How to Identify Soda Pop Tops and Pull Tabs When Metal Detecting

One thing we all agree on is that soda pop tops and pull tabs are the worst, regardless of your level of metal detecting experience, years of swinging a coil or just starting. They love to squander your time, sound like gold, ring like nickels. The truth is, though, you can learn to spot these annoying targets and prevent wasting effort with a little work and some smart searching techniques.

Let’s break it down.

Understanding What You’re Dealing With

Knowing What You Currently Deal With Regarding Soda.. Usually made of aluminum, pop caps and pull tabs are: They range in form from classic ring tabs to more recent stay-tabs to older beaver tails. Why are they unpleasant? Similar conductivity to several valuable metals, such as gold and nickel characterizes aluminum. Your detector can thus not always distinguish the difference at first glance.

Older parks or fairgrounds still feature the older tabs, those with the ring and tail. Smaller and more likely to hang near beaches and recently trashed regions are newer tabs, sometimes known as stay-tabs. You can most likely estimate what's under the ground if your detector's beeping is close to a picnic bench.

Why Do They Show Up So Often?

Pull tabs have been thrown about starting in the 1960s. Consider years of concerts, beach days, and picnics. People open a Coke, toss the tab, and then proceed. Multiply that by millions of people to find a treasure store of trash below.

People congregating somewhere creates a hotspot for tabs. Parks, camping, playgrounds—they all are tab havens. You might be asking, "Why not just discriminate against them?" It is not that straightforward, though.

 

How Metal Detectors React to Them

This is where things start to get complicated. Most machines have aluminum tabs falling in that lovely gold/nickel spectrum. On a Minelab Equinox, for instance, you will often find numerals like 13 or 14, right where small gold rings also show up. Nokta, Garrett, XP—the same tale. Their similar conductivity makes them sound terrific.

Audio-wise, they project a strong tone. If you just rely on sound or VDI, you will dig them believing it to be an antique coin or ring. For this reason, depending simply on one technique is insufficient.

Reading the Clues Before You Dig

How then do you find the difference before calling for the digger? These are a few field-tested tips:

• Signal Consistency: Pull tabs usually provide a clear, crisp tone. Thus, coins also apply. The tightness of that signal, nevertheless, distinguishes things. Usually, a gold ring leaves a clear, compact blip. Sometimes tabs produce a somewhat hazy or more expansive sound. Though slight, your ears will eventually pick it out.

• Target Size: Wave your coil and gently raise it—does the signal fade fast or linger? Generally speaking, tabs offer a larger target area than tiny things like coins or jewelery.

• Depth Tells a Story: Usually shallow, 1 to 3 inches deep, depth tells a story. Particularly at older sites, a coin or ring could be deeper. In a high-traffic zone, if it is close to the surface, you could be about to run across another metal foe.

Improving Your Dig Smarts

Let’s be honest—you’ll still dig some tabs. That’s part of the game. But you can cut down on them drastically if you:

• Use notch discrimination, but sparingly. Don't eliminate that mid-range ID completely or you’ll miss out on gold.
  

• Listen more than you look. Machines can’t always decode tone like your ears can. Practice picking up the subtleties.
  

• If your machine offers multi-frequency or target trace (like on the Manticore or Deus II), use those tools to isolate junk from treasure.
  
  

Putting Theories to the Test

For a real-world illustration, here is I was getting consistent 13-14s on the Equinox all over the place out at a nearby park. The first one Dug was a stay-tab. Dug another tab, a second tab. One of the targets, then, felt tighter and had less numerical bounce. Dug that one, and out emerged a tiny gold ring. The trick is to discover the difference by thoughtful rather than blind excavation.

Use the Right Tools for the Job

Some detectors simply excel at separating treasure from garbage. Each of the Minelab Equinox, Nokta Legend, and XP Deus II has upgraded ID features and recovery speed to enable you to make the call faster.

Are you looking for more accuracy? In trashy regions, use a smaller coil. It will provide a better reading and assist in separating targets. Remember also a decent pinpoint, which can focus the target, so you are not hunting ghosts.

What to Do with All That Junk

You will still find pop tops even with perfect gear and hearing. And that is fine. The finest action you can take is Sort them in your pouch, remove them, then recycle them. Certain detectorists go so far as to donate their tab collections to organizations doing fundraisers.

Besides, the site gets better for the next hunt the fewer tabs there are on the ground.

Final Thoughts

Travel involves pull tabs and pop tops. They help you to develop your ability, swing deliberately, and pay closer attention. The patience to learn such small cues underground defines a newbie from a professional detectorist rather than the equipment.

Continue honing your skills. Study the tones. Think about the signal's depth and feel. You will be dodging soda garbage and confidently extracting treasure before long.