Myers Depot Metal Detectors

e-trac finds too much

P

president89

Full Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2010
Messages
141
Location
Holbrook, MA
Hi,
So I've been hitting my local park with my e-trac. I set it to high trash density, I choose the coin mode, deep recovery and fast recovery. I think that's what all the modes are all called. I can't go more than a foot without getting a signal. Is it just me or should I just be telling this thing to look for FE11 and 12 signals..with the higher second number ... CO 35-47. Everything else just seems like it will be trash if I'm hunting in the US. I can't remember the half dollar and large cent signals just now but I don't expect to find those. My scheme should be really narrow, correct? I mean this thing is beeps when I'm in the FE 20 range. As far as I know that's not going to be a US coin.
 
Same issue I have in my local city park. This is exactly why I say those who say "dig it all" really need to visit my park and then make that comment. LOL.

For me the answer has been a custom discrimination pattern. I loaded up the stock Coin pattern and open up the top right 1-48 1-49 just in case I happen on a silver dollar. This will give you a more narrow pattern of mostly coins. Watch for the solid 12-13 to 12-14 for nickles. I use the depth meter to determine if I will recover or not. Anything less than 7" deep I ignore.
 
If I were you

If I wee you I'd make a combined pattern of jewelry and coins. Then I'd turn deep and high trash on . Then run it in auto sense + 1 or 2. Be patient and huts dig very steady signals . Also listen to the pinpoint tone that helps me. If he pinpoint tone is not super sharp then usually u got a winner under your coil. Hope this helps
 
When I started, I used a tiny white box open from FE 4 to 16, and CO 40 to 48. That was it. You find clad and silver dimes and quarters, and maybe some wheat pennies. No nickels or gold or the like, but most signals should be coins. I would never hunt with a pattern like this, but it was just to get a feel for the machine.

After a few hours of this, I jumped in the deep end and opened up to FE 27, and the whole upper right corner was white, and all the way to the left, except most of the upper left is black. And used auto. It took a while to get used to, but just keep at it. Airtest some silver and clad coins to at least see what they sound like. Then hit a tot lot or somewhere not too trashy. If took a while to learn the machine. I'm still learning it, and now hearing silvers I would not have heard maybe 2 months ago.

And I would get Andy's book if you don't have it. Alot of people start with his coins program. Good luck. After you are comfortable with that, try it on manual cranked.
 
I'm one of those "dig it all" guys and there are some spots around here like that... I avoid them! I admire you folks with the patience to contend with trash riddled sites.
 
Yes there will be crazy signals every 2 inches in trashy areas. It is possible to pull coins out of these areas and easiest done by sound. Use little or no DISC to speed signal recovery and sweep about 1 foot per second or even slower. Listen for high pitch sounds to come squeaking through the madness. When you get a good tone, circle it sweeping from every direction with about 2 inch sweeps. You might get the numbers to clean up a little in some directions, but a repeatable signal in all directions is what you want. If the FE number is off the charts high, move on. Most of those trashy spots have never been detected and coins are there. Just takes time. I think it would be better to detect somewhere less trashy until you get the feel for the Etrac. But it can be done and you can do it with patience.
 
My advice from using my E Trac for the last couple months or so, is dont rely on the numbers so much. Coins on edge wil give way off numbers. For instance you probably expect to see a 12-46 whenever your over a quarter but I,ve dug 1-24, 1-35, and similar numbers and got silver quarters and dimes. Go SLOW, Listen to the sounds, dig repeatable high tones with some depth and you will find old coins. I'm deffinately not an E Trac pro by any means, but have been pretty succesful as I get more use to how to listen to the machine. Good luck. HH
 
I agree with diggler and John. Listen for the high tones. I hunt trashy fields and have dug 12silvers this year already. I've never had that many in a year!! The etrac can pull them out of the trash.
 
I'm using the stock coin mode.. my machine never shuts up..:lol: I can only "dig every signal" if im in a very clean area.. I do rely on the readings about half the time.. mostly i go by sound.. I found some nice silver dimes and a quarter the other day, the dimes were less than 2" deep.. the quarter was about 4 inches deep.. its definatly a learning curve..
 
with fast and deep off the numbers will be more accurite. as a new ETrac owner he should run it with those off till he figures it out. he should also run in +3 auto sensitivity it will be much more stable. after a month or so at that then start to mess with the settings.
 
I had an interesting thing happen yesterday. I was getting all those crazy signals. So I kept hitting reject to anything that wasn’t what I wanted. Then I hit a 12-46 signal and then some bad signal like 20-10 or something.. so I rejected the 20-10 and went over again. Same thing happened. Two signals, one good one bad.. so I rejected the bad. Then I did it again The problem was I had so many bad signals in a 3 foot radius.. that I couldn’t hone in on the good one. Eventually I couldn’t find the 12-46 signal again. I’ll have to pay more attention to the high tones and less on the numbers. I was pulling some really old pull tabs and cans out of the ground.
 
