Relic Hunting with the E-Trac = GOLD!

I do believe that the E-Trac and I are starting to "click"! I ran a wide open screen today with auto sens +3 --- deep off --- fast on --- high trash --- norm response --- vol limit 30 --- vol gain 19 --- 4TC and what a difference this setup produced in small and unusual objects VS running coin mode or a modified coin mode with 4TF - they can keep 4TF - from now on I'm using 4TC as my main tonal preference!

Went to an old park way up north that's been around since the late 1800s - the place is huge too (like 40/50 acres huge) and I didn't even put a dent in the place - but - I scored 2 pices of gold today (1st gold with the E-Trac) - one is a cuff button I believe marked 10kt and the other is an A Cappella band pin marked 9kt (looks like an older one too!). Also got some sort of really old Angel pin thing (or the like) but you can see her boobs! Looks 1800s old - a gold plated tie clip with some guys initials (looks 1920s/30s old). Got a few older buttons, a copper pen bottom, key, bullets, doodads, copper cap (bent) a few wheats (1937 and 1942) and a bunch of clad!

Hope you'all get out this weekend too

HH

MRH

Nice boobs!! Haha, nice inds, your on a roll

Way to go on the gold!!! Do you think your set-up on the Etrac had a profound effect, making it hit on the gold harder? And yes...

You are obviously starting to 'click' with the unit Keep it coming!!!

Joe

MRH

I had the same epiphany about how gold reacts in a wide open set up vs coin or beach mode. Seems the discrimination patterns on those factory set ups do not allow some lower conductive targets to ring out clearly. I have found that Conductive mode is by far the better mode for gold jewelry hunting.

When I use my E-Trac now, I pretty much run wide open in all cases, and let the tones and visual ID help me determine what the target may be. Only time I will use some type of discrimination pattern is park hunting for silver and clad.

Great finds. Running this way will produce a nice gold ring for you soon. Watch for those clear sounding targets in the 08-12 range on the ferrous side, 12-17 on the conductive side.

When I'm in a possible gold bearing (jewelry etc.) area I run 2TF and dig all low numbers. Yes the Etrac is a very good machine with an open screen.

I'd plant myself in that site for a while. Take a deus user with deus along with you. It seems the place has seen little detecting unless someone cheey picked the silver. Good luck. Look forward to see what else you find.

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deathray

Nice boobs!! Haha, nice finds, your on a roll

Thanks D/Ray - I really like old pins & such from that time period - hard to find these days!

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njnydigger

Way to go on the gold!!! Do you think your set-up on the Etrac had a profound effect, making it hit on the gold harder? And yes...

You are obviously starting to 'click' with the unit Keep it coming!!!

Joe

Thanks Joe - yes - I do believe that the change up of programming on the machine helped a lot in distinguishing between smaller and lower conductive targets VS the way I was running/learning the machine - it's plain for me to see as before when I was running with disc and in 4 tone ferrous - I wasn't finding any "relic" type targets or small/er targets - it was more coins than anything and larger stuff (coin sized & up).

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therover61

MRH

I had the same epiphany about how gold reacts in a wide open set up vs coin or beach mode. Seems the discrimination patterns on those factory set ups do not allow some lower conductive targets to ring out clearly. I have found that Conductive mode is by far the better mode for gold jewelry hunting.

When I use my E-Trac now, I pretty much run wide open in all cases, and let the tones and visual ID help me determine what the target may be. Only time I will use some type of discrimination pattern is park hunting for silver and clad.

Great finds. Running this way will produce a nice gold ring for you soon. Watch for those clear sounding targets in the 08-12 range on the ferrous side, 12-17 on the conductive side.

Thanks therover61 - good info and I'll keep it in practice for sure!

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markg

When I'm in a possible gold bearing (jewelry etc.) area I run 2TF and dig all low numbers. Yes the Etrac is a very good machine with an open screen.

I'll have to give it a try Mark - - - I do have the Gold Bug Pro which is a 2 tone machine and I love it so it should be a breeze to adapt using the ML - Thanks!

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tnsharpshooter

I'd plant myself in that site for a while. Take a deus user with deus along with you. It seems the place has seen little detecting unless someone cheey picked the silver. Good luck. Look forward to see what else you find.

I plan on it tnsharpshooter :-) It does seem to be fairly untouched by any experienced detectorist but it is strange that I didn't find even just one piece of silver so maybe as you say - it's been cherry picked but that's okay by me - I'm more into relics, gold and really old coins (1800s old) much more so than common silver...

HH

Although Explorer series is know for being one of the best silver units out there lower targets in the gold range can be had for those that pursue..

