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Whites Spcetra V3 or Minlabs Etrac

W

wrong way ron

New member
For those of you guy that have the machine what are pros and cons and which would you buy and why I'm going to buy one I just don't know which one so HELP
 
A lot is going to depend on what kind for hunting you want to do. If you wanted to primarily hunt deep silver, either machine would do a good job. I think the V3 has many other advantages though, especially in the jewelry department and the ID'ing of targets. The V3 could second for a decent nugget hunter as well if you ever got the chance to hunt them. The list could go on, but I think you get my drift.

I have my SE Pro in the classified because the V3 does what the Pro did for me. Your results may vary, as the saying goes.
 
Have to ditto everthing that Larry said. If i'd have to add anything it would be that the V's incredible interface and modern "desktop" concepts are a breeze to learn. You hear so much said about complicated this and hard to understand that (with all of the new equipment including the V3) and BLAH BLAH BLAH. Like anything, it becomes pretty easy to uderstand with some time and some good plain gray matter usage! My learning curve is a predictable:rage: then....clarity. Now just need to get the time in to become one with it. The thing with the V is it is so dang adjustable. It is one heck of a lot more than just one machine.... it's many. Each time I learn one of it's "flavors", it's Christmas again! Whichever one you end up getting,it will be one heck of a machine. I'm satisfied with my decision also. I have less than a hundred hours on it, and except for the early days of "silver everywhere", more stuff per hour than any other machine I've owned. I haven't had the luxury of being able to do much research,travel and the like either. Just hitting the same spots close to home. Good box.
 
For the money, go with the V3. Far more user options, which after all, is what you're paying for. Even though the detector companies have higher priced machines with lots more optional adjustments which do enhance your hunting situation and do enable detectors to adapt to specific situations, they still can't do what we want which is find all the good stuff without digging the junk. Most desirable items occur in a tight range of nearly a straight line of conductivity including gold jewerly which occurs all the way across that line. There's not really anything different than what's been known for the last 35 or 40 yrs. with vlf detectors. Small gold starts at the far left of the range. Then foil,nickels,pulltabs,zinc penny,dime, and lastly, quarters. Old screw caps (crown caps we used to call them) and newer bottle caps fall into this same line along with just about every desirable target you can imagine. Give it a test using these items and any other items you can think of. You'll see nearly a straight line all the way across. The V3 expresses as VDI numbers and Etrac as coordinates. It's sad, but it's still the cold hard truth that there's a tight range of the most desirable metals in which all detectors still find difficult to dissect. It's because gold jewelery, brass, copper, lead, etc etc etc...... can occur at any point in this range based on composition and position. I've been hunting for 20 yrs and used many different makes and models including white's and minelabs. They all find metal the same way and try to give you the best possible info on what's in the ground. And V3 gives greater VDI resolution which helps dissect the conductivity line better. The etrac ferrous coordinates are nearly useless because all these targets have approximately the same ferrous content. Test it and see. On the most sought after targets the etrac forms nearly a straight line which is what we've always had. V3 gives you many other options you won't have with the etrac. Minelab is a good machine but for the money V3 gives you more.
 
wrong way ron said:
For those of you guy that have the machine what are pros and cons and which would you buy and why I'm going to buy one I just don't know which one so HELP
Click to expand...

Good question to ask on a V forum. LOL My guess is most here will recommend the V.
 
True, but I tried to be as honest as I could. I was a big time Minelab guy too before the V3, but after finding and comparing signals with gold bracelets and necklaces that I had found with the V3 and DFX that didn't even make a peep on my SE Pro in AM pretty much made the decision for me. One bracelet had 108 diamonds and the other had 36. For the deep silver finds though, the Explorers and E-Trac are very good, but for a detector that is as close to a quality all purpose detector, I don't think there is anything better than the V3.
 
Bradley,
I believe this is why they remapped the ferrous and conduct on the etrac, on the explorer range the line of good targets goes from bottom towards left up to the top towards the right, the problem came when increasing the iron mask, you masked out the goodies. On the etrac they remapped it and skewed this line so basically all good targets line up at ferrous 12. This does somewhat take away the point of the smartfind screen as you now have a straight line left to right where the goodies will fall. The V3/DFX/XLT has this straight line in the spectra graph but gives more info as you may get multiple bars and the height of the bars denotes intensity of the signal. Horses for courses really, deep silver I don't think you can beat the Minelabs but I would think V3 would give them a run for their money in single 2.5Khz and don't forget the boost. End of the day you need to try both and go with what your most comfortable with.
 
I don't think that is true John. There are many more Explorers, for example, than V3's and therefore many more users, posts and finds. The V3 has only been out for 7-8 months compared to ?? 10 years for the Explorers??? Also for some reason, "found" posts don't seem to be well received on this forum and many don't post what they find.
 
I agree with Larry about finds not getting much interest on this site. I remember in a post where Larry and I found over 300 quarters in 2 days it seemed like no one was interested.

Now that Minelab is under new owners and have moved their production to the Far East, I wonder what changes this will bring. As I remember many CZ guys had a big surprize getting their detectors repaired when Fisher was sold.

I'm sure you will get totally different answers on the Minlab forum. Rob
 
John - Maryland said:
True. Many more Explores than Etac's also. That's why you need to go to the Etrac fourm.
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The silver on the etrac and explorer forum has really calmed down lately seemed to coincide with the end of minelabs marketing campaign ?? Also seems to be the same couple people always finding the silver. I think people give to much credit to there machines the coins have to be there before you can find them . Research and location not machine.
 
I sold my GT, which I thought I would never do, The V just Rocks
 
We all know that not all machines are the same, but a major part of your success is dependent on where you hunt for sure. Nancy and I ask for permission to hunt private property mostly, many of the yards have never been hunted and some of those pays big dividends.
 
Thanks guys I just don't know what to buy I want the right machine I have the MXT 300 right now set up just like Nancy's machine from what she describes. So should I keep what I have or buy the new machine. I'm either going to buy the V3 or an Etrac. I want to hunt more for old coins so if that help you guys make my decision for me great let me know what you think.
 
You do what you think is best for you Ron, that is all that really matters in the end. Some advantages that you have right now is that you are familiar with the VDI scale White's uses, you have some of the loops that will work with the V and you have the DX-1.
 
Compare the number of good finds posted in each forum. Than make your choice. The answer to your question will justify itself.
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That's not necessarily the best way to make a choice. I'm going to be more impressed with a nice morgan dollar than I am with a crusty wheat penny. But if the dollar was four inches deep and the penny was a foot deep, would the more impressive find imply the better detector? Not necessarily, and the reverse isn't necessarily true either. You can only find what you put your coil over, no matter what brand it is.
 
John - Maryland said:
True. Many more Explores than Etac's also. That's why you need to go to the Etrac fourm.
Click to expand...

The forums are a small percentage of the people who hunt it would be naive to pick a detector based on the number of good finds each forum has there is just not enough information there. I personal know a couple of people with some amazing detecting collections that don't even know these forums exist or care. And as somebody else stated not every body posts there finds I personal don't post all of mine just don't have the time. Another good thing to know would be the hours the people with 100 or 200 silvers put in also how much trash did they dig.
 
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