V3i vs. Etrac on Small Gold....Here is the result...

[West Jersey Detecting]

I know there have been recent posts with a lot of opinions on which is better, the Etrac or the V3i. Much of this information can be conflicting, confusing the potential buyer, so I thought a simple comparison can be helpful to someone who is considering either.

First of all I want to state that they are both great detectors, but each does have its advantages. My detecting buddy uses the Etrac, and I use a V3i. We are constantly comparing questionable signals.

In my opinion the Etrac may have a slight advantage on deep silver and copper, but when it comes to small targets like gold, the V3i has a distinct advantage.

A few weeks back I was testing different targets in my yard with my newly purchased Minelab Excalibur 1000. I was very surprised that the Excalibur could not detect the small, hollow 14K gold charm (pictured) unless the coil was within a half inch of the charm, while the V3i sounded off nicely at more than 4 inches. The all metal picked it up at an additional half inch on the Excal, while the V3i did at greater than 6 inches. When the V3i was switched from Multi-Frequency mode to 22.5 KHz, the signal strengthened even more.

Now I was curious to see how the Etrac fared, so I made sure I brought the charm along on my next hunt with my buddy. Luckily on the next hunt there were not one but TWO experienced ETrac users to insure that the results were accurate.

I carefully placed the tiny target on the ground and stood back so my detector did not interfere and waited for his Etrac to go through the Noise Cancel process. As he passed the coil over the target there was only a faint blip sound within an inch of the target. The other Etrac had the same result.

In short, the V3i is more sensitive to small targets such as tiny gold charms, earrings, etc. If jewelry is your focus, the V3i is the detector for you, while if your focus is on higher conductive metals such as copper and silver, the Etrac may be a better choice.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[John (Ma)]

Now that is the way to do a comparison! Same undisturbed target, great job and I believe very accurate. I have tested my Etrac and excal with small gold and it is a no go unless it's right on it. I found a very small gold pin that sounded like junk (foil) with the excal. However, I dig everything at local swimming holes. It turned out to be that small pin, barley beneath the surface. Nice job

 

[birdman]

Yes the excal is not good on thin gold chains or hollow gold charms either. Don't have much time with the Etrac yet.

 

[teverly]

i guess my only question is what were the settings on both machines??if they were running in the coin mode of the etrac then that is the result i would expect....
if you open up the settings a bit i bet it will pick it up,but again and again on most machines small gold and even some larger gold will fall into the foil/pultab range so i still say if you are not diging some trash you are missing some good targets..

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

i guess my only question is what were the settings on both machines??if they were running in the coin mode of the etrac then that is the result i would expect....
if you open up the settings a bit i bet it will pick it up,but again and again on most machines small gold and even some larger gold will fall into the foil/pultab range so i still say if you are not diging some trash you are missing some good targets..

Excellent point, but both of these users are very experienced users of the E-Trac. They both run very hot. I have since spoke to other Minelab owners, and with the exception of the GPX series, tiny gold is simply not a strength. While this may be the case, ML makes great detectors that have many other strengths.

I am certainly loving my Excalibur. And I don't have to worry about those tiny targets that slip through the holes in my basket!

 

[Digger]

Careful you'll upset a few people posting those kind of facts.

I've posted several videos showing that the E-Trac just doesn't like small odd shaped gold and got called a "liar" and was told I just don't know what I'm doing. They proceed to then take a big chunk of gold and scrub it on the coil bottom and say see it does just fine.

The E-trac is one heck of a deep coin detector but the V3i, AT Pro and even the DFX kick its butt on gold.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

i guess my only question is what were the settings on both machines??if they were running in the coin mode of the etrac then that is the result i would expect....
if you open up the settings a bit i bet it will pick it up,but again and again on most machines small gold and even some larger gold will fall into the foil/pultab range so i still say if you are not diging some trash you are missing some good targets..

Excellent point, but both of these users are very experienced users of the E-Trac. They both run very hot. I have since spoke to other Minelab owners, and with the exception of the GPX series, tiny gold is simply not a strength. While this may be the case, ML makes great detectors that have many other strengths.

I am certainly loving my Excalibur. And I don't have to worry about those tiny targets that slip through the holes in my basket!

Agreed

 

[Digger]

And again I say. Both FE and CO were wide open. Nothing was stopping the detector from sounding off other than it just couldn't see them. Even in pinpoint mode there was no response.

 

[flenj]

I have a 9ct foil gold earring that I have been using fore over twenty years as an air test piece.
Tried out many different detectors with it over many years and haven't found any that can hear it over an inch. That's until now, my V3i can pick it up at just over 2". But I have a new detector that starts to hear it at 6" to 7" and the VDI clicks in at 4" to 5". It's the XP Deus with the large coil.
John.F.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

I have a 9ct foil gold earring that I have been using fore over twenty years as an air test piece.
Tried out many different detectors with it over many years and haven't found any that can hear it over an inch. That's until now, my V3i can pick it up at just over 2". But I have a new detector that starts to hear it at 6" to 7" and the VDI clicks in at 4" to 5". It's the XP Deus with the large coil.
John.F.