Last summer hunted an old park with an experienced Explorer user and he came up with two deep gold class rings from the 40's....

Very nice work.

I like that watch key for sure!

Looks like you had a great time...

Congrat's

Keith

Congrats on the finds.

Learning to hunt for the much-overlooked small, low conductive gold jewelry can be quite rewarding, but I have to say that some parks are overloaded with small pieces of lawn mowed aluminum cans, foil, lead, and other small low conductive trash bits.

Pulling out 2 low conductive gold finds is quite a feat.

In nearly 3 ½ years of detecting, I only detected 5 gold jewelry finds that were not beach/shoreline related. And only 1 was a very low conductive pendant.

Congrats again.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

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Digs_alot Wrote:
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Congrats on the finds. Learning to hunt for the much-overlooked small, low conductive gold jewelry can be quite rewarding, but I have to say that some parks are overloaded with small pieces of lawn mowed
aluminum cans, foil, lead, and other small low conductive trash bits.

Pulling out 2 low conductive gold finds is quite a feat. In nearly 3 ½ years of detecting, I only detected 5 gold jewelry finds that were not beach/shoreline related. And only 1 was a very low conductive pendant.

Congrats again.

Thanks digs_alot

this park is a bit different than the typical park

1: it's north of the city by 40 miles basically in the middle of nowhere land in a forest type setting (outside of a small town) off of a 2 lane highway
2: it's actually "private property" so the gen public doesn't use it on a daily basis like other parks

the guy that owns it is sort of the eccentric type - he lives in an old 1800s home on the property but he built a 1/4 scale R&R around the entire park/property and charges $3 for rides but only like 4 or 5 times per yr and he also rents out vender slots/spaces on the property a few times a yr for swap meets & such

but anyway - that's why there isn't much trash (tin/foil, canslaw, tabs, etc.) like there is in public parks and also why there's stuff to find too :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2013 02:20AM by MichiganRelicHunter.

Are you hunting at that park south of Frankenmuth?
My grandparents used to take me there!
I live in the middle in the thumb area.

PS I'm not interested in grabbing you site.

RoadKillDave Wrote:
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> Are you hunting at that park south of
> Frankenmuth?
> My grandparents used to take me there!
> I live in the middle in the thumb area.
>
> PS I'm not interested in grabbing you site.

If you're talking about Junction Valley R&R Dave - I know where you mean as I grew up over in that area and actually dated one of his daughters for a bit during my senior yr of high school but that's not where I'm detecting. I watched him build that train from scratch and lay the track around his property before it ever became what it is now --- (late 70s)... He (the old man) sponsored us in the River Raft Races back then - he had a trucking co. and our raft was always a semi trailer model of his rigs - we won 1st place in our class/heat 3 yrs in a row!

But

I'm on the other side of the state (west mi area) and have been for nearly 20 yrs now.

I was thinking of a small amusement park that was south of Frankenmuth just before birtchrun rd. When I was a kid back in the early 70s my grandparents would take me there. It sets in a small stand of woods and was privately owned.

It's been closed a long time.

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RoadKillDave Wrote:
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I was thinking of a small amusement park that was south of Frankenmuth just before birtchrun rd. When I was a kid back in the early 70s my
grandparents would take me there. It sets in a small stand of woods and was privately owned. It's been closed a long time.

Hmmmm - not where I was talking/thinking about... Don't know if I ever went there as a kid... I know my grandparents took me to some amusement park as a kid in the summers up until I was like 7 or 8 and they could no longer do so due to health issues... I wonder if THAT was the place... I know they had strong ties to Frankenmuth as we are all of German descent and had relatives that live/d there so maybe I was there & just didn't know it!

Sounds like it'd be a great place to hunt (especially if no one else ever has)!

I know there was a detector dealer rgt there within a mile or 2 of where you're talking about --- his name was Don --- I bought a few machines from him back 20/25 yrs ago until I moved across state and then one day about 18 yrs back - he went blind while on a detecting trip out in AZ & was lost in the desert for like 3 days until his wife & a rescue team found him --- that put an end to his detecting career but if he knew of that place - I can almost guarantee he hunted it!

That guy found more stuff than I ever seen anyone find ---- he had bunches of clothesline ropes 2 ft in diameter tied in a circle filled with gold & silver rings from all the water hunts he did during the early/mid 80s --- did you ever meet/know him? He ran the shop out of his 2 car garage in back of his house but it was a full blown detecting shop & full of a lifetime of finds he made --- it was always an inspiration going there & seeing all his "stuff"! lol At that time he had already been hunting for 25 yrs or so since the 60s and I was still green with maybe 6 or 7 yrs in so I was always envious of all his finds!

Never heard of him. I wish I did back then.