Treasure Classifieds Forum

I'm glad to hear your doing well with your brand spankin used Etrac Gerry! I had the exact same results with mine. I went from and explorer 2 to a SE Pro, safari, and then Etrac. I had a little stint with the whites V3i, and just traded her off for a brand spankin used CTX. I have high hopes, just hope my shoulder holds up! Keep diggin brother! Best of luck!

(12-05-2016 06:52 PM)Firedigger109 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm glad to hear your doing well with your brand spankin used Etrac Gerry! I had the exact same results with mine. I went from and explorer 2 to a SE Pro, safari, and then Etrac. I had a little stint with the whites V3i, and just traded her off for a brand spankin used CTX. I have high hopes, just hope my shoulder holds up! Keep diggin brother! Best of luck!

Safari is a damn good machine, as are the Explorer's & SE's, but they cannot hold a candle to the Etracs. And I'm not talking theory or opinion, but rather, the technical abilities of the Etracs versus the others, which I've witnessed time and time again. The Etrac has better tones to alert the user to something good, quicker response, and has superior VDI. And believe me...

This is coming from a guy (me) who hates change, doesn't believe in bell's & whistles or any of that other crap. If it were up to me, I'd hunt with one detector until I'm six feet under, but I've seen the edge the Etracs have, and that's proof enough for me.

I remember a member here telling me how good the CTX was a couple years back, and I scoffed at the proposition. I wrote it off as a more expensive version of an Explorer or Safari, with a couple of added bell's & whistles. I will never do that again, since I learned my lesson with the Etrac. If it is that good versus others in the Minelab family, there is no reason why the CTX shouldn't be either.

Of course, the machine only gets one so far. Location & operator skill is a top priority, but, all things being equal, take two guys with the same experience to the same good spot, and the guy with the Etrac will simply find things in an easier manner.

Now that is what I was holding onto with the Exp II, the tone is there for me after all of this time using it and it took me a long time.
But as I understand it the tone is different on the Etrac and CTX as well.
Thanks for all of the posts - they do help

(12-05-2016 10:28 PM)Bigtony Wrote: [ -> ]Now that is what I was holding onto with the Exp II, the tone is there for me after all of this time using it and it took me a long time.
But as I understand it the tone is different on the Etrac and CTX as well.
Thanks for all of the posts - they do help

The Explorers are EXCELLENT machines, as is my Safari. And both will do 90% of what the Etrac can, in experienced hands. However, that last 10% is where the problems arise. For instance...

All Minelab's are painfully slow to begin with. Now couple that with the fact that both the Explorer's & Safari's have slower processing power as the Etrac, and the fact that the VDI info isn't as reliable, and you can see how big a gap that 10% really is.

Minelab's aren't known for their proficiency in iron. But believe it or not, the Etrac can do pretty darn well in small to medium pockets of iron. It separates better. So if there's a coin right next to an old rusty nail, where the Explorer's & Safari's might have a harder time deciphering the signal, and may very well call the target bad, the Etrac will give a clear DIG ME high tone, with ease. And as you know, there's a LOT of trashy areas out there.

Yes, there are many other variables aside from machine; location, experience, luck, etc. But a quicker recovery time, better separation & more accurate VDI info at depth, will surely help to find more keepers in the long run.

The tones on the CTX, to my ears (and many other hunters) don't sound the same as the Etrac's, Explorer's, Safari's, etc. They sound more washed out and flat. From what I understand though, you can manipulate the tones to get that same crinkly, high pitched warble as on the older Minelab's. I just haven't heard one set up like that yet, I guess.

Like I said, Tony, I almost always avoid new...the 'latest & greatest'. I prefer old. Tried and true. Tested. But there comes a certain time when you have to look at what's presented to you and reassess. Even though the Etrac isn't really new, it's new enough to offer performance that the older stuff can't match.

Don't take my word for, though. Go hunt with a club member that uses an Etrac, and is very proficient with it. Compare signals. Compare VDI numbers. Listen to the tones on both machines. Watch how both machines react to questionable targets. I'm pretty confident you'll come away with the same sentiments as me.

The best improvement you can make with the etrac as far as recovery speed goes is to experiment around with a few different coils , of which there are dozens to pick from. I have found coils that are 8 x12 or 5 x10 come very close to the same depth as the stock in my dirt but are noticeably faster , and if you are picking in iron you definitely need a 4.5 x 7 or 6"er to switch to.

(12-06-2016 08:57 AM)Dusty Wrote: [ -> ]The best improvement you can make with the etrac as far as recovery speed goes is to experiment around with a few different coils , of which there are dozens to pick from. I have found coils that are 8 x12 or 5 x10 come very close to the same depth as the stock in my dirt but are noticeably faster , and if you are picking in iron you definitely need a 4.5 x 7 or 6"er to switch to.

Dusty, not sure how long you swung an Etrac, but in your opinion (without any fluff), how much better is the CTX that it? What is the MAIN advantage or two? In my mind, it would be the increased speed and how that would better separate in trash/iron & the target trace feature. But that's only from the outside looking in, as I never hunted with one.

Is the target trace feature accurate, hit or miss, or just a bell & whistle?

Joe,
The speed is a definite plus especially in the sites you mention especially with the 6" coil but equally as useful is the Combined settings which make it basically a 5 tone detector with each tone correlating to a range of targets. If you delegate one to iron , say Fe28 and higher , you can assign a comfortable low tone(bass) and hunt through the iron with an open scene(no disc) and little if any falsing . On the etrac the Fe 30+ and iron wrap around drives you nuts in multi conductive and you are forced to go with TTF or try to pick the good signals out in 4 tone ferrous and it's too audio intense,,,,at least for me.
Target trace is cool but mostly fluff as you're going to dig off of tones not the screen although I don't hunt a lot of severe iron where it may have more use.
To avoid the "fluff" I won't mention the water proof nature of the CTX or the balance or the wireless headphone capabilities without lag or the GPS

Dusty, that is interesting because I feel many detectors have wrap around and we miss certain large targets. Just my opinion.

(12-06-2016 11:10 PM)Bigtony Wrote: [ -> ]Dusty, that is interesting because I feel many detectors have wrap around and we miss certain large targets. Just my opinion.

I'm not sure I understand where you're going with this but I agree that most if not all detectors will have wrap around iron signals. I try to avoid the 30+ numbers on a FBS machine when looking for high conducting targets and coins. Even when co-located with iron the FE number doesn't get that large very often on a good conductive target. Maybe ax heads and real estate signs but not much I want to dig. I have seen good targets that have a lot of mass come in with low Fe numbers like 01 ,02 ,03 but the conductive numbers are high , say above 30 , which is the tip off in those cases that it's not wrap around iron signals.
I don't hunt relics much and most of the stuff I see that gets dug up as relics is just rusty iron trash that has little interest to me besides the clue it provides as to what type of activity it came from,,,value in that respect but destined for the trash can after being noted.

Good information, and explanation, Dusty. I don't know much about TTF except that a lot of guys choose to use it in heavy trash/iron areas, as, in that scenario, one really isn't interested in hearing multiple tones versus simply being able to differentiate between a good target and a bad one. That's one I'm looking forward to trying on the Etrac.

As for the GPS feature, like you, to me that would have very little use, as I tend to remember the location of each keeper I find. Quite surprising though, that the unit is susceptible to taking on water. I've heard of many hunters using it on the beach, and their units got fried. I'd turn into a mean sonofbitch if I bought a $2,000 detector and it got water in it. There are guys who send in their machines to Minelab who sometimes wait MONTHS to have them repaired. Their customer service comes nowhere near a Whites or Fisher.