Etrac Depth

[DrLizardo]

Hello etracland,

I've a question . . I've been using my E-trac for a year now and the deepest that I can be sure that I've ever hit a small coin like a penny or a dime is about eight inches. I've read about other people hitting coins a foot deep, but I've only hit large junk objects that deep. I run auto sensitivity, up to auto+3 and about 95% of the time the Etrac sets itself to 22 wherever I am. I've tried running higher manual sensitivity but that just resulted in a lot of falsing. I use the 11" pro coil. I wonder if it's the machine or the coil or the conditions round hereabouts that limit the depth to which I can detect coins. My detecting territory is western Massachusetts, and in many of the places I detect the soil is red with iron oxide. I've had the etrac tell me that there was something in a pile of red dirt I dug up; I waved a handful of it over the coil and got a signal, but when I broke it up there was nothing. So I suspect that even for the mighty E-trac, trying to see through that is about like driving straight into the sun with a dirty and scratched up windshield. It's my first detector so I've no other machine to compare it to. I wonder if other people can hit coins deeper than I've been hitting them in conditions comparable to what I've got around here.

Thanks for any advice(if it should prove useful)

DrLizardo

 

[utahshovelhead]

8 inches is great in iron soil (highly mineralized) you are correct about the size of the coil as bigger will most likely have a harder time with more iron soil to get through. The falsing or ghost signals are good learning tools for you as you will over time learn to find ways to recognize them by a. sound b. toggle to quick mask with an open quick mask screen and check the cross-hair before you dig, c. pinpoint and see how small the target sounds d. there are other ways just telling you some.

At 8 inches for a penny- was that a solid signal, or a broken signal and you were just checking it? I have mineralized ground here and that is a pretty decent find with my sens set at 21 + 3. What sens are you at?

As for depth, some of the deeper coins you read about come from beach sand or clean soil or just plain really experienced guys who recognize some subtle behaviors on the machine, don't be too obsessed with the depth yet. Keep finding pennies at 8 inches and your doing better than most the guys. Stick to it and search this forum for related subjects about your area and you will get all the goodies.

good luck
utahshovelhead

 

[sugar]

you are only going to hit targets at 12 inches if they are there most targets will come up around the 4 to 6 inch mark you can always tryi burying a couple of items just to see if your detector will sound off but of course not a true test as the soil has been disturbed also trying air test to see how far away an item has to before your etrac can see it all these little tests will give you a little more knowledge about the etrac

 

[DrLizardo]

Thanks for replying

The two deepest coins I've hit weren't totally clear, but they hit in every direction. I know there's at least something there when I get a signal every pass, walking around it in a circle. Most of the time I run at auto+2 which usually reads around 22.

Liz.

 

[hershey1]

Don't take this wrong but be SURE when you noise cancel there is NOTHING under your coil or in the coil cover. When you locate a sure target raise your coil up slowly until tone disappears, that will give you a better idea of the depth capabilities of your machine. HH