Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Rookie Etrac User With a Couple of Questions

LetsGo82nd

LetsGo82nd

Junior Member
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
53
I recently joined the forum and have been blow away by all the helpful content. This is just a great community.

I purchased a Minelab's Etrac with the 10 inch coil last week and have made it out 3 times so far. As I have been learning I thought it best to dig everything so that I can get used to the readings that I get from each item. It probably comes as no surprise that I have been digging a lot of nails, old cans and scrap iron. I have been hunting farm land thus far. I have been using the Minelab's Relic and Coin modes thus far but have been leaning more towards relic mode so that potentially good items are not discriminated against.

My main questions thus far relate to a few of the old nails and scrap iron I have dug. After receiving the first hit I carefully and slowly sweep the ground from multiple directions and have noticed that I will get a variety of readings. Some of the readings make sense for a nail or scrap iron but others are readings that I would expect to see from coins or Civil War relics. After digging up the old nail or scrap iron I then again carefully and slowly sweep the area and get no further readings so I am confident that I dug what was causing the signal. So my questions:

1. Is this normal?
2. Am I using the correct settings for a beginner?
3. Will scrap iron sometimes cause readings in a good range?
4. Is it safe to assume that good items will never give bad readings? ( I worry about this in the case that a nail might be co-located with something I would want to find).

Thanks for any help or advice.

Jeremy
 
there are no " always or nevers" in MD,,,,, iron can give off a high tone and false numbers,,,,, use your iron mask to get a better idea,,,, also PP will help watch where the curser lands. deep coins/silver can give funky number but your ears will tell you to dig them,,,,,, nails have a pointed end that gives great coin numbers especially when it is pointing upwards, they rust and cause a holo effect and that's why you get high tones on them sometimes
 
welcome to the forum.....

when i first got my etrac i went around an old farm house that had alot of bad signals and it made me crazy.....so what i did was the next day i kept it in the stock coin program and just opened up the upper right corner of the discrimination (this allows for big silvers) and went to a school that i knew would have alot of clad around. this was the best way for me to learn the good high tones and what numbers to look for after i dug about six bucks worth of clad. get some time on the machine first and then go and hit the older trashier areas, you'll have alot more confidence in the machine and won't feel that you could be missing good targets.
 
grouser said:
there are no " always or nevers" in MD,,,,, iron can give off a high tone and false numbers,,,,, use your iron mask to get a better idea,,,, also PP will help watch where the curser lands. deep coins/silver can give funky number but your ears will tell you to dig them,,,,,, nails have a pointed end that gives great coin numbers especially when it is pointing upwards, they rust and cause a holo effect and that's why you get high tones on them sometimes
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks very much for the information. So would you recommend digging everything when first starting out to learn the different tones and readings? -Jeremy
 
For at least a month I ran mine in the factory coin program to avoid being overwhelmed with the display and sounds. Then I focused on finding stuff with the idea that the FE of 12 is a centerline of sorts (actually considered targets in the range of 10-14) and watched for repeatable CO numbers, not just the common coins numbers since gold can pop up from around a 12-13 nickel range up to around 12-73 silver coin range. I found rings and coins. Get some success under your belt and pick up the Sabisch book. Also read this guys site with some excellent Etrac stuff after you get a bit more time on it. http://goes4ever.mymdforum.com/
 
Thanks for the reply. There is a local school/park around the corner so I will have to give that a go. -Jeremy
dogpound said:
welcome to the forum.....

when i first got my etrac i went around an old farm house that had alot of bad signals and it made me crazy.....so what i did was the next day i kept it in the stock coin program and just opened up the upper right corner of the discrimination (this allows for big silvers) and went to a school that i knew would have alot of clad around. this was the best way for me to learn the good high tones and what numbers to look for after i dug about six bucks worth of clad. get some time on the machine first and then go and hit the older trashier areas, you'll have alot more confidence in the machine and won't feel that you could be missing good targets.
Click to expand...
 
as mentioned above check out "goes4evers" website, lots of good info and also settings that he uses, i use those same settings (except i run mine "deep" on), he also explains how to use the two tone ferris and has several videos on his site. the main key are the tones...don't get too hung up with the numbers, i first and formost listen for the high tone and then look ta see if the CO number is within range of a good target(+ or - a number or two), don't expect the FE number to always fall within the 11 or 12 range. deep targets, coins on edge and trash nearby will throw the FE number off. just remember to swing the coil very slooow, low and steady and listen for any high squeak, hit the quickmask and if the FE numbers are in the 30's its normally been iron for me. if your not familiar with what numbers ta look for just toss some coins on the ground or do an air test, or download the etrac emulator with the US coin zip file from "the beep goes on" site, this will give ya a good feel of what the numbers should be close to
 
Thanks guys. That website was very helpful. I will also have to check out that book. After re-reading the manual I think I discovered my biggest problem which was having the sensitivity set to manual. I have since changed that to Auto (A) and man what a difference! I spent the last couple of evenings out in the yard practicing will a variety of coins and Civil War relics to learn the sounds better. I have also been throwing in some trash items (iron and aluminum) in close proximity to the items to learn the difference in sounds between good items and bad in close proximity to one another. I am chomping at the bit to get back out in the field! I want to start back at the areas I have already to hit to see what type of stuff I could have possibly missed. Thanks again for all the tips. -Jeremy
 
If you haven't already done it, another setting you will want to change from the out of the box setting is Trash=High.

Trash=Low will give you the strongest signal under the coil, accepted or discriminated out. This means that iron could overwhelm a coin signal.

Trash=High will give you the strongest non-discriminated signal under the coil. This allows you to "see through" the iron, so to speak.
 
You really want to learn to tone hunt over looking at the numbers as much. I have mine set to 30 on the variability and long for response, it seems to work much better in iron infested areas. Little chirps or short sounds are iron, longer smooth tones are good targets. Once you learn the sounds for nickels then you are a long way ahead. Then there are the Sabisch and other patterns which will open it up more over the standard coin programs.
 
JimboG said:
For at least a month I ran mine in the factory coin program to avoid being overwhelmed with the display and sounds. Then I focused on finding stuff with the idea that the FE of 12 is a centerline of sorts (actually considered targets in the range of 10-14) and watched for repeatable CO numbers, not just the common coins numbers since gold can pop up from around a 12-13 nickel range up to around 12-73 silver coin range. I found rings and coins. Get some success under your belt and pick up the Sabisch book. Also read this guys site with some excellent Etrac stuff after you get a bit more time on it. http://goes4ever.mymdforum.com/
Click to expand...

I have been using Goes4ever 's suggestions. its helped a lot..
 
Thanks guys again for all the advice. It has been a big help. My parents live in a house built in the 1830s and I have been practicing in their yard. The other day I was hunting with discrimination set to Manual and the tones were constant everywhere in the entire yard. Last night I went back with discrimination set to auto, using Goes4ever 's TTF mode with Deep Off. I only had about an hour but was able to pull a very early brass button from amongst a group of nail heads and an old buckle of sorts from nail heads as well. I swear it is as if someone took several boxes of nails and evenly scattered them amongst their entire back yard. I think my brain is finally starting to click with the tones. :p I didn't find myself looking at the numbers much at all yesterday. -Jeremy
 
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