My E Trac day and my reasons for KEEPING it!!

[coinnut]

I bought the Etrac because I guessed it was the newest version of the SE. I gambled and lost that bet! I was mad at myself for not having the cash at the time to get the discounted SE pros that were being offered. When the E trac hit I had to jump. I have been studying all the posts here and felt I was as familiar with the SE as one could be, without actually having one! I knew that it was going to be AM ferrous sounds, the little wiggle, etc. My DFX has been good to me, but it's only flaw was DEEP silver. I have a place where there is deep silver and time is short due to developers!! So that's why I jumped on the E Trac bus so fast. Even though I find great things with it, NONE of it has been past 5". And for me the 11" coil is useless. All of my good finds are with the small 4x7 coil in an open screen, ferrous, 2 tones, and sensitivity around 24. But I debated if I should get rid of the E Trac???? The answer is finally NO!!! It has not been what I wanted it to be, but it IS excellent in high trash areas. These quarters and dimes were in an area that you can't move your coil 2" without iron growl or just plain junk!! ET picked them out nicely. So it STAYS. Wish I had the bucks to get an SE also, but I don't. That's the way it's got to be. I will miss my window of opportunity for this site, but at least I will get some of the shallow finds. So I have added the ET to my arsenal. HH everyone and yes, I know I scratched the heck out of the 1894 Barber Pinpointing is real tough in that trash!!

 

[TreasurdiggrNY]

Congrats on your success with the new machine, great bunch of finds awesome silver WTG
Glenn

 

[jbow]

You might be surprised at how well the 11" coil will work through that trash. The seperation is really good. I have had no problems with it. I have a FBS 8" and an Excellerator 6" and have only toyed with them because the 11 works so well.

HH,

Julien

 

[coinnut]

Hey Julien, I tried that 11" coil and my coin count dropped dramatically. I changed over to the 4x7 and you can see the results! I think I have a defective coil and maybe some of the machines have glitches in them. I buried a silver dime and could not get a reading with the 11" coil at 6". So something is wrong, It's just a gut feeling, but I think Minelab released this machine without all of the testing safety valves in place. Maybe a software problem, maybe a hardware problem, or both. Too many people have been cut short at the 6" mark, while others are getting 9+. Something is not right here. But for now, I am finding good silver at the 3-5" mark. HH. Wish I could afford a SE to test against it, but I don't want the automatic divorce that comes with it HH.

 

[Erik in NJ]

n/t

 

[coinnut]

Ha, the glass read 20/20 (at least that's what the eye doctor told me my contacts would give me) I find a few eyeballed things while hunting. Since this was a very popular picnic area around the 1900's, you get a couple of keepers like this sun colored amethyst drinking glass. Not valuable, but it's the story behind it that makes me keep it. Now if that guy would have only lost some coins along with that glass. HH

 

[Jim upstate NY]

But I cant help but think the SE would have gotten those coins as well... Just my feeling that the majority of people coming from other brands are gonna love it, and the majority of those coming from an explorer will be more ho hum... If we already spent 1200 bucks on an SE, then another 1500 on a etrac.. I just dont see the 1500 dollar improvement.. unless of course they sell their SE and get some of the money back.. even then if we got 900 bucks for the used SE, I still dont think its a 600 buck improvement, myself I kept mine, so I am trying to justify the full price as being worth it as an improvement so to speak... But thats me, others seem completely happy and think it is better. For you its OK to go to the etrac, as you only paid a couple hundred more than you would an SE, and the improvements it has are worth something, and in my opinion a huge improvement over most other brands.. I think that most all will get used to where things read and the audio changes and do well with it, while In the back of my mind I will always be thinking of why they changed things they didnt have to, and still have an improved machine that would have made more people happy in my opinion

.. when I say improvement I mean I could sell off my other machines and be happy with this one enough not to miss the others.. I did do that with my explorers..I had others but never used them after the explorer came out, so they were all sold.. I know I wont be selling my SE... The Etrac is a fine machine, and perhaps it can do some things the explorer cant... but at the same time it can not do things the explorer can as well.. I always look at the top of the line as one that can do everything as good and some better than the cheaper models.. And for me this is not the case.. for others it may do just fine.. I am not trying to knock the Etrac, I just think the Explorer ID capability is much better, bouncing more or not.. I am going to keep my etrac a while and maybe the revelation will finally come, but I would probably be better off getting it sold now while resale would be better.

Anyway the above is my opinion only, and before everyone goes off complaining about my negativity, I do think I have a right to post my opinions, and I am not knocking it as a machine, just as I see the changes they did that I feel took something away from me..

I jumped in quick when it came out also before finding out about all the changes, if I had known about them first, then bought it anyway I guess it would be my fault, and I probably should have waited till I got more reports, but I just had to have an improved explorer as fast as I could but all the secrecy they have and the manual doesn't say anything about the ID changes.. other than they expanded the screen.. they didnt say a new expanded screen but only 1/8th of it will matter and the junk stuff that used to stay put in one spot will now fill up the rest of the screen