Big Boys Hobbies

Looking for a new "GO-TO" detector

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northgadigger

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
53
Location
Northeast Ga
I have a Whites xlt e-series that i used for years...i then bought a new AT Gold last year and havnt picked up the xlt since. SO with that being said i thinjk its time to sell the XLT. Although the ATG has served me well im looking to make this my backup in wet situations. Im looking for a new #1 detector to use on dry land. Im in the $1000-$1500 range. Would love to hear everyones opinion on the models in that range....mainly E-trac, Deus, Racer 2, and any others that i havnt considered that I'm missing! I'm ready to buy just dont know which one! Mainly coin and some relic hunting homesites here in Ga. Some civil war sites occasionally. All input is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!
 
If you don't see yourself wanting to change out coils at all,then the deus is the way to go.The deus does have 3 coils,but they are pricey and I don't think one is any better than the other on a deus,pretty much the same performance.I prefer to have the option of small ,medium and large coils for different places I hunt.If that's what you like,skip the deus.

Etrac would be my last choice for what you stated,UNLESS you plan on like 80 percent coins and 20 percent relics.In that case the Etrac would be my first choice if you plan hunting cleaner areas.Iron dirty places forget the Etrac,better suited machines for that.

Fisher f75ltd2 I prefer over the machines you listed,I have run them all and yes all are good machines.But the f75ltd2 can be had used for about $600, new around a thousand.It is in my opinion just as good if not better than any machine out there in trash or iron.Pretty much any coil you want for it is made,size and shape from a lot of different manufacturers,and affordable.You can buy a inline probe pinpointed,which I have on mine,and in a junk infested area it makes recovering the good target fast.

I tend not to over think it,tests and scenarios I'll probably never run into are a waste of time in my opinion.The f75ltd2 is a flagship machines that's been around forever,and keeps selling for a reason,it works and produces.
 
woodbutcher said:
If you don't see yourself wanting to change out coils at all,then the deus is the way to go.The deus does have 3 coils,but they are pricey and I don't think one is any better than the other on a deus,pretty much the same performance.I prefer to have the option of small ,medium and large coils for different places I hunt.If that's what you like,skip the deus.

Etrac would be my last choice for what you stated,UNLESS you plan on like 80 percent coins and 20 percent relics.In that case the Etrac would be my first choice if you plan hunting cleaner areas.Iron dirty places forget the Etrac,better suited machines for that.

Fisher f75ltd2 I prefer over the machines you listed,I have run them all and yes all are good machines.But the f75ltd2 can be had used for about $600, new around a thousand.It is in my opinion just as good if not better than any machine out there in trash or iron.Pretty much any coil you want for it is made,size and shape from a lot of different manufacturers,and affordable.You can buy a inline probe pinpointed,which I have on mine,and in a junk infested area it makes recovering the good target fast.

I tend not to over think it,tests and scenarios I'll probably never run into are a waste of time in my opinion.The f75ltd2 is a flagship machines that's been around forever,and keeps selling for a reason,it works and produces.
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Thanks for the input! I hadnt considered this machine but after your post i looked around a bit...i like what im reading.
 
If you are leaning mostly toward coin hunting, I'd go with a new Etrac or a used CTX.

If you do a lot of relic hunting, XP Deus is hard to beat.

Another option: Used Etrac + basic XP Deus would be a deadly combination and would have you covered for pretty much every type of dry land hunting. You could always upgrade to the full Deus later if you want.

I've never tried the Racer 2 so can't speak on it.
 
WoodButcher/ Rattlehead

+2, Had all of these , relic F75LTD2 , Dues -parts to costly, never had one , but a turn off, E-trac is nice , a lot of after market coils to choose from, i went to the CTX3030 just recently- so i can't review it yet, i really think the best option for you in that area, with CW fields is the F75ltd2, or if you have extra cash to burn the Dues, both you can swing faster than a E-trac or CTX in craw , make sure you get the 11dd & 5 inch coil with the F75ltd2 if you go with it, i hit 9 inch + dimes all day with that little coil, great for side walk strips, happy hunting, Earl
 
If I had 1500 to spend on a detector, I would get a White's V3i. There is so much useful information that it provides. It is a bit complicated at first, but once you understand what all of the knobs, buttons, levers, and switches do, it is awesome.
 
