I think theres is a HUGE problem with the Etrac

[Bugalooob]

A previous poster mentioned this but I think it needs its own topic...I placed one 1 1/2 inch nail laying with its point to a silver quarter ONE FOOT away from the coin and when I swing past the nail first then the coin I'm getting in the range of 28-48 but whats even worse is when I immediately swing back over the quarter first and then the nail I'm still getting that 28-48 range most of the time....I'm starting to think If theres any piece of ferrous crap laying lengthwise to a coin within a foot?, 2 feet? then your screwed...If you open that area up on your smartscreen , you'll be diggin a load of junk..

 

[Bugalooob]

I just tested some more coins clad dimes,silver dimes, nickles and copper pennies using the above nail test and there all going into the ferrous junk range..This ain't lookin too good

 

[OzarkTom]

A previous poster mentioned this but I think it needs its own topic...I placed one 1 1/2 inch nail laying with its point to a silver quarter ONE FOOT away from the coin and when I swing past the nail first then the coin I'm getting in the range of 28-48 but whats even worse is when I immediately swing back over the quarter first and then the nail I'm still getting that 28-48 range most of the time....I'm starting to think If theres any piece of ferrous crap laying lengthwise to a coin within a foot?, 2 feet? then your screwed...If you open that area up on your smartscreen , you'll be diggin a load of junk..

Try it again with a small loop. That is why most of us use a 5-6 inch coil in trashy sites.. Some top brands of detectors will null the coin out because of the nail, and you will only get one signal, instead of two as you sweep back and forth.

 

[Bugalooob]

According to the manual with high trash on and fast recovery on, this machine should not be doing this with the supplied coil...I moved the coin a foot and a half from the nail and its still doing it...What other top brand detector won't do this?

 

[tmanfromtexas]

How fast are you swinging your coil? The one thing with Minelab products that I have learned is that you have to swing slower than other brands. Airtesting is ok but its what you get in the ground that matters. I understand your concern but keep hunting with the etrac and you will see it works well in my opinion. TMAN...

 

[jeff & Maria]

n/t

 

[DirtDean]

It's a love/dislike relationship with my etrac at this point. when i discovered the same results you had, i was upset to say the least. Instead of having a machine with superior discriminating abilities, i have to go basically all metal and turn this thing into a 1500$ bottlecap, pulltab and scrap finder. I seriously considered selling the etrac and getting an explorer se pro, but then i've read so many GOOD things, and seen a lot of great finds being pulled up by the loads, that i am going to give it a chance to work for me. I'll have to change my way of detecting into UK style. Open the screen w/very little iron mask and... SHEVEL TO THE METAL!!! They always say,"go by your ears nothe numbers". so that's what i'll be doin for my nex few hunts, bashing my ears, and bashing my shovel. I'm pretty sure my coin count will go up, but i will have to make several trips to the car or trashcan to unload junk. Come on minelab, WHATS UP WITH THAT!!! I hope i don't see a brand change in my future cause i do like the minelabs, but i'm not faithful either. Here's to more coins in our pouches...and less digging junk!

 

[LilloEsquilo]

You don't mention sweep speed but if you really whip that thing, sure you can make it do that. But if you are really whipping it, you are wasting your time in the first place. It should be swung at a moderately slow speed, pretend you are painting the ground. When I swing my E-Trac like that, I don't get anything like what you are seeing and it will tell me there is a silver coin in the mix even an inch away. If I swing it like I'm swinging a baseball bat aiming for the fences, then I get what you get.

As a point of comparison I've done the same test on the Teknetics T2, the forerunner of the F75, which is noted for having that outstanding speed, and it behaved the same way - you had to slow your swing down in junk and work the coil and play with the settings to get the best response.

So assuming you aren't whipping the coil around you probably have an issue with the machine, as the E-Trac is noted for its ability to find goodies in the junk. It's one of the best at that and I've found goodies that I missed with every other machine I've owned using the E-Trac in the typical trash conditions we see in the real world.

 

[Jesse W. McComas]

I have never had that problem with my E-Trac. I swing slow and can separate the bad targets from the good target, I use the factory applied coil on all my hunts and am making great finds in places that have not produced in years. I am going to post my finds from yesterday of the coins I found in an old trash infected part of my local park, as soon as my cameras battery charges. I was digging up pull tabs that sat on top of coins all day long and was hearing the coin and not the pull tab. I am still using the factory Coin mode on my coin hunts and am doing better with this machine that with the Exp II. I had great success with that machine, but this one is better for me.

I think the way to use this machine is to go slow and listen to the signals, then check your screen for verification. This works for me. This is just my opinion. on this matter, but thought you might like to get my take on the E-Trac. HH...Jesse.

