What do you guys think of old parks with hundreds of pull tabs and bottle caps?

[mr helton]

There is a larger park near me that's about 100 years old. In about 20 hours or so of detecting, I managed to pull out 2 mercs and a few wheats.

Almost every time I go, I run into 1-2 other people detecting. I talk to all of them, and some of them have been hitting this park for 15+ years. Many for 5+

Anyway, high tones are super rare, but there are nickel/pull tab signals EVERYWHERE. Each time I have gone (5 times), I have pulled 75-100 pull tabs out. Now here's my question....is it a waste of time? Not one of those pull tabs were gold or even nickels. I thought if I dug them all I could find a ring or maybe a buffalo nickel, but nothing. Is it possible that these sophisticated detectors are able to separate gold and nickles from pull tabs much easier than I am? I feel like I'm wasting my time here, but I just don't understand how a park could be hunted for so many years but still have so many old beaver tails everywhere.

What do you guys think?

 

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[RobRieman]

Anybody that tells you they can tell the difference between 100 different kinds of tabs and endless sizes of can slaw over a gold ring is telling you a fib. Doesn't matter what detector they have. All the junk could be masking signals and there can easily be rings left behind if you are hunting a sports area, sled riding area or other spot that tends to make rings fly. It won't come easy though with all the pressure that park gets for sure.

 

[G.A.P.metal]

mr helton
I started out 44 years ago in city parks,when the pickins were great so the parks used to be good.
I have moved out of the city 22 years ago in the country so i hunt woods,fields, cabin sites.
I whet to town to a couple or 3, of my old city parks 2 years ago,and Man they are just full of junk.
I guess people back then were no as piggish as the people are now that`s a City of 55,000.
If you want to hunt parks i`d say go to the smaller town around and metal detect there.
Small town people know each-other and and are more likely to tell some one to throw that crap in the trash can My kids play here ,just stay away form the parks that have some thugs in them.
Better yet is you want a great detecting experience get an old map... go to the country...seek permission HH
Gary

 

[Normsel]

I agree with you but 44 years ago there weren't any pull tabs but plenty of soda bottle and beer bottle caps. Even small town parks have lots of tabs but not near as many as the old parks in bigger towns. I don't find as many cans in small town parks.

 

[cudamark]

There is a larger park near me that's about 100 years old. In about 20 hours or so of detecting, I managed to pull out 2 mercs and a few wheats.

Almost every time I go, I run into 1-2 other people detecting. I talk to all of them, and some of them have been hitting this park for 15+ years. Many for 5+

Anyway, high tones are super rare, but there are nickel/pull tab signals EVERYWHERE. Each time I have gone (5 times), I have pulled 75-100 pull tabs out. Now here's my question....is it a waste of time? Not one of those pull tabs were gold or even nickels. I thought if I dug them all I could find a ring or maybe a buffalo nickel, but nothing. Is it possible that these sophisticated detectors are able to separate gold and nickles from pull tabs much easier than I am? I feel like I'm wasting my time here, but I just don't understand how a park could be hunted for so many years but still have so many old beaver tails everywhere.

What do you guys think?

I'd go back to where you found one of the older coins and dig every sound in a 10X10 foot area. That should tell you what is there and if it's worthwhile to spend your time digging the trash. I know a few guys with the Minelab CTX 3030's that are doing pretty well in those areas. The machine will indicate multiple targets and I.D. good from bad. I'm starting to notice the same problem at the beach these days. The machines are getting so good at telling good from bad, that nobody is digging up the bad anymore. Subsequently, the beach is getting fresh drops, sure, but the same old iron is getting added to with fresh iron so there is lots of masking going on.

 

[luvsdux]

Seems to me there's two ways of looking at this. One is due to the age and all the years of use, persistence should still turn up good target now and then. Oh the other hand, with all the detecting and the fact that silver coins are not being lost anymore, is the occasional good target worth all the frustration of digging hundreds of pulltabs for the rare good target? Only you can decide as you're the one doing the work.
luvsdux

 

[mr helton]

I'd go back to where you found one of the older coins and dig every sound in a 10X10 foot area. That should tell you what is there and if it's worthwhile to spend your time digging the trash. I know a few guys with the Minelab CTX 3030's that are doing pretty well in those areas. The machine will indicate multiple targets and I.D. good from bad. I'm starting to notice the same problem at the beach these days. The machines are getting so good at telling good from bad, that nobody is digging up the bad anymore. Subsequently, the beach is getting fresh drops, sure, but the same old iron is getting added to with fresh iron so there is lots of masking going on.

