More ETrac Questions

[tlowery04]

Okay, so unfortunately the only great place to hunt in my area right now is a recently razed house lot in the heart of a town that goes back to the very early 1800's. TONS of nails a bits and bobbles. I've pulled up bits of tin, and some steel wire but mostly very very rusty iron. the kind that looks like its growing more iron.

on the upside, the soil is VERY loose, i can dig down probably 3-4 inches without thinking about using my little shovel or miners pick.

on the downside, I have hunted this site for about 15 hours now, and only have a bucket of trash to show for it.

now on to the ETrac -

I have started by blocking out everything not 1-12/32-48

but when i get a high pitch tone in a short beep, I look down and nothing is on the screen. I can pinpoint but that tells me that WOOOHOOO there's tons of metal under you dude!

should i just blanket dig everything with the right sound and disregard the screen?

I also havn't got many repeatable signals, the one really good 1-48 I got was a rusted gaff hook 5 inches down. and of course somewhere in there i found an aluminum pot handle.

andys book is on order, just wondered if anyone had any insight into detecting in general with this detector, or any methods for digging this site that doesn't include screening the entire backyard.

 

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[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

No disrespect at all but first go learn your machine in a NON trashy area. Your trying to drive a Corvette with a learners permit. Those type places are THE hardest places to hunt for anyone.

When your in a null slow way way way down. I mean creep. Try opening the screen up more as to much discrimination will mask good ones.

Get yourseld a Sun Ray X-5 sniper coil for those terrible trashy areas. That will greatly increase your success.

 

[tlowery04]

yeah thanks bart, i guess i knew the answer before i posted, the only other place i have access to close by right now is the beach, and after two 8 hour days of hunting i have two coins, a handfull of aluminum can parts, and a brass watch body. seems pretty barren but people drop stuff all the time

i'm getting used to the detector but like a few other people i've noticed with problems i've come from a white's detector. Don't know if that counts for anything or not but its just an observation, I have been working really hard to go super slow too. no whites one second sweeps with this machine!

 

[Stormrider51]

I live on a place like the site you described. It's incredible the amount of metallic trash under the ground. A sweep at "normal" speed makes my E-Trac sound like R2D2 on amphetamines. Minelab recommends a 4 second sweep, left to right to left. That's WAY too fast for trashy areas. Like Bart said, slow to a creep. Also, if you are using the DD coil take advantage of the fact that the actual sensing area is only 1" wide. When you get a solid signal go back across it and sort of hover while wiggling the coil slightly. Each pass allows the machine to refine the data. Step around 90 degrees and repeat the process. I find that this allows me to separate out a lot of the trash.

Good Luck!
Storm

 

[cudamark]

No disrespect at all but first go learn your machine in a NON trashy area. Your trying to drive a Corvette with a learners permit. Those type places are THE hardest places to hunt for anyone.

When your in a null slow way way way down. I mean creep. Try opening the screen up more as to much discrimination will mask good ones.

Get yourseld a Sun Ray X-5 sniper coil for those terrible trashy areas. That will greatly increase your success.

Agreed! I've been hunting for over 42 years now and torn down houses are the worst. When I hunt them, I first rake a 10 X 10 area, then run a magnet over it to get the surface nails and other ferrous junk, then use the smallest coil I have to get target separation. If there are any good targets, I then expand the search area. If there is nothing good in the area I've "cleaned" I either move to another likely area and start over or give up and find greener pastures.

 

[Jackalope]

I don't consider the E-Trac to be the right "tool" for your job. There are detectors that have better iron handling capabilities and target separation out there (such as Deep Tech's Vista Gold for instance).

If you are going to use an E-Trac, then you'll likely have to remove all the top-layer trash and iron to reveal anything worthwhile underneath. Like eating an elephant, it's not something you can accomplish in even several outings. It might takes years of return visits to finally get to the deeper valuable targets. Worthwhile, but not something everyone is prepared to work that hard for.

