Digging Low Tones

[unearth]

Hello All-
I have a question for all you fellow E-trac users. A lot of times when I detect I get a number of low tones, 12-02 thur 12-28, and the cursor is in the open area of my detector, BUT, when I go into the pinpoint mode, the cursor, sometimes, moves into the discriminated out area of my detector. My question is, do I still dig the target? I don't want to pass up on a potential gold item, but so far no gold has come out of the ground when pinpointing the low tones and the cursor has moved from the open area into the discriminated out area. Any insight to this would be greatly appreciated. HH
Thanks,
Gary

 

[NebTrac]

Gary,

I've never really dug a "low tone" 12-02, or 12-04. I've dug a few and they were always foil and the like. Lookin' for coins I usually do not dig under 12-08. Are you getting a "low tone" at 28??? I can't see a 28 cond. coming in as a low tone.

As per your pinpointing question. My personal preference is a consistant signal, where the Co. numbers hold in consistency. If you're looking for gold and get a consistant sound, then I'd dig regardless of where the cursor went when pinpointing. At least 4-6 targets like that per hunting spot ought to give you a good idea of how the targets react at that hunting spot. I'd then do the same thing all over at a new location.

I'm certainly no expert and willing to be taught also. I guess what I've stated is how I would approach your situation.

NebTrac

 

[BOIdaho]

Every time I dug up a gold ring I was surprised. Gold likes to hide in the range of foil and pull tabs. My last gold ring I would have bet it was a penny, it had a rather high reading 12/39, other were really low 12/03. You are going to dig a lot of junk before getting the good stuff. You have to develop an ear for the different sounds, like what the other members say "When in doubt dig". Besides half the fun of this hobby is being surprised when something really nice comes out of the ground that you were not expecting. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[RandyNorthridgeca]

Hey Gary, long time no see. I haven't had much luck with gold items on my E-Trac. I think my last gold items came in at 12-39 too. I do dig about 5 to 10 targets each time out with those low numbers all the way up into the high 20's trying to luck into gold but haven't had any luck. Same thing with the 30 numbers. If you fine the magic switch let us know. I'm talking dirt detecting because I use my Explorer 2 at the beach. HH

 

[NebTrac]

Gary,

I dug a man's gold wedding ring about 3" down at an old church. It was a solid (very worn thin) band. It came in at 10-10 on the E-Trac. That has been the only gold item I've dug, and was very surprised to see it in the hole.

NebTrac

 

[1goldsniper]

I have dug up 2. I came in at 12 46 -26 grams the other 12 grams 12 43. Both are no brainers! It is nice to have the discrimination of the etrac and the tones. But I have thought this for a long time now. Besides those two great features still all we have is an all metal detector and one has to did every signal ignoring the #'s to not miss goodies.

 

[Kenova]

Gary

I experience exactly what you are asking about every time I am out detecting with the E Trac. I think the replies to your question are missing what you are actually asking. So maybe I can explain and then some others can jump in and give their opinions also.

I think what Gary is asking is when he comes upon a target this happens..... (and this happens to me on low or high conductive targets)

First the E Trac seems to lock onto the target with a pretty solid reading along the 12 line. This could be anywhere on the 12 line and not just low tones. And I usually always dig any solid 12 line target because of the gold that you just never know about. However what Gary is asking is once he gets the pretty solid target response on the 12 line and then changes into the pinpoint mode the cursor will drop way down into the bottom right corner of the discrimination pattern screen. This happens all the time to me also. And I always dig this kind of target anyways but it has always turned out to be junk for me.

For instance I can get a solid 12-43 in both directions while sweeping and then when I change to pinpoint the cursor will drop all the way down into the bottom right corner of the screen, once I dig the target it is something like a matchbox car or some kind of aluminum with other metal in it (iron).

This can happen on the low end of the 12 line also. I have had multiple targets lock into a pretty solid 12-02 to 12-39 while sweeping but drop way to the bottom right corner of the screen in pinpoint but I dig them anyways hoping to luck into the gold. When this happens for me this has always been trash or junk metal.


I would like to hear what others have to say about this sudden shift from the 12 line to the bottom of the screen when switched to pinpoint.

 

[Jason in Enid]

You have to remember how the E-Trac looks at targets. When you are in conductive tones, with discrimination, the machien is trying to find conductive targets. It can be surrounded by iron, but if it can see the good target, it will respond. Once you switch to pinpoint, you in a true "all metal" mode. If there is more iron than conductive target, the responce will drop down into the iron zone.

Always ignore the target ID while pinpointing. make your dig decision when you are in hunting mode.

 

[EZrider]

The $625 "melt value" PLAT band in my avatar came in at 12-15

 

[unearth]

Thanks to all who have responded. Kenova hit the nail on the head with his reading of my post. It seems the answer is, if it's a solid lock on the 12 line BEFORE pinpointing, and it sounds good, it doesn't matter where the cursor goes during pinpointing. Just dig to be sure you don't miss any good items.

 

[Kenova]

From here I would also experiment with digging high conductive targets that dont necessarily lock into the 12 line. I have dug silver dimes that had a nice high tone but were lower on the ferrous side of the screen. But for the most part if it is locked in on the 12 line I dig no matter what conductive number I get.

