Was wondering if someone could assist me.

[dirtyknees4500]

Greetings to all. I am a first time post on this forum or any others. I got into metal detecting two and a half years ago and I enjoy the sport. My first metal detector was a minelab Explorer SE. I found the usual clad stuff and a few pre-1964 things. I read about Minelabs-E-Trac and how good it was and decided to give it a try even though I didn't have the money to spend. I have had the E-Trac now for about three months. I have had some issues with pin pointing with the E-trac with it not being as accurate, I feel, as my SE. Any one have this same issue?

Secondly reading the E-trac Manuel is like reading Chinese Math. Is there any interactive video a person can watch to learn how to set the discrimination the way it needs to be done. I went on Minelab's web site and found the programs to download but am not sure what I can or should be able to do with these programs. I want to start looking for gold jewelry and things that are similar but I only find pull tab stuff. Could someone tell me how this works. I mean if you program your E-Trac with some gold jewelry of my own, then will it only pick up the gold stuff and not the pull tab stuff and if it can't discriminate between the two after it's been programed to then what is the use in programing it. I just don't know how all of this works. I am a small business man and I do not all all the time in the world to pour over literature in finding all of the answers. Evidenced by the fact that I have been metal detecting now for two and a half years and just getting on a forum. Any help would beneficial. Plus I have many other questions about programing these machines.
Doug

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

You can call me if you like, I will send you my phone number In the (Members Only Messaging). I believe the pinpoint on the E-Trac is pretty accurate once activated at the right point.

 

[bcoop]

Doug

Pinpointing takes a little practice sometimes for some. When you locate a target, pinpoint until you receive the strongest signal, turn 90 degrees and do the same. Your target should be in the area where your lower shaft attaches to your coil. The more targets you dig the better you will become.

Searching for gold jewelry. If your searching in the coin mode you should find any gold rings lost and if your digging tabs and pull rings you will find gold rings. Unfortunately there are tons of pull tabs etc. to every gold ring lost.
Gold rings pick up in the CO area associated with Nickels and Pull Tabs and also the areas before and after the Nickel and Pull Tab range. There is no consistent CO numbers associated with gold rings. Depth, ground conditions and size and type of ring will make a difference in the FE, CO numbers associated with each ring target.

Gold ring signals pick up from 12-04 to 12-38 and can fall under nickel, pull tab, penny, dime range and anywhere in between on the scale. If your digging pull tabs you will get a response from gold rings. You can discriminate the pull tabs but you will be limiting your ring detecting opportunities. If you don't have Andy Sabisch's book on the Explorers and E-Tracs I would recommend purchasing it.

BCOOP

 

[Elton]

At the top in a Aqua blue you will find his web page

 

[Andy Sabisch]

Greetings and welcome to the Findmall community

As far as pinpointing . . . . . a Double-D coil is a bit different but with a little practice, you should be right on the money with it.

1) Try a test garden and make sure you accurately mark the center with something like a gold tee - put the targets down at 5" or so. See how close you can get so that when you point to the ground, you are on or right next to the tee. You will find that a slight adjustment in your method can make a big difference in accuracy.

2) On the E-Trac, you have 2 different pinpoint modes - NORMAL and SIZING. Make sure you know the difference between them and try both - some like one while others like the other . . . . . I prefer the NORMAL mode which is essence shrinks the response with each pass and helps me zero in on the target . . . . . on the other hand, the SIZING option may be more to your liking.

Hope this helps a little

Andy

 

[digitrich]

First....No machine can tell the difference between pull tabs and jewelry, sucks, but it is what it is. The pull tabs give a very similar signal as jewelry does, so if you want to dig jewelry, you are going to have to dig pull tabs unless your researching can find you a site that is pre-modern garbage and not used since.

As for pinpointing, and a lack of time to detect: I would strongly advise you to purchase a Sun Ray in line probe. It has a switch so you can switch from your large coil to the smaller 1 x 9 inch probe, provided. Your discrimination still works and you can put it in the hole you are digging...makes recovery much, much faster and helps to keep you from scratching your finds. See the adds at the top of the page...I have and will always have one on every machine I own as long as Sun Ray makes one for that type of machine, regardless of what they ever decide to charge for it..currently $190 + s/h. Many on here will say the same, it is a fantastic product.

Add to that advice: the more time you put into this hobby, the better results you will see....the machine doesn't come with an included packet that contains the time you need to learn it. But a few hours here and there will pay handsomely in the long run, so stick with it.