"Gold nugget" Etrac guide.

[JewelleryRescue]

Getting the most from  your etrac in a gold field.

Pro,s : The etrac’s  ablilty to ID and discriminate metals makes it very usefull in opening up and looking for gold around metal filled  areas that would have a GPX user digging the rest of their natural life Ie  around old camp sites structures.  Don’t  forget gold  coins might be lost to.

CONs: Etrac suffers reduced auto sensitivity/depth around gold fields more mineralised areas.  Etracs not good at finding sub gram gold but I did it once with photo proof a total fluke.  it was  on the surface  and it took me 6 new passes to rehear the tiny blip of a sound.  I often get the etrac false reading minerals, ( this can be  ignored however with no problems).

Etrac Gold field Setup guide:

Use your favorite. Minelab mode:  Beach, Coins or  High trash.  It might be worth noting in  fuzzy photo i am using standard  minlabn mode or beach mode simply adjust sensitivity and  expert modes to suit  gold field conditions more as described.
Note  other “ GOLD “ patterns simply mask of the  upper and lower ends ie Platinum and silver.   In some gold fields you can find natural platinum and silver so why would you want to mask it off?( Reminder note the more you mask off (discriminate) the detector will null at. During nulling or detecting you need to slow down to allow the etrac to scan and ID check more items per sweep or risk missing good targets.)

SENSITIVITY.

Beginer set to Auto  +3 (ie use up down arrows to adjust auto sensitivity while in detect mode).  Note  the higher the sensitivity the more unstable  (random false  beeps if this happens then just reduce down to where you feel detector is not falsing any more.)

Advanced user Set Sensitivity to manual and increase sensitivity until detector becomes unstable then reduce a couple of noches.

EXPERT
Deep recoveryYES  “ To amplifiy smaller background signals ie  small nuggets.”

Recover Fast ON/OFF  Optional ON in denser metal junk yards  and heavily mineraised areas. As a reminder  with this ON etrac  target ids become approx 10% less accurate as the processor is told to look for new targets in preferance to  more accurate  IDs

Trash density  LOW/HIGH  your  choice in metal junk areas.

Ground  “difficult”   as there are higher mineral concentrations?.

Pretty  much all other  selections optional.


ETRAC Goldfield method. 2 gram nuggets or bigger.

Setup  etrac as above or similar.  Gold in Australia is  approx 98% pure 24K on the  etrac appears as:

Nugget 24Grms  Large         10:37
Small Nugget 3.7Grms         12:27                                    Detrack
Small Nugget 3.3Grms         12:38                                    Detrack
Small Nugget 2.8Grms         12:31                                    Detrack
Small Nugget1.1Grms          12:24                                    Detrack
13 Small Bit 0.05grm           11:09                                    Detrack


Note  the readings being off the 12.xx line!!  most likly due to individual nugget angle and shape,

Mineralisation at my local gold fields shows up false readings at around 0:34 what I call an edge reading. You might get other  reading on the edges…  Just ignore them unless they are so frequent detecting some thing else  between times is unlikely. Salt water beaches,  also causes the etrac to false beep too when the coil hit salt water  it each time.  Simply ignore these edge/ mineral readings just slow swing rate down to medium/slow or  risk losing targets.  Dedicated gold machines don’t have as much of a  problem here if at all.

Mineralisation will also reduce auto sensitivity make a mental note  of sensitivity position as a  guide to how deep the  etrac is detecting..  Manual sensitivity increased here will negate some depth lose effects at the  increased  chance  of more  unstable  detecting of false targets.  Try  it and see  have  fun.

Etrac will detect every thing normally for the most part dig or pass at your own choose.

Detecting depth will also vary to with  nugget size.  Some thing gold the size of your  hand will be detectable a   good 500+mm down like a  drink can.  Hands  up all here that have  dug pit on the beach to recover a  can.? Lol  5c piece well 250 to  300 mm deep. Less than five cent size signal really becomes  erratic all around the  12:xx line up  down all around each sweep. Try to work out and  average as a  guide to dig or not. When normally coin shooting I would ignore that  signal half the time as a nusance signal at my risk of missing stuff.

Detecting  nuggets.

