San Diego Beaches?


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Anybody from San Diego area? I'm heading that way in a couple of weeks for my sons graduation from MCRD, I was thinking of throwing my detector in my luggage and beep the beach (got the itch due to winter). Is detecting thebeachs allowed in that area & if so what beach(s)? Any info. would be much appreciated since beeping in CO. is over until the spring thaw - to much overburden & frozen ground.

Thanks - Frosty

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Yes, you can detect most beaches in San Diego county...please pick-up all the trash you dig or rebury it deeply...I have seen the shovel brigade leave some big holes and sharp objects laying about. The reason I say rebury is some things are not convenient to carry back...I have been on state beaches with no problem, but, check with the ranger to be safe...

Coronado, ocean beach, pacific beach and all the way to pendlton have public access...

best wishes to you and my respects to your son and his service.

Fred

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Ok, I have input regarding the Cali. beaches which is great, now will the platypus coil run in salt mode? Does anyone have an idea of what settings to run the GP3k in (a general stab in the dark will work. Rob you out there?) Thanks folks!

Stay safe & watch your back - Frosty

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Frosty; depends on the beach and location of lights and power lines... Coronado Beach has a military airport at the north end, some buried cables that go out to sea for some reason and loads of hotels...when I have used my minelabs at the beach I had to get a good distance from the boardwalks to tune the detector...I used the Platy-dd at the edge of the surf...you may want to use discriminate/dd...take a good digging tool...the junk is shallow and deep on every beach...

If you don't mind the suggestion bring a vlf and you will have a more enjoyable beach experience...if you want, send me a private e-mail with a phone number and we can talk...typing is too much work

fred

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WE are staying at Oceanside this week, (right now). We just got done with a 7 hour day of hunting the San Diego County beaches! I thought the most popular beaches would be the best bet to hunt, but am finding them VERY WELL hunted :( ! Seems that the harder to get to the beach beaches, are the ones with more finds! The easy access popular beaches have very slim finds! Most ALL the beaches down here have areas with tons of black crud on them. It acts like black sand, yet it looks more like layers of oil / or maybe car tire dust off all the roads and freeways. Penneys do not corode down here like they do at our home Central coastal - Pismo Beach area ocean. The "black sand" really messes with our Minelab Excal ll and Sov. GT. We can only hunt to within about 10' of the cliff's or boulder shore where the "beach" just becomes 100% black. But we have had plenty of finds 10' from the cliff down into the surf. So far, Oceanside pier beach, south of the pier has had very few finds, lots of black sand. Same with Encinitas, and Carlsbad beaches. Don't get me wrong, we have found a few coins on those beaches, just no Jewelry. we spent a couple hours at San Clemente pier beach on the way down, it too was slim pickens. It could be that the beaches are not as used (populated) in the fall / winter and the hunters have not let up hunting. So fewer people loosing things, with many hunters = slim pickens. I will say we had a great day today at a beach that was down off a cliff with many, many, many steep stairs steps down to a near non exsistant at high tide beach. I found 4 earings, 2 very nice bracelets, 2 1979 Susan B dollar coins and $5.32 in other coins. Thats a great day compared to 4 to 5 hours of just a few coins on the other "more used popular" beaches.

I have never experianced "electrical interferance" before hunting down here. One beach had this big antena on the bluff and everything withing many hundreds of feet around / under it was impossible to hunt. Also found EMF at San Clemente, and Oceanside near the piers. I will say the beaches have way fewer pull tabs and bottle caps. Many people pick up trash as they walk which is fantastic to see. So far, these San Diego Beaches are noticebly clean (of trash)! We are doing our best to haul out everything we dig up, and re-fill ALL our holes (wish everyone did this), as we have noticed many people are not too happy with us digging up THEIR beach! (Even taking pictures of us hunting.)

