Tiny foil balls at the beach...suggestions?

[Hunting_Dad]

Newbie question, I apologize if this has been covered before.
I am getting fairly comfortable relic hunting with my 800, but with the crops coming up and days getting warmer I thought i would try some beach hunting. I did some reading, watched some videos, borrowed some settings from a Youtuber I like and hit the beach on Sunday. I knew i wanted to dig low “trashy” signals in hopes of finding some jewelry so i pretty much dug anything with a VDI >5. Above the high water line, things went fine... couple coins, pulltabs, etc. However down below the wet sand i could not get away from all the tiny little balls of aluminum. I thought my machine was acting up as most were the size of a BB and would fall right through the scoop. My initial settings were in Beach2 with a sensitivity of 20, but i quickly switched to Beach1 and dropped my sensitivity to 15.... still couldnt escape the foil balls. The signals had a nice consistent tone and a fairly stable VDI of 8/9 or 9/10.
Is there something i could set up differently or listen for that might give me an indication that my target is a little ball of foil and not a womans ring? Or is this just the way it is on the beach? I couldnt imagine how frustrating this would have been out in the water
Thanks for your help

 

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[SD51]

I don't have a Nox but it sounds to me that someone has played a cruel joke on detectorists by dropping small foil balls on the beach. I suggest you dig everything on the beach.

 

[Hunting_Dad]

I assumed they were the result of decades of foil lunch wrappers rolling around in the surf.

 

[cudamark]

That's just the way it is with aluminum. No way to disc it out without losing small gold. If it's totally infested with small bits, you're just going to have to dig them, or, ignore those low tones. Sometimes running the iron bias in F2 @ 9 will help with melted aluminum and corroded slaw, but, if it's bright shiny foil, I haven't found anything that will I.D. that stuff.

 

[Hunting_Dad]

Thanks. I will try F2@9 next time out, they are definitely older bits of foil.... dull grey, and fairly dense for foil. I thought they were weird little rocks a first. If I can find one in my pouch I will take a picture when I get home. I guess I was hoping there might be a trick to identifying such small targets.

 

[Donut]

Don’t get hooked on <5. You’d be surprise of the range of jewelry and coins. i got my gold 18k ring at a solid 10.
if it a solid signal dig it. You never know and will be surprised sometimes.
i only have fresh water so I most of the time use Park 1. I also have a few separate programed settings I install for different situations into my profile settings.
i keep each one on a 3x5 card. I sure wish I could just install them on a chip and I wish minelab would have made that option available.
Aluminum balls. just deal with it and move on and most likely won’t be in other places.
Doug.

 

[saanich2018]

Just remember, a lot of people are just pigs.
At the beach I will find where people have buried all their beer cans, yet a trash can is just 50 feet away
Small pieces and balls of foil seems to be common. However, after a while you will start to know the signal. I can generally tell when it is a ball of foil or a pull can or a juice box.
The catch here, is dig everything until you are sure.
Also, until you are really comfortable, I would recommend using default settings. IMHO

 

[Skiron]

Newbie question, I apologize if this has been covered before.
I am getting fairly comfortable relic hunting with my 800, but with the crops coming up and days getting warmer I thought i would try some beach hunting. I did some reading, watched some videos, borrowed some settings from a Youtuber I like and hit the beach on Sunday. I knew i wanted to dig low “trashy” signals in hopes of finding some jewelry so i pretty much dug anything with a VDI >5. Above the high water line, things went fine... couple coins, pulltabs, etc. However down below the wet sand i could not get away from all the tiny little balls of aluminum. I thought my machine was acting up as most were the size of a BB and would fall right through the scoop. My initial settings were in Beach2 with a sensitivity of 20, but i quickly switched to Beach1 and dropped my sensitivity to 15.... still couldnt escape the foil balls. The signals had a nice consistent tone and a fairly stable VDI of 8/9 or 9/10.
Is there something i could set up differently or listen for that might give me an indication that my target is a little ball of foil and not a womans ring? Or is this just the way it is on the beach? I couldnt imagine how frustrating this would have been out in the water
Thanks for your help

Couple of things...as you already know, gold can read everywhere regarding VDI, and especially in high-potential gold areas (beach) you should dig everything indeed cause when you eliminate a junk target, be sure that another gold target has exactly the same response and VDI out there. Having said that first, here are some thoughts:

First, you're talking about tiny foil balls...and you're emphasize that they are bb sized....are you sure it is foil and not melted aluminum nuggets? I bet it's not tiny foil.....Aluminum foil, especially tiny BB sized as you state, is very unusual to read that high in 8-10 VDI....BUT melted aluminum nuggets that are rock solid and way more heavy, even little ones, can read high enough due to their high density...they are very solid. Furthermore, tiny BB sized foil due to it's lightness is usually found more in the dry part (washed by the waves and wind) and much less in the wet part...Anyway, I would check again the "suspect" and if it's melted aluminum nuggets as I guess, you can try Cudamark's tip to use iron bias F2@max (9) which will eliminate some of them. Beware though, such a high iron bias setting will give you much trouble in masked targets (eg a ring near iron) but if beach is iron free then ok... High iron bias may also give iron buzzes to very deep or very small good staff...so it's a trade off as always when messing with settings to eliminate something.

