disc. smashed beer cans?

No help.They sound off like silver on my machine,when they are buried down a foot or so at the beach.I usually run across at least one in every outing.
 

I don't any machine are going to disc those out. The only way to tell is to raise the coil and see if you can still hit it way up in the air, but if it's a deep one, they still sound like a good target.
 

yup - i have the same problem - i set my machine for coins but if if the can is crushed up it will show up as a quarter - if it is just flat or uncrushed it will not show up.
 

Try this: snip off a piece of that crushed can with tin-snips... a piece about the size of your thumbnail. Wave that by your coil in an air test. What does it read? Probably around foil or small tab. Now snip off a larger piece, about the size of a domino. Reads about square tab, right? Now sample an entire crushed aluminun can. Reads about .25 or .50, right? But wait .... in each case, the material was exactly the same: aluminum. It was only the quantity that changed. This goes to show the common misconception that people have, when they see designated TIDs on their machine, like foil, tab, nickel, penny/dime, half, etc.... They just assume their machine is somehow reading actual composition. But in fact, it's reading conductivity, not composition.

The quantity and size of the item plays a part in the conductivity. So there's no way around it, except experience to feel out the size of an object by sound. Ie: a quarter and a crushed can will sound different, even though their TID may be the same-ish.
 

Gribnitz said:
I don't any machine are going to disc those out. The only way to tell is to raise the coil and see if you can still hit it way up in the air, but if it's a deep one, they still sound like a good target.

Raise the coil and "X" the spot (especially with a DD coil). It will paint wider in one direction if it is on it's side. If you get to 8" off the ground but didn't get multiple hits when skimming it's probably not a coin. But a shallow uncrushed can with the bottom pointing up at you sounds like a Morgan Dollar.
 

thanks for taking the time!
 

My experience with smashed beer and pop cans is that any decent beeper will pick them up loud and clear to surprising depths. Very hard to discriminate out. The tid machines may have an edge if you make a note of the readings for reference. But for the most part I think they are one of the tiresome parts of the hobby. I always wonder why they spend the effort to smash and bury them when packing them out would be easier?
My two bits,
Dig often
luvsdux
 

Then there is the same problem with those that are tossed into a raging campfire and melt into half dollar blobs of aluminum. My GTI 2500 lets me know the approximate size of the target and that helps on empty cans. But the melted globs will fool me every time. some beaches are covered with those blobs, ditto the area of a park or construction site where there is a lot of backfill. Uh...but I did find my first "Merc" dime in a backfill site. They delivered it to me! Monty
 

Yah, I've had my times with those melted blobs too. The darn things sound off loud and strong. I wonder if way into the future people will wonder why there were so many tiny aluminum smelters spread around the country.
HH
luvsdux
 

One day I must have dug 1/2 dozen of the crushed cans and when I got another reading that was loud and deep I said the hell with it and kept going. I got about 10 feet and it kept bugging me so I went back and dug a nice silver WL. You just have to dig them all to be sure
 

My easy method if it says 0.0 or 2.0 and it comes up as a quarter I usually will go about 4 inches then give up! Hoping/assuming it is a beer can.
 

my tiger shark has only audio for the object below the coil. found a tube of animal ointment at the local fair grounds sat. layed out flat as could be at 12 inches deep. like they put it there just to $^*^ with me. was like a family size tooth paste, cap and all. found $10.00 in clad in the same time it took me to dig the the cow meds. 92 sweating like a cow i just fell back and laughed. i love this sport! which it is, if you want to find the good stuff! thanks for reading my post. thanks for taking the time to post. today is the day! ben
 

I dig a lot of them on the beach. Usually at the top of the beach where the "parties" are. The initial signal is just too good to ignore. If all signals for stuff were that loud, clear, and consistent the world would be a better place. Maybe?

I find that if it is a smashed beer can, it is buried pretty deep - 8"-12" I don't know why or how they did the hole but that's where they are. I also find that the signal gets a lot louder as I dig the hole and the depth reading says it is still pretty shallow - 4" or so. So if you dig a really loud clear signal that gets louder as you dig and the depth doesn't match the hole you're digging. In my experience it is 99/100 a crushed beer can. I stop at about 6" when it does this. I can sleep at night.

Daryl
 

My detecter will read them as zinc pennies or quarters. I can usually tell by the sound if it's a can or a quarter. I real quarter has distint pop on tail end of the signal. Pennies are much harder. If it says 0 to 2 inch i'll dig and if it's not right near that it's a can. Now if i get a signal that goes from cent to pulltab and back and forth I check to too see how wide the signal is left to right and front and back. A cent will have a very small signal zone and a can will usually be much larger. Mostly I just dig them all so I don't have to find the same trash the next I search here again.
 

After the 6th smashed beer can at 14 inches, I start to rethink my "dig it all and get the junk out" attitude. :-\

Daryl
 

BioProfessor said:
After the 6th smashed beer can at 14 inches, I start to rethink my "dig it all and get the junk out" attitude. :-\

Daryl
LOL-Yeah,even at the beach that can be a pain in the butt for sure.
 

One good use for a long, thin coin probe. If you suspect a can jab the probe down. If you can feel it punch a hole through the aluminum you know it's a can.
 

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