Tabs, Tabs and more Tabs

[UtahRich]

I've been piecing together my Sovereign over the last several weeks. I have it about 90% completed. The last piece not in place is a remote mode change switch, but that is a few weeks away. Since the XS-2a Pro arrived I've been trying to get some time to hunt to become accustomed to the Sovereign and it's way, but have been limited to a few hunts of an hour or less after work.

A little time opened up this morning and it looked like I would be able to get our for a couple hours. A local park was my destination. The park's history goes back to the later 1800's so the possibility of old coins is good. But with a history like that, there is also a 120+ years worth of trash.

For the most part, I've avoided hunting public parks because of the quantity of trash and the number of hunters that have already been there. I've hunted this park on occasion over the years, my best find being a 1909 S VDB Wheat cent. I haven't invested much time there compared to some.

There are deep targets there, so I thought it would be a good place to get to know the Sov better. My plan was to pick a small area, clean out some of the surface garbage and see if I could find some coins lurking underneath.

With a skiff of snow in the shady areas, I found a spot exposed to the sun for most of the day so it didn't freeze overnight. It was by one of the older trees in the park and I marked off my little experimental area; 15' x 30'.

I set up my Sov with an 8" coinsearch coil, a balanced search rod, a rescaled minelab meter and an S-1 pinpointer. I put the sensitivity at 2 o'clock and the disc at preset. With a little threshold tone in my ear away I went.

First target, 165. Sounded pretty shallow. A little bit of a broad signal. It was 3 pulltabs all in the same 5" wide recovery hole, all around 4 inches deep. Next target 160-161. Two pulltabs in the same hole. This continued for over an hour.What do you call it when you get 3 or 4 pulltabs in the same hole? It can't be a pocket spill. How about Octoberfest? I'm looking for suggestions. Anyway, I made very little progress from where I started. I hadn't moved more than 7 or 8 feet from where I started and was still in the corner of my little area.

The high point of this first hour was a 162 target that was 4" deep. It turned out to be a plated metal cross pendant about 2 inches tall and while it wasn't gold, it could have been. It looks like plated lead.

After an hour, I got to the point where I needed a break from the pull tabs so I wandered over to the far corner of my little area and started again. Fortunately, the pulltabs weren't as dense on this side. After about 10 minutes, a target other than a pulltab showed up; 176. And it had a sound of depth to it similar to a deeper target on my Explorer. I had a hard time trying to pinpoint it because of two adjacent pulltab range targets, so I removed both those; two pulltabs. Once the tabs were gone, I had a nice isolated signal that bounced between 176-177. It had a narrow all metal response. I took out a 5" plug and a handful of dirt. The S-1 found the coin, a penny, on an angle 6 or 7 inches deep. It had the smooth feeling of any older coin and ended up being a 1916-S Wheatie.

I reached the other side of my little area and moved up a bit and started back the other direction. More pulltabs, more square tabs, more beaver tails. All of the tabs were around 3-6 inches deep. Back and forth goes the coil. Multiple targets with every swing, more digging, more pulltabs. Finally, another signal higher than the tabs, 178-179. I was thinking another wheatie. Again, I had to remove a tab that was making pinpointing difficult. Another plug, the S-1 finds the target still in the bottom. With the help of my digger, I take out a couple handfuls and cold dark dirt and from about 7" deep comes that glint of silver and the reeded edge of a dime. Now I feel a little better. The dirt falls away and it is a 1917-S mercury dime. No other targets in the hole. What can't the silver dimes come in two and threes like the pulltabs?

I checked the immediate area and there were still plenty of pulltabs to be removed. I removed a couple of close ones to make sure I didn't leave anything obvious. Just more pulltabs. My alloted time was about out and so was my patience. I had covered about 1/4 of the area in 2 hours. That is some pretty slow going.

My finds were:

1917-S Mercury Dime
1916-S Wheatie
1 zinc cent
1 foil wad
1 lead tire weight
1 tiny knurled brass nut
1 screw cap
8 square tabs
15 beaver tails
32 pull tabs/rings

That's about 1 pulltab every 2 minutes and 10 seconds. I dug 1 iron item, a rusted 1/2" hex head bolt w/nut. It gave an odd signal and I was curious as to what it could be.

