A question for the E Trac users...

[Jack Flynn]

How much of the ferrous side do you have discriminated out. Really what is the highest or lowest on the ferrous side you have dug a good coin. I've got mine open all the way to 29 ferrous. I'm trying to set up a more liberal disc pattern but really think I've gone to far. Catching a lot of iron falsing which causes me to watch the TID maybe a little much. Just wanting a little guidance.

[Jason in Enid]

That's one of those settings that highly contested. It also depends a lot on the amount of iron trash where you are hunting. Personally, I don't think I have ever dug a coin with a FE number over 18, but I know others have dug silver with higher numbers.

where I hunt, there is typically a LOT of trash and I can't waste weeks digging it all out. If I had big, open park with little iron trash I wouldn't hesitate to open my range up.

[coinnut]

In cellar holes I run 31-35 disc'ed out. I like to hear more of the targets, good, bad, or nulled. I just feel the machine is running less stressed lol. At a park I run 25 -35 disc'd out. My feelings is FE 24 is high enough for a mixed target to display at. I agree, it all depends on your site and the amount of iron and steel there. But I do slow down more, if I discriminate out more. It seems the machine needs a little more time to get a good target through the null. So I change my sweep speed depending on the disc'd out targets and total number of targets in the ground. This has worked for me in the past, but I'm always interested in other options. :yes:

[angellionel]

Good question, Jack. That seems to be one of those personal preferences. There are many who prefer detecting with a wide open screen and using the Ferrous two-tone setting. Personally, I don't like working parks or similar sites with a wide open discrimination pattern. There are simply too many targets competing for my attention, particularly since I use Conduct and multi-tone at such sites exclusively.

For the most part I am after a primary target, so I have made it a point to try and recognize the signals given by those desirable targets hidden amongst trash or iron. The discrimination pattern I have been using is a slightly modified version of the one Andy had posted elsewhere, and it has more than met my needs when working parks and town commons. I have had no problems with depth while using the discrimination pattern, but I also don't obsess about depth. My main concern is trying to pick up the good targets hidden at trashy sites. Depth-wise they often are well within the reach of most detectors - if the masking effect of trash were not a problem that is.

Here is a snapshot of the discrimination pattern I currently use, and the settings that go with it.

http://www.angellionel.com/misc/etrac_conduct2.jpg

The pattern rejects the following Fe/Co lines:

01-01 through 01-37
02-01 through 02-37
03-01 through 03-37
04-01 through 04-32
05-01 through 05-32
06-01 through 06-32
07-01 through 07-32
08-01 through 08-28

18-01 through 18-03
down to
27-01 through 27-03


28-01 through 28-50
down to
35-01 through 35-50

The entire Co 50 line is also rejected.

A few notes:

Very deep silver will not always sound off the way we may have come to expect. Often the telltale sign is an initial crackle, but sounding different from the slight chatter a high sensitivity setting may be causing. It isn't until the target is closely examined with very short and slow sweeps that the signal cleans up and the Fe/Co numbers begin to stabilize, though a pronounced bounce may continue. Yes, I have had very deep coins hit with an Fe of 24 through 27, but having a slight bounce of 12 through 17. If both pinpoint and discrimination modes agree on the target's location, I dig.

Don't shy away from a manual sensitivity setting of 27 through 29, even when the Etrac is suggesting a much lower number! You will hear chatter, yes, as the E-Trac is working a bit 'hot', but you will also, with a bit of patience, hear the very deep targets you may otherwise miss with a lower setting or while in Auto Sensitivity.

When working an old site having many competing signals, go very slow! I mean crawling-type slow. A fast sweep at such sites will cause you to miss the signals of very deep targets, or those of very small coins, such as half-dimes.

It is very important to have a low threshold setting. I have mine set at 22 for the particular headphones I am currently using, Killer B Hornet, though I had it set to 25 while using the Original Gray Ghost headphones.

If you haven't yet tried it, use the Long Response setting. You may be pleasantly surprised at how well it works on those deep silver targets.

Though I will normally use Noise Cancel by allowing the E-Trac to select a channel, I have found that 5 and 9 work best for me at most sites.

If using the X-1 probe, and if you have the E-Trac set to a high manual sensitivity (26+), you may hear some chatter while probing for the target, which can compete with the signal of a small coin or one that is still just barely beyond the probe's reach. What I do in such cases is to quickly toggle to Auto Sensitivity, which I already had set to +1, and this quiets things down, allowing for the desired target's signal to become more prominent. Once done, just toggle back to the manual setting.

I hope that helps.

