Nice finds everybody! That pocket watch is really nice. Never found one but I did find the guts to a watch next to what I believe to be an old Indian camp site on a ridge. I found numerous depressions about tea pee sized and about a foot or two deep. These things were in circles with one bigger one in the middle. I seem to remember reading that the Indians around here would dig the floors of their tea pees out for more head room. I have a theory that this watch was stripped of it's gold or silver and then the guts pitched. The area has almost no other trash present, and that would jive with Indians since they didn't carry as much metal around with them as White people.
If the Etrac was using the 11" stock coil or something bigger and the GT was using the stock 10" coil then there's your difference. Just look at my initial comparison on depth of the stock coil to the 12x10 in that thread. Also, (for the one millionth time) I've found that at least in my soil if I run sensitivity too high (even if it's stable) that a deep coin will degrade or even null out. Found this to be true on my Explorers as well. They will choke or overload on the ground matrix as it seems a target being present pushes them over the edge when sensitivity is right at the edge of stability.
If you search through the forums on Find Mall as well as across the web you'll find people who state that the Explorer & Etrac do not get as good of depth or target quality than the GT at some of their sites. Whether that's due to mineral content (the more/higher frequencies of FBS machines reflecting off the ground content), or certain RF frequencies being present that give those machines more problems is any body's guess. I just know I've read enough of that to know there is some grain of truth to it. I also remember one guy stating that he has found no other machine that would run as smooth and get as deep as the Sovereign when going to larger coils (12" or bigger).
Sure, there are going to be days when the reverse of that is true. Some of the subtle things that nobody can put a finger on (minerals, RF noise, coil selection, user set up, how well they know the machine, etc) can mean the Explorer, Etrac, or GT can out do each other on any given day. Just look at one of the most experience Etrac/Explorer users on those forums. He just said 12" on a dime was his deepest dime yet. That's in no way out of the capabilities of the Sovereign. Variables such as ground matrix can achieve or not achieve that. I know I've dug coins at 11" deep that hit so hard and well that I bet they could have been at least a few more inches deep and I would still have got them. I also know I've read of Sovereign owners popping coins at 12", and I think some of those were with an 8" coil if I'm not mistaken. All the above is about coins on land. Of course in the sand depths usually increase greatly. The point is that all three of these machines are right in the ball park with each other to where if the wind just blows right one will pass the other on any given Sunday. For me my Explorers *in my soil* did not live up to the hype. I kept buying those machines off and on over the years thinking I would finally get them to go deeper than my QXT Pro. Nope, and I was extensive in use, settings, and testing. Never happened.
In my hunts.........It was no simple walk in the park but once the sov ''opened up to me'' I realized what time it was ..............I used to post finds but ............good luck my friend !!