The Sov did a nice job of separating the targets despite frequently having multiple targets in plugs and plugs from targets so close they were touching. I didn't dig a single rusted nail despite having the threshold null frequently. I found that the varying threshold did help with keying me into a target. I've never really cared for VCO pinpointing, most of the ones I've had were painful to listen to, but the Sov's is actually pleasant.

Due to weather, my experiment may carry over to next spring. I plan on removing as much junk as I can from my little 450 sq ft area with the 8" coinsearch coil and then go back and follow up with the S-12 (I found a pre-owned new one online and it hasn't arrive yet) I am hoping that there might be a seated coin in there somewhere, some IH cents and maybe even a gold coin. This park has turned up a few of them already.

My ultimate goal is to get to know my detector better so that I can hunt with confidence wherever I should venture. It usually takes a while to get to know a new detector really well. Hopefully this will speed the process and perhaps I will make some good finds in the process.

Rich (Utah)

 

[Art (NWOH)]

You are doing it about right.
Keep your hunts fairly short and concentrate on what you are hearing and feeling in target response. Hunting too long at a time under these conditions will make it more difficult to absorb information
.
The trash is going to screw up the meter, so don't rely too heavily on it.

Learning the sound of trash can be just as important as learning the sound of good targets. Anything that sounds unusual or just a little bit off to be the typical trash for the area should be investigated. Often it will be just trash, but there can be some unexpected surprises.

You will find more. Take it easy and you will be rewarded.

HH

 

[VBDave]

Pull tabs are the necessary evil that plagues the successful gold hunter. I've unwillingly accepted that as a fact. I've learned to dig them even if I "know" that's what they are. I've been pleasantly surprised more times than I can remember.

 

[VBDave]

And remember, If you're digging pulltabs, you've likely found a spot where folks were sitting on the ground and/or engaging in active leisure activities. Prime ground for valuable drops.

 

[gear box]

Nice story Rich. Look's like you have a good place to hunt. Keep us posted on your progress there. I too am doing some similar thing's at an old park. What do you think of the coinsearch vs the s-5 coil for being used in trash?
Good hunting,Gary

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Rich,I agree with Art.Your method of digging a lot of targets to understand the Sovereign will pay off.Sometimes to see how productive a park will be with old coins I'll cherry pick for Nickles,Indian Heads,Old Wheat's and silver.LOL,sometimes if I hunt with a couple of friends and someone has come up with a silver coin I'll put my hunt in hyper silver mode 180's only.The 180 only can get to be a bad habit though in most cases will net more silver coins than your competition.With gold prices soaring I need to more through during the search.HH Ron

 

[gear box]

Rich,the S5 and the S12 are on my list also. I think I may sell my SEF 10x12 this winter and use the money for a sunray coil, sound's like they are pretty good coil's. The coinsearch coil is a good one also but some of the places I hunt I get 3-5 hit's on every swing three isn't bad but five get's too be a little much. That's why I've been thinking of getting a S5. I'm not sure I want to clean out all the trash but would rather look between the trash. Well,if you have time left before winter good luck.
Gary

 

[UtahRich]

I made it out to my little experimental area in the park after work for just over an hour. I dug plenty more pulltabs, messed around a bit with the notch setting to verify some of critterhunters findings on pulltabs and tried to get as many targets as possible out of the ground before it got too dark.

I picked up several clad coins, 10 pulltabs, 8 beaver tails, 1 square tab and 1 wad of foil. About 1 junk target every 3 minutes. As it became dark and was time to go, I stopped digging tabs and carefully looked among the tabs for a target that might be other than a tab. I finally found one that had a little bit of depth to it. It came in right at 170 and was just past 6", not very deep. I was hoping it was an IH penny as I've not found one with the Sovereign yet and I am curious where they are going to fall in VID before they are dug. It ended up being a little ornate brass pin. The clasp is broken off on the back.

Here are a couple pics of my slim pickin's at the park, the merc, wheatie and pin. This makes for about 3 hrs of hunting in the park. The other pic is of my finds in the first 4 or 5 hours of hunt time with the new detector at other locations I've hunted very hard in the past. Oddly, of the older coins, I've yet to find a wheatie in the 40's or 50's, They're all from the teen's, twenties, and thirties. The little cowboy chaps charm appears to be sterling silver.

