A few people have mentioned that XLTs are not good for detecting on the beach.

My suggestion is if you are getting lots of signals but there is nothing there then this is probably due to sea water storing electricity like a battery and you get a signal from it. I think that’s why they say they are not up to beach detecting.  You might have better luck if you try using it on the drier sand.

I don’t bother detecting on the beach with my Whites XLT, but I know quite a few who do detect on the beach with the XLT and I believe its fine.

I think its a case of setting your machine up right, I know Bob Baileys book has 2 beach programmes in it. Set your xlt up for mineralised search conditions, air and ground balance it on the very dry sand.  Try to stay on the dry sand but if you do detect on the wet sand don’t let your search coil come into contact with it.

Although PI detectors get much more depth (but little discrimination) these are designed just for the beach.  Other than that the Minelab explorer xs is the best all rounder I have used on the beach.