earthmansurfer
Active member
I got out for 2 1/2 hours yesterday. I ran with a very low disc pattern (just bottom right corner for most part) and combined mode. I went back to the park by my house that I had "cleaned out" with first my T2 and then my Omega, both long departed. I never did hunt there with my E-Trac.
I found what you see below: 4 coins, 1 Token and 2 buttons. Also found 1 live and rusted machine gun cartridge and 1 bullet. I will say with certainty that 2 of the 5 coins I had been over with my Omega - I'm positive as they laid center in my two most productive parts. One was at 4" and hit hard, 4 way signal. When I took it out and checked the replanted plug it was just full of iron. Knew why I had missed that. The other coin was at 6" or 7" (which ties my deepest find in that park - tough ground) and was a tough hit. I first only got a clean (but narrow) two way hit but was able to coax a bit more from it with practice. Was VERY much in iron - My Pro Pointer is broke and it made for tough digs so I can't say much more about the iron, but there was some in the plug. To give you some perspective - I debated digging the signal.The other coins were very shallow (1") and I must have just passed them, easy targets and off to the side of my main spot. They are Italian I think - a first for me.
I was running in auto +3 (around 23) but the machine handled 30 manual when I tried it, no problem. NC channel 5. I was using the ferrous coin setting and checked all targets in high trash and didn't notice much of a difference. I would say ferrous coin sounded better on some of them though.
Even with iron, pinpointing with the CTX using SIZING appeared better than the E-Trac - this was quite obvious. Maybe it was the spot, not sure, will take more time. Anyone notice this?
I noticed with gain at 23 (depth reading 7") that it was hitting hard. I mean I didn't notice much drop in the sound volume like on the E-Trac, which I also ran at 23. I'm going to drop it to 21 and see if that does anything.
There were 2 or 3 targets that I stopped digging on at 8" or so. My pinpointer was broke and I didn't want to make a mess.
I dug 4 bottle caps - they hit in both ferrous coin and high trash. Never dug that many with the E-Trac. I noticed someone else said this. Normally bottle caps aren't a problem where I hunt. These hit pretty well but the VID was much lower than on other machines. On the CTX I think they were in the 20's if memory serves me right. They were both clean and rusted out. The rusted out ones broke up though. This was my biggest gripe performance wise. I tried in both ferrous coin and high trash, no difference.
Some things I noticed, very preliminary:
Build - Very very well built. It sure feels heavy when you pick it up. But as others have said when it is on your arm there isn't much weight at all. Perfectly balanced.
Menu - Very easy to use. I just loved the ability to jump back to the last setting (Thanks for that Randy). If you didn't know, after you change a setting, don't back out anymore with the pinpoint button, just press the detect button. So, for example if you are running ferrous coin and want to check it against high trash, this makes switching much faster than on the E-Trac. Next will be to program the user button to last mode and compare combine with 50CO (set up like the E-Trac).
Sounds - The sounds have a very very clear tone about them on targets. It does have a more digital sound than the E-Trac, perhaps because that warble isn't quite there.I did miss the E-Trac sounds but will give it some time. Will also hunt a bit in 50 CO next time and see what that is like. I have to find a more suitable high tone, I ran it at 1200 and that was a bit too piercing imo.
Screen - Loved it. Ran with backlight on 3 - very very nice. I did notice a lag between target refresh numbers, just like on the E-Trac. But it was much faster overall. It still seems like it wants to clear the target completely before giving you a number - just like on the E-Trac. The machine recovery wise is much much faster than the E-Trac imo though.
Pinpoint Trigger - Loved it and missed it on every machine since I had a T2. I will say, it is too high, no doubt there. They should have put it right in front of the forefinger, but it's above and it's not angled down. I had to put my thumb on the face to get better leverage ( I have smaller hands). I'd say this was my biggest gripe regarding the physical unit.
Target Trace - I have to say, this excites me. Towards the end of the hunt I really started paying attention to the screen, watching the little bits of "lights" around signals. I get a strong feeling it adds a bit of "sound" to a picture. Hard to describe but after 100 hours on the machine, I bet I look deeply into it. Loved Target Trace Pinpoint as well. On one target in particular it showed two close targets and it was right. I did hear the quick, beep beep, but was surprised it was able to separate it. Seemed like there was iron on most signals as well.
BTW - I noticed the machine was nulling when I had pattern 2 on. If you didn't notice (and I didn't for the first 90 minutes), the bottom line is disc'd out! Personally, I think you should take that bottom line out, at least when running combined as you can run combined very open or open if you like and use pattern 2 when in heavier iron, to cut the nulls out.
