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Minelab v Garrett

M

monoman

New member
minelab must be feeling the heat from garrett when i was looking around i rang a dealer here in OZ to purchase a Ace 250 he said we dont sell them anymore he told me they had droped the price of the X terra 30 to the same price as the 250 so why try to sell two types of coin detectors the HEAT IS ON lol
 
I noticed that their price had come down. I hadn't realised why. Brilliant. Just wish that mine was at that price when I bought. These are my 2 favourite brands.
Mick Evans.
 
From the land of the Bluenose.....why swing aton of a machine with no great pinpointing when you can swing a green, pinpoint and dig a ton of coins at a good price...lol! Go green.
 
Folks, I have been MD'ing for 30 years and have always used a Garrett. Always felt Garrett was among the best on the market. I have found thousands of coins and piles of relics with a Garrett, including 48 US civil war shells.

For a Christmas present, my wife gave me a new Minelab E-trac. The week between Christmas and New Years, I decided to put the thing to a test by hunting a few spots that I had already hunted out with my Garrett. In a three-hour span, hunting the exact ground that I had already hunted out, I recovered numerous old coins including a 1912 Barber half at 7 inches and a pristine 1835 Draped half dime at 9 inches.

Yall can say what you want, but I am convinced this new E-trac is a far superior machine. The Barber half was in among rusty nails and the half dime was beside a bunch of iron trash. These signals were nulled by the Garrett because of their proximity to the steel, but the E-trac's Full Band Spectrum made them chirp in a way that only silver can.

I will keep all my Garretts for relic hunting, but when it comes to coins, I will use the E-trac from now on.

Just my 2-cents worth.

HH
 
My first detector was a Garrett and I still have a GTI-1500 but Garrett's top of the line machines have fallen behind the technology curve. Its no wonder considering that the GTI's first came out 12 years or so ago. Electronic and computer technology has advanced quite a bit in the last 12 years. Its past time for Garrett to put some effort into a top of the line coin/relic machine with state of the art electronics and Garrett's great design abilities.
 
Your post got me excited. I put off buying another detector in 2008 (I did buy a Pro-Pointer, though) and the thought of an X terra for the price of an Ace 250 excited me. Just FYI in the US the Ace 250 is around $200 and the X terra 30 is around $400. I am not looking because I don't like my Garrett either. One weekend last year, three of us were hunting a field and one guy had a Minelab X terra (70 I think but not sure.) The third guy had a Whites and I had my 2500. We did a lot of swapping and testing and I liked the Minelab machine a lot. Everybody who tried my 2500 liked it a lot too. At the end of the day I had triple what the other two hunters had put together but I attribute that to that they are sort of once or twice a month hunters and I'm more or less every day I can get out. For $200 I would have bought one in fact I had my CC ready to go. I missed the OZ when I read your post originally. I think I'll wait until 2010 anyway. Hopefully Garrett will have something newer by then.

Chris
 
The E trac should be good machine, it cost $1500 and has multiple freq. However I have noticed that I get the same depth as the E trac with my GTI 2500 in all metal mode with a 12.5 inch coil in moderate to average hot soil. And I get imaging. If you use any other Garrett except the Infinium of course you will see improvements with the E trac. Discriminating Garretts arent great depth diggers but their Gti 2500 and Infinium are depth monsters. I dug a pop top at 15 measured inches yesterday with my Infinium while prospecting. And it was still a fairly strong signal, I was impressed. But E trac much better for coin poping.

Alan
 
Over here, the regular prices are Ace 250 $470- $475 and the X-Terra 30 is $600. Currently the X-Terra's are only $495. Like you Chris, I've used the X-Terra 70 a few times now and love it. I just have a hard time justifying the extra price over the 30 though. They are from $1120 to $1150 AUD. I 'll probably weaken and buy one, not not just yet.
 
That's one of the things that is great about this hobby. The choice of technology. The E-Trac has already built a great reputation for finding good targets next to iron. The only 2 deal breakers for me as far as the E-Trac goes, is the nearly 20% increase in weight over the Explorer and what they have done to the Smartfind screen. Because most targets will now read 11 or 12 in the ferrous range, that makes it a lot harder to tell our Aussie $1 and $2 coins from screw caps compared to the Explorer. That is something that wouldn't be an issue to you and yes I know that they have improved the angle of the shaft/handle to reduce strain. (a great move.) I have found from swinging other well balanced machines, regardless of how well balanced they are, I still feel the weight, which reduces my hunting times as a result. If that is not an issue either, then the E-Trac is a fantastic choice. Actually, you'll see me hanging around the E-Trac forum from time to time.
Mick Evans.
 
I know for coin hunting, I would never trade any of my Garretts. They had coin hunting in mind when they were designed, hence you have great discrimination in the top 4-7 inches for coin sized objects, along with the ability to size an object. And yes this technology has been around for a many years, but it is just as useful today (perhaps even more so) as it was when it was first available. There are always new metal detectorists entering the hobby, and most certainly do not need a $1600.00+ detector to find 96% of the targets, which are in the top 4-7 inches. When I want more depth, I just slip on the 12 1/2 or 10 x 14" coil on my Garrett and continue hunting. And used 1500/2500's just don't come up for sale very often, and when they do, they usually go for a premium. This is a Garrett forum, so I won't really say much about other brands.... I too have had my share of other brands of detectors, and speak from experience that Garrett has excellent customer service, very reasonable rates for service and are built tough! I am pretty rough with my machines myself, hunting in the woods, along creeks, in the creeks, water and even snow. They just keep on beeping. :)

Some years back, a bunch of us did a group hunt on a Saturday afternoon. The multi-frequency found the least number of coins. Most of us had about 25-30 coins. One fellow even got a nice gold ring. The multi-frequency machine hardly found anything, except a few pennies and one $1.00 coin. Why? Because his machine nulled out on the clad, and all the other coins were left behind. He shortly afterwards sold it and replaced it with a single frequency machine.
 
