Beach Hunting with the SDC 2300

Because I am a beach and shallow water hunter, I was happy to hear the news that Minelab had introduced another new waterproof metal detector. After doing the hard part of convincing my lovely wife that I really needed an SDC 2300, it was off to the beach for some testing.

Over the course of two weeks, I mainly stuck to searching in the wet sand to see how the new pulse induction metal detector handled the area known as the “Swash” in beach hunting terminology. My first SDC 2300 adventures along the wet sand went well, and I recovered several pieces of silver jewelry in the number 2 Normal setting.

Although I heard a little chatter in the swash with waves lapping over the 8-inch mono search coil, I had no problem identifying the occasional back ground chirp from a good target signal. After a few beach hunts, I changed from the default 2 Normal setting to the number 1 Salt setting. What an incredible difference the change of setting made, the SDC 2300 ran smoother in the wet sand with water rushing over the search coil than many VLF metal detectors I have previously used.

It did not take very long before I found my first gold jewelry with the SDC 2300, on an early morning south Florida beach hunt. A 14 K gold ear ring and 14 K diamond wedding band, I also dug many junk ferrous targets, but digging everything comes with the pulse induction metal detector territory.

This weekend on only my second water hunt with the SDC 2300, I recovered four pieces of gold jewelry, including a heavy 0.6 ounce 18 K gold band.

I took the SDC 2300 out into chest deep saltwater, in a tourist area that is heavily hunted by the local competition. Almost all the gold jewelry and coins I recovered were deep targets along the bottom slope of a sand bar. No doubt the smaller search coil allowed me to cover the angle more thoroughly, than a larger search coil. The SDC 2300 with the 8-inch mono search coil is perfect for slow methodical beach and shallow water hunters, who have the patience needed to clean out an area of all metal targets.

My next hunt was at four small local beach entrances, the first three entrances held gold and silver rings and the platinum ring was found at the last stop. These small parking lots with a handful of spots, fill up fast on Sunday, I parked at one entrance and walked along the beach to water hunt at the other three beach entrances. The 18K white gold ring with diamonds was my first good find, the heavy 18K gold band was at the next stop, followed by the small 10K gold ring with even smaller ice. I was digging a lot of trash, but I was finding gold and silver rings. At the last site, I worked the sand bar slope and found the platinum and diamond band. 

Many of my favourite beach and shallow water hunting sites are on tourist beaches, where iron masking plays a big part in keeping gold and silver jewelry hidden. When you know a beach or shallow water hunting site has got to have some gold jewelry in the area, the SDC 2300 is a cracking metal detector to find it.