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Sovereing Vs Etrac
- Thread starter Kbron2000
- Start date
K,both are great detectors.Most people here are Sovereign users so you may ask this same question on the Etrac Forum.Obvious advantages for the Sovereign,cost,better balanced,can be hip mounted,prove beach unit,great detector for medium to large gold jewelry,great clad or silver detector,simple to use after a week or two of constant hunting(not as complicated),excellent depth,and resale.There are a ton of accessories for the Sovereign. Good Luck Ron.
E-TREC-Virginia
New member
I've never used the Sovereign, so I cannot give you a comparison. I have several years of experience with the E-Trac and it is an excellent machine. It works extremely well at the beach and has no problems with the transition from dry to wet sand and if your are careful, you can hunt the surf without any significant falsing from wave action. I've been using the 15" x 12" SEF coil at the beach and been able to find targets up to and beyond 12 inches with fairly accurate ID numbers. The E-Trac is heavy, so you would need to use a Swingy Thingy to be able to swing a larger coil for any significant amount of time. It's also a great park machine as well with it's ability to separate trash from good targets. Combine the E-Trac with a smaller coil and it's a killer in trash. With the introduction of the CTX 3030, there is a flood of used E-Tracs for sale right now at some very reasonable prices. Good time to pick one up. Good luck on your decision.
I own and use an E Trac and an Excalibur, which is basically a waterproof Sov.
They are both top machines. I use the Excal on the beach, I have the controls mounted on my waist and can swing it for hours and cover a lot of sand.
The ET I use in parks where there is a lot more rubbish. It has better target separation as well as the TID screen to assist in those iffy signals, though I pay more attention to the tones. The ET is heaver and I tried it on the beach and I had to slow down my pace as my arm was getting tired.
A friend has the Sov and uses it in both parks and beach and does really well, only thing we noticed was in parks the ET could sniff out deep old coins a bit better.
Either way they are both very good machines and once you learn what they are telling you, you will be rewarded.
GL and HH
They are both top machines. I use the Excal on the beach, I have the controls mounted on my waist and can swing it for hours and cover a lot of sand.
The ET I use in parks where there is a lot more rubbish. It has better target separation as well as the TID screen to assist in those iffy signals, though I pay more attention to the tones. The ET is heaver and I tried it on the beach and I had to slow down my pace as my arm was getting tired.
A friend has the Sov and uses it in both parks and beach and does really well, only thing we noticed was in parks the ET could sniff out deep old coins a bit better.
Either way they are both very good machines and once you learn what they are telling you, you will be rewarded.
GL and HH
Kbron2000 said:
I've had/have both and IMO if you are not interested in silver the GT with a meter would be my choice hands down! The E-Trac is a killer machine on silver coins and does have an edge in heavy trash, but the GT is the better unit on the beach, has better ergonomics (Especially with large coils), hits harder on gold and is less expensive (There are some really good deals out there on the E-trac right now as many are "upgrading" to the CTX.) They are both about equal in the depth department in most situations, but I will say the GT has a slight edge in depth in wet sand and when the soil is very damp.
Critterhunter
New member
Well, since everybody else is giving an open opinion I think I will throw in my two cents too...
With the 12x10 on my GT *every* single *super* deep, *severely* masked, or on edge coin that my friend's Etrac has found, the GT & 12x10 could see just as easy and just as well when checked before digging. This has been going on over several months of in field comparisons. Not one target the GT & 12x10 couldn't see just as good or hit just as hard, and all were seen just as good from the various angles and such around the target as we compared notes on them.
