First let me say I am very green with my etrac, maybe only have like 20 hours hunting with it. I was very used to my x terra 705 and got used to listening to the tones, in particular the high tones.
I find myself doing the same with the etrac, but what i am amazed with is how off the target id will show as you go over a target before uncovering it a little bit. Granted my soil is extremely mineralized but going by tone i will hit something that shows solid 1 42 and then when i take off some soil and get closer to it it will drop to a 12 42 where i expected it to hit. These are very specific targets but i guess i am just surprised it doesn't hit 12 42 from the get go. Hunting by tone seems to be the way to go...
Anyone else experience this? Advice?
A good observation by you.
Etrac can strike deep,,is a poorer detector compared to some more typical Vlf detectors when the ground is disturbed I.e, plowed, disced, moved, etc.
Now if you don't have a good pinpointer,, you need to get one.
Why???
After you locate your target,,and start digging,,Etrac may or may not be able to detect the target,,,and if say a 9" deep target or deeper,,more likely it won't detect.
Pinpoint function can help here,,but remember pinpoint function will signal on all metals.
As far as the ferrous number,,,my advice when you are detecting,,,pay it little attention as long as it is reading between 01-27,, you see it in this area all is well,,along with a worthy conductive number.
Now here's the catch,,what if you get a tone,,and you see a 29-45 like what could happen on a deeper dime,,even partially mask???
Remember here we are assuming you have this area disc out.
So what to do???
This target could be a nonferrous target and it could be a ferrous target.
When you see this,,try the following,,,open up your quick mask screen,,,and try and do controlled sweeps over this spot on the ground,,pay attention to cursor position,,and watch to see if the cursor jumps up out of this area even for a short time while sweeping.
Pivot on target,,and repeat.
If either direction when sweeping if the cursor jumps up on the screen out of the 28-35 area,,,dig the target. Now pinpoint might reveal a smaller target,,and this could be a coin and nail coloacted. Still gotta dig.
If you pinpoint,,,and the target seems huge,,you might consider raising your coil off the ground while sweeping and also when using pinpoint,,,bigger targets like cans and bigger iron can be exposed.
Since you seem new to Etrac,,some additional advice,,,you will see a variability setting on your detector.
This setting is key,,,to allow a person to hone in on the higher conductors like coins. When you raise this setting,,the span of tone will be expanded,,making things like silver coins and copper sound sweeter(higher) tone sounding.
I recommend a setting of 29 or 30 here.
Also,,gain setting,,this will allow shallower targets to be identified moreso by strength of tone,,,my advice since Etrac has such a good ID system,,Max the gain and leave it there.
There is a pitch setting,,,this will work in conjunction with variability setting,,experiment with it and variability at 29 or 30 and set to where you like it.
A clad dime can be used to listen,,a silver one better or even a silver ring.
Etrac is in my opinion a hall of famer detector.
Some coins though won't be textbook sounding or looking on the screen.
I hope this info helps you,,and maybe others.
I won't find EVERY old coin doing what I do but its better in MY mind to let the machine do exactly what it was designed to do. Run stable,ID accurately. If one chooses to dispute what the machine is saying,then that's up to them. Coin counts don't lie.
