detectorben
Elite Member
Well I took the 800 out for its maiden voyage today. Spent a little time in my test garden and then headed out to a late 1800's park.
Test garden thoughts. I will say that my test garden in my yard seems to be fairly tough dirt and I do see a little EMI likely from underground power lines. I ran 800 stock settings and used park 1 and park 2 programs. The only adjustments I made were trying raising and lowering sensitivity and the reactivity or recovery speed. I found best results at 4 reactivity and 22 sensitivity. My coins are all 6 inch or less except for 1 morgan half at 8 inches. Due to my past detectors struggling with depth here I did not bury anything really deep. Overall the 800 hit everything pretty solid sound wise but the VDI was bouncing a little. My AT pro struggled with most coins in my garden. The Etrac hits everything with a pretty solid sound and FE CO numbers. I would say the numbers are slightly more stable in the garden on the Etrac but otherwise they are about the same
Now a little info on the hunting location. The park I hunted is a very popular spot for detectorists and has been pounded since the 70's. I have been hunting it for 1 year with the AT Pro with 5X8 coil stock coil and nel storm 13x14 inch coil. Then the last 2 years with Etrac stock coil and coiltek 6 inch coil. I have found about 20 silvers there over the last 3 years most of them with Etrac. Today I used the 800 in most of the usual spots I have hit many times with the other 2 detectors. I used park 2 program for most of the day as it seemed to give slightly better sound and VDI in my test garden. I ran speed or reactivity of 3 or 4 most of the day. Sensitivity was around 23 most of the time. The rest of the settings were left alone. The deepest find was a clad quarter at 8 inches. It had a good sound but the VDI was bouncing between 26-30. My best find was a 2 cent trade token that was about 6 inches. It hit a solid 18 VDI and good mid tone. I probably would not have dug that on the Etrac as it would have fallen around zinc penny signal. I dug a ton of bottle caps and screw caps as they came in pretty solid 21 to 24 which is right in the coin range. I did not see too many clues they were caps other than slightly less stable VDI on some of them. Most had sound and VDI numbers exactly like a copper penny. I did not find one dime which I found a little strange. I also dug almost every solid 13 VDI target I found along with a few 14 and 15 VDI and every single time it was a pull tab or square tab. I did not dig a single nickel. I did not dig a lot of iffy signals as I wanted to see what the solid signals came it at before I started guessing on iffy VDI and sound targets.
Obviously I have a lot to learn with this machine as far as settings and adjustments and just getting used to sounds. My initial thoughts are that my Etrac is going to be more accurate on ID of targets using combo of sound and FE CO numbers but only time will tell for sure. I just know that I rarely dig more than 1 or 2 bottle caps when using the Etrac and generally only when I am chasing iffy signals. Depth wise they seem to be pretty close so far but I will need to dig some more deep signals before I can say for sure. The deepest coin I have every dug with my Etrac was a 10inch mercury dime. The recovery speed and separation does seem to be better with the 800 stock coil vs stock coil with Etrac. I will say that the Etrac with the 6inch coiltek coil will hang with the 800 in seperation but may suffer on depth slightly.
I like the feel of swinging the 800. I do agree with others that it is slightly nose heavy. I hunted for about 8 hours and did not have any should pain just a slight fatigue in my wrist. This was my first hunt of 2018 so that could be part of the reason as well. The machine feels solid and is easy to use overall.
So I would say the 800 is going to be a deep versatile machine so I am glad I purchased it. Right now the Etrac would still be my go to machine for coin shooting in many settings but we will see if time changes that.
Feel free to ask any questions you might have about my experience and I would be glad to give my honest input and answers.
EDIT: I forgot to add that the depth meter was not very accurate at all but that is not a surprise. most of them aren't and I don't pay much attention to them anyway. The pin pointing was also a little tricky. I missed a lot of targets so I will have to figure that out. It did not seem to work how I am used to pin pointing so I will have to try and work on that. I love the wireless headphones they were comfortable and easy to pair. The sound was good as well.
