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I need a few opinions... no BS just plain facts... I hunt with a safari now and am going to move up to a se pro or e-trac.....very soon

M

Mark ( ohio )

Well-known member
all have fbs technology.. that being said, I like the smart find screen ( which I got used to on my old original explorer xs yrs ago ) so going back to the se-pro seems logical... Can/should I justify the additional $$$ to move into an e-trac?? Is any more depth being seen in the fields....Is the finds screen on the e-trac more concise to differenciate a tab from a gold ring... nickle from a tab etc...??

Alot more bells and whistles on the e-trac for sure.. do they help in the real world hunting for coins and jewelery??

Please, any help here.. Mark ( ohio )
 
We got our ET's after going on a small group hunt

The ET people blew us out of the water

We had White's DFX and when a signal sounded off for the ET
we could not even get a signal with our DFX's

The next day we ordered the ET

In regards to the screen and visual components, they rock but SOUND is vital
Anyone can do well with their MD if they really know how to use it
But with the ET it gives you major options and amazing results

Good Luck and HH
 
Locally in Idaho the Etrac owners all line up their finds after the hunt and compare totals and all the other detector owners just ooh and aaw and show everyone their clad change. I have probably dug up 10 or so pull tabs and pop tops since I got the etrac. I have dug two gold rings, 50 plus nickles, 10 or 12 silvers, 5 plus tokens, misc jewelry and medalions, 3 V nickles, 5 indian heads, 45 or so wheatbacks and Lots of other cool relic type items. Very little junk. I did dig some junk when I was in two tone ferrous but I was digging every high tone. I pulled out about 10 nickles 5 wheats, and two tokens in 30 minutes or so. I would go with the etrac. I had to wait 2 years to make the jump but I knew 2 years ago that I would have one after watching an se pro, a whites MXT, and an etrac side by side. Idig ID
 
To me the Etrac was simple and can be swung faster and still hits and there is several different ways to set it up for different things. BUT right out of the box just change 2 settings depending where your going to be hunting and it's ready to go and can be set and forget. I really like the bigger easier to see screen as you get older and it has the FE and CO and the pattern and the cursor all on one screen now. The menu is simple to navigate and really intuitive. Has a good resale value too. I got along with it right off but struggled with my Explorer to use it especially with the 1050 heavy coil on it. It sees through the trash easier to hit on the good targets for ya just set it to TRASH, HIGH. Not much more I can say but I think it was money well spent.
 
well no BS...the safari is good....BUT it is the bottom of the line for FBS offered by minelab. The etrac is the top of the line, that my friend is no BS
 
I've only been metal detecting since January 2010. In that time I have had many detectors. I was seeing and hearing all the reports on the finds E-Trac users had been making.

I decided to invest the $$$ in one last month and got one knowing full well that I'd get it in the ear from my wife for spending over $1500.00 on a detector, but I just had to see for myself.

I have been out six times since I got the E-Trac. I've taken the detector to places that I've hunted before with other detectors. Now, the other detectors that I've owned and used are and have been great, and I've found some great things with them, but it was getting to the point where these detectors would not find anything in these spots, it was getting to be real hard. Now, with the E-Trac at these same locations I've started to find coins and rings that are deeper that I've missed with the other detectors, it's like the sites have come alive again with targets to find. These sites also contain a medium amount of trash items, these being foil, ring pulls, tabs, bottle tops, cans, chopped up cans etc.

Today I pulled $4.00 in quarters at 6" + that the other detectors could not see, 14 dimes at 6" +, 15 nickels at 7" +.

Now these coins did not register on the FE 12 line, most of them came in either side of this line (10, 11, 13, 14, 15), but they did give the correct CO number to make me dig to see.

Of the 3 silver rings that I've found with the E-Trac, the E-Trac was hot on these, it screamed at me with a high tone sound.

The settings .. I've been using it in multi tone conductive with most of the other settings at near max with the sens set to auto.

I've yet to find a gold ring with it, but this should come in time. As for coins and silver rings at over 6" deep the E-Trac is a killer. I thought that my Minelab X-Terra 705 was hot, but the E-Trac has proved to me that it can see objects in the ground that the X-Terra 705 could not see / ID over the 6" mark.

I hope that this helps.
 
Goes4ever said:
well no BS...the safari is good....BUT it is the bottom of the line for FBS offered by minelab. The etrac is the top of the line, that my friend is no BS
Click to expand...

Yep!!!
 
I've got an etrac and se-pro.
I've gone back over the places I hunted with the pro with the etrac and not overly impressed with the etrac.
Took about a year and a half to get the pro to where I felt confident using it. Don't have that much time on the etrac yet.
I went from an xlt to the pro( the xlt was a good machine) and it was a major step over the xlt.
If money is an issue I would go with the pro.
I will probably keep the etrac and sell the pro this spring. The etrac seems to run a little tighter than the pro. I'm just not a big cheer leader, the minelabs just seem to pull the silver.
 
