Digging Pull Tabs Doesnt Pay!

[simmonds]

Spent a couple hours today at a local HARD HIT park and figured I'd try digging pull tab signals to see if it would pay off. Well after digging 68 pull tabs in the blistering sun without any real goodies, I finally realized why everyone notches or discriminates these buggers out. Only paid off with 8 lousy memorials, small brass flag buckle thingy, and a very small sterling silver ring. Well suppose it wasnt a total skunk with the silver find but boy oh boy!...the parks are loaded with these little pull tabs. How are you fellows finding all those gold and chunky silver rings if you are leaving all these danged pull tabs behind?

Oh well, I have been away from detecting for several years and it feels GREAT to be back! Had to find another MD and got this little Whites Classic ID on Craigslist for $125 and it is a great performer and quite HOT as well. Pull tabs or not, it's GREAT to be back swingin'

 

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[bush13st_beav3r]

Do you have to separate everything yourself or do they do it for you at your scrapyard?

Do it yourself. My scrapyard would throw it all in the junk pile and get me 300$ a ton(maybe */- depends on fluctuation)...your scrapyard may be nice and separate it....I doubt it tho...and even so...would you trust them to do it honestly?....

I think theres a thread somewhere on here that gives a nice "how to know what metals what" check list and someone even made a diagram with it.

Edit:i lied, its not on this forum... Search google for "beginners guide to scrapping non precious metal finds" ...and throw the word "forum" in the search with the thread name...should put it first

-beav3r

 

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[DanKnug]

Thanks guys...I think . I tell you what, I could go back tomorrow and dig hundreds more if I wanted too. WTH! These kinds of push tabs are supposed to stay on the can...why the heck do so many wiggle them back and forth till they break then lodge them under the turf?!? Must be a lot of evil anti metal detecting folk out there lol. The old classic ID does a great job indentifying these tabs though, but I still couldn't resist. Got to learn to trust the machine...it knows more than I.

I can relate to that! Who ARE these people wiggling the push tabs off and chucking them on the ground?

 

[JimDon]

I dig pull tab signals until I cannot do it any longer. Then I just dig silver signals. I usually dig about 50-100 pull tabs in a 4 hour hunt. I am at 7 golds for the year. Hard but that what it takes.

 

[gleaner1]

I can dig fifty pull tabs and fifty rusty crowns in three hours, if I am in the mood. I find very little gold but I find a lot of other goodies that are masked, as one would expect. It is the new deal for today's successful tecter dudes, a hard reality, but still reality.

 

[michigan_twobox]

I dig all signals especially pull tabs lol that's how you get the good stuff. Everybody wants to cherry pick a spot but if you don't clean it up you miss all the treasure. I would rather go home with a bunch of tabs and maybe some gold than a bunch of clad and no gold. I have a bucket half full of tabs but last week I found a platinum ring so it's worth it. So good job cleaning up those tabs!

 

[digger27]

Everybody's threshold for digging these things is different, luckily, mine is pretty high and I always dig them, or at least all the solid ones, anyway.
One hunt and 70 tabs dug is a very small sampling, but I realize that so I never regret digging even one.
Definitely when I look at the gold I have found at tabs.
These were all tab signals, the one with the 9 diamonds was actually a nickel but exactly the same number as most sta-tabs in this particular park.

I feel the same about digging foil, and there seems to be even more of this type of trash than tabs at most park sites I love to hunt.
Especially around picnic pavilions and basketball courts I target everywhere I go.

That pic with the smaller gold rings and the larger white gold ring all came in at foil.

The universe must get a big kick out of making so many great things that we want to dig act just like all the trash that we don't.

 

[Salura]

I like your Dragon analogy!

 

[simmonds]

Ok that settles it...I am going to continue digging ALL these tab signals. Like mentioned above, you can dig these suckers and be rewarded, or you can discriminate them out and come home with a pocket full of clad. I like GOLD!

 

[Erik in NJ]

If the tabs are relatively shallow you might want to consider getting a Vibra-Tector--it's like a mini PI metal detector and you can cover a good area while on your knees without the constant up and down which I find very tiring. I have one, but have not put it to use yet. On an older private property I usually dig every signal except foil and crown caps...I should probably be digging them too based on the gold ring post here. Some properties that have hosted parties/events can be frustrating as you can find tons of metal screw caps from soda etc. On a hot day I do get tired of digging them. In South Jersey I dug a tab signal at 4" on an old property and then rescanned the hole and dug an 1698 (?) William III halfpenny at 10"+ that was completely masked by the tab signal. So there will be items under the tabs in some cases. Last week in Cape Cod, I dug a modern pocket spill and then an 1866 2 cent piece MUCH deeper (at the outer range of my machine) under the spill. It's always good to get most signals out of the way in order to find the really deep targets if you're on a property that has some history.

 

[crazy4coins]

It might not pay off much in parks, but when you're on the beach, you should always dig pull tab signals. They're much easier to recover in the sand, and its easy for a person's jewelry to slip off when their in the water

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Most places modern the square tabs are shallow at least. So I locate them with pro-pointer and then screwdriver them out of the ground quick and easy. Really I learned a lesson on pull-tabs when I first got back into detecting. MY buddy took me to this place and he went on about how good it was for silver. Detected for a while and didn't find anything. Decided he had allready cleaned the place out< so I decided to dig every pull-tab signal and after 11 I got a nice honking big gold ring! Opened the plug up and there it was staring back at me the shiny gold stuff! So I went and got him and said hey scan this spot and would you dig this? He scanned it and said pull-tab. I then said "Look at this and opened the plug back up again!" He was floored

 

[gleaner1]

Ok that settles it...I am going to continue digging ALL these tab signals. Like mentioned above, you can dig these suckers and be rewarded, or you can discriminate them out and come home with a pocket full of clad. I like GOLD!

But dont be fooled, you wont find much even when you do the right things to find it.

 

[Nickleanddime]

Pull tabs and dimes have the same sound on my md. So I dig them, also if its loose dirt I scrap the surface usually the tab will be right in the first 3/4 inch.

 

[arrowhead82]

you have the same pinpointer as me!
nice finds lol
HH

 

[cedar6712]

I can relate to that! Who ARE these people wiggling the push tabs off and chucking them on the ground?

Probably bored teen-agers. My son pulls them off everywhere, including in the house. Drives me nuts. He's had kids over and they all do the same thing. Must be a defective gene or something.

 

[Salura]

I'm not sure if this is still true but I've been told different chars ties collect them (my gf insists that McDonalds collects them for the Ronald McDonald house).

But I could also strangle people for pulling them off and leaving them around.

 

[Davers]

Pull tabs and dimes have the same sound on my md. So I dig them, also if its loose dirt I scrap the surface usually the tab will be right in the first 3/4 inch.

I'm sorry to say ;but if Dimes & pull tabs sounded the same on my machine .[ it would be time for a new one]

 

[oldplacesnofinds]

Don't forget all the old buttons and Indian head cents that come up as pull tabs.

 

[Sovereignelite]

Or you can hunt places besides parks and come home with silver coins.

Ok that settles it...I am going to continue digging ALL these tab signals. Like mentioned above, you can dig these suckers and be rewarded, or you can discriminate them out and come home with a pocket full of clad. I like GOLD!

 

[krbtrans]

I got a new tiger shark 4 weeks ago. And I been hitting a small beach that's fairly old. In 4 trips to this iron filled beach I have dug 201 pop tops. Square ones and older beaver tails. Its quite a process to eliminate so many items to find the good stuff. But I look at it this way. I may get an expensive pop top that pays really well like the many I've gotten so far. And if u dig it now u won't have to dig it later.

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