Question for TTFers

[Agseeker]

After reading Goes4ever's sticky on how to properly use TTF I decided to get serious and really give it a try his way. I'd dabbled with it a couple of times before for a few minutes but never really gave it a try for several hours. In the past I've always used Multi-tone conductive, usually with auto+3. Yesterday evening I went to a yard I've hunted on before where I found around 10 wheats, a buffalo nickel, mercury dime, standing liberty quarter, and walking liberty half using multi-tone conductive with the stock 11" coil. This yard is full of nails as evidenced by all the grunts when using TTF, but I was still able to find all the previously mentioned coins using multi-tone conductive. Yesterday evening I went back over the same area using TTF with manual sensitivity set at 25-27, with a 4.5x7" DD EQ Pro coil hoping to find a few coins that may be masked by all the nails. After 3.5 hours of detecting not a single coin was found. I did find a few pull tabs, wads of foil, and small unidentified pieces of conductive metal. Perhaps the well-seasoned TTFers who read this can answer a few questions.

Is it common to find conductive metals with FE numbers from 25-33?
Have you ever found a silver coin with a FE number that high?
What do coins sound like in TTF? Do they give a solid reading? I had a lot of small, short CO blips that were not easily repeatable, if at all.
Do you find that the FE/Co numbers jump around a lot in heavily iron infested areas? Many of the holes I dug had 2-3 nails in them.

Any advice you can give a beginner TTFer would be appreciated.

Ag

 

[Southwind]

I'm not going to be much help but thought I'd throw my experience with TTF in there. I also used Goes4Ever's site, settings and downloaded the mode.

Our city park is full of iron from 120 years of use. I've tried TTF many times and really never got anything I could honestly say was due to using TTF. The good targets I did manage to recover were from curiosity rather than being able to say it was a good target before digging. About the same odds as when I use normal conductive mode. Most all signals I got that had the iron grunt by a good mid-tone ended up being a rusted nail/bolt at 10" or more. Every mid-tone I got that didn't have a iron grunt with it I tested in normal conductive and got a good signal as well. For me TTF just hasn't proved it's worth to me yet. I think it does give more iffy/false signals causing you to dig things you wouldn't normally dig and odds are sooner or later it will be a good one.

 

[Goes4ever]

in TTF if you get a high tone, turn 90 degrees and if you still get a smooth repeatable tone, then dig it, if AFTER turning 90 degrees the signal is gone or very scratchy then 99% of time it is iron.

Coins will sign out in TTF, they will be clear and repeatable, not choppy or scratchy. It is VERY possible there are no coins you missed there if iron isn't real high. The etrac can handle quite a bit of iron while using coin mode and you very well might have gotten all the coins.

In conductive mode, yes I have gotten silver as high as 25 on the FE side, this is a pretty rare occurance but it does happen. More often that not it is VERY deep coins on the brink of depth capabilities of the etrac.

 

[sprchng]

This occurs in conductive frequently but I'm not sure about it in TTF.
You can get an almost good sounding signal but with iffy ID numbers -say 18 to 24/45. The position on the screen is good and the depth with motion is @ 8" but when you pinpoint it locks down and shows a depth of 12". Dig it! It will probably be a dime or coin corresponding to the CO number at the motion depth. After you recover the target go to your open screen and you'll most likely get a 35-50 or something similar still in the hole.

 

[Agseeker]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

This yard has so much iron (nails) that most of the time I didn't even get the threshold sounding, just iron grunts, while swinging. In fact when I did get a CO sound it was difficult to get just the CO sound without grunts. That made it hard to obtain a consistent CO reading on the screen. The house on this lot was built in 1940 so I really don't expect of find a lot of really deep coins, however it had been a dairy prior to the house being built.

If I have found all the coins in the yard then that brings up the obvious question hinted at by Southwind -- Why bother with TTF if the E-Trac can find all the coins in CO?

After only one try at TTF I'm not ready to give up on it yet. I have another location where a house was torn down that has piles of nails on top of the ground (literally). I haven't done any detecting on this site as yet so it might prove interesting to hunt in TTF and switch over to CO when a good signal is found to see if CO picks it up also as Goes4ever suggested in his post.

 

[LittleJohn]

Once you use TTF for a while it will all make sense to you. It works great for me and when I am relic hunting it's all I use. Yesterday made a believer out of me. The etrac has a permanent home now...no doubt.

LittleJohn

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I try to only hunt older sites - many of these sites are loaded with iron and other junk metal.
I've been hunting in 2TF for almost three years now - I go on an average of 200 hunts a year - I use 2TF at least 95% of the time - it's fantastic !
At one site I found (12) 1800's dated coins that I missed in Multi-Tones.

For me - 2TF really makes the good targets jump out.
It's a little more work than Multi-Tones because you have to look at your target ID numbers more - but once you get use to it - it's the only way to go in heavy iron.

What works the best for me is ...

The heavier the iron - the slower the swing - if the iron is ultra heavy - stand in one spot and swing very - very slow - take one step forward and do it again.
Listen for clean breaking signals that have little target ID number bounce - after a while you'll be able to tell the difference between false iron hits and a good target without looking at your screen.
And very important - use smaller coil in heavy iron - 5" - 6" or 7" max.

Good luck !

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I've been hunting in 2TF for almost three years now - it really makes the good targets stand out when your hunting a junkie site !
I try to only hunt older sites - go on a average of 200 hunts a year - I use 2TF at least 95% of the time.

At one site I found (12) 1800's dated coins that I missed in Multi-Tones - there was literally an average of 5 to 10 nails and other pieces of junk metal in each of the holes the coins came out of !

The things that I've found work the best are ...

(1) Swing slow - if the iron is ultra heavy - slow down so much that your swinging while standing still - take one step ahead and do it again.
(2) Listen for clean breaking signals that have little or no target ID bounce - after a while you'll be able to tell the good targets from the iron hits without even looking at your screen.
(3) Wiggle the coil over the target several times or more to see if it's a good target - 99% of the time - if the signal comes and goes or the target ID #'s jump all over - it's iron.
(3) And very important - hunt with a smaller coil - 5" - 6" or 7" max. - the target separation with these smaller coils is much better then the larger sized stock coils.

Good luck !

 

[GroundScanner]

On TTF i never hear the threshold its always the low tone , is that because so much iron or is my coil junk ? So if i drop a dime on ground and run over it, it is hard to get a higher tone and that is just above the dime and if i bring coil up 2 inches it doesn't at all sound off .So if i am 1/2 inch moving the coil above the ground i never hear any thing but constant low tone ? Can any one help on this , is it the coil? Only used the machine twice , and its brand new .

 

[cahil_2]

Do you TTF guys run with a wide open screen or use discrimination?

 

[Goes4ever]

Do you TTF guys run with a wide open screen or use discrimination?

98% open screen, I start with relic mode, if iron gets too heavy I flip to 100% open

 

[robertj298]

I also find that most of the older sites I hunt are easier to hunt in TTF. If I get a conductive # in the 30s or 40s I usually dig.A lot of times the ferrous # will bounce around a lot on a deep coin.