Pull tabs

[Bluedruid]

Went to a new park today to do a little detecting. This park has been around since at least the 50's. Got there and started getting pull tab signals right off the bat. So dug a couple to confirm that they where pulltabs which they where. It started raining before I could get some real detecting done but my question is, I have a feeling this park has never been detected before so is the hight concentration of pulltabs a good sign of this? It's a country park and people really don't go there much since they took a dam out down river in the early 80's. It's a feeling I got and I hope I'm right because I'd love to get into a fresh area.
I am going to do some more research on the park to find out when it opened to see if there may be some older stuff there. Found nothing really on the internet so far but will go to the library tomarrow.

 

[chuck ky]

it could be that every one just used a lot of discrimination to avoid the pulltabs. that would leave a lot of nickles and gold and maybe some masked silver.

 

[dewcon4414]

The only way to know is to go dig. Silver dont sound like pull tabs, but like was mentioned they can cause coil shut down making you loose depth. If there is that many targets you might have to remove some or use a small coil... thou the Pro and SEFs do have good separation.

Dew

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Chuck's right: the abundance of pulltabs at a site, might merely mean that previous hunters elected to pass them. I can think of lots of parks where ........... sure ... you can go dig 100 pulltabs any day you want. Yet I know for a fact they were pounded to oblivian in the 1970s, 80s, and '90s. The guys back then elected not to be heros, and simply go for the silver/copper. And they did a DARN good job of it (hundreds upon hundreds of good silver coins removed) And sure: this merely means they missed worthless orange bufallos & V nickels, and yes, gold rings. But in the past generation mind's eye, if gold were their goal, they simply would not be detecting the junky parks, to begin with. They would simply go to where gold rings are more prolific, to begin with: swimming beaches.

So there's no doubt you can harvest out all those pulltabs, and find the lone gold rings and nickels that have been missed. Granted. But at some point, at some parks, you might come to the realization: "is it really worth it?", and you might simply elect (if gold is your goal) to simply go to greener grounds. That was the logic of yesteryear's hunters in some of these "worked out parks". They had no misconceptions that they were missing gold rings, and silver coins masked by surface tabs. But then again, old silver coins were abundant, and foil/tabs easy to disc. out. So Lord pity the poor soul who tries to go to these parks NOW, and be a hero strip-mining out all the junk, to get through masking, and to find those ratios of aluminum vs gold. Not saying it can't be done, but I think you'll finally figure your time is better spent to pick hunting grounds (sandy beaches, either lake or ocean side) where digging is easier, and the very nature of the usage lends itself to higher ring ratios, to begin with.

 

[Bluedruid]

The reason I was asking is I know there are not and have not been many detectorists in this area. And on a plus side most of the pulltabs are near the parking lot area. I didn't find many when I got away from that area. If this damn rain would stop I will go back and find out. This park is about 10 miles from a big town so it may have been off of alot of peoples radar. The other good thing is it was fairly easy digging for this area, gravel. Most of the area is hard digging.

 

[dewcon4414]

I agree 100 percent with you thought process Tom..... like raw gold you go where gold has been found. However...... take a look at gold prices we werent getting those kind of prices back in the day. Now take a look at silver to gold ratio...... out of sight. Digging a few tabs in some of the parks might be work the time. One gold ring at melt is worth a TON of clad and a LOT of silver. Kind of like digging nickels or silver.... which do you want to spend your time digging?

Dew

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Dew, you say

"Digging a few tabs in some of the parks might be work the time."

The operative word here, Dew, is "few", right? If there were truly a "few", then sure, no one would dispute that it's worth the time, and you'd be right. But what I was talking about, is not "a few". Let me give you an example:

There was an old town blighted park, in the bad part of San Francisco, that got a large portion scraped off with heavy equipment, to make way for artificial turf soccer fields. Some friends and I got in on that one several years ago, and had a blast. Since it was basically a demolition site, we put our mindsets in "relic mentality" mode, and dug everything (except iron). Because afterall, no fear of holes. On some days, the entire top 6" was uniformly gone, so it was strictly old coins. But as the project progressed, unfortunately new soil got mixed back up with the deeper soil, so now clad and old was mixed together, with no "rhyme or reason" as to depth/age correlation. But still though, easy digging meant we still dug everything!

