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[I-84 exit 165]

My new etrac showed up it is great. Thanks again. Thank everyone here on the forum for all the great tips.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Your welcome! Holler if you have any questions!

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Wow good info here. Where to begin I like silver sweeper said use the cursor instead of the ferrous numbers. You can see the cursor where it's at in the white and also the black area while detecting and then again in pinpoint mode and if it's deep into that black area while in the coins mode then your looking at iron most likely. Also in quick mask screen if it's way down at bottom and or right hand corner it's always been iron. I keep trying some of these hoping it's to be a good coin but it never is.

Silver sweeper maybe there isn't any deeper that may be why you haven't found any to be, so it is what it is sometimes right. I haven't found anything deeper than I would say 8-9" so far and I go over an area many multiple times in conductive then TTF till I say enough is enough I don't give up easily.

When you say 1% mineralized Albert what is the ground reading with say another detector that you have to ground ballance there say as my soil is here 85 average of ground ballancing in several areas around town and acording to what I've read that is pretty mineralized soil. When I hear 1% I think wow very little mineralization like Goes4ever's area seems to be. I get ferrous numbers way way down in the teens and twentys but because the sounds are good and fairly SMOOTH not slightly screetchy and sporadic and scratchy like over iron so I don't pay too much attention to the ferrous number and I also came from detectors like Whites DFX and Fischer CZ5 that didn't have ferrous number readings on them just conductive so that is my focus.

Like someone said on the other page in pinpoint mode iron gives itself away too as it will be different from where you first swept on it as it falses off the tips or ends of it but pinpoints in the main body of it so it will be different. AFTER pinpointing find that center mass area and then go resweep over it and it will be different and you readings will be different too so you change your mind and say it's iron no dig.

One time I had a good sounding signal but a bit screetchy and the numbers were in the good copper and silver area like 42-43- 44 45 cond but as I swept over it it sounded a bit off and so when I swept from a 90% direction change it still sounded not right so then I pinpointed and wallah the center was different it was off by a couple of inches. Now I went to open quick mask and over one spot that cursor dove into the lower right corner but as I slowly swept on by the cursor now jumped up into the lower 1/3 of the screen so now I turned 90% back to the original way and tried that again and it did the same thing but as I dragged the coil back towards me over the area while sweeping I said to myself I think I have a coin next to a piece of iron so I tried to isolate by the original coins mode and sweeping and dug there and it was a barber dime about 1-2 inches off the end of a piece of iron trying to pull my signal off while in pinpoint mode. If I had dug that and resweeped then I would have got the coin but I got it right the first time by listening and not so much reading numbers. I can't begin to tell how many times I have done that and when that cursor jumps up and stays in the upper 2/3rds of the quick mask screen it's coin and when it's down in the lower 1/3 and bottom right corner especially it's iron or junk. That equates to about I'll say for the sake of argument 25 and higher to 01 ferrous it's good and 25-35 lower ferrous it's bad (cursor position).

I liked sounds long on in trash Marksman7 showed this in a video it made the high good coin tone stand out amoungst the other target sounds real easily. Most times I run trash high that is the SEE THROUGH capability in a null and near iron or bad discriminated out targets but it lets the good targets sound off and come through.

 

[ronfin]

Great posts guys and it makes sense that we are not all seeing the same thing as it just goes to show you the ground varies (and we adjust accordingly). Again, see my quote from Tom Dankowski above. It makes me think that since my ground has a fair amount of iron mineralization that there is a chance I might see coins fall into the iron range as the iron could really pull down the VDI's at depth; especially considering the pronounced iron bounces I see. But I have to dig some of those mid twenty signals with good sound and good CO numbers to be certain. And I should follow the other instructions and tips given in this thread.

I'd be curious if Goes4ever, Jason and others who haven't seen coins fall into the Fe range (and stay there) have non iron mineralized soils (or something else in common) and those who have dug coins that hit in the Fe range have something else in common.

That said, something that is interesting about FBS technology is how the units treat iron mineralization and small flecks. Let me quote Dankowski again here:

much less resonant to iron............. especially tiny flecks/flakes of rust. In fact......... tiny/minute flecks of rust to the (psudo/quasi PI platform) FBS units (electronic/electromagnetic decay-rate) are simply viewed upon as 'minerals'.

So I guess our results will depend on where our soil falls.

I do hope future generations of E-Tracs give us some feedback on where the soil does fall. Because we could compare that and know what to look for in our individual soils.

One other thing that deserves mention here is that [size=x-large]"thunking" sound[/size] that I have slightly experienced and I think it was Southwind who said he has dug those and they were all iron. Again, think of my soil and others who report it (mine is 1% iron mineralized) and then those who have only found it to be iron. Do you know what your soil is Southwind? Since the "thunking" seems to occur at the limits of depth, I wonder what occurs beyond that, e.g do coins then come in as iron in certain soils or not at all???

Thanks again,
Albert

I just wanted to add something to what I put in bold above in the quote. I recently dug a '51 Rosie at 6 inches and had this "thunking" noise almost trick me off the target. There was a large clump of metal just above and offset from this dime, and just as I would sweep over the area it would squelch at [4]-46 range and thunk off at the end. At a 90 degree angle I couldn't even get it to sound. It would just null out because of the crap metal on top. So I started to wiggle the coil over the spot I heard the conductive "46" hit at and it was a small area, but consistent at 46. It didn't jump around because the ground is really trashy (local park-old baseball field) but every other swing the target would hit [SOMETHING FE - 46], so I decided to dig it. Found the junk metal first because that was the bigger target and my pin point was off due to this, but out came that Rosie too. So, whenever, and I mean WHENEVER you see a good conductive number in and out of swings it's a good idea to dig it. What do you have to lose versus what could you gain? So what if you dig a crushed can or a pull tab. You'll dig a LOT of those anyway, but would you take the chance on passing on a silver dime? I wouldn't. I'm just gonna dig the iffy signals if I even see a decent number pop on the screen twice.

