Etrac or f75??

[tjbrown1990]

I recently purchased a f75 and I must say it's a good detector but I used to own a ctx 3030 and I just can't seem to get in tune with a single frequency machine. I have never owned an etrac and I was thinking about selling my f75 to purchase an etrac with 6 inch coil. I hunt iron infested sites and had my most luck in them with a ctx 3030. I guess my question is would you keep the f75 or sell it and get a etrac??

 

[gabbyhayes]

Why would you go backwards to an Etrac????
If you owned a CTX 3030 you already have an understanding of how it operates.
It should be simply a matter of learning or understanding what the machine is telling you better.
Also I think people didn't like the etrac due to the weight/balance

 

[GroundScanner]

The new DST F75 SE are better in the iron infested sites. (Well depends on who you ask). It is much , much faster . Give the F75 a try. You need more time on it. JMHO. GS

 

[After-1-]

keep it------after1------

 

[tjbrown1990]

I appreciate all the help. I have decided to keep my f75 and get a nel tornado coil for it. Look forward to posting finds. Thanks again.

 

[Fisher F75 Iowa]

Excellent decision

 

[REVIER]

Not everyone clicks with every brand, what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another...or needs too.
Then there is the fun factor, some just enjoy being out there no matter what they find and others must produce or get frustrated to the max.
In my case I am the kind that love the experience but a few years ago I came across a site that did frustrate me and also many others.
A site with a knocked down farm house with iron so thick at so many levels and types it was a nightmare.
Large tools and other farm junk like wagon parts, screws bolts and nuts and bits and pieces that came from that house plus rusty wire from large to tiny and nails of all sizes...oh gawd so many nails.
There was never a hole I ever opened here that didn't have at least 2 and up to 6 or more bits of masking junk in it.
I, along with many others, suspected there were some great targets hiding here but for years many tried and could not make any headway including myself with several detectors, coils and hours spent trying.
I know for sure several members of my club hunted this site with top end FBS Minelabs and White's units with decades of experience, hunted it once only because the frustration factor drove them all to greener pastures.
The only quality thing I heard anyone dig out of this iron mine was one lonely silver dime and the math didn't add up for the time and work involved to find so little.
I am stubborn so after I got an F70 and spent a few months getting used to it I decided to wade back into this site and see what I could do with my new tool and all these settings at my disposal.
It took several hours and hunts to make any progress, at first I dug so much iron with nothing much else but eventually I started to dig a few targets that weren't iron and on every one I noticed some behavior that seemed to repeat somewhat when I swung over non ferrous items no matter how much iron was in that hole with it.
I experimented with different settings and using these new observations about target behavior I eventually I found I was digging less and less iron and more and more targets that were not iron.
Soon enough the really good stuff started to show up...when I dug my first silver dime that was a banner day and all the frustration melted away and all the time spent spinning my wheels while learning became a distant memory.
Over time I got to the point where I could recognize and dig better non ferrous targets at will, I only dug iron if I wanted too.
I learned two completely different ways to do this in heavy iron infested sites, one using disc and one using all metal...and I could do it with several completely different types and sizes of coils.
As time went on I tried these settings in other trash and heavy iron infested sites I had hunted in the past and was successful at finding more great things that I couldn't before so this was no fluke.
I had learned ways to use this Fisher to do jaw dropping things in very difficult iron infested sites and those lessons will be with me forever more.

The top end Fishers have a remarkable ability to hunt in iron and be amazingly successful but it is not always in your face obvious and just something you need to learn to do in my experience.
As in life, time spent learning anything can have positive results forever.

Below is a family pic of most of the totally masked and hidden targets I eventually found in that one iron mine farmhouse site.
We were all correct...there was a bunch of fantastic things hiding there including a bucket list walker half.
It just took a stubborn guy that had the patience to learn how to find them and a great tool with the ability to accomplish it.

 

[After-1-]

TJ1990 Very Good Decision------------------REVIER------You are really in tune with your machine, those are some fines to be proud of coming from the site you described and those site's are every where!!!!!!!! At this site did any one run a CTX3030??????------after1----------

 

[REVIER]

TJ1990 Very Good Decision------------------REVIER------You are really in tune with your machine, those are some fines to be proud of coming from the site you described and those site's are every where!!!!!!!! At this site did any one run a CTX3030??????------after1----------

Not that I heard, but one guy did borrow a minlab from someone else in the club to hunt there and il might have been a dirty 30 that found that dime.
If not probably an E Trac.

 

[dfmike]

Those are really cool looking pocket knives REVIER.

 

[REVIER]

Those are really cool looking pocket knives REVIER.

Pocket knives of any type good or bad are one of my favorite targets to dig.
I don't dig much iron but when I do it will usually be in the upper end where these knives usually come in.
This site was not huge, but back in the day all boys and most men, especially around a farm, carried them and I guess lost them.
Once I found one they seemed to start flying out of the ground one after another.
All rusted and in different conditions, too.

 

[HaroldILL.]

Why would you go backwards to an Etrac????
If you owned a CTX 3030 you already have an understanding of how it operates.
It should be simply a matter of learning or understanding what the machine is telling you better.
Also I think people didn't like the etrac due to the weight/balance

I for one didn't like the feel balance of the CTX 3030 so went back to the Etrac as for Me it was easier to swing. Also CTX 3030 Doesn't have that Minelab Silver Warble I love so much. JMHO.

 

[cclemc]

REVIER, that was a great post. It told me (reminded me) to have patience and eventually I will be rewarded with some good finds. I am pretty new to this and haven't even found a silver dime or quarter yet. My frustration factor is pretty high. Do you think the green T2 is comparable to the F75? What is the difference with your F70? I know I have to put a lot more hours on my T2 to learn it. When I do, I will even learn how to post pictures and use these forums better. Thanks for the great post.
Clem

 

[REVIER]

REVIER, that was a great post. It told me (reminded me) to have patience and eventually I will be rewarded with some good finds. I am pretty new to this and haven't even found a silver dime or quarter yet. My frustration factor is pretty high. Do you think the green T2 is comparable to the F75? What is the difference with your F70? I know I have to put a lot more hours on my T2 to learn it. When I do, I will even learn how to post pictures and use these forums better. Thanks for the great post.
Clem

Have patience and keep learning, took me many months before I found my first silver dime, years before I found a silver quarter. I just bided my time finding silver and gold jewelry instead.

The classic T2 seems to be a great unit, lots of features especially in the ground balance and ground tracking area.
Very similar to the F75 before they added boost and some other programs, also similar to my F70 in several basic ways.
All of them have the goods where it counts, great sensitivity, fantastic target sparation and recovery speed, if you have the big DD coil depth should not be much of a problem even without any boost.
Just learn its language and behavior and what it is telling you, then keep learning and you will find another hidden language of quirks and behavior.
You should find great stuff all along the whole journey.

 

[cclemc]

Sounds good REVIER. I think I will try to do what you suggested earlier and start a sticky(?) in the Teknetics forum and just ask for everyone to leave their best operating tips. The logging and farm sites we hunt are always filled with iron trash so I need to get good at discriminating it out or recognizing the small audio differences. I do have the 11" dd coil but it seemed to be worthless in all the iron and too hard to pinpoint anything. More practice, I know. Talk to you later.
Clem