EQ800 or Etrac ?

[IDXMonster]

best thing about the etrac is the etrac wobble gotta love a near 2 k detector that wobbles like a drunken sailor minelab make good insides

AJ

AJ...Are you sure you don't mean every Garrett there is? Or is the operator wobbling? If there is a wobbly e-series it's because the pinch pads and coil hardware is done wore the fug out due to so much usage!

 

[Jason in Enid]

best thing about the etrac is the etrac wobble gotta love a near 2 k detector that wobbles like a drunken sailor minelab make good insides

AJ

AJ...Are you sure you don't mean every Garrett there is? Or is the operator wobbling? If there is a wobbly e-series it's because the pinch pads and coil hardware is done wore the fug out due to so much usage!

LOL, I have to agree, I think its the user having a few too many its him doing the wobbling! Seriously, I never had any problem with my E-Trac, it was a tight as any detector I've owned in 35 years. No wobble what-so-ever.

 

[dbado1]

Hey kids! I'm 77 and detect with no problems. My secret is the bike. Many of my permissions are 8 or more miles from home. If 8 miles, I ride my bike to and from. If more than 8, I drive to a parking place 8 miles from the site and bike the rest of the way. This cuts into my detecting time but keeps my body, knees, arms, and core fit enough to keep detecting with no complaints. Like the doc said, it takes commitment but in the end, you'll be glad you did it. Remember, stairs and hills are your friends. Stay away from elevators, take stairs two at a time, and search out the route on the bike that has the most hills. You'll be surprised how quickly those hills flatten out as you get in better condition.
Happy hunting!

Awesome! Keep it up. I wanna be you when I grow up

AJ,
I've never experienced that with my E-TRAC. Something's wrong. Perhaps it's lacking some duct tape!

Dean

 

[D&P-OR]

AJ-----You been drinkin again???

best thing about the etrac is the etrac wobble gotta love a near 2 k detector that wobbles like a drunken sailor minelab make good insides

AJ

 

[sgoss66]

Hey kids! I'm 77 and detect with no problems. My secret is the bike. Many of my permissions are 8 or more miles from home. If 8 miles, I ride my bike to and from. If more than 8, I drive to a parking place 8 miles from the site and bike the rest of the way. This cuts into my detecting time but keeps my body, knees, arms, and core fit enough to keep detecting with no complaints. Like the doc said, it takes commitment but in the end, you'll be glad you did it. Remember, stairs and hills are your friends. Stay away from elevators, take stairs two at a time, and search out the route on the bike that has the most hills. You'll be surprised how quickly those hills flatten out as you get in better condition.
Happy hunting!

Great post. Like Dean said, I wanna be like you when I grow up!

While not a TOTALLY true statement, I am of the belief that "old" is a state-of-mind...

Steve

 

[Neil]

Hey kids! I'm 77 and detect with no problems. My secret is the bike. Many of my permissions are 8 or more miles from home. If 8 miles, I ride my bike to and from. If more than 8, I drive to a parking place 8 miles from the site and bike the rest of the way. This cuts into my detecting time but keeps my body, knees, arms, and core fit enough to keep detecting with no complaints. Like the doc said, it takes commitment but in the end, you'll be glad you did it. Remember, stairs and hills are your friends. Stay away from elevators, take stairs two at a time, and search out the route on the bike that has the most hills. You'll be surprised how quickly those hills flatten out as you get in better condition.
Happy hunting!

Great post thanks for sharing your insight.
Ive only had my bike out a few times over the summer, usually ride a lot more. 8 miles is a good healthy chunk of road on a bike. Thanks again.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

The eTrac is a heavy unbalanced ergonomically challenged slug. You tough guys grab your Etrac in one hand, an 8 lb stainless scoop in the other, swing and hold your coil off the wet beach sand for 5 hours to keep it from falsing then brag about how the weight is nothing.

 

[BigTony]

Very cool, I commend you for your stamina. I will start using my bike again, thanks for the encouragement!

 

[UtahRich]

Just to add to this...

I'm 47 years old, in good physical shape. I run 4-5 miles every other day, and I do a little weight lifting on the off days. I have always been an athlete, and still maintain an athletic build (6'2" tall, 185 pounds).

My problem is, swinging the Explorers will at times result in me fighting occasional bouts of tendonitis/tennis elbow. It's not that the machines are "too heavy" per se; obviously, if I work out doing curls with 45 pound dumbbells, in one sense that means that a 5-pound machine is not "heavy" as in "can't lift it/swing it." However, by "heavy," I think what many folks mean is that somehow, the weight, balance, angle of the handle -- whatever it is -- causes issues for some. It is just a very not-ergonomic machine. I used to hunt right-handed. Developed tennis elbow so bad from swinging the Explorer multiple hours a day, a couple of times per week, that I switched to swinging lefty. For several years now, I have hunted left-handed, but recently have been fighting through tennis elbow in the left elbow; I almost went back to right-handed, but the elbow seems to be improving now, after 6 to 9 months of irritating pain when swinging the machine.

