New to forum and etrac with a question

[bluefin1959]

Hi everyone.
My name is Dan and I have been out of detecting for close to 20 years. I got the fever again this winter and, got a Etrac Last Wednesday night. I had read the forums and tips and got Andy's book which helped a lot.
The 1st time out Thursday last week I got my 1st silver with it a nice 1941 merc with full split bands. In the past week
I have been doing a LOT of detecting in an old ball field and, have got the merc, a silver turquoise ring, a Sterling silver spoon,a rosie,a nice 925 silver 9" bracelet, and a nice 14kt wedding band.
I love this machine and the more I use it the more I can understand what it is telling me. I have figured out the tones are the best to listen to ,but I also check the meter a lot and see where the bulls eye lands while pinpointing too. If, it lands down in the blacked out area it it most of the time junk. ( I dig them to see if there might be something in with the junk ).
I have been lucky enough to find some really nice things in a week like the silver bracelet was in with a pull tab and had funky numbers that would bounce all over the place, but I told myself I would dig anything that sounds kind of good for a month to really learn what the machine it telling me. Last night I got a buffalo right next to a metal pencil eraser ,and was able to read the buffalo as a nickle. The machine is great with nickles I have never found so many nickles. In 2 days I dug 15 nickles.
OK, to the question sorry it took so long. Sometimes, when I am in the pinpoint mode the Etrac Screams!!! while not even close to the ground or a target. If, I move the coil away from the hole it might stop. If, not I just hit detect and then pinpoint again and it's fine. Also, sometimes while the coil is on the ground while I am digging my target it might start to scream again.
I am thinking this is from outside interference, in addition to the knife I use to dig is a nice big hunting knife with a 7" blade ,and
I might be getting feed back from the knife sometimes.
Has anyone else had their Etrac while in the pinpoint mode scream like this? Or, is it me doing something wrong?
I have called Kellyco and they told me it's fine it does that sometimes. I have called Minelab and am waiting for them to get back to me today ( I hope ).
Any input from you folks would be much appreciated
Thank you
Happy Hunting
Dan

 

[Ex-Sox]

Dont know exactly why they do it but my buddies and my SE's along with my Etrac do the same thing. I hit the detect button, get the coil off of the target, wait for a threshold, and hit it again. If you cant get a threshold, hold it up off of the ground until you get one then hit the PP button. Your machine is fine. You are smokin' with that thing already man. Show us some pictures!!

 

[diggin jimmy hoffa]

Had that happen more with my SE than my E-Trac. It has happened a couple of times with my Trac, but I do the same you do. Pull it from the target and try again. One thing I found and maybe it was just me, but I dug a lot of those pencil eraser ends and they were reading in the nickle range. Of course we were hunting an old school and those things are everywhere it seems. Still, I have pulled more nickles with my E-Trac than I did with the SE. I swear, when it locks on at CO13 I can most likely count on a nickle. Sometimes I have been fooled with the pulltab ring with the beaver tail still attached.

HH

DJH

 

[Nick A]

Would love to see a picture of that dime! For those who don't know, Full Split Bands is a term used for really well struck Mercury Dimes. These are especially scarce as this area did not strike up as high on the majority of the coins when minted and second because it is a high wear point so it's the first to wear off.

The bands in question are the two horizontal ones in the center of the fasces as shown on this picture. Collectors are super picky about this! The bands must be well struck up and rounded, not flat. The line in between the bands (the split) has to be 100% clear and well defined for it to be FSB.

Definitely a scarce coin to find detecting! Congratulations.

As far as the pinpoint, the screaming when you leave it on is normal. This happens to me as well, and think would happen with any VCO pinpoint on any detector. I think you just need to be in the habit of turning it off when you are done pinpointing. I have actually found "X"-ing the target to be just as reliable as the pinpoint, so now I mostly only use it to check the size of a target, or narrow down a target in a trashy spot where I am getting a lot of noise.

 

[bluefin1959]

Thank you all for helping me with this
HH Dan