That may be the question for new buyers or old SE owners. I had my SE for a while but didn't like the multi looney tunes, and also had a hard time pinpointing. It was difficult for me to identify targets before I dug them. So I traded with the Backwoods vendor and now am very happy with the E-trac. I spent my first hour hunting with it today and I can tell you it pinpoints Great, and it Identifies clad vs. Zinc cents very well. I hope to find silver, but for today's familiarization hunt, the clad was fine. I found six clad dimes and five cents, some of which were copper and others Zinc. I signaled many more cents, but passed them up. I like the E-trac much better than the SE, though that is a personal decision each of us must make on our own. I use 4 tones instead of multi, and find that feature alone to be worth the price of admission. If a silver coin had been on the fairground site I searched today, I would have found it-no doubt. The digital/smartfind combination is something I had wanted on the SE, and now I can use it to help identify the targets before digging. The zinc cents are a waste of time and the E-trac lets me avoid them. Good going, Minelab!
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E-trac or Explorer SE Pro?
- Thread starter Reggie
- Start date
Well spoken, Reggie. I agree one hundred per cent. The E-Trac pinpoints right on, and picks coins right out of the trash like nothing I have ever used before. I have been out only twice with my new E-Trac and feel as though I now can't be without it. I waited 5 years to buy a new detector simply because there were nothing really "new' out there. Minelab has come up with a great detector.
My suspicions were correct about the E-tracs ability to find silver. For the first time ever I found a 1920s Merc dime and a 1943 P war nickel in 3 hours of hunting. And I left a lot of good signals undug because it was after dark when I found the silver coins-not even knowing the nickel was a war nickel. I think this could be the best machine I have owned.
Reggie said:
This is a place where you had swung your Explorer also and it did NOT find the coins? I just hope this isn't a case of believing a machine is "head and shoulders" above another because a coin was under the coil. My father, no matter what I tell him, believes his coinmaster 3900 was the best machine he ever owned because he found things with it, of course disregarding that there were more thing to find.
I want to see a head-to-head on the same targets.
I have used XLT, DFX, X-5, Coinstrike, CZ, Cortez, and yes Explorer, and this ,so far, is shaping up to be the best detector I have ever used. I say this after only being out twice with it, so I am not speaking from lots of experience with this machine. However, it has found coins in heavily hunted and difficult to detect areas. E-Trac Rocks.
Neil
Well-known member
I agree with you Shambler. Ive hunted the same sites with different detectors and found nice coins but I dont think its necessarily the detector, just the path I chose to hunt or different moistures, different coils, it can be alot of things. A side by side standing in the same location, same sweep and all is really the only way to tell and lets not forget being able to set up the detector correctly. This is not to take anything away from the Etrac and actually I am hoping it to be better than my SE, but its gonna take alot of hunting for me to make those claims. I do like the new menu layout, the screen having both the smartfind graph and digital readout, and the greater adjustments(more adjustments on settings for finer tuning). Minelab does seem to improve on each model. I think the SE menu is easier to work with over the XS and XSII. And last year I found a nice ring at the beach that was as deep as Ive ever found a ring, I didnt measure but it was way deep, so the SE for my hunting is super. I bought the Etrac for several reasons, hoping it is better on smaller gold(havent tested it myself yet) is one of the reasons. For my beach hunting and occasional land hunts, you just cant beat the Explorers and Sovs and looks like the Etrac as well.
Neil
Neil
In an earlier post I expressed a belief that the E-trac could find silver as it had found clad-among a bunch of zincolns. This latest trip confirmed it would do that. Perhaps someone who has both an SE and an ET will cover a productive 10'X10' area with the SE and then come behind it with the ET to see if the latter will produce some more coins. I don't have both machines. And "no" I didn't run the SE over these targets on a previous trip. I have, however, compared the two machines in my 2 year old test garden and have seen a much better ET response. In my tests the ET picked up a particular clad quarter at 8" which had been consistently missed by the SE, due to a piece of shallower iron being in close proximity to the coin. Some of my other detectors also missed that coin, including the DFX and MXT, as well as the SE. To me, that means the ET can make "separation" of the target from iron where other detectors could not. So I am very pleased with this garden test result, as well as my own results in the field. Perhaps someone with both machines will do a field comparison test and report their findings. Anyone volunteer? I'd like to hear from you.
