Produced a few more keepers. I had taken texastreasure to that spot and that day we didnt find much other than a penny a piece nothing old. Iv pulled about 20 wheat's from here and 7 silvers and a had full of old relics but i had wrote it off as empty. but by running in long tones with iron disced out and switching to ferrous tones i pulled 2 wheats and a buffalo out tonight. the picture sucks but its just for proof that long will unmask targets.
Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
Running long tones in the hunted out iron patch iv hit hard
- Thread starter rbholt80
- Start date
RickIowa2009
New member
Interesting what you can find!
Rob, may I ask, are you digging these fairly deep? I'm still struggling with the same small plot of ground strewn with square nails (where the targets are deep) and I seem to be at a standstill. Would you mind sharing what ferrous discrimination limit you are using, and are you using auto sensitivity? (when using auto, my sensitivity readings are in the low teens).
im using a tight pat. that i kinda modded just a little. I got it from here http://www.thebeepgoeson.com/download.asp?file=/downloads/TBGO_Houston_Coins.ptrn . the wheat's and IH penny area needed to be opened some. I use an open mask to switch to often to check whats going on.
I try to hunt with a manual sense of 23 or more cause believe it or not the higher the sense the better it will hit targets next to other junk.
There was a trashy park test tread a wile back that i helped a guy by doing a test. The test was to bury a dime 3 inches down and then place a square tab about 3 inches on the surface from the dime. After doing it i wasn't able to hit the dime anymore. so i ran up the sense and it started hitting the dime but was a nasty hit. So then i tried long tones and the dime came in loud with a sense of 23. Then i placed the tab closer and was still able to hit it but i had to run the sense up to about 26. It didnt matter if i ran an open mask or the pat i gave you a link to. The dime still rang in loud with those setting.
You can run what ever pattern you want but long tones can get overwhelming with an open screen.
I do switch back and forth between ferrous tone and conductive depending on how hard iv hit the site. Usually i hunt a spot in conductive till i stop finding targets then i switch to ferrous and i run the same pat and setting over the site again.
Go very slow in the extream trash with these setting. Once you hear a tone find it and just barely move the coil over the spot kind of a very slow wiggle on top of the sound. what will happen is the tone will start to become better and more repeatable. and the ID will start trying to stay in one place or in a range of #'s. If it sounds good and you think its worth digging then dig.
Pin pointing is very hard when you have a good sound next to junk or iron. The stronger target will win. So it takes some time to actually find the target cause you may dig 2 or 3 pieces of trash that are pulling the field away from the weak good target.
You will dig more ghost holes this way and some nails that will fool you but if you want to clean a spot out then its worth it.
One trick is to watch the cross hairs when doing the wiggle over the target. if it stays down at the bottom of the open area in you pattern then open up a quick mask screen thats totally open and see if the cross hairs fall all the way down to iron and stay down there. If it does that then your probably getting a false from iron and its not worth digging. If it bounces up and down and tries to stay in the good area then its worth digging.
set your sense to a high # and then noise cancel it should run stable. Just start out high then back it down by 1 # and noise cancel each time till you find a stable setting. but remember my test showed anything lower than about 22 will loose targets.
You will find things that normal tones or pitch hold will not find.
Oh and the coins i have found have come form around 9 - 12 inch range. sometimes the depth gauge will be all the way down showing 12 so who knows how deep iv actually found them at
gain = 25
thres = whatever
tones = long
sense = 23 or more
multi tones
deep = off
fast = on
ground = dif
trash = high
I try to hunt with a manual sense of 23 or more cause believe it or not the higher the sense the better it will hit targets next to other junk.
There was a trashy park test tread a wile back that i helped a guy by doing a test. The test was to bury a dime 3 inches down and then place a square tab about 3 inches on the surface from the dime. After doing it i wasn't able to hit the dime anymore. so i ran up the sense and it started hitting the dime but was a nasty hit. So then i tried long tones and the dime came in loud with a sense of 23. Then i placed the tab closer and was still able to hit it but i had to run the sense up to about 26. It didnt matter if i ran an open mask or the pat i gave you a link to. The dime still rang in loud with those setting.
You can run what ever pattern you want but long tones can get overwhelming with an open screen.
I do switch back and forth between ferrous tone and conductive depending on how hard iv hit the site. Usually i hunt a spot in conductive till i stop finding targets then i switch to ferrous and i run the same pat and setting over the site again.
