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F-75LTD vs E-Trac
- Thread starter doberman
- Start date
Steve from Ohio
New member
I've had an E-trac and the Original F-75. I've tried the new LTD and I will be getting one....but.........
The E trac is a great machine. But it is much slower than an F-75. The F-75 that I had could cover a whole lot more ground quicker than my E-trac could. It's just a faster machine.
Ease of use? They both have their good points. I would rate them even although the F-75 can be a bit touchy in certain instances of EMI.
The learning curve. To me, that is kind of a funny idea. Any machine can become the best machine you have ever owned by getting to know how to use it correctly. After a year or two of using it, you will be very familiar with it by just trying different settings.
So the learning curve for any machine will be what you make it.
Depth. About even. In some instances, the F-75 is deeper. In others, the E-trac. Depends on the ground and what you are hunting for. The F-75 is a better relic hunter because it is so fast and can cover more ground than the E-trac.
Depth is not nearly as important as the ability to correctly identify the target in the ground. I have found silver coins shallower than the clad equivalent in one schoolyard. If I had a machine that could detect down three feet,
how many people would dig down three feet to get say a wheat penny? Give me a machine that can correctly identify a coin at 10 to 15 inches and I'm happy. The F-75 and the E-trac both can depending on ground conditions and target size.
The E-trac has a more involved discrimination settings program. It can be adjusted to be more in tune with what you want to find. It is not perfect.
The F-75 is a more simple setting situation. It is a bit less involved although it is still an amazing machine. Very accurate just as is the E-trac.
I sold both machines due to me starting a new business and when I get the time back in my life, I am getting a new F-75 and a new E-trac.
I am sure that after reading this, you will be thinking, "I did not see anything here that would make me buy one over the other." There is a good reason for that. They are both excellent machines and
with either one, you cannot go wrong.
The E trac is a great machine. But it is much slower than an F-75. The F-75 that I had could cover a whole lot more ground quicker than my E-trac could. It's just a faster machine.
Ease of use? They both have their good points. I would rate them even although the F-75 can be a bit touchy in certain instances of EMI.
The learning curve. To me, that is kind of a funny idea. Any machine can become the best machine you have ever owned by getting to know how to use it correctly. After a year or two of using it, you will be very familiar with it by just trying different settings.
So the learning curve for any machine will be what you make it.
Depth. About even. In some instances, the F-75 is deeper. In others, the E-trac. Depends on the ground and what you are hunting for. The F-75 is a better relic hunter because it is so fast and can cover more ground than the E-trac.
Depth is not nearly as important as the ability to correctly identify the target in the ground. I have found silver coins shallower than the clad equivalent in one schoolyard. If I had a machine that could detect down three feet,
how many people would dig down three feet to get say a wheat penny? Give me a machine that can correctly identify a coin at 10 to 15 inches and I'm happy. The F-75 and the E-trac both can depending on ground conditions and target size.
The E-trac has a more involved discrimination settings program. It can be adjusted to be more in tune with what you want to find. It is not perfect.
The F-75 is a more simple setting situation. It is a bit less involved although it is still an amazing machine. Very accurate just as is the E-trac.
I sold both machines due to me starting a new business and when I get the time back in my life, I am getting a new F-75 and a new E-trac.
I am sure that after reading this, you will be thinking, "I did not see anything here that would make me buy one over the other." There is a good reason for that. They are both excellent machines and
with either one, you cannot go wrong.