Etrac loves  coins and rings and gives  nice stable  repeatable signals and solid reading for them we  all know and  love to hear  once we spot them mostly because of there nice round  shapes.

Well gold nuggets are all shapes and sizes and wont reliably report as 12:xx all the time. So keep your wits about you use you best detecting  judgement to dig or not to dig at the risk of losing smaller nuggets.  Chunkier  specimens will at least sound  more solid too.

Well when I am using an  etrac in a gold field I realistically aim for 2 or 3 gram nuggets as finding any thing  smaller is very time consuming in digging false potential targets.  Etracs arnt designed to be gold  machines that small really.

Now I VERY  highly  recommend you all experiment with and practice detecting  gold with natural nugget samples you have or can borrow, buy even etc  Leave samples in their glass/plastic jars so you don’t lose them to start with.

Fine tune/practice your detector skill and settings against the  ground minerals to maximise nugget signal clarity.  At need alter my suggested settings, experiment!  on  to get more of this nice yellow stuff.

Good luck.   I hope any one else with Etrac  gold success can help us build add to these notes  more views the better as  gold fields experiances may vary.

Tony  JR


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[Detectist]

Thanks JR for your continuing efforts to assist us with your experience.

[JewelleryRescue]

np   Detectorist  thanks for saying  so  .


Love to here your points of view too trying  this stuff out. In  case  I missed some thing important.

So use my info as a  learning guide i  guess i am saying.

Tony  JR

[Detrackozi]

JR

Good post and some good setting to try aswell the weather down here is looking good in acouple of days so will be heading out onto the goldfields as I do at this time of the year will try and a nugget search with the ET

David

[JewelleryRescue]

Good  hunting  David  love to hear as well as others  how you  used your etrac to search for gold and stuff.

Tony JR

[jeffaust68]

Do you guys think a Safari could get close or no cigar
I'm not sure how close the Safari is to Etrac , I know it has not got all the disc /notch bells and whistles is there much more
Could it also detect nuggets ??
must say JewelleryRescue nice job explaining the settings and IDs
Happy digger signing off
 

[JewelleryRescue]

Hay  Jeffaust68

I dont think etrac is a fine sub gram gold  machine. It should find something about half the size of 5 cent piece near the surface.  The safari is a good  detector on paper should be similar to etrac on  performance. Etrac has more bells and whistles.  I have never  used the safari to guide you better  here.

If you want a better gold/ relic/ coin machine I think if you do your  research  the Xterra  might be better in a gold field. and ok in other places.

Sadly no one  detector is good at  everything.  Please  double check my advice here with some research  so you are personally happy  with a detector you choose.

Jeff you  would be a  agood  guy to be in the  JR net work in Emerald.  I have being though Emerald I quite like the town.  I was on the way to  the gulf via charters  towers.

Regards TOny  JR

[jeffaust68]

JR Would love to find someones precious treasure and hand it back  
That's much more rewarding than finding someones lost gem or keepsake
with no home to go to  
Happy digger fishing out our lost treasures  

[TeeJay]

JR, don't know if this helps about the size of nugget an Etrac will detect but have just come back tonight from checking out two old coach/pub sites of early gold mining days and found a host of small items which included several brass buttons and harness rivets the smallest being less than the size of a threepence. most of these were between 2 to 4 inches  deep however the most interesting item found was a small "nugget" sized water worn piece of metal weighing .045gms at approx 6 inches in a damp sandy loam soil. The ET reading was a bouncing 11:xx 12:xx 13:xx and the item is extremely heavy and hard. Scratched the light tarnish with a knife and underneath was a very bright silver colour but HARD. Do not know what it is---could be a little meteorite? The point is that it was detected around 6 inches and is .045gms weight. Hope I can find gold one day that size and yes I found my first $2 coin at the beach on Monday and many many many bits of foil and tabs

TeeJay

[JewelleryRescue]

Hi  Teejay

Interesting finds. Congrates on your first goldie. That old coach site/pub sounds good. Try to imagine a coach coming in no air conditioning stinker of a day where would you head for? (inside buildings would have being just as hot.) Try beer gardens big shady trees along garden walls, sucessfull detecting is also detecting  prime locations for concentrations of good/bad finds.

