Couple of questions regarding Etrac operations....

[Phillip_in_NM]

I don't recall these having been asked (or answered) in any of the posts I have read, so here goes:

1) Oftentimes, I will sweep over a target, hear tones, but see no numbers displayed on the first pass. Sometimes I will resweep it several times before being given any numbers and there have been even a few times where I've swept over the target many times, been given no numbers, so I pull the coil away for a few seconds, lift it up then resweep it and finally get some numbers. (That last method works on the M6 for better identifying gold items; I've just transferred it to the Etrac trying to get some kind of digital readout.)

2) Every time I've found silver thus far, both with quarters and dimes, I get a bouncy signal between FE=12-13, CO=44-48 and FE=1, CO=36-38. When I get this kind of signal, I'm virtually assured that it will be silver, but I've heard no one else mention this behavior. As I've learned this to be an excellent indicator of silver, if it is the machine, I'm not sure I'd want it fixed!

So....

I'm wondering whether these things are typical or is it my machine? (I bought it used.)

Any observations or opinions would be helpful.

Thanks,

Phillip

 

[Southwind]

Perhaps it might be the ground minerals/conditions?

I've been swinging the E-Trac for almost 4 years now and have never had a silver coin give me a CO below 44. Now the FE will be all over the place with the exception of shallow(5" or less) coins. Even the deep silver I get has a CO of 45 to 47 with just the occasional lower 44. Here in Kansas our soil is pretty mild.

 

[moonshine]

your first question....there are multiple targets....for some reason the sounds the machine gives off are pretty much instant but it seems like the TID numbers wont register until it senses just one target for about a full second or so. if you can make a very small sweep and get a nice tone with a high CO i would dig it for sure. kind of hard to explain.

 

[jmotycka]

Perhaps it might be the ground minerals/conditions?

I've been swinging the E-Trac for almost 4 years now and have never had a silver coin give me a CO below 44. Now the FE will be all over the place with the exception of shallow(5" or less) coins. Even the deep silver I get has a CO of 45 to 47 with just the occasional lower 44. Here in Kansas our soil is pretty mild.

When you say all over the place do you see them all over below say 20, or can they be consistently all over above 20-30 and still be silver? Just asking because I pass by many targets with FE's in the high 20's to mid 30's. I've checked a few and I think they tend to be some sort of aluminum nail.

 

[Southwind]

The FE can be all over from 1 to upper 20's but it will be erratic. The CO tends to be much more reliable and steady and read 44 to 46 on silver dimes and 44 to 47 on silver quarters. Silver halves 47 to 49. This is on coins from 6 to 10" the more shallow ones will have a FE in the 11 to 14 range pretty consistently. If it read a CO from 32 to 49 I'll recover it no matter what the FE says as long as it sounds good in all directions.