If you switched for DFX or V3:detecting:

[Bryannagirl]

Ok I have been thinking about changing detectors I have had my DFX for a couple of years and like it but have been looking on YouTube and have been noticing that the FBS Minelab units seem to work a little smoother and seem better at ID at depth. I have always found the DFX very chatty and on deeper targets seems to very the VDI a lot. I hunt parks and fields.

My question is for those in this group who switched from either a DFX or V3 how has the change been what do you like about the Minelab and what do you miss about your Whites.

The input will be very much appreciated

Thanks

Bryanna

 

[pghmole]

Honestly for ME it was an total eye opener and game changer,my v3i just can't compete in my local conditions,and the way the e trac operates its like being able to see underground with my ears instead of a pre determined "generic " audio response, i now know what's under my coil with little guessing,and silver just stands out,all I miss is the pretty screen...and fancy icons,ill take ease of operation,superior performance,and a slick looking machine like the e trac as my main detector anyday,wait till you hear a silver quarter or dime....love that sound. Mole

 

[Agseeker]

The V3i has so many variables that it is difficult to come up with the right settings. Seems like I never could get it right. After a year of using the V3i I only found two silver dimes. In 8 months of the E-Trac I've found 17 silver coins and several silver jewelry items. My MDing buddy uses the V3i and loves it (he actually bought mine for his wife to use). I think its a matter of personal preference.

 

[Southwind]

I still use both.

I've been swinging the DFX for some 8 years and love it to death. The E-Trac is my go-to detector when it comes to our city park where the coins are extremely deep. Well beyond the reach of my DFX. What gives the E-Trac the advantage on deep coins is how well it can ID those deep ones. Pretty much every other detector I've tried could see those extremely deep coins, but unless you knew your detector very well you'd not recognize the signs. I use my DFX for everything else.

 

[desmond]

I had the DFX for 6 years before it was stolen. Loved it. Bought an E-Trac about 2 months ago, love it too. Both are great machines. E-Trac will go deeper if you're interested in hitting pounded out parks. If you're hitting virgin sites or just gold, DFX is great,. E-Trac is pretty user friendly. Des in Buffalo Ny

 

[Bryannagirl]

Ok I am curious what is the everything else, do you like the DFX better for Relics or beach?

I see the DFX (also the V3I) as not just one detector. If you know it well and how to tweak it it can be a lot of different detectors. A low freq coin magnet, a high freq gold seeker, a simple two tone machine, or an all bells a whistles 195 tone machine, it is a two filter machine for quick response or a any number higher filters for bad ground. It is a fixed GB or an AutoTrac. Heck it can even run in non motion all metal and full 195 point fully customizable discrimination at same time with out even breaking a sweat. pretty much everything is adjustable and many of these changes are not subtle but have a huge affect on how she runs in different applications. All that sounds great and do not get me wrong this really is great but it has a dark side without a lot of time and experience and patients it is easy to get overwhelmed with the options and also to start to feel your very expensive machine is performing at a lower level than machines that cost half as much or even less. You only have make a short search of YouTube to find the DFX compared to any a number of other detectors even a ACE250 smokes the DFX in a few videos.

I have owned mine for two years, like I said, but I am not an every day or even every month detector person. So I still have some serious learning ahead of me to start to get her to sing like I know she can. I am in no way against investing this time. But I have always had one issue with my DFX is how she seems to have such a hard time with deep target IDs

I have been wondering if maybe something different would improve my enjoyment and sucess, therefore the question to those using minelab FBS detectors like the explorer and the Etrac.

I hope I am not just being the grass is greener (and loaded with more coins) with another detector.

So I do appreciate the input from those who have gone ahead of me and changed from Whites to the Australian masters of metal detecting.

Thanks
Bryanna

I still use both.

I've been swinging the DFX for some 8 years and love it to death. The E-Trac is my go-to detector when it comes to our city park where the coins are extremely deep. Well beyond the reach of my DFX. What gives the E-Trac the advantage on deep coins is how well it can ID those deep ones. Pretty much every other detector I've tried could see those extremely deep coins, but unless you knew your detector very well you'd not recognize the signs. I use my DFX for everything else.

 

[Southwind]

If the ACE 250 can "smoke a DFX" then someone has no idea what they're doing. Don't get me wrong, the ACE 250 is a great detector for the money, but it is not anywhere near the detector of the DFX. Granted the DFX stock programs are far from impressive when it comes to depth, but, there is a very good reason the DFX still commands the money and users it does.