Conversely, I've also not found any super deep or badly masked coins that his machine could not also easily see. Also, one day I hit a deep whisper of a coin signal and was running full blast sensitivity. He was in Auto +3 and even though his sensitivity was running almost at max he could not hear the target until he put it in manual and raised it the last few clicks to full blast. That tells me both machines are pretty evenly matched in depth too. For that reason, I think all these Minelabs are pretty evenly matched with each other in terms of depth and separation *provided* the right coil is being used. You can't separate what the coil can't see separately, and in terms of depth on these Minelabs the only real way to push them deeper is via a bigger coil, so as far as any depth or separation of one Minelab over another my opinion is that it all comes down to the coil. After all, why put an 11" coil on the SE and Etrac when they could have stayed with the 10" coil? Reason I believe is better depth and separation than the old 10" Explorer coils.
So, I would tell you to base your decision on if you prefer computer controls and extra features that can be handy in certain (but rare) situations, or are you the kind of guy who prefers simple controls that give you enough control to still get the job done? There are some days I miss toying with and looking at a computer screen, so I'll add an Explorer II with a 12x10 to my line up some day again, but only for days I'm in the mood for a computer screen and such. The GT still stays no matter what for all the other days. There are guys who have tried all the other FBS machines but still swear the EII is the best on deep silver (at least in audio) for them. That intrigues me, so even though I've owned 3 EIIs, I'd like to add another to my line up again, but with a better coil then the old 10" Explorer coils which I never cared for.
I'd also add that it depends on the VDI resolution you want. If you want high coin resolution for certain coin types then go with the Etrac. If you don't really care what the coin might be as long as you can tell what zincs are when old coin hunting then the Sovereign is fine. I personally only want to know it's a coin when it's deep or shallow but in trash, as I've dug plenty of silvers over the years that read like a clad for one reason or another. If you want super high resolution from foil all the way up to copper pennies for things like splitting hairs on gold rings or nickles versus tabs and other junk, then go with the Sovereign. The Etrac's conductivity resolution is a scale of 1 to 50 with copper pennies starting at about 38. The Sovereign's VDI is roughly 60 (around where foil starts) up to about 178 where copper pennies start. Most Etrac guys don't pay attention to the ferrous number as it can range wildly, so conductivity is primarily what is used.
Another perk of the Sovereign is the ability to chest mount for water hunting. Mounted on the shaft for land hunting it's also better balanced than the Etrac, but still heavy like the Etrac.
A perk about the Etrac is it's got excellent Auto sensitivity. Set it at +3 and most guys never mess with manual as Auto will run pretty darn near the max you'd use at that site in manual anyway. The Auto sensitivity function on the Sovereign, while good, doesn't ride it nearly as high so it's not nearly as deep, so most guys use manual to hunt, which isn't a big issue to most experienced hunters anyway.
The Sovereign has better audio. More drawn out and detailed in target quality, but you can change more things about the Etrac's audio where nothing can be changed on the Sovereign but the volume of the targets or how loud the threshold is, or using Silent Search mode to hunt without a threshold. The Sovereign does have an excellent variety of target tones, though, like the FBS machines. Pretty much the FBS machines win in more control functions for the audio, but the Sovereign wins in terms of a long drawn out and detailed audio for telling target traits better.
That's my pros/cons based on my experiences. Others I'm sure feel otherwise...Both of course are excellent machines, and so are the Explorers as well. Can't go wrong with any of them.
With the 12x10 on my GT *every* single *super* deep, *severely* masked, or on edge coin that my friend's Etrac has found, the GT & 12x10 could see just as easy and just as well when checked before digging. This has been going on over several months of in field comparisons. Not one target the GT & 12x10 couldn't see just as good or hit just as hard, and all were seen just as good from the various angles and such around the target as we compared notes on them.
Conversely, I've also not found any super deep or badly masked coins that his machine could not also easily see. Also, one day I hit a deep whisper of a coin signal and was running full blast sensitivity. He was in Auto +3 and even though his sensitivity was running almost at max he could not hear the target until he put it in manual and raised it the last few clicks to full blast. That tells me both machines are pretty evenly matched in depth too. For that reason, I think all these Minelabs are pretty evenly matched with each other in terms of depth and separation *provided* the right coil is being used. You can't separate what the coil can't see separately, and in terms of depth on these Minelabs the only real way to push them deeper is via a bigger coil, so as far as any depth or separation of one Minelab over another my opinion is that it all comes down to the coil. After all, why put an 11" coil on the SE and Etrac when they could have stayed with the 10" coil? Reason I believe is better depth and separation than the old 10" Explorer coils.
So, I would tell you to base your decision on if you prefer computer controls and extra features that can be handy in certain (but rare) situations, or are you the kind of guy who prefers simple controls that give you enough control to still get the job done? There are some days I miss toying with and looking at a computer screen, so I'll add an Explorer II with a 12x10 to my line up some day again, but only for days I'm in the mood for a computer screen and such. The GT still stays no matter what for all the other days. There are guys who have tried all the other FBS machines but still swear the EII is the best on deep silver (at least in audio) for them. That intrigues me, so even though I've owned 3 EIIs, I'd like to add another to my line up again, but with a better coil then the old 10" Explorer coils which I never cared for.
I'd also add that it depends on the VDI resolution you want. If you want high coin resolution for certain coin types then go with the Etrac. If you don't really care what the coin might be as long as you can tell what zincs are when old coin hunting then the Sovereign is fine. I personally only want to know it's a coin when it's deep or shallow but in trash, as I've dug plenty of silvers over the years that read like a clad for one reason or another. If you want super high resolution from foil all the way up to copper pennies for things like splitting hairs on gold rings or nickles versus tabs and other junk, then go with the Sovereign. The Etrac's conductivity resolution is a scale of 1 to 50 with copper pennies starting at about 38. The Sovereign's VDI is roughly 60 (around where foil starts) up to about 178 where copper pennies start. Most Etrac guys don't pay attention to the ferrous number as it can range wildly, so conductivity is primarily what is used.
Another perk of the Sovereign is the ability to chest mount for water hunting. Mounted on the shaft for land hunting it's also better balanced than the Etrac, but still heavy like the Etrac.
A perk about the Etrac is it's got excellent Auto sensitivity. Set it at +3 and most guys never mess with manual as Auto will run pretty darn near the max you'd use at that site in manual anyway. The Auto sensitivity function on the Sovereign, while good, doesn't ride it nearly as high so it's not nearly as deep, so most guys use manual to hunt, which isn't a big issue to most experienced hunters anyway.
The Sovereign has better audio. More drawn out and detailed in target quality, but you can change more things about the Etrac's audio where nothing can be changed on the Sovereign but the volume of the targets or how loud the threshold is, or using Silent Search mode to hunt without a threshold. The Sovereign does have an excellent variety of target tones, though, like the FBS machines. Pretty much the FBS machines win in more control functions for the audio, but the Sovereign wins in terms of a long drawn out and detailed audio for telling target traits better.
That's my pros/cons based on my experiences. Others I'm sure feel otherwise...Both of course are excellent machines, and so are the Explorers as well. Can't go wrong with any of them.
dewcon4414
Well-known member
On a beach..... keep it simple. There is no need for a heavy complicated machine. I use the Xcal and and Explorer SE on the beach. I have to say on the beach a straight shaft or the ability to remove the weight from the rod helps tremendiously. Also you dont need a lot of varied tones or a TID screen.... if it beeps and its not iron or a shallow bottle cap you dig it. In a park thou..... the TID sure comes in handy with all that information. As far as gold in a park..... its a rare find with any machine. Either machine will find clad anywhere and deep.
Dew
Dew
I used a Sov XS for many years, then recently bought a used E-Trac and hunted with it 3-4 times so far. To be honest I like the tones on the Sovereign better. The ID on the E-Trac is nothing but a distraction for me, I would rather make digging decisions based on the tone. Pinpointing is also easier with the Sov. The only way in which the E-Trac outshines the Sov is noise cancellation and stability in general. Way less bleeping and blapping with the E-Trac...it runs quiet. If I had to do it again I would probably buy a cheaper detector. The X-Y coordinate system of the E-Trac is...well the jury is still out on that. I can see how you might use it to filter our a site littered with say...rifle casings...but in general you have to run the E-Trac wide open or you are going to pass by rings. I will give the E-Trac more time, but so far I am not impressed.
