Tabmans Pull Tab Board Of Pain Test

tabman

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Jul 5, 2011
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Germantown, Tennessee
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Detector(s) used
Presently: CTX 3030, Tesoro Modded Cibola, F75LTD-2, XP Deus, Tesoro Mojave, MXT Pro, Tesoro Eldorado, Whites MXT All Pro, Minelab Equinox, Fisher CZ5 & CZ3D
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Tabman's Pull Tab Board Of Pain Test

Imagine being at an old picnic area that dates back to the early 1900's that is loaded with pull tabs as thick as they are on the test board and covering nearly 3 acres. You know there just has to be a bunch of old silver coins mixed in with all those pull tabs. Probably a bunch of Barber Half Dollars, Walking Liberty Halves, Standing Liberty Quarters, Mercury Dimes etc. In the video is how I would set up the Tesoro Outlaw to hunt an old picnic area like the one described above. I'm pretty proficient at using Tesoro detectors and I know how to set them up to get the best out of them, but I also own other detectors that I want to run this test on and video tape. How would set up your AT Pro, F75LTD-2, Teknetics G2, Teknetics Omega to do the pull tab test and hunt a picnic area like the one described above?

tabman

 

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For my F-75 the same way I do for all searching: No notch, discrimination in low iron (5 out of 100), ground balance frequently and as soil requires. Three tones (high nickel) in the default mode. Sensitivity as high as I can tolerate the falsing (MUCH better after the upgrade) and use my ears, alternating sweep direction and lifting as pinpointing to determine the good vs. the bad or ugly.

You learn by digging. Not waving over paper. ;-) Put a wedding ring on your test paper amid the tabs.
 

For my F-75 the same way I do for all searching: No notch, discrimination in low iron (5 out of 100), ground balance frequently and as soil requires. Three tones (high nickel) in the default mode. Sensitivity as high as I can tolerate the falsing (MUCH better after the upgrade) and use my ears, alternating sweep direction and lifting as pinpointing to determine the good vs. the bad or ugly.

You learn by digging. Not waving over paper. ;-) Put a wedding ring on your test paper amid the tabs.

If I was looking for a gold wedding band, I'd would have set the discrimination just to where small foil discriminates out and started digging thousands upon thousands of pull tabs to find a gold wedding band. So your settings above is what you want me to test and video tape my F75LTD-2 for silver coins in the park like described above? I have the 5 inch coil, the stock 11 inch coil and the Sharpshooter coil, which do you want me to use in the test? Those modern pull tabs will sound off like nickels in 3H?

tabman
 

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While I'm waiting for some suggestions on how to best set up some of the detectors that don' have as many hours on as I do with the Tesoro detectors. I'll post a couple of more videos. This time testing the Tejon and Vaquero. The Vaquero does better at hitting silver coins than the Tejon does, but the Tejon will hit gold rings and nickels harder and deeper.

tabman



 

I don't know what I'm doing wrong with the AT Pro. I first set it up to notch out the pull tabs. That didn't work at all! Then I notched them back in again. I've heard that a lot of people hunt in Pro Zero. :icon_scratch: Right now I'm waiting on some rains so that I can go detecting again. The ground around here has gotten too hard to dig in.

tabman

 

Tabman, good post ! There's always a lot of talk on threads about seeing through and around iron (ie.: ghost-townsy type sites). But the issue of cherry picking around tabs, foil, etc.... is similar. Yes there are sites where you simply CAN'T "be a hero" and try to "dig all conductors". Yes you will miss nickels and gold rings, but .... oh well. Sometimes there are places where it's fun to angle for the silver. If gold rings are someone's agenda/goal, then WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING in such a tab/foil ridden place, TO BEGIN WITH ?? Seems they'd be better served just by going to beach, if gold rings are their goal :)

I have been in a Grandstands demolition teardown, where the underbelly was AN OCEAN of tabs. But we pulled hundreds of silver coins from there (often mixed in the same hole w/2 or 3 tabs each!).

Try your machine to see if you can lay a tab right on top of a dime. Can it get a signal? While at the same time passing tabs sitting alone/solo ?
 

Instead of the "Monte Nail Board Test", Can we call this the "Tabman tab Board test", from now on ? haha
 

Tabman, good post ! There's always a lot of talk on threads about seeing through and around iron (ie.: ghost-townsy type sites). But the issue of cherry picking around tabs, foil, etc.... is similar. Yes there are sites where you simply CAN'T "be a hero" and try to "dig all conductors". Yes you will miss nickels and gold rings, but .... oh well. Sometimes there are places where it's fun to angle for the silver. If gold rings are someone's agenda/goal, then WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING in such a tab/foil ridden place, TO BEGIN WITH ?? Seems they'd be better served just by going to beach, if gold rings are their goal :)

I have been in a Grandstands demolition teardown, where the underbelly was AN OCEAN of tabs. But we pulled hundreds of silver coins from there (often mixed in the same hole w/2 or 3 tabs each!).

