Newbe Question: Nickel or Shotgun shell

[tomfg]

I just picked up a White's Prizm II metal detector with Target I.D. Several times I've thought I've found a nickel, and it turned out to be a shotgun shell. Information I've found says Nickel's Metal content: Copper - 75% & Nickel - 25%. I thought shotgun shell's were brass. I've found three pre-1982 pennies so far, and the Prizm identified them solidly as pennies. Any tips so I don't keep on digging up shotgun shells? Thanks.

 

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[dirtyknees]

Hey tom, I have the same prob with my detector. I have a hard time discriminating the shells. They say that nickles are hard to find sometimes, but as a newbie I tend to dig all signals at the beach and hence find the nickles (and shotgun shells ). I haven't tried detecting anywhere but the beach (too dry here).

Good luck

 

[vwayne1]

Guys, Guys, Guys, let me tell a short story. I was out with a buddy. He has DFX and I have xlt. He got a decent signal, and I decided to check it (we do this often when we are near) Mine wouldn't give a good signal. So he digs it and its a shotgun shell. I was pissed. Not because I want to dig old shotgun shells, but because my detector did not alert me to the presence of a small round piece of brass in the ground. Stop for a minute and think of all the items that the shell could have been, and sounded the same on your detector. A watch fob, a watch, foriegn coin, old badge, some jewlery, the list goes on. Dig it, man!! Thats what were out there for. Not to see how many clad coins we can get per hour. This isn't a job, it's an adventure.

 

[pondmn]

VWayne1---Re the coin that has a large lip on it. When we were kids we would take a spoon from the kitchen and then take a quarter or nickle and rap the edges while rotating the coin. When the lip was big enough and the center the size of our finger we would drill the center out and have a ring. This looks like what someond did with this coin. Pondmn

 

[slow sweeper]

tomfg, your metal detector is not evaluating what the target is made out of. It shows you its best GUESS of what it is by the targets electric conductivity.

 

[tomfg]

Thanks for your replies. It makes more sense since you told me that
the detector isn't analizing metal content, but rather conductivity.

 

[Monty]

All shotgun shells are brass but some are nickel plated. Just fyi JIM

 

[Arid-Zone-A-seeker]

All shotgun shells are brass but some are nickel plated. Just fyi JIM

I know this is an old post, but all shot gun shells are not brass based. most of them are steel plated with brass. Some are plated with copper. carry a maganet with you. I have a magnet on the end of my tools and pull out plated targets all the time.

 

[Old Dog]

Most of the pre 1920 shells I have are all brass.
But note they are solid brass and are not paper shells.
Even the sides are brass.

 

[Arid-Zone-A-seeker]

for sure, i have some unfired all brass shells, Vietnam era. and they are making all brass shells now for the cowboy shooters, I was mostly talking about plated paper and plastic shells, they take a really good patina and look old, cool and black, I also have some new Aluminium base shell from Alcan, company. put out for reloaders.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

If I am not mistaken, the prizm has 8 target IDs Compare that to the 191 of the DFX or V3. That means that the space between two adjacent IDs on the prizm is equal to 24 on the DFX. Shotgun shells are definitely a higher conductive target than nickels are. The DFX usually shows them in the brass range, which is about 12 numbers higher than a nickel. That is still on the same spot of the Prizm if you understand what I mean.

Keep in mind that even though my high end detectors can see the difference, I still dig ALL shotgun shells, and sometimes it pays off. It may be a war nickel, or an early Indian Head or Flying Eagle Cent. I am sure at least a few of these coins were simply ignored by previous people who did not dig shotgun signals.

Stop worrying and just dig it all!!! You will be happy next time you expect to dig a nickel and you dig a nice womans 14K gold ring!

 

[Mich. Wolverine]

I have found a lot of shotgun shells and have some from circa 1890's to 1911 that are long and short brass that were paper. I found them in the river and are soild brass. The shotgun shell ends, up until plastic came out were made out of brass. I have a paper shotgun shell that I found in the snow ten years ago in a parking lot during hunting season that has no rust on it today. I have 10 year old shotgun shells that are rusty because they got a little snow on them. They made paper shotgun shells in the 1890's and maybe even earlier. I'm not trying to raise a stink but you can look up the history of shotgun shells makers on the web and you will get the dates on some of the sites.

Wolverine.

 

[Old Dog]

Most of the pre 1920 shells I have are all brass.
But note they are solid brass and are not paper shells.
Even the sides are brass.

The paper shells I have are from the 40s and early 50s.
Mostly obscure gages like 8, 10, 20 and 16.
The brass shells are all for the trench gun developed for WWI.

I realise that there were paper shells used as early as 1860.
I save the ones I can reload and use.

 

[ivan salis]

fuzzy ID's are caused by three things -- deep metals that are harder to "read" on average , metals that are close together electrical conductivity wize and having a detector that does not have a large enought area to sort all the finds into their own lil nitches in its "slots" -- a detector with a smaller amount of slots has to "lump" more stuff together in a group --high dollar detectors simply have a larger sorting basis or "more slots" -- and thus they tend sort more finely --but they too can be fooled -- and get a "off" reading -- so there no "100%" fool proof machines out there but their are better quality "guessers" vs dig it all type machines

 

[Woodland Detectors]

It's a universal thing partner.
The real good detectorists have learned to ignore the numbers and dig everything.