New to E-Trac but not Minelab

[Elevatorguy]

So I have an E-Trac that I bought brand new when they fist came out. I used it maybe 4 or 5 times, life got busy, and then it sat in the closet ever since. I was an Explorer user for a long time before getting the E-Trac. I found out pretty quickly that the E-Trac is not a newer Explorer although I tried to treat it that way. With the Explorer, I used Charles(UpstateNY) settings which were a totally open screen and ferrous sounds. I like the ferrous sounds as I am trained to listen for the high tones among the low noise. I am going to try to give the E-Trac a shot at me learning it this season as I have a little more time than I have had in the past. What advice can you give me as far as making the transition from the Explorer to this detector? The one thing that I didn't like at all was the fact that most coins landed on the FE12 line, so I felt like I was getting much less information from the machine than I was getting with the Explorer. Any and all replies are welcome and appreciated. If anyone has a program or settings that they think will be a good fit for me, please post them here or PM me. I hunt schools, playgrounds and ball fields exclusively. Thanks for the help.

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

I'll bite here to try to help ya out. I was the opposite of you had an EX2 and didn't like that diagonal cursor and kept using the numbers id screen. Read a field test of Andy Sabisch's on the Etrac and since I used a DFX at the time bought the Etrac.
I left it in AUTO +3 set it to Conductive Sounds not ferrous sounds, GROUND DIFFICULT, HIGH TRASH (signals on the good co located items instead of the possiable larger or trash bad item). Moved Volume Gain up to 28-29 makes deep targets sound like louder shallower targets so you don't need Deep turned on as this does a better job Deep On just enhances filtering of the ID no. so your adding a filter leave it DEEP OFF,
IF TRASHY SPOT RUN WITH Fast TURNED ON AS IT ELIMINATES A FILTER BUT JUST EVER SO SLIGHTLY WILL CLIP THE SOUND SLIGHTLY SHORTER AS MACHINE RECOVERS FASTER.. Volume Sound level and some others I also raised to 28-29 instead of the factory 15 settings.
One that helped me out with the sounds of the conductive coins targets I was after was the Threshold Sounds Setting. I think I'm at 15 on that as that number by raising it or lowering it shifts the entire sound range of the 50 tones and if you go too high it will slightly bunch them higher better to lower it as spreads them apart some more. I also run 14 or 13 on the actual Threshold Humming sound so I barely hear it in the background now just enough to hear it go out when machine nulls out while detecting but it doesn't necessarily mean you will miss a target as that is where Trash High helps out you can still get a target sound in the null.

I sat a few coins on the ground and memorized the sounds and the conductive numbers but as they go into the ground they may change a bit and looked at the 2nd of the ID numbers (FORGER THAT 12 LINE FIRST FERROUS NUMBER) I go by the approximate 2nd ID conductive number as it's conductive TARGETS YOUR AFTER. The first number is for ferrous and can be anything so it can be as low as 17-20 and get 44-45 FOR THE SECOND NUMBER and still be a dime due to rust or iron. I also RUN THE STOCK COINS discrimination screen to start with and you can go more open to others on here AFTER you LEARN the machine a bit believe me you won't miss much and you can go back later to re-hunt again and not run out of spots so fast by trying other modes like two tone ferrous and other discrimination screens.

If you get a high FERROUS number or not sure if it's iron instead of a good target go with one button push to the completely open screen and look for where the cursor is at. If it is going into the bottom right corner of the screen or the bottom of the screen and over say 20 -35 ferrous it's iron. If that cursor only goes about half way down into the right corner and bounces up like on the Explorers and if the ferrous number is say 17-20 and lower towards number 1 which is the top of the screen then dig it up !! It's more about the cursor than the ferrous number. When I go back to the coins discrimination screen and get a signal I look at the cursor and the second conductive number and then decide to dig. If the cursor is in the black parts and the conductive number is good to you then go to open screen and see where the cursor NOW moves to and what that FERROUS number is NOW and if it changed a lot to the bottom screen and higher 20-35 ferrous then I reject as junk. You can dig a few to see for yourself unless it may be a RELIC and if your after those dig them but I hunt mostly coins myself..

