E-Trac 35-50

[DirtFisher]

Hi guys. I've finally started getting into silver coin hunting. The beaches have been stripped of gold. By trial and error, I've noticed that a deep coin can sometimes read a solid 35-50 in an open Quick Mask screen after coming in the 12-4X in Smart Find. Is this a common thing with the E-Trac? I apologize if this has been covered before.

Thanks for the help.

[jkress]

First I'll say that I'm not hunting with an E-Trac... but an Explorer SE Pro.

What I have noticed is the actual numbers can skew far from 'Perfect numbers' readings when
a coin is mid depth mixed with trash, deep or deep mixed with trash. My experience leans towards
not getting caught up with the numbers... but focus on the sounds.

Although your reading of '50' seems a bit high for a coin with your machine, the initial 12-4x appears
to have been the clue to investigate the target further.

One thing I remember from Angel's notes is that FE numbers tend to bounce around a bit on deep or trashy signals.
But the conductive numbers are more stable. From my experience this has definitely been true.

No need to apologize. This is a great question to bring up. We will all learn from your question. thumbsup01

[randy]

Yes you get silvers at 35-50 on the E-Trac. Hard to tell from iron, and often turn out to be iron, but here are my rules to try to sort it out.

First, use sizing pinpointing (not the default), then, if all of the following are true, dig it --

pinpoints without a hassle
is deep
is coin-sized
bounces to a low FE about 5-10% of the time

I call these 35-50 silvers. It will still be ferrous most of the time, but a coin about 30-40 of the time (silver or wheatie, often a deep dime on its side). I think the problem is, like with all machines, TID gets wonked on deep coins, and the software just drops it in 35-50 if it can't work it out. I also imagine the last rule isn't necessary; I'm sure you can get 35-50 silvers with no bounce, but I'm pretty much the opposite of a dig-em-all guy, so I like to see a little bounce in there, unless I'm really bored and need to dig a target cause my arm is getting sore.

The key, really, is the size, and the hassle to pinpoint (does it pinpoint as you would expect after the beep). If you use sizing pinpointing, you can often work out the shape of a nail (or larger ferrous target) from a coin-sized target. For smaller nails, I'm not good enough to tell the difference, so I usually end up with a few of those. (Maybe you can do this with the default pinpointing as well, don't, know).

Note, that as a corollary, if it is only bouncing 5-10% of the time, you need to run a white screen to catch some of these. This can be done in hunted out parks where the trash as been taken out by older machines, but not at most sites. I run mine white to around 27 or so, and catch a few that way (sometimes a bounce will be in the 21-22 range, tho our dirt is highly mineralized, which I imagine lowers that on deeper targets). Also, of course, if you are at a very trashy site, and the target is affected by nearby trash, all bets are off, and the above obviously won't work. Doesn't mean a 35-50 silver isn't hiding in the trash, just tough to work it out from the tone when it bounces -- this is harder (very hard, at least for me, and no doubt I miss most of 'em), and prolly a topic for another day.

I also use deep on, fast off, which affects TID; the software may do something different if those settings are different.

HTH

[DirtFisher]

Thanks much for the great advice, guys. I'm working an area that is pretty clean (except for some deep iron). There are some deep goodies there. So far 4 wheats, and merc and a silver rosie.

[DirtFisher]

Thanks again for the advice. I have a nice find to post after a 1 hour hunt this evening. My first silver half!