Nickels And Pull Tabs, Not Hearing The Difference

[5900_XL-1]

I am still bamboozled with practicing in a coin garden for the small differences between nickels and pull tabs. I have a Whites 5900 Si, only a single tone sound frequency, and I'll be danged if I can get ANY difference to my ears between a real nickel and a tab. So, I went back to the yard again, stuck a nickel, and a tab down 3 inches to test my analog machine again, listening real serious!, nada difference to me, at least not enough for this dummy to get the Ah-Ha!. I think I'd have to have a mentor, or see a utube with sound, using a constant single pitch tone like mine, and be directed to get, "There! hear that?" To me it's all so vague that with my detector, if you want nickels, you dig everything close to a nickel if it's displayed.

I keep hearing the veterans promoting the same things, which is exactly what I am failing at for hearing enough difference to mean anything for knowing a nickel and a tab sitting ten feet apart, much less blind in the field while actually hunting. Can anyone here link me to a video for what exactly is supposed to be heard? Remember, this is NOT a multi tone machine. Thank you. martin

 

[david bull]

On my xl-pro and eagle sl II a nickel shows a lower vdi,usually around 22.The tab portion of a pull tab also falls at about the same vdi and gold rings can fall anywhere below 35.Anything below 24 gets dug! Hope this helps.DBULL

 

[BarberBill]

On my beep and dig machines I set the disc just under where a nickel crackles and discs out, but still rings true. Then, typically when the coil passes over a tab, I still get a solid or slightly broken signal where I would get no signal at all from a nickel. The settings are pretty close together so I've marked the nickel spot and check it now and then to make sure.
BB

 

[5900_XL-1]

All I have to use is a single tone, and an analog meter display on this 5900. VDI numbers don't mean much as far as I can see on this unit. I am confused a bit on your numbers though. If gold rings can be anywhere below 35, then why wouldn't you always dig anything below 35 instead of using 24? martin

 

[david bull]

Most of the thinner gold ladies rings with stones will ring 22 or less down to 5 vdi.White gold is usually a composition of gold and nickel.Mens yellow gold bands are mostly gold and copper.They will ring pretty much the same as pulltabs.My six stone 1 carat band rings in at 32 vdi just like a pulltab (28-32).It really depends on where your hunting as in yards and sandy beaches I dig everything below 35 but in the blanket areas I search for the lower signals.I found 20 gold rings last year and hunt only freshwater beaches(I'm 300miles from the nearest ocean).It really takes a lot of patience to hunt small jewelry.Silver jewelry will usually fall between 70 and 95.On a tone machine it will have very high pitch.In the past month I have dug 2 silver dime that showed no vdi but had the correct tone. Place a nickle and a pulltab on the ground and watch your meter.These small differences are what these (6000 series)detectors are famous for.I hope this helps.DBULL

 

[TC-NM]

I am still bamboozled with practicing in a coin garden for the small differences between nickels and pull tabs. I have a Whites 5900 Si, only a single tone sound frequency, and I'll be danged if I can get ANY difference to my ears between a real nickel and a tab. So, I went back to the yard again, stuck a nickel, and a tab down 3 inches to test my analog machine again, listening real serious!, nada difference to me, at least not enough for this dummy to get the Ah-Ha!. I think I'd have to have a mentor, or see a utube with sound, using a constant single pitch tone like mine, and be directed to get, "There! hear that?" To me it's all so vague that with my detector, if you want nickels, you dig everything close to a nickel if it's displayed.

I keep hearing the veterans promoting the same things, which is exactly what I am failing at for hearing enough difference to mean anything for knowing a nickel and a tab sitting ten feet apart, much less blind in the field while actually hunting. Can anyone here link me to a video for what exactly is supposed to be heard? Remember, this is NOT a multi tone machine. Thank you. martin

It's sometimes hard to explain but for a single tone detector, you have to listen and train your hear to hear subtle differences. Pull tabs and nickels are very close to the same tone, the only difference I hear is a slightly broken signal or chatter through the headphones which to me indicates broken/bent pull tabs. If you turn up (clockwise) disc. a little at a time, say 1/2 of the tick as shown on the knob settings, you'll notice each time more chatter and coming into nulling out the target. Try in your test garden, mens and womens gold rings, nickels and pull tabs together. Then try air test and write down your results. I try to keep my disc. settings just left of preset or counterclockwise a little so that I don't loose those targets. Listen carefully for one-way signals. This will indicate trash, sometimes but not all the time. On those types of signals, dig anyway so you can see and memorize for next time. Remember, practice, practice and listen to train your hears.