Mark,

I have tried all of the FBS Minelabs and my faithfull Sovereign too and I liked the Explorers, but not as nice as my Sovereigns it seems. Now with the E-Trac I find it has more in the menu to st up, but easy to set it up and not got to everything yet as it seems to work great with what I run my setting at. Now after using the Explorer at a site and found it trashy and did find a few older coin I tried the E-Trac for the first time and thought it was broke as it ran so smooth and nailed 6 wheaties in a area I couldn't even work with the Explorer. I find the E-Trac responds faster and the conductivity numbers are more accurate also. On the Explorer I didn't like the semi auto sensitivity as in trashy area I couldn't pick up a dime on top of the ground, so i had to run manual for depth in real trashy area and also run ferrous tones, but now with the E-Trac I find running auto sensitivity at a +3 does so much better as it is a real auto sensitivity where the Explorer it was semi auto. I also can run conductivity tones too which see to work much better for me.
Now I have a good Friend that has the SE Pro and did real well with it, but talked him into trying a E-Trac and after a couple times out with it he didn't feel it did as well as the SE Pro. I found out he was running it like his SE Pro and after trying a few things I suggested he found the E-Tack goes as deep as the SE Pro, but the deep signals seem to sound much better, can pick up coins close to nails as many coins he dig has nails with then. He has since sold the SE Pro as he said he wouldn't use it now that he sees what the E-Trac can do. Depth wise is about the same, but the E-Trac is easier and faster response and seem to lock on to a good target better, so if you can swing it I would try a E-Trac,

Rick
 
I have owned 2 Etrac and they are great machines but I sold them and kept the Safari.Number one the there is no difference in depth between the Safari and Etrac ask other people on this forum that have owned both.Yes it has no second FE readout on the screen but if you look at all Etrac users on UTUBE video's you can still see most have huge piles of trash and ignore the FE reading most of the time anyway just dig it anyway as I did when I owned mine,Look at all Video's and posts.So the answer to your 2nd question is you are going to dig the same amount of trash unless you turn up discrimination and cherry pick nothing wrong with that.I have dug about 9 gold rings with Safari/Etrac all have been large men's rings but 1 and I was hunting real low to get it digging 22 bullet casing and tinfoil not fun.If you want to hunt for gold get a Garret AT Pro damn good machine for 1/3rd the money.FBS detectors are not very good at finding small gold and that includes all of them.Is it worth the money to go ETRAC not for me, it is not,But for some people that like a lot of gauges on there cars the same goes with ETRAC the 2 sensitivity and better depth reading gauge are nice to have but not needed.TTF you cannot run it on a Safari I know 2 friends and they gave it a real try did not think too much of it they thought using 6X8 coil did better than TTF.The back light would be useful feature.The large target/pixel screen and nice to have fun to play with better to call all those crummy nickels before you dig I guess that is a plus,but not much real help on gold rings.Computer connection and programs I have yet to see where these downloads have had any increase in depth or target separation or target ID over a Safari.I would tell you that it may be a great time to buy Etrac now or after the holidays.Both the Safari and the Etrac need sensitivity to be run in manual to get true deep coin potential.I am still waiting for the next Minelab new machine to come out you know the one that truly scans all 28 frequencies while you are hunting.One of the big bragging points of the Etrac when it came out was new and improved pinpointing button,lots of people never use it.Now lets talk about SE Pro I have never seen one, not in any stores,pawn shops or out in the field.I wonder why?
 
I got a Minelab SE Pro about 5 years ago and spent a good amount of time learning it. After several years I felt I wasn't getting much better depth than I could with my DFX. It did hit harder on deep silver, but over all not enough of an upgrade over the DFX to keep it. About 2 years later I bought a E-Trac and the difference was simply amazing. From day one I was pulling deep keepers from the very sites where all my other detectors had gone quiet. Including the SE Pro. The E-Trac seemed a lot smoother and deeper than the SE Pro.
 
No BS
I've owned a XS and a SEPro and an Etrac.

Etrac is no deeper then an SEPro

Etrac is easier to swing then SePro better ergonomics

Etrac is more versatile for set up then SePro

Etrac processor is faster

Basically you get what you pay for more machine. It is worth the extra bucks
 
Just in case you missed the BS. The new technology makes things easyer, lighter, faster and better...but be prepaired to still use your nogin. The E is a sweet machine but if your a lightweight when it comes to detecting then save your money n stick w what ya got. If you are serious and know it then you will invest the time and money to enjoy the history and finds you come across.. Im jus say'n.
 
I have been hunting with my E-Trac for almost three years now. It is as close to turn on and go as you can get. Minor adjustments are all I make depending on conditions at the site. I love going behind other detectors and finding things they didn't see.

One point that no one has stated where the E-Trac is better than the SE Pro is that the E-Trac gives you a relatively flat FE number (around 12) whereas the SE Pro is an S shaped curve. To me this would be easier to learn. One of the E-Trac developers (who also wrote the book) taught me how to use my E-Trac. He had almost every machine made and once he had an E-Trac, he always hunted with it over the SE-Pro when I hunted with him.

One of my hunting partners uses a Safari and loves it, but he can't wait to get to an E-Trac because of the better ID for items to reduce trash percentage.

I don't think I will ever part with my E-Trac. It is smooth and stable almost anywhere (except around Culpeper, VA), easy to use, and is a very deep machine.

Good luck in your decision.
 
I have owned both the Etrac & the explorer not the explorer pro. I personally believe that the Etrac is far superior in ease to pin point and tones. I hated the sound of the explorer it was like a calliope. Sorry about the spelling. It also seems to lighter in weight. That's my opinion.
 
I had a Safari for 3 months - it's a great machine.
I decided to upgrade to an E-Trac - because of the additional features it offered - no hype ... this upgrade is one of the smartest things I've done in years !

Good luck !
 
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