Ferrous and/or conductive

[DirtAngler]

Help me understand this. Been reading a lot how some users don't pay attention to the ferrous numbers so much, just the conductive numbers. I thought that one of the Etrac strengths was having both numbers and that its platform was based on the 12 ferrous line. If you're not using ferrous numbers are you using the smartscreen cursor position instead to determine targets? I get a lot of 28-45, 30-45 signals at approx. 8"-10" where it sounds like a good target and don't dig them because from the ferrous number and past digs they are iron. So when you get high ferrous and high conductive target Id numbers, don't you also get a good tone so then do you determine it by the cursor?

 

[moonshine]

at least in my mind, im more thinking along the lines of FE numbers in the high teens or low to mid 20's. especially if its "bouncing" from say 15 to 24 or so.

 

[Southwind]

I think it depends on the iron content of the ground you're hunting on how useful/accurate the FE is. In my soil the FE is very useful down to about 6" but pretty useless after that. I use it for shallow(less than 6") identification and it is very accurate. When I get a solid 12-12 12-13 it is almost always a nickle.

Most other detectors only have one set of VDI numbers so there is not a thing wrong with using the CO only on deep coins. The E-Trac VDI(CO) is the most accurate at depth of any detector I've even owned. It is why the E-Trac has the reputation it does because it does such a great job of telling the user, even new users, when a deep coin is present. That takes a reliable accurate VDI. That is the E-Tracs strength.

If you're not recovering targets at 8-10" that sound good and read a CO of 45, no matter what the FE says, you're missing a bunch of goodies.

 

[BH_Landstar_]

If you get CO numbers for coins and the FE number is off, dig it, it's worth the look as it could be a coin or a lump of silver / gold, never pass them up if the CO number locks on the target, even at 8" or more.

 

[Prep1957]

Sold both my Etracs after using them about a year and kept Safari.I did not believe the FE was that important and I believe Minelab really did not think so either that is why they did not need to have continuous read on Safari and still have same performance of Etrac.If you really want to find really deep coins you need to hunt in manual and really understand what the Minelabs are telling you about the ground conditions at that locations each is different.The auto plus 3 feature is a great feature on Etrac for most beginners but you could be even higher than that on sensitivity that is why some people may go to Etrac when they had Safari and some are disappointed it really did not give them more depth.Others they think it gave them more depth because they did not turn up sensitivity on Safari in first place the Auto 3 did it for them when purchased Etrac.I use FE to find clear ground to set Sensitivity and Noise Cancel that is about it even when I had my Etrac.CO is the way to go.I agree with Southwind if it sounds good you need to dig it.I put old sock over my screen with hole in it for depth my finds went up considerably listen to the sound.

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

DirtAngler I agree with both these gentleman and what they have written. Yes when I see a fe number that high I would say it's most likely to be iron. I watch the cursor in quick mask open screen when I double check on a deep ify target and when I pinpoint in the coins mode watch the cursor and if it's way deep into the right corner in either screen it's most likely iron. Andy in his book stated that under lots of testing from all over the fe no never went lower than 27 on coins so if your seeing high 20's low to high 30's then dig a few and see but most likely will be iron. The cursor tends to stay pretty consistent. If the cursor jumps a bit back and forth higher back towards the upper 2/3rds of the screen than I say it may be a coin and iron/ junk together so check it out and dig and see. 8-10 inches on this machine isn't really too deep compared to other machines the conductive numbers is most consistent on this machine and is one of it's strengths pretty accurate it is. Sounds first conductive numbers second and cursor positions in the 2 screens (coins mode and quick mask) third is the way I operate and decide. You can always try a fourth and that is try Two Tone Ferrous mode over the target to see also on deepies to decide to dig or no dig.