Hope this helps,

TC-NM

 

[bootyhoundpa]

i have a 5900 and some times actually alot of times you can not tell the difference.... however having said that i have used this machine for the last 4 years ... the first 3 years i found no gold.... this past year i have found 4 pieces of gold with this machine...[ 3 rings and 1 charm] .... the charm was just luck as it read lower than nickle and was a weak signal... next gold was a large mens ring which was 14k and rang out loud and read straight up just like a zinc penny or indian head .... the last 2 were both rings 1 - 10k and 1- 14k both read out very close to nickles but slightly off nickle... the last 2 rings i found at basketball courts which had alot of pulltabs and can slaw.... i think im starting to get the hang of it.. my method is simple ' set ground balance in clean area' signal balance at P setting ' and the most important part is to set discrim to 5 but no higher than 6 as this is the range where you start discing out gold.... the advantage to running at these settings is that you will cause most can slaw to crackle but coins will ring loud and clear... the difference between tabs and nickles is subtle .and many times you cant tell the difference.... if im in an area where im digging up too many tabs i just stop digging nickle signals until i come upon a pocket spill or find something like keys or something on those lines ' then i start digging everything around those areas in hopes that whoever lost all that change or that key may have also had a ring or other valuables in thier pocket .... i i . use the 5.3 coil when hunting these trashy areas as the 9.5 coil doesnt give enough target seperation.. the gold often will read slightly higher or lower than a nickle. good luck ..

 

[Craig]

I have a XL pro and a non metered Tejon. I dig all signals in the foil, pull tab and nickle range, as gold falls in their range and above. I save the pull tabs for Ronald McDonald house. They cash them in for medical Equipment, etc..... I love to go into parks that have a lot of pull tabs etc as I know that if anyone has been detecting there , they went past all the good stuff. My advice is slow down, dig everything and enjoy the outdoors. Don't make detecting frustrating to you! Remember there is a lot of Earth and such a small coil

 

[jbow]

This is one reason Tejon users find so much stuff, they (we) dig a lot of stuff... I have not used a 5900 but I have used lots of other machines (I want to get a 5900 or a Blue/Grey one day) and know that squaretabs and nickels are VERY close and a folded over squaretab will sound and read exactly like a nickel. On most detectors with a digital VDI meter will read a nickel one number below a squaretab. The V3 for example will read most nickels at 19, in most programs and it will read most squaretabs as 20... but actually nickels will tend toward 19 sliping down the 18 and squaretabs will read 20 and slip uo to 21 the numbers on both tend to jump between those numbers.. but a nickel can easily read 20 and a squaretab can easily read 19... and gold rings can be all in there.

The best thing you can do is get a handful of each, sq tabs and nickels. Go out and make youself a garden with tabs and nickels, some on top of the ground , some 1" deep, some 3" deep, fold over a couple of the tabs, bury some flat, some at 45 degrees, some on edge. Make two gardens, sanitize one and let the other be a little trashy then practice... listening to the sounds. something round will always sound good. the rectangular tab will not always sound as good but the folded tab usually will. Put a nickel and a tab close together, put a nail beside one of each... and listen. The meter isn't going to help you much if at all because they are so close it isn't really reliable... but older nickels tend to read even lower and should jump out at you... but some detectors will make a deep target give a slightly higher tone. Some places you can go by depth but not always, you don't know what may have been done to the ground 30-40 years ago.. or two years ago. There is a park down the road, used to be a RR depot, it has been in use for well over 150 years... i've found eagle buttons, mercury dimes, etc at 3-4 inches and i've found pulltabs at 6+ inches...

The best thing you can do is spend the time and dig those pulltabs out, one you will find some to be nickels, two you may find some to be gold, three they may be masking something deep and good... plus after a while you will learn more about what you think you are going to dig... then when you have it figured out you will be absolutely sure of what is under your coil until you dig it up and find it is something completely different from what you thought... you can never know for sure what is under your coil unless you buried it.

Dig 'em... one thing you will learn is that "round" tone that says... this is neither a nickel nor a tab... this sounds sweet!!!

J