beach trip 3

[sws33]

Got pretty much skunked today. I did pull a 1965 quarter out of about 14" of sand and a dime at 12". Got lots of old nails and steel caps, again. I've been trying to disc out the caps with out much luck. When I hit the target I rev disc it but with the steel caps they frequently will go from high low to low high or disappear all together making me think I've got something worth digging. I have also been trying to differentiate the subtle sound differences but need to practice more I guess. I have dug less bobby pins by scanning at 90 degrees and can pick up a double blip but those dang steel caps are going to be the death of me. Anybody have any tips for the steel bottle caps? The surf was too high this am to venture out very far so the water search was not happening. I got hit by one wave that soaked me up to the crotch and decided to stay in the dry stuff. Maybe I'll try Long Beach Tuesday down by the peninsula. Cant do any worse than I did today.

 

[jamesinwesttexas]

Interesting, have you searched Adrian/Fisher's Ghost posts about reverse disc? I think someone mentioned bottle caps would not sound [mostly] in reverse disc where gold items would be heard [mostly}. I should go test that myself. Keep us informed and good luck.

 

[jamesinwesttexas]

Also, I just read a post that indicated a bottle cap will give a STRONG hi/lo and then reduced hi/lo or disappear in reverse. Best to dig it all until you are sure [if you can ever be sure]. I'd like to know what you find out. Good luck.

 

[sws33]

I'm pretty sure at this point that you just need to dig it all. Like I said, I can weed out some of the bobby pins and small wire by going 90 deg to the target and getting a double blip but the steel caps read as a good target every time. Digging all the targets at a beach like Huntington means I get to work a 25' x 25' area in 3 hours. Lots of trash.

 

[jamesinwesttexas]

Actually, I just finished a very informal test with my Infinium with the 8 in mono with targets on top of fairly mineralized ground since you got me curious about those bottle caps. I used 4 old bottle caps with varying rust. They all gave a strong hi/lo in disc and all but 1 [a Pabst Blue Ribbon with not a whole lot of rust] gave a fairly strong hi/lo in reverse disc. Then a small gold ring, a gold watch face bracket, and a larger gold ring all gave a good hi/lo. In reverse disc the small gold ring almost went silent but still hi/lo, the gold watch face bracket went silent, the larger ring was a much weaker hi/lo [similar to the Pabst bottle top but a little weaker]. A half inch square of foil gave no signal in normal or reverse, flat or wadded. A $10 Indian head gold piece gave a lo/hi in normal and a hi/loi in reverse. Some small silver and some coins would give a lo/ hi in normal and a hi/lo in reverse. There seems to be some hope there for IDing at least some of the smaller gold jewelry or at least increasing the odds of digging some. The larger rings are going to sound pretty close to pulltabs and some bottle caps. Maybe if I ever do learn the language of the Infinium I'll be able to pick out some of the gold objects without digging so much trash. I'm definately a novice with the Infinium [never been to a beach with it] but it seems to have a good chance of finding some of the gold. I really enjoy reading what others have experienced with their detectors.

 

[sws33]

Hey James, good stuff there. I just got back from another beach hunt and pulled a couple dollars worth of change out of the sand. I really went to try and disc out those pesky steel bottle caps or to see if there was any way to find out if I could tell them by their tone.So here is what I deduced after today's trip. First off, I used the 5 x 10 DD today and was really happy with it's performance. I don't think it's as deep as the 8" mono but close. Also, I've read that lots of folks like the 8" mono for pinpointing with, but I personally find the DD easier. Once I hit a target I back off till it just disappears then go back over it slowly till it loudest tone is heard and I know that the target is under the middle of the coil. Worked great today. Now, back to the bottle caps. I ran the finny with 0 disc and threshold at 6 to 7. (yeah, those surface targets will about blow your head off with the threshold this high) But I could tell a subtle difference when I hit a cap. They hit hard, loud and have a slightly longer tone on the end. They also seem to be be a bit raspy in tone compared to a coin. Seems like all the coins I got today had a nice smooth short tone to them with the exception of a few junk clad pennies that were partially eaten away by the salt. I think the best part of today's hunt came when another detectorist was working a life guard tower really hard then left. I followed behind him to see if he missed anything and got a quarter that was right next to a nickel at around 4". That was an interesting tone. I was about to leave them in the sand because the finny couldn't decide if it was high low or low high, but the tone of the target had me digging. Nice and smooth and short. Also found 2 lead sinkers within a couple feet of the coins the other guy missed. I think he was using a Garrett ace of some sort as his unit was a yellow color. I also pulled a dime at around 14" which blew me away. All discolored from being in the sand a long time. The only reason I got that dime was because I was really paying attention to the threshold sounds. When the coil got over the target initially the threshold nulled out instead of giving me a tone. I brushed away some sand so I could put the coil on a flat surface and then there was the tone, super short and quiet. So I dug and dug till out popped the dime. I did much better on the bobby pins and small wires today, again by going 90 deg to the target. One direction sounds good, 90 deg and the tone has a double blip to it. I still dug some just to be sure it was a bobby pin or wire and it was 100% of the time. So the best advice I can give on the pins and wire is to go 90 deg to the target before digging. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to tell a bottle cap from a good target with the accuracy I can on the bobby pins, but I will continue to try, practice practice practice. Trying to hear the subtle differences in the tone and the threshold work best with a slow swing speed. If I was swinging my coil around today like those other guys I saw I would never have gotten that dime. I worked an area like a grid of around 20 yards x 20 yards and spent 4 hours doing it. Those other guys would be 200 yards up the beach by the time I was finishing 2 rows. Got to believe they are missing a lot of targets.
So today tells me,
1. go slow
2. listen to the rasp of the tone to help id caps
3. check out a nulled out signal
4. pay attention to the duration of the second tone (long and loud = steel cap)
5. Go in behind anyone NOT using an Infinium as they will leave you plenty!!!

 

[jamesinwesttexas]

Good advice. I heard the raspy sound on the caps too but thought I could hear it on a larger ring [10k]. Become one with the Infinium and start pulling the gold out. Good luck and keep us informed.