The depth on some of those rivet finds sounds about right. etc  I have  found really small items with the etrac at times, including gold.  I think my main point of that is it was some what of a fluke finding a sub gram nugget on the  surface.  So to try to answer possibly some peoples  questions is Etrac a gold machine the answer is not  really designed for it. Xterra is  I believe a  better combination gold/relic  machine. So I try estimate a  reliable detectable  etrac nuggget size to aim for.

I am not quite sure  you meant 0.045 grams? thats very small, thats 45micro grams,  45/1000 of a gram.  Any how it is possible your  etrac is ultra sensitive.

As for the metal umm might  be platinum in its raw state. Platinum is heavier than gold  and harder I think from memory.  I would have said lead  scratches like that but you said it was very hard.  You  said 11:xx etc What was to co reading eg 12:02 for some platinum.  All those metals show up around gold fields regions. Silver platinium copper and others.

Meteorite, is extremly hard (mainly iron like? Given they  survived not burning up in the atmosphere.)  plus they have more radiation than out planets back ground radiation.  Have a gieger counter in your pocket? lol Not many do. Some metoirite sell for about $1000 per gram if they are the right type. That is how scientists study our solar  system with out going out there as one source of data.


Regards  Tony  JR

[TeeJay]

Hello JR, Thats the good thing about these kinds of forums where people who know what they are talking about  help the newbie----me----After reading the bit about the breakdown of what .045gms actually is I thought I had better check my little scales and weigh the item again-------------- -------I had the scales set "ozs" and NOT "gms" and in actual fact the piece is 1.2gms ---------------thats what happens when you arrive home at night all excited and tired. I never purchased the Etrac for gold detecting as chasing gold now does not have a great appeal for me these days but the historical aspects of the gold rush days do. 
We went to the locations to prepare for next year and bassicly mapped out the size of the sites and yes I did look under some large trees and found a lot of trash however tyhere are many more to check under. Will wait till the next bush fire to clear the congested lantanna and rubber vine from the sites as there has been no fire through this area for two years and judging from the wet weather this year and all the fuel on the ground there might be a large hot fire next winter. Think I have had more excitement with finding "rubbish" than when I was in the gold business many years ago.
One thing I could not understand with the Etrac were the readings 1:34 to38's and depths of 10/12 inches---just for the hell of it when ever I chose to dig, up would come a bent rusty nail or similar rusty item.
Out again next week to map out two more sites. If I dont do it now the sites wont be accessable till next July. Have told the lovely wife that there is a gold soverign waiting for me to rescue it for her ---I get a nice smile from her but it's funny how I really believe it---------------havn't lost the gold fever hav I

TeeJay

[JewelleryRescue]

Hi  Teejay  dont worry about being newbie  we all start some where.
I am guessin  your readings  1:34 where highly inconsistant  i mean one swing there is a reading the next gone.  around  the outside of the screen especially 1:34  i put it down to minerals in the ground around gold fields and black sands at the beach.  and  I just ignore that signal region or mask it  out.  When you getting mineralised  signals  in that range slow your sweeps down to allow  etrac more time to find real targets  amongst  minerals (possibly turn Expert, high trash ON)   i am not covinced a rusty nail will give you 1:34 reading. But some times discriminated  iron targets do seam tolook like good targets in the 12:xx range and other readings IE they are not 100% discriminated.. THe way you know it is unlikly to be a good target is the signal  isnt consistantly there each sweep. irratic/ scratchy where a solid signal is repeatable most sweeps.   Another test is to put the detector into all metal mode and the true hidden reading of the perviously partially  masked /discriminated  iron/metal should now be displayed as more consistant each sweep.  Normally below the  15.xx line.  Also worth noting highly  corroded (oxide layer) objects  shift their target id to appear like better targets  up towards the 12 :xx line.

So summary 1:34  line is basically minerals. Ignore those readings when irratic.   TIP reducing auto or manual sensitivity will also help reduce false triggering at the lose of some detecting depth.


My solution is to leave sensitivity  alone and just  ignore the false triggers as they  come up. in the 1:xx  line.

Teejay said 'One thing I could not understand with the Etrac were the readings 1:34 to38's and depths of 10/12 inches---just for the hell of it when ever I chose to dig, up would come a bent rusty nail or similar rusty item.'