I ran an Explorer II with the new DD coil on a test bed then followed up with an E-trac. In the bed were a few rusty nails with no good targets underneath. The II nulled, but the E-trac gave me broken high tones in the standard "Coin" program. If I hear high tones, I dig. Has anyone else had this "problem" with their E-trac? If this is part of the new learning curve, I think I'll pass on the E-trac.
christopher-ohio
Active member
I know what you are saying-loud and clear 
I have had 3 different E-Tracs and compared their individual performance mainly in the coin program. Two of them hit about 12+ inches on a penny with the sensitivity of 30 manual in the Minelab coin program...the other 19.5 inches!...but,,,the "hotter" one seemed to false more on in the iron substantially more than the other two in the same program with the same sensitivity. So what to make of it???...that is the question. I just don't understand how there could be such a difference between machines made in the same place with the same components/computer boards/coils...etc... so your test may depend on the individual machine and what your settings were for the machines. It would be interesting to post the settings of each to see if some of the much more experience users on here can determine if it may be related to your settings. I would also be interested to see what your air testing max distance is on a penny at 30 manual too? Thanks for the post and any follow-up info...
I have had 3 different E-Tracs and compared their individual performance mainly in the coin program. Two of them hit about 12+ inches on a penny with the sensitivity of 30 manual in the Minelab coin program...the other 19.5 inches!...but,,,the "hotter" one seemed to false more on in the iron substantially more than the other two in the same program with the same sensitivity. So what to make of it???...that is the question. I just don't understand how there could be such a difference between machines made in the same place with the same components/computer boards/coils...etc... so your test may depend on the individual machine and what your settings were for the machines. It would be interesting to post the settings of each to see if some of the much more experience users on here can determine if it may be related to your settings. I would also be interested to see what your air testing max distance is on a penny at 30 manual too? Thanks for the post and any follow-up info...I will post mine, but wait until the weather is a bit better. We should all be testing outside, away from any power lines and wiring from the house. I can't get my sensitivity to 30 in my basement. No wonder, since it has all the wiring in the house going through it, along with lots of double 8" fluorescents down there
Surprised it can even detect at all. Just list the way you want the machines set up, preferences, and I'll test mine. I have one of the lower (depth wise) units, so I will be interested in those results too.
Surprised it can even detect at all. Just list the way you want the machines set up, preferences, and I'll test mine. I have one of the lower (depth wise) units, so I will be interested in those results too.I must admit, I am not an expert with the Etrac by any means. I only demo'd the machine against the Explorer II, and when I heard the high tones over iron, I put it away. Maybe these machines are so close to the limit of technology that we can actually hear the differences resulting from normal component and manufacturing tolerances. I bump into the limit every time I use my Fisher F-75, which normally runs "hot" and thus you hear lots of pops and ticks under normal usage. There is common belief that every F-75 is different from another, thus poor quality control. Maybe Etrac will get that same stigma. I really liked the near silent running of the Minelabs compared to my F-75, but that comes at a price of slow recovery speed. Then again, the Explorers better discriminate bottle caps compared to the F-75. There's always tradeoffs...
christopher-ohio
Active member
n/t
I can't claim any expertise either, and you and go rebels undoubtedly have some good experiences with the Explorer. So I don't refute either of you. My personal experience was that running my Explorer in Ferous sound (to avoid high pitched tones which were common in Conduct sound), it would hit the high pitch on more iron than the ETrac does. I guess that was a large part of my frustration with the Explorer. Per the advice of Andy Sabich and others, I now run the ET in CO. I find that only the large pieces of iron cause false signals with the ET, and from what I have read and learned from my own experience, all machines will give false positives on big pieces of iron. I do find it much easier for me to identify the good signals with the ET as compared with the Explorer. I can cherry pick a site and then go back and recheck for the Indianhead cents, nickels, gold jewelry, etc. if I want to. I am happy to hear about your experiences with the different machines.
christopher-ohio
Active member
at 30 manual sensitivity? I agree with you that one of my personal frustrations with the Explorer as well was the iron falsing in ferrous sounds which I have found to be less with certain E-Tracs-the ones that airtest between 12 -14 " on a penny at 30 manual but not the one at 19.5? Thanks for any follow-up
Hi Reggie,
What model Explorer do you have and what type of coil do you use (Concentric or DD)?
I wonder if the Minelab DD coil is more susceptible to iron falsing as the Fisher DD coil is more apt to false on steel bottle caps compared to their concentric model?
