Last week when Sugar's posted her Field Challenge, I decided to give it a try. In a nutshell, the challenge was not using the assistance of the E-trac's display for your first six targets. Sugar suggested that we use a cover of some sort to hide the display. I didn't have a cover handy, so I resisted looking at the display until after I had already decided to dig.
My friend and I dropped into an old neighborhood and received permission to hunt a house built in 1897. There was some obvious landscaping done to some parts of the yard but there was always a chance that some of it was original.
What did I recover? Nothing too exciting. I included a picture of my 6 targets; a bullet, a pulltab, a hammer mechanism from a cheap gun, a clad dime, a rusty blob, and a clad dime. I did discover one additional thing, I skip digging a lot of shallow targets. Sugar's little test was harder than I thought because I found that I have become rather dependent on checking the depth and target ID #'s of the possible targets before committing myself to recover a target.
I continued hunting and started finding a few wheaties. They were mostly difficult targets and I decided to start doing a little experimenting with my E-trac.
To best understand the reason for my experiment, I need to explain a few things first.
Back in the mid-80's, I purchased a Teknetics Mark I, a really great detector and one of the first with Audio Target ID, that some consider one of the best ever audio ID systems. I did really well with that detector finding IH pennies, wheaties, tokens, and all sorts of silver coins. However, when I would show up at our monthly club meetings, I noticed that other members, using various White's detectors, with the EXACT same frequency as my Mark I, were finding all sorts of old nickels, gold rings, and other lower conductive targets. It took me a while to figure out what was happening to me. In a nutshell, I found out that I was unconsciously cherry picking the higher conductive targets that were giving me the higher pitched audio response.
After a couple years, I finally decided to make a change and picked up a White's Eagle I detector. I missed the audio ID, but immediately started finding all sorts of targets that I had been subconsciously skipping in favor of higher conductive targets. After picking up a Explorer XS in 2000, I was already aware of the tendency I have for falling into a cherry picking mentality, so, I have made a mental note to look for nickels and lower end targets. It has helped to some extent, but I know I still fall into a cherry picking mentality if I'm am not vigilant.
My experiment with my E-trac was to change from using Conductive Multi-tones (MT) to Conductive single tone (ST). The remainder of my standard hunting parameters would remain the same. I hunt primarily by audio, listening for possible targets and then investigate more closely with both audio and visual indicators. What I found was that on the more difficult targets, that struggled with a clear audio in MT provided a very clear, easy to distinguish signal in ST. I was impressed enough that I am going to do some further experimenting with this and see it effects my finds.
I found a grand total of 10 wheaties for the day the oldest of which was only 1939-S. I was disappointed that I didn't turn up any silver at all. I don't remember the last time I found 10 wheaties in a day. It's been a while. The little shield item is a Clover Leaf pin with the pin on the back broken off.
Best of luck to all of you out there.
Rich (Utah)
My friend and I dropped into an old neighborhood and received permission to hunt a house built in 1897. There was some obvious landscaping done to some parts of the yard but there was always a chance that some of it was original.
What did I recover? Nothing too exciting. I included a picture of my 6 targets; a bullet, a pulltab, a hammer mechanism from a cheap gun, a clad dime, a rusty blob, and a clad dime. I did discover one additional thing, I skip digging a lot of shallow targets. Sugar's little test was harder than I thought because I found that I have become rather dependent on checking the depth and target ID #'s of the possible targets before committing myself to recover a target.
I continued hunting and started finding a few wheaties. They were mostly difficult targets and I decided to start doing a little experimenting with my E-trac.
To best understand the reason for my experiment, I need to explain a few things first.
Back in the mid-80's, I purchased a Teknetics Mark I, a really great detector and one of the first with Audio Target ID, that some consider one of the best ever audio ID systems. I did really well with that detector finding IH pennies, wheaties, tokens, and all sorts of silver coins. However, when I would show up at our monthly club meetings, I noticed that other members, using various White's detectors, with the EXACT same frequency as my Mark I, were finding all sorts of old nickels, gold rings, and other lower conductive targets. It took me a while to figure out what was happening to me. In a nutshell, I found out that I was unconsciously cherry picking the higher conductive targets that were giving me the higher pitched audio response.
After a couple years, I finally decided to make a change and picked up a White's Eagle I detector. I missed the audio ID, but immediately started finding all sorts of targets that I had been subconsciously skipping in favor of higher conductive targets. After picking up a Explorer XS in 2000, I was already aware of the tendency I have for falling into a cherry picking mentality, so, I have made a mental note to look for nickels and lower end targets. It has helped to some extent, but I know I still fall into a cherry picking mentality if I'm am not vigilant.
My experiment with my E-trac was to change from using Conductive Multi-tones (MT) to Conductive single tone (ST). The remainder of my standard hunting parameters would remain the same. I hunt primarily by audio, listening for possible targets and then investigate more closely with both audio and visual indicators. What I found was that on the more difficult targets, that struggled with a clear audio in MT provided a very clear, easy to distinguish signal in ST. I was impressed enough that I am going to do some further experimenting with this and see it effects my finds.
I found a grand total of 10 wheaties for the day the oldest of which was only 1939-S. I was disappointed that I didn't turn up any silver at all. I don't remember the last time I found 10 wheaties in a day. It's been a while. The little shield item is a Clover Leaf pin with the pin on the back broken off.
Best of luck to all of you out there.
Rich (Utah)