 

[Goes4ever]

Learn to find your target without using pinpoint mode and you don't have to worry about this problem and u will speed up your hunting a well. I never use PP mode as I feel it slows me down. I use the wiggle back method, I feel it is way more accurate as I can HEAR the tone as I wiggle back so I know I am pinpointing the correct item. Many times if you have multiple targets under your coil the PP is worthless to me because it will lock onto the strongest signal which may NOT be the target you are wanting to dig. For example you get a coin signal and there is also a nail a couple inches away which ever target is stronger will be what you pick up when you go into PP mode. Bu if you use the wiggle back method you KNOW what target your over and PPing.

 

[rarysgaard]

When I first started out with the E-Trac I ran into the same dilema. I thought that since it went into the discriminated out area I didn't have to did it as it was a bad target. I talked with a seasoned vet with the E-Trac and he told me differently and when I started digging these signals they ended up being good targets. With regard to possible gold with the low tones and readings, I read Andy Sabisch's book on Explorer and E-Trac and got the ferrous and conductivity numbers off his chart. I found 6 gold rings this year using this method. I'm quite sure I lost some because I got too reliant on the numbers. I saw on this forum a chart of a large sampling of rings and they came in all over the place. Mostly my experience was that 12-15 through 12-22 were pull tabs. Andy's gold numbers were 12-2,12-3, 12-4, 12-6,12-7,12-13-12-23,12-24-12-25,12-31. I did find my gold rings as I recall at readings of 12-5,12-7-,12-13, 12-22,12-26,12-31,so go primarily by the sound and consistent numbers and be prepared to dig numbers that are one or two numbers either side of what they should read on Andy's chart. Good luck!

 

[sugar]

i go by the ferrous tones so i run an open screen nearly accept for the 1 line i dig everything with a high tone which in ferrous includes all 10 11 12 13 targets these all come in loud and clear through the surrouding iron how do you guys hunt by ear if your 10 11 12 13s have different sounds because you have etrac in conductive mode which splits the tones the other way so a good target 12,35 will sound exactly the same as a piece of iron at 35.35 if i am not understanding something please can you explain as i am having such a great time finding things by ear for the first time in my life as it is so easy but leaves me a little confused doing it my way you cant miss a target doing it the conductive way you must be digging all tones?????????????????????????????????????????

 

[Kenova]

i go by the ferrous tones so i run an open screen nearly accept for the 1 line i dig everything with a high tone which in ferrous includes all 10 11 12 13 targets these all come in loud and clear through the surrouding iron how do you guys hunt by ear if your 10 11 12 13s have different sounds because you have etrac in conductive mode which splits the tones the other way so a good target 12,35 will sound exactly the same as a piece of iron at 35.35 if i am not understanding something please can you explain as i am having such a great time finding things by ear for the first time in my life as it is so easy but leaves me a little confused doing it my way you cant miss a target doing it the conductive way you must be digging all tones?????????????????????????????????????????

I imagine most people like myself that hunt in multi tone conduct use a discrimination pattern unlike your open screen pattern in 2 tone ferrous. Thus a 35 -35 signal will just null out and not produce a tone at all. If you are using 2 tone ferrous and only digging the targets that give you the tone above the 17 ferrous line you are missing some good silver targets that can register below the 17 ferrous line, This could be masked targets that can give a signal above the 38 conductive line but below the 17 ferrous line. In Multi conduct tones this kind of target will still give a nice high tone signaling me to have a look at the screen and I can decide from there whether or not to dig by looking at the numbers and the sound. When in multi conduct tones I use a discrimination pattern that discriminates anything below the 27 ferrous line. From my experience the conductive numbers are much more accurate than the Ferrous numbers when it comes to silver coins. So a good target like silver could register anywhere from the 12 -43 to 20something-43 with the conductive number being much more stable than the ferrous number due to masked iron or mineralization in the soil. Just my opinion and experience.

 

[Diggler]

From the 121 gold ring thread...

CO
2-6 - 40.5% of gold rings
7-11 - 15.7% of gold rings
12-15 - 10.7% of gold rings
16-20 - 11.6% of gold rings
21-30 - 13.2% of gold rings
31-34 - 8.3% of gold rings

 

[sugar]

kenova thanks for that still trying to understand what you have said as i am quite new but i have personally never found silver and i have tested around thirty pieces showing anything other than 12 on the ferrous id so i am surprised that you say it can get higher the rest of your comment i have to read again and try and follow as it is abit difficult for me to take in what i do know is that when i worked in conductive tones there didnt seem to be any way to hunt by ear so i will do some more research thankyou for your time and comment

 

[sugar]

thankyou for yours comments kenova i have tested about thirty pieces of silver and all of them teat out on the 12 line so i was surprised to read they could show higher are you talking about us coins perhaps they have another base metal in them i will do some more tests and look into what you say about multi tones waht tone do you dig then do all good targets come in at low or high thankyou for your time it is good to have these chats and find the best way to run the etrac

 

[sugar]

sorry about the above two posts being sort of duplicated as i didnt know we were on the 2nd page and thought my post hadnt been posted sorry guys drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Jason in Enid]

Sugar, the air test numbers dont equal the in-ground numbers. The Conductive number will be close to your air tests, but minerals or close iron will increase your FE numbers. That is why you should concentrate more on the tone, less on the numbers. If it is consistant sounding signal, dig it!