Neil
Well-known member
etrac. if you had mentioned wading the sov would be your better choice since you really cant safely with the etrac.
I find the etrac is a little better on gold and has several other advantages as well. you pay more for the etrac though unless you grab one of the used ones and wow have some of the prices been great.
like Ron said make sure and post this on the etrac forum for a more balanced group of opinions. the beach forum would be a good place also and research using the findsmall search links is another great resourse.
I find the etrac is a little better on gold and has several other advantages as well. you pay more for the etrac though unless you grab one of the used ones and wow have some of the prices been great.
like Ron said make sure and post this on the etrac forum for a more balanced group of opinions. the beach forum would be a good place also and research using the findsmall search links is another great resourse.
Critterhunter
New member
Johnmusk:
I'm surprised you say the Sovereign has easier pin pointing. I've used the Etrac here and there and it's software PP mode makes it much easier to use the center of the coil to me. Same with the Explorer SE's updated PPiing software compared to the old Explorers as I've used an SE a bit too. Much easier than the Explorer II was to me. But, to be honest I hardly have ever used the center of the Sovereign coil to PP as I prefer the tip of my SEF coil, so I can't say if the Sovereign is harder or not myself without more practice. For sure it's easier on the Sovereign to me with my limited exposure to it than my Explorer IIs were using the center when I have tried it. I keep putting off practicing with the center of it in the field and just go by the tip, but I do pass up some super deep signals that I think the tip can't PP (not all of the deep ones won't PP with the tip but here and there it happens) so I better learn to use the center more when needed. Even with DD coils the center is a bit deeper than the outer edges, but that's in general worse of a problem on concentrics.
Make sure you have the PPing mode set properly on the Etrac. I forget what setting I set up for my two friend's machines but it was the one that works better at PPing targets. From fuzzy memory the other setting was for long response or something for tracing out targets or something like that. Either way, one of them is better than the other if I remember right, so you should try changing the PP mode on your Etrac and see if it gets easier. My one Etrac friend had never used a DD before and was spoiled with his Whites concentric but had no problem being pretty darn good with the Etrac and center of the coil in no time thanks to it's excellent PPing software mode.
A lot of guys prefer BBS for being smoother in certain environments such as certain beaches for less chatter and such, so I'm surprised you find FBS smoother for you. I've mostly heard the reverse of that on the forums.
You're right about noise cancel on the FBS machines being much more useful, but some older Sovereigns (I think the XS like yours maybe) had a run where they didn't come with any RF shielding inside the box and were very bad with EMI problems around stuff. With my friends if I'm right up under or say within 15 feet of power lines I usually have to kick sensitivity on my GT down to keep it from getting chattery. I can try switching to the other noise band but I like to stay on band 2 as it matches the old Sovereign charts where as band 1 makes mid conductors like nickles read off a tad. My friend's with the Etracs can just noise cancel near lines like that and be done with the problem with rock solid stability and not as much need (but still some need) to turn down sensitivity. One great thing about FBS's noise cancel function is they can do it when I'm right next to them and then we can hunt all day right close to each other without much interference to each other. If we don't do that and they are on the wrong channel then we have to stay much further away from each other.
The only caveat about using noise cancel on the FBS units is that it can change the VDI numbers on many targets, including nickles and such, but amazingly I was just reading that certain channels can also change silver's and other coin's higher on the scale a tad too somewhat. A guy was doing some extensive testing on that. Here's the clincher that he realized...Which I never even seen anybody mention before...If you are using learn accept or learn reject they become somewhat useless to the pattern you generated if you noise cancel and it switches to certain other channels due to the changing VDI response. I never would have thought of that. I think it would have been a good idea for Minelab to adjust the VDI software to compensate for the noise channel it's on so all VDI's stay the same. For that reason, many FBS guys will stick with the same noise channel all the time and never noise cancel, so they get used to the VDI numbers for say nickles and such the way they read on that channel, and so the patterns they make and the learn accept/reject ones they create will work better.
