cherry picking those nickels

[texastreasures]

My e-trac will be delivered on Monday, and one of the things I'm looking forward to is being able to distinguish nickels from tabs.

With the White's m6, I hardly ever dug nickels because their VDI range heavily overlapped trash targets, especially on deeper nickels.

On the e-trac, If I reject everything except the area surrounding 12-13 and 12-14, will I still be digging up many tabs, or will my machine focus in on nickels pretty well? Also, will the ferrous number stay around 12 on really deep nickels, or will it fluctuate a lot with depth?

The fe-co world of Minelab is foreign to me, but I really look forward to mastering it with my new e-trac!

 

[Bugalooob]

I dug a 1983 Jefferson nickle reading at 13-12, the next solid 13-12 signal I dug a pull-tab with the pull part missing...That seems to be the only thing that will fool it regarding nickles(pull-tab with pull missing)...Go down to my post "spent a few hours hunting local park", gives you numbers on all kinds of junk

 

[unearth]

I have had my E-Trac for a few months now, but only get out about 5-7 hours a week with it. My experience so far has been that nickels come in anywhere from 10-13 to 16-13. The "key" here is the CO of 13. The 12-13 is the most common reading, but I have found a few tabs at 12-13 also, but mostly nickels. I'm not sure what you mean by "deep nickels". How deep? I haven't recovered a nickel deeper than 5 or 6 inches that I recall.
If you discriminate too much in this area, you might miss some gold items. So be carefull.

 

[Bugalooob]

What do ya want to dig nickels for anyway?..go for the SILVER and GOLD...hmm.. just looking at my master chart and gold coins seem to fall into the 12-11 and 11-11 range..hmm..little close to those nickels. maybe Ill dig the low nickel readings

 

[texastreasures]

What do ya want to dig nickels for anyway?..

I want to dig nickels because the only old coins I find are silver and wheats! I want to get some 7 to 8" nickels or deeper.

But I've never dug up a pre 1950 nickel except for silver war-time nickels. I'd love to pull up some buffaloes and V's.

I have a little field I've cherry picked the old silver out of, so I'm sure there are some buffaloes in there too.

 

[texastreasures]

I'm not sure what you mean by "deep nickels". How deep? I haven't recovered a nickel deeper than 5 or 6 inches that I recall.

By deep, I mean around the depth where mercs and barbers usually like to hang out.

 

[Bugalooob]

Hmmm..you were using a whites m6?..you missed alot of the deeper silver. probably missed alot of the shallow silver too

 

[texastreasures]

The White's M6 is actually pretty deep, but I'm sure the e-trac will out do it with its superior depth and seperation!

 

[gates21]

The only detector that I have ever used that can truly pick out nickels is the F70/75/CZ3D.
I dug 6 on one hunt, never came close to that with any minelab, actually, I think I only dug 2 nickels in 2 years with the minelabs

 

[rbholt80]

I have a little punishment thing i do when i get a new detector. I spend a few days rite after i get the detector just digging nickel readings. I know it hard to pass up the other signals but it pays off. Once im good at the nickels i start hunting everything else like normal. I dug 23 nickels in a day with my id-excel once. With the e-trac my first real day out with it In a hunted out spot i always take my new units to I hit 3 nickels and one was a war nickel. Sense then iv dug a few more war nickels and 2 buffalo's. Just to check myself i will sometimes just focus a day for nickels when i seem to have falling nickel numbers compared to dimes. well that how i get good at finding nickel no matter what machine im using.
the e-trac is as good as any from what I have seen.

 

[Bugalooob]

If your a nickel nut and just want to dig nickels all day long the fisher cz's are the premium nickel machines, the problem with them is they couldnt ID anything else correctly..Their pretty much top in relic hunting where you dig everything anyway

 

[B-Ruce]

I have been detecting for about a year and a half. I started out with an Ace 250. I dug a total of 45 nickels in that time. Since I got my E-Trac two weeks ago, I have already dug 15 nickels, including my first two buffalo nickels. I have dug a few beaver tails (all minus the pull), including one rolled up at 8 inches. The E-Trac is a brut at finding nickels. Last year nickels made up 1.9% of my finds. This year, so far nickels have made up 9.9% of my finds.

HH,

B-Ruce

 

[Anode]

I have had my E-Trac for about a month, i went out today and found 7 nickels and one was a no date buffalo. my usual nickel count with my DFX was maybe one or two a trip.
The E-Trac seems to be a nickel magnet, don't get me wrong some of the tabs come in the same as a nickel. it seems to be the tabs without the beaver tails on them.

 

[Bill_S]

I have a CZ3D and it is super accurate even on deeper nickels. It has to be the best nickel finding detector I have every tried. Most of the targets that come up as nickel are nickels when hunting places that have a high number of coins like schools and parks. It is accurate on coins too, even deep ones. I have a whites M6 and it does a pretty good job on shallower nickels but like most other detectors once they get past 3 or 4 inches the ID is all over the place. I do not have an etrac but I have setup my explorer with a real small nickel notch and it will come pretty close to the 3D at weeding out most of the trash while getting mostly nickels. I do not know if the etrac can be setup the same way or not.......

 

[texastreasures]

I have a CZ3D and it is super accurate even on deeper nickels. It has to be the best nickel finding detector I have every tried. Most of the targets that come up as nickel are nickels when hunting places that have a high number of coins like schools and parks. It is accurate on coins too, even deep ones. I have a whites M6 and it does a pretty good job on shallower nickels but like most other detectors once they get past 3 or 4 inches the ID is all over the place. I do not have an etrac but I have setup my explorer with a real small nickel notch and it will come pretty close to the 3D at weeding out most of the trash while getting mostly nickels. I do not know if the etrac can be setup the same way or not.......

Thanks for your reply. Your explorer set-up is exactly what I was thinking of doing on my e-trac after a site isn't producing any more copper/silver for me. I can come back and pull out the nickels with laser-like focus. Furthermore, in sites that are heavily littered with pulltabs, it's nice to simply accept the narrow range of Nickel #'s and reject the most common pull-tab types. You still can get gold if it's not in the range of the common pulltabs, but you'll be finding a lot more nickels.

My theory is that if we tune in on only a small range of targets per hunt, our attention to weak signals for those specific types of targets will be greater. Our brains do one thing at a time better than two things at a time. For example, if I decide to focus on finding some nickels, I almost always do. However, if I'm hunting in general mode searching for all coins, I usually don't bring any nickels home. I think the same is true, albeit to a lesser extent, for the old copper/silver coins. When I go on a hunt primarily focused on silver, I almost always bring silver home. Trying to get all coins, all at once will decrease the yield of each.

 

[Ripper]

I have only been out four times with my etrac and I pulled a 1937 buffalo and a 1898 liberty nickel (not counting 6 - 7 clad nickels).

 

[dougmanning]

The E-T is far above any thing out there! In the areas I hunt I find old nickles and silver every time out! Minelab is awesome!! Doug N.C.