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"The E-trac chokes in iron."

K

kt

New member
This all came out of one hole today. The big nail and the penny (a 1959 copper memorial) were almost, but not quite, touching, about 4-5 inches down. I pulled them out of the hole at the same time, with one hand. The little piece of foil is a piece of metallic label off of something or another, and was in the side of the hole. The broken stub of nail was 1 or 2 inches directly below the big nail and penny.

I'd like to think that it was my wicked skillz as a Sooper-Dooper Detectorist, but in reality the machine did it, not me. With a small coil and SLOW hunting, the Etrac can sniff coins out of junk better than its reputation holds, in my opinion.
 
I've had the same results. Many times I have found coins along with other metal items in the same hole. I was most impressed that I got a good signal on a 1943 quarter just an inch from a Schmidt's beer screw cap at 10-11" deep. I heard a good signal for the cap that kept jumping to the quarter range.

Mark
 
We're you running with trash density in high? I'm very curious.

That seems to make a big difference in how the E-Trac responds to good stuff in the presence of trash.

Cheers,
John
 
jgedde said:
We're you running with trash density in high? I'm very curious.

That seems to make a big difference in how the E-Trac responds to good stuff in the presence of trash.
Click to expand...


Deep on, fast off, trash high, ground difficult, multi tone conductive with Sabisch disc pattern, top right opened up. Six inch coil.
 
MAcle1997 said:
I've had the same results. Many times I have found coins along with other metal items in the same hole. I was most impressed that I got a good signal on a 1943 quarter just an inch from a Schmidt's beer screw cap at 10-11" deep. I heard a good signal for the cap that kept jumping to the quarter range.

Mark
Click to expand...

Wow, that is a heck of a find, good on you for digging it. I was getting an intermittent signal on that penny in my disc pattern; Fe numbers were all over the place but Co number stayed mostly in the 40-44 range. Switching over to Quick Mask gave me a flip-flopping set of numbers, one set was 2_-4_, and the other set was 3_-50 (sometimes in the very high 40s on this last number).

My theory is that in Quick Mask, my 2_-4_ number was the penny and the 3_-50 number was one or both of the nails.
 
The first silver that I dug with my Etrac was a 43 quarter at 4".The first thing out of the hole was a large rusty nail and my first thought was "this detector sucks"".I re swept the hole and the 12-46 was still there.This find had been missed by many detectors as the Etrac somehow manages to see through trash.
 
Almost all machines choke in Iron , it depends how much Iron there is and what your looking for in it.
I am about to sell my X.Terra and my Deus due to a planned job change and because i will be doing a lot less detecting in future .But will be keeping my ET and Explorer even if they are not as good in Iron , or at least in Iron if they have a bit of discrimination in their settings.
Years ago i found with my Explorer at the time 4 cut quarter Hammered coins over about 2 years and 1 of them was up against an Iron nail .
Its all about learning the machine and finding the places its best in then expanding your searches to places that not only test the machine but your skills as a detectorist.
I have bought loads of detectors over the years and many repeats because i kept changing my mind but i always kept an Explorer or E.Trac , they still for me are the best all rounders what ever they have as faults.
 
Damn just been on another forum and found that the new Deus coil coming is almost ready and there is only some software to complete , damn i dont know whether i will sell that now .

Hope my Lotto numbers come in tomorrow night ! Pleeeeease .
 
Nuke em said:
Almost all machines choke in Iron , it depends how much Iron there is and what your looking for in it.
I am about to sell my X.Terra and my Deus due to a planned job change and because i will be doing a lot less detecting in future .But will be keeping my ET and Explorer even if they are not as good in Iron , or at least in Iron if they have a bit of discrimination in their settings.
Years ago i found with my Explorer at the time 4 cut quarter Hammered coins over about 2 years and 1 of them was up against an Iron nail .
Its all about learning the machine and finding the places its best in then expanding your searches to places that not only test the machine but your skills as a detectorist.
I have bought loads of detectors over the years and many repeats because i kept changing my mind but i always kept an Explorer or E.Trac , they still for me are the best all rounders what ever they have as faults.
Click to expand...
Yea man!!!!:beers:

Iowa Dale
 
them e-trac s

can pull some coins from a garbage pile !! i have done it many times over the years. could not belive all that iron junk would get put in the back ground

and give a 12-44 i am going to miss that e-trac !!



minelabbob
 
Sometimes the eTRAC really does choke on iron depending on a whole host of variables.
It depends on how big the iron is, how close and big the iron is to a keeper, whether the iron is on top or below a keeper, how corroded the iron is and the size coil used.

I must of dug up pounds of corroded nails over the years which were iffy enough to dig with most having decent 2-ways with NO keepers in the hole or anywhere around the hole's vicinity.
Corroded nails especially the smaller stubby screws/nails that tend to emulate the form factor of a coin for example are the worse as they tend to get more conductive than ferrous depending on its size, depth, soil, etc. and the degree of corrosion.

