HELP WITH E-TRAC NULLING BY FOUNDATIONS

[1916 silver]

I have owned an E-TRAC for 5 years now. I hunt in coins mode at 1800's houses in my area which is between syracuse n.y. and rochester n.y. The problem I run into is that when I get within approximately 10 feet of the foundations the detector nulls and the threshold goes silent, until I move far enough away from it. I have tried every setting possible and still get the same results.Also,I have tried a smaller 5" coil. I do not think their is anything wrong with my detector. MY QUESTION IS, Has anyone else experienced this issue? I find it hard to believe that every old house I go to has metal around the entire foundation from the walls to 10 feet out. Any help would be appreciated.

 

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[dirtscratcher]

I'm interested to hear from the etrac guys because I'm about to buy one. With my explorer turn sensitivity way down it helps alot curious if that works with etrac. Even at 10 I dig coins pretty deep.

 

[jeff of pa]

sounds like there is iron in the foundation cement.
not an uncommon practice.

could also be an overabundance of nails .

only fix I know is tiniest coil you can find and hope for the best that copper and silver will shine through
at spots.

nulls don't necessarily mean good signals won't pop through ,
it just means the good signals must be shallow or in the right position
to overwhelm the null

 

[Jason in Enid]

The only times I have have similar results was from heavy concentration of nails from roof and siding replacement. I have been up against the foundations of many houses without problems.

 

[jeff of pa]

The only times I have have similar results was from heavy concentration of nails from roof and siding replacement. I have been up against the foundations of many houses without problems.

Yes I'm picturing Houses that have a sidewalk just out from the Foundation.
I know my sidewalk has all types of Iron mixed in with the cement.
I'm guessing it is believed to slow Cracking from all the winter freeze & thaws.

but otherwise you are correct heavy concentration of nails from roof and siding replacement

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Yes I'm picturing Houses that have a sidewalk just out from the Foundation.
I know my sidewalk has all types of Iron mixed in with the cement.
I'm guessing it is believed to slow Cracking from all the winter freeze & thaws.

but otherwise you are correct heavy concentration of nails from roof and siding replacement

I use to pour and finish concrete, we put wire mesh in the sidewalks and in the concrete driveways to give them strength and to help stop cracking...

 

[Fletch88]

Have you tried 2 tone ferrous audio with an open screen (zero disc)? Reduce sensitivity and try the 5" coil with that setup. If it is a thick nail bed from remodels you should hear everything and not get any nulling.

 

[Longhair]

A lot of old homes were burned off when people were through with them. Around here the state assumed many homes during the depression, and then burned them off. So around sites like that there are always a bed of nails surrounding the foundations.
As for how to deal with it....the suggestions already given are about as good as you'll get.

 

[Fourman110]

I think every old home I go over has this same issue. So far I'm stuck with the standard coil but plan on changing it soon. I first go through in multi tone from several angles. I always go very slowly taking a very small slice at a time. Think about moving your coil forward an inch or two per sweep. Amazing how you can pull things out with that much ferrous in the ground. After I finish with multi-tone I flip back to 2 tone ferrous and do it again.

I've had a lot of luck this way hitting sites I've been on five or more times prior. That's my only frustration with this game. Every time you learn a new trick, you get to hit the old sites again.

 

[1916 silver]

Thank you fourman 110 for the advise. It is interesting to know someone else experiences this issue on a consistent basis. I forgot to mention in my original posting that when I am at the area between the foundation wall and out 10 feet from it where the nulling occurs, If I go to wide open all metal it sounds like a machine gun going off with way too many signals to try to decipher even with a 5 inch coil and the sensitivity turned down. When I move far enough away from the foundation this problem goes away. I have tried 2 tone ferrous with a 5 inch coil but not moving as slowly as you describe. I will try this and see how it goes. Thank you.

 

[RobRieman]

Thank you fourman 110 for the advise. It is interesting to know someone else experiences this issue on a consistent basis. I forgot to mention in my original posting that when I am at the area between the foundation wall and out 10 feet from it where the nulling occurs, If I go to wide open all metal it sounds like a machine gun going off with way too many signals to try to decipher even with a 5 inch coil and the sensitivity turned down. When I move far enough away from the foundation this problem goes away. I have tried 2 tone ferrous with a 5 inch coil but not moving as slowly as you describe. I will try this and see how it goes. Thank you.

You answered your own question. Dig a few of the iron machine gun sounds and you will find the culprit. I also have seen the same thing you experienced at most of my cellar holes. If you have a lot of time and patience you can try to remove some of the iron and see if you can find a good signal but it takes a lot of patience.

