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A couple of Etrac questions from a new owner
- Thread starter Whitesmd
- Start date
LandOLincoln
New member
Having Recovery Deep on is like setting your gain really high. It just makes the "deeper" signals as loud as those closer to the surface. I use deep on just because I like to hear the targets scream at me regardless of depth. I use a different cover so I can't answer that question. Happy Hunting.
Whitesmd, They had issues in the past with the minelab covers being too tight. I could not get mine to fit either. I would have figured by now they would have resolved the problem. If wherever you bought your detector at will not replace it with a better fitting cover I would consider a cover made by sunray products which is on these forums. Very nice cover, you will like that cover. As far as deep on/off My understanding is all it does is amplify deeper weaker signals (sound wise). The gain control does a similar chore. As far as using more filters or curcuits to do this I do not know all the technical stuff. I do not know who you are talking about when you say jeff's book? Andy Sabisch has a very good informative book that is well worth reading. Hope this helps and HH.
LandOLincoln
New member
I have the Sun Ray protector. It works just fine but the glare on the plastic can be a little much sometimes. I don't hunt in the rain so I rarely use it unless its muddy out.
Big Boys Hobbies
Well-known member
The sun ray cover fits MUCH better. You should look into getting ANDY Sabisch handbook on the Minelab E-Trac. Its full of the good info you seek! I always try to offer one to the customer when i sell one. Answers tons of questions.
EtracTom-AdirondacksNY
New member
Deep ON turns on a set of filters that helps the detector get a better reading on the deeper targets doesn't really amplify it.
Gain does that the higher the gain the more the deeper signals sound louder like shallow signals do. Helps to hear deeper signals easier.
The Etrac makes a sound like thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk on really deep targets but still id's as best as it can on them.
Fast ON turns off a set of filters and processes and recovers faster from target to target but it clips the signals makes them shorter great for trasy areas.
Yes on this machine you can run fast on and deep on at the same time. Seems to make the signals longer to me for some reason. Same as having sounds, long on to me.
I run sounds, normal.
Gain does that the higher the gain the more the deeper signals sound louder like shallow signals do. Helps to hear deeper signals easier.
The Etrac makes a sound like thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk on really deep targets but still id's as best as it can on them.
Fast ON turns off a set of filters and processes and recovers faster from target to target but it clips the signals makes them shorter great for trasy areas.
Yes on this machine you can run fast on and deep on at the same time. Seems to make the signals longer to me for some reason. Same as having sounds, long on to me.
I run sounds, normal.
"The Etrac makes a sound like thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk on really deep targets but still id's as best as it can on them"
Really? I have only had my etrac for less than a week but I've got about 15 hours on it--just enough time to start to know the right questions to ask. I have heard the noise u mention but I thought that was the etrac nulling out? I had deep turned on--maybe I missed some goods?!
Really? I have only had my etrac for less than a week but I've got about 15 hours on it--just enough time to start to know the right questions to ask. I have heard the noise u mention but I thought that was the etrac nulling out? I had deep turned on--maybe I missed some goods?!
Southwind
Well-known member
I've been using the E-Trac for about 4 years now and have yet to recover a "thunk" that was a good target. Maybe it is just my soil conditions, but my "thunks", and I check out most of them if they read deep, have been iron.
I run with Deep = OFF Fast = OFF because I haven't noticed much difference in depth or better trash separation, but I have noticed a big difference in how accurate the target ID is. Especially the FE numbers. I used to say the FE numbers were practically worthless until I turned both Deep and Fast off. Now I see that FE 11-12 pretty often on good targets even when deep. If you run a really open pattern, and dig it all, then you might as well have Deep and Fast on. If you're a more selective hunter, like myself, and run a more tight pattern then accurate ID is critical and turning them off helps in my case.
I run with Deep = OFF Fast = OFF because I haven't noticed much difference in depth or better trash separation, but I have noticed a big difference in how accurate the target ID is. Especially the FE numbers. I used to say the FE numbers were practically worthless until I turned both Deep and Fast off. Now I see that FE 11-12 pretty often on good targets even when deep. If you run a really open pattern, and dig it all, then you might as well have Deep and Fast on. If you're a more selective hunter, like myself, and run a more tight pattern then accurate ID is critical and turning them off helps in my case.
EtracTom-AdirondacksNY
New member
Nulling it goes silent no threshold sound. Not the same as what I'm describing about the tunk sound.
Here the soil is fairly mineralized and iron too. Comes in in the 85's to 90's on other machines which is pretty mineralized.
I hit a coin that burried the depth meter it was just about at the bottom on the screen and it gave a tunking sound instead of a good clean conductive sound and it was a deep Indian Head penny 11" or so deep. Has happened on lots of other occasions too so now I pay attention to the depth meter when I get that sound and the conductive numbers. Then I switch to the open quick mask to see if I can get a clean conductive signal on them. Can be deep or masked items happens quite a bit to me around here. If I had been swinging the coil instead of crawling along with the coil I think I would have missed it.