Go very slow in the extream trash with these setting. Once you hear a tone find it and just barely move the coil over the spot kind of a very slow wiggle on top of the sound. what will happen is the tone will start to become better and more repeatable. and the ID will start trying to stay in one place or in a range of #'s. If it sounds good and you think its worth digging then dig.
Pin pointing is very hard when you have a good sound next to junk or iron. The stronger target will win. So it takes some time to actually find the target cause you may dig 2 or 3 pieces of trash that are pulling the field away from the weak good target.
You will dig more ghost holes this way and some nails that will fool you but if you want to clean a spot out then its worth it.
One trick is to watch the cross hairs when doing the wiggle over the target. if it stays down at the bottom of the open area in you pattern then open up a quick mask screen thats totally open and see if the cross hairs fall all the way down to iron and stay down there. If it does that then your probably getting a false from iron and its not worth digging. If it bounces up and down and tries to stay in the good area then its worth digging.
set your sense to a high # and then noise cancel it should run stable. Just start out high then back it down by 1 # and noise cancel each time till you find a stable setting. but remember my test showed anything lower than about 22 will loose targets.
You will find things that normal tones or pitch hold will not find.
Oh and the coins i have found have come form around 9 - 12 inch range. sometimes the depth gauge will be all the way down showing 12 so who knows how deep iv actually found them at
gain = 25
thres = whatever
tones = long
sense = 23 or more
multi tones
deep = off
fast = on
ground = dif
trash = high
RB, thanks for the help. I'll try it out tomorrow providing it doesn't rain. In particular I'll try that sensitivity setting again, but stick with it all day (I tried that very setting this morning, but the sounds were everywhere.) Anyway, I'm sticking with this miserable spot because I know, considering the square footage I've test pitted, that statistically there is stuff down there. There is soooo much iron though.
. I spent another day in the same small iron patch, and nothing but fragments of square nails, many "ghost holes" and a small bird shot (may have reacted with the accompanying square nail to give what seemed like a promising signal). Speaking of "ghost holes", I dug one over two feet down (finally brought out the shovel!) using the settings you discussed and a discrimination level of 17 . Finally after hitting several inches of virgin gravel it occurred to me I might be detecting within a metal wagon rim (which sometimes will give such a signal on the white's). I elongated the hole, and the signal disappeared altogether, and after sifting the soil, all that was there was a fragment of a square nail. I am doing something wrong! Over this whole patch I am continuously getting broken signals with fairly low ferrous readings and conduct reading in the 30's and 40's (always "one way" signals however). Over the worst areas I'm losing threshold altogether regardless of slowest movement. For this murderously rusted square nail location, what would be the best main mode to use before making the changes in settings that you (rb) suggestged (beach, trash, etc.?) , or am I right to use a blank screen, but with a different (higher? lower?) ferrous level? If I can find one more non-ferrous object in this location, just one, (I know that they are here) then I know I have got a handle on this machine. Like I said though , I'm clearly doing somethiong wrong now.
Well you may actually have found a spot were there is nothing there in reach of the detector. If the iron is that thick you may think about running a much smaller coil. Its just a fact that large coils will not find it all. I dont have a smaller coil yet but im planning on getting one soon.
if you have tried all my settings and ran in ferrous and conductive and your not finding things then there is only a few options left. the smaller coil is one. you could dig all the iron out. or try some other suggestion that are here on the forum.
I personally think i would find another place to hunt till i had a small coil to run over it. I think you may have the e-trac down good if you hunt in long tones in such a iron infested site. All other places will be easy now after cutting your teeth in that site with the e-trac
I run in the setting i showed you its my mode lol. i do run my ferrous disc up to about 28.
Did you check out that pattern file i gave you the link to? thats almost the exactly the pattern im running.
Show me what your settings are and il see if i can tweak them some for the iron.
if you have tried all my settings and ran in ferrous and conductive and your not finding things then there is only a few options left. the smaller coil is one. you could dig all the iron out. or try some other suggestion that are here on the forum.
I personally think i would find another place to hunt till i had a small coil to run over it. I think you may have the e-trac down good if you hunt in long tones in such a iron infested site. All other places will be easy now after cutting your teeth in that site with the e-trac
I run in the setting i showed you its my mode lol. i do run my ferrous disc up to about 28.
Did you check out that pattern file i gave you the link to? thats almost the exactly the pattern im running.
