ETracs and deep silver... reading between the lines

Aaron, it is a VERY TIGHT discrim pattern in the Nickel range. That was probably done to cut out pull tabs and such. Just open it up to fit your conditions but I do know from reading (never tried it here in Germany!) that many guys on the forum found it great on Nickels. I'd just go through with the small square icon and open it up a little (if it's worth it to dig a few pull tabs).

Report back how it works in the field as I'm sure others are following this thread.

Albert

PS - I have a 6X8 and 12X13 NEL Tornado on order. I do "expect" some nice things regarding depth with the latter and the weight is only slightly more. More sensitive, hits better on coins, just seems to be a better coil than the stock.

Albert,

Yes because of the tight pattern of this heavy disc program incase your not aware and you probably are....you are going to miss targets that you would normally find in a more open screen.
Example(s):
1. By discing out almost all pulltabs you will in essence disc out everything that is lying below a pulltab unless maybe you may be using a big enough coil to lets say have a "wrap around" effect in that you could (maybe) hear a little enough of the coin under the pulltab causing you to investigate. However your in most cases not hear anything below something that's disced out that's on top.

2. As I recall...Bills program as I have tested still allows for the really old big lift/pulltabs from the 60s these normally register around high 20s to low 30s and this is good since these are not as common as the newer ones. But...something to keep in mind is and as I recall the program starts accepting coin targets in the low 30s and then below that you have the nickel range which is around 12-14. With this tight pattern "pull down" effect especially in a trashy area could cause you to lose targets that you normally would dig.
As I recall the early Indian "fattys" register in lower 30s and could be right on the fringe of being disced out. The $5 gold piece is a prime example as I have tested, the square of the target is split right half on the edge and it wouldn't take much to pull it over making it only a null.
I also tested a $1 gold coin and it does register with the nickel.

Aaron - What is interesting about the E-Trac (and I'm not saying other detectors don't do this) is that with Trash Density set to High it "searches for the best accepted accepted target signal during detection and then displays the most stable Target ID. The high setting allows you to detect accepted targets in teh presence of ferrous objects, high ground mineralization or amongst a number of rejected targets." Quoted part taken from the manual. I especially like that last part. What this means is that sometimes you will find more in a discrim pattern than you will in an open screen AND this is not due to audio fatigue but rather masking of sorts. This settings is like a clever bit of code to pull out accepted targets very close to rejected targets. Now, I do realized that sometimes and open screen is the better selection. I have now opened the stock coin program down into the Fe range of 19 and removed the upper part except for most of the Fe line. I can handle this setting, but when I open the Fe to 27 it really slows my hunt down.

But, regarding what you are saying with pulltabs I'm now glad I didn't disk them out. There are a number of coins that often hit right near them or at the same level of them, here in Germany. I usually ignore the exact hits and look for those just outside the normal range that I have come across.

Thanks for your words as I am really learning this machine and enjoying the process. I had an incredible hunt today. In 1 hour I pulled a small silver ring from 8", a zinc from 8" and a BEAUTIFUL silver 2 Mark from 6". All measured and mostly all in iron. That mark is like 50% bigger than a quarter. It would be like finding a silver half dollar from in America. 1925 was the year. After filming that I looked up, said thanks for the incredible one hour hunt and said "I'm going home" and left. I could have stayed another hour but I thought to prepare for teaching ;-)

Albert,
I do not doubt what you say is true regarding what the manual says, yet to be honest I am very sceptical....you know as well as I some of the manufacturers claims over the years have been just that. I'm sure some of us remember the "blanking" feature the old Big Bud Pro had that Teknetics claimed could blank out all surface trash.
The proof as they say is in the pudding and I will try the program out and let you know what I think.
I do know one thing already from my tests....those of us in the US won't be finding any Trimes or $2.50 gold peices with it.

Congrats on the great finds!

I think you may be missing the whole point of the pattern. It was designed for real trashy parks where I usually hunt and the low conductors and other trash is everywhere. I do not want to listen to all the trash and prefer to just look for the good targets among the trash. Sure you may miss some 2.50 gold pieces (dont even know if I have any in my area) and you will surely miss some gold rings too if you are worried about that then I wouldnt use the pattern......;o)

What EMS is true of the Etrac. It will find the good stuff even next to discriminated out targets. I think if you try the pattern you will be a believer.

I have said many times in the past that once the E Trac is set up properly for your area, and the culprits are discriminated out , that the E Trac does in fact have a "See Thru " capability that allows it to hit many good targets that are near or close to discriminated targets ...... I have witnessed this over and over with the many different patterns that I hunt with in NYC parks that anyone with an F-75 would be listenning to R2D2 on crack !!.( this description comes from my buddy who use to hunt these parks with an F75 and bought an E Trac and has never looked back ) ....The ETrac will handle masking very well but if it's not set up properly , and is set too hot , it will sound off like crazy ....It's a VERY powerful machine .....I think that a lot of folks are use to very mlld machines that you can run almost full out , and not hardly false ......You can't do that with an E Trac ....In most cases you are using probably a little bit more than 1/2 the power that this machine is capable of to achieve great results ......Knowing what to discriminate , and how to use the filters on the ETrac , plus using all the features that are at your fingertips is key to running this machine proficiently ....JIm