not to impressed with the etrac so far

[kabarcoinin]

Dont get too discouraged. Some individuals find nice coins right away,many dont . I got my etrac March 2010 but didnt like the stock search coil.Bought A EXCELERATOR six inch dd search coil , went to all metal conductive mode with coin mode backup operation screen. Use multitone audio ,+2 auto sensitivity and 27 manual. I listen to tones that the coins produce and scan very slowly listening for that only. Mentally its saps you but its well worth the effort when you find something good AND gives you a great deal of confidence to continue!! You will hear Everything in the ground using this method and will require patience and concentration but the rewards are great. Dont give up!!

 

[ryanchappell]

How are you guys even helping him without asking him where he lives?

My first question to someone having problems with an ETrac is Where do you live? E-Tracs are FAR from immune to the effects of extreme mineralization.

My second question is What is your Auto Sensitivity reading? If it is low that would probably be evidence that mineralization is bad.

I am glad you experts don't work in computer support or at Minelab's support line!!!! LOL

 

[MHirschmann]

Hi Ryan, wow, what a reply. I didn't see anyone on here claiming to be an "expert" in any way. Everyone has been helpful as far as I can see. As far as your comment goes, I have had my ET in some HIGHLY mineralized soil and it did great, in comparison to some other machines that I have run in those areas. I purposely brought my ET to these spots when I got it just to compare and I found that it did really well. Going slow and not running too hot (both suggestions that people have put on here) are a great place to start. We may not work in computer support (which I find completely irrelevant in this thread) and we may not work for Minelab, but we all run this machine and we all run it in different areas/conditions. I see you have been on here for 3 months vs. several years that some of the other comments have come from. I'm not pushing, I'm just saying . We are all on here to help each other and comments such as yours are not only not very much appreciated, but out of place in a supportive community such as this one. We all appreciate productive input so lets keep it that way. HH -Marc

 

[moonshine]

I did manage to get a wheat penny at a pretty good dept of about 9 inches but the signal was not so good

i doubt that is the problem based on this statement from his original post. theres almost certainly nothing wrong with it but lack of operator experience. im not saying that to be mean, because its what happened to me and i still dont have nearly enough experience to be that good with this machine yet. if you can hit a wheat penny at 9" what more do you want the machine to do? make coffee? the etrac will frustrate you at times. theres a LOT to it. for me personally this forum has been a HUGE help. its good to get out and use the machine, then read other peoples thoughts on things. i have looked at every page on this entire etrac forum and the classroom forum. rereading the manual, detecting, reading the forums....thats how you get a feel for it...but you just have to get out there to get experienced....

good luck out there everyone

 

[reltolbert]

I agree with moonshine on experience concerning using the E-Trac as much as possible so that you get to know
what's in the ground without theorizing about this or that. There is no one setting where you can find the valuables.
When in doubt, dig and dig again until you can relate your finds with your E-Trac settings. Experience experience experience
is the only way to make those great finds. There are no simple short-cut solutions to find valuable targets without experience.

 

[John]

Give the Etrac a chance, it is different from the SE and it will hit hard on silver same as the SE. I have had many detectors that I really liked but I have only been impressed by a few detectors, the MXT, Etrac and V3i.

 

[ryanchappell]

Hi Ryan, wow, what a reply. I didn't see anyone on here claiming to be an "expert" in any way. Everyone has been helpful as far as I can see. As far as your comment goes, I have had my ET in some HIGHLY mineralized soil and it did great, in comparison to some other machines that I have run in those areas. I purposely brought my ET to these spots when I got it just to compare and I found that it did really well. Going slow and not running too hot (both suggestions that people have put on here) are a great place to start. We may not work in computer support (which I find completely irrelevant in this thread) and we may not work for Minelab, but we all run this machine and we all run it in different areas/conditions. I see you have been on here for 3 months vs. several years that some of the other comments have come from. I'm not pushing, I'm just saying . We are all on here to help each other and comments such as yours are not only not very much appreciated, but out of place in a supportive community such as this one. We all appreciate productive input so lets keep it that way. HH -Marc

I have been detecting only a year and a half but it is in one of the most mineralized places in the country.

