Which is better in the nails: E-Trac or AT Pro

I pretty much know how the AT Pro does. It's pretty good in nail beds. Although I did own an Etrac at one time, I didn't give it a chance. BUT i do remember that the gain would go completely silent when working over nails making me wonder if it was even detecting anything! Can anyone with experieince with the tywo shed some light? Thanks

I haven't tested my ATPro w the small coil yet in iron I doubt though if it even compares w the LTD SE w 5" coil or anything else for that matter.

Etrac in heavy iron/nails forget it

believe it or not my mates Compass 77B is excellent when compared with my latest machines in heavy heavy nail clusters on river foreshore .

I never had an AT-PRO,But would like to try one someday. As far as the E-trac it is good in iron trash with the smaller x-8 coil once you learn the machine and how to work the iron nulls as they call it. As long as it is not loaded with them like an old home site. One of the best hunting in iron trash with the Explorer/E-trac is Bryce,IL. on the Findmall Explorer Forum. As a matter of fact he just made a great post about it recently with a couple silver he found masked by nails if you want to check it out. It is very informative. I personally think the E-trac is even a little better than the Explorer in iron as it has a slightly faster proceessor.

The key to any machine is to learn its language.
I have both machines and can say for my area the Etrac holds the lead.
But time might just show something different, once I've learned a little more about the AT Pro.
One thing for sure, I can almost, tell 100% of the time, if I have a nail with the Etrac, as long as the nail is not bent.
On the other hand I really like the AT, but time and experience will tell

Sometimes i think the E- trac is better at everything! HH

The AT Pro does a very good job in nails and iron with the 5 x 8 coil. The detector has a great audio that fails to get mentioned by reviews. I hunt in the Pro zero discrimination mode and listen for high tones. Nickels are sometimes dug when the ID locks on a solid 48-49. The AT Pro will have a tendency to blend target ID sometimes. If a piece of iron is in the same hole as a coin it could give you a read out of say in the sixties. A normal dime quarter is in the low eighties. Going very slow helps with this. If you think hunting with your detector with zero discrimination is not practical I will tell you that it is quite easy with the AT Pro. One way high tones that only repeat one way need to be dug.

The E Trac is deeper than the AT Pro. I have not had the E Trac for very long, but I have noticed a thing or two. I recently put the NEL sharpshooter coil on mine. Reguardless of which small coil you go with the E Trac does better in high iron or trash areas with one. Not really a surprise there. Some guys run with the TTF program. To tell you the truth I really haven't had time with that program. But I did switch over to my quickmask screen that is pretty much wide open. Again with a smaller coil and going slow and just listening for high tones. While the AT Pro will blend target ID numbers the E Trac will continue to be accurate with the conductivity number. The Ferrous number will be all over the place, but the conductivity number remains fairly constant.

Go slow with a small coil and use as little discrimination as possible. Nothing new.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2012 10:22PM by goodmore.

Goodmore - I can agree with your E-Trac coil statements (haven't used an ATPro) but the last part about using as little discrim as possible I'm mixed on. I do run with minimal discrim cause I'm in Germany and coins hit all over. A lot of guys run high discrimination on the E-Trac in trashy spots and it excels there. The detector acts differently with high discrim (and the trash density on high setting) that a lot of other machines. It seems that it rather zero tones out the discriminated values rather than truly discriminating them out - as there is no loss of depth and coins are pulled from alongside trash. You just have to open the Fe numbers down in your discrim patterns to catch the bounces or dropping Fe numbers. The CO values can be relatively tighter as they are more consistent.

I agree goodmore.
I presently do not have a smaller coil for my Etrac, but hope to sometime in the future.
You are right about the depth, the Etrac can see coins in my test garden that the AT Pro just can not find.

But I must confess, there is iron nails in my test garden were left there on purpose.



goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The AT Pro does a very good job in nails and iron
> with the 5 x 8 coil. The detector has a great
> audio that fails to get mentioned by reviews. I
> hunt in the Pro zero discrimination mode and
> listen for high tones. Nickels are sometimes dug
> when the ID locks on a solid 48-49. The AT Pro
> will have a tendency to blend target ID sometimes.
> If a piece of iron is in the same hole as a coin
> it could give you a read out of say in the
> sixties. A normal dime quarter is in the low
> eighties. Going very slow helps with this. If you
> think hunting with your detector with zero
> discrimination is not practical I will tell you
> that it is quite easy with the AT Pro. One way
> high tones that only repeat one way need to be
> dug.
>
> The E Trac is deeper than the AT Pro. I have not
> had the E Trac for very long, but I have noticed a
> thing or two. I recently put the NEL sharpshooter
> coil on mine. Reguardless of which small coil you
> go with the E Trac does better in high iron or
> trash areas with one. Not really a surprise there.
> Some guys run with the TTF program. To tell you
> the truth I really haven't had time with that
> program. But I did switch over to my quickmask
> screen that is pretty much wide open. Again with a
> smaller coil and going slow and just listening for
> high tones. While the AT Pro will blend target ID
> numbers the E Trac will continue to be accurate
> with the conductivity number. The Ferrous number
> will be all over the place, but the conductivity
> number remains fairly constant.
>
> Go slow with a small coil and use as little
> discrimination as possible. Nothing new.

Like I said I am quite new to the E Trac. I will play with the discrimination over time. I want to try TTF also. I have a long detecting season ahead to learn.

I prefer the AT-Pro over the E-Trac in heavy iron/nails........ especially relic hunting applications. Whilst AT-Pro is not as deep as Explorer/E-Trac in less trashy areas, the single freq iron handling abilities of the AT-Pro coupled with audio presentation...... affords better non-ferrous recovery abilities. The ONLY way to ascertain this type of datum........ is head-to-head comparison............. one-on-one.............. on the exact same UNRECOVERED real-world targets............... with each detector set up for its optimal performance for each specific condition. This is to say....... the settings may not be the same for each scenario....... nor unto each other (with regards to comparable settings).

If mineralization is quite heavy.......... then the nod goes to the Minelab.

I was recently challenged to find anything non ferrous in a extremely heavy iron infested area almost 200yrs old. I could set up the Etrac anyway I wanted along w a 5" x-5 coil. I have had the Etrac for a year now and a respectable amount of time on it. I searched incredibly slow overlapping 50 percent per swing, using a open no disc, a coins/park and stock patterns. Also even tried TTF. Many signals were investigated/dug using quick mask. The only thing I found was square nails. And this was in non mineralized ground!
Important to note here is that this same exact ground has produced many beautiful relics for my freind, ,who has found them with his 75LTD/5"coil.

I do agree the Etrac does well in iron as I have the silver and non ferrous good targets to prove it, in heavy iron however....no way. For those of who disagree can you honestly say you have been on a old house site or camp site were there is literally carpets of nails not just one or two nails per swing?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2012 06:12PM by Aaron.