Seeing more listings with the CTX For Sale?

See, this is exactly what is confusing me. I am rather new to the DEUS...but been in the ETRAC for a couple of years...actually have two of them. I cannot, I repeat, cannot get the better depth with the ETRAC over the DEUS that is often mentioned. I guess this simply comes down to different soils and understanding how to run the different machines based on the environment being hunted. I hunt in quite a few different places, VA, WV and NC for the most part. I have several test gardens...some new (newest about 3 months) and others a couple of years old...where they are in different locations/soils (VA, NC, WV). My DEUS absolutely, no questions asked, hits with stronger tone across them all. My local garden has a quarter, flat, at exactly 12". The ETRAC will not even report with stock coil until I set sens at 23 and up, but scratchy and not repeatable N, E, S, W...different audio settings, different expert settings, such as fast off, fast on, deep on, deep off... The DEUS will report from all directions, scratchy, on higher frequencies set with faster reactivities, such as Basic 1, etc., but when I put it in lower frequencies, such as stock Relic in 8, the target is repeatable from all directions and very clear. Going into 4, slow freq's and dropping the silencer value...no question...even for the hard of hearing.
I say all of this as I was shocked, as I kept hearing about how the ML was much deeper than the XP. I have simply found this to be the exact opposite.

Now, what's truly interesting to me is what I've found over the last several weeks using the DEUS in some of my local spots...one of which I wrote about a week or so ago on this site (Weight Loss programEUS), and is exactly what Daniel wrote about several posts above in this thread. I've never heard so many great sounding reports for non-ferrous targets in such a small area in such a short period of time. I mean...it was just damn fun...and easy. I did not experience any jumpy VID except when I hit a rusty nail, or similar, sneaking through my low disc settings. These are the same small areas I've run over many different times with my Etrac's. I don't know...absolutely amazing in my opinion.

Now, contributing to the subject matter of why this thread was started. I traded in my Etracs this morning for a new 3030, out of curiosity. Set it up as suggested, ran through the manual. Tried different settings as I've come to understand them in my reading on Finds, etc. I cannot find that 12" quarter. I mean, not even a break in threshold with the machine set as I would hunt in my area. When I run manual up to about 23 or so, the machine recognizes something below the coil, but is more disturbed about it than intelligently trying to inform me of such, much less trying to accurately id it's a quarter. But, at my location with those settings it's picking up EMI, etc. as the machine's simply to unstable to hunt with. Neat machine for sure, but this quarter was better reported by my Etracs... I'm hoping I'm doing something wrong, but I'm thinking this might be a similar finding that Daniel found while hunting with Don on his bullet site.

I replied to this thread b/c within a few hours out of the box, I'm thinking of selling this new machine. Maybe even grabbing another DEUS, as I'm finding this machine just easier to use and...more importantly, so the wife will stop taking mine.

Randy


critterhunter Wrote:
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> