Nox and bottle caps

I love the Nox but it has a love of I'ding bottle caps as a non ferrous target. I used it last week on the beach and I found a ton of them. To be honest I was thinking if I could mount a powerful magnet on my coil it would have saved me a ton of scooping. I tried the all metal mode and went from multi to single frequencies and the audio never changed. But all is not lost because my daughter wants all of the bottle caps she takes and paints them and sells them for a couple of bucks a piece. Next time I go to the beach my Explorer will be in my hand and the Nox will be my back up in case the Explorer dies on me.

Have you tried savings a user profile in 10Hz and switching between them to check?
Most caps here read around 15-17, when i swap to 10kHz they jump up into the 20's,

I tried all frequencies and I did notice that at 10 and 15 kHz the tones stayed the same and the ID numbers did up average but that made me want to dig them even more. Where as if it dropped down in ID numbers I would of probably passed on them.

Maybe Irion Bias could be the key...?

The tone is not the answer. Watch the numbers. If they change drastically then a cap is your treasure. But to be honest there are better dry sand hunting machines. The Equinox needs the problem addressed in an update. If a twenty five year old Sovereign can tell the difference with broken and raspy tone then the technology is out there. I stay in the wet. The dry sand is always my last option. I have a buddy that is the complete opposite. We work well together staying out of each other's way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2018 09:47AM by goodmore.

I kind of agree goodmore....... but honestly it dont take long to realize what most SHALLOW bottle caps sound like. As they get deeper however they move more toward one number...... somewhere around 10. Those are tuff...... but then if they are deep with the Xcal and CTX most of the time i dig them also. The numbers do give a lot of info...... the key digit seems to be 15.... then bounces in the 20s and -1. All that said.... you have to love the CTX on bottle caps over the Nox.

88junior Wrote:
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> I love the Nox but it has a love of I'ding bottle
> caps as a non ferrous target. I used it last week
> on the beach and I found a ton of them. To be hone
> st I was thinking if I could mount a powerful magn
> et on my coil it would have saved me a ton of scoo
> ping. I tried the all metal mode and went from mul
> ti to single frequencies and the audio never chang
> ed. But all is not lost because my daughter wants
> all of the bottle caps she takes and paints them a
> nd sells them for a couple of bucks a piece. Next
> time I go to the beach my Explorer will be in my h
> and and the Nox will be my back up in case the Exp
> lorer dies on me.

Painted bottle caps sounds interesting, can you post a picture of some that your daughter has painted. I like cool ideas like that.

I will post pictures of them Steve when she gets them done.

The Tesoro Compadre, Cibola and Mojave don't have any issues with pry-caps. Neither do my F75, Omega, MMK, MXT detectors etc, when fitted with a concentric search coil. Pry-caps are not really a big problem when using DD search coils, just keep raising the search coil as you sweep over the target and if the ID numbers drop off fast, it's most likely a not a good target.

tabman

Aluminum crew caps give me a great signal on the Nox. Especially the old school Pepsi and Mountain Dew ones.

Crown caps, I believe there are as many styles of those as there are pull tabs. The older style that is almost always rusty....those don't give me any trouble with the Nox. The newer style really isn't a pry off...they look like a pry off, but they actually twist off. I think some of those are made of different alloys and can be a little tricky, while others are easy to ignore. I am fortunate as the only freshwater beaches I can hunt here are the ones in the national forest, and there is no alcohol permitted in the camp grounds or at the beaches. Most of these caps these days are on alcoholic drinks. They enforce that rule pretty heavy too. I've not found a single one at any of my beaches but I know that's because they aren't there.

The newest and best since sliced bread and it likes bottle caps....thought they had this conquered years ago...if I was still in my prime would be a no go for me...
Good info for someone thinking of upgrading....sure would make me think and I loved the Explorer series so nothing against the company...as they make good products...
My area is loaded with bottlecaps and sold a couple of nice units because of the above...kudos to the tips on avoiding them....

The corona, bud light and a few more with copper are a pain.

First time I heard of a Minelab liking steel crown bottle caps? They break up on the Etrac and CZs are good at ignoring them. And same with My Golden uMax but I use a concentric coil with that one. Those are a pain at a older trashy site.

88junior Wrote:
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> .... it has a love of I'ding bottle
> caps as a non ferrous target.

You're talking crown caps, right ? And not aluminum screw caps, right ?

Have any of you Nox 800 users tried varying the sweep speeds over suspected bottle caps ?

Anyone here old enough to remember the characteristic that the old, original 6000 D's did : If you had a suspected crown cap, all you had to do was momentarily speed up the clip of the swing over the suspected target. If it began to break up, it was a cap. If it stayed the same or got better, it was conductive.

Yes I realize that technology slowed the sweep speed of all our machines WAY down since those days. But there might still be a little info. to be gleaned by varying the sweep speed over suspected targets. And test to see if crown caps display a characteristic that is different than conductors.

I remember those tactics very well. Loved those old 6000's...

The upsetting part of the hobby is realizing just how inconsiderate people are. Lazy and just flat out hogs. The things I see on the beach from baby diapers to broken chairs just left there just upsets me. I was raised to put things in the trash can. The things I find on the beach that would hurt someone if stepped on would shock the average beach mom. How many of us find a place in the sand where some Bozo threw every bottle cap from that 12 pack right into the sand? I bet the guys driving the beach combing equipment have stories I probably would gag over.

