ETRAC wont ring up gold whats going on?

denny3

Jr. Member
Feb 2, 2013
48
27
virginia beach va
Detector(s) used
ETRAC, excal II 1000 ,ctx
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I got my Etrac about 6 weeks ago from Bart since then I have found over 200 coins 4 of them silver and deep too.This thing finds coins like nobodys business,its my first detector and im having a blast finding all sorts of things.I live in Va Beach and im going to be going to the beach looking for jewelry.I tested some gold jewelry my wife has to get an idea what it sounds like and the vid numbers well it wont ring up anything small like small 14k ear rings I tried a 16 inch very thin gold necklace nothing and Im not talking about air testing I can rub the small stuff right on the coil and nothing I even rolled up the necklace into a ball and nothing now it will pick up heaver rings and ear rings but nothing on the small stuff. Ive seen videos on line about the same thing even on this forum.so am I screwed when I go to the beach with my Etrac I know these things don't air test good but if I buried that necklace Im sure it wont ring up.Ive seen Bart answer questions about the beach and he says its works good on the beach .but am I going to be missing small gold with this thing.
 

Denny, most want see gold chains because it sees the chain as individual links rather than a solid chain..

Are you using any discrimination?

I never worried about not finding tiny gold because there is little actual gold value in them....

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Last edited:
Thats just how it is with the Etracs and Explorers. When you find a detector that will find small earings and chains it willbe dissapointing on deep coins compared to your Etrac
 

I tried it in beach mode coin mode and quick mask [open screen] same results
Denny, most want see gold chains because it sees the chain as individual links rather than a solid chain..

Are you using any discrimination?

I never worried about not finding tiny gold because there is little actual gold value in them....

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 

but am I going to be missing small gold with this thing.

Yep. The E-Trac isn't going to find small gold chains, many thin rings, and tiny jewelry not even if you rub them on the coil. It is a low frequency detector - great on high conductors like silver coins and great at being relatively insensitive to iron, but in the trade-off it is almost entirely gold-dead to small jewelry. If you want the small stuff you'll need to look to a higher frequency machine.
 

Thats just how it is with the Etracs and Explorers. When you find a detector that will find small earings and chains it willbe dissapointing on deep coins compared to your Etrac

Great answer! The CTX 3030 is better at small gold but not ideal. There is no machine out there that will do it all really well.
 

As the others have said, there are VERY few machines which can nail fine chains , stud earrings, and other tiny gold. I was shocked when I discovered this about my beloved E-Trac, but then I tried the same jewelry pieces with my PI and my Tesoro Compadre and none of them could see the peices either. It's just a fact of detecting. If you want something to find those pieces you need a dedicated prospecting detector. I have heard guys are doing very well with the Minelab GPX5000, but you need the $5000 up front to buy one!
 

Most detectors can not sound off on those thin gold chains for the reasons Treasure_Hunter gave. I hear of guys all the time that say their XXX detector finds gold chains but on checking in to it more you learn the detector sounded off on the larger clasp or a pendant. If you go on point on every little "tic" you hear from the machine, you will waste a lot of time on bird shot too.
C. Heston.JPG
 

Love your signature picture.



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