 

[Jeff in Pa]

now on to the ETrac -

I have started by blocking out everything not 1-12/32-48


You are discriminating anything over 12 Ferrous? Wow you are missing ALOT of good targets.

 

[barberman]

I'd like to add a question to the trashy area problem. Today I hunted a yard with tons of aluminum and nails. Moving from detect - quick mask and back to detect my id numbers don't show for a while, seems like there is a 15-20 second lag before they start showing on the screen. Am I missing something? (new user)

 

[tlowery04]

Thanks for reminding me about this post, I still don't get how you get multiple targets on screen, I've dug areas where there is iron all around on this site, and only had one signal that jumps all over the place. (found a brass key intermixed on a 12-48)

 

[Jeff in Pa]

Sounds like you are into a Huge amount of trash! Just stop swinging the coil for second. Just rest it on the ground for a second and then go back at it. The detector needs to reset itself in between switching back and forth. I will say my first Etrac did this but my second one does not.

I'd like to add a question to the trashy area problem. Today I hunted a yard with tons of aluminum and nails. Moving from detect - quick mask and back to detect my id numbers don't show for a while, seems like there is a 15-20 second lag before they start showing on the screen. Am I missing something? (new user)

 

[Jeff in Pa]

You will NEVER get multiple targets on the Etrac screen. Where did you read that? Only the CTX can do that.

Thanks for reminding me about this post, I still don't get how you get multiple targets on screen, I've dug areas where there is iron all around on this site, and only had one signal that jumps all over the place. (found a brass key intermixed on a 12-48)

 

[Bryanhashemi]

I have been hunting with my etrac for a couple of weeks now. I went to a park that ive been hunting for 2 years with another detector. I only have been going to this park because i know its not trashy for i dug all that out earlier! i have now 50 hrs on the etrac just at this small park and i am now very comfortable with it. Will do another 50 before i leave that park. I swing very slow and dig all repeatable targets so i get familiar with the sounds and what comes out of the ground. Already pulled 2 silvers and a confederate georgia large coat button from this place thats hunted out. Amazing machine! The button i found in a trashy section of the park. seperates beautifully. You need to find a place less trashy (even if its the beach) and dig repeatable signals for starters.

 

[tlowery04]

You will NEVER get multiple targets on the Etrac screen. Where did you read that? Only the CTX can do that.

ehhh... im pretty sure the minelab salesman told me that... if not it was a mislabeled youtube video

 

[Sovereignelite]

Swing very slow as well. I have about 9 hours field experience with the Etrac so far . I have seen more like a couple seconds lag, never 15-20(I think maybe it seems that long if you are not used to the way the Etrac works). I try to have 5 to 6 seconds on each swing. I have started swinging to quickly at times because that is a VERY slow swing, I have actually missed coins with swinging too fast(and the numbers jump and change and disappear more quickly). After I have gone back and swung slower I found them. I really haven't used Quickmask yet:keep forgetting.

I'd like to add a question to the trashy area problem. Today I hunted a yard with tons of aluminum and nails. Moving from detect - quick mask and back to detect my id numbers don't show for a while, seems like there is a 15-20 second lag before they start showing on the screen. Am I missing something? (new user)

 

[Sovereignelite]

OR use a smaller coil. I started with the stock PRO the first day. I expected some frustration and my expectations were fulfilled! When I switched to the SEF 6x8 it got much easier with the separation of targets and I started finding good coins and targets.

I live on a place like the site you described. It's incredible the amount of metallic trash under the ground. A sweep at "normal" speed makes my E-Trac sound like R2D2 on amphetamines. Minelab recommends a 4 second sweep, left to right to left. That's WAY too fast for trashy areas. Like Bart said, slow to a creep. Also, if you are using the DD coil take advantage of the fact that the actual sensing area is only 1" wide. When you get a solid signal go back across it and sort of hover while wiggling the coil slightly. Each pass allows the machine to refine the data. Step around 90 degrees and repeat the process. I find that this allows me to separate out a lot of the trash.

Good Luck!
Storm

 

[Rolladex]

You need a small coil and hunt in Two Tone Ferrous