Having hunted this park for just a few hours, I am encouraged by the abilities of the Sovereign. The S-12 should be here tomorrow and for a change of pace I may do some wandering around with it at the park and see if it can turn up anything from the depths in my short hour of detecting before dark. An S-5 would be a great addition for searching among the tabs without having to remove all of them. Maybe Santa's helper Ralph will send me one for Christmas.

Happy hunting.

Rich (Utah)

 

[UtahRich]

I arrived at work this morning to find a nice package from the USPS sitting on my desk containing the S-12 coil. Needless to say, I made it out this evening after work for a short jaunt with the Sovereign and the S-12. Wow, that coil can cover some ground! I immediately noticed that the signals were softer than with the 8" coinsearch coil I've been using. I've not completed cleaning the pulltabs out of my experimental area yet. Due to the density of the tabs, it has been difficult with the smaller 8" coil. Trying to use the larger 12" coil to clear out additional pulltabs was successful, but not as efficient as using the smaller coil.

I finally decided I should stick with my plan; clean out the majority of targets with the smaller coil and then follow up with the S-12. Besides, my feet were freezing. I didn't count up my tabs for the evening, but I did seem to pick up an unusually large percentage of beaver tails. I did find several more clad coins, but no older coins, jewelry items or odds and ends worthy of notation.

I'll try to slip there after work tomorrow for some hunting with the smaller coils.

I follow up more tomorrow.

Goodnight,

Rich (Utah)

 

[UtahRich]

I think the weather has just about ended my little experiment. The temperature is slowly dropping as the last two weeks have moved along. I've only covered about 2/3 of my 15' x 30' area. Darkness sets in about 5:45 and the temperature really drops once the sun goes down. Fortunately, this little area seems to be one of the better spots in the park in regards to moisture and not freezing. Most other areas of the park are very dry and/or frozen, where this area has moist dark earth. Still, I've dug so many targets out of this very small spot that despite my careful recovery, I can see where I have been digging.

I made it out last night and again tonight for about an hour each time. As I mentioned in a previous post , I frequently recover 2 or 3 pulltabs from the same hole and often have plugs that are touching. Almost all of the pulltabs have been around 4 inches deep. The square tabs are usually more shallow. Also, I've had 2 iron mask assisted tab recoveries. On the first, I had a solid pulltab signal in the high 150's. I pinpointed and dug a 4" deep plug. When I flipped the plug over and started checking with the S-1, I had a null in the bottom of the hole. I switched to AM and found a large rusted nail just under the surface. After removing the rusty nail, the S-1 identified another target still in the hole directly under the location of the now-removed rusty nail. I found an older style pulltab a couple inches below the nail. The second occurrence was similar except with a rusty bottle cap. Again, directly underneath the rusty bottle cap was a pulltab. Too bad they both weren't gold rings or seated silver. Ah well.

Anyway, the grand total:

1 - rusty nail
1 - rusty bottle cap
3 - Foil wads
4 - Screw caps
14 - Square tabs
32 - Beaver tails
53 - Pulltabs

1916-S Wheatie
1917-S Merc
small brass pin
6 zinc pennies
1 copper penny
2 clad dimes

I was really surprised that I haven't found ANY nickels in the little area. I've been digging everything I can get a semi-solid reading on. Past experience has shown that old nickels have a lower conductivity in the ground than do new nickels. I have found nickels with the Sovereign at other locations, so I know it is capable. I really expected with all the beaver tails I've recovered to turn up at least 1 old nickel.

I did find a big section of abandoned sprinkler system with metal pipes and brass heads. It fills up a complete corner of my area and runs the length of one side. It makes it tricky to hunt along that edge.

Due to weather, temperatures and a need to let the grass recover, I don't believe I will be back to this spot until the snows come and go. So 'till next Spring, See Ya, and good luck with your Sovereigns.

Rich (Utah)

 

[Critterhunter]

I've enjoyed reading about this project. Keep us posting when it continues. I've created "ring gardens" in certain areas of playgrounds by digging everything out of the area in the past. When I would return I'd then have less trash to dig and hope for a ring. It did pay off with a silver neckless and a few junk rings.