Frustrations with bottle caps and VDIs...

[Silver Surfer]

Frustrations with bottle caps and VDI's...

I worked the "honey spot" that I figured would be loaded yesterday for 6 hours and didnt find ONE coin... What the hell?? In case you didnt read my post about it, it was a Bar that was surrounded by low grass, and they have a bonfire out there almost every night. It is always crowded with people. It took me a couple months to get up the nerve to ask for permission, but he was all for it.. First hunt produced a few coins, but was far too trashy for my DD 6 X 10 coil... So I buy a DD shooter coil and go back... I must have dug 1000 bottle caps... What the hell is with bottle caps showing as pennies/dimes/quarters on my MXT?? How can this machine be so good at ID'ing things, but so lousy on something so commonly found
Is it due to the shape, or the metal composition? I guess I am just frustrated that I can understand small bits of jewelry reading as foil, or old pull tabs showing as rings, but I would think that with the Technology whites has now, they would be able to program these damn things to show up as BOTTLE CAPS! Twist tops show as that unless they are smashed flat, so why not bottle tops?

Also, I have found that nickels are ALWAYS an 18 or 20 on VDI, never less or more than that.. Pop tabs are varied, but I have never dug a 22-26 VDI without it being a pop tab... I am to the point to where unless it is higher than 26, I dont dig them. I have yet to find a ring when the VDI says "ring", it is always a beavertail pull tab... But I am afraid that if I dont dig those VDI's, I will pass over a ring..
Has anyone who reads this found a ring in the VDI range of 22-26? I guess I am trying to narrow down the VDI so I can spend my time concentrating more on possble good finds and less junk.. The rings I have found either show up less than 20, or show up as 1 cent/10 cent, and the gold trinkets show up as foil, so I always dig foil that is greater than 4 on the VDI...

I know I have been extremely lucky on my finds so far, but yesterday was really discouraging... 6 hours at a nearly fool-proof site and only $0.93 in clad, and half a 5 gal bucket in bottle caps, pull tabs, and other junk (pieces of aluminum cans, etc.)
My back is not a happy camper today...

HH

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Re: Frustrations with bottle caps and VDI's...

Bottle caps can fool certain machines sometimes, because they have that shiny metal coating (that silver-ish paint). Once the cap corrodes for a year or two, and gets rusty, then the machine can easily identify it as iron, because that coating has worn away.

The way to tell them apart from conductive targets, is to play with the swing speed. Bottle caps will start to "break up", when you momentarily increase your swing speed over them. But if they're a coin (or conductive target) the signal gets better with a momentary increase in swing speed. I would use this trick, before I would rely on the various White's machines "bottle cap reject" function. Because in my opinion, you're letting the machine (a computer) soften the signal, muffle questionable ones, and it will always "err on the side of safety". Better to make the judgement yourself, with the swing speed trick.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Re: Frustrations with bottle caps and VDI's...

Will give that a try.. I must add, in another post I mentioned hunting here for six hours and not one coin.. I should have pointed out in this post that the $.93 in clad I found was on the side where people park out front, not in the back/fire pit area..

I am going to give it a rest for awhile and let the bad taste in my mouth settle.. LOL.. I was really flabbergasted when I discovered that he dumps and spreads all the ash (along with the melted cans, nails from wood, etc.) every week around the pit/lawn areas... Twenty years of this there is no doubt that I could probably fill a dumpster with just the junk from this place.. I dont know if I have that much stamina just for the chance of getting some clad, and maybe a piece of jewelry... Ah, to be 20 again..