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Pulling Out The Deep Stuff

D

DWild

Member
Been hunting a large so-called "Hunted Out Park". Everything is 9 inches plus. Have about 30 coins, 3 tokens, some jewelry & a Model T key. As normal with the Etrac the Fe numbers and to some degree the Co numbers are all over. The cursor bounce and depth have been a dead give-a-way. There are a lot of acres to go. I will attach a photo of some of the finds. The one photo tells the whole story by itself.

This park is and has been hit hard. So far I have not seen another Etrac being used in my area except for a friend of mine who is just starting out with his new one. "I wonder why he bought one"?????
 
Could you explain "cursor bounce" for me? Nice finds by the way, congratulations!
 
After a signal gets my attention I always switch to an open screen in quick mask and watch the cursor position while pinpointing. The cursor will bounce up halfway or better on the screen if it is a possible coin. If it stays in the lower right corner I pass it up. It may only bounce up occasionally but many times it has paid off. I sweep very slow while hunting but wiggle while pinpointing and watch the cursor.
 
Congrat's on the ever nice finds, you don't find Seateds very often.

I'm new to the Etrac and I also do the wiggle when pin pointing. I'll have to go in to quick mask and watch the cursor. Thanks for the tip.
 
Thanks for sharing the great finds and tips. Assume you're using the stock coil?
 
Using stock coil and Andy's coin program opened for gold. Also running auto +3. In my soil the sensitivity runs 21 to 24. Went by that park on the way home from work tonight and found a nice 1916 S Wheat at 9 inches. Came in at 30/43 to 23/43 but would flash 17/ 42 once in a while. That cursor bounce is just those good numbers coming through. I think it is more difficult for the machine to process and display the quick numbers than it is to show the cursor position for the coordinates. That cursor was up in the good area over 50% of the time on that wheat tonight. The Etrac depth gauge seems to be really accurate on coin size objects.
 
I think Quickmask is the most understood aspect of the Etrac for me. I get a marginal signal and you get all these high numbers typically. Do you normally look at your numbers when pinpointing or in regular sweep mode? Someone want to elaborate on how best to utilize Quickmask? I too typically look to see if the cursor hides in the lower right corner. There I don't ever dig the signal.
What tells you to dig? The occasional good signal and depth?
 
I do look at the numbers in quick mask to see if a lower than 30 flashes through but I don't really decide until I see what the cursor does while pinpointing. I cross the target while pinpointing and stop every so often off the target if the cursor bounces up and see where it has migrated to.

I found another Indian & a ring tonight after work. On the ring the cursor would bounce up real quick but would always settle to the bottom right. I decided to dig it because I figured something was causing the bounce. There was a square nail at about 3" and the ring was at 8". The Indian would just bounce up and down all the time. It was by itself but deep. The first key to all of this is the depth being at least 7+ inches. 6" and shallower the Etrac tends to ID pretty well. I have noticed that a lot of the odd signals on the silvers have been coins on edge and I mean perfectly up and down.

I am going to try to figure out a way to video the screen on one my hunts so you all can see what's happening. Picts of the Indian & the ring are attached.
 
Very nice finds. Great pictures and also some REAL good advice on E-Trac characteristics when it comes to deep coins.

NebTrac
 
This afternoon was interesting. Moved to a new spot in the park. Found an Indian head, wheat and a V nickel. Targets were at about 5 inches in this area. That Indian head was reading 35/37 one way and 12-17/37 other directions. Cursor would bounce up to the 12/35 area and stayed there 90% of the time so I new it was an Indian. Here is where it got interesting. My friend was hunting with me and wanted to here one of those signals I have been telling him about. He came over and ran his Tosoro Tejon over the spot and got ZERO SOUND. He could only pick it up as a trashy signal in all metal. If he added any of amount of discrimination it would disappear. After I dug the first layer of the plug he tried again and got a perfect signal. What an eye opener. This coin was only 5" deep BUT IT WAS ON EDGE. The next 2 coins were also on edge and only 5" down. He had to leave and was not there for another chance to test his machine.

So most likely the Etrac can pick up these on edge coins that others are missing. I have hunted some pounded areas and wondered how anybody (including myself with another brand of machine) missed some of the coins I was finding. I would bet most were on edge and I just was not noticing it. I was paying attention today. These signals were more normal by the numbers but the ferrous was way off one direction. The Cursor was in the right spot while pinpointing the majority of the time. Again I noticed that the nickel gave the most accurate numbers 12/13 & 13/13.

So the Etrac is "Pulling out the deep stuff" & " Pulling out the ON EDGE stuff". Picts attached.
 
Visual learner here. I really appreciate this thread. Any way to get a video that shows the screen, etc. while you are doing this technique? I have to admit I've had my e-Trac longer than a year and hardly ever pay attention to the cursor. I think it's all those years using other detectors where the numbers were the things to look at. The cursor just confuses me. I'd sure like to see some videos of your technique so I can begin to use every advantage the e-Trac gives.

Thanks!

