Possible problem with E-trac??

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

I am new to metal detecting and recently purchased an E-trac. I am having an issue in detecting deep targets and your help would be appreciated.

I experimented with a coin garden in my yard and something seems to be off a little.
The main issue is on deeply buried coins. Since I don't have any silver dimes, I buried a clad dime around the 8 to 9 inch range. The detector in auto sensitivity even in the +3 range could not detect the dime.

I changed to manual mode and once I changed the setting to a sensitivity of about 25 or 26, I was able to detect the coin. However, at target ID is not steady. The FE numbers will jump all over the place and the CO numbers vary also except not nearly as much.

Am I doing something wrong or is this the typical behavior of the etrac with the stock coil? Or could something not be working correctly with either the coil or the detector?

Any help and insight would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[The Beep Goes On]

There doesn't seem to be anything necessarily worng...we would need to know your soild type and all of your settings to see if something's wrong. Different things affect depth; mostly coil size, sensitivity and ground conditions (mineralization), 8 or 9" on a dime is fantastic in some soils.


Beep

 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

As for as the settings go, I was just using the preset "coin" mode. Other than that, the only thing I changed was the sensitivity as described in my email.
I am using the stock coil that comes with the etrac.
I have no idea about the ground condition because I would not know how to tell how mineralized it is.

 

[The Beep Goes On]

I don't have any buried coins to test, but the deepest silver dime I've pulled on a hunt was 8 or 9" and my sensitivity was maxed out, or close to it. The orientation of the dime can be important as the E is more sensitive to coin orientation than most units (which is not necessarily bad). You can try it in all metal mode and see if that gains you anything. Did you noise cancell?

Beep

 

[NiagracountyNY]

U wont get as much depth on a freshly buried Item as something thats been in the ground for years.My deepest coin find to date is only 11 inches(auto sens)..I got a pocket watch at 14 inches tho

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

Yes, I noise cancelled.
Perhaps 8 or 9 inches is about max depth I can detect with a freshly buried clad dime.
The only thing that really worries me is that given the target ID's I am getting from this buried dime, I probably would not dig it up because the readings are so eratic. I get solid ID's with similar targets up to 6 inches but anything deeper, my target ID's are all over the place. Both Fe and Co readings are eratic. Oh well, guess I will have to learn to live with it but I wish I knew someone with another etrac so I can verify that nothing is wrong with my equipment.

Does anyone know how often coils go bad or lose their ability to go deep? Perhaps I should buy a 11" or 8" pro coil.

 

[Goes4ever]

every coin I have dug that was real deep the numbers are way off, you need to listen to the tones, hunt by ear. not by the screen. Today I dug an indian that was about 7" deep and the reading was 01-32..........but it sounded sweet, so I dug it and was rewarded.

 

[Mr Kryptonite]

Sounds like you have something else in the hole with the dime.
Dig up the dime and check the hole, could be some iron in the hole causing jumpy numbers.
HH Ken

 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

every coin I have dug that was real deep the numbers are way off, you need to listen to the tones, hunt by ear. not by the screen. Today I dug an indian that was about 7" deep and the reading was 01-32..........but it sounded sweet, so I dug it and was rewarded.

Was the reading a steady 01-32?
I ask because with my buried dime, a sweep in one direction will read 18-32, then in the opposite direction it will read 10-43. If I keep sweeping back and forth the numbers will continue to jump all over the place from 32-49 then 6-44. With such eratic readings at only 8 inches I feel something is wrong. Perhaps I need to concentrate on the tones more. I am just trying to get a feel if this is normal behavior since I have no reference.

 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

Sounds like you have something else in the hole with the dime.
Dig up the dime and check the hole, could be some iron in the hole causing jumpy numbers.
HH Ken

I checked that possibility. I get no indication of any metal with the dime removed from the hole but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[The Beep Goes On]

I think your machine is probably just fine, but if you're not confident in it, then your overall performance will suffer, I believe. Take it to a dealer...have him test it and look it over.

As a last suggestion, put it in All Metal, turn the sensitivity up to 29, turn Deep On, turn Fast Off and then sweep the target very slowly. This will give you the most reliable ID's possible. The change in ID at different sweep angles is because the dime is probably not flat and is presenting a different profile to the detector as you change the angle.

