Big Boys Hobbies

Which detector is best separator/unmasker in and near iron?

The best way to tell is by using different detectors ... and different search coils, especially smaller-size coils .... in some very challenging Iron contaminated environments.

For ME, having compared a lot of detectors in dense Iron debris environments, some of the better (Best is really the term) units are:

Nokta FORS CoRe w/ small 'OOR']/i] coil
Nokta FORS Relic w/5" DD coil
Makro Racer w/'OOR']/i] coil
Makro Racer 2 w/5" DD or 'OOR' coil.

There are others that are very good but in really tough comparisons these are my favorite producers.

Monte
 
I didn't watch the video, but I'll vote for the E-Trac of course. I find silvers with nails fused to them, and have the mercs with the ferrous stain on them to prove it. I pull 5 nails out of the hole, and the silver is heard on every sweep after I pull one nail and the next until it is found at the bottom of the hole. I pull merc/1943 wheatie spill, which is the ultimate test of finding silver among ferrous.

As another thread suggested, the secret sauce is response long, go very slow, and keep the FE line way open. The TID will bounce on the screen, but you will hear the silver in the phones. It has a slightly different sound than an iron nail false, but of course you will dig some of these. It does some sort of averaging in this mode, is the way I like to put it, which is why it works.

I've never used the Legend, but I have used the D II and the Nox, and I believe the E-Trac (and probably other FBS machines) will out silver these, in the hands of a skilled user. And I am talking against my interests here, but just trying to be helpful. Let others believe those other machines are better. More silvers for me.

And, as an aside, yes I am one of those who believes VLF has hit a wall. I don't know the FCC rules, but the real rule is mineralization. Jam a VLF signal 50 feet down, and you will still be limited to a few inches due to mineralization at most sites. That is the problem, IMHO, with that technology, and nothing can fix that other than software tricks, and perhaps one of these machines will get it right and grab an inch or two with a clever algorithm. But, the real future is ultrasound/sonar or GPR IMHO, and yes, there will come a time when you can read the date off of a coin; but I don't suspect consumer level technology will be doing this in my lifetime. Next generation, tho, has a lot to look forward to.
 
Agreed Randy.

I think all this hyped "unmasking" is little more than the new detectors coming with the adjustments made that can be done manually if you know what to do. I'd put my E-Trac up against any of the new machines for cherry picking silver in iron.

That said, for those who don't know what to adjust, these new machines are nice to have.
 
I agree also on the Etrac,any FBs for that matter. These newer machines are good,but it’s more marketing hype than actual finds in the last 5 years. Must be hundreds of videos on the nox,Legend and Deus 2 performing synthetic tests and talking about opinion than actual in field use and finds videos..Not so with the Etrac,you look that machine up on YouTube and you’ll see nothing but thousands of videos of actual in field live hunts and silvers galore being found and filmed..The fluff of these controlled marketing test results don’t equal finds..
 
I have lots more time using an Explorer SE than my Etrac, but I totally agree that FBS does weed out iron tones from silver the best. It is all in the ear.
 
I've always done pretty well with my Etrac and CTX in iron. Just have to keep the swing speed slow and listen closely. Having said that, I was still able to pick out even more good targets at heavily hunted sites when I got my Nox 800. The majority were coins on edge. I believe these SMF machines running higher frequency sets definitely have an advantage on small targets and coins on edge.
 
Rattlehead said:
I've always done pretty well with my Etrac and CTX in iron. Just have to keep the swing speed slow and listen closely. Having said that, I was still able to pick out even more good targets at heavily hunted sites when I got my Nox 800. The majority were coins on edge. I believe these SMF machines running higher frequency sets definitely have an advantage on small targets and coins on edge.
Click to expand...

Excellent post.


If a person hunts in areas with plenty of manmade iron in low natural iron mineralization, is looking mostly for deep silver coins and can or is still willing to swing an Etrac or CTX 3030....fine.

If a person is after a wide range of targets with a wide range of sizes and conductivities and hunts in lots of manmade iron and in higher iron mineralization, a more recently released SMF like the Equinox, Deus 2 and Legend may be a better choice.
 
woodbutcher said:
I agree also on the Etrac,any FBs for that matter. These newer machines are good,but it’s more marketing hype than actual finds in the last 5 years. Must be hundreds of videos on the nox,Legend and Deus 2 performing synthetic tests and talking about opinion than actual in field use and finds videos..Not so with the Etrac,you look that machine up on YouTube and you’ll see nothing but thousands of videos of actual in field live hunts and silvers galore being found and filmed..The fluff of these controlled marketing test results don’t equal finds..
Click to expand...

