Favorite DD Etrac coil and or shape:experienced opinions?

[RetiredVeteranTH]

I'm a new Etrac user, I have about 20 hours under my belt. I have the stock Procoil,5x10 Joey coil, 6x8 SEF,8" concentric, 7-3/4" Explorer 800 and Stealth X-5. I started my very first hunt with the Pro in a trash filled yard. I stuck with it for about 3 hours even through the rain but was a bit frustrated. The next hunt I switched to the SEF 6x8 and had great success in finds and easier pinpointing. Nothing was much deeper than 5 inches. I have only used the two aforementioned coils in the field and haven't had a chance to test the other yet. I have a few questions for the Etrac veterans here.
1.What is your favorite DD coil and why?

2.Does the coils shape mean anything other than pinpointing and greater coverage?(round Vs. elliptical)

3.Does i.e. the 6x8 detect as deep as an 8" or 6" round DD coil or somewhere in between?
(I have heard it said that an elliptical generally has better separation and coverage but has less depth than it's size would indicate)

4.If you mostly use the stock Procoil, how long did it take you to get the pinpointing technique down?
I have found with the elliptical SEF the targets seem to pinpoint in the center like a concentric coil(instead of the front tip or back tip as I have read pinpointing with a DD described) Does that make sense or is it my imagination?

5. Can someone with TTF experience give me there take on using that searching mode? Is it worth using in a non-ferrous trash laden site or only when there are lots of ferrous junk targets?

6. Someone told me they go over a site with their Sovereign GT after using their Etrac and find lots of stuff the Etrac missed: does that sound likely? The only thing I could see that makes sense about that is if they are digging more targets because there is either no visual ID (meter) or that even with a Sov meter you only have the one digital number to go by.

Of course no one has to answer all of those questions but any tips and/or info would be appreciated. I am really enjoying the Etrac!

 

[RetiredVeteranTH]

Also: With TTF do you receive a Fe-Co #? I have yet to try it. Love the Andy Sabisch book: studied it for a month or so before I even tried used the Etrac!

 

[Jeff in Pa]

I just got a replacement coil from Kellyco, my 2nd 13" Ultimate. The first one had something wrong with it but this one, I love it! I can see why there are very very few posted on the classifieds.
It only took a couple of hours on the same ground I have been hitting hard with the Pro coil. Its a completely different beast from the Pro coil.

Very tight detection field which gives great target separation and will detect the smallest of things.

It bangs very hard on a 9" Wheat! Sounded like it was close to the surface!

This coil really impressed me today!

 

[MikeeB]

Ive been using the E-Trac for over a year and my 2 main coils are the 6x8 sef and the 10x12 sef ,I dont use the stock coil much,all the others you mentioned i dont use ,I used Andy Sabisch coin pattern and also used a open screen with all ferrous 27 and up blacked out,I only use ttf when a site i hunt and is wiped out and only iron is present ,I have hunted places in ttf where it sounds like a machine gun going off when the low tone on the iron,with a wide open screen no discrimination is the only way i use this. The ferrous and conductive no.s are somewhat accurate. I also only use manual sensitivity clicking back and forth to auto + 3, i use auto as a reference and will go 1 or 2 numbers above the auto setting or until it becomes to unstable,You will get more depth in manual,These are the settings i use deep on, fast on, vol gain 28,normal response, conductive tones,threshold pitch 14,variability set at 27,limits 30,ground difficult ,trash high, try out these settings and silver will come in scratchy sounding you will no the difference when you hit silver ,Ive pulled out 82 silver coins and rings with these settings and didnt hunt for 2 months it was to dry and i was busy,the majority of coins came out with the 6x8 and at good depthover 6in ,If these settings dont work out for you ,you can always go back to different settings.Let me know if you have any more questions ,Thanks ,Mike

 

[RetiredVeteranTH]

I used Andy's coin pattern (slightly modified to reject most nails and pulltabs) today with 6x8 and dug lots of nails, but I did find 2 Mercury's and a silver Washington quarter in the small yard I have been heavily hunting. I have pulled several nice items from this yard previously with the stock coin program (Barber quarter, Walking half, 5 wheat cents, 3 Indian Heads and tons of modern coins-my friend with the F2 has found one wheat cent!) . Looks like we have similar settings(I use "Fast: off") but the technique you use with Manual sensitivity is an epiphany. I never thought of using the Auto mode to reference the stable sensitivity levels. Seems you must like the 6x8 as well as I do with all the silver coins you've found with it. I meant to take the Procoil today as a comparison,but realized I forgot it after arriving at the site. I find the 6x8 pinpoints like a concentric coil! I love it!

Ive been using the E-Trac for over a year and my 2 main coils are the 6x8 sef and the 10x12 sef ,I dont use the stock coil much,all the others you mentioned i dont use ,I used Andy Sabisch coin pattern and also used a open screen with all ferrous 27 and up blacked out,I only use ttf when a site i hunt and is wiped out and only iron is present ,I have hunted places in ttf where it sounds like a machine gun going off when the low tone on the iron,with a wide open screen no discrimination is the only way i use this. The ferrous and conductive no.s are somewhat accurate. I also only use manual sensitivity clicking back and forth to auto + 3, i use auto as a reference and will go 1 or 2 numbers above the auto setting or until it becomes to unstable,You will get more depth in manual,These are the settings i use deep on, fast on, vol gain 28,normal response, conductive tones,threshold pitch 14,variability set at 27,limits 30,ground difficult ,trash high, try out these settings and silver will come in scratchy sounding you will no the difference when you hit silver ,Ive pulled out 82 silver coins and rings with these settings and didnt hunt for 2 months it was to dry and i was busy,the majority of coins came out with the 6x8 and at good depthover 6in ,If these settings dont work out for you ,you can always go back to different settings.Let me know if you have any more questions ,Thanks ,Mike