Ok I know you all have been asked before, but I am going to ask again. I have a Etrac with a SunRay probe and 3 additional coils. I have been reading all about the CTX and all of its features. I do very well with my Etrac and logic say's I should stay with what I have, and not take a beating on trading or selling my equipment. But for some reason I keep thinking I want to make the move, please help convince me or stop me. I do not know what keeps me thinking I should do this.
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Why should I do it?
- Thread starter smkunder
- Start date
GateKeeper
Well-known member
NO! Dont upgrade! CTX is nothing more than a giant crowbar. Etrac is better. Can I go hunting with you with my CTX?
nolanation
New member
Minelab came out with the CTX so they would have something that would perform worse than the E Trac, so don't do it!
GateKeeper
Well-known member
smkunder said:
Why do we need to convince or stop you? If your happy with your Etrac, keep it. Or do what hershey1 said, buy the 3030, keep the Etrac, and decide for yourself. Read the threads and posts on this forum. Go to Youtube and watch the video's. Then decide for yourself. I myself have had this machine since the release date. I've got well over a thousand hours on the CTX and it blows away the other machines I have used. Does it outperform an Etrac? Many Etrac users have been benefiting from the upgrade and would not go back. As a matter of fact, I know of a user who bought the CTX, sold it, went back to his Etrac, and then went and bought another CTX because he missed the CTX's performance.
Now it's your turn. Go do your own research and decide for yourself.
I assume you want this for land coin hunting in decent ground. The Etrac has the advantage of economically priced aftermarket accessories which you already own... Accessories for the CTX are gonna cost you a lot.. You are probably want at least the 6" coil.. No 8" coil is currently available & if one is to come it will be either from Minelab or Coiltek due to the smart coil technology used on the CTX so expect it to be pricey also. The 13x17 coil is big and expensive..Extra lower shafts are also expensive.. You will miss the Sunray probe so I would recommend the Detector Pro uniprobe... The ergonomics are much better on the CTX, after using it for a day you wont want to pick up the Etrac... The Exchange 2 program is useful for editing & sharing programs but is not easy for some to use initialy... Most importantly , the CTX will find things that the Etrac wont .. I see you have an Excalibur. If you do diving Id keep that around.. If you just do wading the CTX may replace it for that and you would have the advantage of mastering one machine for wet & dry hunting.. Its gonna cost you but if having the best coin machine available is important to you and you can afford it, the CTX is the way to go.. wildherre
Thank You Wildherre, that the kinda of help I was looking for, I am just at the edge of pulling the trigger after many weeks of research, just looking for that confirmation from some other users. I did swing a friends for a few minutes today and it felt awesome. He had just gotten it had had no knowledge of the unit so i did what I could with my Etrac knowledge to get him up and going. Just from the few minutes I played with it, I was very impressed.
Well now, there is your ultimate answer. Borrow your friends CTX and use it for a couple of days and see for yourself. No cost involved in that.
I will tell you I own one of every high end detector available XP, CTX, Whites, Garrett, each is no better than the ability of the person holding it. How you
Become one with the particular detector you are using will make your recovery rate what ever it is going to be.
I have had my CTX for about 2 months. I still have more confidence with my knowledge of my AT Pro than I do my CTX. My finds rate proves that. I honestly believe
The CTX is a better detector but not in my hands because I do not know it as well as I do the Pro. I will get there someday, but it will not be tomorrow, maybe not next week,but I will get there.
If you are proficient with the e-trac, you will pick up the CTX very quickly. The build quality of the CTX I feel is superior to anything else available on the market regardless of price.
I also believe the AT Pro is flat out the best detector available on the market as far as my finds results are concerned regardless of price. My AT has paid for itself 3 times in two years. I'm not sure my CTX is going to be able to do that no matter how knowledgable I become using it.
I purchased the CTX because I wanted to feel I'm using the ultimate tool to provide me the greatest opportunity to obtain the best finds rate possible. I still believe that will happen.
I will tell you I own one of every high end detector available XP, CTX, Whites, Garrett, each is no better than the ability of the person holding it. How you
Become one with the particular detector you are using will make your recovery rate what ever it is going to be.
I have had my CTX for about 2 months. I still have more confidence with my knowledge of my AT Pro than I do my CTX. My finds rate proves that. I honestly believe
The CTX is a better detector but not in my hands because I do not know it as well as I do the Pro. I will get there someday, but it will not be tomorrow, maybe not next week,but I will get there.
If you are proficient with the e-trac, you will pick up the CTX very quickly. The build quality of the CTX I feel is superior to anything else available on the market regardless of price.
I also believe the AT Pro is flat out the best detector available on the market as far as my finds results are concerned regardless of price. My AT has paid for itself 3 times in two years. I'm not sure my CTX is going to be able to do that no matter how knowledgable I become using it.
I purchased the CTX because I wanted to feel I'm using the ultimate tool to provide me the greatest opportunity to obtain the best finds rate possible. I still believe that will happen.