Show me what your settings are and il see if i can tweak them some for the iron.
im in dayton texas. heres the link to the site just go to downloads and find the ones for the e-trac and find the houston pattern. http://www.thebeepgoeson.com/
upload it to you e-trac then use my settings if you want.
I cant get the page to load tonight maybe you will have better luck.
upload it to you e-trac then use my settings if you want.
I cant get the page to load tonight maybe you will have better luck.
Hey folks these setting are what work for me in my hunting places but they may not be what you need. Im a die hard when it comes to learning a new detector and will hunt till i cant walk and im dripping with sweat. I dont mind blisters and being covered in dirt with bites from insects. My setting are just the same as i am. Im noting going to run my machine at anything less than its best settings for my style of hunting.
Will my setting find stuff heck yes are they for a new e-trac owner probably not. It just takes some time to learn this e-trac but once you do it will hunt hard for stuff and find it deep and in with trash.
I hated my e-trac the first 2 months but now you will have to ply it from my cold dead fingers to get it away from me.
Good luck and happy hunting.
Will my setting find stuff heck yes are they for a new e-trac owner probably not. It just takes some time to learn this e-trac but once you do it will hunt hard for stuff and find it deep and in with trash.
I hated my e-trac the first 2 months but now you will have to ply it from my cold dead fingers to get it away from me.
Good luck and happy hunting.
rb, thanks for the help again. I did order a six inch coil on back order which may help somewhat. I think I'm having difficulty understanding the concept of some of the discrimination modes. For instance, the major "trash" mode of the first four choices I don't completely understand. I was under the impression that this very discriminating mode would work against me regarding iron as too much is cancelled out, and I would be better off just using the lowest ferrous base line that I could manage along with some tonal adjustments that could distinguish the ferrous better. Is this correct? For instance, if I use a very low ferrous baseline of say 17, is there any advantage in that the detector will not be working against itself as much? (I'll try your higher one today and see if it helps at all). I'm not going to give up on this spot (probably ever), and as a last resort will probably use the relic mode to dig what iron I can. I have been taking a few breaks to keep my sanity. Went deep in the woods the other day in the middle of nowhere and pulled out a very old brass padlock from a foot beneath a tree root. I also hit my sister's place that was "worked out" and pulled up a like new 1897 Barber and a corroded 1864 indian head, so I know the detector can sing when I give it a chance to.
the only disadvantage i have found with this or any detector is at the fring of detection a good target can read way down on the conductive side. Those supper deep coins will hit close to what iron or foil can hit so if you run to much disc then you will be discing out those extream deep targets. Thats with any detector. As far as the e-trac what im finding is that a disced out object wont mask a good target running with high sense and long tones.
here is some pics of my last wheat and what all was in the hole with it. I really didnt think there was anything good down in that hole but just at one little angel with a very small wiggle over the target i could hear a high tone blip so i went to work digging.
here is some pics of my last wheat and what all was in the hole with it. I really didnt think there was anything good down in that hole but just at one little angel with a very small wiggle over the target i could hear a high tone blip so i went to work digging.
Gave long tones a run last night at an old abandoned house (1930-40s), medium/high iron levels. Followed your advice, tight pattern and go nice and slow. Well it worked like a charm, I've been over this sight about 4-5 times before with the e-trac and pro coil, this time I put the coiltek Joey coil on (10x5DD ellip). Hit a trashy spot at the back of the yard and pulled up what I call "good trash", stuff that would appear good or coin like to a detector, so I was happy so far as I new the settings were good. Got a strong two-way signal that turned out to be a ghost hole, suprised me because the signal was so good.
I then moved up near the back door and got two clad coins (1 cent) and then pulled up an aUNC 1962 Six Pence and a 1947 Half Penny. Not valuable but nice coins all the same, always good to get a silver, just impressed to pull coins out of a spot I would of sworn there was nothing left.
Long tones and a smaller coil in high trash is a killer combo!
Cheers Greg
I then moved up near the back door and got two clad coins (1 cent) and then pulled up an aUNC 1962 Six Pence and a 1947 Half Penny. Not valuable but nice coins all the same, always good to get a silver, just impressed to pull coins out of a spot I would of sworn there was nothing left.
Long tones and a smaller coil in high trash is a killer combo!
