beep and dig e-trac??

[pointer80]

hey guys, I guess I really am getting cabin fever. Considering I was out detecting last year 2 weeks prior to this and this year we still have 3 ft. of snow right now so maybe I am thinking crazy at this point. LOL. I am just curious but has anybody covered up there screen on there e-trac and turn the tones down to 2 and just been forced to go strictly by sound and disc.? Almost like a lot of your beep and dig machines. I have a bad habit of referring to the numbers on the screen too much I think instead of just the audio(tones). Maybe this way I could force and train myself to go more by tones. I guess you could use multi tone but 2 tones would force you to dig more maybe? Any feed back or have I finally hit my insanity breaking point?

 

[khouse]

Open the screen all the way up. Set it on 2 tone ferrous. Install bag and dig all high tones. I can get it done without the bag. But I have great restraint.

 

[BryanM362]

You would dig a lot of rusty nails!

 

[pointer80]

I actually think you would have to take the stock program and increase the disc. a little more.

 

[surfchunker]

I don't look till I have the location nailed down and like the tone ... then I peak

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[robby4570]

Heck, I'm still beep-&-dig detecting... sort of. I'm swinging a Sovereign Elite and dreamin' of gettin' an E-Trac.

 

[surfchunker]

I used a XTerre 705 last year with the digger coil and it has not really missed much other than a few nickels, and one flying eagle cent. I do dig less junk now at times it just depends on how much I'm looking for jewelry ... straight up coin shooting I dig a lot less junk now but the 705 & digger don't miss much

 

[~ACE~]

I hunt mostly old farm fields with a ton of iron, so I set the Etrac to TTF with an open screen and dig every repeatable signal. Sure I dig some nails, but I peek at the screen too, and skip a few. I looked at the screen on one of my last hunts because I had a repeatable but choppy signal. 17:44 bouncing around to 19:39. Usually a nail when I dig them but thought I would dig it anyway since I didn't get many targets in that area. Ended up being a 1737 British half penny, pretty well worn. If I had a lot of targets in the area and concentrated on the numbers, I probably would not have dug it.

 

[khouse]

Beep diggers usually disc out small iron and dig the rest. Basically that's what your doing on ttf open screen and dig just the high tones. Or you can open the screen up and reject FE from 18 all the way down and run in Conductive tones and dig all signals. But you'll get some nulling this way....... I buy a machine with an accurate display because I don't have the time and temperament to beep dig. Not to say I don't sometimes. It's nice to have features on a machine just in case you want to use them.

 

[~ACE~]

Agreed. I only have about 50-60 hours on my Etrac and still have a lot to learn. I tried multi conductive with some discrimination but there was a lot of high tones that ended up being falsing or small iron. Like I say, I have a long way to go with this machine yet.

 

[ironsight]

I think after a little experience with the eTRAC, some eventually settle in with their own detecting style and never change or experiment.
That initial comfort zone with the eTRAC with its so many options can be limit the full potential of this machine.

Initially I tried detecting by 'tone alone' which so many swear by. It was OK using a heavy coin pattern and MTC but dug up a lot of deep silver spoofing corroded iron and also didn't like all the nulling. Wasn't my cup of tea and gave it up considering i ended up double checking the ID anyhow. 'Tone only' felt like detecting blind!

Using TTF open screen, 'tone only' was definitely not an option. There, a target tone, any target tone whether it be ferrous or conductive only alerts me to study the digital ID. Doesn't totally eliminate digging corroded nails, but after a while each nail dug along along with its ID develops that 'gut feeling'.

 

[Southwind]

Using the E-Trac as a beep-N-dig would be like buying a car and then pushing it by hand when you need to go somewhere.

I believe the more information you can get from a detector the less garbage you will dig. Yes, they can make mistakes, but practice reduces that possibility. I've done the dig-it-all/beep-N-dig style detecting in the past for many years. What I determined is if you know how to read your detector tones AND ID correctly, you're very unlikely to ever miss any goodies. Despite the popular belief of the beep-N-dig fans.

 

[moonshine]

i dont understand why you'd want to limit yourself. like having a high end stereo system but diconnecting the subwoofer, the tweeters, turning the bass and treble all the way down, and then just listening to only one radio station.

i guess it goes without saying that i use multi tone conductive with the sens. cranked up. i want to hear and see it all. i just go more by feel now. i listen, i dont really need to look at the screen but it does help on those oddball targets. (like a steady 5-40 or some other odd number)

if you go to two tone and you get an odd number like a 19-36 or something, you might miss something good on that first pass. a number like that could easily be an indian head penny. i would not do that when youre still learning and trying to feel out the machine. i like to hear everything down to about 24 or so, i cant remember exactly what i have disced out.

spring will be here soon my friends, im going nutty myself.

 

[54shooter]

Sounds like a good idea to me. I'm really bad about that myself even though I've proven to myself that unless the target is real shallow those numbers don't mean squat.

 

[Neil]

Sounds like a good idea to me. I'm really bad about that myself even though I've proven to myself that unless the target is real shallow those numbers don't mean squat.

Then you haven't used an Etrac and used some pretty bad ID machines. Theres a bunch of them now that ID very well down fairly deep.

 

[BryanM362]

I hunt mostly old farm fields with a ton of iron, so I set the Etrac to TTF with an open screen and dig every repeatable signal. Sure I dig some nails, but I peek at the screen too, and skip a few. I looked at the screen on one of my last hunts because I had a repeatable but choppy signal. 17:44 bouncing around to 19:39. Usually a nail when I dig them but thought I would dig it anyway since I didn't get many targets in that area. Ended up being a 1737 British half penny, pretty well worn. If I had a lot of targets in the area and concentrated on the numbers, I probably would not have dug it.

For me nails are 30 - 35 Fe, and usually 40 - 48 Cond.

Anything between 6 and 24 Fe, with a 30+ Cond, I'm digging, if I have time. If I don't have time, I might go 40+ on the Cond.

 

[pointer80]

I have had my e-trac for several years now but I think we all find ourselves getting lax once in a while. I think covering up the screen and forcing yourself to go by strictly sound would be a good refresher every now and then.