It was a very small circular park area in the center of a small town so I was in no hurry. There every begining of Sept. on labor day weekend have vendors all set up over it and the streets and have a street party with open drinking and a carnival and a live band and food and flea market like vendors. In honor of the founding of the small town due to the first mills along the river there. Coins lost every year laying on the ground but some deepies from way back when too since this has been going on since early 1800's . Never been ETRACed so I just had to see for myself. Found my first V nickel there I thought it was a slug it was so smooth and worn.
Here the soil is fairly mineralized and iron too. Comes in in the 85's to 90's on other machines which is pretty mineralized.
I hit a coin that burried the depth meter it was just about at the bottom on the screen and it gave a tunking sound instead of a good clean conductive sound and it was a deep Indian Head penny 11" or so deep. Has happened on lots of other occasions too so now I pay attention to the depth meter when I get that sound and the conductive numbers. Then I switch to the open quick mask to see if I can get a clean conductive signal on them. Can be deep or masked items happens quite a bit to me around here. If I had been swinging the coil instead of crawling along with the coil I think I would have missed it.
It was a very small circular park area in the center of a small town so I was in no hurry. There every begining of Sept. on labor day weekend have vendors all set up over it and the streets and have a street party with open drinking and a carnival and a live band and food and flea market like vendors. In honor of the founding of the small town due to the first mills along the river there. Coins lost every year laying on the ground but some deepies from way back when too since this has been going on since early 1800's . Never been ETRACed so I just had to see for myself. Found my first V nickel there I thought it was a slug it was so smooth and worn.
Southwind
Well-known member
Yes I am aware that iron will often null, if you have it set to discriminate thaparticularar piece of iron, nut iron fale'ing thunks in my soil when extremely deep. The key is you'll get a depth reading at the very bottom when it thunks. Dig it up and you'll find iron.
Southwind said:
Safari or Etrac doesn't matter.In Illinois in our black soil you get a thunk,thunk,thunk smooth tone,thunk, smooth or half smooth tone maybe throw in another thunk and no nulling and you have just found your best coin of the day most times 8 to 11 inches deep right behind other Etrac users almost all the time silver do not know why that is but has been for me.yes I get fooled by deep lead,once by fishing reel nut that was brass.But even in air test I get the thunk that was why I started digging them in the field with manual sensitivity cranked up been very good to me about 9 Barbers dimes,1 Barber Quarter at full length of Lesch,1 silver 3 cent piece,I seated dime.I should say that this is easy to do in clean area with very fast sweep after hearing first thunk you can tell that it is good not Iron.I do not know your soil and have agreed with all your posts in the past but the thunk is for real up here.Target ID will read high on smooth but not correctly, the thunk read on ID is all over the place.
EtracTom-AdirondacksNY
New member
When I said Nulling is your threshold sound as it goes silent over iron or other discriminated out stuff I was answering WhitesMD's response to my first post about the difference of that and the tunk hit sound I was describing 2 different things.
You've experienced it to huh Prep1957 I wondered if others had discovered this or were just walking on by these types of signals. Maybe that is why some Explorer users claim that the Etrac isn't quite as deep?? Well they're wrong.
Yup here when I hit iron no matter what the depth it's the pretty much the same sound as silver or chirps like you got silver but either gives itself away on the ends of the target when you pinpoint and the center isn't where you got the sweeps silver sound hits. Also I open up to quick mask and if that cursor drops into the lower right corner area it's a dead give away that it's junk or iron so I pass it up and don't waste time digging. So The tunking I experience around here on some targets isn't iron.
I remember that Indian head as that is the first time I experienced it (the tunking) and I was hoping for an Indian head as I had found a couple of them there in the years past with other detectors after they tilled up a flower bed one was laying right on the surface so I knew they were in this park. This one hit deep and made the sound and stopped me in my tracks as it read I think either 34 or 36 in conductive. I don't care nor do I pay any attention to the Ferrous numbers EVER I go by sound and conductive no. as that number gives me an idea of what it might be so I knew that is where they fall on the range scale of the Etrac. Since it was consistent in the reading of the CO. no. I knew what I had found before I dug it.
Reason as to not using ferous numbers and not totally relying on the conductive no. is what if you have more than one coin in the hole the numbers will be way off and you'll think it's probably a trash target. I got a conductive 25 once with a sweet high tone like silver but that is pulltabs around here but because of the sound I dug it and it was a silver war nickle and a silver rosiedime in the same hole together so you don't really know.
You've experienced it to huh Prep1957 I wondered if others had discovered this or were just walking on by these types of signals. Maybe that is why some Explorer users claim that the Etrac isn't quite as deep?? Well they're wrong.
Yup here when I hit iron no matter what the depth it's the pretty much the same sound as silver or chirps like you got silver but either gives itself away on the ends of the target when you pinpoint and the center isn't where you got the sweeps silver sound hits. Also I open up to quick mask and if that cursor drops into the lower right corner area it's a dead give away that it's junk or iron so I pass it up and don't waste time digging. So The tunking I experience around here on some targets isn't iron.
