• Forum server maintanace tonight.
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Not feeling Etrac love

Emwonk

Full Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2011
Messages
211
Location
St. Louis county
I've never bonded with my etrac. I don't like the complications of setting it and I find the pinball-machine soundtrack annoying. The weight is noticeable too.

Has anyone found a machine they like better than etrac? Does my etrac have enough value to make it worth a trade in? It's out of warranty but working and probably has less than 50 hours of use on it.

Thanks
 
I have to agree, I jumped on the Etrac bandwagon years ago. It’s not a bad machine, It just hasn’t the depth capabilities of my old Explorer. I sill own it, but...
 
If you’re looking for weight reduction it’s the Deus all day...
 
Wonk,
I understand your dilemma. I used an E-Trac or Explorer for years. Found a lot of stuff but I agree your ears have to be in tune with the sound of the machine. Mine were. The weight is on the high side as well. A few months ago I traded in two of my older machines for an Equinox 600. All I can say is wow! I am pulling good stuff out of areas I pounded with my E-trac and at suprising depth. Sold my E-Trac and bought another Nox. I found hundreds of old coins with my E-Trac but the Nox is a whole different animal. My two cents.
 
If you’re looking for weight reduction it’s the Deus all day...

I agree. I have had a ton of units and I have not had any better machine than the XP metal detectors. The Deus or ORX would fit your bill. Both are light weight, deep and fast.
 
I've never bonded with my etrac. I don't like the complications of setting it and I find the pinball-machine soundtrack annoying. The weight is noticeable too.

Has anyone found a machine they like better than etrac? Does my etrac have enough value to make it worth a trade in? It's out of warranty but working and probably has less than 50 hours of use on it.

Thanks

Etrac is one of the easiet to setup once you understand the ID system.
And it don’t have to be setup every time you use it.
Very good silver and copper machine.
 
Love the etrac, and I never had issues with settings, in fact, I basically turned it on and just hunted everytime time out. Most times I didn't even noise cancel unless EMI was an issue, or iron rich areas. Went with a stock program I got online and modified it for my area/spots. I now use the explorer SE and AT gold. Both work wonders for me and my style of hunting. I do very well with both machines, but in the end, location is very important. If your going out with the etrac and not finding deep coins, either your doing something completely wrong or there just isn't many deep coins left. To each there own, you need to figure out what works best for you and your hunting locations, good luck and happy hunting!
 
One thing we all HAVE to understand is that not everyone is the same. Seems pretty obvious,right? Because the only frame of reference we ever have is ourselves, it’s easy to assume everyone is like us, sometimes to a large degree. It isn’t that way. I know of 2 or 3 people who I consider good friends who haven’t got ANY interest in “futzing” with settings...they just want to hunt. Initial setup is even out of their league...it’s not that they’re dumb, they just don’t like the minutia of configuring a machine....even once. My biggest advice I could offer to anyone is to get to know the menus, where everything is, learn what it does and why you should adjust something, if any adjustment is needed.
I was quite perplexed by my Explorer2 when I got it, I came from a single tone machine. That was interesting! But after many hours of using it and seeing what was going on it became second nature to know what was needed....and the sounds became second nature a well.
I can now(after 100+ hours on it) wholeheartedly recommend getting an Equinox. I know very little about the Deus but that’s another possibility. I won’t tell you how to run it or where to use it...I’ll just say that because of the ability to run 2 tones(one “good” one “bad”) the Equinox can be very easy to understand....immediately. Notice I said CAN be...if you’re open to it and YOUR senses are ready to receive the information.
The etrac and Explorers can be a little confusing(OK let’s face it...ALOT confusing) if you don’t spend time with them and build on what you already have learned. They can also be the best coin hunting machine you’ll ever use. But as has been stated, YOU the operator, have to mesh with the machine over a reasonable amount of time, otherwise everything just becomes frustrating, especially when you’re watching others tow home good finds.
If you’re done with the etrac, I’d say go to the Equinox 800. Just my 2c.
 