I have both and agree with all you said. One thing I would add is that the E-Trac will definately get more out of trash than an F 75. I live two blocks from a 100 year old school, which I've pounded to death. In front of the school is a 200' by 75' patch of grass. I hunted it thourghly last Spring with an F 70, which operates like an f 75. I just bought an E-Trac two weeks ago, and rehunted the same area. I found 45 coins I had missed with the F 70. Almost all were 2"-4" deep, so they hadn't been lost in the past three months. The E-Trac will be my primary coin machine and the F 75 LTD will be my primary relic machine. I plan on doing some head to head comparisons, starting today. This old school has an athletic field that used to be the high school football field and now is used for Summer soccor games and hosts our annual city fair with carnival rides. I've dug some deep coins with the original F 75. I want to rehunt it with both machines and see what happens. I call it my 100 yard test garden. I'll let you know if there is any significant results.
keep on diggin'
jimmyk in MIssouri
keep on diggin'
jimmyk in MIssouri
Ease of use: The E-TRAC is easier to set up and use and what works at one place works at most other places. IMO, it is much more of a pleasure to use. More user friendly but that is not to say that the F75 is hard to learn, it isn't... but it has more settings and options that may need to be changed from site to site and according to conditions.
You have to change your swing speed if you go from DE to BP and swing even slower if you go to CL... if you are in a trashy area. If you're hunting a cache or artillary in a relatively clean area you can swing it faster. The recovery is much slower in BP and CL. Recovery is faster than the brain can process it in the other settings. Just my opinion, others may disagree.
Learning curve: See above but neither is bad.
Depth: I don't yet know but I suspect that the F75 has more raw depth however the question is not as simple as "depth". Depth in detecting is relative. In some ground 6" is really good depth for any detector due to mineralization or contamination, iron or cinder or trash. Seperation and the ability to "see through" (though no detector really "see's through") is more important that "depth". The ability to give a reasonable TID/VDI at depth is more important than depth. If not, just get a PI machine and dig everything. The ET is really good at giving a good ID at good depth. The ferrous number will be within a range but the conductive number will usually be correct even at 10" or more. The LTD may do as well, I have not had the opportunity to use it enough to tell yet. I suspect that with a slow swing in CL mode it will excell in both depth and ID.
Discrimination: I don't use much disc on either machine. I use the relic pattern almost all the time on the E-TRAC. I usually use ferrous 2tones but sometimes conductive and multitones, still with the relic pattern. I use fast and deep on usually and auto+3. It works well for me that way. The disc is probably a little better on the E-TRAC as far as getting a clean tone and affecting the sensitivity. On the F series turning the disc up always seems to me to resuly on shorter more choppy tones and certain levels of disc boost or lower sensitivity. Higher disc on the E-TRAC doesn't affect sensitivity and deesn't seem to affect the tones, but I still don't use it much, I like to hear everything. The conductive number tells me to dig or not dig.
Anything else you would like to add: I was on a Confederate trenchline, on Brushy Mountain in Kennesaw this week with the F75 LTD. There are powerlines closeby and underground utilities at this particular part of the line. Those who know the area, I was up on the cul-de-sac where they put in the road and utilities and didn't build. The powerlines are about 50' past the end of the street. The LTD would not work beside the street where the underground utilities are but 15' away it was quiet as a mouse. The trenches are about 25' from the road and I wasable to hunt that area with the LTD in CL mode, zero disc and 99 sensitivity using the small coil. What really surprised me is that, even with high tension powerlines less than 100 yards away and undergrounud utilities 25' away... I was absolutely silent until I swung over a target. It was so quiet that I occasionally would swing my ground shark shovel in front of me just to check, it would hit it at three ft over the coil. I checked a silver quarter and with these settings the 5" coil would hit it in the air at about a foot. The place has been really hard hunted and I only found 6 or 7 shotgun shells but i'm going back.
I really like the CL mode but you MUST swing it really slow for it to work. I really like the E-TRAC too.
If I had to choose between the two and could only keep one... at this point I would keep the E-TRAC. It has phenominal seperation and will find good targets in "hunted out" places that other detectors have missed if you just trust the conductive number. It is not an Explorer and the crosshairs are useless because they don't jump and give clues like the Explorer. Even a signal that is only detectable from one direction is sometimes good if that conductive number is good. I dug a carved minnie at one of the most heavy hunted parks around here with the ET using the 11" procoil. It was a one direction signal but had a constant 32/33 conductive number, the ferrous number was a little low. My friend was using an original F75 with the 10" F70 coil. He swung it an said it was tash... it was at about 7".
