The “BIG DIG” So after doing a lot of research on the subject of Dirt digging, and writing my thoughts, ideas, and experiences down, it’s time to put my knowledge, equipment & skills to the test. After only a few months into this hobby, I have become extremely interested in the art of metal detecting. On my last excursion to Cobourg Beach in Southern Ontario (Lake Ontario), where I spent 6 hours beach combing. I ended up with essentially 3 recently dated quarters, and a silver dime from 1953. If it had not been for that 10 cent silver coin I found I feel that the trip would have been a complete bust. Since then, I have done a ton of research and even bought some extra gear to see if my time will be better spent, and more productive. In this story, I will do a bit of a comparison between my Cobourg nighttime dig and this outing to Oshawa Public Beach, on the 20th of September, 2022. (Also a nighttime dig.) Cobourg Public Beach- When I arrived in Cobourg, I had no plan of attack. I had done no research on the area and I had no idea where the “busy sections” of the beach would be. I had spent a fair amount of my time searching in the quiet area of that particular beach (East end). I had done this mainly because of my shy nature around people and this hobby. I was not utilizing a grid pattern, & mostly, I just zigzagged all over the place with no structure to my search pattern. I was not digging any jumping/scratching numbers. Essentially, I was aimlessly walking and hoping to hear something I wanted to hear on my machine, but wasn’t listening to what the Minelab Vanquish540 machine was actually telling me. If I did hear a beep I would dig it. If the machine had 5 arrows indicating a deep target, I just dug it. I spent a lot of time digging deep, garbage targets. In Cobourg, like I had stated previously, I had spent 6 hours at the beach but only 5:15hrs of that time was spent actively metal detecting. I dug 85 targets in total, but had only 5 of those targets that I kept. This was an average of 14 to 15 holes dug an hour or 1.2 holes dug every 5 minutes. The result was I spent A LOT of my time wasted on digging deep targets that mostly ended up being pointless targets anyway. With regards to this, I spent a significant amount of time in the quiet area of the beach, & I was not utilizing my time efficiently or effectively. It wasn’t until I started digging the popular area of the beach that I started hitting decent VDI targets. However, by the time I got to the good area, it was getting late and I had to start making my way back to my car which was located near the quiet part of the beach. Hence, these are just some of the reasons why I did not do very well on this outing in Cobourg. Oshawa beach however was not a very large beach. Preparation for the afternoon dig in Oshawa started a week prior to heading out. I had researched the area and the beach itself. In the afternoon prior to the “BIG DIG” when I got home from work, I decided to do a little testing in my own backyard. I grabbed 2 of every Canadian coin, some American coins, some iron targets, and jewellery as well, then went to the back yard and tested everything. I wrote down all the VDI#’s, sounds, & signals and studied the tones for each item. Then I searched my own backyard to see if I was able to guess any targets I found before digging them up. I was In fact, able to search specifically for coins and guessed 2 coins I found correctly. Both of these coins were Canadian quarters. (Rang up a 4,5,7 scratching/jumping numbers, & a medium pitch on my V540 machine). After my testing was done I got all my equipment and bags ready and packed in the car because tomorrow would be an early day. The next day September 21st 2022, started out early as promised. I was up at 3:30am as it was also a work day for me. I had to be at work for 5:30AM and would be done at 3:30PM. I would then have a 2.5 hour drive to Oshawa Beach having me pull in at around 6PM. I was eager to get started on my search and digging. My plan of attack for Oshawa Beach was much different than the previous large beach I detected in Cobourg. First off, I had done more research & I made sure I knew where the busiest areas of the beach would be and I also made sure to park my vehicle closer to the busier areas of the beach this time. This way, when I started swinging my coil right out of the gate I was already in a heavy traffic area. This resulted in a couple of quick finds of 2 quarters on my way towards the water’s edge. Waters edge- I wanted to utilize the little amount of daylight hours I had close to the waters edge before night fall. I would plan to move to the area of the beach where beach goers set up shop for the day once the sun set. I had only found a single 1979 penny 6” below the surface of the sand at the edge of the water, VDI #25, thanks to Minelab for making this machines coil waterproof so I was able to get right up to, and even into the water a bit. I had my first water find when my V540 rang up with a VDI#22 on the screen paired with a high tone. It showed the target was fairly shallow with only 1 arrow indicating this target may only be a couple inches below the sand. 1scoop and I saw a gold shining object starting to appear out of the sand. I quickly bent down and grabbed the item up to find out it wasn’t just 1 gold chain with a golden medallion, but was in fact 2 identical necklaces. Unfortunately, neither of the necklaces turned out to be real, but the rush I felt when I thought I just found my first gold was incredible. Well as much as I wanted to stay in the water