Woody.
Yeah thousands of videos with Etrac. Yeah
Let’s be realistic.
Fbs was really the only game in town for a long long time.
Wonder if when explorer was released. It was never released and no other fbs models released. Instead the Deus 2 was released when explorer was released.
What likely would we likely have seen?

Yeah sites got busted. With fbs. Even before Eqx and Deus 2.
Look notice even the folks going in behind Etrac with CTX found what and how much? Myself very little.

So the timeline of releases a big factor to consider.
Will there ever be as many silver coins found with Deus 2 in USA as was found with explorers and Etrac? I doubt it.

And if and when Minelab releases another model.
Likely the same will happen with it.

Hunting inland unlike the beach. No depositors of silver coins and coins don’t rear offspring. When they are (dug) they are gone forever. Same for CW relics.
Gent posted on Danksowki forum some time back. He found milk crates full of CW bullets. Think he sold them. He thought he could waltz back out and fill up his crates again. He found out after some time it wouldn’t gonna happen. At least it was gonna take a whole lot more time to do.

Tell folks here something else too.
The silvers found in parks with fbs. They have someone to thank. Who? The folks who were in the parks over the years detecting digging all the nonferrous maskers and perhaps even a few ferrous maskers using VLF detectors with more bs ID capabilities and less depth capabilities. We’ll never know the actual number of maskers dug. But I’ll bet if we did we would be surprised. Those gold ring seekers in parks helped the deeper silver coin hunters. No doubt.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Rattlehead said:
I've always done pretty well with my Etrac and CTX in iron. Just have to keep the swing speed slow and listen closely. Having said that, I was still able to pick out even more good targets at heavily hunted sites when I got my Nox 800. The majority were coins on edge. I believe these SMF machines running higher frequency sets definitely have an advantage on small targets and coins on edge.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I would think a coin on edge would give a smaller target response.
 
If I were Minelab. Would would I do.
Make fbs put in small case weather proof.
Little screen with ferrous number on the left, conductive number on the right.
Light weight . EST 3.4 lbs. with li pro battery. Battery would need to be little bigger due to freq used with fbs to give good run time.
Put it on market for $600-650. With blue tooth headphones.
Watch how many sell in USA.
Gazillions!!
Maybe add speed settings (adjustable on unit)


Call it Etrac Lite. Or Etrac 2.

Imo FBS units were more popular in USA vs other countries due to our coinage being more higher conductive on average.

Crazy sounding ain’t it.
Minelab could remake their line somewhat- just make lighter and cheaper and sell boatloads.

Good simple fbs would be grand detector for beginner too. Those conductive numbers just so easy to interpret.

So there you go Minelab.
If done..
We could be seeing Etrac 2 vs Deus 2 videos. Lol. And who knows maybe even Legend 2.
 
tnsharpshooter said:
If I were Minelab. Would would I do.
Make fbs put in small case weather proof.
Little screen with ferrous number on the left, conductive number on the right.
Light weight . EST 3.4 lbs. with li pro battery. Battery would need to be little bigger due to freq used with fbs to give good run time.
Put it on market for $600-650. With blue tooth headphones.
Watch how many sell in USA.
Gazillions!!
Maybe add speed settings (adjustable on unit)


Call it Etrac Lite. Or Etrac 2.

Imo FBS units were more popular in USA vs other countries due to our coinage being more higher conductive on average.

Crazy sounding ain’t it.
Minelab could remake their line somewhat- just make lighter and cheaper and sell boatloads.

Good simple fbs would be grand detector for beginner too. Those conductive numbers just so easy to interpret.

So there you go Minelab.
If done..
We could be seeing Etrac 2 vs Deus 2 videos. Lol. And who knows maybe even Legend 2.
Click to expand...

Line me up for one tnsharpshooter LOL.

Sounds like a killer machine to me. I just never understood why Minelab took away the dual FE/CO VDI. It was their ace in the hole in my opinion. That, and that silver warble which I believe was a side effect to having multitone that was just right. CTX didn't quite hit the tone bins right for me. Loved everything about the CTX but the tones, and I believe they compressed the FE if I remember right, thus changing the usefulness of the FE on very deep targets.
 
Forgot to say. Add a 25 kHz single freq option to Etrac lite. Where use of this freq is very good in the iron. Don’t Just throw it on there for fluff. This way the gold hunters even the ones looking for smaller gold have capabilities.
Might put a hurting on Garrett AT series too. Others too.

I wouldn’t mind testing such a unit. Would be fun.

Would be like a cross between Etrac and Deus 1 with some higher freq used.
Might be hard on Xp. With their ORX and Deus 1 sales.