I believe the switch from a concentric coil to a DD is as equal a technical change as switching from an Explorer to an Etrac. Fisher users know that a F-70 using a DD coil from a F-75 is a totally different animal.
One other question for the E-trac users... one dealer told me that most good targets lie in the Fe=12 band on the display. What common targets, good or bad, fall significantly outside the Fe=12 band?
What model Explorer do you have and what type of coil do you use (Concentric or DD)?
I wonder if the Minelab DD coil is more susceptible to iron falsing as the Fisher DD coil is more apt to false on steel bottle caps compared to their concentric model?
I believe the switch from a concentric coil to a DD is as equal a technical change as switching from an Explorer to an Etrac. Fisher users know that a F-70 using a DD coil from a F-75 is a totally different animal.
One other question for the E-trac users... one dealer told me that most good targets lie in the Fe=12 band on the display. What common targets, good or bad, fall significantly outside the Fe=12 band?
I had, but traded, the SE Pro with newest 11" butterfly coil-same coil as the E-Trac.
In Andy's book he basically says not to worry about the FE reading so much as the CO reading. Thus a 24-48 would be a good target, which would be found in the far right of the Smartfind screen. Anything ending in mid thirties and up in the CO reading couldbe a good target, depending on depth and pitch of audio signal. If it is deep, six inches or so, I would dig a mid-thirties CO target. But if it is shallow, the mid-thirties usually indicate a zincoln or other nuisance. Shallow targets above CO 40 should be dug, and frankly, after cherry picking a site, I would go back over it and dig some of the "iffy" mid-thirties shallow targets to see if they are in fact zincolns, bottle caps, or whether some Indian head cents or other old coins could be hiding there. The 1943 war nickel I found (35% silver) gave a reading of CO 18, which is higher than the usual 12-13 CO nickel reading. I don't really care too much about the FE reading unless it is in the lower extreme of the Smartfind screen (larger FE number), which means Large Iron junk. The FE line is basically a flat line in theory, but in the field the clad and silver targets are best found by the COMBINATION of sound, smartfind and digital readings. Thus you have a triple check, and I would go with 2 out of 3, or even 1 out of 3 if the target is deep and promising (other similar good targets found with comparable reading). This latter part isn't in a book to my knowledge, and I'm new to the Etrac, but this is my experience right now. If you want to find everything, then you would have to dig all signals in the fields you are interested in: whether gold, nickel, clad, silver, etc.
In Andy's book he basically says not to worry about the FE reading so much as the CO reading. Thus a 24-48 would be a good target, which would be found in the far right of the Smartfind screen. Anything ending in mid thirties and up in the CO reading couldbe a good target, depending on depth and pitch of audio signal. If it is deep, six inches or so, I would dig a mid-thirties CO target. But if it is shallow, the mid-thirties usually indicate a zincoln or other nuisance. Shallow targets above CO 40 should be dug, and frankly, after cherry picking a site, I would go back over it and dig some of the "iffy" mid-thirties shallow targets to see if they are in fact zincolns, bottle caps, or whether some Indian head cents or other old coins could be hiding there. The 1943 war nickel I found (35% silver) gave a reading of CO 18, which is higher than the usual 12-13 CO nickel reading. I don't really care too much about the FE reading unless it is in the lower extreme of the Smartfind screen (larger FE number), which means Large Iron junk. The FE line is basically a flat line in theory, but in the field the clad and silver targets are best found by the COMBINATION of sound, smartfind and digital readings. Thus you have a triple check, and I would go with 2 out of 3, or even 1 out of 3 if the target is deep and promising (other similar good targets found with comparable reading). This latter part isn't in a book to my knowledge, and I'm new to the Etrac, but this is my experience right now. If you want to find everything, then you would have to dig all signals in the fields you are interested in: whether gold, nickel, clad, silver, etc.
Christopher said:
What? On a coin sized object? Doing THAT without atmospheric noise WOULD be a breakthrough. VLF has been detecting coins at 12" for 20+ years and, from what I understand, is the maximum we're going to get with this technology. My question has always been how can you have something as blazing fast as the f75 and have so much noise in urban/suburban areas with no significant depth difference (maybe an inch or two under SOME conditions) from say an Exporer or CZ-70 or 3D.
If the E-Trac is pulling off 12+ inches, is nearly as fast as the f75, and filters noise well enough to remain quiet most of the time in city conditions, I'll take one (regardless of the CRAZY remapping of the FE/CO numbers).