Adding an E-Trac to the arsenal. What Should I Expect?

[fella]

Current machines are Whites MXT Pro and a Coinmaster Pro. I've also had a Tesoro Outlaw recently but has since been sold.
My MXTP coils of choice are the D2 and 5.3. I also have an Eclipse 950 but I don't see using it any more since I put the D2 on.

Today I purchased a used E-Trac & it should be delivered by Friday. The dealer I purchased it from recently had it programed by a guy named Terry something. Held him very high regard and said he literally wrote the book on E-Tracs. (I'll take that with a grain of salt).

Anyhoo...Pros/minuses of this machine compared to my MXTP?

 

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[Jason in Enid]

Expect a steep learning curve. Try to use it exclusively until you develop a solid foundation with it. Continual switching back and forth will make it MUCH harder. Read the owner's manual several times. Buy the Andy Sabich book and read THAT several times (at least the part the deals with the E-Trac).

Finally... expect to start finding a lot more silver!

 

[markincypress]

I agree that you will have to devote A LOT of time learning it and you will want to wrap it around a tree once or twice. BUT, once you learn it's squeaks, squawks, grunts and flutey tones, along with Fe/Co numbers that at first make your head spin you will be it's master. The Andy Sabich book written about the E-trac will make the learning process a bit smoother. Just have patience. I bought a CTX and had to rely on some of my E-trac buddies to help me make sense of it. But it is falling into place for me.

 

[fella]

The dealer I purchased it from recently had it programed by a guy named Terry something. Held him very high regard and said he literally wrote the book on E-Tracs. (I'll take that with a grain of salt).

Well good news for me. I talked to the dealer again & it was Andy Sabich (not Terry something) that did the programing for it. Andy was in his store recently and tuned this unit himself. Should have it in hands tomorrow!

 

[fella]

Holy Crap!

Welp, I got it today! Wow is it different. Sounds like an R2 factory! It never stops making sounds!

 

[diggerdeeper]

Holy Crap!

Welp, I got it today! Wow is it different. Sounds like an R2 factory! It never stops making sounds!

Just hold on thar bobbalooie....
If you go through the menu, you can select 2, 4 , or multi tone sounds.( I found two tone satisfactory to start with,but others might disagree)

One thing you will find with the Etrac is, it's very adjustable.
You just gotta know how to wade through the menu, then how to change and save your settings.
It takes some time as others have noted; but well worth the effort.
I think you will find that this machine's memory has a lot of room to store personalized search configurations also.
And if you get it bolixed up, you can revert back to factory settings.
Even with those, you should be able to find coins in "hunted out" localities.
I know I have !
Good luck, and happy hunting !

 

[fella]

and you will want to wrap it around a tree once or twice.

Well that's no lie!

BUT, once you learn it's squeaks, squawks, grunts and flutey tones, along with Fe/Co numbers that at first make your head spin you will be it's master.

I sure hope so.



Biggest issue I'm having is it never shuts up. It squeaks, squawks, grunts & flutey tones ALL the time. Very hard to distinguish what's an actual target.
Just tried the quick start. Power, noise cancel, search. I'm playin with today.

 

[fella]

Just hold on thar bobbalooie....
If you go through the menu, you can select 2, 4 , or multi tone sounds.( I found two tone satisfactory to start with,but others might disagree)

Yep, I set it to 4.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Well that's no lie!


I sure hope so.



Biggest issue I'm having is it never shuts up. It squeaks, squawks, grunts & flutey tones ALL the time. Very hard to distinguish what's an actual target.
Just tried the quick start. Power, noise cancel, search. I'm playin with today.

Yep, I set it to 4.

Hold on a sec. Remember what I told you about taking time to learn the E-Trac? First, if you machine "never shuts up", you are hunting in WAY too trashy of a location. Second, when you change it from multi-tone to 4 tone, you are losing a LOT of information and trying to skip the learning process. 2 tone and 4 tone have their place and time, but it's not to skip the learning process.

It always bothers me when people tell new E-Trac owners to "dumb down" the machine instead of learning it. I bought the E-Trac it's first year out. Yes, it was frustrating, yes I had to put in a LOT of hours swinging and a lot of hours reading and re-reading the books until everything fell into place. I DID want to wrap it around a tree at first and go back to my 1990's Whites 6000 detector. Once I did finally learn how to properly use the detector, I won't give it up for anything, except (MAYBE) a CTX3030.

Slow down, practice, and learn.

 

[fella]

Hold on a sec. Remember what I told you about taking time to learn the E-Trac? First, if you machine "never shuts up", you are hunting in WAY too trashy of a location. Second, when you change it from multi-tone to 4 tone, you are losing a LOT of information and trying to skip the learning process. 2 tone and 4 tone have their place and time, but it's not to skip the learning process.