I used an original F75 as my main detector for over a year and found a LOT of goodies with it and only sold it beacuse a friend of mine fell in love with it and couldn't afford a new one... and I was using the ET a lot at that time. Right now I am not using the ET. I am using the F75 LTD and a V3. The V3 may be as good as the ET. May even be better. I took both the LTD and the V3 to a small park in Atlanta in the midtown area. I hit a hilltop that was in the area of the Confederate lines at Peachtree Creek when Hood took over. It has been hunted too. Again, underground utilities beside the street and HT powerlines within 100 yds. The LTD was not affected by the powerlines but I could not hunt within 15' orf the street. I didn't try close to the street with the V3. I used the LTD for about 15 minutes, with the 5" coil and gave up. Not because it wasn't workable but because I wasn't in the mood to hear everything in the ground. I guess I could have raised the disc but I didn't. I just didn't think it was a good place to learn the LTD. The V3 pulled a shot 2 ring minnie, a RR baggage seal (stamped B.K.), and a rosie.. and some trash.
Both the V3 and the E-TRAC are a more pleasant experience. They both have more pleasing tones, especially the E-TRAC. The F75 tones sound a little harsh to me. Especially when switching from the musical ET tones straight to the 75... then they really sound brash and harsh. I don't mean to say that the F tones are a problem, just that they are not as pleasing to the ear and in some places where there is a lot of iron, hot/cold rocks, and trash all the tones can be tiring to the ear and brain. You can raise the disc and not hear as many sounds but then, like I said, the tones seem to be a little more choppy and even more harsh.
Bottom line, since I used the F75 all the time for over a year I wouldn't have bought the LTD if I didn't like the detector. It is a great machine and is, IMO, much better than the original F75. It much better in EMI and you don't have to swing it really fast to get the best depth and TID like thr original. But you can run it in DE and it is basically the original if you need to swing fast and cover ground. If you want depth and seperation in trash you can switch to CL, swing really slow and get good depth and seperation. I don't know but it seems to me that the DP tone setting sounds a little better on the LTD, at least in the CL mode.
I think either machine will fully reward you if you take the time to really learn it and with the improvements to the LTD over the original I don't really think one will make finds that the other misses. BUT... there are always those sites and targets that one machine will work better than another... the mineralization or the type of trash. I like having several machines but some people hunt with only one machine and don't seem to miss anything. A friend was telling me the other day about a hunt at a construction site a few years ago where people were finding GMI buttons. He and several others had paid a dozer driver to grade an area fro them to hunt and they went behind the dozer and found a few items. Another hunter held back and slowly followed them. He was using a Troy X-5 and found more than all of them put together, hunting where they all just hunted, all with good detectors. My friend asked him how he did it... the guy told him that the Troy was the only machine he had used for the last 7 years and he knew what every little chirp and warble meant. A single tone machine I believe... it is a lot like a Tesoro Tejon.
In "hunted out" sites I prefer the E-TRAC and the V3.
In trash and in the woods or for coin hunting I like the LTD. (I will use the LTD in those "hunted out" places too and see how it works. I have a place in mind in a "hunted out" park where I pulled a couple of buttons and some mercury dimes with the E-TRAC. I am very interested to see if the LTD will find more goodies there... then I will know!)
In heavy iron I prefer the Tejon.
I think that with the CL mode the LTD will excell for hunting artillary or any other deep or big targets.
Both the E-TRACF and the LTD are comfortable for me to swing, more so than the V3 but I have back problems so my experience may not be the same as others. Sometimes I can more easily swing the E-TRAC than the LTD or T2 and they are both lighter and are well balanced... go figure.
Hope this helps.
