I am a beginner at metal detecting...or soon to be.

dlimb2

I am going to Gulf Shores early next fall and was wanting to know what type metal detector would be the best for wet sandy beaches and also dry land...Is the detecting in that area good ?

lordmarcovan

You talkin' 'bout Alabama? I imagine the area could be good. Where's SilverDreams when you need him?

As to a good beach hunting machine, well... it depends on what you wanna spend. I used to use a Fisher 1280-X Aquanaut, which was a diver's machine. Worked great on the beach, though I seldom used it in the water. Found my oldest coin with it on dry land, too.

You'll ideally get either a machine that's made for the surf and beach, like that, or get one that has a "salt sand" setting.

However, most general-purpose detectors can be used on the beach with a little tinkering and practice- you'll have to adjust the sensitivity way down. It's tricky, sometimes. But you should be able to move your sensitivity setting down low enough to where the machine won't go bananas in the wet sand, and can still find stuff.

Minelab makes some nice beach/surf detectors. They ain't cheap, though.

But a few nice rings and pieces of jewelry can pay for a detector pretty quick.

dlimb2

Hey Robertson, sorry I was out of town and didn't get back to this...Yes last time we talked it was for dry land ...now the vacation is on further south down to the Alabama shore line at Gulf Shores. T though before I spent the money I would find out, because I do not want to buy a machine that will be of no use to me in either soils...I would like to get a machine which would be good for both but do not want to spend a great deal of money for this is just for a week or two a year....with other activities during those two weeks....but since the Hurricane I though the coast would be a good search with all the gold supposedly lost in the Gulf!!!!! Sure would be nice to find some gold on da beach.