"Rimming" a bottle cap

WKyfisher

Junior Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
85
Location
West KY
We have all been fooled by the high tone coin like signal of an old steel bottle cap. I have read posts that refer to rimming the target to see if the signal drops off or gives an iron grunt which usually gives away that it is a bottle cap. So exactly how is this done. Do you sweep side to side with the front or rear edge of the coil ? Do you use a forward/backward motion over the target ? Do you use the side edge of the coil over the target ? I have dug many bottle caps that I can't seem to get that iron grunt from. Maybe I'm just not doing it right. Does coil type matter ? I'm using an f70 with 11"DD. So how do I defeat this nemesis of the MD world. Any tips would be appreciated.
 
Normally I don't discriminate anything so a cap will ring up with or Without a a negative number. Howerver, it is very rare with my machine to ring up as a coin (but sometimes it does) A quarter hits with a solid VID (may bounce a little but stays in the 80s) of course I have not found a silver quarter yet..

The cap will hit 95/80s/60s/-xx
I think I had read about what you are talking about.. you just kind of sneak up on the target without going over it all the way.. walking around it to see if you get the same number from all sides? Not sure if that is correct but am interested in what others have to say.
 
Get used to what your machine is telling you. DFX spatter on the screen, plus a noise it makes, etc. Not always a good idea though. Something like a CTX on something deep at the beach. You'll guess bottle cap sometimes and dig up a nickel:shock:. Also gold chains, cracked rings, etc. can do weird stuff. I dug a silver chain at a ball park once I'd have bet you 100 bucks it was a bottle cap. Shallow ones are easier to tell. Deep ones you may be surprised what you dig up:shock:
 
We have all been fooled by the high tone coin like signal of an old steel bottle cap. I have read posts that refer to rimming the target to see if the signal drops off or gives an iron grunt which usually gives away that it is a bottle cap. So exactly how is this done. Do you sweep side to side with the front or rear edge of the coil ? Do you use a forward/backward motion over the target ? Do you use the side edge of the coil over the target ? I have dug many bottle caps that I can't seem to get that iron grunt from. Maybe I'm just not doing it right. Does coil type matter ? I'm using an f70 with 11"DD. So how do I defeat this nemesis of the MD world. Any tips would be appreciated.

Read this thread: http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=15664&highlight=pesky+bottle+caps
 

He ain't kidding, read this thing and your life will become fantastic, your hunting life, anyway.

Bottle caps have always been my arch enemy when using the Vaquero and the big DD coil, this method works but you have to turn the knob down to iron and scan it again and that takes too much time so I usually just dig them.
Using my F70 and that same big DD coil this method has proven to be a godsend, and I have eliminated digging at least 90% of these hated things.
No kidding...about 90% or maybe a little more.
A definite 80% but as I get better with practice that number has risen.
I still dig some once in awhile to make sure, and not all of them will react the same way but 90% is huge and it takes no time at all to figure most of them out.
Less time fooling around with these and digging means more time going after the better targets.

I will say with no exaggeration that this is one of the most important techniques I learned and use with my F70 that makes it the most pleasurable and with the least frustration and especially so when hunting areas with tons of these.


Here is how I do it.
Keep in mind that it could happen that you have a good target just north of a bottle cap or another small piece of iron and the effect will seem the same.
This happened to me once, a wheatie was 2" north of a bottle cap and the drop to iron was classic, but in this case I still dug the wheatie because I was in 4H tones and that high tone sounded too good, too clear, too sharp to pass it by so knowing you machine well is paramount as it is when using any detector.

You must hunt with low disc and leave in iron, these things for me tend to drop to somewhere between 7-12 but sometimes even lower so you have to set your disc to see this effect.
You also can use program 2 with low disc or all metal and just switch over if you want to mostly hunt in higher disc,
I rarely set my disc above 4 and program 2 is always all metal so I can tell when I swing over them in both.

When you pass over these things there are different kinds, some older some newer some rusty some flattened and they react differently and this is what I have noticed.
Some will jump all over from the 60's or 70's to the low 90's and no matter what you do you can't calm them down so that is also a clue.
Some will be a lot more stable in the dime range, almost a pretty steady 72-74 or so, maybe a bit higher, these are the ones that can fool you.
A few kinds will act the same but the numbers might be higher more into the 80's like a quarter.

