"See Through" Capability..What is It, and How to Best Make Use of It

[Diggin It]

I`ve owned the E-Trac for a little over a year now. Made some nice finds lately (1883 seated dime, and a few IH). Im really starting to grasp the subtle nuances of the machine.
Though im still wondering about the "see through" capability. Can someone explain how this feature works and how to best utilize it?
Are there any specific settings I can use to make the "see through" work better?
Thanks!

 

[EZrider]

When your threshold "nulls". Slow down and listen for any high tones within and around.

 

[The Beep Goes On]

I don't know if this is technically accurate, but the way I heard it explained was that...

- most machines only look at the strongest signal - if it is discriminated you get a null even if a good target is under the coil (just with a smaller signal)

- the E does the same thing with the added twist that it will give precedence to the weaker signal if the stronger one is discriminated and the weaker one is not

So, going slow through nullls and/or working them from multiple directions can pay off since other machines can't do this.

Beep

 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

I don't know if this is technically accurate, but the way I heard it explained was that...

- most machines only look at the strongest signal - if it is discriminated you get a null even if a good target is under the coil (just with a smaller signal)

- the E does the same thing with the added twist that it will give precedence to the weaker signal if the stronger one is discriminated and the weaker one is not

So, going slow through nullls and/or working them from multiple directions can pay off since other machines can't do this.

Beep

Doesn't "Trash density" have to be set to high in order for it to work the way you described?

 

[cosmic]

Trash density does have to be on high..

 

[The Beep Goes On]

Good point 4thDr and cosmic...thanks for rectifying my omission. I've only had it work a few times, but I've seen amazing posts of coins surrounded by iron being found. It is a real phenomenon.

 

[UtahRich]

A couple days ago, I was out hunting an older residence with a friend. We've been hunting together for more than 20 years and he is in desperate need of a new detector but is confused by this terminology 'See Through'. I believe that "Beep" up above described it pretty good.

I wanted to demonstrate this 'see through' capability of the minelab detectors for my friend. I typically experience this ability in regards to rusty iron nails. I found a signal in a NULL area that I was sure was a coin. I couldn't pinpoint it because of the strength of the unwanted target(s), but I could approximate in search mode. I let him listen to the sound of the target and I started to recover whatever it was. I flipped over a 5" deep plug and pinpointed a target with my probe in the left side of the hole. A few inches later I removed a rusty nail. There was still a target in the front wall of the hole . I removed a handful of dirt. Signal is now gone. I checked the dirt on my drop cloth and there was another signal. Again a very old rusty nail. There was still a faint signal in the hole on the right side but deeper. I removed a couple inches of dirt and behold, a 1925 D Wheatie came to light from 8". It was the perfect example for my friend.

I have heard the E-trac will also do this with conductive targets and not just rusty iron when you have the detector set to high trash density. Andy S has this described in his Explorer/E-trac book. I typically keep my discrimination set pretty low so that I can find all targets in the high foil range and above. So I don't know that I will come across that while I am out hunting. Perhaps I should give it a try

 

[HaroldILL.]

I have had the E-trac since it first came out. It is my first minelab detector. I must be doing something wrong because every time I dig a high tone tone after a null it is a tip of a nail! Now if I can wiggle a four way high tone it is usally a coin. But if it's a oneway or twoway hi tone with a null cross sweep it is a nail.

 

[The Beep Goes On]

Nice point...that's what it's all about.

 

[Southwind]

I've found the key to identifying nails vs coins is in the pinpointing. Because a nail gives the false positive from the pointed end, and pinpoints on the head end(biggest end) a nail will not pinpoint at the same spot it gives off the false good high tone. If you get even a one direction high tone, and it pinpoints at the same spot in all directions, it will almost always be a coin. If it pinpoints off to one side, it will almost always be iron.

 

[Diggin It]

Unfortunately I have been leaving good targets in the ground. I was making the mistake of switching to all metal to check the signal after I hearing a good sound. Alot of instances the ferrous number was usually in the high 20`s and 30`s. I was leaving the good targets in the ground cause I was thinking it was iron falsing. Im guessing theres really no need to switch to AM any more. Well...I know what to do now, I suppose im gonna have to go back and re-scan all the areas I walked away from good targets previously.
Thanks for all the fantastic responses from everyone!

 

[DeanDig]

I have heard it suggested, to use all metal(no disc) and ferrous/2 tones. The general idea is that you can hear everything(no nulling) So you can hear the high tones(low ferrous #'s) amongst the low tones(high ferrous #'s) I use conduct/multi but if I ever get a good cellar hole or old home site, I may just try fe/2 tones some more as it s'pose to be a coin killer on these types of sites.

Too bad there isn't an option to dictate at what point you get a ferrous or non-ferrous sound. I would move it from 17 to about 22-23. because when a non-ferrous item is close to or touching a ferrous item, this will cause the numbers to bounce more toward ferrous even though conducti #'s stay slightly more consistent.

Also you want to run with as little falsing as possible(lower sens) Higher sens causes big rusty iron to jump through disc. If you just can't stand it and have to run it "hot", use discrimination as this will decrease falsing. Just switch to iron mask/all metal to confirm. If you get 30-35 fe consistently, it is probably iron. But when you do this lower the sens a little to straighten out the numbers. I would dig a few to be sure, and once you are confident make an informed decision.

One thing you can try at your own risk is to use just enough disc where iron is just barely rejected, so when you do have a good target amongst the iron, it will come through. However, the fe #'s will be a;ll over

Can't wait to get out and do some tectin, the ground got a good soakin today...