Cheers Greg
good job. I new once you got the long tones down and figured out what it was telling you that you would find stuff. I get those ghost holes also and cant believe there is nothing in the hole. I dug one 3 foot around and at least 2 feet deep just to see and still down in the bottom i was getting the same signal at the same depth reading even after all that dirt was removed. may be picking up some china mans farm equipment 
RB, I hope you don't mind a few more questions. (hiopoefully pretty soon I'll be able to supply a few answers.) I haven't been able to download your program, but I set one one for my little iron patch where I'm certain some things are still hidden deep down. Hopefully you can kick the tires on these settings for me, as today I have only been sucessful in finding in the iron strewn area one small brass eyelet about four or five inches down, and a very tiny copper shoe tack at about the same depth. Sadly, they were both my stellar signals! Anyway, this is how I've got it set for what I hope will unmask the deep stuff mixed with the iron:
threshold straight line 27 with the nail pattern combined
sensitivity manual 24
gain 24
response long
sounds ferrous (no of tones 2) .....when in conductive, the sound is all over the place, and ferrous 2 tone seems at least give to me a clue when over the bigger iron..
variability 29 ...trying to knock out that high square nail iron screamer on 30
limits 30
pitch 15
deep on
fast on
trash high
ground difficult
You'll probably see a mistake in this setup immediately. What I am getting (hearing) is frequently the higher pitch resembling non-ferrous, immediately followed by a slight "thud" which sounds like what you'd hear with iron. (there is iron virtually everywhere). I even heard the "thud" on the shoe eyelet and tack though these were ever so slightly cleaner, and both those signals were in one direction (as virtually all potentially hopeful signals are in one direction over this area). If the pattern and settings seem reasonable (I've used conductive with even more apparent falsing also) then I'm probably at the end of the road for this patch until the six inch coil arrives. (I'm going to wait until I use the small coil before I start pulling out the iron, as my purpose on this patch is to actually see if refined settings can beat this iron) Please let me know what you think of the settings for this task. For instance, considering how contaminated this spot is, I'm not sure if "fast" and "deep" are helping, or are compromising the clarity of my signals even more than they already are compromised? Thanks, John
threshold straight line 27 with the nail pattern combined
sensitivity manual 24
gain 24
response long
sounds ferrous (no of tones 2) .....when in conductive, the sound is all over the place, and ferrous 2 tone seems at least give to me a clue when over the bigger iron..
variability 29 ...trying to knock out that high square nail iron screamer on 30
limits 30
pitch 15
deep on
fast on
trash high
ground difficult
You'll probably see a mistake in this setup immediately. What I am getting (hearing) is frequently the higher pitch resembling non-ferrous, immediately followed by a slight "thud" which sounds like what you'd hear with iron. (there is iron virtually everywhere). I even heard the "thud" on the shoe eyelet and tack though these were ever so slightly cleaner, and both those signals were in one direction (as virtually all potentially hopeful signals are in one direction over this area). If the pattern and settings seem reasonable (I've used conductive with even more apparent falsing also) then I'm probably at the end of the road for this patch until the six inch coil arrives. (I'm going to wait until I use the small coil before I start pulling out the iron, as my purpose on this patch is to actually see if refined settings can beat this iron) Please let me know what you think of the settings for this task. For instance, considering how contaminated this spot is, I'm not sure if "fast" and "deep" are helping, or are compromising the clarity of my signals even more than they already are compromised? Thanks, John
Thanks Rb. I still can't open it for some reason, but no matter. I will be spending the next day or two experimenting anyway. I buried a dime at about 8 inches within the bad area. Interestingly the detector will pick the signal up about 4 or 5 inces away (to one side rather than centered) from the dime, which I guess means there's a fight going on with some iron down there. Turning sensitivity up (it is on 25) can cause the signal to get weaker, and gain seems to have little effect on the strength or clarity of the signal. This is probably the worst scenerio; swamp bog iron naturally, and a carpet of rusted square nails unnaturally. Oh yeah, the detector's working because I found a second tiny little brass tack! If I figure a plan that works I'll report it.
Mick in Dubbo
New member
I just stubbled on to those today on my XS and was impressed in what you can hear, but if I ever get around to upgrading, It would be nice if the long tones worked the same way. They sound like they do.
Thanks.
Mick Evans.
Thanks.
Mick Evans.
Something I've noticed with the e-trac coil is that a target in very square nail ridden ground will on my machine not pick up the signal in the center strip, but will instead pick up the signal between the center and the left edge of the coil. I've confirmed this with burried targets, and it makes pinpointed almost an impossibility. (for me anyway)