When I first come into contact with a suspected high tone cap I try to picture it's position in the ground and make some short quick side to side swipes as I pull the coil back keeping the target in the middle.
When you get the edge of the coil over the cap or just a hair past the numbers should drop to iron and you will get that iron grunt.
Once in awhile the numbers don't drop that low, they could end up in the foil area like the mid 20's or so, but there usually will be a drop of some kind.
On a few very solid ones there might not be any drop at all, that would be in that 10% area, but sometimes if you turn and hit these from a 90 degree angle the numbers will change and this is also a clue.

Some will not drop, will not change when scanned from another angle and will stay pretty steady within a 2-3 number spread.
Nothing you can do about these, those you just have to dig but again they are in that last 5-10% range so it doesn't happen often and I am glad to do it if I can successfully eliminate most of the rest.

Coins will usually never react this way, in my experience, unless you have some other metal in the vicinity masking or affecting them in some other way like the example I mentioned above.
A normal coin target should stay steady and stable from just about any angle, I have never seen one drop like a cap will yet, but weird things can happen out there so just listen to the tone closely too because coins sound a bit different to me than lots of trash does especially in 3H and 4H.
Also, as others have stated strange things happen out there in regards to chains and who knows what else so just stay on your toes and be alert and listen to the tones.
When in doubt....dig it.
As steve in so arizona said once, "We are out here to dig, not just swing".

This works well for me for targets at about the 6-7" or less depth area...deeper bottle cap targets could act funny like beaver tail tabs that act like high tone coins at the 9-10" level or deeper.
Luckily, most of the trash in my soil is usually at that 6-7" or less area...mostly less.

I dug a huge amount of caps when I first started using this technique because I had very little confidence and didn't want to miss anything good.
After digging a few hundred that dropped and every one was a bottle cap I gained confidence big time and now I rarely dig any signal that acts this way unless there is something in the tone that triggers me to dig but that is rare nowadays.
I might miss something but without digging everything how am I to know, but it sure doesn't "feel" like I am missing anything good and I still dig a ton of good high tone targets so I am fine with my confidence level as it is right now when it comes to these things.
What I don't dig I don't worry about anymore and that is the most important thing to me because the "what ifs" used to drive me crazy...but with methods like these no more.
I also got very fast at this method with practice and now it takes very little time to make a dig/no dig decision regarding these things.

I recommended this to an F2 owner on another forum that was using the DD coil and was having the same problems and it worked so well for him he still thanks me every chance he gets so I assume this will work on every detector with a DD coil.
The ones with screens are going to be the quickest and most efficient when using this technique.
 
Thanks for that Digger. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for !!! I plan on trying those methods the next time I get over a suspected bottle cap and really work on honing my methods to identify them. In reading your post I keyed in on something. The disc. Mine is usually set around 10-12. I think I might need to lower it
 
Thanks for that Digger. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for !!! I plan on trying those methods the next time I get over a suspected bottle cap and really work on honing my methods to identify them. In reading your post I keyed in on something. The disc. Mine is usually set around 10-12. I think I might need to lower it


For sure, if you don't you won't see the drop and most will just seem like high tone targets... both jumpy and good.

In your soil it could be different than mine so experiment and see where most drop to.
Like I said, not all are the same but average numbers for me are usually around the number 10...but some go lower and others go higher.
The drop is the important thing to notice most of all.
 
He ain't kidding, read this thing and your life will become fantastic, your hunting life, anyway.

Bottle caps have always been my arch enemy when using the Vaquero and the big DD coil, this method works but you have to turn the knob down to iron and scan it again and that takes too much time so I usually just dig them.
Using my F70 and that same big DD coil this method has proven to be a godsend, and I have eliminated digging at least 90% of these hated things.
No kidding...about 90% or maybe a little more.
A definite 80% but as I get better with practice that number has risen.
I still dig some once in awhile to make sure, and not all of them will react the same way but 90% is huge and it takes no time at all to figure most of them out.
Less time fooling around with these and digging means more time going after the better targets.

I will say with no exaggeration that this is one of the most important techniques I learned and use with my F70 that makes it the most pleasurable and with the least frustration and especially so when hunting areas with tons of these.