By everything else I'm referring to not just relic and jewelry hunting, but coin shooting in all but extreme conditions. A good 90% of all my hunting is done is your basic private front yard, school or park where the goods are no deeper than 6". The DFX is a killing machine down to around 7" and with tweaking, and experience it will consistently hit 8". Why lug around a cannon like the E-Trac when a nice well balanced shotgun like the DFX will get the job done? Plus, I have yet to find a detector as good on small gold as the DFX. OK, the Garrett AT Pro and the XP Deus are a bit better for small gold. Point is my DFX has proved to be as good as any detector I have tried yet with the exception of the deep stuff in our city park. I've taken that same E-Trac to the sites I hunted with my DFX and found not one single missed coin. The city park is a different ballgame for a good reason. Years of flooding has deposited up to 24" of mud so the coins are extremely deep.

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Oposite effect for me. Had whites for years in the 90's and 2000's last being a DFX. I bought a few different people's small manuals on how to set up DFX for depth and silver and rings like Clyve Clynick's books he sells. Thought I was doing alrigh with it and liked it a lot swings nice and had a few different sized coils for it too. I also had an Explorer 2 but felt heavy with the old style 1050 coil on it couldn't bring myself to use it a lot to really understand it and so kept going back to trusty DFX go to machine. Also had a Fisher CZ6 at that time too deep 2 frequency machine but to me heavy with the control box on the shaft, off it it was nice like a Tesoro which I used to have.

I subscribe to the 2 main monthly detecting magazines and the read the detector reviews in them and learned about and saw the Etrac so thought it may be easier than the Explorer to use and better ballanced with that nice pro coil that comes on it so I bit the bullet and bought one. Well right out of the box with factory coins program and turning it on and using it after doing the Noise cancel (automatic channel selecting that the machine does for that area and it's EMI) by just pushing a button and waiting for about 30 seconds to run through them and it gives you what it sees as the quietest channel for that spot. I ran it in AUTO +3 and it's quiet and smooth and deep. No bull the silver started coming up right away and so did the other older coins Indian Head pennies and barbers and merks and wheaties and old nickles too and I seemed to not even really be trying any effort like I was with all these other detectors I had and I was going back to the same parks just slowly sweeping along and couldn't believe all the coins I had been walking over before. So I guess I never did get that DFX to run right or something or it just thought my soil here is pretty mineralized and tough for machines to go deep. I sold all those 4 other machines and quickly bought a second Etrac and also got a few different sized coils to have to use on them too. My brother or others borrow it to hunt with when I got someone to go out detecting with otherwise it's just me.

I have no regrets and it can be as close to a turn on and go machine and doesn't disapoint ya. No more fiddling around with trying to get depth or seperation or a combination of such like I was before by changing filters and sat time and tones and pre amp gain and power settings and such and ground tracking and ballancing. The Etrac just ignores the ground after it samples it for a few seconds once it's on and running. Etrac can be one tone, or multi tone, or 2 tones or 4 tones your choice. The only thing you will change much is discrimination patterns you make or change and already has some from factory already to go. Discrimination doesn't really affect depth on this machine. I think you will be well pleased with one.

 

[brother steve]

I switched from a dfx and it is a great machine ,kinda just pick it up and run. I found a lot of good stuff with it. This Christmas I got an etrac and I am pleased so far. You will experience a big learning curve with the etrac as there are no fancy icons to tell you a quarter ,dime etc., just numbers. Unless you feel that you can commit to learning the etrac you should stay with your dfx. It is not that hard to learn,you have to be patient. Once you get the feel for it, as fbs machines are different, you will be surprising yourself with the finds you get and how deep you are digging. I sold my dfx and I miss it sometimes,but if I didn't ,I would be not totally dedicating myself to the trac. If you know someone with one that helps and maybe you can play with it. If not load the etac emulator and see how it runs. The etrac has taking me to a new level in understanding our hobby and it keeps growing everytime I use it. I hope this helps your decision.

 

[Bryannagirl]

My point was that if not set right for the intended target the DFX will perform worse then then an ACE 250 - this easier to do than most would think.

Here is the link I referred to:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ObaHgUAd7MM

If the ACE 250 can "smoke a DFX" then someone has no idea what they're doing. Don't get me wrong, the ACE 250 is a great detector for the money, but it is not anywhere near the detector of the DFX. Granted the DFX stock programs are far from impressive when it comes to depth, but, there is a very good reason the DFX still commands the money and users it does.