BottleCapKing said:
If I had 1500 to spend on a detector, I would get a White's V3i. There is so much useful information that it provides. It is a bit complicated at first, but once you understand what all of the knobs, buttons, levers, and switches do, it is awesome.
Click to expand...

Never owned a v3i but I've watched a ton of videos on it,,and that high definition colored screen is second to none,That alone makes me want one.Its just like a big screen tv in hd..lol..wouldn't bother me if I didn't find anything all day hunting with a v3i,just that screen alone is worth swinging it.
 
2nd hand etrac for coins, for relics the GM5 is as close to a Deus than any other, buy both within your budget.
 
ghound said:
2nd hand etrac for coins, for relics the GM5 is as close to a Deus than any other, buy both within your budget.
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Gm5 is only 2 tone,and can only disc out iron,and then it becomes one tone.Not very informative.In modern trash or even older foundations with bits of aluminum that machine wouldn't be very productive,really a waste of time digging scraps.
As far as getting close to the deus in performance,I don't put it at top shelf.From experience of owning two,it false high tone on bits of aluminum,and visual Id reads all non ferrous targets in the 90s after 5 inches.I just don't see it as a good machine for the money they cost.Its a modern day Tesoro.
A few will disagree with me and that's fine.And tests reveal no true real world hunting.Single frequency machines all hit fresh buried coins with ease,at extreme depths.Only a Minelab will hit a 100 year old buried coin in 100 year old packed soil,with ease at a depth of 10 inches or more.No single frequency machine will do that,not in undisturbed 100 year ground,no way.
All these Turk machines are really over rated.You take my f75ltd2 with boost.Teknetics 8500 and makro racer2 tried to mimic it with deep mode and failed horribly.The boost mode actually works on the f75ltd2,not so on the racer 2 or omega 8500.
Take it for what it's worth,but the f75ltd2 is still the best relic machine made,in America by Americans.
 
OP didn't say he was hunting in modern trash, he wanted a mainly 'coin and some relic' type machines.
An etrac is versed in coins and a GM5 in relics, both if bought correctly would be in the price range.
The GM5 only disc out small iron, that's why it high tones on everything else, it's a relic machine, it also doesn't read out in the 90's because it doesn't have a numerical readout, it's got a spectrum vdi.
I take it your minelab quote is just a joke? I've dug coins near a thousand years old in ancient pasture with my GM5, its also a favourite for plucking out Roman coins in iron infested sites and if you compare to Calabash Diggers latest video, it separates as good or better than the Deus in certain senarios, and i pluck 10" + coins with my single freq Nexus weekly lol


woodbutcher said:
Gm5 is only 2 tone,and can only disc out iron,and then it becomes one tone.Not very informative.In modern trash or even older foundations with bits of aluminum that machine wouldn't be very productive,really a waste of time digging scraps.
As far as getting close to the deus in performance,I don't put it at top shelf.From experience of owning two,it false high tone on bits of aluminum,and visual Id reads all non ferrous targets in the 90s after 5 inches.I just don't see it as a good machine for the money they cost.Its a modern day Tesoro.
A few will disagree with me and that's fine.And tests reveal no true real world hunting.Single frequency machines all hit fresh buried coins with ease,at extreme depths.Only a Minelab will hit a 100 year old buried coin in 100 year old packed soil,with ease at a depth of 10 inches or more.No single frequency machine will do that,not in undisturbed 100 year ground,no way.
All these Turk machines are really over rated.You take my f75ltd2 with boost.Teknetics 8500 and makro racer2 tried to mimic it with deep mode and failed horribly.The boost mode actually works on the f75ltd2,not so on the racer 2 or omega 8500.
Take it for what it's worth,but the f75ltd2 is still the best relic machine made,in America by Americans.
Click to expand...
 
I do miss the nice color screen of my V3i. Definitely the best display of any detector I've owned.

I owned an F75 for a short time as well back when they first came out, but didn't really give it a fair chance before trading it off. I thought it was a little too chatty for me back then but compared to how I run my current detectors it would probably seem pretty quiet in comparison. I know most relic hunters spoke very highly about that machine.

