E-trac vs Xterra 705

[Morlock]

Hello

Has anyone here ever done side by side field testing with the E-trac and the Xterra 705? Trying to decide what my best option is. Planning a long trip out west to some gold nugget locations as well as hitting some ghost towns, which are loaded with trash. I already have the Gold Bug 2. Suggestions on coils will also be appreciated.

Morlock

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[cudamark]

If you can afford the E-trac, I'd go with that. It's much more versatile and with 28 different frequencies, you can handle worse ground conditions (including salt water beach hunting) with it. Get a tiny coil for sniping those tiny nuggets and hunting the junk piles, and a huge coil for those wide open spaces. I like the big NEL coils and the Sunpro X-5 and Coiltec Joey on the small coils.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Xterra 705 is not in the same league as ETrac, ETrac is far deeper as well.......If you can swing the ETrac price wise go for it...

 

[Fletch88]

You already have one of the best proven nugget machines with the gb2. I would get the Etrac and the Sunray X-8 or SEF 6x8 and Sunray X-5. With the stock 11" pro and 2 smaller coils you can cover about any trashy iron laden site that you encounter. Also, FYI the Safari is a very good machine with the same horsepower/ technology as the Etrac/ Explorer without as many settings.

 

[basstrackerman]

get the x-terra 705 gold package and the 7.5kHz tornado coil and your all set..

 

[CoilToTheSoil]

Take my 705 package, I like it but would rather have an etrac. Course I'd have to drop more money than I did on my 705 setup... the 705 compliments my deus well in that the 6" and small elliptical dd coil work great in trash piles compared to the 11" the deus is equipped with.

 

[relicmeister]

I have an x-terra 705 and just got a Safari. I the xterra is outstanding. I was wanting an E-trac but decided on a Safari because first I could afford one now and second I prefer the power with simplicity. In air testing the I got the following: silver dime xterra 81/2"
Safari. 10"
Silver qtr xterra 10"
Safari 12"
Large cent xterra 11"
Safari 13"
I used the stock coil on both detectors

I expect to use both machines equally
Winter can't be over fast enough

 

[Terry Soloman]

If you are nuggetshooting, the 705 with the 18kHz coil is what you want. The Etrac SUCKS for gold nugget hunting.

"There are detectors on the market that process multiple frequencies, most notably a number of Minelab models (ETRAC, CTX 3030) but also a few other manufacturer models such as the Fisher CZ-3D or White's V3i. There is an assumption made that these units will detect gold nuggets as well as single frequency detectors because they do process some higher frequency signals. For various reasons this does not prove to be the case. Although these models can certainly find gold items none of them are any better than most general purpose coin detectors at finding gold nuggets. In fact, they are usually a poorer choice." - Steve Herschbach Steve's Guide to Gold Nugget Detectors

 

[Bryan V]

I agree with Terry.
I'm a huge ETrac CTX fan but they are one of the last detectors I would take nugget hunting.
Your GB 2 is a proven small nugget detector and so is the 705 with the 5x10 18kHz elliptical coil.
The Etrac and CTX do not have a true threshold based All Metal mode for serious nugget hunting.
I would take my cheap Tesoro Vaquero nugget hunting long before I took out the CTX or Etrac.
Other options for you might be the Fisher F19, Makro Racer 2, Gold Racer, AT Gold or one of the Nokta detectors.
All good relic, nugget, coin detectors. Just get a solid elliptical or small round coil for them.

The Etrac is best suited for deep turf old coin hunting in my opinion.
Sure you can use it for other things but there are better tools for the job.
Bryan

 

[mikeraydj]

I had a 705 gold before I traded up to the Etrac. I found more gold with the xterra than the etrac. I love my etrac but would like to have another 705 gold in the stable to make sure I was getting all the gold and silver at my sites.

 

[Keppy]

Yes the E-Trac is not a gold detector the 705 with the 18 kHz coil is a gold detector..So for gold you should listen to ..​ TERRY , Brayn V , And mikeraydj , They were right on there..