<p><strong>The E-TRAC is only the 2nd detector I’ve ever used (I also have a Cobra Beach Magnet from a BOGO offer, but I’ve never used it).</strong> The first was a cheap model I had in high school in 1981. Used it for a few weeks, but quickly gave up on it.</p> [split] <p>Learning to detect with the E-TRAC in iron infested areas, and learning to discriminate “by ear” using multi-tone was difficult at first, but fortunately, I stuck with it. I purchased it back in Feb 2010. After a few months, my silver coin count began to increase. It took nearly 4 months to find my first gold ring. By the end of 2010, I had over 100 silver coins and jewelry, and 17 gold jewelry items (mostly saltwater beach/ shoreline finds).</p> <p>By this time, I was already very pleased and impressed with the E-TRAC. But I was still just learning how to saltwater beach/shoreline detect with it.</p> <p>Now that I’ve become more proficient in utilizing the E-TRAC’s saltwater and iron discrimination capabilities, and ability to handle mineralization (mainly from high rust content), my silver coin and jewelry count is well over 200, and gold/platinum count is 47. Yes, that’s 45 gold and 2 platinum items. The last gold find is the largest, heaviest, and most unique ring that I’ve found so far. It’s a 19.67g, 14k gold ring with 2 small diamonds, and 6 more tiny diamonds.</p> <p>I was beach detecting “in the pan” during a negative low tide, and having a very poor day. The take was 1 quarter and lots of trash in my pouch. Up until that day, all but one of the gold/platinum finds from “in the pan” we’re in the 5m to 15m zone away from the base of the beach. At 31m out, in an area that I had detected over more than once in the past, I got a very trashy signal that I would normally pass over. It had to be another weirdly shaped piece of non-ferrous junk for my pouch. Being in a trash digging mood, I dug it.</p> <p>At the bottom of the hole was gold, but it appeared to be too big to be a ring. I plucked it out, and to my surprise, the biggest gold ring I ever recall seeing in real life! The 14k stamp combined with a density test, and a 14k acid test confirmed that this huge ring wasn’t plated. Air testing the ring parallel to the coil gave an average conductivity reading of 35, but air testing the top of this oddly designed ring gave readings that varied from 02 to 45, and a varying audio to match. The trashiest sounding ring that I’ve found so far is also the largest and most unique.</p>