Concerning Gaz's ferrous setup...

[Ray-Mo.]

I bet it works great in the UK and similar areas but not so hot in US parks and other public areas for many.I find ferrous 2 tones with near open all metal is great at CW sites and am sure it would do great at many other early American/Colonial sites such as old colonial home sites and cellar holes.However in more modern sites here in the USA you will be digging far to many holes at the local park if you run a open ferrous 2 tone pattern digging all high tones because every target except nails and similar will sound off as a nice high tone.However it will work good in some iron infested parks and the like if you check your ID numbers and get a feel for what local non-desirable lower conductors are hitting at for the most part.It is absolutely astounding the way the E-Trac will give you a high tone blip in the middle of continual low tone grunts caused by a solid carpet of rusty nails and the like when swept slow and steady.
Would love to hear from others here in the USA concerning their use of ferrous tone,Ray.
PS This post is in know way meant to belittle or find fault with Gaz or his preferred settings

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[Gaz]

Hi Ray.

I agree. It probably won't be ideal for all situations with you guys. Over here in the UK, with over 3000 years of history under our feet, we have to dig virtually everything!!!
It does do a good job of telling you whats junk however......it gives a low tone. Even a nail or bolt should give you a low tone.
One tell tale sign of iron is if you get a high tone one way and a low tone the other way. (90 degree cross check)
It's the way long shaped iron interrupts the field of the coil.

The theory is simple. It's very much like the coins/Jewelry pattern that you guys use. The blacked out section covers the bottom half of the screen right?
Well, by removing the black and using two tone ferrous, instead of nulling out iron, it gives you a low tone.
This therefore means that the ETrac has no recovery lag. If a good target is next to iron, you will pick up the high tone straight away after the low tone.

Make sense?

Gaz.

 

[NiagracountyNY]

I have found that using patterns on the E-Trac...and I think its in andys book as well...That there is Very little if any recovery lagg when using patterns.I was afraid swithching to Patterns instead of Using all metal like I did on the SE was gonna cause just that..recovery lagg..Well After some fooling around with the E-Trac i relized there was little to No lag at all..Thats the benifit of the E-Trac .I did try Gaz setup on an old home site..It worked really well for me.

 

[Gaz]

Hey Niagra!!

So glad the setup worked on that old home site.

I am gonna have to disagree on the lag theory dude. In my mind, it must be faster.
If you have a pattern that ignores iron, it has to process that, null it out and then recover to process the next target. There MUST be a lag surely??
You know how fast the audio can work on the ETrac, look how fluted the multi tones are!!

Well that's my take on it anyway!!

All the best,

Gaz.

 

[CT Todd]

I would have to agree about the time spent in a Null.Any time spent with the null IS lag time in effect.When we hunted in all metal with our SE's the result was targets sounding off one right after the other no Lag.Same thing will apply with an open Etrac. Any null at all will add lag between targets.It has too.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

I to must say that any item disc-ed out will cause a delay if only a short one depending a lot on depth and size of said target.On the other hand it is almost beyond belief how fast the E-Trac is in ferrous 2 tones in all metal.

I have on numerous occasions found desirable targets in the middle of an old CW site that consists of the remains of over 50 structures after being burnt to the ground in 1863.It was later farmed and some areas are very dense carpets of cut nails and other iron.In the middle of these areas of nails every 2 or 3 inches a good target will sound off as a high tone amid a machine gun like fire of low iron grunts as long as you move very slow and methodical.

Another benefit to this set up is large iron will give a high broken tone many times allowing you to investigate in pinpoint mode.I have recovered some nice relics this way such as a KeenKutter axe and large harness rings.Also is nice for checking for large cast iron pieces of stoves and the like to get a better understanding of the history of new sites,Ray.

PS One of the most common high tone items at parks will be bits of foil chewing gum wrappers and will drive you crazy if you dont use ID numbers to exclude the recovery of them

 

[Redfoot]

Ray-mo

you can add a bar or two of descrim on the conductive scale which will reduce the amount of foil being detected, not to much or you may loose thin silver coins, i tried out Gaz's settings and found my Etrac performed more like a Goldmax Power V4 in amongst the iron, i have recovered a lot of coins and artifacts from areas where using Tony hunts program my Etrac just nulled now it gives a response and with a little practise allows additional finds to be made from difficult unsearchable areas now I am much happier to take just one machine out with me. well done Gaz

 

[NiagracountyNY]

I thought i read somewhere using a pattern will in theory give you more power towards the targets u want to find with the E-trac.Not sure on this ...The E-Trac is so fast i dont feel im missing that much in the null myself.I always tab into all metal on any deep /iffy enough targets anyways to double check.im gonna have to try some more of your fellas settings and test her out

 

[Barry NY]

It seems that the detecting methodology, as suggested by Gaz (basically wide open in 2 tone and shown in action in the videos - thanks Gaz), becomes very similar to the Excalibur style beach hunting experience - where you use the least amount of disc (1) and you basically dig all repeatable good tones...and walk past every null (and most bottle caps too)..

This style of detecting is the only way to work a beach or plowed field site, IMHO, where the diggin is easy and it takes no more than 30-60 seconds to dig and recover a target - so why wouldn't you dig everything? In England, I had that dig everything (that sounded good) mentality and operated wide open in conduct multi-tones. I did relatively good for a rookie England hunter but I think I definitely recovered way too many targets that had faked me out. After watching the video I think the 2 tone setup would have had me walking away from more junk leaving more time to pick out more good stuff. As it was we were digging non-stop from 7:15am to 6pm with just a 30 minute break. There were well over 300 targets in my pouch every day including tons of pencil head sized pieces of Roman bronze that were just banging sweet mid-tones...I wish I could have walked away from more of the junk I pulled out leaving me more time to cover more ground.

However at yards, parks and other lawn locations it starts to become a real bear to dig and then back fill perfectly your holes (so you are allowed back again). You need to be more "discriminating" about what you want to dig so you'll tighten up the pattern a little more (Andy's coin pattern is a solid start) and use the depth meter and TID display to add that next level of information in order to make that dig decision.

Personally, I have migrated away from digging lawn areas (parks and schools) and usually concentrate my time on plowed field and beach detecting sites. Not that gaining access to one of those 300 year old private family estates on 4+ acres of pristine undetected open grass wouldn't thrill me to death...and surely have me dealing with making that perfect hole while being somewhat more discriminate with my digging...

 

[Barry NY]

FE 2 tone - wide open = amazing smokin fast response for any dig all situation like farm field or beach.

It was amazing how easily you could pick out good targets from among the trash. I am convinced
that the null would have had me walking by when there was a non-iron target in the ground.

If you got any high tone at all - there was definitely a non ferrous target there.

Thanks for the tip Gaz - it will be my preferred setup from now on.

Barry

 

[kered]

I use the ferous wide open quite a lot, especially on 2 beaches, one had an old slipway and is full of iron flake, the other has regular beach parties with fires, after the party and wood is burnt all that is left is the nails and staples(plus some damn can melt), the beach cleaners then spread these all over, i use 4 or multitones but can wip over the ground quite fast as no nulls to slow me down, does your head in a bit when you get 20 or so grunts per coil pass but you don't miss much.

 

[Gaz]

.....the biggest tip is to turn your headphones down slightly to take the edge off.
Once you 'tune in', the high tones leap out.

Good luck!!

Gaz.