High School hunt

AquaHunter · May 26, 2019

The weather was nice and the high school was empty yesterday, so I decided to try it.

It was a target rich environment with a TON of trash. Despite garbage cans placed conveniently every 100 feet, the preferred place for the high school brats to dispose metal bits was the ground.

All I got for 2 hours hunting was 2 quarters and 2 cents, plus a broken piece of cheap jewelry.

I had my Nox set on Park 1. I avoided all targets ID'd 14-16, yet I still got aluminum pull tabs and bottle caps outside of that range.

The one thing that was fairly consistent -- quarters were around 30 and pennies were about 20. All other numbers seemed to be random shapes of aluminum trash -- cans, pieces of shredded cans, foil, etc.

What did I do wrong -- how can I stop wasting my time on aluminum trash?

ROBOTCOP13 · May 26, 2019

You can't. On salt water beaches aluminum comes in various densities of can slaw and anodized screw on twist caps resemble gold jewelry.

jmaryt · May 26, 2019

N6BY said:
The weather was nice and the high school was empty yesterday, so I decided to try it.

It was a target rich environment with a TON of trash. Despite garbage cans placed conveniently every 100 feet, the preferred place for the high school brats to dispose metal bits was the ground.

All I got for 2 hours hunting was 2 quarters and 2 cents, plus a broken piece of cheap jewelry.

I had my Nox set on Park 1. I avoided all targets ID'd 14-16, yet I still got aluminum pull tabs and bottle caps outside of that range.

The one thing that was fairly consistent -- quarters were around 30 and pennies were about 20. All other numbers seemed to be random shapes of aluminum trash -- cans, pieces of shredded cans, foil, etc.

What did I do wrong -- how can I stop wasting my time on aluminum trash?

you didn't do anything wrong! this is common with a lot of detectors they ring up
good numbers on aluminum..it's such a great conductor, and the detector has a tough time sorting the "!!!!' out! did you expect the nox to be a miracle machine?..it does the same things other detectors do! it finds sh**t too!
if i was a "betting" man i'll bet you could take a tesoro "mojave" into all that "!!!!" and do better, and ya just saved $650.00.no you didn't do anything wrong don't be concerned! make the detector pay for you, and find a "less junked" site!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

AquaHunter · May 26, 2019

So aluminum is the achilles heel of metal detecting. Wish it wasn't scattered about everywhere.

Tom_in_CA · May 26, 2019

N6BY said:
.... What did I do wrong -- how can I stop wasting my time on aluminum trash?

Why don't you just increase the disc. setting, to knock out aluminum ? :?:

You can pass foil, tabs, smaller aluminum shrapnel, etc.... By going high disc, you'll only get the larger aluminum pieces . Like for silver dollar-sized and up aluminum chunks. And will leave all the other aluminum behind.

Granted: You'll kiss nickels and most gold rings goodbye.

If you ask me: You were hunting in a sickly junky area. I would find greener grounds. And also for locations such as that, I would not be a "hero" looking for gold rings. I would crank the disc. and shoot for coins only (like if I were hunting for silver coins, for example, amidst the trash).

If gold rings are your agenda, why subject yourself to such torture, in junky zones such as that ? Instead, hit swim beaches, if gold rings are your goal. More conducive to jewelry losses, thus better ring ratios, easier digging in sand, etc.....

AquaHunter · May 27, 2019

Tom_in_CA said:
...
Instead, hit swim beaches, if gold rings are your goal. More conducive to jewelry losses, thus better ring ratios, easier digging in sand, etc.....

The high school turned out to be the worst case scenario for aluminum trash. Didn't think there would be so much below the surface. My next hunt will be an ocean beach.

pjcd · May 27, 2019

I hunt the HS track and do ok, the only time I really got skunked was at the local sleigh hill, Also at the HS, I thought for sure something would be there, after an hour or two, I gave up. If at first you don't succeed, move on. :lol:

GabbityGabby · May 27, 2019

If you notch out the aluminum you'll unfortunately miss nickels and gold too. I detect schools almost exclusively, and it's too bad there's no monetary value to aluminum because there's always a ton of it, whether it be can slaw, candy wrappers, pop tabs, or pencil tops...

Silversmith45 · May 27, 2019

GabbityGabby said:
If you notch out the aluminum you'll unfortunately miss nickels and gold too. I detect schools almost exclusively, and it's too bad there's no monetary value to aluminum because there's always a ton of it, whether it be can slaw, candy wrappers, pop tabs, or pencil tops...

On my detectors, aluminum reads the same as dimes and pennies.

Skippy SH13 · May 27, 2019

N6BY said:
The weather was nice and the high school was empty yesterday, so I decided to try it.

It was a target rich environment with a TON of trash. Despite garbage cans placed conveniently every 100 feet, the preferred place for the high school brats to dispose metal bits was the ground.

All I got for 2 hours hunting was 2 quarters and 2 cents, plus a broken piece of cheap jewelry.

I had my Nox set on Park 1. I avoided all targets ID'd 14-16, yet I still got aluminum pull tabs and bottle caps outside of that range.

The one thing that was fairly consistent -- quarters were around 30 and pennies were about 20. All other numbers seemed to be random shapes of aluminum trash -- cans, pieces of shredded cans, foil, etc.

What did I do wrong -- how can I stop wasting my time on aluminum trash?

Mmmm... that's a tough one. First off, I'd be sticking to the spots I believed that people set things down (like on a field edge or a field line edge).

But other than that... you've got to clean it out to find the gold, buddy.

Skippy

High School hunt

AquaHunter

ROBOTCOP13

Elite Member

jmaryt

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AquaHunter

Tom_in_CA

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AquaHunter

pjcd

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GabbityGabby

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Silversmith45

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Skippy SH13

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