So how are detectors to be racked and stacked??
Is CTX better than Etrac??? Yes
How much better??
You see folks read a lot of things about a lot of different detectors.
An example,,,,a person has a site small,,all to themselves.
They can hunt at will,,when they want,,,without the fear of anyone else a hunting,,hunt the site till the cows come home.
Could a person take an Etrac and put a real whooping on it,,,hunting it countless times spending many hours and then stop detecting. And then let their buddy in with a CTX and make some finds.
How many finds would the CTX user make??? Probably few.
Why???
Remember the Etrac runner kept on hunting the site,,hunting from all angles,,many different days and hours.
But what if the person would have only hunted twice using Etrac.
Then the CTX user likely would make more finds when hunted.
The real difference with CTX and Etrac,,,,,and this same difference can be applied when comparing other detectors as well.
TIME efficiency a detector possesses.
How effecient,,and how fast can the detector be run over square footage of ground.
How forgiving is the detector when it comes to detecting targets that are being crippled with nuasiance other targets,,and iron and or nails.
Efficiency rate of IDing a worthy target here plays into the equation,,,,cause digging junk waste time.
Now,,worthy target depths here can enter into equation,,,and if not deeper,,,more detector models start creeping in for comparison.
EMI handling and mitigation can play a part. We as users may never know really just much negatively the emi is affecting our detector's depth.
When a person doesn't find a deeper target,,,is it EMI or the fact you never swept a deeper worthy target.
Knowing how to operate detector,,and make it optimally perform for the site at hand can have its advantages.
Speed,,,time management all in all,,,play a huge part in overall success.
A coil must be moving to find a worthy target.
Even how good and fast a person is at properly retrieving a target in the long run contributes to the big pic of success.
A lot of folks try and measure a detector by looking at it from the perspective of their site(s),,,sites they likely have pounded.
Personally I don't think many sites pounded by very proficient detectorists will give up that many finds,,,,when hunted later,,,especially if the site(s) were hunted with more modern detectors.
Bigger areas,,where folks congregated,,harder to hunt these sites as hard,,too many square inches involved,,and if public area,,,a person likely to have some competition.
Is it possible for a find to be found later after a person had even swept their coil over,,,even a few days before,,,even the same model detector,,,with even the same settings??
I say yes.
But the cause for the person initially missing the target could be a lot of things.
Even their cell phone ringing,,,ground shifting,,,someone actually dug a junk target off the top of earlier. FBS type units don't prefer loose ground, so a person detecting in a public or private place could dig a shallower target,,,and disturb the ground,,,this could take a few weeks,,even a few years for a FBS runner to detect say a deeper coin when swung over.
Also,,beleive it or not,,,some folks even FBS runners,,they dig a coin,,get excited,,fail to check hole,,and low and behold another coin or 2 exists,,,and these coins live to fight another day.
Detectors manufacturers are lucky in a sense.
The multiple variables involved with metal detecting,,,hard at times to place all the blame on the detector for failure.
Too many other things,,,including the operator.
Folks,,should only be worried about satisfying themselves.
Folks can hunt the way they want,,,at the speed they want,,and dig what they want, and use which detector they want or can afford.
Bottom line is a gold coin or a gold ring or a silver coin or a Civil War relic or a pull tab doesn't care what detector finds it.
The find will be just a worthy no matter which detector is used to discover.
I have used some cheaper detectors.
They will find things too.
The might Ace 250 sure has found its fair share around the world and in the USA.
Folks here should also be mindful,,,gold rings if not for them,,,not as many older copper and silver coins would have been found,,,especially in parks,and other public places.
Just imagine if no gold,,who in the world would be digging lower conductive tabs.
And just how much masking does a 2" deep tab cause down under.
Gold ring hunters are really a FBS unit runners friend here. The more of the tabs and rings gotten out of the way,,,,percentages for deeper coin discovery goes up.
Imagine,,,having a Etrac or CTX in 1964,,, hunting old homes and parks, etc.
No aluminum to speak of, no tabs, no clad ,,,,FBS runners would have been able to rock and roll,,,,and dig deep bring home the serious coinage.
I was talking to a gent,,he posts here,,Jack Flynn,,,imagine this.
In 1940, if a person could have detected in say Philadelphia and other big cities,, having free reign to detect,,and owning a mine lab Etrac at the time. Just in face value,,how much loot would you have dug in day???
How much did the common laborer make then???
You would have been living high on the hog as a detectorist no doubt.