E-trac Question, Quick mask

[needle n haystack]

If I'm getting a jumpy signal that comes ups with numbers all over the place but 12-43 pops up sometimes and is very hard to repeat. is switching to quick mask a reliable way of eliminating it as a good target? or am I not understanding the purpose of Quick mask

 

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[Rockin Chairs Gold]

Quick mask is the best thing Minelab has came up with to help you determine if your target is worth digging or not.

If in your normal mode the numbers are jumping all over the place. Switch to Quick Mask and slowly circle the target while watching the Quick Mask screen, If the target box settles into the lower right hand corner you have a piece of iron down there. If the target box jumps from the coin area to the lower right hand corner and back repeatedly you probably have a good target with a nail or piece of iron in the hole with it. In that case I always dig those targets. It doesn't always prove to be a worth while dig but by far the majority of the time you will find a good target with a nail in the hole with it.

Hope this helps you. Rick

 

[needle n haystack]

So when you are using the quick mask you pay more attention to the cursor than the numbers

 

[Lookn4Seated]

So when you are using the quick mask you pay more attention to the cursor than the numbers

I NEVER pay attention to the numbers, hope this helps.

 

[Rockin Chairs Gold]

So when you are using the quick mask you pay more attention to the cursor than the numbers

It's not that I ignore the numbers, but I put more stock in the tones I hear and when in doubt I use the Quick Mask to help make a decision. More then once I have had a high pitched sound but it wanted to jump around, it sounded good but there was a bit of a scratchy sound in with it. When I checked the Quick Mask I found I had a piece of iron in the hole.

These E-Tracs are great for locating targets with iron in the hole with them.

Time and use will sharpen your ability to know when and what to dig. When in doubt DIG. Rick

 

[p2c]

My 3 cents...
1) Ultimately L4S is correct, going by sound alone (what you hear not cursor) is best method
2) If you are using numbers to learn, that's fine, but they can become a set of crutches you never want to get off of.
While you are using #'s, going to an open quickmask screen will work most the time, but if its a case where a silver coin is co-located with iron trash, quickmask may lead you to believe this is solidly an iron object and what you heard was a false (particularly if you are running with high trash on). Which in reality is not the case in this instance. Which goes back to listening.
A lot of the times you get these falses because the very edge of your detector's profile of sensitivity is just barely running across the edge of iron junk. pinpoint and see if where you hear 12-43 is where the object actually is. Chances are if pinpoint is off by an inch or more from where you hear it, it's an iron object.

3) Using sound (not looking at #'s) and pinpointing give a good approach. If what you pinpoint (like said above) is way off from where you hear the high tone in your sweep, you likely are falsing off of iron. This does not work in high trash areas where you may just have to go off of sound and dig where you here the sound... Use the machine enough and you'll become accustomed to how iron false sounds, but a lot of times I still dig those hoping I am wrong...


Another possibility is you are running with sensitivity too high...

 

[Gimmie The Loot]

I've got about 5 months of use on my etrac and don't really understand quickmask either. I mostly rely on tones and check the numbers and curser to make sure it is in the ballpark. I dig close to eveything as you can tell from the junk piles in my pictures and end up doing pretty good. The way I figure it, if it has a chance to be a good target, I dig it and don't waste time messing with the buttons trying to decide what it is.

I also noticed that more than half of my good targets are mixed with some type of trash. That is why they are still there because people skip the iffy targets. The real skill in detecting these days is knowing what tone a silver&nail give together. I had a really jumpy signal once that sounded like iron penny quarter pull tab... turned out to be a silver washington, two mercs, and two wheaties with a screwcap on top. I'm sure it was heard before but passed up because of the jumpy signals!

Sorry if I went off subject 8)

HH!