Metal Detecting

Hi everyone,

I just thought I would write a short post following my first venture out with my Simplex+. As I am new to the hobby (well, since owning a very small and no doubt not great machine when I was about 8!) I decided that I would test out my shiny new machine on one of our local beaches. I had relatively low expectations as to what I may find and was fully expecting tonnes of iron and ring pulls.

As I am not a driver, I had to make do with a couple of bus journeys and my detector in my rucksack. I got to the beach, put the Simplex together and had a play with ground balancing it. I have to say, this was really straight forward, much to my relief. I set to beach mode, dropped the sensitivity a bit and changed the frequency...just because I could. As a slight aside, I was under the impression that there were five frequencies? I only see three in my menu? Anyone have any insights into this at all?

Anyway, once set up I happily began searching in the freezing, strong wind. a fair bit of chatter, some mysterious signals that showed as strong and then vanished but much to my delight after an hour of detecting in less than favourable ground, mostly a thin sand layer with shingle and cobbles beneath (not great for digging), I managed to find two bits of what I assume are WWII bullet/shell casing, a brass eyelet from a jacket and a small piece of what I think is steel. I know, not pretty finds, but they were my first and I was dead chuffed to actually pinpoint anything.

Overall, I really liked the Simplex, easy to use but will be even better once I get more practice and can tweak the settings a bit. Now to try and find some permissions - again, as I don't drive I've resorted to letter writing and trying to be patient and just hope someone is kind enough to offer some land.

Thanks for reading and I'm sorry I couldn't report anything more exciting for my first trip out

Matt

Interesting write up, Mat, good luck with the permissions

Well done Matt... keep at it.

Good morning Matt,

pleased to see that you eventually got out onto a beach. Were you detecting dry, or wet, sands?

I assume that it was a Norfolk beach that you were detecting? Although you may have no interest in things of a military nature it would serve you well to read up on military actions on the Norfolk coast; forewarned is forearmed!

I know that you say it was only bits of scrap that you found but try taking and posting a couple of pictures; it will be good practice for when you hit pay-dirt and just in case any of those bits of scrap are WWII nasties, there are plenty of experienced detectorists in here to advise you.

Stay safe, stay well, and happy hunting

Chris

Hi Matt, the frequency shift has been reduced to three in the firmware update.There should have been a note on the front of the manual. The frequency shift is for removing interference from other detectors and local R.F. interference, the machine runs best on f2 the center frequency..
It might be worth checking which firmware you have, although if you only have the three frequencies it's probably up to date.
The Simplex is a great detector and punches well above it's price in comparison with other machines.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Yes Chris, I was in the Cromer area on a mix of wet and dry sand. I did experiment with ground balancing again once I shifted from wet to dry. I'll definitely try and get some images taken for practice.

Ratty, that is brilliant - I was a little concerned that I had a faulty detector so glad I mentioned it and thank you for your input. I did find F2 to be the least chatty too.

Good Morning Matt That's a great account of your first trip out with your new machine.
As Resurgam say's, a couple of photo's to illustrate your posts are will always be welcome and don't necessarily need to be restricted to exciting finds (although we love them too)!

Enjoy getting further acquainted with your Simplex and Good Luck in your search for a permission.
Regards ss47

MattB123 wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 9:22 am Thanks everyone for your replies.

Yes Chris, I was in the Cromer area on a mix of wet and dry sand. I did experiment with ground balancing again once I shifted from wet to dry. I'll definitely try and get some images taken for practice.

Ratty, that is brilliant - I was a little concerned that I had a faulty detector so glad I mentioned it and thank you for your input. I did find F2 to be the least chatty too.

Well done. The secret is to get stuck in and enjoy it. From what I can recall Cromer is a right swine to detect. It looks absolutely great but most of the time there seems to be very little there.

Not even crabs?

Hi Matt,

if you do some reading in the ordnance section you may be able to pick up some advice on possible future military finds on Norfolk beaches.