 

[Jackalope]

I've had the same experience while at some beaches containing iron nails ... the CTX nulls (dead) and then pops back after what appears to be a reset. I've not found a way around it. Essentially the detector audio goes silent for 10-15 secs, then bounces back. Appears to be a result of the way FBS detectors process iron, even with an open screen. I've not had it do this with all buried iron nails ... but not sure what the difference is.

 

[Tedyoh]

I have owned an E-TRAC for 5 years now. I hunt in coins mode at 1800's houses in my area which is between syracuse n.y. and rochester n.y. The problem I run into is that when I get within approximately 10 feet of the foundations the detector nulls and the threshold goes silent, until I move far enough away from it. I have tried every setting possible and still get the same results.Also,I have tried a smaller 5" coil. I do not think their is anything wrong with my detector. MY QUESTION IS, Has anyone else experienced this issue? I find it hard to believe that every old house I go to has metal around the entire foundation from the walls to 10 feet out. Any help would be appreciated.

There is no "real" help or fix, this is why my Etrac sits in the gun safe and my Deus goes out to the foundations.

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

When you guys say totally open screen, you ARE remembering to open up the 35 line, aren't you. Factory preset has that bottom line discriminated out in P2, which would give you a null in 35Iron.

Yeah, I know you guys know that. Just wanted to throw it out for anyone reading that might have forgotten it.

 

[pepperj]

There is no "real" help or fix, this is why my Etrac sits in the gun safe and my Deus goes out to the foundations.

There is a fix, just learn the machine better Tedyoh it's simple. Sure taking out the Deus might/will resolve the problem but that's a 2K fix and lots of fellows can't/don't or won't go there.

It's simple go into relic mode, two tone ferrous, block out the first left hand side and the bottom lines. The one thing one has to learn like 1916 silver stated is go slow even it means creeping along a few inches at a time otherwise it's just can't keep up with the amount of targets that it's going over. This pretty well goes for any machine, go out flapping the coil back and forth like a chicken with it's head removed and it's worth it's salt. Slow down and it'll produce it's simple. Seen it even with the DEUS, one person was running around flapping it back and forth because it only weighed a few pounds so it was easy to swing, the other two were going a lot slower and they produced 10X the amount of finds over the period that the chicken flapper produced.

 

[Tedyoh]

Just trying to help people avoid a 1.5K mistake. My test garden results is all the proof i need. But i will try your relic screen set up....trust me i want it to work.

 

[Jason in Enid]

The E-trac is the farthest thing from a mistake someone could make (unless they want to scuba with it). I went from finding 10-12 silvers a year to 100+ silvers a year since I bought my E-Trac. If deep, old coins (especially silver) is your target, the only thing better is the CTX.

 

[pepperj]

Just trying to help people avoid a 1.5K mistake. My test garden results is all the proof i need. But i will try your relic screen set up....trust me i want it to work.

If upgrading from a $500 unit to a E-Trac there's no mistake they're going to get a machine that preforms better given that they learn it. By learning a machine it's not sitting there and reading the manual, dropping items on the floor/ground, or running out and burying a few item in the garden either, though all will help in the short run, but putting in a 1000 hrs or so on the machine out in the world, going over the same ground in different settings, learning what is the most importnt which is the sounds and what it's telling us, not what it's showing us on the screen as that has been a mistake of many going by the numbers and not the sound.

Air tests, gardens, laying on the ground, putting a dime between two nails and swinging over all of them getting results can't really provide the same as the real world of something being buried for many years. There will be countless of different situations regarding soil, mineralization, the amount of iron and the leaching of rust that happens when the iron saturates the soil, as does most metals will do after being in the ground. The effects will not be the same in ploughed/turned soil as fields. The Minelabs don't much care for fluffy soil, tall grass, air period. This is where I have seen other machines out perform the MLs in the fields, but give them a settled soil base and going slow they'll show performance. Like it was stated before going slow is the magic of any machine being a mid-high end units, and it's a darned hard thing to do when stepping onto new soil as it seems to be a race to get it covered as quickly as possible.

Let us know what you find out in the test garden going really slow with the E-Trac it's always interesting hearing the results good or bad as it's all a learning curve still for most of us. I've only got 8 yrs with the Minelabs so I'm still learning myself and the next machine will be the DEUS as the weight and the separation capabilities seem impressive.

 

[TrpnBils]

I've had incredible luck around foundations using the 6" Coiltek and on Auto-3 where Auto+3 and the stock coil didn't produce anything because of the amount of iron. I went over a spot that has been hit dozens of times over the past 20-30 years in that configuration and ended up pulling over half a dozen large coppers and dozens of buttons. Even some of the old timers that had hit it before stopped by because they saw me hunting it in snow storms last winter so they figured I must either be crazy or else I was finding something.