Albert
I found what you see below: 4 coins, 1 Token and 2 buttons. Also found 1 live and rusted machine gun cartridge and 1 bullet. I will say with certainty that 2 of the 5 coins I had been over with my Omega - I'm positive as they laid center in my two most productive parts. One was at 4" and hit hard, 4 way signal. When I took it out and checked the replanted plug it was just full of iron. Knew why I had missed that. The other coin was at 6" or 7" (which ties my deepest find in that park - tough ground) and was a tough hit. I first only got a clean (but narrow) two way hit but was able to coax a bit more from it with practice. Was VERY much in iron - My Pro Pointer is broke and it made for tough digs so I can't say much more about the iron, but there was some in the plug. To give you some perspective - I debated digging the signal.The other coins were very shallow (1") and I must have just passed them, easy targets and off to the side of my main spot. They are Italian I think - a first for me.
I was running in auto +3 (around 23) but the machine handled 30 manual when I tried it, no problem. NC channel 5. I was using the ferrous coin setting and checked all targets in high trash and didn't notice much of a difference. I would say ferrous coin sounded better on some of them though.
Even with iron, pinpointing with the CTX using SIZING appeared better than the E-Trac - this was quite obvious. Maybe it was the spot, not sure, will take more time. Anyone notice this?
I noticed with gain at 23 (depth reading 7") that it was hitting hard. I mean I didn't notice much drop in the sound volume like on the E-Trac, which I also ran at 23. I'm going to drop it to 21 and see if that does anything.
There were 2 or 3 targets that I stopped digging on at 8" or so. My pinpointer was broke and I didn't want to make a mess.
I dug 4 bottle caps - they hit in both ferrous coin and high trash. Never dug that many with the E-Trac. I noticed someone else said this. Normally bottle caps aren't a problem where I hunt. These hit pretty well but the VID was much lower than on other machines. On the CTX I think they were in the 20's if memory serves me right. They were both clean and rusted out. The rusted out ones broke up though. This was my biggest gripe performance wise. I tried in both ferrous coin and high trash, no difference.
Some things I noticed, very preliminary:
Build - Very very well built. It sure feels heavy when you pick it up. But as others have said when it is on your arm there isn't much weight at all. Perfectly balanced.
Menu - Very easy to use. I just loved the ability to jump back to the last setting (Thanks for that Randy). If you didn't know, after you change a setting, don't back out anymore with the pinpoint button, just press the detect button. So, for example if you are running ferrous coin and want to check it against high trash, this makes switching much faster than on the E-Trac. Next will be to program the user button to last mode and compare combine with 50CO (set up like the E-Trac).
Sounds - The sounds have a very very clear tone about them on targets. It does have a more digital sound than the E-Trac, perhaps because that warble isn't quite there.I did miss the E-Trac sounds but will give it some time. Will also hunt a bit in 50 CO next time and see what that is like. I have to find a more suitable high tone, I ran it at 1200 and that was a bit too piercing imo.
Screen - Loved it. Ran with backlight on 3 - very very nice. I did notice a lag between target refresh numbers, just like on the E-Trac. But it was much faster overall. It still seems like it wants to clear the target completely before giving you a number - just like on the E-Trac. The machine recovery wise is much much faster than the E-Trac imo though.
Pinpoint Trigger - Loved it and missed it on every machine since I had a T2. I will say, it is too high, no doubt there. They should have put it right in front of the forefinger, but it's above and it's not angled down. I had to put my thumb on the face to get better leverage ( I have smaller hands). I'd say this was my biggest gripe regarding the physical unit.
Target Trace - I have to say, this excites me. Towards the end of the hunt I really started paying attention to the screen, watching the little bits of "lights" around signals. I get a strong feeling it adds a bit of "sound" to a picture. Hard to describe but after 100 hours on the machine, I bet I look deeply into it. Loved Target Trace Pinpoint as well. On one target in particular it showed two close targets and it was right. I did hear the quick, beep beep, but was surprised it was able to separate it. Seemed like there was iron on most signals as well.
BTW - I noticed the machine was nulling when I had pattern 2 on. If you didn't notice (and I didn't for the first 90 minutes), the bottom line is disc'd out! Personally, I think you should take that bottom line out, at least when running combined as you can run combined very open or open if you like and use pattern 2 when in heavier iron, to cut the nulls out.
Albert
As determined as you are, if you swing the finds will come.