Hunting in the Gulf of Siam

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By admin

Published: April 10, 2010

This is kind of a follow-up to the Sai Kaew Beach Sand post trying to figure out how to hunt the Gulf of Siam. Hunted in Phuket last January while I was still learning my first detector – Minelab X-Terra 705.  I hunted primarily the dry sand as the wet sand was hard packed and I only had a plastic hand scoop that just took the sand and balled it up.  The tide receded out very far (couple hundred meters0 and it was too far to walk to rinse out the scoop.  I attributed only finding coins in the dry sand to me being so new at metal detecting.

Fast forward 4 months.  I have a waterproof Minelab Excalibur II detector – the cream of the crop.  I hunted Hawaii beaches daily for 3-4 months and felt that I would make a killing at a beach visited by Bangkokians and tourists alike.

I did find 2 religious pendants and two junk rings and about 200 Baht in coins -but – no gold.

I reviewed in my mind the week hunting Sai Kaew Beach on Koh Samet and re-read Clive Clynick’s books and have come to the following conclusions:

• The Gulf of Siam is not like the beaches of Hawaii or any other beaches I have read about.
• I thought I would not have any competition but there were two local guys hunting daily (but with older detectors).
• There are only 2 tides per day as opposed to the 4 per day we had in Hawaii.
• Wave action is similar to a lake with only ankle biters.
• There are no troughs, no reefs, no coral, no big rocks, no cuts in the sand – basically – no where for a ring to hide.
• Dry sand is just like flour or powdered sugar – super fine.
• Dry sand areas are covered in beach chairs and umbrellas for tourists to relax and are raked daily by the local vendors.
• From the high tide line to the water – the sand is packed so hard you can drive on it and not see tire tracks.
• There is no towel line like at Waikiki – people are either in a beach chair at the high end of the beach (dry sand) and lying in the water at shore break.
• 6 hours in the water from ankle deep to chest deep produced 6 pull tabs
• Thai hunters (at least these two) dig a hole and don’t fill it and leave the pull tab and/or bottle cap next to the whole.  I guess that way they get to dig the same junk every day!
• Watching the local guys hunt is a good idea as long as you don’t follow their lack of ethics
• working the wet sand as the tide recedes in the busiest areas seems to be the way to hunt.  Work an area a couple hundred feet long, turn around, and move further out as the tide has gone out, and continue to hunt.

I will be going to other beaches in the future and hope to add to this knowledge and learn more and hopefully find some gold.

Sai Kaew Beach Dry Sand

Sai Kaew Beach Packed Sand

Sai Kaew Beach Lying in the Shore Break

Tagged with: beach, dry sand, ethics, metal detecting, sai kaew, sand, shore break, wet sand

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