What is the difference between the regular F75 and the ltd2?
 
Rattlehead said:
I do miss the nice color screen of my V3i. Definitely the best display of any detector I've owned.

I owned an F75 for a short time as well back when they first came out, but didn't really give it a fair chance before trading it off. I thought it was a little too chatty for me back then but compared to how I run my current detectors it would probably seem pretty quiet in comparison. I know most relic hunters spoke very highly about that machine.

What is the difference between the regular F75 and the ltd2?
Click to expand...

The ltd2 has boost mode,cache mode and digital shield technology for emi handling...regular f75 don't have boost process or cache mode,and the newer ones have digital shield technology for emi handling.
 
ghound said:
OP didn't say he was hunting in modern trash, he wanted a mainly 'coin and some relic' type machines.
An etrac is versed in coins and a GM5 in relics, both if bought correctly would be in the price range.
The GM5 only disc out small iron, that's why it high tones on everything else, it's a relic machine, it also doesn't read out in the 90's because it doesn't have a numerical readout, it's got a spectrum vdi.
I take it your minelab quote is just a joke? I've dug coins near a thousand years old in ancient pasture with my GM5, its also a favourite for plucking out Roman coins in iron infested sites and if you compare to Calabash Diggers latest video, it separates as good or better than the Deus in certain senarios, and i pluck 10" + coins with my single freq Nexus weekly lol
Click to expand...

I meant the deus reads in the 90s for pretty much all good targets around 6 or more inches and false high tones on aluminum,,and I'm talking about undisturbed targets,not freshly buried.Im more selective in what I dig,and to me the fishers have more tell to what's down there than a deus.

And no,I wasn't joking about needing a FBS machine for coins buried for hundreds of years over 10 inches.Occasionally a single frequency might hit a 10 inch coin and get it,but it's not the normal..A multi frequency Minelab FBS machine will get that coin normally,and ID it for what it is..Somtimes I wonder if people realize just how deep 10 inches in the ground really is,let alone 12.

This is just my opinion,but I don't put any belief in these nail tests,it's a scenario that is complete fiction.When I get a machine,wether it be coin or relic labeled I run it through the fields,woods,parks,yards and curbstrips.Then I make my real world evaluation of what I think it's capable of.Anything else is fictional.
 
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With your budget...a early version F75 LTD for the speed and depth on relics, a Explorer of some sort for the silver coins...and you'll have money left over for coils and other accessories:yes:
 
woodbutcher said:
And no,I wasn't joking about needing a FBS machine for coins buried for hundreds of years over 10 inches.Occasionally a single frequency might hit a 10 inch coin and get it,but it's not the normal..A multi frequency Minelab FBS machine will get that coin normally,and ID it for what it is..Somtimes I wonder if people realize just how deep 10 inches in the ground really is,let alone 12.
Click to expand...

LOL seriously!
 
Well NorthGaDigger, it sounds like you've been involved in this Sport for a while, so you know the basics, but since you asked....

I am putting myself in your shoes...Thinking...its a big decision since Time is Short and this is a Big Planet...I guess I would read as many posts I could from hunters in your area, that are in pursuit of YOUR primary target interest....then pattern my gear and style after the Super Successful top 1% ones? No Time to evaluate gear and reinvent the wheel right?

I'd call and talk to some of our Sponsors, stating my situation,location,target preference and spend, and have indepth conversations regarding same...

IE; I've never hunted the black volcanic sand beaches of Hawaii, but I'm pretty sure my current gear is not optimal for that...so yeah, follow the other hunters that produce in your area and pattern their gear/style?..It really helps narrow it down...
Mud
 
My advice.

Wait.

Some new releases are supposed to come,,,sooner or later.

Some releases,,,could make other detectors and or coils cheaper too on the used market.
 
Heck, you might want to wait even longer as there will be even more releases that will be better than the ones that might come next... or wait even more than that. You could wait forever for the perfect detector that will never come...

I see the same thing with photography equipment, drones, automobiles and the list is endless. Instead of waiting, you might even enjoy yourself with the obsolete instruments available today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Grasp the moment...

Just sayin'...
 
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