Deep coins with the Etrac??

Captain Loosechange

Sr. Member
Nov 24, 2007
385
26
Kingsport, TN
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030, Garrett AT Pro, Garrett SeaHunter Mark II, Tesoro Stingray
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All Treasure Hunting
Ok, So I have had an Etrac since February and have some good finds with it, but I don't think that I have reached the machines full potential as far as depth s concerned. I read quite often of others finding coins 10"+
however most if not all of my finds have been around 6-7" or less max maybe 8 inches. I also am only finding mostly early 1900's coins, mainly wheats and mercs. Now the small town I'm in goes back as a city only to 1917 but it has been inhabited since the late 1700's, so I know that the potential is there for the old stuff. I have found 1 1882 Indian head but it was only about 3" deep. So what I want to know is, with the Etrac do the deep coins still have good FE values or am I missing some good targets by not digging the 30- FE signals. I have dug some of these 30 signals and all have turned out to be deep iron?? I know you should go more by the sound than the numbers but deep iron will sound good sometimes, I know about the "thud" but it is not always there. I just want to know if there is something I am missing?? I have and have read and re-read Andy's book and the manual. Just don't know if my coil ain't going over the deepies or if I am missing something or if it is just going to come down to "dig everything that sounds decent" and hope to get something good once in a while? Thanks for any helpful information that you can offer.
 

Cuerno

Full Member
Jan 31, 2008
116
3
San Antonio, Texas
Detector(s) used
Explorer II
Primary Interest:
Other
Set it to auto sensitivity then noise cancel and see where it is set, example auto(20 +3) then go to manual sensitivity and set it at 23 and start your hunt. As you move to a different area maybe 50 feet, check to see if the ground has change in auto and change the manual accordingly. I have a 15 year old coin garden and the coins in the 9" depth are iffy in auto but repeat fine in manual and the coins at 10" no longer give a signal in auto but iffy in manual. Don't know what kind of soil I have here but when I had the MXT it gave a soil reading of 65, would you call that neutral or materialize, well anyway thats how it works here in my soil.
 

neilo

Sr. Member
Aug 23, 2005
390
1
Dont go by numbers at depth. Even the so called 12 line is not consistant with shallow coins. Coins that are shallow on edge will also give a higher conductivity mumber. seeya neilo.
 

buckeyehunter

Sr. Member
Jan 29, 2005
380
1
Lancaster, Ohio
Detector(s) used
e-trac
I think depth is either sometimes exaggerated or some folks arent very good at guessing depth. Here in Ohio I have found very few old coins over 6 inches but it just depends on where you are at. I hunt an old school where wheats and silver are 6 or more inches, its nothing to dig a wheat or Indian at 8 inches. I have hunted a farm this year where I have found several silvers including a seated and 1825 L.C. and the L.C. was the deepest at 6 inches, the seated was maybe 4 inches and the 1864 Indian head was about 3 inches.

In my opinion, at least here in my part of Ohio I dont think coins are much deeper than say 6 inches on average but I have hit a few deeper ones and the E-trac had no problem finding them in a stock program running auto sensitivity at least up to 8 inches.

Indians - here in Ohio running in basically the stock coin program, I find the FE number is pretty erratic on most of my indians, it might go from 12 to 1 to 2,3... 5, 6 BUT my conductive number will stay consistant and even at depth they sound good so I dont worry about the FE numbers to much but USUALLY if my FE number stays on 1 and doesnt jump it turns out to be junk. The FE number will usually jump back to 12 or at least off of 1.

When hunting in discriminate mode and you come across a questionable signal that your not sure if it is silver or deep iron, hit your quick mask and dont have anything discriminated out, have the whole screen opened up. If your crosshairs jump in the bottom right hand corner it is iron... If it jumps from midway down the screen back up to top right hand corner it is likely a coin BUT I have found many coins at good depth including a 8 inch barber dime that the FE only jumped a few numbers, usually the FE will stay very close to 12.

I hope this helps, I am no expert but have found this to help me, hope it helps you!
 

Goes4ever

Silver Member
Jan 30, 2008
4,948
2,324
NorthWest Ohio
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Detector(s) used
Minelab E-Trac, Equinox 600, and Tesorso compadre
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buckeyehunter said:
I think depth is either sometimes exaggerated or some folks arent very good at guessing depth. Here in Ohio I have found very few old coins over 6 inches but it just depends on where you are at. I
man I agree with that! I think a lot of depths posted are just guesses, who really measures how deep coins are? I rarely ever find old coins more than 6" They are just not that deep around my area either, indians, barbers etc.....are almost all average 5-6"
 

Iron Patch

Gold Member
Sep 28, 2007
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Goes4ever said:
buckeyehunter said:
I think depth is either sometimes exaggerated or some folks arent very good at guessing depth. Here in Ohio I have found very few old coins over 6 inches but it just depends on where you are at. I
man I agree with that! I think a lot of depths posted are just guesses, who really measures how deep coins are? I rarely ever find old coins more than 6" They are just not that deep around my area either, indians, barbers etc.....are almost all average 5-6"

Minelabs are very good for hitting targets on edge which often leave them in the side of the hole. A bit more digging for the target can dislodge it and fall to the bottom of th ehole making it appear it was very deep. So not all crazy claims are lies, they were just fooled. I've dug enough targets that I know no one is digging 20" dimes. (but I have seen posts of the sort)

PS... Good iron Disc. at depth means more to me than just being deep. I don't think an Explorer is much deeper than most high end units out there, but it definitely is more accurate for the deep targets. (not being fooled by a deep nail) I dig so little iron with my Explorer I tend to take for granted how good it is.
 

