Cumbrian Fox
New member
Hi folks I am living born and bred in the UK and would firstly like to thank you for allowing me to join this great forum. I have been looking in on here for sometime now and must admit that this forums wealth of knowledge and experience on the Etrac helped me make my mind up about purchasing that particular model. So with that in mind I thought it was time to join up and post my thoughts and experiences from now and future hunts I have with this machine in the UK.
After much deliberation and trawling through videos and reports on the Etrac I decided to part with my dosh and buy a one. After contacting Joan Allan the purchase was made and I cannot praise them enough for the speed in which the machine landed up on the door step. I spent the next day and night reading and then reading again the supplied manual. I noticed in a lot of comments about this machine that the manual can be a little hard to understand, but in my view I found it very informative and easy to follow. I unpacked the machine and put it together as the manual explained and within 5 minutes it was ready. All I needed to do now was charge the supplied battery pack which was recommended to be 18 hours for a full charge. So again it was back to reading and searching the net for more advice. As soon as the pack was charged in it went. I turned the machine on and established contact with the settings. I found the layout and set up of the Etrac a very easy task indeed and not half as daunting as I thought it was going to be.
Now having been an avid fan/user of the XP Goldmax, which had found me some fantastic things over the last 12 months I.E Chinese coin hoard(largest in Britain) and a gold bronze age ring (1st for our area) I bought the Etrac more for the beaches in our area as the gold price has shot up to over $1800 an ounce and the Goldmax sucks on the beach. I want to find rings which I can sell as I never part with anything I find from the fields, Unless the treasure act makes me part with it that is. Back to the Etrac, after placing the battery into the machine I noticed after a few practice swings that the Etrac is a far heavier machine than the goldie, but does seem to be well balanced and very sturdy in construction. I needed to get out into a field and try it out ASAP!
The field I went into was one in which me and a friend had spent 2 solid weeks 3 hours a night in an area about 100yds square we had found (both using Goldmax) 3 hammered coins and 3 rings 1 gold 2 silver all at reasonable depths due to the field been pasture and on a hillside. I thought this was the ideal place to search and test the Etrac as the last 2 visits to the field produced nothing in the way of finds. This particular field is also littered with iron and coke, which was another reason we both went for the goldmax which is brilliant at getting finds in close proximity to iron and blanks out coke.
I turned on the Etrac fired in the coin program and made a few minor adjustments and ground balanced. I was half expecting it to sound like the clangers with signals everywhere because of the iron and coke, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a nice hum and no chatter which nulled out when passing over Iron, I dug a couple of these after sweeping and pinpointing in all metal and sure enough it was iron. It makes you feel far better when you do not doubt a machine and trust what its telling you. The one main thing I noticed besides how heavy this machine gets after a couple of hours detecting is that you really need to sweep slower than with the goldmax but if you want to find things at depth this should never be a problem.
Well after 4 hours tramping round the field I was very surprised to have found 1 x 2p modern 4 x small buttons a buckle 3 x bits of lead a bag seal and a hammered coin (see images below) and all these targets came very close to plugs that had been dug on previous searches. In all I am very pleased with the Etrac it does what it says it does and its a deep seeking machine. The hammered coin came from a depth of about 6-7 inch and was fixed in position at the bottom of the dug hole so had not fallen out of the side. I have not found a hammered at this depth with the Goldmax and couldn't say if the goldmax would have had it or not, the Etrac did find it so that's good enough for me.
I am so looking forward to trying the Etrac out on the beach today, even though my arm aches like a prostitutes lower half due to the weight problem that the Etrac has, but having said that, the finds make up for all the aches and like the saying goes, " No Pain, No Gain" I hope to post the results of today's beach hunt, although I am a little worried as I have read that the beach mode in Etrac is not so hot and I do not seem to be able to find a beach pattern for UK beaches with the same sand as Blackpool, if anyone can help me with that it would be very much appreciated.
Oh I forgot to say I even tried the xchange software which is user friendly and I found uploading patterns a simple task. But I work with computers most of the time so find software use 2nd nature.
Edward Groat?
After much deliberation and trawling through videos and reports on the Etrac I decided to part with my dosh and buy a one. After contacting Joan Allan the purchase was made and I cannot praise them enough for the speed in which the machine landed up on the door step. I spent the next day and night reading and then reading again the supplied manual. I noticed in a lot of comments about this machine that the manual can be a little hard to understand, but in my view I found it very informative and easy to follow. I unpacked the machine and put it together as the manual explained and within 5 minutes it was ready. All I needed to do now was charge the supplied battery pack which was recommended to be 18 hours for a full charge. So again it was back to reading and searching the net for more advice. As soon as the pack was charged in it went. I turned the machine on and established contact with the settings. I found the layout and set up of the Etrac a very easy task indeed and not half as daunting as I thought it was going to be.
Now having been an avid fan/user of the XP Goldmax, which had found me some fantastic things over the last 12 months I.E Chinese coin hoard(largest in Britain) and a gold bronze age ring (1st for our area) I bought the Etrac more for the beaches in our area as the gold price has shot up to over $1800 an ounce and the Goldmax sucks on the beach. I want to find rings which I can sell as I never part with anything I find from the fields, Unless the treasure act makes me part with it that is. Back to the Etrac, after placing the battery into the machine I noticed after a few practice swings that the Etrac is a far heavier machine than the goldie, but does seem to be well balanced and very sturdy in construction. I needed to get out into a field and try it out ASAP!
The field I went into was one in which me and a friend had spent 2 solid weeks 3 hours a night in an area about 100yds square we had found (both using Goldmax) 3 hammered coins and 3 rings 1 gold 2 silver all at reasonable depths due to the field been pasture and on a hillside. I thought this was the ideal place to search and test the Etrac as the last 2 visits to the field produced nothing in the way of finds. This particular field is also littered with iron and coke, which was another reason we both went for the goldmax which is brilliant at getting finds in close proximity to iron and blanks out coke.
I turned on the Etrac fired in the coin program and made a few minor adjustments and ground balanced. I was half expecting it to sound like the clangers with signals everywhere because of the iron and coke, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a nice hum and no chatter which nulled out when passing over Iron, I dug a couple of these after sweeping and pinpointing in all metal and sure enough it was iron. It makes you feel far better when you do not doubt a machine and trust what its telling you. The one main thing I noticed besides how heavy this machine gets after a couple of hours detecting is that you really need to sweep slower than with the goldmax but if you want to find things at depth this should never be a problem.
Well after 4 hours tramping round the field I was very surprised to have found 1 x 2p modern 4 x small buttons a buckle 3 x bits of lead a bag seal and a hammered coin (see images below) and all these targets came very close to plugs that had been dug on previous searches. In all I am very pleased with the Etrac it does what it says it does and its a deep seeking machine. The hammered coin came from a depth of about 6-7 inch and was fixed in position at the bottom of the dug hole so had not fallen out of the side. I have not found a hammered at this depth with the Goldmax and couldn't say if the goldmax would have had it or not, the Etrac did find it so that's good enough for me.
I am so looking forward to trying the Etrac out on the beach today, even though my arm aches like a prostitutes lower half due to the weight problem that the Etrac has, but having said that, the finds make up for all the aches and like the saying goes, " No Pain, No Gain" I hope to post the results of today's beach hunt, although I am a little worried as I have read that the beach mode in Etrac is not so hot and I do not seem to be able to find a beach pattern for UK beaches with the same sand as Blackpool, if anyone can help me with that it would be very much appreciated.
Oh I forgot to say I even tried the xchange software which is user friendly and I found uploading patterns a simple task. But I work with computers most of the time so find software use 2nd nature.
Edward Groat?