gain - low or high?

[texastreasures]

Do you set your gain low or high, and why?

I seem to find deep targets more easily with lower gain because they come in as a clean whisper.

 

[Bugalooob]

I like to keep my gain at around 8 because like you I want to hear softer tones for deeper stuff, I can cover more ground faster just listening to the loudness of the tone and ignore the surface clad and trash...With the gain high you always have to keep looking down at your depth gauge to see if its surface stuff or deeper stuff...Somebody mentioned on here they like to keep the gain high to find coins on edge because they won't make a sound if gain is on low, I don't know...need more opinions

 

[JohnTN]

Deep silver starts getting real faint with gain turned less than 25. I have located 8-10 mercs that will fall completely out audibly or start getting hard to get a solid repeatable signal below 25 gain.

 

[texastreasures]

JohnTN - how deep were those mercs?

 

[JohnTN]

Texastreasures check out this little video I made of the Etrac hitting some mercs. I promise you would of had a hard time hearing these targets with the gain much less than 25. The first one was every bit of 10" and the second was about 8". I was running with a little blanked out at the bottom of the screen you should be able to see in the video. 30 man sens., threshold tone 1, gain 25, conduct, multi., deep on, fast off, high trash, difficult ground, normal tones.

This should give you a good idea what the deepies sound like. I have used this program to find over 150 silvers and several hundred wheats, indians and nickels at impressive depths in the same areas where I was no longer able to find any more coins with the Explorers and Sovs. This Tennessee soil is tough to get over 6" in. It is pretty hot ground but the Etrac will get 8" - 11" on coin sized targets with no problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaCONrDiC3I

 

[ashdigger]

Cool video.... thanks!

 

[texastreasures]

awesome video and info - I'm using your settings on my hunt tomorrow!

BTW, on those deep dimes, what were your fe-co numbers or do you mostly go by tones? It was hard to tell in the video..

 

[JohnTN]

When I get a solid repeatable " (important) from more than one direction " signal. I look at the depth meter and dig everything deeper than say 6". This is in old parks with lots of trash. Your trash is not usually as deep as the old coins and relics for some reason.
--I have found that with this method my old coin count is always greater than my clad.---- The #'s on your id is rarely reliable on deep targets but the audio never lies. I have gotten to where the only time I look at the #'s is when I am hunting an area where the old coins are not too deep and mingled in with the trash, in this case your gonna dig alot of surface clad as well.
I have one spot I hunt that was a camp during the civil war and directly on top of this camp has been ton's of modern day activity and the trash targets is tremendous. I find that if I hunt this area entirely relying on the depth meter and dig every repeatable from more than one direction signal that shows deep on the meter regardless of tone or #'s, I am able to pick the CW relics from beneath the layers of trash.
Try to blank out the least amount on the screen that you can, the less blanked out = less targets masked by nearby iron.
The factory coin program is going to leave alot of targets mask. JMHO
I try to blank the first two lower lines + just enough in the lower right hand corner to just knock out nails.
This will give you the least target masking short of hunting in all metal.

I hope this helps
John

 

[dreamweaver43]

John, your dead on about gain setting with deep targets. Deep hits can go silent with a low gain setting.

I would recommend learning to hunt with the machine set at 30 gain. You will still be able to determine surface clad hits vrs deep hit with the audio in time. Any good sounding hit should be further investigated by watching how the TID is reacting, how the hit pinpoints, and the depth meter both in discriminate and pinpoint. That's the way to learn how the various targets react. And I know I will hear that takes too much time, etc....but if that is the case, you're probably hunting too fast and you won't have to worry about hitting the deep fringe targets.

Deep hits, that are repeatable, and pinpoint correctly, with relatively stable, relatively high CO numbers shouldn't be left in the ground.

Brad

 

[digitrich]

I have had my ETrac since they came out and I have never hit a target smaller than a soda can, deeper than six inches. The targets that were six inches numbered two, never mind having that clean of a signal as you do in your video on those deepies. My soil is neutral and yours is about as hot as it can get. The other day I was in a farm field hunting with my SE and this one section I would get 2 or 3 small iron hits in each swing with my SE. I picked up the ETrac and in AM, I wasn't getting those iron hits any more, in the same spot. It reminded me of using a large coil and then switching to a small coil and all of a sudden, the number of signals per swing drops off drastically because you're no longer getting the same depth as you were with the larger coil.
Thanks for posting your video as it just confirms my suspicions on my ETrac as it's not all ETrac's have a problem, but my ETrac has problem. I am going to try this again with ML and see if they can test it for me, and are now set up to do so. I sent the first one back and they replaced it with this one, which still is not getting depth, etc. I wish they had a set up, some kind of diagnostic testing where they could check your machine, not just that it worked, but actually worked well, the way it should. When I start to figure the amount of time and effort I put into metal detecting, it really worries me that I am wasting it using equipment that may be defective or not working properly.
Thanks again for the great video.

 

[JohnTN]

Wow Digitrich it does sound like your Etrac is not cutting the mustard. I too have run Explorers a lot and the Etrac should be very similar in depth except SO much smoother and stable to run. I hope you get your dilemma sorted out.

John

 

[DirtDean]

Thnx for the gain tip on the deepies, will have to experiment with this a little. Digitrich, how does your etrac do on air-tests. max sens i can get a silver quarter at 15" solid hit. is this about what everyone else is seeing? I also found that auto s)ens loses depth compared to manual. (air tests)