Most of the Buff's that I've recovered here come in 75% Nickel, with a few Foil hits. I haven't recovered any V-nickels or Shield Nickels, and I'm assuming that they register solid Foil or Foil/Iron bouncers.
Also, remember that the 35% silver War Nickels had some minor alloy changes in their production run, and they can register in a few places. Normally, the War Nickels give me about 60% Nickel hits, and bounce to Foil and Tab.
In high-trash areas, usually, a Foil/Nickel bouncer at an indicated 4" is going to be a beavertail, but, if I'm in an older area, I will start digging those, as I want to find an older nickel. This has paid off for me the past couple of years.
Also, you never know, when digging the lower-conductive signals, if you're actually over a gold ring. They can come in all over the meter. I've got several gold rings, and they've registered from Foil all the up the meter to Zinc Cent.
Another consideration is a Nickel/Tab/High Coin bouncer at a really shallow depth. This is usually a coin spill with a Nickel, and either a copper penny, dime, quarter, or combination of those. When they get really close together, say, an inch apart, the CZ will average them together, but will sometimes spit out a correct reading for one of the coins.
HH from Allen in MI
