I am having trouble on salt water beaches with my new E-Trac. I have just had it for two weeks so I am very new to this machine, my excuse for operator error. It does not want to settle down for me, If I swing it at any kind of sweep speed other than 1 or 2 inches /second it sounds like an Oboe. I reduced my sensitivity to 15 and that made it usable, but at what kind of depth sacrifice? In auto sen I could use it at -3, but still lots of noise. The sen bar graph said I could be as high as 20 to 25, but at those levels the woodwinds are in constant play. I have played with all the settings I can think of to no avail. It only does this in wet or even damp sand, in dry it works fine. I have Andy's book and if the answer is in there I missed it. I am also using the 15 " WOT coil. I have an Excal II so I can still hunt wet but after that 15" coil I feel like I am hunting with my pinpointer! Terry
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Beach hunting
- Thread starter terrywl
- Start date
Are you running the machine in neutral or difficult? Fast or deep on/off? Coil cover clean inside? Cable connection to box tight? Have you made any setting changes vs. factory preset?
The Etrac should definitely run quietly in wet sand. Some more info is needed before we can figure out what is going on. Also, depending where you bought the machine, if it was from a local dealer he/she should be able to step in & sort things out for you.
Bill
The Etrac should definitely run quietly in wet sand. Some more info is needed before we can figure out what is going on. Also, depending where you bought the machine, if it was from a local dealer he/she should be able to step in & sort things out for you.
Bill
M.L. Hinds
Member
I'm not a big beach hunter. but thats what I would check first! It could be a number of things.
Neil
Well-known member
terrywl said:
take the coil cover off and see if that helps it. I run mine mostly in quick mask, just a few bars up to knock out real small iron, and auto sens +1, and its as smooth as silk. Ive only used the 10X12 SEF and pro coil at the ocean and neither makes it do that.
I read also, I think in Andys book that you might try quickmasking out one bar on the cond side, the vertical line, to help with falsing.
HH
Neil
Where are you located? I was have been running my ETrac on the NJ beaches and getting awesome depth and it has been really stable. I am not sure what the beaches are like where you are at. I would try the following:
Go back to the stock coil, just to see if you can get it to settle down. If you can get it to settle down with that coil then you can tweak for the wot. The manual says to run normal for ground at the beach but to experiment. I run normal as long as my auto sensitivity stays above around 22, even if I am in manual. I watch it constantly. If it drops below that I go to difficult. Trash density low, targets are not numerous right now here. If the auto sensitivity is at 24 or above I have been running in auto +3, if it drops below that I go into manual and run it as high as I can and keep a clean threshold, maybe even 1 or 2 higher if I am fresh and don't mind listening to the noise. If I am going from wet/dry sand into ankle deep water I can be constantly changing from auto to manual and moving the sensitivity up and down. The ETrac will drop way down in auto when you are right up against the water, I have seen my drop down to below 18-19. I am usually at about 22-24 manual when this is the case. Remember the high beam in the fog analogy, if your conditions are that bad you will be defeating the purpose by cranking up the machine. You can only run it as hot as you can run it stable, if you force it past that you are actually going backwards in depth.
Slow down also, I found that I can run hotter at a slower coil speed. If I want to cover ground fast I will actually back off a bit to get stability.
I would try to avoid masking out the co 01 if you can, l got 2 nice keepers last weekend and both came in at co 01, I was digging all light stuff that day.
And last try staying up at the very top of the wet sand line for a good while and see how the machine runs. Do not keep moving in and down into the very wet sand and water. If you can run stable there for a while then move down further and hunt for about 10-15 minutes and watch the auto even if you are in manual. My ETrac will be running auto 29 up top but when I get down into the waters edge it will drop of steep, and it can take 10-15 minutes to do so. If you notice this then understand if you want to run at peak you will have to adjust when you move down there
GL and HH
Go back to the stock coil, just to see if you can get it to settle down. If you can get it to settle down with that coil then you can tweak for the wot. The manual says to run normal for ground at the beach but to experiment. I run normal as long as my auto sensitivity stays above around 22, even if I am in manual. I watch it constantly. If it drops below that I go to difficult. Trash density low, targets are not numerous right now here. If the auto sensitivity is at 24 or above I have been running in auto +3, if it drops below that I go into manual and run it as high as I can and keep a clean threshold, maybe even 1 or 2 higher if I am fresh and don't mind listening to the noise. If I am going from wet/dry sand into ankle deep water I can be constantly changing from auto to manual and moving the sensitivity up and down. The ETrac will drop way down in auto when you are right up against the water, I have seen my drop down to below 18-19. I am usually at about 22-24 manual when this is the case. Remember the high beam in the fog analogy, if your conditions are that bad you will be defeating the purpose by cranking up the machine. You can only run it as hot as you can run it stable, if you force it past that you are actually going backwards in depth.
Slow down also, I found that I can run hotter at a slower coil speed. If I want to cover ground fast I will actually back off a bit to get stability.
I would try to avoid masking out the co 01 if you can, l got 2 nice keepers last weekend and both came in at co 01, I was digging all light stuff that day.
And last try staying up at the very top of the wet sand line for a good while and see how the machine runs. Do not keep moving in and down into the very wet sand and water. If you can run stable there for a while then move down further and hunt for about 10-15 minutes and watch the auto even if you are in manual. My ETrac will be running auto 29 up top but when I get down into the waters edge it will drop of steep, and it can take 10-15 minutes to do so. If you notice this then understand if you want to run at peak you will have to adjust when you move down there
GL and HH
Thanks all. I am going to try the beach again today and will switch bach to the stock coil if needed. I have removed the coil cover, and will work in all the other suggestions as well. I hunt the San Diego area beaches. I love this machine in the mountains, pulled a 1892 I.H. penny yesterday with it. My oldest coin to date MD'ing. 
Switched to ground: difficult. I had done a reset which put it back to normal. Terry