The 12 Line

[dannygene]

Everything I read about target id is 12 this or 12 that ,my etac never hits 12 any thing regardless of coin,depth or settings I use[except 12 12 which is a nickle evertime].Is this a coil problem or sound more like a calibration problem or maybe user.I am calling minelab tomorrow ,I was hope some of you with your vast knowledge may be able to help.Thanks in advance if you can.Danny Gene.

 

[banditicey]

It is worth a call to Minelab

But whenever I get a conductive 50 it is Junk But whenever a friend gets the conductive 50 it is Silver

Does this mean that our machines are individuals and not calibrated the same way after manufacture?

Let us know what you find out

Regards and HH

 

[Jim D]

Hello Danny; Im new with the E-trac (since Dec) but I did read alot about it in Andy Sabisch,s book.THE MINELAB Exploror
and E-trac Handbook, and listoned to alot of the guys on this forum.(really helped me) Andy explains about the Fe 12 line.(which is the ferrous no.s and also how to get the most out of your E-trac. If you dont have the book yet it would really help you understand what the Ferrous no,s(Fe) and the Conductive no,s(Co) is telling you about the signals you receive.
He explains and also show,s alot of charts where the no.s come in and also target discriptions of various coins, rings,civil war items and others things
Every Thing Is Not 12... What I really look at mostly is the Conductive (co) numbers on the right and the sound of the tone wheather I ought to dig or not.
The deeper coins will not be as accruate on the fe no.s but the co no,s wont change much. (my humble opinion).
Anytime you have questions feel free to ask, somebody will be glad to help you.

Good luck and HH Jim D

 

[ronfin]

You have to watch the numbers, but rely more on what kind of sound you're getting. I've dug Mercs at 12-43, to 19-44. I've seen quarters go from 1-47 one second, to 11-48 the next. What's important is that both times the CO number is a high silver range. It just takes some time figuring out what the machine is singing to ya. You'll get it.

 

[squirrel1]

The 12 line means very little. The only time the ferrous number means anything is when it's below 27 (28-35) iron 99.5 percent of the time. The CO number is the one to watch and is the number your tone is geared to when hunting in Conductive audio versus ferrous audio. If you will start watching you will start to see a trend where the ferrous number bounces. The deeper the target a lot of times the more bounce. Nickels too will bounce and if you only dig 12-12 or 12-13 numbers you are walking by a lot of nickels. As the ferrous numers will bounce on them too, except I notice the ferrous numbers seem to bounce down say 02-13 ferrous where sillver and clad dimes will bounce say between 12-17 ferrous. Get you some different coins and place on the ground. Start sweeping them while listening to your tone in your headset. Continue to sweep the coin and progressively raise your coil gradually above the different coins. Watch your screen numbers. What you witness doing this is very close to what you will see in the field detecting.

When detecting listen for your tone, circle the target, try to size it. Then make a decision to dig or not. Remember one thing, size, meaning coin size don't always cut it. Silver bracelets/chains will be bigger and can resemble an aluminum can. Yesterday something similar happened to me, I decided to dig and out came the smallest antique cap gun I ever layed eyes on, the only problem was I damaged it in the recovery. Too bad.

PS In case your wondering about 2 tone ferrous, I would try and stay away from it at first. It's not nearly as deep as hunting in Conductice mode. It's really a secondary mode anyway not my primary mode to detect. As you get more experience with your etrac you will see what I'm talking about. Good luck and have patience, you have the best coin detector.

 

[Beyonder]

soil soil soil! Not all readings are going to be universal. natural iron content in the soil will change the fe. Also sometimes coins have a magnetic residue even though the are not magnetic which can attract iron particles which change the fe numbers even out of the ground.

 

[dannygene]

Thanks for the input.I have been finding more at greater depths tha any of the other machines I have used.I realize that with depth the fe will change.I guess I was just worried that the calibration was off or maybe bad coil because it never hits on the fe 12 line except for 12 12 [nickle].I tried to call Minelab support today all day long but all I got was a recording.

 

[grouser]

do some air test and see what numbers show up,,,,,, when in the ground you may not get the "clinical number" as advertised but it will relfect your soil type, It's more important to you if you are in the same type ground that your number, what-ever it is, should be pretty consistant, In the air test though it should ring up text-book,,,,, HH

 

[ryanchappell]

Sounds like you are detecting places that are too junky. At least starting out you should go somewhere where you can practice finding abundant clad targets like a park that has been kept clean of trash. What that does is build your confidence in knowing what a good target is. People buy the E-Trac to find silver in nail ridden old sites, so I can see why people run there when they get an ETrac, but you really shouldn't unless you are a veteran, even then you probably learn a lot when you stumble on a rich clad site.

When I give advice on VDIs I tell people to look for 12ish or Lower on the FE scale. Usually if a coin comes in 17-45 it is intermittent, or on the initial pass, and it bounces down to a 12-45 at some point, but not always, and with more experience you will make those calls.

I don't nit pick! An 11-47 is the same thing as a 12-47 to me. I make no distinction. Generally I see 01-47 to 16-47 as a 12-47.