Julien
You have to change your swing speed if you go from DE to BP and swing even slower if you go to CL... if you are in a trashy area. If you're hunting a cache or artillary in a relatively clean area you can swing it faster. The recovery is much slower in BP and CL. Recovery is faster than the brain can process it in the other settings. Just my opinion, others may disagree.
Learning curve: See above but neither is bad.
Depth: I don't yet know but I suspect that the F75 has more raw depth however the question is not as simple as "depth". Depth in detecting is relative. In some ground 6" is really good depth for any detector due to mineralization or contamination, iron or cinder or trash. Seperation and the ability to "see through" (though no detector really "see's through") is more important that "depth". The ability to give a reasonable TID/VDI at depth is more important than depth. If not, just get a PI machine and dig everything. The ET is really good at giving a good ID at good depth. The ferrous number will be within a range but the conductive number will usually be correct even at 10" or more. The LTD may do as well, I have not had the opportunity to use it enough to tell yet. I suspect that with a slow swing in CL mode it will excell in both depth and ID.
Discrimination: I don't use much disc on either machine. I use the relic pattern almost all the time on the E-TRAC. I usually use ferrous 2tones but sometimes conductive and multitones, still with the relic pattern. I use fast and deep on usually and auto+3. It works well for me that way. The disc is probably a little better on the E-TRAC as far as getting a clean tone and affecting the sensitivity. On the F series turning the disc up always seems to me to resuly on shorter more choppy tones and certain levels of disc boost or lower sensitivity. Higher disc on the E-TRAC doesn't affect sensitivity and deesn't seem to affect the tones, but I still don't use it much, I like to hear everything. The conductive number tells me to dig or not dig.
Anything else you would like to add: I was on a Confederate trenchline, on Brushy Mountain in Kennesaw this week with the F75 LTD. There are powerlines closeby and underground utilities at this particular part of the line. Those who know the area, I was up on the cul-de-sac where they put in the road and utilities and didn't build. The powerlines are about 50' past the end of the street. The LTD would not work beside the street where the underground utilities are but 15' away it was quiet as a mouse. The trenches are about 25' from the road and I wasable to hunt that area with the LTD in CL mode, zero disc and 99 sensitivity using the small coil. What really surprised me is that, even with high tension powerlines less than 100 yards away and undergrounud utilities 25' away... I was absolutely silent until I swung over a target. It was so quiet that I occasionally would swing my ground shark shovel in front of me just to check, it would hit it at three ft over the coil. I checked a silver quarter and with these settings the 5" coil would hit it in the air at about a foot. The place has been really hard hunted and I only found 6 or 7 shotgun shells but i'm going back.
I really like the CL mode but you MUST swing it really slow for it to work. I really like the E-TRAC too.
If I had to choose between the two and could only keep one... at this point I would keep the E-TRAC. It has phenominal seperation and will find good targets in "hunted out" places that other detectors have missed if you just trust the conductive number. It is not an Explorer and the crosshairs are useless because they don't jump and give clues like the Explorer. Even a signal that is only detectable from one direction is sometimes good if that conductive number is good. I dug a carved minnie at one of the most heavy hunted parks around here with the ET using the 11" procoil. It was a one direction signal but had a constant 32/33 conductive number, the ferrous number was a little low. My friend was using an original F75 with the 10" F70 coil. He swung it an said it was tash... it was at about 7".
I used an original F75 as my main detector for over a year and found a LOT of goodies with it and only sold it beacuse a friend of mine fell in love with it and couldn't afford a new one... and I was using the ET a lot at that time. Right now I am not using the ET. I am using the F75 LTD and a V3. The V3 may be as good as the ET. May even be better. I took both the LTD and the V3 to a small park in Atlanta in the midtown area. I hit a hilltop that was in the area of the Confederate lines at Peachtree Creek when Hood took over. It has been hunted too. Again, underground utilities beside the street and HT powerlines within 100 yds. The LTD was not affected by the powerlines but I could not hunt within 15' orf the street. I didn't try close to the street with the V3. I used the LTD for about 15 minutes, with the 5" coil and gave up. Not because it wasn't workable but because I wasn't in the mood to hear everything in the ground. I guess I could have raised the disc but I didn't. I just didn't think it was a good place to learn the LTD. The V3 pulled a shot 2 ring minnie, a RR baggage seal (stamped B.K.), and a rosie.. and some trash.
