Steve from Ohio
New member
UPS delivered the E-Trac today. I had 9 inches of snow in my back yard so I drove around and found a park with no snow on the ground so I went out for almost 4 hours of detecting.
The place I was detecting has been hit very hard by other Minelab owners. Several Explorers and other detectors have made this park almost barren of anything of value. I did find a very corroded large cent, a 1912 Lincoln cent surrounded by a bunch of iron and 8 other wheaties that were in the 4 to 8 inch depths. A few clads and the obligatory Hotwheel car. Tons of trash too. This place used to be an amusement park back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the past many Indian head cents, silver dimes and quarters have been pulled from this now city park.
I have figured out that I will have to put away all my other detectors for a while and use the E-Trac exclusively in order to get in my mind the numbers that mean good targets and which are trash.
So far I love the E-Trac . I dug quite a few screw caps and tabs. (which is to be expected to learn the machine I guess) They really sound good on the E-Trac. Digging them will help me reinforce the numbers and I save them all to verify my findings. Sort of like flash cards when I was a kid. I'll be indoor air detecting tonight to get the numbers down in my head. I figure if I do that for about a week or two every night, the numbers will sink in.
I have always used sound to figure to dig or not to dig in the past but with the E-trac it looks as if I will have to rely not only on the sound, but the real decision maker will be the FE CO numbers. Correct me if I am wrong on that please! As far as numbers go, the E-Trac seems to be very stable when ID'ing. Very different from my Fisher F-70 and a lot of other detectors I have used.
I also have noticed that the Koss headphones supplied with the E-Trac are kind of soft in the sound department. I prefer a very sharp sound and the Koss's are quite a bit muffled. Anyone have any recommendations on headphones? I hear the Grey Ghost ultimates are the one that everyone is recommending.
I have found a set of 3000 MAH AA NIMH rechargeable batteries that should extend the length of detecting I can do. When I start detecting, I often loose track of time and the only thing that stops me is low batteries and the sun going down which is what stopped me today.
I did notice that swinging the E-Trac is almost as easy as swinging the 2lb 15 oz Fisher F-70. I do not care for the arm rest on the E-Trac and will be replacing that soon. When wearing a jacket and sweatshirt, the arm rest is just too small. Even bare armed it is not very comfortable.
I was not even tired swinging the E-Trac for almost 4 hours and the E-Trac seems to be very well balanced. The back lit screen is easy to read and I was able to detect until I could no longer see what I was digging.
I am using the Detectorpro Pistol probe and that thing is awesome. It does interfere with the E-Trac to a degree. If I keep the coil far enough away, no problem. With the Pistol Probe, I did not need to sweep hand fulls of dirt in front of the coil to see if I dug the target up. And using the button, the Pistol Probe is off until needed. I did have to move one side of the headphones off to hear the probe.
So far I am very pleased with the E-Trac and I will admit that I have a lot more learning to do with it.
The place I was detecting has been hit very hard by other Minelab owners. Several Explorers and other detectors have made this park almost barren of anything of value. I did find a very corroded large cent, a 1912 Lincoln cent surrounded by a bunch of iron and 8 other wheaties that were in the 4 to 8 inch depths. A few clads and the obligatory Hotwheel car. Tons of trash too. This place used to be an amusement park back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the past many Indian head cents, silver dimes and quarters have been pulled from this now city park.
I have figured out that I will have to put away all my other detectors for a while and use the E-Trac exclusively in order to get in my mind the numbers that mean good targets and which are trash.
So far I love the E-Trac . I dug quite a few screw caps and tabs. (which is to be expected to learn the machine I guess) They really sound good on the E-Trac. Digging them will help me reinforce the numbers and I save them all to verify my findings. Sort of like flash cards when I was a kid. I'll be indoor air detecting tonight to get the numbers down in my head. I figure if I do that for about a week or two every night, the numbers will sink in.
I have always used sound to figure to dig or not to dig in the past but with the E-trac it looks as if I will have to rely not only on the sound, but the real decision maker will be the FE CO numbers. Correct me if I am wrong on that please! As far as numbers go, the E-Trac seems to be very stable when ID'ing. Very different from my Fisher F-70 and a lot of other detectors I have used.
I also have noticed that the Koss headphones supplied with the E-Trac are kind of soft in the sound department. I prefer a very sharp sound and the Koss's are quite a bit muffled. Anyone have any recommendations on headphones? I hear the Grey Ghost ultimates are the one that everyone is recommending.
I have found a set of 3000 MAH AA NIMH rechargeable batteries that should extend the length of detecting I can do. When I start detecting, I often loose track of time and the only thing that stops me is low batteries and the sun going down which is what stopped me today.
I did notice that swinging the E-Trac is almost as easy as swinging the 2lb 15 oz Fisher F-70. I do not care for the arm rest on the E-Trac and will be replacing that soon. When wearing a jacket and sweatshirt, the arm rest is just too small. Even bare armed it is not very comfortable.
I was not even tired swinging the E-Trac for almost 4 hours and the E-Trac seems to be very well balanced. The back lit screen is easy to read and I was able to detect until I could no longer see what I was digging.
I am using the Detectorpro Pistol probe and that thing is awesome. It does interfere with the E-Trac to a degree. If I keep the coil far enough away, no problem. With the Pistol Probe, I did not need to sweep hand fulls of dirt in front of the coil to see if I dug the target up. And using the button, the Pistol Probe is off until needed. I did have to move one side of the headphones off to hear the probe.
So far I am very pleased with the E-Trac and I will admit that I have a lot more learning to do with it.