Second, you say that you were using Beach 2 and quickly switched to Beach 1 mode as a measure to get rid of the tiny staff...just a side note for your info, Beach 1 mode is more sensitive that Beach 2 mode and it's the lowest freq. weighted of all (the opposite of park/field modes where 2s are always more sensitive (higher weighted) than 1s)...Anyway, hunting the wet part I would stay in beach 2 mainly for increased stability in salty conditions and/or black sand.

Third, the vast majority of gold rings are over 5 VDI, so if you are willing to play the odds and eliminate tiny foil (which usually reads in the 0-5 range if it's indeed tiny), you can save some digging by ignoring those 0-5 VDIs, BUT you may forget some gold chains (especialy thin ones) or earrings, cause most of them read really low (VDI 1 or 2 sometimes). Same if you try to lower your sensitivity...or use a very low single frequency instead of multi (eg 5khz) which will help to eliminate micro targets but will eliminate micro gold also for sure. If you're only after gold, then you could eliminate >20 VDIs also but say bye-bye to silver or heavy high carat gold also.....As already said, it's always a trade off. Finally, you can use a different hunting strategy also....eg, first hunt, dig everything that is +/-1 VDI steady for all dirrections, next hunt go for the iffys....Or, first hunt go for the usual gold only (VDI >5 & <20)...next hunt go for the >20 VDIs...you can also ignore everything super shallow (usually junk) that double-tripple beeps....many strategies to make your time more productive....choose what suits you best

Fourth, try to size the targets and tell their depth...make some tests and see the response or something micro-sized as the aluminum you say, a ring/coin, a smached alum. can etc in various distances by using the pinpoint mode but your usual program also....many times you should tell the difference from a micro target vs a coin/ring by the signal's "length" and intensity. Try also the different response of irregular shaped items vs round items....round items give a very definite hard-edges signal from all dirrewctions....mishshaped aluminum is way more hollow with not well defined edges...VDI will be unstable also

Fifth, micro targets disc for dummies: it's already out of the hole and fall right through your scoop, and your hand pointer doesn't even pick it? Move on and let the micro staff for others

Last and most important IMHO.....make it fun and not a junk-nightmare, and try UNDERWATER! good staff is IN THE WATER...and when I'm saying in the water I mean knee to chest deep, and let me state why I now prefer hunting the underwater part vs the dry:

-The junk/treasure ratio underwater is in you favor and way better than the dry part of the beach with the enormous amount of junk...no beach party in the water, no people drinking staff in the water, no fire pits in the water, no throughing junk from their hands in the water, and even if they do, all light junk is usually washed out to the shore from the waves due to their lightness, leaving only the heavy staff behind.

-It's all about human activity....Knee to chest deep is where the conditions are best for the jewelry rings and chains to come off: Imagine suntan lotion oiled and sweaty fingers that quickly shrink due to cold water...lady or old man comes into water, stops in waste deep to get her/his body wet with her hands before going full body in...ooops...ring slipped! Imagine mamas with kids that are playing, building castles (low tide, to be full of water later) and chasing their kids in the shallows knee to waste deep...oops...my baby pulled the chain from my neck...oops again, my ring slipped as I was waving the sand....etc etc etc...countless senarios! Imagine the younger folk that stops in waste deep before that first "violent" dive...oops, ring or chain gone! Imagine some old folks in waste deep that are stricked by a sudden big wave...bye-bye chain! Imagine some others playing voley ball etc in waste deep...oops, bye-bye ring with the last service! And lastly, put you own imagination to think of many more examples and you will see my point!...And also count that all those lost items are way more difficult to be found from the owner underwater vs if lost in the dry...even if they realize their loss soon (rare!)

-Much less people hunt underwater vs dry....so more virgin areas for you to try with your waterproof Nox!

-Sea with it's waves and currents has a magical way to put same-weight things together: learn to read you beach to find clues of where the good stuff is hiding...gold is heavy....so look for heavy items that usually disposed in "specific zones" or "holes" due to currents/waves action especially underwater....fishing weights, old rusted coins and other heavy item areas are the first clues that tell you to to hunt for gold in that area...

Anyway, sorry for the long reply but used to hunt the dry part and I feel your pain through all that junk.....been there...done that.....and choose underwater for all these reasons and way more that I could continue writing about....just my 2c but give it a try next time and use your time efficiently!

Best,
Argyris