FWIW, I hated the E-Trac when I first got it. But I stuck with it, and am glad I did, as it found over 1100 silver coins in a span of 4 years. I had a competing high end machine at the time, and did side to side comparisons, and there is no way (IMHO), that the competing machine would have done nearly that well.

Try hunting in auto until you learn the tones. It should run pretty quiet, and most tones will be legitimate targets. Dig every good signal so you will learn tone to target.

Once comfortable, start jacking up the manual. You will usually need to run in manual to find the good stuff (depending on local conditions).

Good luck. It is a good machine. Give it a chance.
 
Has anyone found a machine they like better than etrac?


Yep! The CTX3030! :D But if you’re not meshing with the Etrac that probably wouldn’t be a good choice for you either since they’re a lot alike. I’d say try the Equinox. It’s lightweight, fast, deep, fairly easy to use and the tones can be set up in bins if you don’t care for 50 tones. I personally LOVE the flutey sounds of the Etrac & CTX. To each his own.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks

I appreciate all the replies.

I've found numerous coins with the etrac but it's not been the miracle machine for me that it has for some people.

I just realized I've had it for 8 years now (edit - 6 years since warranty replacment) and I definitely haven't gotten the enjoyment of use out of it I have with other machines. Maybe more practice. I just wish it wasn't so complicated to set up.
 
Last edited:
Going with Equinox

I've decided to give an Equinox 800 a try.

It looks light weight and I like the wireless headphones.
 
Last edited:
One thing we all HAVE to understand is that not everyone is the same. Seems pretty obvious,right? Because the only frame of reference we ever have is ourselves, it’s easy to assume everyone is like us, sometimes to a large degree. It isn’t that way. I know of 2 or 3 people who I consider good friends who haven’t got ANY interest in “futzing” with settings...they just want to hunt. Initial setup is even out of their league...it’s not that they’re dumb, they just don’t like the minutia of configuring a machine....even once. My biggest advice I could offer to anyone is to get to know the menus, where everything is, learn what it does and why you should adjust something, if any adjustment is needed.
I was quite perplexed by my Explorer2 when I got it, I came from a single tone machine. That was interesting! But after many hours of using it and seeing what was going on it became second nature to know what was needed....and the sounds became second nature a well.
I can now(after 100+ hours on it) wholeheartedly recommend getting an Equinox. I know very little about the Deus but that’s another possibility. I won’t tell you how to run it or where to use it...I’ll just say that because of the ability to run 2 tones(one “good” one “bad”) the Equinox can be very easy to understand....immediately. Notice I said CAN be...if you’re open to it and YOUR senses are ready to receive the information.
The etrac and Explorers can be a little confusing(OK let’s face it...ALOT confusing) if you don’t spend time with them and build on what you already have learned. They can also be the best coin hunting machine you’ll ever use. But as has been stated, YOU the operator, have to mesh with the machine over a reasonable amount of time, otherwise everything just becomes frustrating, especially when you’re watching others tow home good finds.
If you’re done with the etrac, I’d say go to the Equinox 800. Just my 2c.

totally agree. When I first got my 800 in March 2018, I wanted to try everything ASAP. Like a kid in a candy store with money in my pocket.

But what happened was I got too confused trying to learn so much at one time. I would have been better off just putting in the hours on the standard preset modes. After all the Minelab engineers are not dummies.

But eventually I learned what everything meant and under what circumstances I should use this or that setting. Now I feel very confident in my abilities to adjust the machine to the area and type of hunting. But it took me almost all of 2018 to get to this point.
 
I'm in the same boat with the etrac. I bought one last year brand new and I just can't click with it. I go out with my Teknetics Gamma and I always seem to find something good. When I hunt with the etrac I ended up with a sore elbow and headache from the flutey multi tones. It's been sitting in the box ever since. I might throw it on eBay.
 
Back
Top Bottom