Little coin garden testing with the etrac and 6x8 coil

[Goes4ever]

Ok tonite I spent some more time testing.........I was using the etrac and had on my 6x8 SEF coil

the coin garden was set up 4 yrs ago and coins are at a measured 7.5" and are on large plastic plates to prevent turning, sinking etc.

I started in auto +3 (etrac was at 19) and I could hit on them but barely, so I flipped it in to manual 19 and it screamed out on the coins easily, so i backed it off to 18, 17, 16, and still could hit them, when I went to 15 it could still hit on the quarter but struggled out a kerthunk over the dime and penny.

I tried fast on, fast off, deep on, deep off....tried them BOTH ON at once, but OFF at once. And still I am convinced that Fast ON and deep OFF gives the best most consistent readings, I passed over these targets over and over and over........

I tried difficult ground, normal etc.....did not seem to affect readings good or bad,

then I tried smooth response, long, and normal. Smooth works and sounds GREAT on the deep targets but real crappy on shallow targets, seems like it would be VERY hard to pinpoint shallow targets in smooth, Long was horrible to me regardless. I still prefer normal.

From my testing on sensitivity manual of 19 with the 6x8 coil is every bit as powerful as 24 when using auto +3, that was a little shock to me, signal in 19 manual was more clear and crisp than 24 in auto +3. So if your in an area and can ONLY get manual 19, trust me it goes pretty DEEP
Yes hard to believe, so i tried it over and over and over....lol

So from this test I decided that I am gonna do something that is have MORE confidence in using my 6x8 coil in yards, not being worried I will miss deep coins. Because my coin garden has only been there 4 yrs, I can imagine how much better a coin will sound out if it has been there 75-100 yrs. But just with 19 manual I should safely be able to detect 80% of the coins in my area, most oldies here are 5-7" range. And I should be able to push it to 22-24 manual in most yards without trouble, in case there are some real deepies.

And I also decided that the current setting I am using are still the BEST for ME in MY soil in MY area.....maybe not in your area but for me, deep OFF and Fast ON and normal response is what I choose to stay with.

Hope this was not too boring of a read for you all.

 

[bottle collector]

Not boring at all and thanks for taking the time to post it. Information that can lead us to learn more about our equipment is extremely valuable and always welcomed.

 

[oneguy]

That's some good info....thanks! Today I was hunting in uncut grass and had lots of thunking as the targets were deep for the most part. Tried to use manual but things got noisey so backed her back down to my usual auto+3. Usually my tector seems to auto pick 19 although I didn't pay attention to what it started with today. My #'s seem to vary quite a bit depending on location (13" ultimate) so I've pretty much gone by the sound more than any #'s and that has really helped me. Next time out I'll let the machine pic sensitivity and then switch over to manual minus the +3 and see what happens.....??????

 

[Goes4ever]

the etrac always starts at 19 when in auto +3 when you turn it on

 

[oneguy]

the etrac always starts at 19 when in auto +3 when you turn it on

Lmao.....learn something everyday around here! I thought after you noise cancel the thing sniffs the ground and grabs a channel and sensitivity and then you're off........I'll start watching that left side of screen more now to see whats going on.............

 

[dougmanning]

that was a nice white up ! my 6x8 will be here tomarrow, so that will be good to know!

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

I've been a long time manual believer, the problem with the pre-Etrac machines is that you had no idea of what the machine was actually doing in auto mode.

Chris

 

[roadapple]

Ok tonite I spent some more time testing.........I was using the etrac and had on my 6x8 SEF coil

the coin garden was set up 4 yrs ago and coins are at a measured 7.5" and are on large plastic plates to prevent turning, sinking etc.

I started in auto +3 (etrac was at 19) and I could hit on them but barely, so I flipped it in to manual 19 and it screamed out on the coins easily, so i backed it off to 18, 17, 16, and still could hit them, when I went to 15 it could still hit on the quarter but struggled out a kerthunk over the dime and penny.