Try the SEF 10"x12" coil and put turn on Mixed Mode on the V3i and I bet you hear it at a comparable depth.

 

[Digger]

Or try a Garrett AT Pro. When I was testing my gold it was seeing the small pieces of gold at almost 12". Needless to say I was totally amazed at the AT Pro's depth and sensitivity on gold.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Or try a Garrett AT Pro. When I was testing my gold it was seeing the small pieces of gold at almost 12". Needless to say I was totally amazed at the AT Pro's depth and sensitivity on gold.

I am not big on Garrett. I have heard stories on bad keypads and not watertight as advertised. I see more of the AT Pro for sale on Craigs List than any other current detector.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Neil to be fair the reason there are more AT pro's around for sale is there are a lot of them around, pretty dang popular, a lot more around than e-traks or V3 for sure.

Anyway I did a test as well seeing that Garrett claim above. The test piece is 0.16 gram of nearly pure gold.

E-track about 1 inch
Garrett AT Pro about 2 inches, strangely the signal was broken at closer distances.
Tek Omega about 3.5 inches

All machines used at about 75% max SENS, and zero DISC.

This is the test subject.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

I would like to see a Fisher Gold bug Pro or Teknetics G2 on that nugget. Thanks for posting!

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Neil to be fair the reason there are more AT pro's around for sale is there are a lot of them around, pretty dang popular, a lot more around than e-traks or V3 for sure.

Anyway I did a test as well seeing that Garrett claim above. The test piece is 0.16 gram of nearly pure gold.

E-track about 1 inch
Garrett AT Pro about 2 inches, strangely the signal was broken at closer distances.
Tek Omega about 3.5 inches

All machines used at about 75% max SENS, and zero DISC.

This is the test subject.

Good info!

Thanks for posting!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I found a .06 of a gram gold ring with my excal with a wot coil on it at about 9-10 inches, have found more small gold rings and many tiny gold earrings with both my excals and my sov gt......I'm sure not losing any sleep over not finding any tiny, hollow gold charms or thin, tiny gold chains.....

If I really wanted to find tiny gold pieces I would get a Minelab gold detector, or Gold Bug....

 

[Elbandido]

A 1500 dollar Detector better find small gold.
Why is it that i see so many complaints on both of these Detectors?
Also you should not have to add a aftermarket coil to a detector that cost that much.
I dont use either of them so i cant judge.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

A 1500 dollar Detector better find small gold.
Why is it that i see so many complaints on both of these Detectors?
Also you should not have to add a aftermarket coil to a detector that cost that much.
I dont use either of them so i cant judge.

Any detector can find gold, but every detector also has a point at which a target will be too small to detect.

99% of the complaints about the E-Trac and V3i that I see are due to user error, inexperience and impatience. The V3i is a great detector, but has literally hundreds of configurations and adjustments. I do not consider it a turn and go detector.

There is certainly no need to add accessory coils to any detector, it is just a matter of personal preference. In fact, I cannot say for sure that the larger, 10"x12" actually gives me more depth, but its larger profile allows me to cover more ground with each sweep. Users of the Minelab detectors often add WOT coils which do penetrate deeper. These are optional coils and are certainly not necessary.

 

[Digger]

I found the V3i does just fine on small gold with the right adjustments. Mainly accepting lower discrimination settings and going 22.5 KHZ single frequency. The E-Trac, on the other hand, didn't do that well on odd shaped small gold no matter what. The E-Trac is second to none when it comes to hitting that deep silver so I'm not surprised, or upset, that it lacks in the gold area. And it isn't from improper settings. I asked for any input as to what to adjust to make it hit better on small gold, and no one came up with a single suggestion. They could only blame the user and not give any suggestions. I also asked Andy, the guy who wrote the Explorer/E-Trac handbook, and he said that the E-Trac, and all FBS models, were a bit weak in the small gold detection.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

I found the V3i does just fine on small gold with the right adjustments. Mainly accepting lower discrimination settings and going 22.5 KHZ single frequency. The E-Trac, on the other hand, didn't do that well on odd shaped small gold no matter what. The E-Trac is second to none when it comes to hitting that deep silver so I'm not surprised, or upset, that it lacks in the gold area. And it isn't from improper settings. I asked for any input as to what to adjust to make it hit better on small gold, and no one came up with a single suggestion. They could only blame the user and not give any suggestions. I also asked Andy, the guy who wrote the Explorer/E-Trac handbook, and he said that the E-Trac, and all FBS models, were a bit weak in the small gold detection.

Well said!