Test garden thoughts. I will say that my test garden in my yard seems to be fairly tough dirt and I do see a little EMI likely from underground power lines. I ran 800 stock settings and used park 1 and park 2 programs. The only adjustments I made were trying raising and lowering sensitivity and the reactivity or recovery speed. I found best results at 4 reactivity and 22 sensitivity. My coins are all 6 inch or less except for 1 morgan half at 8 inches. Due to my past detectors struggling with depth here I did not bury anything really deep. Overall the 800 hit everything pretty solid sound wise but the VDI was bouncing a little. My AT pro struggled with most coins in my garden. The Etrac hits everything with a pretty solid sound and FE CO numbers. I would say the numbers are slightly more stable in the garden on the Etrac but otherwise they are about the same
Now a little info on the hunting location. The park I hunted is a very popular spot for detectorists and has been pounded since the 70's. I have been hunting it for 1 year with the AT Pro with 5X8 coil stock coil and nel storm 13x14 inch coil. Then the last 2 years with Etrac stock coil and coiltek 6 inch coil. I have found about 20 silvers there over the last 3 years most of them with Etrac. Today I used the 800 in most of the usual spots I have hit many times with the other 2 detectors. I used park 2 program for most of the day as it seemed to give slightly better sound and VDI in my test garden. I ran speed or reactivity of 3 or 4 most of the day. Sensitivity was around 23 most of the time. The rest of the settings were left alone. The deepest find was a clad quarter at 8 inches. It had a good sound but the VDI was bouncing between 26-30. My best find was a 2 cent trade token that was about 6 inches. It hit a solid 18 VDI and good mid tone. I probably would not have dug that on the Etrac as it would have fallen around zinc penny signal. I dug a ton of bottle caps and screw caps as they came in pretty solid 21 to 24 which is right in the coin range. I did not see too many clues they were caps other than slightly less stable VDI on some of them. Most had sound and VDI numbers exactly like a copper penny. I did not find one dime which I found a little strange. I also dug almost every solid 13 VDI target I found along with a few 14 and 15 VDI and every single time it was a pull tab or square tab. I did not dig a single nickel. I did not dig a lot of iffy signals as I wanted to see what the solid signals came it at before I started guessing on iffy VDI and sound targets.
Obviously I have a lot to learn with this machine as far as settings and adjustments and just getting used to sounds. My initial thoughts are that my Etrac is going to be more accurate on ID of targets using combo of sound and FE CO numbers but only time will tell for sure. I just know that I rarely dig more than 1 or 2 bottle caps when using the Etrac and generally only when I am chasing iffy signals. Depth wise they seem to be pretty close so far but I will need to dig some more deep signals before I can say for sure. The deepest coin I have every dug with my Etrac was a 10inch mercury dime. The recovery speed and separation does seem to be better with the 800 stock coil vs stock coil with Etrac. I will say that the Etrac with the 6inch coiltek coil will hang with the 800 in seperation but may suffer on depth slightly.
I like the feel of swinging the 800. I do agree with others that it is slightly nose heavy. I hunted for about 8 hours and did not have any should pain just a slight fatigue in my wrist. This was my first hunt of 2018 so that could be part of the reason as well. The machine feels solid and is easy to use overall.
So I would say the 800 is going to be a deep versatile machine so I am glad I purchased it. Right now the Etrac would still be my go to machine for coin shooting in many settings but we will see if time changes that.
Feel free to ask any questions you might have about my experience and I would be glad to give my honest input and answers.
EDIT: I forgot to add that the depth meter was not very accurate at all but that is not a surprise. most of them aren't and I don't pay much attention to them anyway. The pin pointing was also a little tricky. I missed a lot of targets so I will have to figure that out. It did not seem to work how I am used to pin pointing so I will have to try and work on that. I love the wireless headphones they were comfortable and easy to pair. The sound was good as well.
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