a guy already detecting the water
and 45 minutes latter to my surprise i saw
another guy detecting the sand.

For a light i use a cap with led attached. You can buy
These from Bunnings.

After about midnight the beaches slow down with people.

Its a great way to spend a hot night.

If your using a pin pointer the vibraprobe 580 is the best
and Its also the best for the goldfields due it being a pulse
induction Probe and found it sensitive to tiny nuggets.
 
Must say that I have never encountered another detectorist at night in the area I detect regularly, nor any obvious signs that they previously been there. Just the odd intoxicated young guys and girls, all of which have been friendly, and often come over to satisfy their curiosity on what I am actually doing. Most seem surprised at the technology used these days, and go away with a different outlook on the hobby of detecting (no I am not a grumpy homeless guy looking for change to buy dinner). :p

I mainly rely on my pinpointer to provide light when checking out targets, but also have an LED torch mounted in a clamp on the detector shaft for more detailed examinations.

As mentioned by Wolfau, there is nothing like detecting on a calm summers night with a full moon, simply bliss. :)
 
wow some great finds well done talking about the pinpointer i know of someone who is going to import these
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Still sketchy about details but i will let you know im getting some myself so ill let you know if they are any good or not
 
Looks like a great idea, though my pro-find is having a few issues as of late, probably seen too much seawater. The Nokta RS is still going strong though, despite getting wet on the odd occasion, still impressed with it for the money outlayed. May look at upgrading to a Whites unit in the future, always keen to try something new. I always carry two pinpointers, saves a lot of hassle having to walk all the way back to the car. :)
 
The only thing that put me off those PI pinpointers was the sheer bulk of the unit, I used to have the Vibra-quatic 2, with the large detector head, and was always trying to palm it off to the missus to carry around. ;)
May have to re-look at the Vibraprobe 580 for the Infinium detecting maybe.

On another note, found this United Arab Emirates 50 Fil in my wallet by off chance today, not detected, but stil continuing my good luck with picking up foreign coins. :) It's about the diameter of a $1 coin, but the thickness of a 10c coin.

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Goldpick, I recon if your playing in the salty wet stuff then there is no better pinpointer out there than the Vibraprobe 580. Iv'e had mine for about 18 months now and I love it. It comes with a carry holster, gets great battery life and is very sensitive. Not to mention damn near bullet proof.

Oh, hell of a job on the coins they look great, nice addition to the collection.

cheers :)
 

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