First Hunt - Deepest coin in a Looooong time. Comments...

I posted this on another forum but here it goes again...

I got out for a quick hunt today with my E-Trac. I felt pretty comfortable with the sounds and controls from the get go. Bill was right, the sounds came quick. I just used the stock coin program after running some coins on it at home the night before, it was good enough. I was very surprised with the weight. With the coil at my feet (really short shaft) I swang it for 2.5 hours with no problem and my back is fine also. Finding what I did in 2.5 hours was a lot of fun.

The first coin in the below pic is a 1924 Rentenpfennig and it was a the length of the Lesche handle, maybe a bit more. So a solid 7 and the sound was quite clear, but jumpy on the screen. Honestly, I find them all the time and for a coin that size (Nickel) that is deepest I ever found one. Actually, the deepest I have ever found a coin is only 8 or so. I have a feeling I will beat that as I was finding many deeper targets. The lower right pin was EASILY 9 deep and I was shocked. I think the iron mineralization in the ground has been hurting me on depth as I was finding more coins in the 5 and 6 range than normal. And I found more older coins, not really old coins for this area but they weren't Euro cents. Oh and I found my 5th silver ring in the last 3 hunts, but this was my first with the E-Trac.

I really enjoyed using the machine and when I found the key (my first LOL) I thought it a good sign. I found the sounds a bit funny, almost like an all metal mode due to the warble effect sometimes, especially when in Response long. Seemed pretty simple to operate but I had to focus more on the sounds than usual (especially in normal response, you could really miss a target in trash).

Settings:

I ran in auto +3 and it was at 27 most of the time. I ran in manual from 25 to 30 with no problems. I wasn't tricked by one piece of iron the hole time! When I got an iffy target I switched to quick mask and it was clear it was iron as well as pinpoint being off. And it's worth noting the ground was very wet. That said, the detector did false on iron more than I'm used to, but it was very easy and quick to check. I really like having quick mask.

I mostly hunted in normal Response audio but did like long to help in trash or when targets sounded faint with depth. Will play with that more. Thanks to (I forget your name) for mentioning it.
Recovery Deep and Recovery Fast both on, ground difficult, trash density high and the channel picked with noise cancel was 9.

I was running in Conductive and played with TTF for a few minutes.

I ran pinpoint in sizing but did switch to normal on occasion. The areas I hunt have a lot of iron at times and sometimes pinpointing with any detector is hard. The E-Trac I found is nice because normal will allow me to better isolate a target in trash when sizing just can't find it.

Thanks for reading,
Albert

1st Hunt with E-Trac - Deepie.wmv

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Sounds... and looks lol like you getting along great with the new E-Trac! :yes: :clapping:
I can't remember were I read it but I read somewhere once...If you don't like digging deep holes. Then don't buy a E-Trac. lol
And your starting to see why I think. :yes: That was a nice deep Rentenpfennig!! :shocked04: thumbsup01
I've noticed that the numbers will jump around a little with the deeper coins. But, like you've noticed, the sound will stay consistant for the most part. I however like the long response. While hunting in heavily trashy areas it seems to get my attention. But I have confidence that you'll find what works best for you. :yes:
Great post!
Congrats !! :grin:

Sounds like you are taking to that new E-Trac. Good luck. FWIW, I think response long is a must, especially in trashy areas, except in TTF, where it is a disaster. Response long also seems to help if you are cranking the sens and getting some EMI or ground noise.

On that subject, my rule is I set auto +3, see what it recommends, then set Man at +4 above that, but never lower than 26, even if auto is recommending 11 or 12. I always run Man, except in TTF or on the wet sand at the beach. Seems to work for me. And, when the auto rec drops to 18 or lower, I keep noise canceling/playing with channels to try to get a better deal. I'm sure you'll develop your own rules.

As for iron sounding like silver, not a big problem, you learn to tell the difference fairly quickly. The bigger problem is silver sounding like iron. This can happen with deep silvers on their side, or affected silvers, either in ferrous or non-ferrous trash, or in bad ground. Perhaps there is a way to tell the difference by tone on these; I can't (perhaps too much punk and heavy metal music has destroyed my ears), but I dig alot of ferrous for this reason, but get some silvers in the bargain as well.

Again, good luck, and can't wait to hear more of your insights as you learn the machine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by earthmansurfer link=topic=8203.msg93097#msg93097 date=1323994492

I posted this on another forum but here it goes again...

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There is another forum:huh: :cool:

Welcome To The Dark Side Albert! lol

I am really looking forward to comparing notes with you on this adventure. I am all froze down, but they just tore down two old houses close by, and scraped down the lots. I will be out this Saturday to try my luck. Thanks for sharing your finds and experience here on AD Albert. I appreciate your participation.

Jack

Thanks guys for the comments. The bad news is that I am pretty sure the reseller guy who sold me the unit knowingly lied about the age - he said it was 1 month old. I noticed more scuff marks on the stem than his ad mentioned - 9 or so Vs. 2 and that the coil cover on the bottom was really scraped up for a one month unit. I called Minelab and they said it was shipped on April 2nd 2010! No way that sat on a shelf that long unless it was a small shop in the back country. Minelab said they could give me a 2 year warranty starting from July 2010, but not the 3 year warranty. I contacted the reseller, who has perfect feedback and am waiting for his response.

I should have asked for the serial number before buying it and checked it out. Well, I posted excitingly thinking I had a great deal and now I'm manning up and saying... oops!

The only thing on the hunt I noticed was that my fully charged Sanyo Eneloop (1900mAh) started to lose the battery bar pretty quick. One bar was gone after an hour. How long do your bars stay there? These are great batteries.

Regardless of what happens, I am looking forward to learning this machine. I went over that area with my V3i and easily could have missed the coins I found as the area is new and I was not working super carefully with it (virgin areas do that to me) but am curious why I found older and deeper coins out my first time... I think the iron mineralization might be connected:huh:

Randy, I know Dankowski mentioned the E-Trac has a boost from 25 on up and that it's easy to verify. So, you always wanting to run at 26 makes sense. Unless the ground gets really bad or the trash really bad, I will try to stay at 25 and up.

IllDigger - Comments about long noted. There is a big difference in the sounds. I'll probably settle on one but use the others in my arsenal bag! ehehe In trashier spots, normal was hard to pick out, clearly - but my ears are new here. In open spots long really helped as it did in trash - I do wonder about long masking a bit. Will report back more after a few hunts but the weather is taking a turn for the worse yet (I mean now! - German word jetzt means now... that happens from time to time...)

Jack - good luck on that lot. Film if you can for as you said there may not be many more hunts! You can create some memories to last through Winter! eehe Good luck!

Thanks for the comments guys,
Albert