Here is how I do it.
Keep in mind that it could happen that you have a good target just north of a bottle cap or another small piece of iron and the effect will seem the same.
This happened to me once, a wheatie was 2" north of a bottle cap and the drop to iron was classic, but in this case I still dug the wheatie because I was in 4H tones and that high tone sounded too good, too clear, too sharp to pass it by so knowing you machine well is paramount as it is when using any detector.

You must hunt with low disc and leave in iron, these things for me tend to drop to somewhere between 7-12 but sometimes even lower so you have to set your disc to see this effect.
You also can use program 2 with low disc or all metal and just switch over if you want to mostly hunt in higher disc,
I rarely set my disc above 4 and program 2 is always all metal so I can tell when I swing over them in both.

When you pass over these things there are different kinds, some older some newer some rusty some flattened and they react differently and this is what I have noticed.
Some will jump all over from the 60's or 70's to the low 90's and no matter what you do you can't calm them down so that is also a clue.
Some will be a lot more stable in the dime range, almost a pretty steady 72-74 or so, maybe a bit higher, these are the ones that can fool you.
A few kinds will act the same but the numbers might be higher more into the 80's like a quarter.

When I first come into contact with a suspected high tone cap I try to picture it's position in the ground and make some short quick side to side swipes as I pull the coil back keeping the target in the middle.
When you get the edge of the coil over the cap or just a hair past the numbers should drop to iron and you will get that iron grunt.
Once in awhile the numbers don't drop that low, they could end up in the foil area like the mid 20's or so, but there usually will be a drop of some kind.
On a few very solid ones there might not be any drop at all, that would be in that 10% area, but sometimes if you turn and hit these from a 90 degree angle the numbers will change and this is also a clue.

Some will not drop, will not change when scanned from another angle and will stay pretty steady within a 2-3 number spread.
Nothing you can do about these, those you just have to dig but again they are in that last 5-10% range so it doesn't happen often and I am glad to do it if I can successfully eliminate most of the rest.

Coins will usually never react this way, in my experience, unless you have some other metal in the vicinity masking or affecting them in some other way like the example I mentioned above.
A normal coin target should stay steady and stable from just about any angle, I have never seen one drop like a cap will yet, but weird things can happen out there so just listen to the tone closely too because coins sound a bit different to me than lots of trash does especially in 3H and 4H.
Also, as others have stated strange things happen out there in regards to chains and who knows what else so just stay on your toes and be alert and listen to the tones.

This works well for me for targets at about the 6-7" or less depth area...deeper bottle targets could act funny like beaver tail tabs that act like high tone coins at the 9-10" level or deeper.
Luckily, most of the trash in my soil is usually at that 6-7" or less area...mostly less.

I dug a huge amount of caps when I first started using this technique because I had very little confidence and didn't want to miss anything good.
After digging a few hundred that dropped and every one was a bottle cap I gained confidence big time and now I rarely dig any signal that acts this way unless there is something in the tone that triggers me to dig but that is rare nowadays.
I might miss something but without digging everything how am I to know, but it sure doesn't "feel" like I am missing anything good and I still dig a ton of good high tone targets so I am fine with my confidence level as it is right now when it comes to these things.
What I don't dig I don't worry about anymore and that is the most important thing to me because the "what ifs" used to drive me crazy...but with methods like these no more.
I also got very fast at this method with practice and now it takes very little time to make a dig/no dig decision regarding these things.

I recommended this to an F2 owner on another forum that was using the DD coil and was having the same problems and it worked so well for him he still thanks me every chance he gets so I assume this will work on every detector with a DD coil.
The ones with screens are going to be the quickest and most efficient when using this technique.

What he said...the technique worked with my F75 LTD when I had it, works with the Omega...and will work the same with most any detector:yes:
 
Thank you Digger and Captain. This forum is great. I really appreciate you guys sharing your knowledge and experience :grin:
 
I go very slowly over good signals to see if the edges of the object drop the audio to a grunt on my AT Pro.
 
i used what i learned from DirtFishing in youtube to "Lift the Coil" about 1-2"
when the VDI drops from 90s to 60s chances are its a Screw Cap.

im using 11"DD on my ETP. I still dig when Im in doubt though and not be surprise if it is indeed a screw cap.
 
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