I have been thinking about this after reading many forums and people are too obsessed with the numbers on their etrac screen. Well here is the thing that goes thru my mind when detecting, the numbers everyone focuses on is based on “coins” so you got numbers for indians, wheats, silver dimes, old nickels….etc.

BUT…………how many things are made of various metals, and lost in the dirt that you would love to find are NOT just coins? So why then would you limit yourself to ONLY dig coin type numbers? Just to name a few: tokens, jewelry, buttons, relics. These items vary so much and can come in ALL over on the number scale. So, I say if it is a solid smooth tone, hits from 2 ways, has a little depth, I am digging, the numbers are just a suggestion.

and if you think coins only come in on the 12-13 FE line, your missing a LOT of coins...indians for example 90% of the time are 09-35-36.....deep quarters may come in like 04-47, if there is iron nearby that throws numbers off too......hunt by sound forget the numbers! The more disc you use, the more goodies you miss!

Last night I dug a 1857 flying eagle, signal bounced from 17-21 to 15-23.....right in pulltab range. But it was 7" deep..so I dug and was rewarded
 
Here's what to do. Turn deep off, deep amplifies the sound, not make it go deeper, so you can hear them more easily, the ETrac's forte is finding coins other detectors cannot. Definately turn fast off. It will distort the coin sounds by well, cutting them short to reset quicker. Go slower, slower, in trash. You will learn very quick what a coin in trash sounds like. I've mentioned before a coin sounds, for a lack of better words, slightly a lot different than non coin targets. Lay a bunch of pull tabs in a row and get that pitch in your head. Dig most all sounds that are higher pitched to begin with and solid most of the way around the target while circling it. Later you can dig coins, the few that are lower pitched. Only a few in that area, nickels and indians. Set your variability to 28 and you will be able to hear the different tones down the scale for most all the coins. Higher and they sound almost the same. Lower and it compacts them to much for me. The Etrac runs great in auto +3, most of the time nice and quiet. I personally like 28+ in manual but that is my preference. Really not for the faint hearted listening to all that stuff in the ground. It would scare most people away. If you like looking at a screen dig any solid co above say 37. Later once you start digging iffy signals you'll figure out the machines ability to "beagle" out a coin. Make sure trash density is set on high. It will pick out the non discriminated targets.No matter what go slower in nulled out areas, if a coin is there it will find it.
 
All great advise from some members that have done very well with the E-Trac.. To me it was a love and hate thing. Bought one sold it.. Bought another and sold it once again. I kept reading about the great things many have found and said one more try. Found a nice spot and learned alot about digging the sounds and trying to avoid the numbers. It's a great machine you have to love it back. I also go by the theory that there is alot of good finds left in those trashy areas that others pass on. The last frontier so to speak.. Practice and practice and the finds will come.. Promise.. Best of luck..
 
Can't add much, only agree with a few things
Run auto +3, deep and fast OFF, don't run manual
Slow down your swing and listen for the nice solid signals. I do use the vdi just to verify the possibility but decide mainly on the consistency of the signal.

I do use the vdi in the nickel range to decide simply because I have noticed from lots of beep/dig that if it's a nickel or ring, it's going to give you a very consistent number, no specific number but always consistent. Anything jumping from, for example 12-12 to 12-18, then back down etc...has ALWAYS been trash. But if it's a solid number or varying only a number, I will dig it. Yes, some of them are pulltabs etc but many have been treasures.

Also have found the factory coin mode is pretty damn good

My silver count shot through the roof the first day I turned my Etrac on.
 
A member here said he spent hours there and only found 1 coin. I get signals in coin mode ever inch. I was relying on the numbers.. I'm going to go back and see how the sound consistency works out. It's a really really really old park that no one goes to anymore. I'm betting I find something eventually. Actually the first time I was there I found a buffalo nickel... not even in the dirt. It was on a hill where the dirt had washed away.. leaving some stone... I actually saw it...and didn't even need the MD. I haven't found too much else there yet though.
 
A member here said he spent hours there and only found 1 coin. I get signals in coin mode ever inch. I was relying on the numbers.. I'm going to go back and see how the sound consistency works out. It's a really really really old park that no one goes to anymore. I'm betting I find something eventually. Actually the first time I was there I found a buffalo nickel... not even in the dirt. It was on a hill where the dirt had washed away.. leaving some stone... I actually saw it...and didn't even need the MD. I haven't found too much else there yet though.
 
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