Is a GT the best Minelab for the Beach? Which Coil to use?

[nick hunter]

Hey Nick,

your second sentence was "I do not know about the Etrac, but I find it way too complicated to hunt beaches". that sure is contradicting itself.

anyways let me eplain how difficult it is to set up the etrac to hunt for gold which is what I mostly do with it and what beechnut is inquiring about:

push power button, turns machine on.

set threshold level to just audible.

set sens to auto

push quickmask button, clear screen and come up about 2 or 3 bars, just enough to knock out small iron.

push noisecancel button, wait for machine to pick best channel for hunting area your in.

hunt.

now every time you hunt it at the beach, you simply hit the power button and then noisecancel and

hunt.

sounds like the sov is akin to some other machine youve hunt with and thats one of the reasons you like it. excellent, youve found a detector that works well for you, stick with it!

Ive never used the Quattro you mention but a friend of mine had one and said it was very slow recovering from target to target. if thats true then thats one of the problems I found with the sov, you can overpass targets adjacent to other targets. you can see how slow the sov really is if you use it, then right away pick up a etrac/expllorer/tesoro(many others) and search the same area. you really have to go slow with the sov. I would bet anyone here who has used an explorer after using a sov have seen how much quicker the explorer recovers from target to target, especially once they open up the iron mask. in previous posts Ive said that putting an adjustable iron mask on the sov would be an awesome upgrade for it.

Hi Neil.

I agree with you, and just noticed I reacted as an European in my answers.

I played with the Etrac Emulator (and explorer too), and did not find a special advantage in all the offered features. Let me explain that to you : in Europe, we have eight different facial values for coins. Three of those coins, 1,2 and 5 cent are electro plated steel coins. Three, 10, 20 and 50 cent are made of "norvegian bronze, the highest values, One and Two euro, most sought after, have a nickel center (1E) or edge(2E).

This complicates the hunt a bit : if a pocket full of coins falls in the sand, and there are electro-plated coins in the bunch, they will mask the whole bunch.

I know, it's easy to"learn accept", but few searchers here care for those coins : after a few weeks in the sand, they will rust and are unusable. Not even the tumbler will help. The Sovie has a small advantage here, as it will detect those coins when they lie flat in the and. Again, here, too much power will hurt, and again, my Compadre does way better than Both the Sov and The Quattro. This latter cannot lock on one of those coins in all metal, so I dig more iron trash and hair clips than coins.

Another way to hunt for the big money is to tend to ignore the 10 and 20 cent. . This is not possible with the digital Minelabs (nor is it with the Sov, by the way, but then why buying an explotrac for the same capacities?)

And then there is our superstar, the 2 euro coin. With it's nickel edge, nickel being a ferrous metal, it scores lower than the other Higher values coins. On the Q, it will score somewhere between 21 and 28. 24, when it's clean, all the other combinations when dirty. Again, digital is in this case useless, many trash targets falling around 21/23 and 26/28.

As for the iron mask : I agree, but partially. MONO frequency detectors get an improved sens to small gold when they are used in all metal. Means to be alerted of the presence of iron (display, tone or both) are then very welcome. The iron mask on FBS/BBS does not, imho, need the all metal to be more sensitive to small gold, as the bunch of frequencies more than compensates and gives better sensitivity.

But I'm sure the perfect detector still does not exists. Even the new XP DEUS here in Europe will not offer solutions to common detecting problems.

Those were a few "European" considerations. With people on an US forum...about Aussies detectors !

Long live the Internet !!

And happy hunting !

 

[Nomad NJ]

I use my GT on the beach all the time and it is great. I do not usew my meter because it is not water proof.