SO, it's more than being "out of shape." There is something about these machines that for some, no matter how good of "shape" you are in, these things cause those "repetitive motion" type injuries in the elbow joint.

Steve

Steve,

A lot of brilliant people are/were left handed. You should stick with it.


Rich -

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I'm thinking of getting a used Etrac but wondered if its better to wait until the EQ 800's are out ? Don't know if they will perform as good as the etrac but they certainly are lighter which is a big plus to me !

Lets gather some information first. What type of detecting are you planning to do parks, home sites, fields, relics, beach? What area of the country do you live in, what's your local soil mineralization like?

The EQ has many new features that are attractive but lets consider the one that could be a game changer. Minelab is claiming the EQ will have more accurate target ID at deeper depths, if true that may be a game changer. The only way to do that is to better filter out the soil mineralization that's masking deeper targets. If you do that what just happened...depth just increased. Then if you consider sites have been beat to death with Explorers, eTracs, and now CTX's over the past 18 years a machine that can suddenly reach even 2 inches deeper with a target ID may re-open those sites, if deeper targets are down there of course.

Drop a silver dime into a plastic milk jug filled with water, that's an air test. Now put 1 drop of food coloring in the water, this represents soil mineralization. The detector can still see the dime so far so good, low mineralized soil. Add a few more drops, its getting more difficult to see the dime. Now pour the whole bottle in, the dime is no longer visible. This is the effect of soil mineralization and the more mineralized it is the quicker the target is swamped by soil mineralization and is no longer detectable.

And its not just max depth but target size. Half dimes, 3 cent silvers, $1 golds already due to their size are more difficult to detect at depths a dime/cent is still detectable. It will be interesting to see what the EQ can do based on target size vs the FBS/FBS2 machines.

 

[UtahRich]

I'm thinking of getting a used Etrac but wondered if its better to wait until the EQ 800's are out ? Don't know if they will perform as good as the etrac but they certainly are lighter which is a big plus to me !

Lets gather some information first. What type of detecting are you planning to do parks, home sites, fields, relics, beach? What area of the country do you live in, what's your local soil mineralization like?

The EQ has many new features that are attractive but lets consider the one that could be a game changer. Minelab is claiming the EQ will have more accurate target ID at deeper depths, if true that may be a game changer. The only way to do that is to better filter out the soil mineralization that's masking deeper targets. If you do that what just happened...depth just increased. Then if you consider sites have been beat to death with Explorers, eTracs, and now CTX's over the past 18 years a machine that can suddenly reach even 2 inches deeper with a target ID may re-open those sites, if deeper targets are down there of course.

Drop a silver dime into a plastic milk jug filled with water, that's an air test. Now put 1 drop of food coloring in the water, this represents soil mineralization. The detector can still see the dime so far so good, low mineralized soil. Add a few more drops, its getting more difficult to see the dime. Now pour the whole bottle in, the dime is no longer visible. This is the effect of soil mineralization and the more mineralized it is the quicker the target is swamped by soil mineralization and is no longer detectable.

And its not just max depth but target size. Half dimes, 3 cent silvers, $1 golds already due to their size are more difficult to detect at depths a dime/cent is still detectable. It will be interesting to see what the EQ can do based on target size vs the FBS/FBS2 machines.

Charles,

Well said.

Rich

 

[sgoss66]

Just to add to this...

I'm 47 years old, in good physical shape. I run 4-5 miles every other day, and I do a little weight lifting on the off days. I have always been an athlete, and still maintain an athletic build (6'2" tall, 185 pounds).

My problem is, swinging the Explorers will at times result in me fighting occasional bouts of tendonitis/tennis elbow. It's not that the machines are "too heavy" per se; obviously, if I work out doing curls with 45 pound dumbbells, in one sense that means that a 5-pound machine is not "heavy" as in "can't lift it/swing it." However, by "heavy," I think what many folks mean is that somehow, the weight, balance, angle of the handle -- whatever it is -- causes issues for some. It is just a very not-ergonomic machine. I used to hunt right-handed. Developed tennis elbow so bad from swinging the Explorer multiple hours a day, a couple of times per week, that I switched to swinging lefty. For several years now, I have hunted left-handed, but recently have been fighting through tennis elbow in the left elbow; I almost went back to right-handed, but the elbow seems to be improving now, after 6 to 9 months of irritating pain when swinging the machine.

SO, it's more than being "out of shape." There is something about these machines that for some, no matter how good of "shape" you are in, these things cause those "repetitive motion" type injuries in the elbow joint.

Steve

Steve,

A lot of brilliant people are/were left handed. You should stick with it.


Rich -

Ha ha, good point Rich! You are right, and I need all the help I can get!