I remember that Indian head as that is the first time I experienced it (the tunking) and I was hoping for an Indian head as I had found a couple of them there in the years past with other detectors after they tilled up a flower bed one was laying right on the surface so I knew they were in this park. This one hit deep and made the sound and stopped me in my tracks as it read I think either 34 or 36 in conductive. I don't care nor do I pay any attention to the Ferrous numbers EVER I go by sound and conductive no. as that number gives me an idea of what it might be so I knew that is where they fall on the range scale of the Etrac. Since it was consistent in the reading of the CO. no. I knew what I had found before I dug it.
Reason as to not using ferous numbers and not totally relying on the conductive no. is what if you have more than one coin in the hole the numbers will be way off and you'll think it's probably a trash target. I got a conductive 25 once with a sweet high tone like silver but that is pulltabs around here but because of the sound I dug it and it was a silver war nickle and a silver rosiedime in the same hole together so you don't really know.
DirtAngler
New member
Etrac Tom,
Since you say you don't use the ferrous number, what do you do when you get a 35-45 or 38-45 which comes in sounding good in conductive but is usually, if not always, iron.
Since you say you don't use the ferrous number, what do you do when you get a 35-45 or 38-45 which comes in sounding good in conductive but is usually, if not always, iron.
EtracTom-AdirondacksNY
New member
Dirt angler I don't dig it that it is what I do.
That ferrous number IS iron it's the bottom of the ferrous range on the E-Trac's screen and that range is 1- 35 vertically so I don't think you will ever see a 38 ferrous number as the screen don't go down that far.
Read in Andy's book they found coins as far down as the ferrous 27 line which is about 3/4 ths of the way down on the ferrous range on the screen so if your getting ferrous 35 lets say and your not sure because of the conductive no. that is why I go to wide open quick mask screen after getting a target hit I'm not sure of cause of the depth or something else maybe target masking by iron trying to give a high ferrous reading I look to see where the cursor ends up and that number sequence you stated above 35-45 will put it at the bottom right hand corner area and that IS iron so I don't dig!! I don't need to know or pay attention to the ferrous number just the CURSOR location as it don't usually lie, multiSounds 45 co. in this case do fool ya.
Even in pinpoint mode that cursor is in REAL time showing you where it falls on the screen. If it's not up near that ferrous 12 line even if it's in the blacked out area a bit lower under the 12 line it's most likely a good target. But not way down in the deep black area in the bottom right corner that is a dead give away and all I need to see or know that it's iron trying to fool ya. You see I do several things all pointing to the same thing not needing or caring about the ferrous number itself at first when you get a hit just the co. no. so I may know what it may be target wise at first till double and possiably tripple check before you dig it.
If the cursor is at least 1/4 of the way up off that bottom area then that is about that ferrous 27 line Andy states in his book as beeing the bottom range line where they found most coin targets stay above and junk or some relics are under that line. Also look at the cursor when in pinpoint mode and see where it's at if it's down in that right hand corner area hiding out in all that black area while in the coins discrimination mode or in that corner while in wide open quick mask that is another sign that it's probably not a coin but iron trying to fool ya.
That ferrous number IS iron it's the bottom of the ferrous range on the E-Trac's screen and that range is 1- 35 vertically so I don't think you will ever see a 38 ferrous number as the screen don't go down that far.
Read in Andy's book they found coins as far down as the ferrous 27 line which is about 3/4 ths of the way down on the ferrous range on the screen so if your getting ferrous 35 lets say and your not sure because of the conductive no. that is why I go to wide open quick mask screen after getting a target hit I'm not sure of cause of the depth or something else maybe target masking by iron trying to give a high ferrous reading I look to see where the cursor ends up and that number sequence you stated above 35-45 will put it at the bottom right hand corner area and that IS iron so I don't dig!! I don't need to know or pay attention to the ferrous number just the CURSOR location as it don't usually lie, multiSounds 45 co. in this case do fool ya.
Even in pinpoint mode that cursor is in REAL time showing you where it falls on the screen. If it's not up near that ferrous 12 line even if it's in the blacked out area a bit lower under the 12 line it's most likely a good target. But not way down in the deep black area in the bottom right corner that is a dead give away and all I need to see or know that it's iron trying to fool ya. You see I do several things all pointing to the same thing not needing or caring about the ferrous number itself at first when you get a hit just the co. no. so I may know what it may be target wise at first till double and possiably tripple check before you dig it.
If the cursor is at least 1/4 of the way up off that bottom area then that is about that ferrous 27 line Andy states in his book as beeing the bottom range line where they found most coin targets stay above and junk or some relics are under that line. Also look at the cursor when in pinpoint mode and see where it's at if it's down in that right hand corner area hiding out in all that black area while in the coins discrimination mode or in that corner while in wide open quick mask that is another sign that it's probably not a coin but iron trying to fool ya.
I wondered the same thing about my cover. Almost sent it back but this is what I did.
I got it on as far as it would go then took a break and let the fabric stretch. Keep working it a little at a time then after what seemed like hour, but on an hour it went on, nice fit, very snug, don't worry about it getting wet now.
I got it on as far as it would go then took a break and let the fabric stretch. Keep working it a little at a time then after what seemed like hour, but on an hour it went on, nice fit, very snug, don't worry about it getting wet now.
Whitesmd said: