Anyone finding gold with the E-Trac?

Lookn4Seated

Bronze Member
Mar 20, 2008
1,939
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Detector(s) used
Deep Silver Seeker 3000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hey everyone. I've had my E-Trac for the 2nd year now, and have only found 2 gold pieces. One ring, which came in like a nickel 13-12, and an 18k gold cross which read 12-06. Every other signal like this that i've dug is either can slaw or beaver tails from pull tabs.

Have an of you had any luck finding gold with your etracs, and do you remember what kind of readings it gave you. I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing something.

It would be nice to see what gold items everyone with their etrac's is pulling out, along with the id's if you guys remember them. This could be a good little reference thread for everyone. Thanks to all who participate.

Lookn4Seated-Jon
 

It comes down to probability and statistics for digging gold amongst a ton of trash targets in the ground no matter what machine you use. For every piece of gold jewelry in the ground, there are thousands of pieces of can slaw, foil, tabs, beaver tails, etc. If you dig enough of those trashy targets, you will eventually get the gold. There's not much skill in it. Mostly luck, IMHO. Quite a bit different than hunting for deeper coins in iron/aluminum trash, which requires a good understanding of your machine and detecting technique to be successful. Worst yet, gold can range anywhere from low foil all the way up to half dollar; the entire range of the conductive scale, although most lost jewelry items will fall in the lower half of the conductivity scale. Your best chances for jewelry will be in/around swimming holes and beaches, where finger shrinkage(due to time in the water) and sunscreen application takes place frequently. The digging is generally easier in these areas, as a sand scoop is all that is needed, in addition to a "dig all" mentality.

Until the detecting engineers can create a machine that can actually discern gold metal from other metals in the ground, we are forced to dig all targets in order to get the gold. Sure, you can concentrate on a small range of the conductive scale and dig all targets in that range that you believe to be jewelry, and you may get lucky a few times, but then you could easily pass a big class ring or a 24Kt(.999 fine) piece of Asian jewelry, because it's not in the conductive area you are concentrating on.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan
 

I finally gave up on gold unless in a tot lot or on the beach. Way too many pop tabs. Now when in parks I tend to cherry pick for silver. I filled my test bed with every kind of silver coin I could find and built a program from there. You mite want to post on the Arizona site. I know a few guys that have found raw nuggets with the e-trac. They may have a some info.
 

Tip:
FORGET THE NUMBERS!!

Lol,seriously,you need to learn and concentrate on tones.Numbers can,will and do give false readings and gold can jump all over the screen from "iron" to "silver".
Pull tabs are a pain in the butt...but ya gotta dig them! They're just so close in tone to gold etc.
 

Hey Lookn,

I have been very succesful with the ETRAC both for Silver and Gold. What it comes down to is you HAVE to dig the trash for the treasure. One thing I can mention to you and it will eliminate you digging all low conductive tones is to stick to the 12 series tagets. Dig all 12 series targets and you will get gold, If I receive a low 11 or 13 I will also get down and dig it because you will always say to yourself, what if.... and it may be a little deeper or sitting on edge at a funny angle, you just never know. The gold is out there but like my brother Captn SE said it takes alot of trash and luck to find it.

Crackbadger
 

Hey crackB...how come you never look like your avatar in your videos??? :o
 

Going by the numbers on the screen helps alot. But listen to the tones. Learn the tones. The Etrac, like other of the minelabs is excellent with the tones. I havent had mine that long, but I know guys who have alot of experience with it. And it is possible to a great extent to tell the difference between junk and good by the tones.
My opinion...others may disagree. My suggestion is train your ear and not rely quite so much on the screen. I am not an expert and have never claimed to be and never will. But I do listen to those who do have the experience.

Good luck and I hope you find much gold in your future.
 

i hunt mainly by tone for the old coins. I can tell if it's going to be a deep wheatie, ih, or silver. I don't pay too much attention to the numbers either, as I have seen them all over the board. I've pulled out silver dimes registering a 12-34 with a sweet high tone. Normally IH's at this reading, also a ton of silver jewelry that comes in at 12-34.

I guess i just have to dig some more junk to get the gold.
 

Lookn4seated said:
i hunt mainly by tone for the old coins. I can tell if it's going to be a deep wheatie, ih, or silver. I don't pay too much attention to the numbers either, as I have seen them all over the board. I've pulled out silver dimes registering a 12-34 with a sweet high tone. Normally IH's at this reading, also a ton of silver jewelry that comes in at 12-34.

I guess i just have to dig some more junk to get the gold.

Thats great that you have gotten the "ear". It takes time. Will take me a while longer to train my ear on the Etrac. And I just got an Excalibur so I have that to get used to as well. Trust me..I know, from experience. NEVER get 2 new detectors within a few weeks of each other. <sigh> Talk about information overload. :tongue3:
Not a situation I would recommend. But I did feel I needed a multi-freq detector for going in the water around here. I have a PI but it isnt the best thing for fresh water use. So I had the opportunity and I took it..and now I have my work cut out for myself. The one good thing. The Etrac does have the simulator program and the Excal has a basic tones CD which I have since gotten as well. So I can get practice, of sorts, in on both sitting at my computer. Neither are a perfect solution, but alot better than than nothing.
It does give me the opportunity to compare tones between the two. Because if the tones on the ET are pretty much the same as the Excal, then it will be great. I am hoping...but the technology is different between them so I am afraid that the tones are going to be different. I havent tried to compare them yet. I think I will do that today. One against the other. Should be interesting.
 

scrounger said:
sm gold at the 12-01 to 12-06 area.

mans 10k class ring 12-34

have dug 100s foil beavers and pencil tops,sm slaw.

only 4 gold eech

I think what the guy was trying to find out mainly was if the Etrac would "find" the gold. And you have most definately shown that it will "find" the gold if its there. Great showing. You might not have found alot of it but you HAVE found it with the ET. Which pretty much shows that it is a good gold finding machine as long as you know the ET, have learned it and know the tones.
 

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