E-Trac vs F75

[Digger]

With the spring thaw underway I have been looking at getting another E-Trac but the thought of looking, again, at the F75 came to mind.

During the winter I really have no need for a deep machine like the E-Trac so I sell mine at first freeze and buy one again in the spring. During the winter months I hunt mostly tot lot gold where my DFX and AT Pro kick the butt of E-Trac. I've looked at the F75 many times before buying another E-Trac, but I've just never seen any reason to try one yet. No convincing evidence why I should not get the E-Trac instead.

My problem has been in the reports I see. As expected you always see pros and cons for all the top-guns, but it's not hard to read between the lines to see which really should perform best. With the E-Trac I see lots of first time users switching for other brands that say "WOW this detector finds the deep old coins from hunted out parks and schools. With the F75 I see mostly current Fisher users saying the same thing. Not so impressive as it is being said by people new to the Minelab line.

Also, I see a few underlining issues that turn me off to the F75. Such remarks/excuses as it's noisy because people aren't used to the sensitivity or information it is sending back. Sorry but I call BS. The E-Trac is very sensitive and gives a lot of information to the user and isn't noisy at all. Personally I call a noisy detector unstable. Sorry, I call them as I see them. Don't take this wrong I am by no means try to degrade any detector, but these are issues of concern to me. I'd love to give the F75 a shot if I just saw a good reason. I understand it is a fantastic relic detector, but I don't do a lot of relic hunting so that isn't important to me. What is important is the ability to pull extremely deep coins for hard hit sites. Easily <- key word. Any good detector can pull a few missed goodies for hard hit sites after a lot of experience has been gained, but so far only the E-Trac has been consistently doing it for first time users. That is my idea of impressive.

So, before I go and buy another E-Trac for the season just why would you suggest I look at the F75 instead?

Thanks

 

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[therover]

I think you answered a lot of questions with your post. One of the main points is you are looking for older, deeper coins. Seems the E-Trac would be the better of the units for that ( I have a new E-Trac on the way..and have LOTS of other detectors). One of the reasons I wanted an E-Trac over the F75 is because I want to concentrate on older sites for silver, in addition to salt water beach hunting.

If I were coin hunting and relic hunting, then maybe the F75 would be the better choice. Thing is, I already have a Gold Bug SE and I think that would do maybe 80% of what the F75 can.

Based on what you had stated in your post, another E-Trac ( since you already had one prior) would be the better choice. But I know it's hard to pass up an F75 with all the features it has...two being the light weight and recovery speed.

 

[elusion]

I had pretty much the same thoughts as you last year. After successfully using an Explorer II, I went and purchased the F75 LTD for 4 reasons:
Recovery speed, weight, battery life and depth. The weight and balance of the machine is absolutely exceptional. Actually using the machine was a different story. Basically the Fisher for me acted like a standard VLF single freq machine that's been pushed to the limits as far as sensitivity.. It's a very chattery machine and it makes it hard/impossible to distinguish between chatter and the whisper of deep targets. It is very sensitive (almost annoyingly so) to smaller targets. I found the TID to be accurate to reasonable depth. The recovery speed is very quick and it did well in an iron infested area I go to.

The clincher for me was when I searched an old ballfield I had never hunted. I came away with 5 wheats and 1 merc dime with the F-75. I purposely went over the exact same area the next day with my Explorer II and I found 11 wheats and 6 silver dimes (mercs and rosies). I traded the F-75 that day for a brand new e-trac and never looked back. I'm not saying the F-75 couldn't have found those targets... But... The minelab is nice and quiet until you get over a good target. You just can't beat the high flutey-tones even at depth. The minelab language is easily learned, hence the reason why newbies can go out and find great stuff on day 1 with the presets. The E-trac has great recovery speed. About the only thing I'll conceed to is the weight+balance and battery life is much better on the f-75... I bought a tesoro deleon for the days when my back/knees are giving me trouble.

 

[wharghoul]

As a previous owner of the E-trac (1 yr.) and current owner of the F75 ltd....Here's my take.

In my super mild soil, the F75 ltd is deeper, lighter, and faster.

I have no doubt that if I lived elsewhere that the results could be much different. For me, here, the single freq. just works better.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

The F75 LTD in boost mode is VERY hard to beat for depth and separation. I am doing a special on them with a Free 5" DD coil for an amazing price. Love to help answer any of your questions. I own an Etrac too so I compare them allot!
Thanks,
Bart

 

[Marchas45]

I have both machines and use them regularly and but I like the e-trac more as I seem to find more silver. I'm also an older person and when I use the e-trac it's slow and easy and then the weight gets unbearable even with a harness so I switch to the F75 and it's light and I swing faster and move faster and that I believe is where the difference is as both machines go pretty deep but the speed is the difference in my opinion, ones slow and ones faster.

 

[therover]

Wharghoul pretty much hit the nail on the head and summed up all that needs to be said when it comes to comparing detectors...it's what works best for you in your environment.

 

[Digger]

Re: E-Trac vs F75 ¢¢UPDATE¢¢

A friend brought his F75 down this weekend so we took it to the city park along with the E-Trac for comparison. I will add the F75 user hadn't had it very long.

We found several deep probable coins with the E-Trac and had them checked with the F75. The F75 was able to see the coins, as has most of the better detectors we've compared, but like the others it wouldn't give a good solid ID. They would still have been considered iffy signals. On the E-Trac they were pretty obvious coins. In time as more experience was obtained I'm sure the F75 would be able to pull some deep goodies from the park, but like all the others so far tested, they didn't quite do as well as the E-Trac.

 

[CSbrasshunter]

The bottom line for these two is depth vs. an ID meter. The 75 gives a number while the E-series offers a specific target identification.

Just my opinion but I tell it like is as well. I'd rather have the depth. I can remember what an eagle button or dime hits at, numberwise.

 

[Digger]

For anyone interested. Here is a head-to-head I did this weekend between the E-Trac and F75 on deep coins.



[youtube=425,350]<iframe width="480" height="390" src=" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/youtube]

 

[duggr]

Seems like the F75 was not as stable as the E-trac in the video.