Every single person I've seen detecting there is using the 3030

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Here's my answer, in this thread I posted @ t'net:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...g-all-lest-you-miss-gold-ring-philosophy.html

 

[cudamark]

Every single person I've seen detecting there is using the 3030

That tells you something right there. They don't want to dig everything....they want to snipe and poke around among the trash for the treasure. That's not a bad way to do it if you have the right detector and don't want to spend lots of time digging. Are they getting everything that way?? Probably not, but, to find out, you will need to dig every sound in a given area to see what they missed. After you do that, you will have enough info to decide if it's worth the trouble or not. Of course, all it takes is that one, nice coin to make it worth while.

 

[jeff of pa]

hundreds of pull tabs and bottle caps, Means plenty of Nickels &
maybe some gold, to add to that Silver, Copper, Tokens, & other jewelry,
That is just in the right place & position to stay there, Till someone gets lucky.

No detector will ever be able to separate that well,
unless it can Xray Ground, Bottle Caps & tabs
and show you what's hiding under them.

 

[TerryC]

Your post said some have been coming to this park for 15+ years and they are STILL digging targets. That has got to tell you.... it is a good place to hunt. Old parks like that will ALWAYS produce. The tops tabs and caps are the challenges that make the less-persistent go away, leaving the good targets for you and I. TTC

 

[cudamark]

Each of us has to determine when persistence needs to end before masochism begins. That will be based on your own tolerance for pain!

 

[mr helton]

Here's my answer, in this thread I posted @ t'net:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...g-all-lest-you-miss-gold-ring-philosophy.html

That's a really interesting observation Tom, I think for my next hunt I will go into this park with this mindset and see how I do.

 

[jeff of pa]

I should ad. I don't think anyone should pick a spot & dig all the targets Though.
This is a Hobby.
But Every time you go there Dig a Few more can tabs & bottle caps,
it can't hurt

 

[LI Tom]

I have one such park I hunt a lot.Large,old NYC park,hunted by many.Every time I go there I see ,at least ,several hunters.The place is loaded with pull tabs and junk.Multi targets per swing.Therein lies the opportunity.I use an Explorer II and have and still do pretty well most times here.Many old silver and IH's,a few Coppers.Some guys with the 3030 do even better.One guy has 11 seated and 100's of IH's this year alone.I go ultra slow and hit areas from multiple directions.Real good areas can be hit many times and still give it up.If the area was clean of trash,the good stuff would be found fast by the first few hunters.The old,trashy area's be hit for may years.

 

[gleaner1]

If its an old park and you don't mind a bit of digging, you can find some masked goods under the trash. It's a lot of work. But some of the aluminum is gold.

 

[BryanM362]

I agree with you but 44 years ago there weren't any pull tabs but plenty of soda bottle and beer bottle caps. Even small town parks have lots of tabs but not near as many as the old parks in bigger towns. I don't find as many cans in small town parks.

I beg to differ, 44 years ago it was prime pull tab time. At that time, and many years before, they still had the type of pull tabs that came completely off the cans, not the attached one's like today.

 

[Sandman]

I should ad. I don't think anyone should pick a spot & dig all the targets Though.
This is a Hobby.
But Every time you go there Dig a Few more can tabs & bottle caps,
it can't hurt

I think most of us got into this hobby cause we enjoyed just the excitement of finding stuff. What the others have said is true. The more trash a park has the more treasure too, but it is mixed in with everything else. Relying on a screen to "id" the target is a huge mistake most times but it is tied in with how much fun you want out of your hunt. Coins and items orientated differently in the dirt will give different numbers to the detector and it reports what the conductivity it sees, not what it is. That land was there before towns folk made it a park, so no telling what is there. Its our fun to find out. If you wanna waste your time go shopping with the ole lady.

 

[treasurehound]

If you remove all the trash eventually your are going to have a sweet spot to detect. The older coins are going to be deep which means you have to swing much slower and dig the slightest blip of a high tone. You may only hear it once depending on depth. I have dug some very deep dimes and could only get one faint tone. If you are looking for rings then you are going to have to dig all the targets. Nickels will be a steady VDI signal. Usually around 20 give or take a few numbers depending on your machine but will remain pretty constant on every pass. I love older parks and they almost always will have plenty of pull tabs accumulated thru the years. But by slowing down and digging the deeper signals you should be pretty successful. Do you have a map of the park? I have better luck hunting the outer edges of the park while most people like to go to the center. Houses usually outlined the park. Good luck and post your finds.

 

[cudamark]

I should ad. I don't think anyone should pick a spot & dig all the targets Though.
This is a Hobby.
But Every time you go there Dig a Few more can tabs & bottle caps,
it can't hurt

Not everyone has the same definition of "hobby" Some detect a few times a year when the mood hits them. Others hunt daily or weekly on a regular basis. Still others are obsessed and detect every waking moment to the exclusion of everything else. If you're detecting to find old coins, taking a layer of trash off, a little at a time, just opens the door for someone else to follow you and get the good stuff. If you want to KNOW what's in a particular area, you need to dig it all to determine that. Cherry picking is fine too, but, you don't know what you're missing....only what you're finding.