OK, I need some clarification on one thing

[NH Bob]

We may have gone all through this in first grade, but I need to touch on it one more time.
Some of you say the ferrous # drops as soil and depth take their toll. You even said the the same thing happens to the SE. Now in all the confusion, I somehow let this glide by and asked questions like. How low should I run my ferrous when discriminating without loosing coins? Some one said 20 I figured 18 because of coins mode. But lets back up. Back to where someone said the ferrous # drops the deeper the target. Let me ask you when the last time was you saw the cursor on a quarter creep over to the left of the screen on your SE? Why should it creep down on the ET? I mean to any significance.

 

[mattockman]

Not sure if I should even spout out...but you know me Bob....I can't keep my keyboard quiet......

My XS does not have FE #'s...just Conductive digital #'s....

But the smartscreen is 2D and it gives you the relitive idea of Numbers where they land....

The Nickel is the biggest coin in which I have seen the FE location change due to depth.....

it can be far left to line of screen but the height was same as a usual nickel....that being said the conductivity # would be more accurate than the FE #......which would be 0-1 or whatever....I am not even sure what a nickel would be with a SE or II...that has Fe#'s....all I know is the Conductive # is more accurate than the Fe#....corroded and deep pennies will do the same but not to the same extreem.....pennies just seem to look good and then not look good.....jumping cursor thing.....but the good sound of penny to low growl of iron mix thing.....dimes and quarters and silver will be more or less good all around...but the jumping cursor either up and down or left to right can accure....why does it jump? I am not sure.....Maybe on edge?....maybe too deep?....or both?....not sure....but when you get to know the XS I know what it is saying....and it will not say the samething for every diff. coin.....like 12,12,12,12,12.....I believe we witnessed things mimicing good coins with the XS.....and it turned out to be wierd toy gun or button or lead....but that will happen with any detector....but the big diff with the XS is it has the spread on any coin I pass over....does the E-trac?.....I bet I can predict what each coin can be before you can.....sound familar when you had the II or SE?....Try it now and it will just make you madder...

 

[NH Bob]

n/t

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Bob,

Often get hits that hit way top but often way to the left. Usually get a nice high pitched sound with this most sweeps. If you look at the old screens that Mike Moutray did showed how signals would bounce from left to right. I'm sure the E-trac will do the same.

Chris

 

[Crash620]

I occasionally saw this with deep wheaties with my EXII. This is what you mean correct???
Explorer screens
Saw Chris' post after posting this..... This is what he was talking about....

 

[NH Bob]

Bouncing I understand but Locking and reading below 18 is hard to except. I was out again tonight and am working with the ferrous18 and conductive sounds. Variability 28, Getting used to the nulling and working the iron slower. Sounds a lot more like the SE. Dang, I've got to settle on one of these pretty soon.

 

[NH Bob]

OK im with you on the jumping. Let me try again, There should be no reason why I shold run ferrous lower than 18. Correct? No coin is going to hit solid at 19-46 for example. But yet some say they hit lower. Why? I'm talking solid hit not a chirp.

 

[Crash620]

I have had nice sounding target, and looked down and it would be reading 20-42 for example and it would stay for a few sweep, then it might pop to 15, then drop to 18 as I work around the target... It's bouncing and not necessarily locked at 20, but what happens if the particular approach on your target has some iron pulling you down just a bit, you just might not hear it. I guess a lot has to do with how you hunt also... I tend to swing a bit faster and move forward faster, so overunning a target is a bit more of a concern for me, where if your going slow, this may be less of an issue

 

[Crash620]

But is there a reason you have adopted 18 as your floor for ferrous.... I know its the bottom for the coin pattern, but have you found a lot of falsing if you went with say 22 or 24???

 

[NH Bob]

Debating is healthy. So even with Minelabs coin mode being set at Fe 18, with what you've experienced. You would say to run it at 20. So 20 it is. Certainly can't hurt.
Now, while on the subject of Fe. With the scenario that the iron pulls it down. Th higher Fe #s should not even come into play other than maybe 1 or 2 digits.

 

[NH Bob]

I guess my thinking is the more screen open the more time spent cheking it when the target sounds good. With much more screen open one might as well run in all metal and ferrous sounds. Looking to trim off some fat if you know what I mean.