As for the 2D discrimination, many Etrac guys ignore the ferrous reading as it can range wildy, so they base target ID on the 1 to 50 conductivity scale. I don't know if it's just me because it's been a while since I owned my last Explorer but the ferrous reading seemed much more reliable on it. I often used the smart screen and watched the cross hairs to judge targets. With the seemingly (to me anyway) more unstable ferrous reading of the Etrac and the compressed 12th line it seems like more guys I think use the VDI # screen and not the smart find because the cross hairs don't seem as useful, where as it seems more Explorer guys seem to prefer the smart find screen.
As for gold, I've read some quotes from guys who own FBS and BBS that say BBS hits harder or at least is more "robust" on a ring at depth, as well as remark that the stability at some places like certain beaches is smoother and less chattery with their BBS units. But, of course opinions can vary. That's just the gist of what I've mostly read. Do some key word searching in the FBS forums for beach, BBS, Sovereign, Excalibur, gold rings, and so on and read the various opinions for more insight either way. Do the same in the beach forum as there is a lot of opinion to be found there as well if you dig enough.
I'm surprised you say the Sovereign has easier pin pointing. I've used the Etrac here and there and it's software PP mode makes it much easier to use the center of the coil to me. Same with the Explorer SE's updated PPiing software compared to the old Explorers as I've used an SE a bit too. Much easier than the Explorer II was to me. But, to be honest I hardly have ever used the center of the Sovereign coil to PP as I prefer the tip of my SEF coil, so I can't say if the Sovereign is harder or not myself without more practice. For sure it's easier on the Sovereign to me with my limited exposure to it than my Explorer IIs were using the center when I have tried it. I keep putting off practicing with the center of it in the field and just go by the tip, but I do pass up some super deep signals that I think the tip can't PP (not all of the deep ones won't PP with the tip but here and there it happens) so I better learn to use the center more when needed. Even with DD coils the center is a bit deeper than the outer edges, but that's in general worse of a problem on concentrics.
Make sure you have the PPing mode set properly on the Etrac. I forget what setting I set up for my two friend's machines but it was the one that works better at PPing targets. From fuzzy memory the other setting was for long response or something for tracing out targets or something like that. Either way, one of them is better than the other if I remember right, so you should try changing the PP mode on your Etrac and see if it gets easier. My one Etrac friend had never used a DD before and was spoiled with his Whites concentric but had no problem being pretty darn good with the Etrac and center of the coil in no time thanks to it's excellent PPing software mode.
A lot of guys prefer BBS for being smoother in certain environments such as certain beaches for less chatter and such, so I'm surprised you find FBS smoother for you. I've mostly heard the reverse of that on the forums.
You're right about noise cancel on the FBS machines being much more useful, but some older Sovereigns (I think the XS like yours maybe) had a run where they didn't come with any RF shielding inside the box and were very bad with EMI problems around stuff. With my friends if I'm right up under or say within 15 feet of power lines I usually have to kick sensitivity on my GT down to keep it from getting chattery. I can try switching to the other noise band but I like to stay on band 2 as it matches the old Sovereign charts where as band 1 makes mid conductors like nickles read off a tad. My friend's with the Etracs can just noise cancel near lines like that and be done with the problem with rock solid stability and not as much need (but still some need) to turn down sensitivity. One great thing about FBS's noise cancel function is they can do it when I'm right next to them and then we can hunt all day right close to each other without much interference to each other. If we don't do that and they are on the wrong channel then we have to stay much further away from each other.