Beep

 

[Goes4ever]

no numbers were not steady they were all over, but I seen 01-32 most. BUT I rely on sound NOT numbers, the sound told me there was a worthwhile target down there. This was a farm, iron was abundant, nothing gave good soild numbers.......that is where I mainly hunt, so numbers to me are worthless. Learn to hunt by sound and soon numbers will be of little value to you. I just upgraded from a minelab x-70, I used multi tone, and I learned to hunt by sound, when I did that and ignored the numbers My deep good finds greatly increased, so the transition to the etrac was a breeze, no leaning curve whatsoever
soon u will see most minelab users rely more on the sound than the numbers, deep coins just don't give solid numbers, they didn't on the xterra 70 and don't on my etrac, but who needs numbers?

 

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

Well, I dug up the dime and rechecked the hole area but this time in "all metal" mode. I probably should have done this the first time but I believe I only checked the area the first time in default "coin mode". Duh! So, thanks Mr. Kryptonite for the enlightenment.
After scanning in all metal, there was another iron reading pretty close to the dime hole but not in the same hole.

I scanned another area in all metal mode and when I found a quiet area I dug another 8" to 9" hole to put the dime into. This time the detector was able to detect the coin in auto +3 mode which it was not doing previously. The target ID's were still not steady but not nearly as bad as the first time. The Co values were much more stable with a lot less jumping. The Fe numbers still had a nice jump but not as bad. If I would have come across this in the field I probably would have dug it up. So the bottom line is that I feel a little better now and I will also have to take Goes4ever's advice and learn to rely on the tones more than the target ID.

If a little iron in the neigborhood distorts the readings like it did in my first hole, it is going to be a nightmare to find coins in trashy areas. Guess I better learn how to hunt with tones fast!

 

[Goes4ever]

yeah if you ever hunt houses you need to learn tones....lol
especially farm houses where you get 3-4 iron hits PER swing!

 

[sharpshooter]

no numbers were not steady they were all over, but I seen 01-32 most. BUT I rely on sound NOT numbers, the sound told me there was a worthwhile target down there.

and

soon u will see most minelab users rely more on the sound than the numbers, deep coins just don't give solid numbers

Couldn't say it better myself so I wont try. Absolute truth. Take it to the bank.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Unless you get really lucky and find a virgin site, most of the time you will be contending with coins hidden in trash. What you saw was typical: nearby trash can kill the sensitivity in Auto and cause the IDs to be way off. It's not really a nightmare, it is why we find coins where others don't. The stuff that isn't hidden by trash has for the most part been dug years ago.

It will take a lot of swinging time to get good at discerning between iron falsing and coins buried in iron, but your machine will give you lots of clues if you are patient.

 

[silvereagle]

I agrre with you I too have issues with depth,I tried coin garden and lost alot of depth,i have found silver but the tone sounds are iffy?so i have about year on it and as said you cant go by id,so if you get a semi good hit try the pinpoint sizing.i have found things deep that way.but again i am not finding things any deeper than 6-8 inches i called minelab tech. they said no nothing is wrong???? so i guess either they are not there or I cant find things any deeper than 6-8 inches,good luck

 

[UtahRich]

Find a shallow coin signal or put a coin down on the ground. Swing the coil over the target until you get the best signal. Now lift the coil a few inches further away and try again. Notice how the sound changes as the coil gets further away. How far away can you get before you lose the signal entirely? What does it sound like? The sound will be similar as you hunt but you will have to deal with the other noises and pay close attention until you hear that familiar sound amongst the background noises.

It does take effort and patience and you will invarIably dig some junk. Digging junk comes with the territory. We don't usually want to dig all of it, but lost coins, tokens and jewelry are scattered in with it, so the detector is our metallic sorter. As mentioned earlier, most easily found targets get dug up early on. Good targets in close proximity to iron or junk targets can be easily missed by the detector or the user or both for a number of reasons. The minelab detectors are above average at finding good stuff that is deep and or mixed in with undesireable targets.

Good luck.

 

[DeanDig]

The fact that the E-trac was detecting the coin next to iron and not solid nulling is impressive enough for me.

Dug a wheatie @ about 4 inches the other day. The signal was all over and the numbers jumping like crazy, but it clearly said DIG! After I recovered the coin, I scanned the area again and got nothing but NU*LL. Switched to quickmask (all metal) and iron bleeping all over. E-trac is one BAD machine and I'm glad to hear all is well with yours

Now it's just a matter of logging some field time and learning it. You'll be killin'em before you know it!