"Highly mineralized soil" Where was that Minnesota? What did the Auto Sens read? Not that that is an exact measure of how mineralized the soil is, but it is a start.

All the old places around here in my city in Alabama are mere miles from a huge vein of iron ore. I would say that most of this state is horrible, as well as the Appalachian states. The only time I find coins deeper than 4 inches is if I happen upon some rich black soil that has accumulated from decay, and not sedimentation.

Yes it is like computer support, you have to cover all the variables that matter!!! You just can't leave out a variable like location any more than you can ignore what brand detector he is using. Doing so assumes that he detects in soil like your own area has. Assuming could invalidate all of you efforts.



None of you ever mention where your observations are happening at. It is very important.

 

[Goes4ever]

I was going to add some comments but since I am not a minelab employee, and I am not a soil expert I won't even try.

 

[Nick A]

after a few hours detecting and trying different settings

Boy, you don't even give yourself a chance to learn the machine. Quit messing with settings. Use the preset coin program and auto sensitivity and hunt some old sites with good technique. Put about 40-80 hours on it. There is no "magic wand" detector.

 

[jbow]

It is not what you said, it was the way you said it. Valid points but no need to start out being snarky.

J

 

[ryanchappell]

It is not what you said, it was the way you said it. Valid points but no need to start out being snarky.
J

Guilty as charged, and that my friends is why I don't go door to door detecting.

Seems like they were more peeved about the ending. I am not very good at empathizing, sorry. I just analyze, and get upset that no listened to my previous questions about location. I do think they were being a little sensitive. Remember "Location is everything." JK that is a saying in real estate.

 

[sugar]

i do hope everyone stays HAPPY we are all on here trying to answer peoples queries to the best of our ability so lads give it a rest please and lets be happy that we can detect we are alive and can enjoy this great sport with the dreadful things that have been happening in the world i find it so sad that we get this constant niggling lighten up and be HAPPY you know the old phrase SMILE AND THE WORLD SMILES WITH YOU and may i add the season is underway so HAPPY HUNTING TO YOU ALL

 

[moonshine]

 

[bentrac]

That sounds like a great way to end this post

 

[techtony]

we all have different reasons to metal detect... we all have different opinions on all subjects... my opinion is no better than anyone else, it is just an opinion... life is too short to get mad over opinions... the detector you like or use is a tool... nothing more or less... enjoy it or get another one, your choices will not hurt anyone or help anyone... the only person that can make you happy is yourself.

 

[sugar]

i do hope everyone stays HAPPY we are all on here trying to answer peoples queries to the best of our ability so lads give it a rest please and lets be happy that we can detect we are alive and can enjoy this great sport with the dreadful things that have been happening in the world i find it so sad that we get this constant niggling lighten up and be HAPPY you know the old phrase SMILE AND THE WORLD SMILES WITH YOU and may i add the season is underway so HAPPY HUNTING TO YOU ALL

BARF!

I will tell you what I am unhappy about!

There are those of us that live around the mountains in the eastern US, that are getting less than half the depth that you are supposed to get with the E-Trac and almost everyone here pretends like this isn't true or even possible! They have said things like "Well in Eastern Nebraska it is really mineralized, and my friend in the coastal plains of South Carolina, both can see a dime at 9 inches with an E-Trac." Well E NE is not that mineralized, and the coastal plain is SAND.

Here dimes disappear deeper than 4-6 inches in the soil around here. My Auto Sens is usually 12-17, and sometimes under 12.





I AM TRUELLY SORRY YOU HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM but please dare i hardly say this have you ever tried anyone elses etrac in your area as it does sound like your etrac has a coil problem which defo is not unheard of please dont BLAST OFF as i can feel your annoyance and have heard of this problem before and a new coil just made it so much better i will not say happy hunting as it is not a phrase that is appropriate

Meanwhile the people that love the E-Trac the most, actually stick with metal detecting, (don't give it up after a month like their type A brethren around here do) and give advice here mostly live in the Midwest, where the machine can get 12 inches of depth. These people just ignore my location and the location of others, because they have never experienced mineralization in which you could not find a deep coin in. They actually think that mineralization does not matter.

