Pull tabs

[ttommy]

Have a next pro. How do you keep from digging so many pull tabs???

 

[BHNugget]

The first piece of gold jewelry makes the pulltabs insignificant. Even makes silver second rate

 

[Aarong81]

If you really want to skip the pull-tabs and not dig them, just watch the VDI's closely and don't dig the +16 to +24 range. Some of the really heavy pull-tabs show up into the +30 range but each time you dig a pull-tab remember what it reads as and you could skip those signals. This is a bad practice though, a lot of good stuff reads in the pull-tab range including small gold rings. You'll also be leaving all the nickels in the ground. With the PRO model you can use multi-tone and can easily hear the lower tone of pull-tabs and recognize them easily without watching the LCD screen so much. In public parks littered with pull-tabs it is not such a great idea to dig tons of holes just for pull-tabs so this could be useful in those cases. I dig +18 to +22 and skip +23 to +45 in heavy littered public parks. This small window that I dig finds most the nickels and I still avoid a big part of the pull-tabs. I'll still dig 2-4 pull-tabs for every nickel though. This is a big improvement compared to digging 10+ pull-tabs per nickel. The thing is, nickels usually read consistantly within a narrow VDI range (+18 to +22) while pull-tabs can be within a large VDI range since they vary in size, weight and shape. I skip everything below +17 in heavy trash areas as well, but again miss gold rings due to this. You have to balance the factors involved such as how many holes your making and the reputation you are giving all metal detectorist. In old homesteads I dig everything above +10 without prejustice.

 

[Topo]

if you have the old mxt you can use the alternated jewelry search mode pushing the trigger forward

not recommended though, a lot of gold rings come with the same value

 

[Lodihunter]

I think that pulltabs sound a little different than other pieces of jewelry. It seems that there is a small sound right before the beep when a pulltab is detected. Then the VDI bounces around. But, I still can't handle the fact that I "might" be missing out on jewelry and dig it anyways. Sure enough - pulltab.

 

[Aarong81]

I've done a lot of speculating on the sounds of pull-tabs vs nickels and I still get foiled when I think I have it figured out. There are a couple reasons why the sound would be different when you find a pull-tab. One example, it has holes in it and theoretically it should have a bit of a broken sound or not as smooth as a nickel, But this is only rarely observed and most pull-tabs sound off very smooth and solid sounding. But for the same reason that pull-tabs 'should' sound broken or give an odd break sound at the beginning is the same reason why a ring or jewelry with holes in it 'should' also give this broken sound. Again, this is not always observed as some rings will sound off very smooth and you only have the VDI's to help determine whether to dig or not. Several factors have a role in this affect, the type of coil used makes a HUGE difference in sounds created by different targets, angle of target in the ground and if its on its side or flat. The best advice is to join the hardcore crowd and dig those pull-tabs. Long ago I decided I wouldn't get my hopes up on pull-tab signals so that when I dig them I'm not discouraged. Sometimes I get a +16 signal and I'm more interested in digging that than, say, +20. Why? Because a +20 signal in a public park has a much more likelyhood of being a pull-tab and the +16 is "probably" NEITHER a pull-tab nor a nickel.....so the suspense intrigues me to dig.....could it be a ladies gold ring??? Most often when the VDI is just below BOTH pull-tab and Nickels it is nearly always a tin foil ball or a shot .22 cal bullet. When the VDI's are a bit lower +0 to +10 it is most often a smaller piece of tin foil that is not in a ball.

 

[mxt-user]

Do not dig anything in the +30 VDI range

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

The worst offending culprit is the can slaw.
These signals always seem to come in the good ranges.
I don't mine digging the pulltabs signal as that has yielded
good ladies gold rings.
The pull tabs I donate to the kids wheel chair campaign.

 

[Lodihunter]

MXT-user, I dug a nice 6 gram men's 18K ring at a VDI of 30. If the VDI is staying at the same number in the 30's, I usually dig.