The nox is such a depth monster, the issue is the (deep) caps, not the (shallow) one's .

identifying (shallow) pry caps is easy .......Id'in the (deep) ones is near to impossible.

But then Rob ..... most of us dug the DEEP ones even on the other machines...... or at least checked them. So..... once you learn the shallow ones..... you are kind of in the same boat. They are a pain falling right there in the middle of everything digit wise. Also..... once the Nox hits the salt water.... things change a good bit.

Used the Xcal yesterday...... i dug 0 bottle caps....... oh and got one small 22K chain lol.

I truly believe that you will just dig more trash with the Nox over other Multi frequency Minelab detectors while beach hunting. Will that equate to more treasure? Well there are other factors in the equation. Time you have to hunt. Energy spent digging trash. Those two are big ones. That is why everyone has different opinions. I drive two hrs to get to where I hunt. Much different philosophy over the guy who lives there. In three years my philosophy will change. By then I hope a few more salt water units make my decision harder. So far I like the Equinox in the wet sand. I don't like hunting dry sand. With the trash ratio there I would chose another detector over the Equinox. I admit experience plays a role in that decision. But then again any good discriminating detector can get the job done. In the surf? I love the Excal. Tools of the trade.

Harold,ILL. Wrote:
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> First time I heard of a Minelab liking steel crown
> bottle caps? They break up on the Etrac and CZs ar
> e good at ignoring them. And same with My Golden u
> Max but I use a concentric coil with that one. Tho
> se are a pain at a older trashy site.

My CTX 3030 ignores pry-caps. The Golden uMax does a great job at ignoring them, but it's no depth monster. lol

tabman

In the detecting world, everything is give and take. Everything. The question in the back of my mind is...what else are you giving up by rejecting crown/pry caps? I'd wager that it's just not the caps that are being eliminated. I would say there are several other metals/targets that are getting lumped in there with that rejection ability. As to what they are...well then we are right back to my original question "what else are you giving up by rejecting...". Could be some of that irregular shaped white gold or platinum jewelry that everybody seems to notice they don't dig much of. I am just spit balling though.

goodmore Wrote:
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> I truly believe that you will just dig more trash
> with the Nox over other Multi frequency Minelab de
> tectors while beach hunting. Will that equate to m
> ore treasure? Well there are other factors in the
> equation. Time you have to hunt. Energy spent digg
> ing trash. Those two are big ones. That is why eve
> ryone has different opinions. I drive two hrs to g
> et to where I hunt. Much different philosophy over
> the guy who lives there. In three years my philoso
> phy will change. By then I hope a few more salt wa
> ter units make my decision harder. So far I like t
> he Equinox in the wet sand. I don't like hunting d
> ry sand. With the trash ratio there I would chose
> another detector over the Equinox. I admit experie
> nce plays a role in that decision. But then again
> any good discriminating detector can get the job d
> one. In the surf? I love the Excal. Tools of the t
> rade.

Good post Goodmore !


Daniel Tn Wrote:
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> ..... I'd wager that it's just not the c
> aps that are being eliminated. I would say there
> are several other metals/targets that are getting
> lumped in there with that rejection ability. As to
> what they are...well then we are right back to my
> original question "what else are you giving up by
> rejecting...". Could be some of that irregular
> shaped white gold or platinum jewelry that everybo
> dy seems to notice they don't dig much of ....

The devil is in the details. Assuming you're not in an eroded zone where all the light stuff is washed out, then a machine capable of micro-jewelry will , yes, .... get more micro-jewelry. But he will also .... as Goodmore notes: Get more junk. Since flitty junk tends to fall into that micro-jewelry TID range.

It's all in the Las Vegas odds of time and how many holes you can dig. At the end of the day, the guy who doesn't have an ability at micro-jewelry, would end up with more coin & ring sized targets. Because he's not being slowed down by flitty junk.

I was simply amazed at the Nox 800 , using it in a dry sand area that I had utterly cleaned out with my Explorer II. When I took the Nox into the same zone, it was ALIVE with more targets. TTTEEeennsssyyy little foil turds, ttteeennnsssyy grommets, etc... I furiously dug about 20 of them, before realizing that I was going to spend all day digging such junk, in a quest for an earing stud or tinsel thin chain. Was it really worth it ? I mean, this isn't stuff that you can get with a sandbasket after all (they fall right through the openings). I had to be on my hands and knees trying to find the junk.

Within an hour or so, I found myself subconsciously passing those super low #'s (kiss micro-jewelry goodbye).

I suppose an argument could be made that : On the wet sand, after erosion, there simply IS no light stuff (foil, etc...). So perhaps there is merit there chasing the super low #'s ?

I totally agree with not really wanting micro jewelry. I am happier with fat, heavy gold rings and heavy chains at the wet beach. Now when prospecting for gold in a creek or tailings I want the big and small stuff because often all you can find is the fine gold and it adds up over time. But a thin gold chain that some get excited about being found with the nox does not excite me. When I go to the beach, I have just a small amount of time because of long drive times. Thus I almost always hunt wet and look for the heavy items. If you can read a wet beach you can save yourself a lot of time. If one beach is sanded in and not producing, move on to another beach and don't waist your time. Look for eroding beaches and cuts. I stay out of the dry sand that is where all the junk is located. Pop tops, beer caps, screw caps, foil etc. People are pigs at the beach these days compared to years gone by.