The only caveat about using noise cancel on the FBS units is that it can change the VDI numbers on many targets, including nickles and such, but amazingly I was just reading that certain channels can also change silver's and other coin's higher on the scale a tad too somewhat. A guy was doing some extensive testing on that. Here's the clincher that he realized...Which I never even seen anybody mention before...If you are using learn accept or learn reject they become somewhat useless to the pattern you generated if you noise cancel and it switches to certain other channels due to the changing VDI response. I never would have thought of that. I think it would have been a good idea for Minelab to adjust the VDI software to compensate for the noise channel it's on so all VDI's stay the same. For that reason, many FBS guys will stick with the same noise channel all the time and never noise cancel, so they get used to the VDI numbers for say nickles and such the way they read on that channel, and so the patterns they make and the learn accept/reject ones they create will work better.
As for the 2D discrimination, many Etrac guys ignore the ferrous reading as it can range wildy, so they base target ID on the 1 to 50 conductivity scale. I don't know if it's just me because it's been a while since I owned my last Explorer but the ferrous reading seemed much more reliable on it. I often used the smart screen and watched the cross hairs to judge targets. With the seemingly (to me anyway) more unstable ferrous reading of the Etrac and the compressed 12th line it seems like more guys I think use the VDI # screen and not the smart find because the cross hairs don't seem as useful, where as it seems more Explorer guys seem to prefer the smart find screen.
As for gold, I've read some quotes from guys who own FBS and BBS that say BBS hits harder or at least is more "robust" on a ring at depth, as well as remark that the stability at some places like certain beaches is smoother and less chattery with their BBS units. But, of course opinions can vary. That's just the gist of what I've mostly read. Do some key word searching in the FBS forums for beach, BBS, Sovereign, Excalibur, gold rings, and so on and read the various opinions for more insight either way. Do the same in the beach forum as there is a lot of opinion to be found there as well if you dig enough.
I don't like the pinpointing on the E-Trac because I like to use "size" pinpoint. Sometimes when I switch from disc. to pinpoint I completely lose the target, then I have have to switch back to disc. mode to find it again. If you don't switch to pinpoint mode when you are directly over the target you can have trouble picking it up again. With the Sov and concentric coil I could pinpoint any round shape object dead center every time, yes you have to move the coil back and forth a lot but it was very reliable. Of course I am no expert with the E-Trac so I will keep trying.
Critterhunter
New member
From memory one of the PP settings on the Etrac is a sizing mode one, so try that. Like I said try the other PP modes on the Etrac. I think one is better than the other(s) you can set on that. It's pretty good. Still not as deadly as a concentric but it's easier to do for a DD than it was on the old Explorer IIs. My friend never uses much coil movement with it. Very slow movement until he hears the loudest tone and then he's pretty much right on it. I can often hear his audio when I'm next to him and can tell what he's up to with it, and as said I've used it here and there and it's easier to "catch onto" than the old EIIs were for me.
Did you have that 8" Detech concentric coil for your Sovereign? If so, can you give us a mini-review of it in the coil sticky at the top of the forum? You're about as rare as hen's teeth because I've only ran across one other guy who had that coil, which they haven't made for a few years I think. Only concentric coil that I'm aware of for the Sovereign.
Did you have that 8" Detech concentric coil for your Sovereign? If so, can you give us a mini-review of it in the coil sticky at the top of the forum? You're about as rare as hen's teeth because I've only ran across one other guy who had that coil, which they haven't made for a few years I think. Only concentric coil that I'm aware of for the Sovereign.
Jack Flynn
New member
Three year ETrac user here. A lot of hours on it and very very proficient with it if I must say. Got an Excal II a year and a half ago, then a GT shortly there after. The ETrac sat motionless for 10 months. Traded it for another Excal II............. The GT just might be the best machine you will ever put your hands on. The key to all the Minelab machines is to use them long enough to actually learn their language. Most people don't. If you want to find virtually everthing the GT is the way to go. The ETrac is such a superb coinshooter it will teach you not to dig jewelry and such. IOW the ET is so good at coins it trains you. Also if you plan on hunting in a lot of mineralized soil, black sand, red clay. The ETrac does not get any depth in those conditions at all. The GT smokes em in those conditions.