Mike
 
Honestly I think the VDI numbers and the cursor movement come from the same feed so they should show the same info. I've watched the cursor and the VDI numbers and have better luck using the numbers.
 
I've tried out the cursor bounce trick after reading about it here, but some of your all's eyes must be better than mine. The Etrac screen is so washed out at any contrast setting (my number one complaint about the Etrac) that I can't reliably see the darn cursor, to follow it while wiggling the coil.

Seriously Minelab, come on. A $1500 detector that is designed to give a lot of visual information, and the display is like trying to read newsprint through a cheese wrapper. Granted, my eyesight is poor, but the Etrac screen is horrible. I don't think my eyes are gonna let me use the cursor for information.

Somebody needs to make an aftermarket magnifier and glare reducer that slips over the Etrac screen.
 
I agree that the numbers and the cursor are representing the same thing. I just think the etrac computer has a hard time displaying the FEW good numbers in with the NUMEROUS bad numbers. I think the cursor can react quicker and you see the movement. When it's iron it just sits on the bottom right.

Now tonight's hunt makes the cursor a non issue. I decided to move to the top of the park and give it a try. This large park is in a bluff setting and goes from very low to very high. My first signal tonight was a solid 11/46 at 1 inch. As I guessed it was a new quarter just under cover. Next came a solid 12/47 at 1+ inch. It was a 1919 Merc at 2 inches. Third was a solid 12/43 at 3 inches. It was a 1939 wheat at 3 inches. Now why was everyone missing these coins. There is a fair amount of buried cans and pull tabs in this top area. It is not the shotgun effect but they come under your coil every so often. I think everyone is thinking the signals are trash or new coins. Again the etrac excels with it's highly accurate target ID on these shallow targets. I looked at the numbers in the discrimination screen, pin pointed and dug. I never used the cursor at all. Not a need in this case.

All this was starting to make sense. The 9 to 10 inch stuff is at the bottom, the 5 to 6 inch stuff is half way up and the shallow stuff is at the top. Natural silt movement over 100+ years. I can imagine how confusing this park could be to hunt with all the different depths giving different signals using other machines. I gave up years ago with my old VLF machine. I figured it was hunted out. Adding in the coins on edge I will bet there are a lot of coins left for the etrac to find. It's actually starting to amaze me a bit.

I am guessing the best bet for big silver will be up on top. I think there is more of a chance of someone reading a large shallow silver wrong than a deep one. My friend with the Tejon is going try up on top since they are shallower. I will let you know how that works out. He is still a little depressed over that 5 inch Indian on edge that he could not hear the other day.

I might mention that I have seen and talked to a couple of AT Pro users. One said he had not found anything and the other said he had found a V nickel but nothing lately. I have not seen another hunter in the park the whole month of September. Some just hit the park because it's old but I don't think they are finding much.

I am working on a way to video the screen so you can see what I am getting at with the deep coins and the cursor. You know once I get set up I won't be able to find a deep coin to save my life. It will be at the bottom of the park. Picts from tonight attached.
 
DWild said:
This afternoon was interesting. Moved to a new spot in the park. Found an Indian head, wheat and a V nickel. Targets were at about 5 inches in this area. That Indian head was reading 35/37 one way and 12-17/37 other directions. Cursor would bounce up to the 12/35 area and stayed there 90% of the time so I new it was an Indian. Here is where it got interesting. My friend was hunting with me and wanted to here one of those signals I have been telling him about. He came over and ran his Tosoro Tejon over the spot and got ZERO SOUND. He could only pick it up as a trashy signal in all metal. If he added any of amount of discrimination it would disappear. After I dug the first layer of the plug he tried again and got a perfect signal. What an eye opener. This coin was only 5" deep BUT IT WAS ON EDGE. The next 2 coins were also on edge and only 5" down. He had to leave and was not there for another chance to test his machine.

So most likely the Etrac can pick up these on edge coins that others are missing. I have hunted some pounded areas and wondered how anybody (including myself with another brand of machine) missed some of the coins I was finding. I would bet most were on edge and I just was not noticing it. I was paying attention today. These signals were more normal by the numbers but the ferrous was way off one direction. The Cursor was in the right spot while pinpointing the majority of the time. Again I noticed that the nickel gave the most accurate numbers 12/13 & 13/13.

So the Etrac is "Pulling out the deep stuff" & " Pulling out the ON EDGE stuff". Picts attached.
Click to expand...
I agree........in heavily hunted locations most of the coins I dig are on edge and/or deep!

Iowa Dale
 
You got yourself a good park there with no known eTRACs or other hi-end machines prowling around.

Far as cursors, there's also the occasional phenomena of a double cursor. Seen this a few times. At least one that i can remember turned out to be a coin.
I think thats due to the fact that the target ID bounces between two stable points. Typically LCD displays have a slow reaction time to new data and persistence for old data. Add to this, the colder the outside temperature, the slower the reaction time of LCD displays.
In other words, the uProcessor is a lot faster than the LCD display. The end result to the observer is a double cursor which if in the keeper area, dig.
 
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