I have not been detecting as long as most folks out there, about 6 months or so, but would like to share my opinon. I just recently purchased a GTI 1500 and can't hoestly give you my opinion on either detector. I did use my Garrett once and was very impressed with the results. I do own a BH , which is a lower end detector, and have used it for about 5 months. To date , I have found over $139.00 in coins, 8 rings, 3 bracelets 4 ear rings, 2 watches and a whole lot of other interesting items not to mention ALOT OF JUNK. I only go out every other week and almost 100% to the beach.
Owning and using a good quality detector is important, but it's not the detector that really credits the finds, it's you. The time spent researching, technique, patients and the passion you have for this hobby is what really matters. I have found some really good finds just sitting on top of the surface without even being able to scan that area.I've observed other peple using their detectors and went right over those same areas and managed to find items they left behind using my $179.00 detector.I cover less ground than most folks, but I cover every square inch of that ground. It's very easy to miss a valuable target that is less than 1 inch in diameter.
Just thaught I would give you my two cents.
Happy Hunting
Stan
 
Mick in Dubbo said:
That's one of the things that is great about this hobby. The choice of technology. The E-Trac has already built a great reputation for finding good targets next to iron. The only 2 deal breakers for me as far as the E-Trac goes, is the nearly 20% increase in weight over the Explorer and what they have done to the Smartfind screen. Because most targets will now read 11 or 12 in the ferrous range, that makes it a lot harder to tell our Aussie $1 and $2 coins from screw caps compared to the Explorer. That is something that wouldn't be an issue to you and yes I know that they have improved the angle of the shaft/handle to reduce strain. (a great move.) I have found from swinging other well balanced machines, regardless of how well balanced they are, I still feel the weight, which reduces my hunting times as a result. If that is not an issue either, then the E-Trac is a fantastic choice. Actually, you'll see me hanging around the E-Trac forum from time to time.
Mick Evans.
Click to expand...

I'll add my own dealbreaker - $1498.97 for the E-Trac.

I call that too much money.

My wife calls that grounds for divorce! :rant:
 
marcomo said:
Mick in Dubbo said:
That's one of the things that is great about this hobby. The choice of technology. The E-Trac has already built a great reputation for finding good targets next to iron. The only 2 deal breakers for me as far as the E-Trac goes, is the nearly 20% increase in weight over the Explorer and what they have done to the Smartfind screen. Because most targets will now read 11 or 12 in the ferrous range, that makes it a lot harder to tell our Aussie $1 and $2 coins from screw caps compared to the Explorer. That is something that wouldn't be an issue to you and yes I know that they have improved the angle of the shaft/handle to reduce strain. (a great move.) I have found from swinging other well balanced machines, regardless of how well balanced they are, I still feel the weight, which reduces my hunting times as a result. If that is not an issue either, then the E-Trac is a fantastic choice. Actually, you'll see me hanging around the E-Trac forum from time to time.
Mick Evans.
Click to expand...

I'll add my own dealbreaker - $1498.97 for the E-Trac.

I call that too much money.

My wife calls that grounds for divorce! :rant:
Click to expand...

All you have to find now is a ring worth $18,000.00 like a beach detectorist found ,posted on another forum !:thumbup:
 
I have no doubt the E-Trac is an excellent detector.

I've seen a few people that have them are disappointed, but that happens with all detectors. Most of the posts I've seen from people who have the machine love it.

I don't know if it's better than the 2500, but if it's not it should be.

A nice used 2500 goes on eBay lately for a little under $500. You'll pay three times as much for the E-Trac.
 
THat's so true especially since the signal at peak depth is only covering an area the size of a quarter allowing one to miss a whole lot of real estate even if they overlap..

Bill
 
I like the Garrett for two reasons only, the all metal mode on the GTI 2500 and the sizing which makes it a bit easier then using the pinpoint function to tell size.
OK the big screen is great also.

Depth in discriminate (for both) the Explorer is superior though I guess they are close when true all metal is turned on.

I think they would need to re-balance the 2500 it is harder to swing then the 2500 to my surprise! (aka feels heavier)

Both are fairly easy to use, yet the 2500 discrimination is by far more jumpy and the tones can't be solely relied on to decide to dig or not. That is possible w/ the Explorer.

For relic both are great, though the Explorer has a slight edge when looking for none ferrous relics thanks to the "ferrous tones".
Else they are pretty close.

The Explorer is more sensitive on small targets in discriminate mode then the 2500.

So for coin/jewellery shooting I'd never use a Garrett though for relic it is something to consider I have to say.
But I do prefer my Explorer. My pal likes the 2500 better because it doesn't remind him off Super Mario bros(Nintendo). :rofl:
He laughs every time he hears my Explorer...:blink:

This pretty much tells me what I think of those two, never used the E-Trac though.
 
I guess I picked the cheaper route-tot lots, school grounds, parks, etc. My feeble lil' ole' Ace takes care of them just fine and dang if I don't find a deep'un every once in a while. I guess I just decided discrimination and overlapping and actually getting out there is more important-to me- than depth.
 
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