Aluminium Foil - I Hate It!

[Erik Oostra]

An Easter egg hunt for the kiddies along a tropical beach might sound like great family fun, but it's my worst nightmare come true.. Not that I begrudge the kiddies their fun, just go have it somewhere else (or don't unwrap your eggs and eat them the moment you find them).. For weeks now I've been digging foil.. Every time I get my hopes up it's a gold ring.. It sounds good and the target ID doesn't jump about too much.. It's deep enough for a ring to have worked its way down into the sand over the weekend.. Even when I start digging I don't give up hope.. Maybe it's a small ring a lot shallower than I thought.. Oh, it's out of the hole already, the thing really is tiny.. Every time I go through this process only to find another bit of foil.. It's beyond heart breaking..

Even underwater you'd think that wave action, tides and currents would carry light foil pieces far away.. They don't.. There's a never ending supply of foil on land.. Maybe metal detector manufactures should concentrate less on iron filters and more on aluminium filters (if that's even possible without filtering out gold signals).. I'm sure that even in the bush or the desert, small pieces of foil can be a nightmare..     

[GotAU?]

Well, at least you know your detector works! 🙂 

We have coyotes spreading foil around here- they eat it along with whatever food residue some slob threw out and they chew it into bits and it falls apart in their digestive system even further and they leave it in their scat for the winds to spread around. Terrible stuff!

[Tom T]

Thought I had about a half oz. Gnarly nugget in my scoop until I went to pluck it out and it squished like a sponge. 😂

[GotAU?]

Yeah and don’t forget to look up when you think there’s a target under a bush. I dug a pretty big hole only to realize there was a piece of foil in the branches above my coil!🙄

[Chase Goldman]

Learn how to use full tones PCM audio on the Deus 2 and foil pieces become very distinguishable from symmetric gold rings.

Also, on the Deus 2, smaller foil tends to ring up in the 30's which is generally just at or below the lower TID range for gold rings.

Foil is much harder to distinguish both in audio and TID on the Equinox.

[Erik Oostra]

45 minutes ago, GotAU? said:

Yeah and don’t forget to look up when you think there’s a target under a bush. I dug a pretty big hole only to realize there was a piece of foil in the branches above my coil!🙄

This also happens when digging embankments.. on a few occasions there's been a piece of foil higher up from where I was digging.. very frustrating until you work it out.. foil is evil.. 😬 

[Lost Scout]

I found quite a few melted aluminum nuggets today... Is there a market for those?

[Erik Oostra]

2 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Foil is much harder to distinguish both in audio and TID on the Equinox.

This is not about which detector is better or worse (we've been down that path before).. I can tell the difference in audio and TID for both detectors on what is likely to be foil, that's not the point.. I'm saying it's too tempting not to dig a target which could be a gold ring, even when it's probably not.. 

Also the rings I'm finding are never the same size or thickness, they can be large and heavy or tiny and thin.. This makes for a huge range of audio and target IDs.. This is why I don't pay too much attention to the guides, in the real world it varies wildly.. when in doubt just dig it.. 😁 

[Chase Goldman]

11 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

This is not about which detector is better or worse (we've been down that path before).. I can tell the difference in audio and TID for both the detectors on what is likely to be foil, that's not the point.. I'm saying it's too tempting not to dig a target which could be a gold ring, even when it's probably not..

Well I wholeheartedly agree with you. Erik.  Foil is evil and it is a cruel joke of the detecting gods that aluminum and gold sound and ID so similarly.

I also agree this is not about which detector is better, Erik.  I have both D2 and Equinox and the both excel at different things, that's why I have and continue to use both.  Definitely not trying to retrace any path. 

I simply misunderstood in your post when you said "it sounds good" as meaning you had trouble differentiating foil from gold audibly and were looking for tips.  Not just simply lamenting about having to dig Easter candy foil wrappers.   My bad.  

I was just trying to throw out some suggestions on settings that I have recently discovered to be of benefit in this regard.

Just thought I would provide my thoughts based on a very recent beach run where it was very noticeable to me the stark difference in audio feedback and TID diffentiation in the mid conductor range between two popular detectors and, in fact, the difference between discrete 5 tone audio, pitch audio, and full tone audio settings on the D2.  Was digging it all and after the most recent update and was blown away by the experience because I have relatively little beach experience with anything other than my Nox and it was very apparent full tones on D2 contained very expressive audio information on foils and aluminum vs any other audio mode on the D2 or Nox.

Well I am embarrassed to admit that I can't easily tell foil from gold in terms of audio or TID on my Nox detector (foil freshness seals are especially troublesome as they sound great and ring up a solid 7 on my other detector and there are a hell of a lot more freshness seals than gold rings but a lot of gold rings show up between 7 and 12 on my Nox).  The expanded TID range on my other detector gave me more differentiation as I was digging it all and comparing trash to actual gold ring test targets of various sizes and weights. 

At the end of the day, for me, those trash targets were noticeably easier to call with one detector in full tones vs. the other detector regardless of its settings. With generally lower IDs and gnarly audio than the good targets, the D2 excelled.  I mainly search in Beach with pitch tones which will give a good sounding, attention grabbing tone when acquiring just about any non-ferrous target while walking about.  If the target is in the foil/gold range I shift into the adjacent custom program which is also Beach with all settings the same except tones are selected as full tones.  This target interrogation approach results in audio that gives me a better sense of tonal nuance and distortion that might indicate foil trash vs. gold treasure. At least at that point I can make a dig decision that is informed by some additional clues and can decide to play the odds (if pressed for time), or Scoop it and move on.

If you don’t scoop it though, your absolutely right, no detector audio or TID scheme can give you 100% assurance you didn’t just leave gold in the ground.  If I’m going to scoop it no matter what, at least I can set expectations accordingly put myself in the frame of mind that what I am scooping is likely trash, so I’m less prone to disappointment.  🤔 FWIW

So kudos to you Erik that you are able to call and pick out the foil with both detectors (but still don't leave it up to chance by digging it all anyway despite the frequent frustration). 

I'm not an avid beach detectorist. Mostly a land hunter for relics on sites that don't typically have a lot of modern non-ferrous trash unlike beaches and parks.  You’ve probably dug more rings than I’ve dug beach foil trash since the beaches of your island are available day in and day out.  I have to drive an hour to get to a bay beach and nearly 3 hours to get to an ocean beach.

Guess I'm more reliant on the beach newb assist features of the D2 than more skilled and experienced beach detectorists such as yourself.  

If not helpful for you, Erik, maybe the post of what I personally found to give me an edge on dreaded beach foil will be of use to someone else who is also struggling with foils.

Cheers and Happy hunting. 

 

 

[Erik Oostra]

4 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Guess I'm more reliant on the beach newb assist features of the D2 than more skilled and experienced beach detectorists such as yourself.