They just ignore mineralization and give me and others advice like swinging slower, opening up the upper right corner, or whatever.

I know that the OP in this thread might not have had a problem with mineralization, but they did not even consider that it could be a problem because in there world there is no such thing.

I just want them to stop acting like I am just a crazy noob, just because I have only been posting in this particular forum for 3 months. I have been lurking for a year and detecting for a year an a half.

The secret to finding silver around here is finding virgin sites where coins are somehow shallow. 5 silver coins, a walker at 2 inches, 2 mercs at 3-5 inches 100 miles away, 2 war nickels at 2 inches, one I found because a nail was falsing a dime signal.

Also these experts are being hostile to me because all of this wrecks their perfect paradigm, where they are so skillful and great for finding silver in angel cake soil! Turn your manual sensitivity down until you can't find a dime deeper than 5 inches and see how you like it. No acknowledgement or apology to me. It is always me apologizing for not being as emotionally sensitive. I am not on here to be emotional, ironic given how mad this makes me, but I am on here to give and take information! Go ahead and post some more emo bull...

 

[ryanchappell]

I AM TRUELLY SORRY YOU HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM but please dare i hardly say this have you ever tried anyone elses etrac in your area as it does sound like your etrac has a coil problem which defo is not unheard of please don't blast off as i can feel your annoyance and have heard of this problem before and a new coil just made it so much better i will not say

Sorry. It is sore spot for me. Yes I hunted a friend that has an E-Trac. We swapped coils, then detectors. We both are experiencing the same things. He has actually found 42 silver coins, because he has some great sites where there are silver coins only 3-5 inches deep, or slightly better soil where he can get 6 inches in depth. Since hunting with him in a largely unhunted city in a far corner of the state and finding two Mercs, I have found another silver nickel and a WLH. It helped seeing him detect, and how he deals with the conditions. Mostly I stopped trying to raise the sensitivity, and breaking through a barrier of having only found one left over War Nickel, and an IH, in hundreds of hours of hunting.

I still think the E-Trac is better than the other machines, but we just don't find as much stuff in hunted areas, as people in good soil do. Maybe a T-2 might get better depth here, but then I would lose see through ability. You might be able to crank an optimal frequency on a V3I or something, as well.

The people that are successful here just find shallower coins, and most of the old areas were hunted out by this one guy in the 80s. The phrase "hunted out" means more around here because you can't just go deeper than they did with your E-Trac.

 

[sugar]

have you set up a coin garden at all maybe someone using the same settings in a different part of america can arrange to put in say just three coins at a particular depth have the same settings and see how much you lose on your depth do you say you choose a channel manually and if so which channel do you find most quietest when you start cranking her up??????? what will happen if you did an air test on a american coin and someone else had the same american coin and could say what their air test depth was it would be interesting all these little tests get to build up a picture of what you are up against

 

[ryanchappell]

have you set up a coin garden at all maybe someone using the same settings in a different part of america can arrange to put in say just three coins at a particular depth have the same settings and see how much you lose on your depth do you say you choose a channel manually and if so which channel do you find most quietest when you start cranking her up??????? what will happen if you did an air test on a american coin and someone else had the same american coin and could say what their air test depth was it would be interesting all these little tests get to build up a picture of what you are up against

Good ideas. I do have a test garden. I can't remember the exact results, but the confirm what I have said.

It is definitely not just me. It is the area. The dealer that I bought the detector from said he has had other customers report this. My friend that I mentioned went to Indiana for a few days, and dug multiple silver coins at 9 inches just detecting some land nearby. Also, there is a guy from Michigan or the Midwest that is coming down for golf, and plans to detect and report back to us. Read Daniel TN's posts here, he bought a GPX, because his Explorer and other VLF couldn't cut it.

 

[sugar]

SO SORRY that you cant enjoy this awesome machine you need to book a holiday to another part of the usa and take your machine with you when i talk to the guys in ireland next at minelab i will mention your thoughts not that they will have any answers as i am sure you have exhausted them all but it would be good to get their views cant even finish by saying happy hunting not really appropriate