I would say a VLF (Minlab Sov. GT or Excal ll), would be your best bet to detect any beach. You will need something that will handle the salt and black sand / iron - ground ballance tight rope act. Make sure you bring a sand scoop or a good pinpointer / sifter to find your targets after you dig them up. I would wear disposable plastic gloves as the black gick gets your hands dirty too! We noticed these beaches are missing sand dabs and noticibly fewer birds than our Pismo Beaches. Weather has been FANTASTIC! Is this REALLY WINTER? Just saw it was mid 70's here. We had to put tons of suntan lotion on, and were sweating on the beach! Should have been swimming instead of hunting!

Hope this helps. Have a great trip!

BeachNut

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We had breakfast at the end of the Oceanside pier at Ruby's yesterday. The waiter there told us that all the sand along the north and south side of the Oceanside pier, and the Strand, is dredge spoils from when they dredge the harbor, (every February). That would explain why our detectors acted so strange there. We have tried to detect on another beach (Port Huenenme), that was also dredge spoils and we just could not do it as you had to back the sensitivity way off, or throw it into AUTO, and it still would give false reading everywhere. Since we are leaving tomorrow, the best beach we found down here was along Cardiff by the sea, down the stairs in front of the state park / campground. We found LOTS of Nickels - coins, and even some jewelery, unlike most of the other beaches.

Happy Hunting

Beachnut

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Anybody from San Diego area? I'm heading that way in a couple of weeks for my sons graduation from MCRD, I was thinking of throwing my detector in my luggage and beep the beach (got the itch due to winter). Is detecting thebeachs allowed in that area & if so what beach(s)? Any info. would be much appreciated since beeping in CO. is over until the spring thaw - to much overburden & frozen ground.

Thanks - Frosty

Hi Frosty.

I don't know anything about the beaches down there. I just wanted to thank your son for his service. I pulled some duty there in 1965. He'll remember MCRD and be proud to have been there. Tell him I wish him well.

Happy hunting. AL.C

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I want to thank all members (all the great memebers on Robs great forum)that replied to my request for info. of San Diego beaches. It is much appreciated and will help make my trip to San Diego a better time.

FredM - Thanks for the phone call the other day, I got some helpful tips. I would have liked to talk longer with you but I had to get to my other job. I would send you a PM but for some reason I'm not able to access the part that allows me. I'm denied access - gotta ask Rob what's up.

Thank you everyone that sent your thanks to my son who is graduating Marine boot camp - I'm very, very proud of him, proud that he chose to take on a challenge that few people now a days are willing to, proud that he volunteered to serve his and our great Country

Again Thank you, stay safe and watch your back - Frosty

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Hi Frosty and you are welcome...I am always willing to render aid if I am able...I hope you have a good time on the beaches...the surf has been a bit rough, the tides extreme but the weather is fine...Sunday we should start getting rain, maybe loads if the weather people get it right...ha, ha...

I am hoping for a good sand stripping and sand removal storm...we haven't had a good one here for 20 years or more...

Fred

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Hey folks - Got back from San Diego last night, had a great time at my sons MCRD graduation. Spent some time swinging the coil at Pacific beach, Mission beach & Cardiff or Carliff (i'm getting old & can't remember) by the sea. I didn't find any rings or necklaces but I did do my part to help clean up the Cal. beaches (Gov. Arnold doesn't have to thank me, I'll donate my time and effort to the Rep. of Cal. since they are hurting for $$$$) just as I have cleaned up the Bradshaw mtns. in AZ. and the rocky mtns in CO.

What I did find was 1-large lead fishing weight you use for surf fishing, 1-railroad tie spike, 1-pair of needle nose pliers (not rusty, still shiny), 2-rusty bobby pins, 1-rusty nail, 1-empty foil juice container. I also found 1-dime and 1-quarter, the quarter had all of the silver clad eaten away by the salt water & sand so all that's left is the copper, guess it's worth about 1/2 a cent. :lol:

It was fun to get out in mid-January and swing the coil. Thanks again for the advice and tips.

Stay safe & watch your back - Frosty

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  • 6 months later...

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