 

[Neil]

Hey Nick,

your second sentence was "I do not know about the Etrac, but I find it way too complicated to hunt beaches". that sure is contradicting itself.

anyways let me eplain how difficult it is to set up the etrac to hunt for gold which is what I mostly do with it and what beechnut is inquiring about:

push power button, turns machine on.

set threshold level to just audible.

set sens to auto

push quickmask button, clear screen and come up about 2 or 3 bars, just enough to knock out small iron.

push noisecancel button, wait for machine to pick best channel for hunting area your in.

hunt.

now every time you hunt it at the beach, you simply hit the power button and then noisecancel and

hunt.

sounds like the sov is akin to some other machine youve hunt with and thats one of the reasons you like it. excellent, youve found a detector that works well for you, stick with it!

Ive never used the Quattro you mention but a friend of mine had one and said it was very slow recovering from target to target. if thats true then thats one of the problems I found with the sov, you can overpass targets adjacent to other targets. you can see how slow the sov really is if you use it, then right away pick up a etrac/expllorer/tesoro(many others) and search the same area. you really have to go slow with the sov. I would bet anyone here who has used an explorer after using a sov have seen how much quicker the explorer recovers from target to target, especially once they open up the iron mask. in previous posts Ive said that putting an adjustable iron mask on the sov would be an awesome upgrade for it.

Hi Neil.

I agree with you, and just noticed I reacted as an European in my answers.

I played with the Etrac Emulator (and explorer too), and did not find a special advantage in all the offered features. Let me explain that to you : in Europe, we have eight different facial values for coins. Three of those coins, 1,2 and 5 cent are electro plated steel coins. Three, 10, 20 and 50 cent are made of "norvegian bronze, the highest values, One and Two euro, most sought after, have a nickel center (1E) or edge(2E).

This complicates the hunt a bit : if a pocket full of coins falls in the sand, and there are electro-plated coins in the bunch, they will mask the whole bunch.

I know, it's easy to"learn accept", but few searchers here care for those coins : after a few weeks in the sand, they will rust and are unusable. Not even the tumbler will help. The Sovie has a small advantage here, as it will detect those coins when they lie flat in the and. Again, here, too much power will hurt, and again, my Compadre does way better than Both the Sov and The Quattro. This latter cannot lock on one of those coins in all metal, so I dig more iron trash and hair clips than coins.

Another way to hunt for the big money is to tend to ignore the 10 and 20 cent. . This is not possible with the digital Minelabs (nor is it with the Sov, by the way, but then why buying an explotrac for the same capacities?)

And then there is our superstar, the 2 euro coin. With it's nickel edge, nickel being a ferrous metal, it scores lower than the other Higher values coins. On the Q, it will score somewhere between 21 and 28. 24, when it's clean, all the other combinations when dirty. Again, digital is in this case useless, many trash targets falling around 21/23 and 26/28.

As for the iron mask : I agree, but partially. MONO frequency detectors get an improved sens to small gold when they are used in all metal. Means to be alerted of the presence of iron (display, tone or both) are then very welcome. The iron mask on FBS/BBS does not, imho, need the all metal to be more sensitive to small gold, as the bunch of frequencies more than compensates and gives better sensitivity.

But I'm sure the perfect detector still does not exists. Even the new XP DEUS here in Europe will not offer solutions to common detecting problems.

Those were a few "European" considerations. With people on an US forum...about Aussies detectors !

Long live the Internet !!

And happy hunting !

Hi Nick,

the internet is great isnt it, lots to learn.

Ive read some canadian coins have ferrous in them also, that probably makes for alot of masking. one thing I like about the minelabs is the threshold, at least you know your going over a disced out target.

the reason I use the quick mask on my etrac is simply to cut down on discrimination. Ive found targets near disc points can get passed over easily and blanked out, one of the reasons I never cared for the notch system on the sov. they could drop that feature as far as Im concerned.

minelab is long overdue for a sov with a faster processor and some real decent upgrades. it seems theyve been more interested in changing the explorer series more. I would also love to see them put some tone ID or a meter on the Advantage, they would probably sell a ton of those.

Neil

 

[kered]

I'm with you on the quick mask Neil, it seems deeper too the less you disc out, i also get some 1, 2 and 5 cent coins with the etrac even though you get a slight null and a squeak, whereas it was always a 100% null on the sov