Guess I had better shut up for now.
 
tnsharpshooter said:
Woody.
Yeah thousands of videos with Etrac. Yeah
Let’s be realistic.
Fbs was really the only game in town for a long long time.
Wonder if when explorer was released. It was never released and no other fbs models released. Instead the Deus 2 was released when explorer was released.
What likely would we likely have seen?

Yeah sites got busted. With fbs. Even before Eqx and Deus 2.
Look notice even the folks going in behind Etrac with CTX found what and how much? Myself very little.

So the timeline of releases a big factor to consider.
Will there ever be as many silver coins found with Deus 2 in USA as was found with explorers and Etrac? I doubt it.

And if and when Minelab releases another model.
Likely the same will happen with it.

Hunting inland unlike the beach. No depositors of silver coins and coins don’t rear offspring. When they are (dug) they are gone forever. Same for CW relics.
Gent posted on Danksowki forum some time back. He found milk crates full of CW bullets. Think he sold them. He thought he could waltz back out and fill up his crates again. He found out after some time it wouldn’t gonna happen. At least it was gonna take a whole lot more time to do.

Tell folks here something else too.
The silvers found in parks with fbs. They have someone to thank. Who? The folks who were in the parks over the years detecting digging all the nonferrous maskers and perhaps even a few ferrous maskers using VLF detectors with more bs ID capabilities and less depth capabilities. We’ll never know the actual number of maskers dug. But I’ll bet if we did we would be surprised. Those gold ring seekers in parks helped the deeper silver coin hunters. No doubt.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

TN, I agree with everything you said. And from everything you said a coinhunter would be crazy to give up a Etrac for a Deus 2,equinox or legend for performance reasons..Reason why? Like you said,there’s not much left in the form of old coins in public places,the few silvers or even occasions large cent a Deus 2 ,equinox or legend might get isn’t worth the investment or the learning curve .. Definitely a Lose/Lose situation
 
woodbutcher said:
a coinhunter would be crazy to give up a Etrac for a Deus 2,equinox or legend for performance reasons..Reason why? Like you said,there’s not much left in the form of old coins in public places,the few silvers or even occasions large cent a Deus 2 ,equinox or legend might get isn’t worth the investment or the learning curve .. Definitely a Lose/Lose situation
Click to expand...

Just call me crazy. :lol: :cool3:
 
Rattlehead said:
Just call me crazy. :lol: :cool3:
Click to expand...

Lol.. yea me too . But I was really agreeing with what TN was saying. . He's right and even tho I agree with him I haven't followed my own train of thought. But things are definitely dried up around here,no matter what machine I use. Gonna hafto hit some fields,they always cough something up halfway decent
 
woodbutcher said:
TN, I agree with everything you said. And from everything you said a coinhunter would be crazy to give up a Etrac for a Deus 2,equinox or legend for performance reasons..Reason why? Like you said,there’s not much left in the form of old coins in public places,the few silvers or even occasions large cent a Deus 2 ,equinox or legend might get isn’t worth the investment or the learning curve .. Definitely a Lose/Lose situation
Click to expand...

Said it before, here it goes again, a coin hunter would be crazy to use an Etrac or CTX 3030 instead of a Deus 2, Legend or Equinox where I hunt…….

I ain’t crazy.
 
Woody you are assuming Etrac will find all say silver coins a deus 2 would find.
How do you know.
How long did you have your Deus 2?

I am not going to say one way or the other. I will say there is high chance a Deus 2 can be used and locate some silver coins whereas a Etrac would be more awkward settings use) lo locate some of the same coins.
Yeah using long or smooth tones on Etrac doesn’t give me a great feeling when using.
Surely the freq andntech used on a Etrac is not necessarily a catch all. Deus 2 offers more configs freq wise. And I am not inferring Deus 2 even has all the necessary freq configs to find all silver coins.
 
tnsharpshooter said:
Woody you are assuming Etrac will find all say silver coins a deus 2 would find.
How do you know.
How long did you have your Deus 2?

I am not going to say one way or the other. I will say there is high chance a Deus 2 can be used and locate some silver coins whereas a Etrac would be more awkward settings use) lo locate some of the same coins.
Yeah using long or smooth tones on Etrac doesn’t give me a great feeling when using.
Surely the freq andntech used on a Etrac is not necessarily a catch all. Deus 2 offers more configs freq wise. And I am not inferring Deus 2 even has all the necessary freq configs to find all silver coins.
Click to expand...

I only agreed with you,I never insinuated anything. As for my Deus 2, I had it long enough to know when I took it to park after park and came up just as empty as any other machine it didn't serve a purpose..Not blaming the Deus 2 for bad performance,,I'm saying the parks are wore out ...Your mileage might differ
 
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