Vermonter
Jr. Member
I've gotten comfortable enough with the Etrac. It took a good year. I tend to hunt with wide open discrimination now and manual sensitivity. I use conductive when I can, but on most of the old houses where I detect, I'm in TTF. The stock coil performs reasonably well. Even (in TTF) when you're getting the low-grunting "machine gun" with iron every inch or so, if you go slowly enough and wiggle alot, you can isolate good targets amidst junk. That's the Etrac's claim to fame after all!
I recently took the plunge and purchased a small "sniper" coil, and got out to some old cellar holes. I'm pretty much hunting the same way, but not getting great results. I get lots of loud shallow signals and screamers on big target junk. But I find myself really struggling with falsing on the iron/nails (which are everywhere). Granted, I'm still in all-metal, but there are just so many one-way or scratchy chirps that either go away or don't repeat. Normally on a lawn or in a park, I'd move on. Here though, I find myself struggling with (and digging) lots of iffy signals, "willing" it, trying to rotate around for a repeatable signal or even see some decent numbers read out. I pull out multiple 100 year old nails and re-check, hoping the good signal will emerge, but alas no.
Maybe these first few old cellar holes I've tried are just pounded, and the simple answer is there aren't too many good signals to be had. Still, I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I should turn on just a little discrimination for my own frustration level, maybe lower sensitivity, maybe go even slower? I'm just surprised by the amount of falsing and chirps with the smaller coil. I have to lower it significantly to reduce the chirps, not sure I want to do that. Any advice for this environment and a small coil is much appreciated.
I recently took the plunge and purchased a small "sniper" coil, and got out to some old cellar holes. I'm pretty much hunting the same way, but not getting great results. I get lots of loud shallow signals and screamers on big target junk. But I find myself really struggling with falsing on the iron/nails (which are everywhere). Granted, I'm still in all-metal, but there are just so many one-way or scratchy chirps that either go away or don't repeat. Normally on a lawn or in a park, I'd move on. Here though, I find myself struggling with (and digging) lots of iffy signals, "willing" it, trying to rotate around for a repeatable signal or even see some decent numbers read out. I pull out multiple 100 year old nails and re-check, hoping the good signal will emerge, but alas no.
Maybe these first few old cellar holes I've tried are just pounded, and the simple answer is there aren't too many good signals to be had. Still, I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I should turn on just a little discrimination for my own frustration level, maybe lower sensitivity, maybe go even slower? I'm just surprised by the amount of falsing and chirps with the smaller coil. I have to lower it significantly to reduce the chirps, not sure I want to do that. Any advice for this environment and a small coil is much appreciated.