Critterhunter
New member
Yes, the Coinsearch is a DD. The only concentric that was made for the Sovereign is an 8" Detech coil that they haven't made for a few years and I only saw one guy give a report on it who seemed to like it. I believe now there is once again an 8" Detech coil for the Sovereign listed on Kellyco again. I would assume it's a DD, but I have suspicions that it's really the 6" or 5" (I think they made one and the other at one time or another) coil that is mislabled as an 8".
I have both with the sef 12x10. I've done quite a bit of side by side Comparing and on land and wet salt sand. On land the etrac def has the edge in my area (CT). It's close but I've had a few deep coins that would null wit the sov at first but after wiggling and walking around the target I could get a tone occasionally. Etrac can also be swung a lil faster. Sov needs to crawl to find certain deep or masked targets. On the salt wet sand the sov is much better than etrac. Especially on gold. If I was forced to sell one it would be an easy choice, I'd keep th sov gt. it's close to etrac on land but I dont think the etrac is as close to sov in the salt. I prefer water hunting so it's an easy choice
Critterhunter
New member
Not seeing ANY edge to the Etrac in depth OR separation on land compared to my GT with 12x10. If i had, simply put, I'd own an Etrac right now. In fact, I'd probably go back to an EII, as many swear it's the deepest of the FBS machines, especially when a Pro Coil or especially a 12x10 is thrown on it. I never like to know I'm hunting with a less good of "a stick" compared to my friends, which own two Etracs and recently an SE. For that reason, had I seen otherwise in the field, I'd be saying BYE BYE and on to something else. For me it comes to two things...Depth and separation. Everything else is pure eye candy and designed to get extra money out of my pocket. Well, besides that, I want tone alerts and a high resolution VDI. The Sovereign gives me all of that in spades, so I'm not moving on until something shows me otherwise. That's IMHO. I'm not overly brand loyal. Was a much bigger Whites fan than I ever was a Minelab guy. Owned many a machine over the years, so when I see something that does something better I'm on my way to the next machine. I see nothing that tells me to do that in all the current machines out there. ALL of them.
We've compared signals of badly masked or super deep coins in the field over the last few months. EXACTLY the same grade of response all around them from differnt angles from both machines, and I'm talking badly masked, super deep, or on edge coins that were so bad that they nulled for both of us all the way around them but in one tight spot and angle. Not a dime's worth of difference on either machine. And, once I hit a super deep whisper that sounded 12" + *in my soil*. I was running full blast sensitvity with the GT and 12x10. My friend, in Auto +3,. even though his sensitivity was near full max, could not hear that signal. Only after he put it in manual and raised it the last few clicks to full could he hear it. That tells me both machines are pretty much evenly matched in depth in my soil, and as said even badly masked coins that nulled all the way around but one spot where exactly the same fior both of us.
Yes, I'm a big Sovereign fan fan having owned 3 Explorers and numerous other machines, but if I saw anything that gave me the disadvantage I'd be moving on. My history of machines I've owned says I'll do that. Much of what you do is confidence. If you feel a certain amount of "flash" or otherwise gives you the edge then that can make all the difference. If I saw any difference in infield comparisons on undug targets, the only true way to judge abilities, I've be on my way to whatever else. Until I do I'm staying put...
We've compared signals of badly masked or super deep coins in the field over the last few months. EXACTLY the same grade of response all around them from differnt angles from both machines, and I'm talking badly masked, super deep, or on edge coins that were so bad that they nulled for both of us all the way around them but in one tight spot and angle. Not a dime's worth of difference on either machine. And, once I hit a super deep whisper that sounded 12" + *in my soil*. I was running full blast sensitvity with the GT and 12x10. My friend, in Auto +3,. even though his sensitivity was near full max, could not hear that signal. Only after he put it in manual and raised it the last few clicks to full could he hear it. That tells me both machines are pretty much evenly matched in depth in my soil, and as said even badly masked coins that nulled all the way around but one spot where exactly the same fior both of us.
