How Many Pull-tabs?

[Compass]

How many of the ubiquitous pull-tabs do you need to dig before finding gold? I'm sure that the answer depends on what type of detecting you are doing and with what machine. On a recent hunt at a fresh-water lake I was using my Excal and noticed that someone had been there before me. I was finding lots of undug pull-tabs (and other trash) so I figured that they were skipping those targets and maybe just looking for coins.

I decided to dig all the high and mid-tone signals to see if that would lead to something good and after about 2 hours of detecting, dozens of pull-tabs, and a sterling silver band later, my efforts were rewarded with a gold ring. At first I thought that the ring was stamped "10k" but later I was surprised to see that it was actually 8.6 grams of "18k" instead. Inside the ring are 2 sets of initials and a wedding(?) date from over 50 years ago. I would like to find the person who lost it but doing so could be a big challenge.

In about 5 hours of hunting I wound up with 166 pull-tabs and the one piece of gold jewelry. It tried my patience and was a lot of work but totally worth it to me. I also found lots of bottle caps and foil along with about 70 coins and 2 silver rings. Since that hunt I tested the ring on my Equinox and its TID read around 20. Pull tabs usually come in around 13 so maybe I could have used the Nox and saved all that extra digging?

[Rob in (ca)]

If your after Jewelry…… ya gotta dig the Pull Tabs …….. maybe in the future a Detector could tell the difference between a Tab And Jewelry……I would Refinance my house to buy one. 

[Digalicious]

You could avoid most of the pulltabs and foil by ignoring those signals, but that means you'll miss most gold rings as well. The high carat / large size gold rings will typically ID near, or in the coin range, so most of the large rings wouldn't be missed if you did that.

Getting the gold jewelry really comes down to your trash tolerance, and your trash tolerance is much higher than mine 🙂

 

[Compass]

1 hour ago, Rob in (ca) said:

If your after Jewelry…… ya gotta dig the Pull Tabs …….. maybe in the future a Detector could tell the difference between a Tab And Jewelry……I would Refinance my house to buy one. 

Just yesterday I was telling a friend that if I won the Powerball I would hire me a team of engineers and have them design a metal detector that identifies gold targets specifically. 😁

1 hour ago, Digalicious said:

You could avoid most of the pulltabs and foil by ignoring those signals, but that means you'll miss most gold rings as well. The high carat / large size gold rings will typically ID near or in the coin range, so most of those rings wouldn't be missed if you did that.

Getting the gold jewelry really comes down to your trash tolerance, and your trash tolerance is much higher than mine 🙂

 

"...your trash tolerance is much higher than mine."

This was in the sand so it was not as big of a deal. I could never tolerate that much digging in the dirt/grass. I feel dumb that I didn't know until a couple days ago that 18k gold had a higher TID than 14k. Better late than never though! 🙂 

[Digalicious]

16 minutes ago, Compass said:

 

"...your trash tolerance is much higher than mine."

This was in the sand so it was not as big of a deal. I could never tolerate that much digging in the dirt/grass. I feel dumb that I didn't know until a couple days ago that 18k gold had a higher TID than 14k. Better late than never though! 🙂 

It's much more the size of the gold ring and it's proximity to the coil, that determines its TID.

From your first post, I assumed that you were in the water. In my first reply, I was going to say that your gold ring to pulltab ratio for hunting in the water was unusual. Now that you mentioned that you were hunting the sand though, it makes complete sense 🙂
 

[CPT_GhostLight]

Congrats on the silver and gold rings, Compass, your perseverance paid off, well done! 😎

[schoolofhardNox]

That's a pretty good haul with gold and 2 silvers. It's no fun digging that many pull tabs, but the reward was very nice. Well worth it in my opinion. 😊

[TTT2866]

Yay, got to be happy with that! A lot of pulltabs but well worth the effort. If you can't find the owner, that's an easy $500 aud payout 🙂

[Compass]

4 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Congrats on the silver and gold rings, Compass, your perseverance paid off, well done! 😎

Thanks CPT, I went back after that hunt and got shut out but that's how it goes sometimes.

4 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

That's a pretty good haul with gold and 2 silvers. It's no fun digging that many pull tabs, but the reward was very nice. Well worth it in my opinion. 😊

Thank you School, It's funny how one target can change the whole perspective of a hunt. Without the gold the hunt would have been okay but would have felt a little disappointing for all that effort. 😉

2 hours ago, TTT2866 said:

Yay, got to be happy with that! A lot of pulltabs but well worth the effort. If you can't find the owner, that's an easy $500 aud payout 🙂

Thanks TTT, Yes, happy with the outcome. I usually enjoy hunting the wet sand at the beach more than lake hunting but it is a nice option until beach conditions improve. 

[Valens Legacy]

Great finds and I know that it is a lot of hard work.

When someone asks me about digging every target I simply tell them that I don't want to miss out on the gold.

Good luck on your next hunt.