Iron masking

[jimzz977]

I have about four months with my etrac and was wondering if iron target will mask a good target. I get a good reading like 12-47 and change to open screen and get an iron reading , would iron signal mask the good target and miss the good one

 

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[cudamark]

Yes, it can. If you get more than one reading, dig it. Could be two different targets in the same area.

 

[Longhair]

Yes, it can. If you get more than one reading, dig it. Could be two different targets in the same area.

I would add, that consistency is what's important. If you consistently get that good tone mixed in, dig it.

 

[jimzz977]

Ok thanks , question if iron is same hole as a silver dime will the etrac pick up both??

 

[cudamark]

If the dime is on top and the iron is small enough, yes. If the dime is under the iron and/or the iron is big enough, it can completely mask the dime. I hunt a lot of fire rings at the beach and find good targets among all the iron. I use a small coil and put the E-trac in two tone ferrous. Any non-ferrous squeak and I dig it. If I find lots of good targets around the fire rings, I'll even rake the sand out away from the ring and rescan it.

 

[jimzz977]

Thanks cudamark , I'm still learning the etrac

 

[Jackalope]

I have about four months with my etrac and was wondering if iron target will mask a good target. I get a good reading like 12-47 and change to open screen and get an iron reading , would iron signal mask the good target and miss the good one

Just a quick note concerning my opinion and observation of the E-Trac and CTX in iron fields (nails).

1. You mustn't use any discrimination if you want to separate the non-ferrous from the ferrous. The screen must be completely open when hunting in dense iron. Even a little bit of Disc and the non-ferrous will not respond. You will be listening for the high tone beep in a sea of not-high-tones - that will be the non-ferrous target hiding in the iron. It's hard on the ears but it's the best way to unmask non-ferrous.

2. Iron minerals will up-average (into the high Fe values) any moderately deep non-ferrous target (say deeper than 6"). The expected 12Fe value can easily drop to 29Fe when vertically deep in the ground (deep and thus likely old and more valuable to recover) in fields of iron (nails) and/or high mineralized soil (usually magnetite laden soils). If the detector is set to 2TF or 4TF, the coin at 29Fe will register a low-tone (18-35Fe values are low in 2TF). The coin will respond as iron - it is essentially masked. You don't want that. But when using 2TC/4TC or Multi-Conductive the coin will respond as a high tone (from 26-50Co is high in 2TC), it won't be masked. Unless you use 2TC, 4TC, or MTC in fields of iron nails you will lose many (probably most all) deep coins.

The big problem with FBS detectors is they are easily masked by nails and won't respond to non-ferrous targets, even near the surface in many cases. They respond only to the nail, even if the nail is several inches away. The way around this problem is to ensure you use zero discrimination when hunting in nails and you are not using 2TF or 4TF, else you will never even know there was a coin present as all you will hear are the iron grunts. With 2TC you will hear the coin next to the iron nail, even at depth, at least to the extent the FBS is capable. That is my suggestion, which has been demonstrated to hold true.

Jackalope

 

[jimzz977]

Thanks, jackalope

 

[jimzz977]

I'm going to my favorite park where I found at least 10 silver coins with my etrac using coin mode, I going try open screen with 4 tone ferrous

 

[masterjedi]

The pro trick... is open screen, then put the discrim to the ferrous 30 line and then put it in multi conductive.
Good luck!

 

[jimzz977]

Thanks I'll try it . I appreciate all ur guys help