Summer spent with Etrac and SE....observations

[digitrich]

ETRAC:

Seems my Etrac has a significant advantage in mineralised soils verses my SE.
Flat out kicked my SE's butt in New York's "irony" soils.
Both for shallow targets in dense trash and for deeper targets in that same soil.

I have trouble judging depth with my Etrac by tone volume more than with my SE's. Many deep targets sound shallower with the Etrac, than comparably with the SE.
The Etrac however gives a very audible "WARBLE" on deeper targets due to the Etrac distorting the tones, and sloppier ID on the deeper targets. This was a very easy way to "hear" which targets were deeper without actually turning down the GAIN, and extremely effective for digging older coins amongst the modern clad (example) 1960 Lincoln compared to 1911 wheatie)

In the mineralised soils, I was able to run my sensitivity at 6 above suggested in manual and still run stable enough to hunt. (thank you Ray MO) That was impossible in the more neutral soils of Iowa. It seems the more neutral the soil, the more my Etrac falses when the sensitivity is pushed, almost like it thinks the iron nails are coins because it has nothing to compare it against (soil signal that is). And yes I did try the neutral soil setting as well and no difference that I can tell what so ever.
I find it incredibly odd that the Etrac seems more stable and falses less in mineralised soil rather than neutral soil when I push the sensitivity. I could actually run it hotter in the crappier the soil.

I also got incredible depth from small coils in that mineralsied soil that my SE's have never seen on their best day, in any soil. And still had the joy of separation (powerful combination). Those same SMALL coils back in Iowa's neutral soil got crap for depth on the Etrac.


SE

My SE has a significant advantage in neutral soils and especially neutral soils that have been plowed verses my Etrac. Specifically when searching for deep targets. The SE gives much cleaner, stable, more easily recognizable signals, Whose tones rarely change much even at depth. The Etrac chops and distorts the tones and ID's at depth in neutral soil, the SE does not. This proved a significant advantage that the Etrac could not over come. However, my Etrac did pull allot of SHALLOW targets in DENSE trash in the neutral soils that I could not pick up with my SE, without the aid of Audio long and All metal. In those neutral soils I could push the SE nearly max manual sensitivity and easily ignore the much less often falses then the Etrac would provide. And also those falses were much easier to recognize with the SE than the Etrac. On the SE, those falses sounded like falses, on the Etrac they sounded like coins and therefore I would have to stop and re-swing for something using the Etrac that I wouldn't have with the SE.

Net conclusion:

Neutral soil......
Average to deep targets: Use the SE.
Shallow targets in dense trash......Either Etrac or SE (with audio long and all metal)............. (slight favorite, the SE).

Mineralised soil:
Leave the SE at home as the Etrac has significant advantages in almost all instances.

Lastly: In all instances, in both soils, it was much easier to tell large iron from good targets with the SE then the Etrac and I would dig 5x less trash with the SE because it was easier to recognize the trash with the SE then the Etrac due to the more clear and less distorted tones and ID of the SE.


PS: have not compared them in salt water yet

It is obvious to me that Mine Lab has made some serious strides in both directions with the Etrac compared to the previous SE model. Now get to making me a blend of both so I can go dig up some more nifty stuff. Or just come up with an updated Etrac, with cleaner, clearer, flutey tones, that works equally well in neutral and mineralised soils. Maybe my neutral setting doesn't work, or at least not at depth anyways????

HH

 

[silvereagle]

good comparison,thanks for the info,are you using the stock pro coil on the e-trac?

 

[NiagracountyNY]

Very Nice comparison.I have both machines myself and cant say ive Compared them in the detail you have.I have gone over my sites that I used my SE (I used it all metal/ferrous sounds all the time) with my E_Trac .I have found a few ,not a ton but a few targets i missed with the SE.I feel both machines are roughly the same depth.I feel that the deeper targets sound better on the E-Trac.The VDI is Usable on the E-Trac ,I couldnt use the Se VDI myself.Also that little angle change on the E-Trac really helped my wrist.I think the only way this machine could get better is Make it water proof and maybe a screen i can see better in the sun.In order to make them Punch any deeper Im afraid they would need a Bigger power source.So until we are rdy to carry car batteries around I think we have all the power we can get.Thx for your Detailed report.Im sure it will interest alot of folks.HH

 

[digitrich]

all 15 coils made for it

 

[digitrich]

I forgot to mention that on the ETrac having the number TID display at the same time having the smartfind is just the cat's meow, you really don't realize how much you miss it until you are swinging your SE and looking for it.
Secondly, My Etrac utterly ignores hot rocks, without me discing them out. I was hunting with a friend and he had the very top right corner disced out on his Etrac for hot rocks, I do not have that area disced and never hear them, I don't know if that is just my machine or his. Do you guys hear hotrocks?
I didn't remember to post that till last night, I was at a site where hotrocks would plague my SE and I was using my Etrac, after 4 hours, I hadn't dug nor heard a single hotrock and normally I would have a bag full with my SE.
One word of caution on that lack of hot rock thing, some of those hot rocks can be meteorites.

 

[digitrich]

Ray, on your deep targets, are you getting one tone or a "warble" (combination of two or more tones) like a mention in my post above?
I had a hard time learning my Etrac because I thought that warble was iron. On my SE's, deep targets sound off with a single tone regardless of depth, only trash targets such as deep iron give me warbled tones, so I would go out and dig much less trash with the SE. When I applied that same conception to my Etrac, all my finds were shallow, because they were the single tone, repeatable signals. After not finding anyone posting anything about them hearing this same deep target warble, I am now wondering if it's just my machine that does this.

Does anyone else get this warble sound on deepies?

 

[ken-ks]

Hey Digitrich....have you heard from Ray MO? I haven't seen him post on the forum for sometime now, hope he's alright. I don't know if there's anyone as good with the Etrac as Ray. He was posting some great bunches of finds. Made me feel like I wouldn't even qualify to be his water boy, he had the Etrac smoke'n! HH ken-ks

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Great info. - Thanks !

 

[digitrich]

No, I haven't heard from him. I am sure he's okay, probably out digging a Spanish Galleon on a court house lawn some where

 

[jspeedy]

Interesting.........

 

[Ray-Mo.]

Hello everyone and I am doing quite well.I have just been very busy the last 3 months and have not had time to hunt but that will soon change.If we dont get an early freeze up I am going to do some hunting in my totaly saturated local soils.I am also going to Savannah, GA for a few days this Thanksgiving and will give the E-Trac a workout down there if all goes well.
Now to answer digitrich,yes I have found that ultra deep coins give a warble or what I call a mottled signal.Once you get on to this type signal and realize it could very well be a deep coin instead of iron your old coin count will go way up,at least it did for me.I discovered this early on when I was hunting a old long gone park in a private pasture where I was comfortable digging a lot of iffy targets with a nice sharp relic shovel and many oversized pluggs.It is more pronounced on deep Indians than silver but does it as well on silver.I think the less than text book perfect signal is why a lot of folks are having trouble getting the extra deep coins and the Indians for sure.
I posted a number of times about how much your ability with the E-Trac could/ would improve if you could get an old site with deep targets that was private and the digging of a lot of deep larger than normal holes would be acceptable.Doing this is the only really good way I know of to learn what your machine is saying on those ultra deep sometimes broken up signals.I learned more the first 2 hours testing this way than many days spent hunting previously.Will you dig more junk going for these almost ghostly targets/signals? Yes and most definitely YES but your older better coin count will also go up and for me that is what detecting is all about.Old coins and rellics are what excite me and not just the valluable ones as I love to dig those old crusty Indians as well,Ray.