By everything else I'm referring to not just relic and jewelry hunting, but coin shooting in all but extreme conditions. A good 90% of all my hunting is done is your basic private front yard, school or park where the goods are no deeper than 6". The DFX is a killing machine down to around 7" and with tweaking, and experience it will consistently hit 8". Why lug around a cannon like the E-Trac when a nice well balanced shotgun like the DFX will get the job done? Plus, I have yet to find a detector as good on small gold as the DFX. OK, the Garrett AT Pro and the XP Deus are a bit better for small gold. Point is my DFX has proved to be as good as any detector I have tried yet with the exception of the deep stuff in our city park. I've taken that same E-Trac to the sites I hunted with my DFX and found not one single missed coin. The city park is a different ballgame for a good reason. Years of flooding has deposited up to 24" of mud so the coins are extremely deep.

 

[Southwind]

My point was that if not set right for the intended target the DFX will perform worse then then an ACE 250 - this easier to do than most would think.

I would agree with that. For the first year of using the DFX I loaded the factory Coin & Jewelry program and didn't touch a thing. I had no reason to because it did a great job. Once it stopped giving up the goods in the city park with the stock program I started tweaking it and pulled a lot more. When I got the E-Trac it was almost like a new site again. Now I've cleaned down to the ability of the E-Trac and I'm looking for something for the next step. So far I've not found it.

 

[earthmansurfer]

I had the V3i for 5 months and really felt comfy with it but I wasn't digging much past 6" in my iron mineralized ground. That was the KEY. I got an E-Trac and ran it pretty hot, as I did my V3i, and immediatly I am digging 8" and 9" coins and the signals were bouncy as far as the Fe numbers go, but as Southwind said, those CO numbers are very consistent at depth. When I compared signals with the V3i it was clear the V3i was just too jumpy at around the 7" mark, but it did it hard on silver at 7" from two targets I came across, one ring and a dime (yes, in Germany).

If your ground is sweet, the V3i might even be better than the E-Trac and I don't think the V3i is complicated, though it has a lot of settings, just stick with the basic ones. If your ground has any mineralization, I would go E-Trac.

Yesterday, I went back to a spot I have hit very very very hard with the V3i. Immediatly, and I mean in a couple of minutes I dug a coin at 7" (my deepest coin there by 2") and then dug a few more shallow coins in iron and then a small ring like object at 8". I measured all the finds. I only pulled around 5 keepers in two hours, but as I said I had hit the area hard. Oddly enough and Southwind had said this too me as well, the E-Trac seemed to do better in iron than the V3i, even though the E-Trac has much much slower recovery imo.

Last thing, the E-Trac is .8 pounds lighter and better balanced, though both are still too heavy.

 

[Bryannagirl]

Thanks for the comparison, if I am right you had some YouTube stuff on your V3i and it started me thinking my next move from the DFX was not the V3 but something else. Wonder how much coils have to do with performance. I know some coils are noted for running cleaner and hitting deeper in high mineralization.

Thanks

Bryanna

 

[khouse]

The etrac has a lot less settings to fool with. I really don't think you can set the etrac up where it won't do well. I mean like if you don't know if you should have deep on or off. Fast on or off. Threshold pich set anywhere. Manual or auto sensitivity, etc..... You will hit deep coins. I have never dug such deep coins and bullets as I do with the etrac.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Bryanna - Yeah, I have those comparison videos still up there under user earthmansurfer69. I don't want to steer people from the V3i as in many ways (e.g. - backlight, shortcuts, buttons, settings, etc.) it is better but IF YOUR SOIL IS IRON MINERALIZED than I would think twice. The V3i will still perform there but forget using the 3 frequency setting, you have to go single. And if that is the case, then I would think about what you want the machine for as for me I loved the 3 freq mode of operation. I think that in spreading the voltage or power across 3 frequencies (and not two) is the main culprit imo. The CZ's don't have problems at depth in iron mineralized ground from what I can gather - though they don't have a digital meter to be fair. And though the E-Trac might broadcast 28 frequencies if you include the harmonics (or whatever it is) but a few guys with electronic equiptment said it's receiving on just two (like the CZ's)- Carl from Whites said the BBS machines were using 3.125kHz and 25kHz. He said the E-Trac was also a 2 frequency design.

khouse - Right on, it is really hard to set the E-trac up wrong. Make sure trash density is on high (if need be), get the sensitivity to a comfy level and it is deep.