My friend Gary Drayton has written a book called 'Metal Detecting for Spanish Treasure', so I thought I'd ask him a few questions about the book and how he has become so successful at finding Spanish Treasure."
Tony: You are a part time hunter with a full time job and yet you constantly find Spanish wreck Items. What do you attribute to you success?
Gary: Without doubt beach reading skills and solid metal detecting techniques are very important parts in finding Spanish artifacts on heavily hunted beaches. I walk onto a beach and look at the beach and conditions present as clues on a treasure map, treasure is there if you have the patience and skills to find it. The need to make the utmost use of my metal detecting time makes my beach reading skills of paramount importance. Only having short time frames to search the beaches for Spanish treasure multiplies the need to know what weather patterns and surf conditions effect the beaches you hunt. The more honed your beach reading skills are the more artifacts you will find as you make yourself Johnny on the spot more times than the next guy.
Metal Detecting for Spanish Treasure by Gary Drayton
Tony: What is the biggest mistake that most treasure hunters make?
Gary: The biggest mistake a lot of other beach hunters do is waiting for good treasure hunting conditions. I never rely on other peoples idea of good conditions or go to search a beach because I have heard of something being found there. When you have supreme confidence in your beach reading skills and metal detecting technique, talk of sanded in beaches and rumors of finds are of no importance to you.
If you have to wait for good conditions before going to search for Spanish treasure you have already missed the boat!
Tony: Paying your dues is important… can you give examples of how this led to productive sites for you?
Gary: To be a beach hunter who searches for Spanish treasure you have to be persistent and have a lot of patience, the more leg work you put in the more chance you have of finding Spanish treasure.
Beach treasure hunters have to deal with far fewer signals than a beach hunter searching for modern jewelry at the tourist beaches. Paying your dues consist of going hours without a signal while searching beaches that other hunters would never bother metal detecting. The reward can be an interesting shipwreck artifact on some remote beach that most times will give you another producing site.
Tony: What single piece of advice would you give anyone who is metal detecting for old wreck treasure?
Gary: Do plenty of research on the types of finds you are searching for so you know what you have when you find it and take all your beach finds home with you for further inspection.
Tony: Your Best finds have been with your Excalibur metal detector (Emerald Treasure Ring Included)… Why is it that you consistently find with the Excalibur?
Emerald Treasure Ring found with the Minelab Excalibur waterproof metal detector
Gary: I trust my Excalibur Tony, the Excalibur is the machine I always pick up when I leave the house knowing I have a chance of finding treasure.
Having spend many years using the Excalibur and finding some really outstanding finds with the metal detector, the Excalibur has earned a special place in my heart . I like to refer to the Excalibur as an honest machine, for a beach & water hunter like myself that discriminates by ear when the Excalibur tells you something about a target, it is never wrong.
Tony Diana
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