Demon Tab

[Texas Kid]

Dang I don't know what to think! I would like to know if all pull tabs are aluminum or not! I think I've dug up ten million and twenty six pull tabs this month and they all have had a different tone or read. I know conductivity is the name of this game ,but gawd dawg what am I doing wrong. I understand you might get a different read in different soil conditions and depth,but man I'm at the end of my rope. Any suggestions Or am I just making noise? Thanks ! The Kid

 

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[Msbeepbeep]

Join the choir! My detector keeps telling me some of them are rings! Lol!

Ya they do read different at times even when they look the same! Get even! Gather them all up and turn them in for cash, because your going to dig a ton if you don't want to miss the good stuff!

You could gather a bunch and run some air tests to see if you can nail down an ID for some of them., but soil changes things.

 

[Uncle Jeff]

Soil changes things.. depth changes things.. and their orientation to the surface will all change how they read ..

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Texas-kid, You can certainly knock out all lower conductors, and simply pass tabs and foil if you want to But I sense you're asking this, in terms of not-wanting to miss gold jewelry, right? Which shares the same conductive ranges as aluminum for the most part.

If so, then you'll have no shortage of people telling you that you must dig aluminum till your arms fall off, and never pass tabs "lest you miss a gold ring". As if that's the recipe, plain and simple, to digging gold rings right? WRONG!!

It's already a given that gold rings are almost always low conductors (unless you're talking some big fat mans honker ring). So to simply tell someone "dig all the tabs" as a recipe to finding gold rings, can be a lesson in insanity. I can think of blighted parks where you'll dig 5000 pieces of aluminum cr*p before you'll EVER get a gold ring. What the heck type of sense does that make ??

Thus the solution to the "gold ring" problem is not some sort of trying to figure out how to notch them out (ring enhancement programs), or fiddling with all such sounds, etc... No no no. The much BIGGER issue is WHERE you hunt. Because if gold rings are your goal, then what the h*ck are you hunting junky blighted parks .... to begin with? Instead hunt locations where the demographics are better and more conducive for jewelry losses, to begin with! Namely: swimming beaches. And let's face it, sand is much easier to dig in. Doh!

I've hunted after beach erosion, where mother nature takes all the light stuff out, leaving all the heavy items on the beach. And we can dig 200 targets (while editing in all conductors), and NEVER dig a piece of foil or tab. And while the dry sand won't afford that type of sluice-box effect (nor wet sand that's not "going out"), yet still, swimming (even if only wading and frolicking at the water's edge) is MUCH more conducive to jewelry losses.

And this need not necessarily be ocean beaches. Even fresh water beaches inland are the same psychology. And if no beaches/water near you, you can hone your land hunting to places where junk is less and jewelry odds are better: Sports venues (athletic fields). As opposed to picnic/eating zones, which are a natural recipe for aluminum junk.

 

[JunkShopFiddler]

Yep. I have tried to catalog the readings and sounds of all the different pull tabs and pop tops I have found, and currently have about 16 different types and sizes, plus all the different configurations of broken and/or incomplete ones. (That's what happens when you get old, you sit around and study pull tabs).

This information has led me to do these things...

1. Figure out which type of tab is most prevalent at a location and discriminate that one out.
2. Forget about gold items and pull tabs when the ground is dry and hard and just go for silver and clad. After a good soaker the gold hunt is back on.
3. Because pull tabs are modern inventions sometimes they are all at a same certain depth, and you can still look for gold items by only digging deeper signals than where the pull tab are.

That's my 2 cents on pull tabs...happy tabbing!

 

[JunkShopFiddler]

Texas-kid, You can certainly knock out all lower conductors, and simply pass tabs and foil if you want to



Thus the solution to the "gold ring" problem is not some sort of trying to figure out how to notch them out (ring enhancement programs), or fiddling with all such sounds, etc... No no no. The much BIGGER issue is WHERE you hunt. Because if gold rings are your goal, then what the h*ck are you hunting junky blighted parks .... to begin with? Instead hunt locations where the demographics are better and more conducive for jewelry losses, to begin with! Namely: swimming beaches. And let's face it, sand is much easier to dig in. Doh!

Hey Mr. Tom, all great advise. But sad for folks like me, we ain't got no stinkin' beach! All the swimming holes here are cement and have chain link fences and life gaurds. You swimming hole and ocean guys are very lucky! We have no choice but to learn to deal with pull tabs, screw caps, and the dreaded can slaw. We do have the Ohio River here, but no sane person swims in that stinky chemical mess...good luck in '14.

 

[Texas Kid]

Thanks to all my fellow dirt daubers for your advice. I really enjoy the feed back from other crazies and I take it all seriously! I agree with all of it and Tom makes a lot of sense to think things through before you pull the trigger to go! sometimes I don't plan anything and just knee jerk,bailout and start hunting,but it does make sense to have a plan! It's just frustrating to know that the world has made 450 billion cans a year,with pull tabs,sense the early 60's.I just have dreams of some beautiful bathing beauty losing her 21 carat diamond wedding ring in the sand at the beach right smack dab in the middle of the four cases of beer cans she and her friends left on the beach with it!!! What a nightmare!! Thanks to all for your replies! Now go crazy and find all that Spanish gold!