Depth comparisons yesterday.... I was shocked

[jbow]

A buddy took me to a site that has little mineralization and low trash. It has a few small pieces of iron and a few minnies left. It has about 5" of pinestraw over some sandy soil. Most of the ground around here is medium to high mineral red clay.

So.. I decided to try out the new F75 LTD and my buddy started out with an MXT with the Super 12 coil. He was getting clear hits on some things that I could not get a good hit on and I took the time to try disc and AM in BP and CL modes. The MXT was better in this soil... meaning that it get's better depth. I know in mineralized soil and trash everything loses some depth and separation becomes more important however... depth is important!
We hunted a while and then I switched to the E-TRAC and he switched to the V3. I don't remember if he was using the 950 or the 12, I think he was using the V nulled 950. This really got to me... he was clearly hitting a target and the E-TRAC would not make a sound... even with the "ironmask" (or whatever they call it on the ET) wide open and the sensitivity on 30... nothing. So, the White's beat the ET on depth.
I had my V3 in the truck and in hindsight wish I had used it. I am not used to hunting in mild ground. I also wish I had used the Sovereign GT to see how it did.

One thing is certain. The V3 will do it all! The ET and the F75 LTD both fell short in mild ground and low trash.

The last machine I tried was the Tejon. I immediately started finding .22 bullets and .22 brass, not that deep... it just hits hard on that kind of target.

I am really glad that I have the V3. I have two sites with masked targets, not that deep but masked... all are "iffy". The ET has been good at picking them out. I plan to go and find some with the ET, mark them, and then see what I can get with the V3. I think with the proper adjustments I should be able to do the same thing with it. If I can... then I will have no more use for the ET and the LTD has already fallen into disfavor. I am disappointed with it, I was expecting it to really shine when working over 5" of straw but White's beat it in a side by side test... an MXT too! and the V3 whipped up on the E-TRAC. I was really surprised... I wish I had had the SE with me to see if it would hit what the V3 was hitting.

So... yesterday White's wins, and wins big.

I'm glad I already have one so I don't have to buy one.

You may ask why I wasn't using it... well, I wouldn't know any of this if I had been using it and like I said most of my hunting is in mineralized ground where depth is lost... I was shocked that the neither the LTD nor the ET would compete with either the MXT or the V3 in clean and mild ground. I am thinking that maybe the GT would have... but that will be for another day... I think I need to thin the herd.

Julien

 

[Ray-Mo.]

(He was getting clear hits on "some things" that I could not get a good hit on)
(he was clearly hitting "a target" and the E-TRAC would not make a sound)
Very detailed scientific test ......I guess I missed what the "things" and "target" were.
Hope they were not related to the mighty "ghost hole signals" being discussed on the Explorer Forum recently
I have been giving serious thought to giving another V3 a go but your lack of details does nothing to whet my "appetite",Ray.

 

[jbow]

the one that the ET wouldn't hit was a slightly curved piece of iron. A little bigger around than a nail and about an inch long. With no disc, 30 sens, deep on... no sound and no cursor... no nothing. It was down about a foot. He dug it out and showed it to me. FWIW, the LTD was hitting these same type targets at about 10". I was digging everything because it isn't trashy and a lot of CW relics have come out of this site. My buddy got two minnies from under a fallen log... I tried but alas...

The V3 was deeper than the E-TRAC. There are few places around here with deep targets, usually 6 to 8 inches is about it because the ground is so hard and full of rocks. Plus the hillsides erode away and leave good relics very shallow. The place we were hunting is a flood plane, sandy with lots of straw and needle mulch.

There were no phantom targets involved in the tests.

I dug several shotgun shells, .22 brass and bullets, and a few of those iron pieces, a small amount of old barbwire but I quickly moved away from it.

J

 

[Doctorcoinz]

A few years ago i buried a coin about 5 inches down in the back garden , i scanned over the coin with the explorer and got a null (no signal) , i went over the same coin with the dfx and got a solid signal. I am not sure what to make of it all but one thing for sure is the whites are one underated detector.
The discrimination on the minelabs fbs - superb on the grass land coin shooting sites unbeatable....

 

[Ray-Mo.]

Just pulling your chain a little and getting bored with the 13" of heavy snow that dumped on us yesterday.Not very surprised once you IDed the targets as fairly small rusty iron.The E-Trac is designed and tuned to hit hardest on round coin sized targets of higher conductivity.I have dug a few old cut nails at well over 10" but they were around 3" long.If you had said silver dimes I would have been impressed to say the least.And their is nothing that will give a fair side by side test of machines like in field targets

 

[jbow]

I think that the biggest factor was probably the concentric coils vs the DD coils IN NEUTRAL SOIL...

That said, I am still not pleased with the performance of the F75 LTD (not that anyone here probably cares) I really expected it to shine with a 5" layer of mulch. I may have forgotten to mention that on the target (IIRC once it was dug it was a buck from a Confederate "buck&ball" shot) while the LTD would not hit it in AM, sens=80 and BP mode... I switched it over to disc, still in BP sens=50; disc=6.. the F hit it from both directions. I mostly hunted it in AM because I was under the impression that it was a little better in AM but... at that site, on that target, on that day... disc, even with a lower sens was clearly better. Also, AM mode on the F had a really annoying WAH... tone at the end of EVERY left swing... I don't understand that and I know that this isn't the forum for it but since I brought the comparison up, I thought i'd finish up. I think I probably mentioned the left end of the swing whine in my OP but I know I forgot to tell that the F did indeed hit the target in disc. I was upset at what happened in AM and I forgot...

I think I have a buyer for the F LTD...

J