Just wondering thoughts on the best jewelry machine for land. I have the Excal 2 and the E-trac. Found great deep silver on land with the E-trac, but it's not a gold machine. I don't want to spend more than 700 bucks, and I would buy used. Was thinking about the DFX, as I did really well with that on rings and nickels but it got stolen, or the AT Pro. Thoughts? Don't want to argue with anyone on the E-trac and finding rings and nickels. I just know I don't find many with the E-trac compared to when I had my DFX, of course the E-trac blows away the DFX with deep silver, no comparison. This machine I wouldn't really care about missing deep silver and copper. Des in Buffalo.
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Jewelry Machine
- Thread starter Acornhead
- Start date
jughed440
Active member
You may want to consider the AT Gold. I purchased one for several reasons...mainly for gold sniffing...but also because it's lightweight, can be used in water or on wet weather days, and it has a very long battery life.
I've used it on only a couple of hunts on well hunted sites, so I have no real world review to give.
Lots of info and videos are out there.
I've used it on only a couple of hunts on well hunted sites, so I have no real world review to give.
Lots of info and videos are out there.
Southwind
Well-known member
A toss up between a used DFX or the AT Pro. The AT Pro is the deeper of the two, in my experience, but not by much if you use the DFX right. The DFX has the best target ID system on the market for jewelry as far as I'm concerned. I think you couldn't go wrong with either.
Dirty_Coins
New member
So is it commonly accepted that the E-trac struggles with gold? I often wonder if people don't find gold with it because it is so good at filtering out trash. I love the ability to cover a couple of acres in a day with the E-trac, but I am only digging about 20% of the targets I would have dug with my last detector(F5). With those stats, its hard to blame the E-trac for not finding gold, but rather the user for discriminating too much.
I am not trying to contradict you, I am a new E-trac user and just curious if others think this might be the case or does this machine really struggle with gold.
I am not trying to contradict you, I am a new E-trac user and just curious if others think this might be the case or does this machine really struggle with gold.
A few days of digging with the Excal, I literally dug every low tone possible. Got a few new nickels, not much though. I literally had 100's of v nickels with the DFX over 10 years. Also used the E-Trac on the beach on The Cape where I would usually bring my Excal 2. Now I cleaned an area up with it, dimes and quarters, all recent. I went over it again and again, listening for any repeatable low tones, and did pick up some nickels, but the sound was so faint and I had to move the detecter at a snails pace, The Excal sounds like a hammer on nickels.
I agree
that the eTRAC does indeed struggle with jewelry specifically certain small jewelry especially when thin, some types of chain necklaces, open or small split rings.
When i got my eTRAC, i did what most everyone does when they get a new detector, lay out a bunch of different targets then air test them all.
While impressed with the eTRAC's ability to detect coins in that test, some jewelry targets, not so much.
Case 1, small gold plated half open semi-circle earring. The eTRAC could not detect it even in all metal. My ATPro had absolutely no problem detecting it.
Case 2, heavy solid 14K gold chain necklace. eTRAC could not detect it using the stock coin pattern but did barely detect it in all metal. ATPro, no problem detecting it.
Case 3, tiny split open silver plated ring. eTRAC barely detected it. Again, ATPro had no problems detecting it.
My guess, it has something to do with FBS multiple frequency phase relationships possibly causing eddy current magnetic fields to cancel each other out as the single frequency ATPro outshines the eTRAC for 'some' jewelry targets.
Thats not to say the eTRAC will not detect jewelry just some small mass, certain form factor jewelry.
If i were going after jewelry say hunting a beach, i'd use my ATPro. But being primarily a trashy park hunter for coins this is where the eTRAC outshines the ATPro.
In those trashy parks i'd have to dig up a pound of pull tabs to find one piece of jewelry. Not fun. Also the reason i don't find many nickels. I decided to spend my limited detecting time searching for high conductivity coins rather than iffy nickel/jewelry IDs.
What i have tried recently as an experiment is to dig up the first few nickel/gold IDs. So far all i have to show for that experiment is foil and pull tabs.
Having said all that, if i get a nickel or gold type ID that is relatively deep beyond pull tab depth for that particular site or any solid 2-way nickel ID, i'll dig it.
I understand talking to some people who actually dug up the holy grail of targets, gold coins.... they're typically deep.
that the eTRAC does indeed struggle with jewelry specifically certain small jewelry especially when thin, some types of chain necklaces, open or small split rings.
When i got my eTRAC, i did what most everyone does when they get a new detector, lay out a bunch of different targets then air test them all.
While impressed with the eTRAC's ability to detect coins in that test, some jewelry targets, not so much.
Case 1, small gold plated half open semi-circle earring. The eTRAC could not detect it even in all metal. My ATPro had absolutely no problem detecting it.
Case 2, heavy solid 14K gold chain necklace. eTRAC could not detect it using the stock coin pattern but did barely detect it in all metal. ATPro, no problem detecting it.
Case 3, tiny split open silver plated ring. eTRAC barely detected it. Again, ATPro had no problems detecting it.
My guess, it has something to do with FBS multiple frequency phase relationships possibly causing eddy current magnetic fields to cancel each other out as the single frequency ATPro outshines the eTRAC for 'some' jewelry targets.
Thats not to say the eTRAC will not detect jewelry just some small mass, certain form factor jewelry.
If i were going after jewelry say hunting a beach, i'd use my ATPro. But being primarily a trashy park hunter for coins this is where the eTRAC outshines the ATPro.
In those trashy parks i'd have to dig up a pound of pull tabs to find one piece of jewelry. Not fun. Also the reason i don't find many nickels. I decided to spend my limited detecting time searching for high conductivity coins rather than iffy nickel/jewelry IDs.
What i have tried recently as an experiment is to dig up the first few nickel/gold IDs. So far all i have to show for that experiment is foil and pull tabs.
Having said all that, if i get a nickel or gold type ID that is relatively deep beyond pull tab depth for that particular site or any solid 2-way nickel ID, i'll dig it.
I understand talking to some people who actually dug up the holy grail of targets, gold coins.... they're typically deep.
Frank in NH
Active member
The AT Gold does not miss anything as I find the smallest ear studs while fresh water hunting.