Yes i had many surprises when a coin was also dug up with iron in the same hole. However, I can't ever remember digging up a coin with a larger piece of iron on top of it or just a very large piece of iron junk in the hole, way too much iron masking to even consider a dig.... smaller pieces beside or below?.... yes, dug up many coins with those in the same hole.

I'd be willing to bet everyone here has dug up a piece of iron junk 'without' a keeper in the same hole. These detectors are ok in iron but not 100% iron proof.
 
yesterday I dug a 1944 wheat with a rusted nail stuck to it, right over the date area, it was down 5 inches. Got two signals. Was hunting in TTF with SunRay 5 inch Excellerator coil going really slow. This park is littered with rusted nails, and real deep Miller beer cans, (the ones that produced pull tabs) I only dug them to get them out of the way. They were anywhere from 10 to 12 inches deep. nge
 
Turn DEEP OFF it only helps with trying to smooth out the numbers nothing else and it adds a filter which will slightly slow down processor.
Doesn't make it go deeper.
IF you want the greatest depth hearing of an object turn the VOLUME GAIN up to 29-30 makes a really deep target come in so you can hear it and when you get lower than 25-26 it will drop out and not be heard only on the deepest of objects. TURN FAST ON it removes a filter so the processor works faster and helps in target rich environments.
You already got TRASH set to HIGH and GROUND to DIFFICULT.
 
nge said:
yesterday I dug a 1944 wheat with a rusted nail stuck to it, right over the date area, it was down 5 inches...
Click to expand...

One that i remember was a Barber dime with a small thin nail laying partially on top at about 3 inches deep.
That dime had and still does have a rust imprint on it from the nail.
 
ive also had the pleasure of pulling many misc. items out of a tiny hole and finally pulling out the coin. its amazing what the etrac can see and tell you, the key is patience. the discrimination is very powerful. ive also pulled silver out of complete silence (null). after i dug the coin the whole area was a null. im a beleiver in the etracs discriminator.
 
I THINK

some ways to get around them iron nails is a smaller coil. but here and there them little screws or sm. rusty nails will sneak in !! probably the only thing

that i seen with the E-TRAC. but all and all, it is a good detector ! something we all live with. my CTX is not to bad and i can tell most times wen there

is iron under the coil , but i get fooled on the sm. screws every so often. Again something we live with ! with the E-TRAC i used the SUNRAY 8IN. and

that helps with iron allot !!!! and gets good depth !! you wont belive me but one day i got a 10in. dime with it.



minelabbob
 
EtracTom-AdirondacksNY said:
Turn DEEP OFF it only helps with trying to smooth out the numbers nothing else and it adds a filter which will slightly slow down processor.
Doesn't make it go deeper.
IF you want the greatest depth hearing of an object turn the VOLUME GAIN up to 29-30 makes a really deep target come in so you can hear it and when you get lower than 25-26 it will drop out and not be heard only on the deepest of objects. TURN FAST ON it removes a filter so the processor works faster and helps in target rich environments.
You already got TRASH set to HIGH and GROUND to DIFFICULT.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. I gave your settings a try this afternoon, in an old suburban fence row that is saturated with deep pieces of rusty woven wire. Really frustrating place to hunt. Pulled a fairly deep 1944 S wheat penny and a 1950's Red Goose Shoes token from that fence row. My first find with an S mint mark; San Francisco coins are rare in KY.
 
Glad to be of help. A previous moderator of the Explorer column did tests on the Volume Gain setting and he found that when you lowered it below 28 the really, really deep coins he couldn't hear them or they didn't make a sound come from from the machine but when cranked the Volume Gain to 29 or 30 maxed out all of a sudden you could hear these really, really deep ones.

I always leave FAST turned on.

I Usually leave it in Auto+3

Sometimes if really deep and the depth gauge is about maxed out it will be a THUNK,THUNK sound instead of a good conductive sound. I swear I've had a few of these and one was a really deep target an Indian Head penny with buried depth gauge on the machine.
 
My friend and I have experienced the same thing. We both switched from the AT pro and have been pulling coins that were extremely crowded by iron. Most recently my friend pulled a seated dime at 5 inches but found 3 nails and an old nut with his pinpointer prior to finding the dime. He said it just had a whisper of a silver tone, choppy and only one way. The etrac sniffs those masked coins out like a blood hound. If it weren't for the poor balancing of it I would consider it a perfect machine. I wish minelab would roll out an etrac II that basically kept everything the same but addressed the nose-heaviness that it is plagued by. For that reason I'm planning to upgrade to the CTX. The CTX is a heavier machine but feels lighter because the weight is on your shoulder instead of your arm. Happy Hunting!
 
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