Keppy

Gold Member
Nov 19, 2006
8,318
2,870
N.E. Ohio on lake Erie
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I also agree that a lot of depth that is posted is just in there dreams not the real depth they found it at. Like iron Patch said all top end detectors reach about the same depth. And to me detectors like the ..Tesoro silver..and the Ace 250.. with the right coil on will go just as deep as any $1000.00 or $ 1500.00 detector..................... And my Sovereign will go as deep as your E Trac........... You want deeper get a.. PI ..
 

John S

Jr. Member
Dec 5, 2005
48
3
I have had mine for about 8 mo. I can't get anything over 8" all so. I went today and was trying this , took my cz 5 with a 5" coil ( I can get a dime at 9" where I live with this ) and the etrac with the stander coil. I found some stuff I though was deep with the cz 5 and then went and got the etrac and it would not hit it. I ended up with 1.51 clad, 1936 dime ( it was at 8") , 1960-d half ( it was at 10"). The etrac would not get this coins and I 6 wheat and 4 of them it would not get. It is bad when a 5" coil will go deeper the a 11" coil.
 

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Goes4ever

Silver Member
Jan 30, 2008
4,948
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NorthWest Ohio
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1960 half at 10 inches? must be a LOT of fill dirt where u were hunting. Last frankie half I dug this year was about 4"
I'd say average silvers here are always between 4-6"
 

Iron Patch

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Sep 28, 2007
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John S said:
I have had mine for about 8 mo. I can't get anything over 8" all so. I went today and was trying this , took my cz 5 with a 5" coil ( I can get a dime at 9" where I live with this ) and the etrac with the stander coil. I found some stuff I though was deep with the cz 5 and then went and got the etrac and it would not hit it. I ended up with 1.51 clad, 1936 dime ( it was at 8") , 1960-d half ( it was at 10"). The etrac would not get this coins and I 6 wheat and 4 of them it would not get. It is bad when a 5" coil will go deeper the a 11" coil.


Either the E-trac really sucks or you have a detector that is not working correctly. Did you try a factory restart to make sure there's not some type of glitch affecting the unit's depth?
 

sniffer

Gold Member
Dec 31, 2006
5,906
58
Kansas
Detector(s) used
XP DEUS
if you want the deep coins you have to want to dig the iffy signals.
the deeper the coin, the less accurate the signal
 

John S

Jr. Member
Dec 5, 2005
48
3
Yes I tried ever thing I could think of to make the etrac hit the coins. What I did used the cz and when it was a iffy signal I marked it, then came back with the etrac. I have a friend that has a etrac and 8" on a coin is all he can get all so. But the old cz's have all ways been the deepest detector out there. The cz has a concentric coil so I think I well get a 8" concentric just to see for the etrac.
 

Iron Patch

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John S said:
Yes I tried ever thing I could think of to make the etrac hit the coins. What I did used the cz and when it was a iffy signal I marked it, then came back with the etrac. I have a friend that has a etrac and 8" on a coin is all he can get all so. But the old cz's have all ways been the deepest detector out there. The cz has a concentric coil so I think I well get a 8" concentric just to see for the etrac.


I'm curious if you can get something like a quarter at more than 8" in an airtest if you play around? I'm very surprised the E-trac wouldn't hit that coin found with the CZ, because my Explorer probably would. Maybe that's why the E-trac hype came to an abrupt end. There's always people that go on and on about and new detector being the latest and greatest, but I think a lot of the time they're just trying to convince themself they didn't spend $1,000 over a good used EX price to get less.

I think you'll just be throwing good money after bad trying different coils. If the Minelab stock ain't doing it than like I said either the detector sucks, it's broken, or a third choice is operator error. If it was an Explorer you were having the trouble with I'm pretty sure I could figure it out, but the E-trac i know very little about. (and probably never will)
 

p2c

Bronze Member
Apr 14, 2009
1,356
5
Matteson, IL
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John S said:
I have had mine for about 8 mo. I can't get anything over 8" all so. I went today and was trying this , took my cz 5 with a 5" coil ( I can get a dime at 9" where I live with this ) and the etrac with the stander coil. I found some stuff I though was deep with the cz 5 and then went and got the etrac and it would not hit it. I ended up with 1.51 clad, 1936 dime ( it was at 8") , 1960-d half ( it was at 10"). The etrac would not get this coins and I 6 wheat and 4 of them it would not get. It is bad when a 5" coil will go deeper the a 11" coil.

What are you running for Disc? Deeper coins may have much higher FE numbers. If you are running the Coins program for instance, FE is masked above 17 (I believe). I run with my FE mask line at 25. Alot of the deeper coins will read above 17, maybe even up to 27. If your thresh is too low, you wont hear the null of the target be rejected. To dig deep coins, you probably need to make your own pattern, or set the masking to something like CO -10, FE-25. You should hear the deep targets if you aren't discriminating them out and you are swinging low and slow.
 

stasys

Sr. Member
Jun 13, 2009
430
9
Detector(s) used
minelab explorer xs
"dig everything that sounds decent" and try simple test with coins in diferent deepnes. forget about programs use as little as posible discrimination-concentrate and listen.
 

Keppy

Gold Member
Nov 19, 2006
8,318
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N.E. Ohio on lake Erie
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stasys said:
"dig everything that sounds decent" and try simple test with coins in diferent deepnes. forget about programs use as little as posible discrimination-concentrate and listen.
I will say what you say for get about all those programs.....And those numpers that pop up on your detectors...... It seems like it drives all of you crazy it would me.. You know like.... Oh i get a 27 for this what do you get ...I get a 33 is my detector working right?? Get your self a Minelab Sovereign or a .. Garrett infinium and guess what you will not have to worry your self about your number being different than some one elses... You are all driveing your selfs nuts.... Over numbers.........:protest: :protest: :sad5: :violent1:
 

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