 

[Crash620]

I have been using a modified version of the Minelab Extensive nail reject program. I have been gradually adding more ferrous reject to it. Right now in the 30-Mid 40's my ferrous reject level is about 29. I will probably build up the pattern a bit more after some more hunting this week, as i am still getting a bit too much falsing for my liking. If I were hunting just a straight line ferrous mask, I personally would definitely go higher than the 18 mark...

 

[Crash620]

I guess I am just working up. I have a feeling when I am done, I will probably be at about 24 with my modified mask when I am done. I think at that point I will probably be at the ideal point for my conditions here....

 

[NH Bob]

And you're running Conductive sounds . Correct? What is your Variability set at? I set mine to the same tone on quarters that my SE had.

 

[Crash620]

n/t

 

[Jim upstate NY]

What I am seeing on the etrac is more of an iron issue then depth, at least I think.. Havent gotten anything real deep yet but the couple of coins that I did get and both were about 6 inches where they numbers stayed low were in iron.. At 20 and a 23 ferrous.. they would bounce up, but werent bouncing down.. thats why I dug them.. I am finding the falses from iron that bounce up into the coin range are the off edge falses from iron, and switching to quick mask wide open you will see the target is off center and drops back down where it should be when you center it.. and I gotta tell you a nail sure sounds good when accepted No more will you have the highest tones coming from coins like silver.. nails sound more like coins did on teh explorer.. the expanded conductivity took care of that and I guess that can end up being a good thing.. that iron is giving you the highest tone so maybe can be ignored easier.. however it s the off edge falsing that will be confusing in patterns, they seem to come in at 42-46 cond area.. they dont read solid, but make you investigate closely and do sound similar to one of those deep coins at the edge of detection.. even the depth meter has them buried.. anyway to answer I think your safe opening that coin area of maybe 40-46 down to 20 as long as you keep it slow in high iron.. I realize this machine is supposed to be faster but if you go fast you seem to get alot of those quick high tone falses and have to stop anyway to check them out.. the easier targets will hit more soild. a faster sweeps speed. so I guess moving along faster you can pick off those easy enough.. that was true with the explorer as well though..

As for comparing to an explorer, yes I have had coins in iron(maybe not a quarter that I can remember though) mostly indian head and that sized coins read far left.. probably as far as they are going with the etrac, not often but I have had a few that read top of the screen or in area they should be but left of center, and were even giving solid low tones in ferrous.. audio quality was still there though.. and they should be dug no matter where they read if they sound round.. at least on the explorer..
And one thing to remember is they altered the ferrousity on some targets, on the etrac so a head to head comparison to what each one will do, is not really true.. if you know what I mean... coins that were in a total other ferrous range on the explorer like quarters and dimes may not get affected as much as one being told to report something different than it is, or as least was..

quarters at ferrous of 0 or 1 , may not move into ferrous range as far as they would when they report a higher ferrous value than they did..

Who knows maybe they were reporting false values on the explorer and they just let stuff fall where it will on the etrac.. Ferrous value is probably just lingo anyway.,. there is no iron in a copper or silver coin, at least I donnt think there is
and there is iron in crown caps, but yet they read way over to the 0-1 ferrous range.. I never did understand them.. if anything you would have thought they would fall bottom left and not right


They rounded out the sounds so well on the etrac, the trash sounds a bit better than it did on the explorer, at least maybe till I get can get an ear tuned to it.. tough with the switch to conductive mode.. If I end up keeping the Etrac its going to make the switching a relearning experience each time I take the other one out.. as I know I prefer ferrous on the explorer..

And even with the change to the 12 readings which I think would be easy enough to live with, I just don't understand why they took away the multi sounds in ferrous,, at least the iron would mostly low tone, and I guess it would be real easy to tune into the sound of 12 ferrous where most good stuff falls. while being able to run in an open screen with just most iron knocked out.. oh except those pesky crown caps they let run wild on the screen

I f people dont like multi tone ferrous, then the other options would still be there.. please give me back my ferrous audio

 

[NH Bob]

I miss it too Jim, What bothers me the most is if they come out with a revised addition next year I'll never get over buying this one.
Like I said earlier. I've been working with both the Ferrous 20 with conductive sounds and all metal with ferrous in 2 tones.
I feel the later would work best in field hunting and Conductive sounds in yards, parks and old home sites if run according to the amount of trash.