Starting to understand the E-Trac

[Jackalope]

Put in a couple of hours at one of the local parks where an old brewery ( 1870's ) once stood. Quite a bit of trash (non-ferrous) with lots of good sounding targets along the Fe12 line. Eventually decided that it was time to learn rather than being concerned about making good finds.

Never considered All Metal as a way to hunt because of the noise. Figured it was just too busy to be enjoyed. My interest is in finding silver/gold coins. Jewelery would be OK but I have another machine for hunting that.

Dug a few junk items until I switched over to All Metal. At the time I was still in Conduct/Multi and noticed it wasn't too bad. After running the Fe cursor up to #20, I enjoyed hearing all the remaining targets. Noticed that I still wasn't totally comfortable with what I was hearing, so I decided to try Conduct/ 4 tone. Multi in All Metal just sounded too busy. In spite of the added confusion associated with All Metal, the high tone was a pleasure to listen for. As a starting point, the only time I looked at the display was if I heard any hint of the high tone or any other tone that was especially solid.

Sens was at manual #24, Deep ON, Trash HIGH. Wanted Trash on High as I understand it only affects the visual I.D and maybe it might lock on better. Did find some clad and gave up on some high tone targets that had the depth meter near the bottom. It's like I'm lost until my Sunray probe gets here. Once you've used one, it's hard to hunt without it.

Anyway, that's how I've handled the learning curve so far. Only clad and junk jewelery but I'll hit it again tomorrow. Preset Coin pattern doesn't have my confidence, at least not yet. Maybe I can climb another step on the curve tomorrow. HH

Ron

 

[gibsondan]

Ron, I think that's the way to learn. Try new things and stick with what works for you.

 

[akelley]

I like your approach. I was working a iron infested site this weekend, and found Ferrous 4-tone helped to pull out a few more good targets after covering the ground in multitone conductive.

Screw caps are my arch enemy, since they often hit around 12-40 and have a pretty strong signal that can mask out other good targets. You can lift the coil about an inch above the ground and they'll still sound off. So that's how I tell, but its time consuming. Here I wish the Conduct/4 tone feature allowed the user to set the break point for the shift in pitch. If so I'd set it at 41, just so the most common screw caps weren't included in the high tone set.

Good luck!

-Alex

 

[Jackalope]

Well, went back to the same park confident that there were silver coins to be had. Tried something I saw on the forum;...QuickMask Fe slider to 14 and Co slider to 30. Used the medium frame size to edit nickels (accepted). Loaded it into the Smartfind window so I still had QuickMask. Began in co- 4 tone but switched to multi a little later.

Area has some of the worst soil around. About 1/4 of a mile away I could run Manual #24 but ran Auto here. Auto +3 was cycling between 19 and 22 and produced a stable audio. Didn't seem to affect depth as I recovered a clad dime from somewhere between 6" and 8". Kept digging deeper because the E-trac said it was there.

Ran across what I initially thought was a coin spill. Could hear both the high tone (penny) and what I thought was a nickel tone next to it. Turned out to be a rectangular tab sitting next to the penny rather than a nickel. Was easy to separate the two.

Lots of clad but no silver. I'm sure that my swing is way too fast and catch myself covering too much area to be effective. Maybe I've hit a plateau and I need to be patient for the next step up the curve to start. Maybe tomorrow. HH

Ron

 

[silvereagle]

so you like the 4 tone over the multi?i have read in andy's book that some say it is better for coin hunting,i am also learning in multi i might go back to 4 tone,until i learn all the tones i am finding clad and a indian head and unlike the xterra i can tell the difference in multi like i could in 4 tone. HH

 

[Jackalope]

silvereagle:

Not sure which I like best. Conduct/4 tones is a more relaxing way to hunt but I'm thinking Conduct/Multi has more info so you have to concentrate more. Either one or both have what I call the "Ker - Thunk" sound at the end of some targets signals with Recovery Fast (OFF). Maybe someone can tell me why this happens?

Ron