DEEP SIGNALS???

[BootyHunter]

I am a fairly new E-Trac user as I have had it for about 6 weeks and I have read Andy's book a couple of times and the owners manual at least 3 or 4 times. I have found some pretty good stuff including a South Carolina Silver War button, a 1919 Mercury dime and several wheat cents. Here is my problem, I don't seem to be getting very deep targets, I'd say 6 or 7 inches is my max so far and I have been to a home built in 1880 and all I got was modern clad and 2 wheat cents. All targets that show 10-12" read as iron i.e. FE numbers 30 or higher. I dug 1 or 2 of these just to see and they were both rusted iron. Everyone talks about digging the deep signals by the"sound". What exactly do the good deep signals sound like? and am I to assume that the FE and CO numbers are wrong on deep signals? Please help a green horn, thanks. HH!!!

 

[3RINGER]

I'll be interested to see what jason and some of the others have to say about this as well. I'm new to the machine too,to new to be giving advise on such matters as this. I can say that my finds have gotten much better but still need more time in the field. some of my deeper targets that are good do seem to jump about but give a steady..bing bing tone. not a longer bbiiinnnggg tone, these tones i have found to be trash. playing with FE 2 tone for the last couple times out and liking it more and more each time out.

after finding a target try to hit it from different angles and see if it stays at a good tone and watch the reading to see how much it jumps or the location it wants to stay at. due to being new with the machine I also dig any target I may have Q about for now to see what is going on.

I'll be watching this one to see what others have to say.

HH

 

[dreamweaver43]

To increase the probablitity of hitting deep signals:

Slow you sweep speed.....really slow down.
Increase you gain setting (more important than you think!)

OK. You guys can yell at me if you like. I think I can actually hit deeper with the machine set at (A) sensitivity, compared to the +1 to +3. The etrac is so sensitive that in a trashy park or highly mineralized ground I think that overpowering the machine is counterproductive. Obviously at a clean site there would be advantages of running at +3, I actually did hunt with it on a beach in Flordia +3 and hit targets close to a 12 inches I would estimate. But beach and ground are quite different. I will have to put more time on the machine, but with the (A) sensitivity setting the machine runs smooth as silk, with little or no falsing. In that mode here in Wisconsin it hovers around 22 sensitivity at most sites.

Also...some non-machine thougths. Some locations don't contain targets that are deep, and other locations all there is is deep targets. So unless you have evidence that there is a layer a targets at the edge of detection depth, don't try to "fool yourself into thinking there is something wrong with the machine." I hunted at a park in upstate NY last year that was ridicously underhunted. There were deep wheat pennies all over, along with some silver, etc. The machine worked flawlessly, actually unbeliveable. I took it then home to one of my haunts that has given up the goods in the past, but where I throughly "Explored" in the past, and I struggled to find squat.......second guessed everything, every setting, read all the nay-sayers on the forum, slept on that all winter, etc. I took it to a new site a couple of weeks ago.......the machine worked like dynamite.

So....if you can hit coin sized targets at 6 inches with good TID and solid audio........you probably would hit them a couple inches deeper. The audio will not be as crisp on target at the edge of detection, but the key will be how they repeat. With the etrac it is easier to determine obvious falsing vs potential iffy with the audio first, then now with the added TID # to give even more info. Falses are more likely to vary in audio, sound scratchy, like to null, and don't pinpoint on the spot of the sound......good targets will sound "clearer" even if they are breaking up, not null the machine out, and pinpoint right on, and TID will not bounce all over the place.

Brad

 

[texastreasures]

2nd day with my e-trac. I'm having better luck with low gain so I the deeper targets "whisper". BTW, do you guys notice an audio lag on deep targets?

 

[tmanfromtexas]

I have my gain set to around 26 I believe which allows me to here the deep signals as if they were shallow. The tones for deeper coins in this set up sound pretty much the same. They may be a bit softer sounding but are nice and repeatable. I dug a few wheaties yesterday that were about 8 inches on the depth gauge and were about 8 inches deep in the hole when I dug them. The other thing I tried yesterday was fast off. It made the tones much better, not as clipped. As far as the VDI. It lies, THEY ALL LIE!!! Numbers are only an indication. I use the tones first, the depth second and then the numbers to indicate my need to dig or not to dig. A case in point. I got a nice repeatable signal at 7 inches yesterday. The number bounced between 10-46 and 12-47. I was like WOOHOO, silver quarter coming up. It turned out to be a silver rosie instead. SO, use them as just one item on your detector to determine what ya MAY have in the ground. One last thing, I have learned a few things in detecting especially with the etrac.
1. You have to put the coil over the target. An inch is as good as a mile when you swing your coil. If you dont put it over a possible target, you definitely wont find it.
2. More sens is not always the way to go. It can upset the detector and you dont want an upset detector.
3. Slow your swing so the detector can differentiate between items and it will give you the signal if the target is there.
4. Not all good targets are deep. I hunted a spot that had lots of silver on average at 3 inches due to a rocky layer right below the surface which stopped the coins from sinking into the ground.
5. Most important though, if your detector is finding coins at differing depths it is working just fine. Enjoy the hunt and dont second guess yourself. I have learned with the etrac after hunting an area and then rehunting the same area from a different direction that if you cover the ground well with your coil, you wont leave much in the ground. This was a case yesterday. I hunted an area last week and really pounded it. I went back yesterday and hit it again to see what I missed and I found one wheatie and the silver rosie.

Hope this helps. TMAN...

 

[Gary in Daytona]

Have you tried setting up a test garden? That's the clincher for me when I'm thinking something may be wrong with a detector or the settings. If you plant a few good and junk targets at the depths you feel you should be getting, being VERY careful to measure the depth of each target, you should be able to at least hear them after you cover them - providing you have decent soil and have checked the ground for junk before hand. If you don't hear the targets on the first pass, try adjusting the settings or resetting your etrac and run the sensitivity up even higher. Just a thought.