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Also forgot to say if you get a thunk thunk sound while sweeping back and forth and the depth gage is deep it's a coin letting you know it's there. It just happened to be an Indianhead penny at about 11-12 inches according to the depth gage on the Etrac in a park and the sound wasn't like the normal conductive tone instead it's a thunk thunk sound as you sweep back and forth over the deep target. I may be at the extreme depth of detection for the Etrac hence the thunking sound but I still got an ID number too if I remember right. This has happened to me quite a few times on deep coins not just that penny. Good luck to you hope this all helped just forget that ferrous number focus on the cursor and the Conductive number and THE SOUNDS in CONDUCTIVE mode you'll do great..

 

[Elevatorguy]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply Tom. There is a lot of good info in there. It will be completely different for me to hunt in conductive tones, but I will give it a try. I need to do what is best on this machine and get away from the open screen ferrous sounds Explorer mentality. Thanks again.

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Yes it's a bit different but it will click easy or you I hope. I and it hit it off right away as I was used to a horizontal screen reading from the whites DFX I had been using at the time. After I got the Etrac and used a couple times I sold all 4 of the other machines I had and found 30 or more silver each year but NEVER one all the years leading up to buying it with all my other machines and years detecting. Just lay coins on the ground and memorize the sounds and conductive numbers and it will be very very close to that in the dirt too. usually the conductive numbers are extremely close if not spot on. Once I memorized that nickel medium low sound and that higher sounds for copper pennies on up you can sweep bout 4-5 seconds each direction like painting and stop dead in your tracks when the right sound hits your ears. I usually know I have a nickel by sound before even looking at the numbers. The conductive numbers for them cause of buffalo nickles run from 11-14 conductive just so you know usually it's supposed to be 13 but sometimes it's 12 but between 11-14. When it's 15 and up it's a pulltab or pop top ring.

 

[bertman]

I usually know I have a nickel by sound before even looking at the numbers. The conductive numbers for them cause of buffalo nickles run from 11-14 conductive just so you know usually it's supposed to be 13 but sometimes it's 12 but between 11-14. When it's 15 and up it's a pulltab or pop top ring.

All of the information provided is rock solid... I have a War Nickel at 5" deep in my test bed and it reads 12-17...
As a result, I dig a heap of pulltabs in an attempt to locate the silver War Nickel and possibly a gold ring...

Robert...

 

[sprchng]

Do a google search for Sergei at metaldetectingworld and follow his progression for developing patterns and use of tones.
In multi conductive tones are based off of the second number , the first (Fe) is secondary information. I have dug nickels for instance at VDIs of 18-12 and 23-12 but the "nickel 12" came through clearly. Everyone's hearing is different and you will have to find the pitch that fits your ears best. High conductors are easy and you can achieve the "silver warble" by moving your threshold pitch up well into the 20's which also decompresses the low conductor range where the gold lies. After a while you can hear the mellow tones of gold/nickels versus the harsher tones of aluminum and pulltabs even though they will often generate similar VDIs.
America and England are separated by a large ocean and a common language ---same with the Expl and the etrac

 

[Elevatorguy]

Thanks again for all of the replies and information. Is there a list of the conductive numbers that American coins hit at somewhere on the web. By the way, I hunt only coins as well and exclusively at playgrounds, schools and parks.

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Ahh I for got about the silver war nickles they can run just about anywhere up into 20 range as they corrode with some greening on on then I have found due to alloy mix in them so yes the number can be out of my 11-14 range for conductive. Thanks for that Bertman I forgot about that. Try resweeping from a 90 degree direction change or I do a full 360 circle sweep myself to see if the numbers change for the better in one direction could be a good target on edge or corroded or co-located or if the number stays the same possiably bad target. Also sweeping left to right can read one thing and sound one thing and sweeping back from right to left it all changes. I found my first silver standing liberty quarter that way. Was next to iron left to right not so good sounding high tone like iron sounds chirpy and slightly broken but good signal right to left and sounded like good smooth high tone.