 

[diggin jimmy hoffa]

If you are getting a 48 as the last set of numbers you should dig it as long as it is a solid number. I don't look at the first set of numbers and have had Quarters in the same hole with more than 1 nail. In fact, yesterday I had a small coin spill with 3 nails in the mix. Another coin spill with multiple nails in it as well asn I didn't have any null. If you are geting a 48 turn and swing across the target at 90 degrees and see if it repeats. If it is a nail it shouldn't repeat at all.

DJH

 

[xGregx]

I pulled a penny(1919) at about 9 1/2 inches yesterday and a penny at about 8 inches (1930) was getting nullouts all around them. Most old nails with the etrac null out in one direction and will read like 43-44-45 in the other. The sound i was getting on the 1919 penny was just a Short Hit then null but i was getting it both ways when i X the target, The ID was on the cond side 40-41 The ferous numbers were jumping.

 

[DirtDean]

Looking at the glass half full as it were, I'm wondering if this funk-e-trac behaviour isn't part of it's genius and once you learn it's language it will become like a beautiful orchestrated masterpiece instead of a garbled sick goose choking on it's own vomit. I was new to minelab until i got the sov Xs2 pro, and before i could really learn that i got the e-trac about a month later. started out on a whites classic III. For me it was like going from crawling to running in a triathalon. I think it's coming together tho, and i wish thsi rain would go AWAY so i can go sling some dirt!

 

[Dennis 2]

The E- Trac hasn't shown me its the holy grail over the SE. I put my SE in the closet to give the ET all my attention . I've tried them both side by side in my test garden ,Plus over 50 hours of hunting . What I found was....to get the targets in the ground to hit clear and hard like it does with theSE( Also with out having to work the coil on the ET .to make sure it was a good target). I had to rise the Gain to 26 or 27. Anything below 25 just didn't do it.Deeper target didn't come through. What also helped was raising my threshold level to 30( I have no idea why raising the threshold to 30 helped but it did), and the threshold pitch to 15 from pitch 1.
I'm taking the ET on a hunt in Conn for a week( leaving the SE home) . I hope it show's me its all its said to be. I'll let you know how it goes.
Dennis 2

 

[gibsondan]

The ferrous numbers will sometimes be different in the ground because of mineralization and other ground conditions. I've learned it's the conductivity number that is more consistent. If I get a high toned signal with conductivity over 40 I'm going to dig it no matter what the ferrous number is. Good targets seem to fall on the ferrous 12 line consistently when air tested. But, as I have learned, they can be different in the ground. Dig all the high tones and don't worry about digging some trash. You can't get around that no matter which detector you have. Focus more on the sounds and less on the numbers. Dig some of those iffy signals too. If I have iron discriminated out, I'm diggin' all those high tones! With this detector I have consistently dug more coins than trash every time I've hunted with it. It has performed much better than my other detectors in that regard. But, I did dig some screw-tops, can slaw and pull-tabs - not many, but a few. If I swung my coil over the ground and got a consistent 28-48, I'd dig it. That 48 conductivity number would get me excited. Most other detectors only measure conductivity. Look at the ferrous number as a little bonus that can help you decide whether to dig or not. Often it is more consistent...like with nickels. I don't know why, but f the ferrous numbers are 10, 11, 12 or 13 and the conductivity is 11, 12 or 13, I know it's going to be a nickel. Focus on the high tones and the conductivity number. Shoot, with iron discriminated out wouldn't you be interested to see what gave you a conductivity number of 48? In your case it would have been a quarter.

 

[RONC(OR)]

Hi All
frist off the auido is the only thing that makes me what to dig a target

 

[RONC(OR)]

Went to hit spell check and it posted ahh anyways the audio is the key to the exp -etrac it is second to none the only time I look at the # is for nickels and low tones I have found silver coins with nail stuck to them .So don't let the # dictate what you dig audio is king HH

 

[Ray-Mo.]

My answer is on the Vision forum,Ray.

 

[RONC(OR)]

n/t

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

You could have something wrong with yours. I don't give much credit to above ground test, or in house test. use a re-bar (steel rod) and poke a small hole in the dirt (do a all-metal search first to find a clean spot) drop your coin in and fill the rest of the hole with loose dirt then do the same with the nail. This is a good way to set up a coin garden and you can mark the locations with a 2 inch long by 4 inch wide plastic PVC press them into the dirt. the lawnmower will go right over them... Happy trails 2 U.

 

[sharpshooter]

[size=medium]Not a huge problem for me.

Not even a small problem.

If it's readin' a 48, I'm diggin' it.[/size]