Happy hunting peeps.

 

[Beyonder]

Yes, audio first. The numbers should be, IMO, the final say on wether to dig or not. You will come across a number of exceptions. Know your area and experience will tell u whats there.

By the way, the Nazis called and they want thier coins back

 

[earthmansurfer]

Ronfin - That is interesting but it makes sense. From my (and others) testing, it appears pretty clear that the "thunking sound" is how the E-Trac responds when targets are at it's fringe depth limits for that particular sensitivity. Up the sensitivity, if possible, and the thunking goes away. So, what I think you experienced is the E-Trac thunking at whatever was deepest for it to pick up. Someone correct me here, but I have not experienced nor seen here on the forums, thunking occurring on targets well within the E-Tracs range. But, what do you define as a good conductive number? I mean even iron has a good conductive number, no? I'm not giving you a hard time. I am new with the E-Trac and for all the success I've experienced, I know there is a lot more to learn, a lot.

Tom - Finally to your question on my soil! Sorry, must have slipped me. My soil is 1% iron mineralized according to the V3i's ground probe feature. It gets up to 3% in places. (My Omega however showed the soil to be low to a bit more than that, so maybe it's more in the 5% to 10% range, judging by the problems other detectors have at depth here.) Now yes, 1%-3%is low mineralization, but it's the densitity of the type (iron) that is EXTREMELY high. On the V3i it defines iron mineralization to be in the -70 to -94 range (Maybe not as high as 70) and salt is around 0. My soil often reads at -91 to -93. So that means, of that 1% mineralization, it is almost all iron. Now, that still seems low, but I've used the T2, Omega and V3i in this soil and all of them start to jump around at medium depth (7"), ID wise I mean. Now, the V3i I am most familiar with and it's VDI's jump around at 8" like the Fe numbers jump around on deep targets in this soil (meaning a lot) on the E-Trac. The Fe numbers on an 8" coin in my soil typically jump down to Fe 24 or so (jump, not stay! A bound from 12 to 18, to 14, to 27). But the CO numbers don't move that much (maybe 3 or so on average). The V3i's numbers, in 3 frequency, were jumping to the negatives (iron) and then all over the positive spectrum, but maybe more in the coin range than the other extremes. Still, I would walk past those targets as the ground is like that everywhere. You can't just investigate so many signals due to time constraints. The E-Trac and it's 2D display coupled with the Fe and CO numbers made it MUCH MUCH EASIER TO FIND DEEPER COINS (in my soil). I am going to write up a piece on the 2D display and Fe and CO numbers as it is JUST INCREDIBLE to me. I am not a Minelab Fanboy. I call it like I see it and if another detector comes out and does better, I'll say it. But right now, the E-Trac on coins is where it's at (in my soil).

Beyonder - Pretty much I agree but I do use the 2D display an awful lot investigating those deeper targets. I get a "feel" for the bounces being coins or not and of course the sound does not bounce! It is constant. eehheheh - The Nazi's can have their coins back, especially all them zincs they made, it's mostly all I find from them! :veryangry:

Thanks guys - I missed this thread Ronfin - Thanks,
Albert

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Thanks Albert on the ground clarification explanation. I understand better now what your soil is like. It explains it all perfectly why you get the readings you get and bouncing. Your ground is more ironized if that is a word and mine here is more mineralized with iron flaking added in but not near as much as yours is. Some of the thunking I mentioned could also be objects at angles in the ground and how the signal hits them due to your angle of sweeping approach but usually it's because of the depth. As stated the AT Pro can give a sound with no numerical reading so it detects/goes deeper than the vdi can read the target so maybe the sort of same thing is happening on the Etrac but it still will try to vdi the object due to it's 2D capability or other such internals/processing etc. it has.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Hey, I see what you did there Tom in using "ironizing". I'm an English teacher but had to look it up. Here you go: To make ironic in effect, To use irony.

Anyway, I got what you mean and do think it's a word. I mean words are for communicating and...

This is really interesting for now both you and Beyonder is talking about my soil and it helps to confirm and clarify what I've been experiencing. And it helps to squelch the pain of years of not finding coins past 6" or so, all because I never tried an FBS machine!

Very interesting with the thunking comment as well as the AT Pro comment. I think the AT Pro might do very well in my soil, not to mention over at some lakes.

Iron flaking and iron mineralization (which I have both of) are quite interesting. Tom Dankowski said some interestings on both of them which I'll repeat here.

31. Effect of iron on VDI readings - In general...........flecks of rust will cause a target to 'up-average'. . . . whereas... solid iron objects (like nails) will cause targets to 'down-average'. Mineralization adds to the equation also.

Mineralization is somewhat unique in the fact that it'll cause targets to up-average ... as long as the targets are shallow-to-medium depths. But..... when the target is fairly deep...... mineralization (in general) will cause a target to ID as 'iron'.

Great talks here guys,
EMS

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Well glad it's a word but I didn't want it to mean IRONY, but I think you got what I meant that your ground has more iron flaking through out it, and in mine here it has more mineralization in it with a smattering of iron flaking through out.

Just using the other detector brand to try to correlate as to why the Etrac may make the tunking sound but it can unlike the other brand still give an id reading so that helps us out. So instead of a good multi tone to go by we get a good CO number and a tunking sound instead. I think it's cause of deep, or hard co-located targets, or targets at an extreme angle or on edge in the ground myself and it's the angle your hitting it from with your sweep direction.