Minelab E-TRAC Forum

I have been using my etrac for probably two months now and thats almost everyday with alot of 8-10 hour days and ive read Andys book twice. Hunting for civil war relics in camps and such. I either use TTF or wide open 4 tone to hear everything. Here is what i have learned so far. First thing being that if a brass button or minie ball are over 6 inches deep the ID numbers arent even in the ball park of what they should be and this is in east tennessee with good soil.. Next is that in camps with alot of square nails and iron,the etrac will latch on to an iron signal and never even here the brass or minie ball close to it and i know this because my brother went over a 20ftx20ft area i hunted sunday with his AT pro and found 5 minie balls and 2 eagle buttons and the worst part is that most of em were next to holes i had dug and pulled out square nails. I always go back over holes i dig and in that area it would just audio the iron so i would move on.Needless to say i am very disappointed on the etracs performance when relic hunting. I researched and researched before i bought it and thought id be happy with it but unfortunately its not the machine i thought itd be but it must be a great coin machine because i see alot of u guys posting awesome finds on coins.Anyway,thats just my observation on civil war relic hunting with it and i am gonna keep trying with it but i think ive pretty much seen what it can do. God bless everyone and happy hunting

Do you have the trash setting set to high and your ground setting set to difficult??? Trash high gives it the see through capabilities or else it will hit and read the larger junk item co located near a good target mostly. I'll say you may not have it setup right. Do you have either fast or deep turned on?? Turn deep off. Fast will help in a trashy spot, if it's fairly clean low in targets set fast to off as well gives better id reads. The numbers are showing you the ferrous junk near the good target hence the jumpy FE and CO numbers. Need to learn the machine better before writing it off 2 months isn't a real long time yet. Give it more time. Try it in the relic pattern and in Conductive mode instead of TTF. Maybe some of this will help you out. Others may have more suggestions too. There are plenty of people finding relics on here with it too.

Etrac good but not perfect in some iron places you have to use additional detector, like Pro, Tejon or something ells. For me Etrac or Explorer is best for 90% hunts.

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Yep, single freq machines work better on my iron infested sites.

My Minelab works great on my clean sites ( Meadows and Green Fields )

It's what is called Horses for Courses, no one detctor can do it all, and

thats the reason for owning two or maybe three different brand detectors.

Just my two bobs worth.

eTrac's strong suit is definitely using disc patterns and tones for uncanny coin hunting ability. I've ran into the same wall as you on relic hunting with it. It can find relics but it's NOT the best machine out there for that application. I've not even taken mind to a iron filled site to relic hunt....my places are just open pasture or pines with occasional shotgun brass or plow piece. The rest of the stuff are relics. I've noted the same thing...down to 6" or so bullets ID close to where they do in air tests. Beyond that, it's a guessing game. I've been running mine open screen and digging everything above 33 ferrous...surprisingly I have recovered a few bullets in the 11" range that read steadily in that region....ferrous side in the 30s and conductive side bouncy....making you think it was probably iron. I dug the first one to see what it was because it didn't double beep like I had been hearing with open screen.

Been hunting mine as follows:

Deep -- On
Fast -- Off
Ground -- Difficult
Trash -- Low
2 tones but Cond instead of Ferrous

Disc pattern -- extensive nail reject pattern I downloaded....I go from it to open screen...depending on where I'm at.

Sensitivity -- High as possible without falsing...which here, I've not been able to run it any higher than 20...most of the time its in the upper teens. This too is hurting its performance.

Great coin machine but I feel from personally using a lot of machines that there are others that make a lot better relic machine. None come close on coins like the eTrac but exclusively relics...different story.

I have found a ton of old coins and relics with these settings in places I have been over after my CZ's...I do find the E-Trac best on coins by far over anything else which is fine by me for what I want to hunt for...but for relic hunters I'm sure the single frequency machines will surely do you better digging for anything above small iron...my 2 zincs!

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leslie
Yep, single freq machines work better on my iron infested sites.

My Minelab works great on my clean sites ( Meadows and Green Fields )

It's what is called Horses for Courses, no one detctor can do it all, and

thats the reason for owning two or maybe three different brand detectors.

Just my two bobs worth.