[Jack Flynn]

Lot's of good info for me to digest. While reading the posts I have realized what I'm hunting will more than likely take a change by me to get back into the ball game. I'm hunting some late 1800 to mid 1900 house sites. Most of the houses burned down.............You guess what they left when they burn't to the ground. NAIL's and lots of them. Nice big square nails in all shapes and forms. I've been doing well getting coins off of the many lot's but after being off the last several days on vacation and I've had a couple of low coin count days I was thinking of going back to the default coin pattern to clean up my ears a little. I'm already going very slow, snails pace like and next outing will be my X 5 coil on the E Trac. Every swing I'm having to check for the ferrous reading per the superb good coin sounds I'm getting. thumbsup01 I feel sure I'm accepting to much for parts of these sites. I love running the long tones on the machine but virtually cannot for all the excellent sounding tips of nails :hammer:IOW I might wear out my quickmask button back checking myself. The two tone ferrous mentioned is great but not in these places when I use it. I like using multi tones in these places. In my non burn't home lots the two tone ferrous helped me clean the place up nicely after many trips running multi tone. I'll take some pics of the lots to post so get out yourkeyboard drool covers.

[angellionel]

It sounds like you have some very nice places to hunt with great opportunities for making some sweet finds. The smaller coil will no doubt come in very handy. You should be able to retrieve some very old coins. I wish you great success! thumbsup01

[Jack Flynn]

I'll take some pics of the lots shortly....headed out now

[Jack Flynn]

Here's five of the lots....Notice the steps coming straight off the road. Also in one pic the old sidewalk you can barely see. Lord we need some rain too! One of the places is 3 lots in a row. Got a lot of wheats and five silver out of it so far. The lot with the steps has given three silver and a bunch of wheats. Like I said we need some rain to make em come back alive somewhat again. Like play sand right now.

[Jason in Enid]

This is a great discussion!!

Angel, in looking over your settings.... how do you feel that using recovery fast off benefits? I thought the purpose of that was to help identify the conductive targets very close to iron.

[angellionel]

That's a great looking place there, Jack! I think you are going to be quite busy for some time. lol



This is a great discussion!!

Angel, in looking over your settings.... how do you feel that using recovery fast off benefits? I thought the purpose of that was to help identify the conductive targets very close to iron.


I made a note of that in the E-Trac User Settings And Programs (http://www.americandetectorist.com/forum/index.php?topic=803.0) document. :yes: That setting is designed to allow the E-Trac to recover quickly from target to target. After much testing at trashy sites and on targets not yet dug up I concluded that the setting added too much of a distortion to the signals, at least for the settings I use, and so I decided to turn it off and compensate by employing a slower sweep. That has worked quite well for me at trashy and iron infested sites. I can get a cleaner signal on the deep targets without having that setting on. I haven't seen nor noticed any disadvantages to having that setting set to off. Having the Trash Density set to High is what will allow the E-Trac to pick up good targets next to rejected ones, such as rejected iron. thumbsup01

[Jason in Enid]

Awesome! I am changing my setting now, and will try it out tomorrow (weather and work permitting)!

[Jason in Enid]

OK, after using my E-Trac set up exactly as Angel's I have seen a little difference. I changed a few things such as the variability and others. I noticed that the upper scale conductives do sound different. Now I hear that flute you have been talking about! I had to drop the response from long back to normal though. I just didn't like the way it sounded, probably because thats what I have been using it for the past year.

I wish those dang nails wouldnt fool it so much. It always sounds exactly like a dime and pinpoints right at the signal spot. I guess that is the price to pay for being able to pull coins mixed with iron.

Edit, I just wanted to clarify that I changed several settings when I went to Angel's settings, not moved away from them afterward.

[angellionel]

OK, after using my E-Trac set up exactly as Angel's I have seen a little difference. I changed a few things such as the variability and others. I noticed that the upper scale conductives do sound different. Now I hear that flute you have been talking about! I had to drop the response from long back to normal though. I just didn't like the way it sounded, probably because thats what I have been using it for the past year.

I wish those dang nails wouldnt fool it so much. It always sounds exactly like a dime and pinpoints right at the signal spot. I guess that is the price to pay for being able to pull coins mixed with iron.


The Long Response does take some getting used to, but in my opinion it is the better of the four available settings when hunting for the deep targets. :yes: With few exceptions, I ignore shallow targets where the discrimination setting and pinpointing mode do not agree on the target's location, as these are usually pieces of iron or nails. The tone, too, tends to give them away, as it is more of an ugly shrill. lol Sometimes some do still fool me though, as they sound too good to ignore. 8/

[Jason in Enid]

Maybe its where I hunt, or maybe it's me. I have only found a couple targets deeper than about 6 inches, and they weren't coins. Maybe I'm not using my machine to it's fullest to be pulling 10-12 inch deep coins. Then again, 99% of my state (including my town) has barely 100 years of population.