ETrac & gold

I don't know myself, but I will say from posts I have read, I don't think they are that poor on finding all gold, lots of owners do find plenty.
Are they as good as say a gold bug or a 705 with the 18kz coil...no, of course not, not many are.
I think they are just "tuned" a little more to find that deep silver.

Tuned how? Well, that is just another way to ask YOUR question.
Somebody will chime in that knows soon, I am sure.
 
They're not any poorer at finding gold than any other machine. If it's there it'll find it. For me it's just that gold on E-trac shows up in the 12-01 - 12-29 range which is 99% of the time going to be junk unless it's nickel. But Etrac is so good on coins you can almost always tell a nickel from the junk because it will peg 12-13 at all angles. So most everything else in that range other than 12-13 i dont dig unless im in an open field without too much junk.
 
Don't forget 12-15 and 16, 17.

Those are silver war nickels. I also found a gold ring with the E-trac that rang up an 11-10, was a 10kt man's wedding band. It's horrible at finding oddly shaped gold or tiny gold. Forget finding small earrings or necklaces, etc. E-trac simply cannot find that. I did some tests and the E-trac would only detect something like a 10kt small cross if the item was TOUCHING the coil, literally. It still barely gave a 12-01. Also had sens maxed out and was using the 6 inch DD coil.

You can find ANY ring with the E-trac, but forget the odd shaped gold jewelry that's small.
 
They're not any poorer at finding gold than any other machine. If it's there it'll find it.

This is not true. The E-Trac does not use the higher frequencies that are "hot" on gold. A machine can be hot on silver, hot on gold, or mediocre on both.

The E-trac will not hit on tiny pieces of foil, slivers of aluminum, or typical gold chains. There are machines out there that will hit very hard on those targets.
 
But Etrac is so good on coins you can almost always tell a nickel from the junk because it will peg 12-13 at all angles.

Don't forget 12-15 and 16, 17.

Add 12-10 in there. I just dug a Buffalo that was a solid 12-10.

Basically, it depends on the target, the year made (alloys could change slightly), the depth, the ground minerals, the ground moisture as nearby trash.
 
Somebody posted on here a month or two ago complaining about his/her E-Trac not finding gold. They said they laid either a ring or a bracelet on the bottom of the coil and the machine did not sound off. Don't know how true that is, but it does give one pause in spending $$$$ for a machine that MIGHT not be good on gold......this is second hand info, don't shoot the messenger!!!!:lol::D

Dusty
 
That's odd to me, all the gold i've tested has sounded off fairly well. Granted i haven't tried any TINY gold but i've tested alot of different size and karat gold rings and earrings. Mine, my wife's, my fathers rings and earrings all rang up fine in air tests and didn't have to be anywhere near right on the coil. :?:
 
Just did another quick test on another of my wife's white gold rings. Its a fairly thin gold band, 14K, and im picking it up at 12-03 at 9"+. I think you guys have broken Etracs or something...:lol:
 

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My Minelab 705 Gold works great on small gold. I can't imagine Minelab selling a machine for twice as much that was a dud on gold..........they wouldn't be in business long....

Dusty
 
Just is odd to have all frequency covered, yet never listed to find gold by vendors. I would think it would out perform something like gold bug.

Just wondering, do I buy smaller coil for trashy areas and small gold, or put that money aside for pure gold machine? I mean one good coil and lower shaft is 1/3 the price of a full gold machine.
 
Somebody posted on here a month or two ago complaining about his/her E-Trac not finding gold. They said they laid either a ring or a bracelet on the bottom of the coil and the machine did not sound off. Don't know how true that is, but it does give one pause in spending $$$$ for a machine that MIGHT not be good on gold......this is second hand info, don't shoot the messenger!!!!:lol::D

Dusty

I posted something like that months ago. The E-trac is horrible on tiny gold. Rings are generaly easy to find. The size and roundness lend themselves to response. But typical womens chains, link type bracelets, stud earrings won't respond. If you don't believe it, feel free to try it. I was shocked when my E-Trac wouldn't respond to my wife's tennis bracelet.

Chains and bracelets don't respond as a whole object, they only respond as the individual links ($30,000 bicycle chains not included here ;) ). This is why it takes a gold oriented machine to find those things. The E-Trac is made to target silver, not gold.
 
Just is odd to have all frequency covered, yet never listed to find gold by vendors. I would think it would out perform something like gold bug.

Just wondering, do I buy smaller coil for trashy areas and small gold, or put that money aside for pure gold machine? I mean one good coil and lower shaft is 1/3 the price of a full gold machine.

If gold is your target, get the gold machine. A smaller coil on the E-Trac will help, but only slightly.
 
Its a FBS machine.... but those freq are randomly set with so many freq per channel. So all the freqs arent being used at one time. The Etrac like the Explorer will find any gold.... provided its big enough. Thats the key. I agree it wont pick up oddly formed small gold. Golds conductivity is to close to the salt setting. Most feel the operating freq in most cases runs around 3 KHz.... very low for gold, but great for depth and silver. People who can stop hunting for those pennies and thru random trash and concentrate on the mid tones do much better at finding rings. More of these rings arent being looked for. Someone once said 80 percent of the jewelry worn is by women. Womens rings especially small ones hit much lower than nickels. I know i hunt with the SE on the beach, i can find rings.... but i also know ive went over the same areas with my Xcal and found tiny studs, crosses, and earrings that i just didnt hear with the SE. The Coil on the Etrac has an expanded coil HALO while other higher freq or better gold machine is very concentrated under the coil.

Dew
 
My Etrac picks up gold (haven't tried real small stuff though) but as somebody mentioned, it comes in at numbers similar to garbage and sometimes sounds like it too. None of that heavenly warble you get with the silver...
 
Azmodeus has it right. If your willing to spend the time digging what most of the time turns out to be junk (tabs,foil etc), you'll find gold with your etrac.Same as other detectorists (not detectors) that find gold are willing to do.
 
Even Andy, author of the Explorer/E-Trac handbook, says the E-Trac is not very good on smaller gold. On an average sized gold ring it will do fine but on odd shaped smaller gold earrings/pendents it doesn't do very well. The E-Trac is second to none on deep silver, but if you hunt gold you'd be better off with something else.

A quote from Andy on why the Explorer II seems to do a little better on the beach than the E-Trac.

You are right in the fact that the Explorer seems to be a tad better on the beach than the E-Trac. That was a comment we noted during the development of the E-Trac but was something that the engineers were not able to address before going into production. Despite they both being FBS detectors, there is something different between them that gives the edge to the Explorer on the beach and the Explorer II seems to be the one many seasoned beach hunters prefer (over the original or the SE models). A larger coil as you mentioned will be the best option to cover the dry sand / surf line and get the depth you want. Remember none of the FBS models will hit the small gold.

No detector does it all or we'd all own the same detector.

Here is a video I did on some gold with the E-Trac, AT Pro and DFX. It does OK on the ring but fails on the other pieces.

 
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If its small gold you seek look into the Teknetics G2 Or Fisher Gold Bug Pro. They will hit TINY gold!! Very impressive depth on small pieces. Silver as well.
 
The stuff you may be looking for in a trashy park ... like mens rings you will find if you are willing to dig a LOT of stuff. One a beach you will get some of the smaller items as well .... if you listen and dig every thing. But a lot of the reason is there isnt nearly as much trash and other tones to catch your attention. Also a lot of people over look the foil tones.... but dont, because some clasps and odd shaped tiny stuff falls right in there. A lot depends on the KT, shape, and size. Tiny stuff in a park... good luck because you are a younger man than me and id have to have a very good idea its there to go looking.

Dew
 
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