Here's the point though: I saved every single target I found, over 2 weeks of solid hunting every night after the workers would leave for the day. When it was all over, I inventoried all the coins, to gold, to junk ratio, just for the fun of it, and for an article we wrote for W&E magazine about that event. The aluminum junk to gold ring ratio was utterly staggering. It was a rare look at what ratios would be like, if a person had the liberty to "dig all" in junky urban blighted ghetto parks. We're talking on the order of 300 to 1 ratio, of any gold item, to all the foil, tabs, slaw, slag, etc.... This is simply not an option at un-disturbed turf, IMHO. Well, SURE, you can do it (go have a blast), but tell me honestly, if a guy had that much energy (and that much gonads to go dig 300 holes in turf for a single gold ring), why not simply find swimming beaches, sand volley ball courts, and other such hunt sites where the ratios are much better per their nature, and the digging is much easier per the nature of the material? I mean, why bother? I happen to live near the ocean, which might be easy for me to say. But it holds true for swimming or recreation beaches at even fresh-water lakes inland too.

 

[dewcon4414]

I live near the Gulf now Tom.... couple of days back i dug 53 pull tabs and 18 nickels IN THE WATER out to chest deep... not a single piece of gold. BUT..... the difference between that and parks are you tend to loose more at the beach than a park as well. There are some parks yoiu could dig forever and never find gold just because of how they were and are being used.... especially now. Its a lot like digging deep targets that hit in the negitive range. We all know some silver targets will wrap around.... but like Jimmy Sierra told me once .... its just worth the pay off to dig all those targets. But take inventory of your jewelry..... 80 percent of all rings or jewelry is worn by women. Most of those targets dont hit as a pull tab and the larger bling my hit higher. So that also changes the ratio for digging pull tabs.... not good.

Dew

 

[Philo_NY]

Pull tabs are always a good sign of activity, now are they from the 50's or newer ones that were drop in the last 20 years, or even older ones. I know someone posted a pull tab chart here on the forum showing many of the pull tops when they were first introduced to the present. It's very important to know what you are digging as far as cans, bottles, pull tops, plate fragments. Research, research, research is the key, but actually digging the stuff is the proof of how old or how long an area or park had activity... Hope this helps...

Philo

 

[TURNMASTER]

Virgin territory is still out there but it is more rare than most of the newer guys like me would like to believe. I found an out of the way place, got permission and after about a half an hour or so I could see where others had been digging targets at some point in time. Most public places that can be easily found have hunted, but not always to death or by skilled MDs. Witness the finds of guys like Bryce who consistently pull keepers from pounded parks.

Research, innovation, and technology. (almost forgot skill)

Jeff

 

[drkp88]

Re a park having never been detected or had very little detecting would be a dream for any of us but the possibilities are too slim. Unless you've lived across the street for 50 years how would we know how often a park has been hit? Imagine all the various times over the years that people with detectors have popped in and out of any park and no one saw or noticed them. One thing we have going is that many times people ASSUME an obvious park or area has been pounded to death and don't try it - and you could be surprised at how much is still there.
A park I've been hitting for about a year has produced almost 500 coins not counting clad/memorial or Jefferson nickels. I KNOW this area has been hit pretty well over the years - I even hit it back in the '70's. I talked to someone who lives near the park and he said there are never any detectors there. Proof in point - I have seen other people detecting there during the past year while I've been there. Another spot, an OBVIOUS large grassed area on a main route is another example. I assumed it had been pounded to death over the years. A friend and I pulled out about 35 coppers of various types, some silver and other artifact including 18th & 19th century military. You never know!! I think the point is that we all want to have fun but we also want to maximize the results of our time. Never assume about a spot - give it a try!
Bruce in Ct