air test depth, test garden depth, real hunting depth

It's your newbie guy again asking another set of silly questions. I'm trying to understand a few things regarding the subject matter.
Should all of these type's of tests on a given subject/target produce similar results, given the soil is benign and not hot and a proper noise cancellation has taken place? I've been told that the ET does horribly at air testing, but wonderful in ground. I've not had great results air testing modern day pennies or quarters, that I was expecting anyway, and when buried in my test garden that's rather mild soil, I don't see a huge difference. I've tried running manual and Auto +3, but not that great of a difference. I'm seeing a modern penny no further out than about 6 inches or so air testing, where the quarter is not much different than this. A friend did something similar with this F75, and was able to air test similar items MUCH further up the shaft...

Again, I understand these may be silly questions, but I'm concerned that my wife's rather new ET may have something wrong, as I'm always hearing how deep this machine can potentially go and not seeing what I see as this.

I'm perfectly ready for an education regarding; do I have a concern regarding the machine or not?

Sincerely appreciate the time and help as always,
Randy Kight

It appears you and your wife use different units and you are satisfied with yours and competent it is working well.

Next time in the field when you get what you know is surely a good deep target try the wifes on the same target of course using different settings as this hunt is basically not to fill the pouch but to test the wifes unit.

I am not a fan of air testing myself and in the field is where it counts.

I see two scenarios here your wifes unit is faulty or perhaps the unit is not being setup corectly for your neck of the woods and yes I have seen brand new units faulty right out of the box.

The perfect scenario would be to have a competent local individual who uses the same unit test against his and that could be done by perhaps a club member or a multiline dealer as many of them have test plots for this reason.

Years ago we had beep and dig units which have evolved into mini computers and of course with most time in the field and a learning period is in order to get the most out of the unit.

Air tests would be great if we hunted coins in the air and in many cases do give ballpark numbers but my friend in the field with a well learned unit is where its at and I I guess that why they make user friendly and some where you need a college degree to operate or at least 20 years of experience in hobby with various units to get a running start at operating them.

.

Randy,

That ET should air-test a dime or penny to 12"...............and.................in inert dirt......... should also ascertain 12". Something does not sound right. Is the coil 3 feet away from any object........ is the unit set up properly.......... is the coin parallel to the coil???

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Randy,
>
> That ET should air-test a dime or penny to
> 12"...............and.................in inert
> dirt......... should also ascertain 12".
> Something does not sound right. Is the coil 3 feet
> away from any object........ is the unit set up
> properly.......... is the coin parallel to the
> coil???

Thanks for responding Tom, sicerely appreciated. I'm starting to get concerned. I'll try to answer as best I can
This machine is new, came directly from ML in the box.
I laid the ET on a quiet piece of ground to perform this test, nothing nearby, did a noise cancel, tried both Auto 3 and manual.
I'm assuming the unit is setup correctly. This included a master reset and use of their stock coin mode.
The coin is parallel to the coil.
Modern penny made it out to about 6", quarter made it out about 2 inches greater.

I was expecting much more, and I'm trying to understand how some would say an air test would be less deep than a soil test, assuming no serious noise issues.

Does the group think I have an issue, or is this a self-imposed problem?

Thanks again for any thoughts and help, as I'm getting frustrated with the thought of pontential QA problems from ML.

Randy

Randy............ hold on. Can you invoke manual Sensitivity......... and boost it up a bunch (until some instability)......having the coil parallel to the ground............. THEN see if it'll detect a dime to much greater distances?

Personally never owned or used a ET but from previous Explorers I have used XS, 11, SE, SE pro I know even in quickstart they were potent weapons...
So my friend use the factory settings and if not satisfied I would be on the phone with Minelab as you certainly can't goof any setting up in this manner and at the price of an ET you should have satisfaction even if you have to send back for the tech's to do their thing as they have their testing methods and equipment to do so.

My appologies Dan, I did not see your reply. Thanks for the time. Unfortunately, I don't have an ET, my wife does, thus no way of comparison. One of the reasons I came to this forum was to figure out if I should by another ET for myself to hunt with her, or buyy something else.
I understand MD's were not meant to work air, but my question was asked in attempt to determine if my testing was valid and pointed to issues.
Realizing there are many variable at hand that could affect this type of testing, I've made an assumption that air would produce the ultimate gauge of depth an md is capable of. But as is obvoius, I'm very new to this hobby. If any of you hunt an ET, I'd be currious if you have found deep targets, and if so, what your best air test would indicate.

I have validated E-Trac's........ and one of the minimum requirements of mine ... is to verify 12" on a clad dime in a professional test-garden. Yes..... they also will detect a clad dime in an air-test at 12"..... but must be in manual Sensitivity.

Thanks to everyone having the patience to provide some thoughts. This issue, I'm very happy to say, was all a misconception/perception on my part, not the machines. Got some numbers around 13 or so inches with a clad penny once I got the machine dialed in better.

It's obvious I've a lot to learn.

Randy

Now THAT'S good news. It is rare that a Minelab would have that type of a problem/failure.

((((( Now....... I doubt you have interest hunting in the auto/Semi-auto sensitivity mode ))))).

jrk I hope you now realize your dialed into the most informative forum with fellow forum members willing to help whether it be a technical answer from Tom or others like myself with help in laymans fashion.
I do hope the PM I sent you helped and yes that sem-auto mode can overcompensate and the choice of many is manual sens. although some seem to do well in their neck of the woods with semi-auto sens..

What i found in semi auto with the SE is it has a distinct cut off.... i mean a quarter of an inch and its gone. Where in manual it still knows there is a target and continues to attempt an ID. Thats why many of us hunt in manual.... we are will to deal with a little chatter or unstable ID in hopes of pulling out a oldie by tone. Not may if any machine does better in soil than air testing.... however when you view some of these charts people put together many are inaccurate because of the operator not the machine.

Dew

Thanks again to everyone. Yes, I got lucky when I stumbled upon Tom's site. Everyone has been very helpful and timely in that help. I know I've posted some "entry level" questions, but all of these have been answered in great fashion.
Tom,
Yes, invoking manual was the key. I need to go back to the small field we hunted a week or so ago and give it another go with this new found info...Just hope I can learn the chatter from the honest signals in short time.
Thanks for the PM Dan. It did help and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time.

Randy Kight
Richmond,VA

I would also get Andy Sabisch's book on minelab E-trac/Explorer as it has a wealth of information. I personally like to run my E-trac in auto+3 as it just seems to run smother in my area. But it seems like most people with E-tracs in my area run auto over manual sens. But the people in my area with ExplorerII,se,xs, run manual over auto.