7 years detecting = no silver. 5 hours with the Etrac = silver.:drinking:

[TrpnBils]

I'm starting to be convinced!

I took up detecting in late 2006 with an Ace 250, hit every park, every school, every church yard I could get permission at in my city and aside from 1 wheat penny I didn't find anything but clad and a couple of earrings for about 2 years. I detected off and on for awhile, but never picked it back up steadily until last summer. I got a Fisher F5 and hit old houses, more schools, more parks, and anywhere that would let me in. Found another wheat penny at some point last fall, and I started finding Civil War relics (mostly bullets, but also found a grapeshot ball) occasionally and even found what I thought was a large cent (it was really worn...turned out to be a KG, which was cool for sure, but it was almost unidentifiable). Lately I've been getting frustrated with the lack of depth on the F5 (although I love having all the controls right there rather than in menus), so I decided to get an Etrac. I'm actually getting mine on Wednesday next week, but a dealer friend of mine who I'm buying it off of let me borrow his for the weekend while mine is being delivered. Today I hit some schools in the area trying to learn the tones and basic differences between this detector and the F5 (even after reading 50+ pages of this forum and reading Andy's book twice), and after about 5 hours I got a "that sounds weird, I'll dig it and see what it is" signal and popped out this 1928 merc! I know this place has to have been hit hard before, but I also dug a handful of wheats and a ton of clad so I'll definitely be going back!

So here's my question. The CO number on this was 43 at about 6" down, but the sound was what got me... I didn't see any iron in there, but the sound (multi/conductive) went from very low to very high to very low again pretty quickly. Each time I went over it, it hit high and then sunk real quick. Is this the "klunk" I keep hearing about that might indicate a coin on end?

 

[NebTrac]

First of all, welcome. Congratulations on your silver dime and the story. Yes, the "klunk" could possibly be the coin on edge as that is the dropping of of signal in Normal response. The only other time you might have that is with iron mixed in as well. Your threshold would indicate that (for instance after you replaced the plug and went back over it, did your machine null?). Those are the 2 types of instanced when I get a klunk that I can think of.

Thanks for the pictures. Again, nice '28 Merc.!

NebTrac

 

[utahshovelhead]

Id tell you to pay more attention to the high tone than the clunk. I get a bit of a high tone then I stop in my tracks and start trying to bring that high tone into a consistent hit with every swing, I start ignoring all other sounds and just listen and pay attention to where the tip of the coil is over it. If it consistently hits, I DIG the high tone. NOTE that I also check the target in quickmask open screen to check for iron, and do one pinpoint to see if its a small target. I don't think ive ever paid attention to the clunk...just the sweet sound of silver.

 

[ironsight]

Congrats on your first silver with an eTRAC, there'll be more to come.

From what you describe, '...the sound (multi/conductive) went from very low to very high to very low again pretty quickly...' could be a couple of things.
A silver dime at 6" with no junk near or under, not mineralized soil, AUTO +3 or a hi man. sens should have only a high silver tone with no low tones before or after.

What was the sensitivity and other settings at the time?
What was the discrimination pattern?
Did you re-sweep the area after rescuing that dime using open mask to verify no junk in the vicinity of the plug?
I'd bet there was a low conductive target somewhere causing that low tone.

The 'clunks' you referred to are typically targets that the eTRAC can't resolve an accurate ID/tone for, usually very deep targets.
I dig all grunts if they pinpoint.
I suppose Its possible that a very low sensitivity setting, say AUTO -3 in highly mineralized soil could cause a grunt for a relatively shallow 6" dime.

 

[TrpnBils]

Detector was in the Minelab coin program at auto +3 sensitivity, Fast ON, Deep OFF, high trash, difficult soil. I did re-check most of my holes today but I may or may not have with this one because I was too stoked about the find to check for iron...lol. I know I did go back over it to see if there were any more high tones (there weren't), but I don't remember listening for a null.

Congrats on your first silver with an eTRAC, there'll be more to come.

From what you describe, '...the sound (multi/conductive) went from very low to very high to very low again pretty quickly...' could be a couple of things.
A silver dime at 6" with no junk near or under, not mineralized soil, AUTO +3 or a hi man. sens should have only a high silver tone with no low tones before or after.

What was the sensitivity and other settings at the time?
What was the discrimination pattern?
Did you re-sweep the area after rescuing that dime using open mask to verify no junk in the vicinity of the plug?
I'd bet there was a low conductive target somewhere causing that low tone.

The 'clunks' you referred to are typically targets that the eTRAC can't resolve an accurate ID/tone for, usually very deep targets.
I dig all grunts if they pinpoint.
I suppose Its possible that a very low sensitivity setting, say AUTO -3 in highly mineralized soil could cause a grunt for a relatively shallow 6" dime.

 

[lespaul]

Congrats on the Merc and welcome to the Etrac addiction!

 

[BryanM362]

What was your Fe number? Anything lower than a 20 for FE, and I'd probaly dig it, (with a 43 Co). Usually a Silver Dime would come in at a 11 - 13 FE, and 43 - 46 Co.

 

[TrpnBils]

honestly I'm not sure about my Fe number. The advice I was given was "don't really pay attention to that too much" so I had been mostly focused on the Co number since I'm new to it right now. Even with iron nearby, would it have changed it significantly from that 11-13 range?