Looking for Etrac and 13" Detech Ultimate opinions

[rickinsdakota]

I will try to make this as short as I can. I have known of a location of an old country church that was torn down in 1923 because of dwindling membership. The property is still virgin ground that has never been tilled. It is about 1 acre with about another acre at the back that has a fenced in cemetery. Access is by an abandoned dirt road. I have an old postcard that shows the church. I first detected this ground in the mid 1980's up to about the mid 1990's with 3 top of the line machines. I always thought there should be coins there but NEVER found a single coin. About ten years ago I met a detectorist that with another person had gridded the grounds in the 1970's and early 80's and found about 75 coins over several days. They were not able to find anything right next to where the church was as I was able to notice also because the ground was solid nails. Fast forward to today. Last night I thought maybe I should go back out there and try it again with my Etrac. I had about 1 hour before dark set in. I tried the area where the church sat. I ended up using TTF with a wide open window and found a 1897, 1900 and 1905 Indian head pennies. They where below the nails at about 8 inches. The nails are at 6-7 inches. I am extremely excited about the next few weeks of searching here. My question is, I have been reading a lot about the 13" Detech. What opinions are there on the ability of this getting deeper than the standard pro coil and will it be more stable. Thanks, Rick

 

[Critterhunter]

Do a search for "Ultimate" in the Explorer forum. You'll find several field tests/reviews. I posted links in several of those that links them to other ones, as well as to a review or two here in the Etrac forum. Far as I hear it has some unique ability to sound off to coins in iron not seen on conventional round DD coils. The other coil to consider is the 12x10. Both coils sound pretty evenly match in depth from what little I can gather (still waiting for reports on the Ultimate to firm up it's as deep or deeper as the 12x10, but it sounds like it is perhaps at least as deep is the impression I get). The 12x10 has excellent left/right separation due to it's compressed DD dection line via the coil's unique shape. I can tell you my 12x10 separates so well left/right wise that it feels like I'm using a small trash coil in that respect, and I have unconfirmed suspicions it *might* even have a thinner DD line than my 5" Sunray coil. That's just my impression though with nothing to back it up in way of tests, so I could be wrong.

 

[Sailorman]

I have a Pro Coil, Detech Ultimate and a Sunday X-5. If I where headed in to a site like that I'd leave the Pro Coil at home and hit it with the Ultimate first. Setting for setting I'm not sure it's deeper but it can be run hotter and that can gain a little depth. It also seems to "sound off" louder and cleaner on deep targets better resulting in fewer iffy signals. I'm also convinced it separates better then the Pro Coil. After I'd done all I could do I'd hit it again with the X-5. Small but it's abilities in trash trumps the larger coils.

Hope you pull a bucket load!