Steve

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I'm thinking of getting a used Etrac but wondered if its better to wait until the EQ 800's are out ? Don't know if they will perform as good as the etrac but they certainly are lighter which is a big plus to me !

Lets gather some information first. What type of detecting are you planning to do parks, home sites, fields, relics, beach? What area of the country do you live in, what's your local soil mineralization like?

The EQ has many new features that are attractive but lets consider the one that could be a game changer. Minelab is claiming the EQ will have more accurate target ID at deeper depths, if true that may be a game changer. The only way to do that is to better filter out the soil mineralization that's masking deeper targets. If you do that what just happened...depth just increased. Then if you consider sites have been beat to death with Explorers, eTracs, and now CTX's over the past 18 years a machine that can suddenly reach even 2 inches deeper with a target ID may re-open those sites, if deeper targets are down there of course.

Drop a silver dime into a plastic milk jug filled with water, that's an air test. Now put 1 drop of food coloring in the water, this represents soil mineralization. The detector can still see the dime so far so good, low mineralized soil. Add a few more drops, its getting more difficult to see the dime. Now pour the whole bottle in, the dime is no longer visible. This is the effect of soil mineralization and the more mineralized it is the quicker the target is swamped by soil mineralization and is no longer detectable.

And its not just max depth but target size. Half dimes, 3 cent silvers, $1 golds already due to their size are more difficult to detect at depths a dime/cent is still detectable. It will be interesting to see what the EQ can do based on target size vs the FBS/FBS2 machines.

Charles,

Well said.

Rich

Thanks Rich. On a sour note I read the new PDF on the EQ800 specs tonight and see it only has 40 target ID numbers, major bummer. So foil to silver dollar the scale only spans 40 ID's, its looking more like a low/med/high machine. When due to depth and soil mineralization the target ID starts getting iffy its going to jump around over a span of numbers making it more difficult to know what you are digging imo. Geeze 20 year old detectors have 99 ID numbers. I really hate that the EQ is a step backwards in target ID vs FBS. Maybe they will take all these new design features and advancement in dealing with soil and put them in a next gen replacement for the eTrac.

 

[amberjack]

if I was drinking I would have been banned years ago

maybe my etrac is a made in china fake

sorry for my analogy but mine is new and its a wobbly sucker handles like a wet sponge but it finds stuff so what the

sold off the ctx in my personal protest against no updates in 5 years other than for the fake market in china

so expect a ctx update this week

only got a few detectors these days one is etrac and I don't see this new one as an update other than ergonomics so might get one and stuff the etrac in it

don't get me wrong I owned a 705 nice detector with an after market coil so done the rounds and back at etrac now and the new 705 looks like a nice machine but will have to consult the pocket book to see how good it thinks it is 1300 smackers where I am at, and that's a lot of beer

time will tell if it gets a look in.....

AJ

 

[NorCalGold]

Charles, it may not be a step backwards to have 40 numbers for non-ferrous targets if the detector can accurately differentiate between those targets at depth. This is the claim Minelab is making with Multi-IQ. If it works, it sounds like an advancement to me.

 

[Wayfarer]

Charles, it may not be a step backwards to have 40 numbers for non-ferrous targets if the detector can accurately differentiate between those targets at depth. This is the claim Minelab is making with Multi-IQ. If it works, it sounds like an advancement to me.

I would totally be happy with 40 TID numbers if the Equinox lives up to the claim that the TID is more accurate and stable at depth. For comparison, I've got a V3i that has 95 non ferrous TID numbers, but over 6", the TID is all over the place. I'd gladly give up all but 40 of those numbers if the Equinox TID could be stable and accurate at, say, 8" instead. That's basically what they are claiming, so lets see. Got my fingers crossed (and an EQ on order)!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Even with the highly accurate FE-CO of the CTX, numbers typically jump a couple spots up and down so what would be the harm of a few less CO numbers in there?

 

[nalc472]

I am keeping my e-trac. I will have the best of both worlds. Start with the EQ and clean up with the E-trac (if I missed anything). I will be in Silver heaven

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Charles, it may not be a step backwards to have 40 numbers for non-ferrous targets if the detector can accurately differentiate between those targets at depth. This is the claim Minelab is making with Multi-IQ. If it works, it sounds like an advancement to me.

I would totally be happy with 40 TID numbers if the Equinox lives up to the claim that the TID is more accurate and stable at depth. For comparison, I've got a V3i that has 95 non ferrous TID numbers, but over 6", the TID is all over the place. I'd gladly give up all but 40 of those numbers if the Equinox TID could be stable and accurate at, say, 8" instead. That's basically what they are claiming, so lets see. Got my fingers crossed (and an EQ on order)!

You changed my mind, if the EQ is accurate to 7 inches then even deeper targets that are jumping around really this doesn't matter because if they are 8 inches or deeper I'm digging no matter what. That's going to be well below the clad and modern trash layer where I hunt.

 

[nalc472]

It will "boldly go where no detector has gone before".