Pulltabs

Tom:

During a recent hunt at a public lake/reservoir/park, I recovered nothing (except one corroded clad penny) but old pulltabs at a constant 3" depth. Ground is really dry and hard to dig. I'm thinking they are the old style pulltabs because they have the almost round pull part with the long tab part.

Was this the 1962 type pulltab and if so do you know when they stopped using them? Is it possible that the ground at the lake is the type where items sink slowly? Maybe that worked against me if coins stayed shallow and somebody cherry picked the area.

The dimensions of the park today are somewhat different from what the size of the lake was in 1870 --1880. I've located an old town plat with the boundries of the lake superimposed on the plat, so I know where the old shore line used to be. Much of the old lake shore line is outside of the park today but a few areas are still in the park. I'm concentrating my efforts there as folks used to picnic on the old shoreline.

I'm reluctant to pass up those medium tones for fear of missing rings. Area is loaded with ferrous and non-ferrous targets, so I've been using the small coil on the F-75. GB is 88 and fe3o4 is three bars. Any thoughts on how to deal with this type area? Would I be better off with an Explorer in this area? Can't really blame the F-75 as it's more likely to be operator error or just a lack of good targets.

Ron

Ron,

It almost sounds like you are in 'fill-dirt'..... that may have been brought in from some unknown location,,, so as to 'level' or stabilize the ground. Or..... yes...... it could be a place that has been pounded hard by other detectorists through the years,,, if it looks like a attractive place for detectorists to easily detect without being run off. Hard to believe that they would find nearly EVERY coin though. -------- I believe the first style pull-tabs had a square 'handle' with a fairly standard tongue attached. The round 'ring-type' are from the late 1960's through the early 1980's. If you are actually hunting IN the lake...... where the water level has dried out (or pumped out).... this would explain a bit more. Light/low-density pull-tabs hardly sink; Where as coins .... and ESPECIALLY gold rings would/could sink in the muck/mud (before the lake was drained) in a VERY short period of time...... beyond any detectors capable detecting range. ------ And as trashy as the area sounds...from your explanation...... the Explorer would NOT do any better in this type of environment; where as the F-75 will seperate adjacent targets superior to all other units currently on the market. IF POSSIBLE.... try finding/recovering targets that are 6" deep (or deeper) for now... so as to expedite the era-identification of these deeper targets. You can ALWAYS go back to the site and recover the less-deep items. And if the area is littered with pull-tabs....... don't worry; no one else is going to attempt what you are doing ----- by recovering all of the soda-tabs before you have the chance to do such; first!

Tom

Tom:

Most of the tabs recovered from this area have the rectangular (square?) handle with a few having the round handle.

I'm hunting the old shoreline above the old high water line. Large Cottonwood trees here and medium to sparse grass. Area is located on the side of the lake (Southwest side) closest to what would have been the main part of town c. 1880. Wind is mostly from the West, so I'm thinking the West side of the lake would be more sheltered and better for picnicing, swimming, etc.

I'll concentrate on recovering deeper targets next time out, if I can get down to them. We could use some rain but then again we always need rain out here.

Ron

Tom:

Hit the same spot again with mostly the same results. Clad pennies and dimes but no quarters. Lots of tabs. One old key. Coins were close to the surface and tabs were at 4".

Found, what appears to be, an old centerfire cartridge case at 10" to 11" deep. Powder chambers been stomped flat. Looks like brass. By my measurements, it looks like the slug was .44 or .45 cal. Length of the brass case is right at 2 1/16" long. Lots of powder and probably really packed a wallop. Only thing I can make out is a number "8" next to the firing pin hit in the center back. It looks like the primer may have been built inside of the casing because there's no evidence of an independent primer being inserted in the back. It just shows where the firing pin hit the back of the casing. Maybe I'll try to open up the flattened part and look down in there.

Appears to be lots of old nails beyond 8" deep; some of which are square. Found some that were so corroded that the main detector wouldn't show a hit but could get a hit in pinpoint. Lots of trash and I'm thinking some masking.

Getting old and digging the hard ground is tiring. I'm thankful for my Lesche Ground Shark. Makes what would have been a lot more work a lot easier.

Ron



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2008 08:33PM by jackalope.

Hmmmm...... strange conditions. Sounds like the shell casing is a 44-40 or 45 Long Colt...... but they are 'inserted primer' center-fire Ctg's. If the area is not 'producing'..... I'd be looking for a new site!

Tom

Tom:

The cartridge casing I mentioned earlier has a small circle ( 3/32") in the center of the back of the casing. Could be a primer but I'm not sure.

Can't get the significance of finding the cartridge out of my mind, so I went back for another try. Ground is really hard and dry but there's rain in the forcast. Found around .60 cents in clad and another shell casing. This one is definitely a center fire casing and the back reads; M. R. A. Co. .30 W. C. F.

My research tells me that there used to be a gun club at the lake (c. 1875) but was supposed to be on the East side of the lake. Both catridges were found on the SW side of the lake where the old shoreline existed. Found nothing in the old newspapers that indicated any type of battle happened there. Both cartridges were found within 25 ft of each other, Seems like some heavy duty firepower for ducks.

Spent most of my time trying to find masked targets in the junk. Other than finding a couple of nice pieces of jewelery when I hit the volleyball court, this area is giving me just enough (cartridges) to keep me trying. Even tried a little "reverse" detecting but way too many targets to deal with. This is starting to get to be a challenge. I'm hoping for lots of rain. As you said in your DVD that the moisture will probably fire up the iron, maybe the easier digging will fire me up also.

Ron

It's .30 caliber.... and I believe W.C.F. = Winchester Center Fire. Not sure of M.R.A. but W.R.A. would make sense.