FooserPaul
New member
I owned an E-Trac for 3+ years and found hundreds of Silver coins... Spanish Silver, 50+ Colonial Copper Coins, etc... and just wrote this article for my clubs upcoming months Newsletter:
There has been some great articles and input from Dave XXXXXXXXX concerning the Minelab CTX 3030. I would like to outline some of my recent CTX 3030 activity visiting sites that I thought I had hunted out with my E-Trac.
Perhaps a little background is in order. I just finished my 5th year Metal Detecting. I've owned 4 land detectors: For the 1st 3-4 months I used a Bounty Hunter LandStar, then came a Minelab
There has been some great articles and input from Dave XXXXXXXXX concerning the Minelab CTX 3030. I would like to outline some of my recent CTX 3030 activity visiting sites that I thought I had hunted out with my E-Trac.
Perhaps a little background is in order. I just finished my 5th year Metal Detecting. I've owned 4 land detectors: For the 1st 3-4 months I used a Bounty Hunter LandStar, then came a Minelab
FooserPaul
New member
smkunder said:
I'm glad this helped you some... GL in your decision...
Respectfully,
Paul
Chris(SoCenWI)
Well-known member
Steve,
I've had the XS since 2001, tried and gave up on a F-75 a few years back, and recently bought a CTX-3030. I eagerly tried a few wonderful sites that I've hit hard with my XS, hoping that these sites would "come alive again" but so far not at all. Yesterday I was out at a new yard with the CTX, managed three silvers, an IH and buff. It does find coins, but I'm not sure it does any better than the older models of FBS detectors.
I'm not sure why I'm getting different results than some of the others have posted. With the XS I always hunt open screen ferrous, I'm wondering if the people seeing better results used discrimination on their other machines and maybe the CTX does this better in this regard than the older machines.
I'm also seeing many of the idiosyncrasies of the XS in the CTX, falses on big deep iron, depth meter inaccurate on shallow targets, doesn't seem to do better under power lines, etc. I'm going to keep on trying, but not sure if the cost of the CTX and the higher prices coils is worth it. I am looking forward to trying some water hunting in at some old resorts; something can't do with the XS.
Wavering in Wisconsin,
Chris
I've had the XS since 2001, tried and gave up on a F-75 a few years back, and recently bought a CTX-3030. I eagerly tried a few wonderful sites that I've hit hard with my XS, hoping that these sites would "come alive again" but so far not at all. Yesterday I was out at a new yard with the CTX, managed three silvers, an IH and buff. It does find coins, but I'm not sure it does any better than the older models of FBS detectors.
I'm not sure why I'm getting different results than some of the others have posted. With the XS I always hunt open screen ferrous, I'm wondering if the people seeing better results used discrimination on their other machines and maybe the CTX does this better in this regard than the older machines.
I'm also seeing many of the idiosyncrasies of the XS in the CTX, falses on big deep iron, depth meter inaccurate on shallow targets, doesn't seem to do better under power lines, etc. I'm going to keep on trying, but not sure if the cost of the CTX and the higher prices coils is worth it. I am looking forward to trying some water hunting in at some old resorts; something can't do with the XS.
Wavering in Wisconsin,
Chris
Nes (south Coast-CA)
New member
Nice,informative writeup FooserPaul. Some of the parks I have searched in California, you don't expect to find a lot of old coins. I did, however find one about 20 years ago that nobody had hunted. I don't know why, because it was in a small town park. The coins seemed to be separated by activity, by that I mean a lot of dimes in one area, some Indian heads in another, but aside from that, most of the really old coins there were spread throughout the park. I found coin dates back to 1875 and about 100 or more old ones from the silver era back. I know if I go back there, I'll probably find a lot more, because the equipment I used back then was ancient compared to the CTX. Whenever anyone did come by when I hunted that park and asked how I was doing, I always flat out lied, stating in a serious way that there didn't seem to be much there, but I was happy to be getting the excerise... Nes
EtracTom-AdirondacksNY
New member
Chris in Wis.
Yes the newer Etrac and Now the CTX do way better with their newer technology with having discrimination running compared to old Explorers and with the newer processor in the Etrac and the 2wice as fast one in the CTX works fantastic. Also running them in HIGH TRASH mode seperates out the good and bad better. Watch your screen on the iron your unsure of and go to an open screen with one button touch on the CTX and see the target cursor on the Etrac and CTX that the cursor is in the lower right quadrant helps me to realize it's deep iron or iron falsing.
Power lines try a noise channel reset and let the machine see if there is one that will quiet it down and try +2 +1 or down into -1, 2, 3, to lower sensitivity in AUTO to see if it helps.
Yes the newer Etrac and Now the CTX do way better with their newer technology with having discrimination running compared to old Explorers and with the newer processor in the Etrac and the 2wice as fast one in the CTX works fantastic. Also running them in HIGH TRASH mode seperates out the good and bad better. Watch your screen on the iron your unsure of and go to an open screen with one button touch on the CTX and see the target cursor on the Etrac and CTX that the cursor is in the lower right quadrant helps me to realize it's deep iron or iron falsing.
Power lines try a noise channel reset and let the machine see if there is one that will quiet it down and try +2 +1 or down into -1, 2, 3, to lower sensitivity in AUTO to see if it helps.