Not sure what kind of detector you bought, but the beaches in San Diego are great for detecting...
Just saw you replied to my other post. I haven't been nugget detecting yet, but I have been fishing
and detecting on various beaches pretty much every weekend except for Xmas.

What detector did you get? I'm not super great at it (I bought a Nokta Legend pro pack 3-4 months
ago) but it would be fun to meet up on the beach some time...

I have a Minelab Equinox 900. I wanted one that could detect a few different things (nuggets, civil war artifacts, coins, etc...). I travel back east a couple of times a year to hunt for fossils and I've run across some old civil war fox holes in the middle of no where in SC. I'd need to check the local laws out there, but I've always wanted to go back to that spot to metal detect. I have family that bought a ranch in TX also. I don't know how old the ranch is, but it could have some things on it. My Dad has property in PA that is really close to a civil war battlefield as well.
Detecting on the beach sounds good. I can get in the practice and you never know what you'll find. I lost a really nice gold ring when I was in high school at the beach, while surfing. Actually, it wasn't on the beach, it was in about 10 feet of water, but it could have either been washed up to the beach or swept out to sea over the decades. I've always wondered if anyone found it or if it's lost forever. Keep in touch and let me know the next time you are out here.

I'm TheFrood over at https://metaldetectingforum.com/
Lots of good info there about beach detecting. Lots of detector
all over the place on there, but every locality has their own little
rules about detecting.

I'm planning to hit up some beach this weekend for the low tide
in the afternoon to detect... Likely will be fishing until about 1 or
2 pm. A really good low tide hits around 5pm, so if you can endure
the chill the waves should finally be small enough not to risk getting
swept out to sea if you go more than ankle deep in the water!

Your detector is supposed to be waterproof to 5m, but I've read
conflicting reports about reality of it on the forum above. It seems
like a good detector though and should be good for gold with the
smaller head and beach/relic with the larger. You may be able to
find that ring you lost ;). Look on youtube about your detector to
learn the settings and what they do. It's more advanced than my
Legend, and I still have to consult the manual to figure out what
things are/do.

If you want to meet up I'll make it a point
to try my hand at detecting in San Diego area this weekend. I go to
OC most frequently because it's the closest beach to where I live
(Moreno Valley).

I'll email you.

Hi Steven,

I am relatively new at this as well, a couple years, and I joined a couple clubs to meet people and get in on organized outings. You can go to a club meeting without joining, make some contacts and feel it out. I can tell you that SPMA has an outing in March to the 29 Palms area and it is fairly close for you and should provide a little gold and a good time. Treasure Seekers of San Diego meets the first Wednesday of the month in Escondido and it doesn't cost anything other than your time and commitment to join. Don't get discouraged and do consider joining a club as they have lots and lots of claims that complement the GPAA claims. Really, the hardest thing is to make friends and most clubs unfortunately don't do enough to make new members comfortable, but you get out in direct proportion to what you put into it. My first experience on a claim was with a few guys I met at a meeting and I learned all about dry washing, digging, panning and we even found a little gold -not enough to cover the gas there and back, but the experience was priceless.

Good luck and hope to see you at a club meeting. I'll be at the TSSD on Wednesday, March 6.

Regards,
Sean