Love, Hate Relationship with E-trac

[CalReg]

I am looking at buying a used E-trac. I have a couple of other detectors that work well for what I bought them for (Tarsacci for beaches and areas with highly mineralized ground, and the Simplex for parks).With the E-trac I am looking to set up a custom program to locate silver coins. As I get older, it's not really realistic for me to dig up everything (by back starts to act up), and being in the state of California, if you MD at a site with any foot traffic and they see a shovel, you are likely to run into some resistance. However, with that said, there are people who absolutely love it and those that feel the opposite. What is your opinion?

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Hello CalReg,

I've used the Minelab Explorer series detectors and like the eTrac they are silver magnets. All the machines mentioned are heavy and slow, but they do not miss much! I have used the eTrac and enjoyed it; in my experience it's really an Explorer SE series with more features. In my mind they have the sweetest sound for silver. If you purchase an eTrac, buy a RnB Innovation battery pack, you will not be sorry.

Doc

 

[CalReg]

Hello CalReg,

I've used the Minelab Explorer series detectors and like the eTrac they are silver magnets. All the machines mentioned are heavy and slow, but they do not miss much! I have used the eTrac and enjoyed it; in my experience it's really an Explorer SE series with more features. In my mind they have the sweetest sound for silver. If you purchase an eTrac, buy a RnB Innovation battery pack, you will not be sorry.

Doc

Thanks for the battery pack advice Doc!

 

[chub]

If it's your back you're worried about you may want to consider the weight of the e trac

chub

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello Chub,

If you your back hurts from the weight of detecting, you could try a harness. Minelab makes a killer one, but a simple cheap one is the detector pro.
Both relieve about 85 - 90 % of the detector weight. I used one for awhile when my arm was bothering me; could swing for 8 hours with no problem.

Regards,

Doc

 

[DeepseekerADS]

If you your back hurts from the weight of detecting, you could try a harness. Minelab makes a killer one, but a simple cheap one is the detector pro.

I second this recommendation. The Etrac was an elbow cranker for me - so I sold it when I got the CTX which is much easier on old muscles.....

 

[CalReg]

Quite a few people have mentioned the weight, so I looked it up, and the Minelab site says it weighs 3.9 pounds which is about a pound heavier than the Tarsacci. I'll give it whirl and see how it goes. If I find the weight to be a detriment, I might check out a harness...

 

[SD51]

Hello CalReg,

I've used the Minelab Explorer series detectors and like the eTrac they are silver magnets. All the machines mentioned are heavy and slow, but they do not miss much! I have used the eTrac and enjoyed it; in my experience it's really an Explorer SE series with more features. In my mind they have the sweetest sound for silver. If you purchase an eTrac, buy a RnB Innovation battery pack, you will not be sorry.

Doc

100% agree with Doc, get the RnB battery, you won't be sorry. You should look into downloading the free software called, "E-Trac Emulator". It will teach you how to set-up the E-TRAC and you will see how it responds to various targets.

Here's a link... The Beep Goes On

Let me know if you have any questions about using the emulator software.

I have done well with my E-TRAC and particularly like setting it up for deep silver. Don't get hung up on believing that the FE (ferrous) number for a coin will always be around a "12". That is true for an air test. I dug an 1857 seated quarter that was a full 10" deep and had a nail at about 6" deep off to the side of the quarter and the E-TRAC showed a "20-46" instead of a "12-46". The deeper the target is there will be mineralized material between the target and the coin and that will affect the FE number displayed.

 

[cudamark]

I love the E-trac also, but, the Equinox is a better all around machine, and it's a lot lighter.

 

[fistfulladirt]

A friend and myself both own etracs. Both equipped with aftermarket coils. They’re ok but just can’t get the depth that the Explorer II or SE Pro does.

 

[mascard1]

Come on ....I think the E-trac goes just deep!......it's all about the tones....

 

[CalReg]

Well, just received the E-Trac and a couple observations. After putting it together and swinging it, it doesn't seem that heavy, so at this point I'm not looking at buying a harness. Secondly, setting up custom programs and saving them took a few tries, but I now have one program for silver coins, another for jewelry and a third for clad only. Looking forward to hitting an older park tomorrow (barbecuing for the Fourth, so I can't go out today). Happy Fourth of July everyone!

 

[Normsel]

The Etrac is a coin hog but heavy to swing. You can customize to suit you and it is a deep seeker. Not unusual to hit coins at 8" depending on the soil of course. After the 1st couple of days I could barely swing it then I got used to it but when the Equinox came out I gave it to my grandson..

 

[sjvalleyhunter]

Hello from Fresno. I have had a number of machines over the years and the E-Trac still is my go to machine for most sites. My suggestion is to get a few different coils to suit the places you are detecting. If it’s really an iron infested site, use a small coil and the two tone ferrous setting. I’ve found some of my best finds this way. Also, the recovery speed isn’t as fast as some machines, so just go slow and really listen to the tones. It’ll take a numbers of hours to get everything dialed in, but once you do you should be killing it wherever you are hunting. Keep us updated as to what you find.