Yes, I'm a big Sovereign fan fan having owned 3 Explorers and numerous other machines, but if I saw anything that gave me the disadvantage I'd be moving on. My history of machines I've owned says I'll do that. Much of what you do is confidence. If you feel a certain amount of "flash" or otherwise gives you the edge then that can make all the difference. If I saw any difference in infield comparisons on undug targets, the only true way to judge abilities, I've be on my way to whatever else. Until I do I'm staying put...
Critterhunter said:
I agree to a point.
The Gt and E-Trac will both hit masked targets equally and when running a head to head over a known target I don't think you would see a difference. That being said, to get the GT to separate as well as the E-Trac takes some serious concentration and a very slow pace (especially in area with high target concentrations). IMO that's the one area the E-trac has a definite advantage. Just an off the cuff guess, but I would say that it takes me 2-3x as long to thoroughly cover a trashy area with my GT as it does with an E-trac. The GT does the job well, it just takes longer. That's a type of hunt where the fully featured discrimination and the faster response of the E-trac really makes a difference.Critterhunter
New member
Don't agree on that, sorry. Every time my Etrac and SE Pro friends get in a hurry they don't find squat. If anything, I find that when my one serious Etrac friend is real serious about finding stuff he CRAWLS even more than I usually do with my GT. In fact, many of the Explorer or Etrac heavy hitters recommend a 4 second sweep or longer to find the super deep or badly masked stuff. That's RARELY as slow as I go with my GT, but I'm giving it more of a try to see if it provides me more gains in depth or unmasking. Results are mixed for me thus far, but many of the old Sovereign experts also recommend as equal of a slow sweep as I've read for the FBS machines by the heavy hitter experts. Got to be some truth to that, at least in some soils, when many of the Minelab guys are saying the same thing. I can swing the GT pretty fast and do well. Even faster in Silent Search (as Minelab says). Just that if I want extreme depth and better separation I know I need to go slower. Haven't decided yet if i need to go 4 seconds per sweep, but for sure it can't be too fast for max depth and separation. Still bouncing between ultra slow, slow, and medium to see which gives me the best depth in my soil. Just saying that when it comes to all these Minelabs...I've owned 3 Explorers, use the Etrac here and there, and also the GT...All of them want pretty much the same sweep speed, being SLOW for best depth and separation. Just not sure what defines slow, as I think a somewhat medium speed on my GT *might* give me the best depth, but more tests are in order...
I can also post a recent message from elsehwhere where a GT guy has been comparing signals to his Explorer friend over a few years and not once has he not been able to easily see just as well the signal before digging. Jives with what I've found in my soil with my EIIs, and in fact was better for me I think due to the lousy EII 10" coils. The 10" Tornado is a much better coil IMHO.
I can also post a recent message from elsehwhere where a GT guy has been comparing signals to his Explorer friend over a few years and not once has he not been able to easily see just as well the signal before digging. Jives with what I've found in my soil with my EIIs, and in fact was better for me I think due to the lousy EII 10" coils. The 10" Tornado is a much better coil IMHO.
I'm not making this stuff up u know. Most of the time I can eventually get my sov to signal on the tough targets but it takes quite a bit of wiggling and moving around. But I'd probably just pass it if I was hunting normal and the etrac hadn't sniffed it out first. Like I said earlier, I've done a lot of side by sides with the 2 and before I had etrac I would check signals from the etracs & explorers I was hunting with and have def had some signals the sov just couldn't id. Not sure where everyone else is from but here in CT it's the truth. Not a huge deal but we've got a lot of grounds that go back to the 1600's and that 1 target you miss could be just about anything. 1700's coins aren't that uncommon and I always feel more confident with etrac. That's in my neck of the woods though. I sure can't speak for anyone else.