area I decided to move towards the middle of the beach instead. By hitting the populated areas; yes I had to get through a few garbage targets like bottle caps & pull tabs, but let’s be honest, what beach or public area have you detected at where you don’t have to go through lots of those items? Lol. I was actually quite surprised at how clean this beach really was. Now I was getting a decent amount of Good VDI#’S on my screen . This hunt was becoming extremely successful as I got a reading on my machine (#18) on the 540, but it had a bit of a grunty tone mixed in with a high tone, (very confusing). I dug the target and to my surprise I had now found my first relic. I would do a quick search of that area before working my way back towards my car. It was now 11:00PM and it was time to start thinking about shutting down the hunt. This entire area has been around and occupied by people since the early 1800’s at least. There are 3 museums in the park of restored buildings dating back to the 1840’s. I had high hopes of getting into a relics, old coin/s, or dare I say “GOLD”. Well my hope had come true with this item. It was an old relic, “I’ll have to do some extra research on it when I get home”. At first glance it appears to be a military badge, and possibly a pilots wings badge, but I’m not certain. Working back to the parking lot area and all of a sudden a slight medium tone came from the machine, but I saw no VDI#. A few slow passes over the area with the coil and again I pick up the tone and a flicker of VDI#7, I know that there is potential this item could be something gold, but I have also dug a few 7’s that were nothing good too. So hopes were not high, but I decided to dig it. Approx 6” below the sand I checked the hole to see if the target was still there and nothing, no sound at all. I move the Vanquish over my small sand pile I just created and I get a strong tone and a solid 7 on the screen now. Well this is promising I think, “come-on lucky number 7” be something good. A few moment later and a scoop of sand in my hand, paired with my pinpointer and I come up with a very small round object. I honestly thought it was a bit of junk metal so I just about put it in my junk pocket in my find bag, but thought the round shape was a little odd so I got my magnifying glass out and had another look. I noticed a little letter on the edge of it which got me very excited. My heart started racing and I proceeded to get my toothbrush out and give it a gentle brushing. More letters and the numbers 865 appeared. Now I figured I had a button of some sort. It was dark in colour but my eyesight wasn’t very good, so I put it in my special finds box and back into the finds bag zipped up in another pocket to keep it safe. I would have a look at it when I got back to the hotel. In the morning, Once my Partner Erin and our 1 year old son were awake I excitedly wanted to show Erin this button I had found the night before. I took it out and handed it to her. I told her about the numbers (865) I saw in it and she immediately told me that the number wasn’t (865) but it was 1865, as in the year. Well I just about fell over with anticipation & excitement. How could I have misread the numbers? It wasn’t a button at all, it was a coin. Well I cleaned the coin off a bit more and saw that it was a Mexican coin from 1865. After looking it up on a Google search I found out that it was no ordinary coin, it was Infact a gold peso, and it was used for giving to the father of a bride (“from a groom”) as part of a dowry. This coin was also likely to be 22K gold being the year of the coin was generally known to be made of 22K Gold. I now have an appointment with a coin expert to authenticate the coin and give an appraisal this weekend. So in conclusion, the Minelab Vanquish 540 metal detector was an absolute beast on this hunt. I am new to the hobby and the V540 has made the learning curve of this hobby very enjoyable. It is an easy machine to learn right out of the box. Just put it together, turn it on and you will be a treasure hunter in no time. On this hunt I was able to get several firsts for me. 1st I found my first necklace well 2 of them actually, I found my oldest coin to date. I got my first water targets, I found my first relic, and lastly I got my first gold item found on a beach. What an epic hunt indeed. Thank you Minelab for making an incredible product with the Vanquish series. I am already thinking of investing into one of your waterproof models, either of the equinox series or hold off for the new Beast, the Manticore. This is because of how much beach combing I’m doing and being so close to the water all the time I think a waterproof model may suit my needs more. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Vanquish series as far as I can tell as a new metal detector hobbyist. STATS OF THE HUNT The calculations of the hunt are as follows. I combed the beach from 6PM to 12:00AM and took 1x 45 minute break & 2x 15 minute breaks in between. ( OR 1:15hr total break time) This allowed for 4:45 hours of active beach hunting time. I dug 150 targets on the beach, 15 targets on the grassy areas & on my way back to the car. This made for a grand total of 165 targets dug in 4:45hrs. I got 18 targets of interest from relics, necklaces, modern coins, & even an 1865 Mexican gold coin token. The rest of the items were garbage items. So thanks to Minelab, I would consider this to be a very successful night of dirt fishing due to your technology and dedication to making a product that works. Cheers James Mathias AKA (Swinging Coils)