kered said:
i doubt very much that the x-terra, a machine of less than half the price from the same company could get close to the etrac, although from what i've heard is not a bad machine.
You may be right but it all depends. Price isn't the deciding factor. The 3khz coil for the X-terra is the kind of low frequency you want to hit hard on silver/copper and that's why I'm wondering how they compare depth wise on those targets. Lower frequency also sees through ground minerals (and some say iron) better. I'm sure the other higher frequencies that the E-Trac delivers are going to have it hitting harder on nickle/gold/other metals at deeper depths than the 3khz coil would on the X-Terra, but I'm primarily a silver/copper coin hunter on deeper targets. When I feel like ring hunting on land I'm happy to dig shallower targets 'cuz it isn't much fun to me to dig way down and find a piece of aluminum or other junk. The good-to-bad target ratio for gold is too high for my liking to keep digging extra deep holes. I'm more than willing to dig deep for potential coins, though.
I'm not knocking the E-Trac. I don't own one. I'm just trying to decide between the two. I seen the E-Trac in action head to head with a few other units (QXT Pro & 6000 XL Pro) on a few deep undug silver dimes in non-mineralized ground. One dime at about 9", the other was at about 9.5". Both were loud and clear on the E-Trac. QXT Pro (mine) could ID it visualy as a coin and by audio high tone but only with every other sweep. To be honest it was too far fringe of a signal for me to usualy dig. Most of my fringe stuff is in the 8.5" range. Any deeper than that and the signal I get is just too weak to figure if it's just a very deep hot rock or piece of iron rather than a coin. 6000 Pro couldn't hear one dime and ID'd the other very weakly as probable trash. Both machines were tweaked for max depth.
The friend with the E-Trac recently sold it and bought the top X-Terra model. I'm just curious as to how deep it's going to hit on copper/silver as compared to the E-Trac. I may end up getting either one, but if the X-Terra hits as deep or very near it I'll save the money over the E-Trac and opt for the X-Terra.
As a side note, I've owned many of the machines on the market over the years but keep going back to the QXT Pro for the depth on coins. Properly set up it gets very good depth. The only machine I've used that would beat it in depth on copper/silver has been the Explorer, but that was in highly mineralized ground that the QXT isn't too good at. In normal ground conditions they were very close on silver/copper but of course the Explorer hit deeper and harder on nickles and such. The Explorer is an excellent machine but I don't care for the weight or the tendency of the ID to float. It's recovery speed also isn't quite as good as the QXT's.
I also wonder (with no solid proof) if a multifrequency machine is a bit noisier than a single frequency unit and thus isn't able to run at max sensitivity than if it had been running on a single. The multifrequency of course gives you a stronger hit on a wider range of metals but I can't help but wonder if it could run at a slightly higher sensitivity if it were on a single frequency and thus perhaps hit a bit deeper on targets meant for that frequency...IE: A 3khz machine specificly meant to hunt for copper/silver with. Not saying I'm right here, it's just a theory.
Other's opinions may be different and am not trying to start a flame war. This is just my personal experience with the way I set up my machines and hunt. I'm interested in the E-Trac or X-Terra as they look about as good as it gets in the various models these days. Cut my teeth on Whites but Minelab has been cleaning their clock ever since the lowly DFX came out. Thanks for the input on depth numbers and look forward to hearing further opinions.
