Using the E-trac on the beach

[Nampa 23]

Does anyone have any idea how the E-trac compares to the Excaliber for beach work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Nampa 23

 

[bcoop]

The E-Trac and Excalibur are two totally different machines, however they are both great beach detecting machines. The E-Trac is not waterproof but is great in wet and dry sand and also in the waters edge if you dare. A rogue wave could cause disaster very quickly resulting in a 1,400 dollar mistake.
The Excalibur is a beach/surf machine waterproof to 200 ft. and thrives in this environment, you can go to the beach forum and find that out for yourself. Go to you tube and check out videos from Oldebeachnut and surfdigger for real time proof. I used my E-Trac on the beach for 5 days July 2009 and found lots of clad, junk jewelry, several pairs of sunglasses and all the usual beach junk along with 14 rings. The E-Trac goes deep at the beach, I dug several coins 12 inches plus, a bracelet that was at least 18 inches and a pair of sunglasses almost 2 feet at the high tide line. A forum member loaned me a 15" WOT coil and I tried it out about 4 hours, it worked very well on the beach and ran super quiet. A bit heavy though when I was hunting 6 to 8 hours a day am and pm low tides.
I don't personally own an Excalibur but I will be purchasing one soon to use while vacationing on the beach and at home in the fresh water beaches. Here is a picture of some of the finds I found on the beach with the E-Trac, several silver rings and 2 gold.

 

[Razorback]

I havnt used the Excal, but for some reason Id really like to play with one in the surf. But I am using my new Etrac at the beach exclusively and once I got the sensitivity sorted out with wet sand and the waters edge... no problems. Like bcoop said they go very deep. Me and the friend I detect with are often saying "no way" when we pull out something small past 12"... seems to be in its element on the smooth sand as you can get the coil right down and skim the surface. Just crank up the Sens. till it starts to false, then knock it back a point or two and your away.

 

[Nampa 23]

Thanks guys for the response and wealth of information. Awesome finds bcoop and your point of a possible $1400 mistake is well taken. Again many thanks to you both for taking the time to provide the answers I needed. Nampa 23

 

[ziphius]

because it is easier to swing than the Excal and you will get the same depths. The E-Trac isn't waterproof though, so be careful. I limit my use to wet sand and ankle-high water. Make sure if you are submerging the coil not to lift the coil above the level of the housing, as water will run down the shaft in that direction!

 

[ziphius]

because it is easier to swing than the Excal and you will get the same depths. The E-Trac isn't waterproof though, so be careful. I limit my use to wet sand and ankle-high water. Make sure if you are submerging the coil not to lift the coil above the level of the housing, as water will run down the shaft in that direction!

 

[Nampa 23]

Thanks for the info ziphius, didn't think of the water in the tube, Great info

 

[kered]

because it is easier to swing than the Excal and you will get the same depths. The E-Trac isn't waterproof though, so be careful. I limit my use to wet sand and ankle-high water. Make sure if you are submerging the coil not to lift the coil above the level of the housing, as water will run down the shaft in that direction!

That is debatable, i have both, i use the etrac whenever posible as its deeper, faster and i can change coils, as far as swinging fatigue goes the Excalibur on a balanced straight shaft is far far easier to control and swing it appears very light almost like my F75 and i get home much less fatigued, a completely different detector if you use it on the crap standard shaft though. I only wish i could put my Etrac on one of those balanced shafts too.

 

[Steve from Ohio]

Don't lift the E-trac higher than level if you get the coil wet as the sea water will run up the coil wire to the connector in the control head.

You will possibly get sea water in the control head. I had problems with that and had to tear my E-trac apart and fix the corrosion that was in the control head from the sea water.

I did a little test on a target that I found at low tide in south Florida on a beach,

I had my E-trac and my Excalibur. I found the target with the Excalibur using all metal (pin point). I then used the E-trac with settings that I usually use when in wet sand.

I found that the E-trac settings I used was not really good settings at all as the Excalibur was able to detect the target and the E-trac could not. So I decided to set the E-trac up with a clear screen....all metal.

The E-trac was then able to see the target but not as convincingly as the Excalibur. The E-trac was able to give me a depth of 12 inches.....which was wrong. (I've yet to have any detector with the ability to tell depth be accurate.)

I laid the E-trac down and started to dig. A big wave came and nearly swamped the E-trac. Lesson learned, No E-trac near the water at all. The Excalibur just turned over as the wave hit and was working just fine.

The target was a gold bracelet down about 18 inches. I had to really dig for it as the waves started hitting again.

So I would say that the while the E-trac is a fantastic machine, it is not really meant for wet sand beach hunting. It can be used but you run the risk of getting it wet and then it becomes just a $1500 paper weight,

Keep the E-trac away from the sea and use it for what it was meant for......dry land hunting.

 

[silvereagle]

I saw someone around here that puts foam or something else up in the shaft to stop any water from penetrating up to the head,sounds like a good idea

 

[ziphius]

Given that they are both multi-frequency machines (with the edge going to E-Trac since it goes all the way up to 100 kHZ vs 25.5 kHZ on the Excal), I would think that they would get about the same depths, given equal sensitivity/discrimination settings. I haven't compared the two head-to-head, but your all-metal test of the E-Trac was the right way to go. Do you recall what your sensitivity settings were? Auto? Manual?. Doesn't the E-Trac depth gauge max out at about 12 inches? So anything deeper than 12 would (in this case, your gold target) automatically read as 12. But, I agree that I've yet to see an accurate depth gauge on ANY manufacturer's machine, assuming it's a coin-sized target.

I did a little test on a target that I found at low tide in south Florida on a beach,

I had my E-trac and my Excalibur. I found the target with the Excalibur using all metal (pin point). I then used the E-trac with settings that I usually use when in wet sand.

I found that the E-trac settings I used was not really good settings at all as the Excalibur was able to detect the target and the E-trac could not. So I decided to set the E-trac up with a clear screen....all metal.

The E-trac was then able to see the target but not as convincingly as the Excalibur. The E-trac was able to give me a depth of 12 inches.....which was wrong. (I've yet to have any detector with the ability to tell depth be accurate.)

 

[kered]

I never put any detector down on the beach or inland, i always prop it up agaist my hip

 

[terrywl]

I have both machines, and love them both. I use the X-cal in wet sand out to as deep as I can recover a target, but remember, if you beach hunt much you will get wet! Not if, just when. Look at the surf video at Half Moon Bay in Calif. as to what can happen.

 

[Nampa 23]

Point taken. I just found the video you referred to and anything but a dedicated beach machine would have been toast. Thanks, Nampa 23