My first week with the E-trac was spent at an old stone foundation farm house built back in 1904. Finds around the house we slim, but I did turn up an 1905 IH, assorted wheaties, a cool George Washington Bicentennial medallion a huge silver ring and a few other odds and ends; but no silver coins.
This past week, I turned back to a heavily used old park area I frequented back in the day with my Teknetics Mark I, when I first started hunting. I turned up quite a few good coins back then dating back to the late 1800's. Since then, I've returned with each new detector in hopes of finding more of those old coins. The finds have thinned significantly over the years.
There is one area that is especially trashy that has produced the best and I've been stopping by there the last few days after work for a couple hours to get more familiar with the E-Trac and hopefully turn up a silver coin or two. In a nutshell, the trashy area is really difficult to hunt, yet it seems to have eased up this last week to the E-Trac. In three trips (about 6 hours) I picked up 10 wheaties, 4 merc's, a silver ring and pendant and a bunch of clad coins.
Highlights -
I was surprised to pick up 2 Mercury dimes that read approximately 24/45. I have my quick mask set at 26 ferrous. One Merc came up with a nickel size brass clock gear with a big glob of rusty iron on one side. The other came up with a very old heavily rusted inch long screw. It seems that I have the quick mask set just about right.
Another Merc came up today over a NULL that was larger than my coil and wouldn't let me pinpoint at all. I had to guesstimate in motion mode. If the E-Trac was an outfielder it could catch a fly ball while staring into the sun.
My most exciting find was a plain old wheatie; a 1917-S. I was hunting outside the heavily trashed area where the dirt is dark and deep and signals rather far apart. I picked up a solid but weak high signal hitting in the 18/41 range and showing a depth near the bottom of my meter. The signal was repeatable from every direction and the reading changed very little as I worked my way around. I took a larger than usual plug, and removed the dirt until I reached the handle of my Lesche digger. I fully expected to have extracted the target as the hole was a solid 8" deep and there was no loose soil in the hole. I swung the coil over the pile of dirt on my drop cloth. Nothing. I swung it over the hole. It was still there. I grabbed the pistol probe and searched the bottom of the hole. There was a solid signal right in the center of the hole. Out came the coin popper, a 12" long lazy S shaped probe. The custom black nylon handle is only 2" long and fits snugly in the palm. With the tip resting on the bottom of the hole, the handle was mostly above the rim. I carefully removed a couple inches of dirt from the bottom and out came the coin in a clump of dirt; a conservative 10" deep.
That is the deepest coin sized target I have dug in a park or yard type setting since I started hunting that I can remember. I have found big dollar sized items deeper, but not regular old penny and dime sized targets. It still makes me smile 
I am starting to get a feel for the E-Trac now and some confidence in it's abilities.
Good luck to everybody.
This past week, I turned back to a heavily used old park area I frequented back in the day with my Teknetics Mark I, when I first started hunting. I turned up quite a few good coins back then dating back to the late 1800's. Since then, I've returned with each new detector in hopes of finding more of those old coins. The finds have thinned significantly over the years.
There is one area that is especially trashy that has produced the best and I've been stopping by there the last few days after work for a couple hours to get more familiar with the E-Trac and hopefully turn up a silver coin or two. In a nutshell, the trashy area is really difficult to hunt, yet it seems to have eased up this last week to the E-Trac. In three trips (about 6 hours) I picked up 10 wheaties, 4 merc's, a silver ring and pendant and a bunch of clad coins.
Highlights -
I was surprised to pick up 2 Mercury dimes that read approximately 24/45. I have my quick mask set at 26 ferrous. One Merc came up with a nickel size brass clock gear with a big glob of rusty iron on one side. The other came up with a very old heavily rusted inch long screw. It seems that I have the quick mask set just about right.
Another Merc came up today over a NULL that was larger than my coil and wouldn't let me pinpoint at all. I had to guesstimate in motion mode. If the E-Trac was an outfielder it could catch a fly ball while staring into the sun.
My most exciting find was a plain old wheatie; a 1917-S. I was hunting outside the heavily trashed area where the dirt is dark and deep and signals rather far apart. I picked up a solid but weak high signal hitting in the 18/41 range and showing a depth near the bottom of my meter. The signal was repeatable from every direction and the reading changed very little as I worked my way around. I took a larger than usual plug, and removed the dirt until I reached the handle of my Lesche digger. I fully expected to have extracted the target as the hole was a solid 8" deep and there was no loose soil in the hole. I swung the coil over the pile of dirt on my drop cloth. Nothing. I swung it over the hole. It was still there. I grabbed the pistol probe and searched the bottom of the hole. There was a solid signal right in the center of the hole. Out came the coin popper, a 12" long lazy S shaped probe. The custom black nylon handle is only 2" long and fits snugly in the palm. With the tip resting on the bottom of the hole, the handle was mostly above the rim. I carefully removed a couple inches of dirt from the bottom and out came the coin in a clump of dirt; a conservative 10" deep.
That is the deepest coin sized target I have dug in a park or yard type setting since I started hunting that I can remember. I have found big dollar sized items deeper, but not regular old penny and dime sized targets. It still makes me smile I am starting to get a feel for the E-Trac now and some confidence in it's abilities.
Good luck to everybody.
