quote="NH Bob"]
I'm generally a coin hunter. Not a coin shooter. I hunt all old sites.
This mineralized soil and ferrous setting has me a little confused. Are you saying that high min-soil will drag the # down into the 20s ?[/quote]
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Hi Bob... Yes, I do suggest that Highly mineralised soil will 'add' numbers to the 'in-air' Fe value of a target.
That has been my perception of things so far.
These are early days for 'opinion polls' on the E-Trac, but regardless of the time factor, basic principals apply when-ever and for what-ever target and soil.
With this new Minelab we are anticipating contact with deeper target, are we not?
That being the case, then we must also anticipate our targets suffering what I will now term 'The bends' (Deep diving analogy')
That will manifest itself in the target's ID suffering some 'distortion' or corruption of its 'in-air' ID.
That will be mostly seen as an INCREASE in the Fe component of a targets identity as seen by the detector's analytical circuitry.
Also, in anticipation of operators pushing their sensitivity levels MUCH higher than the graphic suggested average level, then more noise will enter the system.
This will manifest itself in 'target ID bouncing'. So.....to we need to be generous with our discrim. window settings and keep them as open as possible, consistent with quietening down the more obvious iron signals.
Hope you don't think I'm trying to teach an experienced hunter like yourself, 'How to suck eggs'...but this post may also be read by folk new to the hobby.
The summation of all this being.........the numbers are 'snap-shots'...time sliced- info.....but the audio conveys a more homogeneous impression of the target's profile.
So even if the audio is 'bitty...mimicking the transient, variable nature of the visual IDs...take more notice of the repeatability or consistency of even poor tonal identification.....and dig as per your interpretation of matters, based on my attempts to describe my experiences of recovering 'keepers' AT DEPTH.
My coins came from 8 to 10 inches, on average, and a 0.303 cartridge case from 14 inches. It was a fabulously revealing day for my first 'soil' outing with the E-Trac.
I was hunting in 2 tones, Ferrous audio, QUICK MASK set at Fe disc level up from 35 to 28. and ported across to my SMART-SCREEN for easy monitoring of SENSITIVITIES graphs. My AUTO sense was preset to 19 ....which with the + & - 3 gave me sufficient latitude.
Watching the AUTO sense levels suggested settings kept me informed of ground conditions. This allowed me to toggle my sensitivity control over to manual when I saw any improvement in ground, to try increased depth in 'quieter' areas...or on iffy targets.
Look at Keith's comments which I've quoted below.....They reflects the point I'm trying to convey.....Good luck, and be patient and enquiring of those iffy targets...
Bring us home ALL your finds..... It's all detecting to me, and I love to share your day.....The good...the bad....and even the crap........MattR.UK.
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QUOTE:- KIETH....but ferrous was all over the place from 1-28, but was holding quite a bit above 20-22. Dug an 1897 IH at about 6". It was about 6-8" away from a flat piece of iron about 2" long and 3/8" wide at about the same depth. I probably would not have dug it, but the field was just plowed and it was real soft. Had I thought it was a coin I would have tried your settings on it. I am sure you have probably done plenty of testing yourself before settling on 18 ferrous. Just doesnt seem like a good number for my conditions.
Regards,
Keith