Signal/Pinpointing question?

[Whitetail]

So I'm at my buddies 1800's home today that I've hunted many many times now and I get signals from time to time that will give an intermittent high tone.
Let me say that up front near the house there is a lot of old nails and other iron that I find. I have taken a few indians out of this area and believe there are more hiding, but my last few efforts have lead to a nice pocket full of nails. LOL. I know I'm new and must be doing something wrong with my new Etrac.
Any suggestions? I'm using the coins program and Goes4evers settings.
Also, what does it mean when you get a high tone amongst nulls that intermittently repeats? It seems that when I go to pinpoint there...it moves off to one side or the other not where I expect the object to be prior to pinpointing? Do you guys dig the spot the coil tells you to dig or dig the spot the pinpointer tells you to dig? Should I even be bothering to dig a signal like this?? I don't ever seem to get a slammin "dig me" type signal...but I do get some very high tones that usually end up being an iron hit. Still trying to figure this thing out.
Thanks for your help!

 

[theroosterb]

I'm no expert as I too am new to the e-trac but I find that when I get the hi tones that don't pinpoint correctly its a nail.
I believe it chirps high off the end of the nail and pinpointing goes for the center of the nail.
When you get those can you make them repeat at 90 degrees ?
As far as should you dig them, Probably dig them till you are tired of it and you learn to recognise what is there.
Another thing I find is I get less of that if I go slower.
I'm sure people with more experience than me will give you more advice on this.

 

[Goes4ever]

Trying to use PP button with iron all around is worthless....you need to be doing the wiggle back method so you can hear the target you are pinpointing, it is the only way to be sure your pinpointing the CORRECT target. I have a video that explains in on youtube and its on here somewhere, as well asn my site

 

[moonshine]

you're not doing anything wrong. thats the way it is in a trashy site. there might be a coin hidden in the trash, but usually its just iron falsing. now there is a fine line between a hidden coin amongst the chatter and just trash falsing. youre on the right track in digging a lot of nails because you will learn eventually that sometimes there will be a coin in there as well. thats the only way to learn the machine. if there is a coin in there it will make you think that the etrac seems to think there might be something there. just a bit more repeatability and consistency amongst the trash. that little "extra" tone consistency amongst the trashy noise is when theres usually a coin there. hard to describe but just a bit more than "regular" falsing. also sometimes its possible to "force" a good sound out of trash. like trying to force a coin to be there when its not. its your option to dig or not in high trash areas. sometimes we get fooled, and sometimes we get a coin. its not really all that easy. it can be frustrating but i try to think that the etrac is trying its best to let me know what its seeing underground. i only own the stock coil, im sure a smaller coil would help in situations like this. eventually all the sounds will become like a second language to your ears and mind. your mind really becomes your discriminator. it takes a lot of concentration. its very easy to miss a good target in high trash because of all the sounds. go slow! also you could try to lower your sensitivity. it will reduce falsing but wont eliminate it.

like goes says to your pinpoint question, use his wiggle method, or what i do is mentally picture where the coin is and just dig right for it without pinpointing. another thing i will do is purposely go to all metal and remove the trash.

a lot of your approach is determined by the site and your past finds. if youve found good stuff and think theres more, then i would be digging alot more of the iffys because the payoff is probably there. why not dig, thats what youre there for.

 

[khouse]

When hunting trash I do not care if I get a coin signal both ways. You must cover these areas in all sorts of directions looking for that little high squeak. Then working that squeak into a good signal. I will go around that squeak with short 2 inch sweeps. ( I think the etrac somehow makes internal shifts to help zero in on good targets. Because as I work a signal the tones get cleaner. Maybe it's just me?) Sometimes I can just isolate a semi consistent coin signal with nice numbers. Lots of these signals will not sound off both ways. One way to get a cleaner hit is to lower your sensitivity on these targets until you can just get the suspected target. Then this is another way to zero in on this target without hitting deeper iron or iron around the target. All this stuff takes about 30 seconds to determine if I'm going to dig. I found a Barber Quarter 2 weeks ago at just 3 inches in a pounded park doing this. Not to mention a lot of Wheaties and Mercs. Any crappy machine would have picked this up if it wasn't for the iron and trash around it. I have had great success with Bill_S's park pattern with some tweaks of my own. I have found running little or no discrimination hinders the ability to concentrate on that little blip of a high tone. Work every tiny high tone for ANY constancy. Do not worry if it's a two way signal because if you do you can be leaving that Barber Quarter for me to find.....
FYI: Pinpointing the target where your signal was is a great way to verify a possible good target. But - it's not an absolute. Dig some and find out. Sometimes I'll dig down be forced to tunnel to one side to get my treasure on these signals. Don't just dig strait down and give up.

 

[katodog]

Great post!

 

[Whitetail]

Thanks. It was something that I thought everyone would gain some insight into. The one that has me baffled is the sweep...TONE....sweep....TONE. I get the spot verified in my head ...saying.."It's going to be riiiiight there"...then when I pinpoint....I get nothing "right there" and a tone off to the side? I "always" dig the pinpointed spot and always find a target. After retrieving the item I resweep and usually get nothing...no more "TONE". I figure I found the item and move on. I'd say 9 times out of 10 I find a rusty nail or piece of iron....and just chalk that up to information I'm gathering on my machine.
Like Moonshine says....that's why I'm there anyways...might as well dig the signal.