I tried fast on, fast off, deep on, deep off....tried them BOTH ON at once, but OFF at once. And still I am convinced that Fast ON and deep OFF gives the best most consistent readings, I passed over these targets over and over and over........

I tried difficult ground, normal etc.....did not seem to affect readings good or bad,

then I tried smooth response, long, and normal. Smooth works and sounds GREAT on the deep targets but real crappy on shallow targets, seems like it would be VERY hard to pinpoint shallow targets in smooth, Long was horrible to me regardless. I still prefer normal.

From my testing on sensitivity manual of 19 with the 6x8 coil is every bit as powerful as 24 when using auto +3, that was a little shock to me, signal in 19 manual was more clear and crisp than 24 in auto +3. So if your in an area and can ONLY get manual 19, trust me it goes pretty DEEP
Yes hard to believe, so i tried it over and over and over....lol

So from this test I decided that I am gonna do something that is have MORE confidence in using my 6x8 coil in yards, not being worried I will miss deep coins. Because my coin garden has only been there 4 yrs, I can imagine how much better a coin will sound out if it has been there 75-100 yrs. But just with 19 manual I should safely be able to detect 80% of the coins in my area, most oldies here are 5-7" range. And I should be able to push it to 22-24 manual in most yards without trouble, in case there are some real deepies.

And I also decided that the current setting I am using are still the BEST for ME in MY soil in MY area.....maybe not in your area but for me, deep OFF and Fast ON and normal response is what I choose to stay with.

Hope this was not too boring of a read for you all.

TTF and manual 6x8 is amazing !!!!! Nice report !

 

[ChicagoJohn]

Great post! Thanks! Mine is Deep ON and Fast OFF! I will test in my coin garden to see if your is better then I will change it! I always use Auto 3+ and I did use manual 24. Not work good for me because I digging and nothing is there! I will test manual 19 and 20 to see if its good in my coin garden.

 

[Goes4ever]

Great post! Thanks! Mine is Deep ON and Fast OFF! I will test in my coin garden to see if your is better then I will change it! I always use Auto 3+ and I did use manual 24. Not work good for me because I digging and nothing is there! I will test manual 19 and 20 to see if its good in my coin garden.

let us know your results, what measured depth are your coins at?

 

[Bell-Two]

Thanks Terry for your perspective on this.

 

[ironsight]

Its great reading these types of controlled testing.
G4ever, yep your test results are right on IMO, just what i would expect.

If any of you all want the real deep 10+ inchers, forget the Auto settings.
My record silver dime depth of an elbow deep 14 inches was using man. sens 26, even an inch or two deeper if the grass height is factored in. Asolutely no way AUTO +3 could of detected that dime. That dime was found with my NEL Tornado coil with an iffy ID, it's bottomed out depth reading is what persuaded me to dig.

There's a point of diminishing returns when upping the man. towards or to the limit dependant on falsing tolerance, little eTRAC experience, junk density, soil, EMI, etc.
I will say though with the right EMI/soil conditions using an open pattern 'and' if a falsing tolerance can be built up - mentally filtering out the falsing, the higher the man sense setting the better for finding the deepest targets, but might not be for everyone. Found many 10 to 12+ inch deep coins using that setup.

I rarely use Auto settings as just about all the remaining keepers in the parks around here are deep.
About the only time i use Auto is in tot lots or when in the mood for clad like detecting in modern clad parks with no history.

I've also used Auto- successfully a couple times when searching hi EMI areas where a hi manual sens. setting/noise cancelling won't work but at the great expense of depth.

 

[Jeff in Pa]

Well now I have found my share of deep coins in auto +3 but you guys have me thinking. The thing that bothers me in manual is when I hit a deep one that's very iffy I always switch to manual to try and get a better signal. Now the thing I notice is the only way to hear it better is to push beyond the current auto +3 number but then I get the chatter which I will momentarily put up with just so I can decide to dig or not.

When I say deep I mean those signals that are 11 or more with my 13" Ultimate.

Had one a couple of weeks ago that I would only tell anyone if I had video of it.