It always bothers me when people tell new E-Trac owners to "dumb down" the machine instead of learning it. I bought the E-Trac it's first year out. Yes, it was frustrating, yes I had to put in a LOT of hours swinging and a lot of hours reading and re-reading the books until everything fell into place. I DID want to wrap it around a tree at first and go back to my 1990's Whites 6000 detector. Once I did finally learn how to properly use the detector, I won't give it up for anything, except (MAYBE) a CTX3030.

Slow down, practice, and learn.

You sir are correct. I did put it back in multi tone and went to a different site other than my back yard. The machine settled down and I could start making a bit more sense out of it. Enough to snag a wheat, a dime and a old little brass bell and a couple other pennies.
I started making head way and then headed to a different local. This place was much trashier and it started going nuts again. I had to set it down (out of my own frustration) and grab my MXTP.
I offered up the etrac for my cousin to try and he pretty much liked it right off and did well with it. Even dug a really nice 18k HGE ring with a large turquoise in it.
I'll keep at it and hopefully "get it". While I was doing better in the less trashy areas, it's really hard to figure in the heavy trash.

 

[Jason in Enid]

The heavy trash isn't impossible to hunt in, but it's much harder. Starting there would be like trying to learn trigonometry while still learning addition.

Just try to keep in mind that the coins there today will still be there tomorrow and next week and next month. Have fun learning the E-Trac, and good luck!

 

[BottleCapBandit]

I found it helpful to watch someone use it and listen to the tones. You should lend it to me again and watch me clean out that park!

 

[diggerdeeper]

And don't forget about the numbers.
Some folks ignore them and just listen to the sound, but I can tell you there's times where just the right piece of iron in just the right ground setting will try and fool you with a high pitch note. Generally, the numbers won't be 'right'. They'll be far to the right, but low on the screen.
But, like others have stated, there's no substitute for practice.

 

[fella]

K. I'm starting to see the brilliance in this detector. Found some clean ground and placed some coins & trash down to practice with and I'm kinda starting to get a little bit of it. Kinda, starting & little bit are key words here!
The coil is different than what I'm use to. As I pass the coil over a target (L to R) it will pick up three tones. Once on the left,center & the right of the coil (not to mention tone in the X part of the coil too). A bit different than the concentric and the D2 on my MXTP. That in combo with longer tones of the E-Trac were throwing me. I'm playing with normal, long, smooth & PH on the response setting. Long and smooth give me more problems I think.
Now that I've got that part figured a bit, I'm hoping it'll come together a bit better.
One thing I did notice that I REALLY like is on pull tabs vs nickels. The E-Trac was showing virtually the same numbers for the nickel and the two types of pull tabs but each has a different tone. Whereas my Whites VDI #'s show slightly different but all make the same tone. While I'm pretty ok I digging a lot of pull tabs as I don't want to pass up anything gold, I think the ET gives better info. I just need to tune my ears for it.
Anyhoo...no questions today, just saying it's getting better. I've got great weather for the next couple of days up here so I'm gunna try and get some good ET time in.
*edit* also learning that slow is good!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Glad to hear that things are starting to fall into place for you. That "triple beep" is only on surface or VERY near-surface targets. It's a good way to know if you are dealing with a recent drop.

Yep, nickles will hit 12-12/13 most of the time. Buffalos will be around 12-15. Sometimes a funky shaped tab will fool you will that rock-solid nickel number, but its pretty damn accurate. The E-Trac gives a HUGE amount of info!

Yes, S L O W is good! Learn that Minelab wiggle and it will make some things easier.

One last thing.... even though the "wiggle" is a great way to pinpoint most items, the only way to get the most accurate depth reading is to use the pinpoint mode. For some reason it's much more accurate than the depth indicator while detecting.

 

[cudamark]

When it starts to squawk too much, remember to use the noise cancellation button. It can make a huge difference in stability.

 

[fella]

I had some success today. It's getting quite a bit easier to distinguish targets from other noise & finding the targets is getting much easier. Dug a few coins today and only a little bit of junk(best was a nice 59d penny). I was kinda cherry picking the higher tones and wasn't really to concerned with gold, nickel, pull tab ranges today. ( I dug pull tabs and bottle caps none the less)

The ergonomics of the ET sure suck though! IMHO! Balance is, at best, bad. I thought MXTP was a little on the hefty side but this thing starts to hurt after an hour! Although the MXTP Is heaver, it's balance is Sooooo much better! Just another thing to "get use to" I guess?

 

[Jason in Enid]

One thing to try to help with the weight is to shorten the lower rod. Let your arm hang down naturally to set the height. Yes, it will shorten your swing width, but it is SOOO much easier. Another thing is to buy a sling like the "swingy-thingy". Yes, thats the real name. I use one and it makes a HUGE difference.