Try your machine to see if you can lay a tab right on top of a dime. Can it get a signal? While at the same time passing tabs sitting alone/solo ?

Thanks. I often get kidded about digging so much trash. Well I'm after gold rings and I do a lot of digging in order find them. Like you say, there are some places that you can't be doing a bunch of digging. MOST people who detect in the dirt are after silver coins. Most just cherry pick by digging primarily the high tones. I just wanted to point out that a Tesoro detector can do the same thing, but a lot better in some cases. One is at trashy sites and the other is at iron laden sites.

I'll do your 'tab right on top of a dime test' soon.

tabman
 

Instead of the "Monte Nail Board Test", Can we call this the "Tabman tab Board test", from now on ? haha

That's really funny. I've learned a lot from Monte. He know so much.

tabman
 

I didn't expect much from the Compadre since it's more of a tot lot detector and does better with low conductors, but it did just fine with the test. I'm surprised that the little Compadre didn't yell at me for turning its discrimination up so high. It's used to being run with its discrimination set really low. The Compadre has rewarded me with lots of gold rings and necklaces.

tabman

 

The G2 didn't do so well on the pull tab test board. It's works much better at sites that are nail laden and detecting fine gold necklaces and gold rings.

tabman

 

If I was looking for a gold wedding band, I'd would have set the discrimination just to where small foil discriminates out and started digging thousands upon thousands of pull tabs to find a gold wedding band. So your settings above is what you want me to test and video tape my F75LTD-2 for silver coins in the park like described above? I have the 5 inch coil, the stock 11 inch coil and the Sharpshooter coil, which do you want me to use in the test? Those modern pull tabs will sound off like nickels in 3H?

tabman

You asked how I'd set my F-75 up. Do as you wish. I don't watch detecting or air test videos. ;-)

In 3H the nickels give a high tone. Tabs give medium to high, depending, and usually read above nickels. Nickels pretty consistently run 31/32 on the TID.
 

I decided to try two different setups for the test. The first one I set the discrimination just high enough to discriminate out the pull tabs and used a single tone. It seemed to work best but not all that great either. The other way that I tested it was with the settings that I read that so many people say that they used at trashy sites. Zero discrimination and 3 tones. That didn't fair well at all in the test.

If I'm missing something, please let me know.

tabman

 

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For my F-75 the same way I do for all searching: No notch, discrimination in low iron (5 out of 100), ground balance frequently and as soil requires. Three tones (high nickel) in the default mode. Sensitivity as high as I can tolerate the falsing (MUCH better after the upgrade) and use my ears, alternating sweep direction and lifting as pinpointing to determine the good vs. the bad or ugly.

You learn by digging. Not waving over paper. ;-) Put a wedding ring on your test paper amid the tabs.

Same here. I notch out nothing. And on the LRP, I can disc anywhere between 1-19 in the iron range and choose 10 most of the time. I don't care if I hear junk or not, because you have to decipher for yourself by the sound if it's junk or not (as well as the TID). Can't do that if it's notched. Plus, and I don't know why, notching affects depth. One thing I do like about the LRP is the ability to set the notch width. FTP needs to have this on other detectors. If tabs at 36-37 is driving me nuts, I can set the notch width to 2, and just shut 36-37 up rather than the whole segment. And the depth doesn't suffer hardly at all. Dollars to donuts, the F77/F85/T3 will have that ability.
 

The Tesoro Golden µMax is one amazing machine. It's has four ID audio tones, but with the discrimination set to discriminate out pull tabs, there are only two tones left, the zinc penny and silver coin audio tones. It was sounding off in the zinc penny audio tone in the test, but that's OK because it was letting me know that there was something there that discriminates out higher than pull tabs. I was able to to swing the the coil 12 to 14 inches above the test board and still get a a good audio tone. This particular detector will easily give a silver audio tone on a 8 inch buried dime, but that's not what it does best.

tabman

 

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I've always had really good luck with the Omega and I have found lots of good finds with it. Especially silver coins. I tried several different settings and found that the one that I used in the video worked best for this test.

The Omega is a near perfect detector. It's well thought out and super easy to use.:thumbsup: After doing this test and Monte's nail board test with all my detectors, I've decided to sell 3 of them.

tabman

 

I'm just wondering how many tectors he's got left in the bag! I thought I had it bad! Good videos tab man. I'm getting my original Tejon back this week I hope!
 

I noticed that your G2 test didn't have the Disc set high enough to eliminate the Tabs. I think the disc should have been set at about 70. Can you run that test again with the disc set to eliminate the tabs?
Thanks
Tom
 

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