It would sound like a "big fish story".

 

[ChicagoJohn]

Great post! Thanks! Mine is Deep ON and Fast OFF! I will test in my coin garden to see if your is better then I will change it! I always use Auto 3+ and I did use manual 24. Not work good for me because I digging and nothing is there! I will test manual 19 and 20 to see if its good in my coin garden.

let us know your results, what measured depth are your coins at?

I test and I don't see any much different! I stay with Deep On and Fast Off plus Auto 3+ . My coin garden various from 5 to 8 inch deep. Mercury Dime at 8 inch deep, Silver quarter is at 7 inch deep, Indianhead cent at 7 inch deep and wheat cent at 6 inch deep. Two nickel at 5 and 6 inch deep. I notice that nickel is harder at deeper than 6 inch but I did find my first V nickel at 8 inch deep almost 2 years ago. Went park yesterday for 2 hours. Clad down to 6 inch deep is no problem. 5 dimes and 20 pennies. Two wheat cents at about 7 to 8 inch deep.

 

[ChicagoJohn]

I did use manual 24 to 26 and digging deep. Nothing and few iron nails! 16-44, 17-44, 16-45, etc.....Nail, rust metal junk, etc. When I use Auto 3+ and if it said 22 or 24 or 25 then that's fine and if its so low like 14 or 16 then I try manual 20 or 22 then see what happen. I notice that if I force my machine and nothing in the hole! I notice that grass between sidewalk and street curb or smaller space is lower. Wild open like open park get higher like 22 to 26 in Auto 3+. Maybe something do with small area soil cause machine lower but I don't know.

 

[BryanM362]

Interesting, I would have thought sensitivity of 19 was the same whether in Auto, or manual... I always run auto +3, and use the 6 X 8 SEF most of the time. I'll have to try manual.

This could explain why I have gotten skunked my last few times in the woods. The undergrowth is growing up and I can't always get as close to the ground as I was a month ago. Perhaps not getting enough depth at auto +3.

Thanks for the insights.

 

[looknforgold]

Nice read... I'm gonna check it out on the 5x10 and see what happens.

Side Note:I have been using Manual sometimes with it and it has been hitting very nice, But that was with Deep on & Fast off.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Bryan,

I've found that if you can't get the coil real close to the ground, no matter what kind of sensitivity you are running, it absolutely kills detecting depth. And I've found it is worse the smaller the coil is. In the summer with dry ground and tall grass there are time even a shallow cent gives a faint signal that shows way down on the depth meter.

Anybody else see this also?? I'm thinking the air space may screw up the ground mineralization tracking.

Chris(SoCenWI)

 

[ironsight]

Interesting, I would have thought sensitivity of 19 was the same whether in Auto, or manual... I always run auto +3, and use the 6 X 8 SEF most of the time. I'll have to try manual.

This could explain why I have gotten skunked my last few times in the woods. The undergrowth is growing up and I can't always get as close to the ground as I was a month ago. Perhaps not getting enough depth at auto +3.

Thanks for the insights.

No, a 19 AUTO and a 19 MANUAL is not the same though i suppose it could be theoretically.

In MANUAL, a 19 would mean all three sens. channels are set to 19 absolute.

In AUTO, a 19 would mean at least one of the 3 sens. channels is set to 19 while the other 2 channels could be set considerably lower to adjust for soil conditions.
Each of the 3 channel's sens. numbers are adjusted separately to allow a stable ID. The 'suggested right sens. bar' indicates an average of all the 3 sens. channels for maximum ID stableness.

Here's the trade off, AUTO for a stable ID but limited depth (or)
MANUAL for maximum depth at the expense of falsing and erratic IDs. Using a hi MANUAL sensitivity will find the deepest possible targets with experience.

I run my small NEL Sharpshooter coil usually at maximum manual sens. with only minor tolerable falsing at most sites.
IMO, running a small coil in AUTO will give a great stable ID for shallow targets but guaranteed, you're gonna walk over that deep silver.

 

[utahshovelhead]

n/t