Both the V3 and the E-TRAC are a more pleasant experience. They both have more pleasing tones, especially the E-TRAC. The F75 tones sound a little harsh to me. Especially when switching from the musical ET tones straight to the 75... then they really sound brash and harsh. I don't mean to say that the F tones are a problem, just that they are not as pleasing to the ear and in some places where there is a lot of iron, hot/cold rocks, and trash all the tones can be tiring to the ear and brain. You can raise the disc and not hear as many sounds but then, like I said, the tones seem to be a little more choppy and even more harsh.
Bottom line, since I used the F75 all the time for over a year I wouldn't have bought the LTD if I didn't like the detector. It is a great machine and is, IMO, much better than the original F75. It much better in EMI and you don't have to swing it really fast to get the best depth and TID like thr original. But you can run it in DE and it is basically the original if you need to swing fast and cover ground. If you want depth and seperation in trash you can switch to CL, swing really slow and get good depth and seperation. I don't know but it seems to me that the DP tone setting sounds a little better on the LTD, at least in the CL mode.
I think either machine will fully reward you if you take the time to really learn it and with the improvements to the LTD over the original I don't really think one will make finds that the other misses. BUT... there are always those sites and targets that one machine will work better than another... the mineralization or the type of trash. I like having several machines but some people hunt with only one machine and don't seem to miss anything. A friend was telling me the other day about a hunt at a construction site a few years ago where people were finding GMI buttons. He and several others had paid a dozer driver to grade an area fro them to hunt and they went behind the dozer and found a few items. Another hunter held back and slowly followed them. He was using a Troy X-5 and found more than all of them put together, hunting where they all just hunted, all with good detectors. My friend asked him how he did it... the guy told him that the Troy was the only machine he had used for the last 7 years and he knew what every little chirp and warble meant. A single tone machine I believe... it is a lot like a Tesoro Tejon.
In "hunted out" sites I prefer the E-TRAC and the V3.
In trash and in the woods or for coin hunting I like the LTD. (I will use the LTD in those "hunted out" places too and see how it works. I have a place in mind in a "hunted out" park where I pulled a couple of buttons and some mercury dimes with the E-TRAC. I am very interested to see if the LTD will find more goodies there... then I will know!)
In heavy iron I prefer the Tejon.
I think that with the CL mode the LTD will excell for hunting artillary or any other deep or big targets.
Both the E-TRACF and the LTD are comfortable for me to swing, more so than the V3 but I have back problems so my experience may not be the same as others. Sometimes I can more easily swing the E-TRAC than the LTD or T2 and they are both lighter and are well balanced... go figure.
Hope this helps.
Julien
Chris(SoCenWI)
Well-known member
n/t
The stock, concentric 10" coil won't perform as well as the 11" DD, which is standard on the F75. You stated that the Etrac will definitely get more out of trash compared to a F75, then proceed to tell us how you cleaned up after using a concentric coil on your F70.
???
I'm curious how your head-to-head comparison tests turn out using your new LTD.
???
I'm curious how your head-to-head comparison tests turn out using your new LTD.
Julien in Cartersville, Georgia - I appreciate the time and thought you put into the comparisons - thanks for your email and hope you feel better and we will hook-up soon!
Dan in Woodstock, Ga
The internet is a wonderful thing, ya gotta love it - one of the best detecting tools (if not the best) a person can use......
Dan in Woodstock, Ga
The internet is a wonderful thing, ya gotta love it - one of the best detecting tools (if not the best) a person can use......