Minelab e-trac for Wet Sand

The etrac is great on the wetsand, just don't drop it in the water...

As far as small gold, no beach detectors are great on small gold and the etrac is just as good as the best at finding it on the wetsand.

jjm861 said:

Hello Friends,

I am thinking of adding an e-trac for my wet sand hunting here in So. Cal. Again, no surf detecting, just wet sand only. Any of you have experience with the e-trac on the beaches? I have read a couple of threads that indicated that e-trac is not the best for small gold? Thoughts?

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Multi-frequency machines, like the E-trac, are the only machines that can discriminate unwanted targets -AND- effectively compensate for mineralized ground and conductive salt without losing depth or sensitivity. With my Explorers (same FBS tech as the Etrac) I found gold earing backs that were less than 0.5 grams. With the FBS2/tech (CTX) I've found even smaller.

Yes there is a limitation to finding thin, precious metal chains. But you have to consider all the variables. In CA, you miles of beach to cover. There may be one single frequency machine that finds a hair-thinner gold chain, but the con is the machine won't work in the wet sand. You may use a PI machine to find a thin gold chain, but the con is you can't discriminate unwanted targets so you spend countless hours digging junk. And how much does a thin gold chain weigh...2-3g? If it was 10k, at melt, you're only talking about $30-45 value.

Go for the machine that gives you the best overall advantage. Then, when you find enough goodies to buy a second machine, you can look for one that gives you a slight advantage when hunting that less common area. IMO, E-trac is top performer!

Also, pick up Gary Drayton's beach hunting book. You'll find some great tips on how to tune it to find the gold you're looking for!

adambomb and daviDs gave excellent answers so far. I would agree their great on wet-salt-sand (assuming your minerals aren't gunpowder-grey or black).

As for ability to get "tinsel thin chains" (earing studs, etc....) : Well there is NO regular coin-machine that can get those. You'd have to switch to a pulse machine to get that. But then you'll have no ability to knock out hairpins, staples, nails, etc.....