Viking
03-30-2011, 11:52 PM
Hi all. As a newish E-trac owner (20 hours under my belt), I've been reading as many E-trac posts as I can get a hold of to help my learning curve. The key messages from my research seems to be that it takes time to listen and understand what the machine is telling you, and to go sloooow. The tips and tricks offered on this site have been very helpful but I was hoping that you all could help me with more of a specific question...
In heavily hunted parks (with lots of iron trash), I've been using Angel's settings and going as slow as I can muster. I'm finding the easy, shallow targets but I haven't had as much luck in picking out the goodies from the trash, probably because I'm not sure if I'm evaluating my signals correctly. Let's set up a common example: as I crawl around the grass, I'm getting a constant string of tones from the E-trac while I'm focusing in on the high tones. Suddenly I get a high tone and I look down at my VDI numbers and it says 35-47 about halfway down the depth scale, so I'm guessing it's iron, but I don't want to walk away yet. I wiggle the coil a bit and check the signal from all sides in 90 degree increments. While doing this, the Fe number is generally above 27, but maybe 20% of the swings give me a number like 12-44 or 16-44. I switch over to Quick mask (all metal) to check the item again and it jumps down to the bottom right of the screen, but also continues to tease me with an occasional signal in the 12-16 Fe range. Pinpointing seems inconsistent. Ultimately I start digging only to find a rusty nail, or worse, nothing at all. :dontknow:
Could some of you pros walk me through your exact steps and thought process when you're in this situation? I try to stay patient and keep myself moving slowly and being thorough, but I find myself cherry picking after I strike out enough times. Any steps you can recommend from the time you receive the questionable signal, until the time your digger hits the ground, would be great. Also, a general theory question: if you wiggle your coil over a piece of rusted iron enough times, will it eventually give you a Fe reading in the teens? Perhaps if the Fe numbers are trading off between low and high 50% of the time, it's diggable, but in my 20% example, you'd walk away?
I really think it could help me to turn the corner with the E-trac. |:confused:) Thanks.
In heavily hunted parks (with lots of iron trash), I've been using Angel's settings and going as slow as I can muster. I'm finding the easy, shallow targets but I haven't had as much luck in picking out the goodies from the trash, probably because I'm not sure if I'm evaluating my signals correctly. Let's set up a common example: as I crawl around the grass, I'm getting a constant string of tones from the E-trac while I'm focusing in on the high tones. Suddenly I get a high tone and I look down at my VDI numbers and it says 35-47 about halfway down the depth scale, so I'm guessing it's iron, but I don't want to walk away yet. I wiggle the coil a bit and check the signal from all sides in 90 degree increments. While doing this, the Fe number is generally above 27, but maybe 20% of the swings give me a number like 12-44 or 16-44. I switch over to Quick mask (all metal) to check the item again and it jumps down to the bottom right of the screen, but also continues to tease me with an occasional signal in the 12-16 Fe range. Pinpointing seems inconsistent. Ultimately I start digging only to find a rusty nail, or worse, nothing at all. :dontknow:
Could some of you pros walk me through your exact steps and thought process when you're in this situation? I try to stay patient and keep myself moving slowly and being thorough, but I find myself cherry picking after I strike out enough times. Any steps you can recommend from the time you receive the questionable signal, until the time your digger hits the ground, would be great. Also, a general theory question: if you wiggle your coil over a piece of rusted iron enough times, will it eventually give you a Fe reading in the teens? Perhaps if the Fe numbers are trading off between low and high 50% of the time, it's diggable, but in my 20% example, you'd walk away?
I really think it could help me to turn the corner with the E-trac. |:confused:) Thanks.