Nails and my Etrac

[cooper1841]

First year Etrac user. Love this machine, and am still learning it(Duh) No real problems, except............................nails, when running Andy Sabisch coin pattern, and lots of them sound good, and the numbers are good. Am I missing something? different tone, I am not picking out? Have a couple hundred hours on it. Found more silver, and old (1865) coins, than ever...............and nails

 

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[masterjedi]

The nails should show a high ferrous number? So your getting like 11-44, 12-43, 10-45 and still digging nails?

 

[cooper1841]

The nails should show a high ferrous number? So your getting like 11-44, 12-43, 10-45 and still digging nails?

Yep

 

[RobRieman]

Send it in. Somethings definitely wrong. If there is anything tricky about the Etrac it's not digging nails in the 10-12 range. They sure ring up sweet sounding in multi tone conductive though. Try TTF and see what you get.

 

[CoinAddict]

Are they modern nails or Square nails? Some square nails are brass/copper and do ring up good on most any detector. I have an 1845 permission and I've dug a few nails very deep with my safari. Modern nails are muted out but like I said, some square nails are made of different materials that do sound good.

 

[Jason in Enid]

No, don't send it in, there is nothing wrong with it. Sometimes nails will fool you, most of the time you can tell when its a nail. When you hear the target, sweep back and forth and watch the GROUND while you listen. A coin will sound off in the exact same spot every time. Iron false will usually shift back and forth by a few inches because it's sounding off as you come away from the iron. Then pinpoint. Coins pinpoint where you hear them while swinging. Iron will have nothing where the tone was heard, but will pinpoint a few inches to the side.

Like I said, some will still get through these tests, but it's the price to pay for the deep silver the E-Trac finds. Normally, when a nail sneeks through it is either bent, or sitting in the ground pointing up and it will pinpoint on the tip of it.

 

[cooper1841]

No, don't send it in, there is nothing wrong with it. Sometimes nails will fool you, most of the time you can tell when its a nail. When you hear the target, sweep back and forth and watch the GROUND while you listen. A coin will sound off in the exact same spot every time. Iron false will usually shift back and forth by a few inches because it's sounding off as you come away from the iron. Then pinpoint. Coins pinpoint where you hear them while swinging. Iron will have nothing where the tone was heard, but will pinpoint a few inches to the side.

Like I said, some will still get through these tests, but it's the price to pay for the deep silver the E-Trac finds. Normally, when a nail sneeks through it is either bent, or sitting in the ground pointing up and it will pinpoint on the tip of it.

I did notice a pin pointing issue, when it was a nail

 

[seatedhalf]

I sweep in an x and find very few nails that give consistent numbers/tone in two different directions. Pinpoint with button is usually way off from making an X style pinpoint if there is not much garbage in ground and you can lock onto just the nail. Certain parks I just dig all the iffy stuff though if lots of trash present and have been rewarded a fair amount of times with rusty coins in the hole. Sometimes the eyes are the best discrimination.
Bolts with rusted heads and nuts can be a whole different ballgame. I tend to dig more of those than anything.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I sweep in an x and find very few nails that give consistent numbers/tone in two different directions. Pinpoint with button is usually way off from making an X style pinpoint if there is not much garbage in ground and you can lock onto just the nail. Certain parks I just dig all the iffy stuff though if lots of trash present and have been rewarded a fair amount of times with rusty coins in the hole. Sometimes the eyes are the best discrimination.
Bolts with rusted heads and nuts can be a whole different ballgame. I tend to dig more of those than anything.

Another tip.... when you get a high tone and a null as you sweep your Xs, do the "minelab wiggle". Wiggle the coil around with 1 or 2 inch "sweeps". You may be able to identify a solid tone beside an iron null. Another tip to try... If you think you may have good and iron beside each other, bring in your pinpoint from the possible coin side. If it's just iron you get nothing and then pinpoint over the iron. If it's co-located targets you will get a pinpoint over the coin that gets stronger and tries to pull you over to the iron as the real target.

Of course, you are going to get more trash by digging to types of iffy signals, but you WILL get some good targets everyone else walked away from!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I don't know what the spec's are on the Andy-program you are running. But are you sure you're in ferrous mode ? If you're in ferrous mode, nails should sound lousy and very distinct from any conductive targets. If you're in conductive mode, then be sure to have the iron-zone blacked out. And you can try bringing up that curtain-of-coverage (for the iron zone) a little higher to see if that helps for your hearing and specific type nails.