I am sorry but I totally disagree with you. I hunt farm fields where houses are torn down with 8-10 iron hits per swng, it works in TTF like a champ. I have NEVER used any detector that pulls goodies out of iron infested areas any better than the etrac. It is truly an amazing machine, and the AT Pro does not hold a candle to it. If someone is beating you with an AT pro, your doing something WAY wrong

If you are after deep iron, you should have bought a PI unit.

Kymer 74
I may be wrong but I suspect you may be running a wide open screen for your relic hunting. That's a no,no IMO. Try using the relic program in your etrac's memory or make your own by doing the following:
Blacken out the 01 line 01-39, next blacken the entire conductive 50 line column, next blacken the ferrous lines 32-35. This should quieten your mahine down extensively and if the relics are within reach you will find them. Another strategy is run wide open quickmask screen in conductive multi tone, as soon as you start hitting nails and iron 31-35 ferrous line targets, go to one of the programs above. Watch your sensitivity especially in iron and especially while using the procoil. Auto plus 3 is ok. Manual sensivity at the setting your etrac's auto plus three is running is about as hot as I can run and still make any sense out of the tones. I have found old coins/jewelry in areas that were full of iron/square nails using the 10x12 sef coil. The trick is go slow, vary your sensivity settings (cool, moderate,hot) and also change your approach angle many times to the site. I have read on other sites where folks knock the etrac for its processor speed/recovery delay. That's OK, but the etrac does something most other detectors don't do- it will break thru a null and give a good tone on a good target. And lower frequencies are the best in iron hands down. This is why so many good coins are being found in trashy sites with etrac that have been hunted hard over the last 30 or so years. I forgot to mention 2 tone ferrous, I would stay away from it if I could. The reason being anything with a ferrous number greater than 17 will be a low tone. Most of the bullets I have found with my etrac come in at readings around 19 ferrous-17conductive . So in this case I would have missed them in TTF. Lead is a low conductor by the way. And yes a higher freq detector may outdo the etrac in depth on lead bullets. Good luck



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2012 10:56PM by squirrel1.

My initial thought was your machine just isn't being hunted right and your settings must be off. I would have to agree with Goes4ever. I don't know how long G4E has been swinging an Etrac, but I know he knows this machine thoroughly. Two months isn't enough time to understand all of the functions and adjustments to optimize it's capabilities for the conditions. That being said, I liked your post! I think that being disappointed with your results will encourage those with more experience with this detector to share their thoughts and insights. While reading the books and watching the videos taught me a lot, I learned a whole lot more from others sharing what they know and learned.

Ok,Normally i am running sensitivity around 25,gain 26,relic mode,TTF,deep on,trash high,i sweep slow and low always but i have tried sensitivity anywhere from 15 to 30 and auto. I have tried wide open no discrimination to hear everything,i have blackened out line 01-39 and ferrous 35-30. I have tried high trash on and off,deep on and deep off. So GBE what settings would u suggest for relic hunting in a camp infested with square nails? And just so everyone knows i am in no way trying to speak badly of the etrac,i am basically asking for help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2012 09:34AM by kmyer74.

switch to TTF and dont use discrimination for relics its dont do anything good, respond Long, try another coil maybe its will help you, scratch with coil ground. for me this works very nice and better then with other brand detectors, in good spots I repeat with other detectors to see what I miss, but for now FBS is best, but not perfect.

kmyer74

I know what you mean. I have hunted an area that has alot of nails, deep nails I coin hunt and have dug alot of silver mostly with the se pro from this area. A few months ago got an etrac and have gotten 13 silvers with it this year. Actually dug a silver dime with the etrac at a measured 11" last nite in area east of the old swimming pool that has been filled in. Also there are some other traveling etrac'ers that hunt this place for a year or better, and these guys use those big tornado coils, I guess they are finding stuff because they keep coming back. OK a guy I hunt with, has used a bunch of different detectors(whites, garrett, minelab,tesoro), over the past 30 years. He takes his AT pro into this hard hunted area 3 days ago and pulls a merc and an early wheat out of the nails at about 7". I'm there thinking what the frac. So the machine he's using cost $600 and I give $1200 for mine. My silver count went way up when I switched to minelab 3 yrs ago but that At pro appears to be killer in the trash. I use dfferent settings and coils, I plan on going ttf and the little sunray 5" coil in this area and live up to my user name. I have used the 5" there before.

Kmyer74 he bud sent you a P.M. Let me know if you interested.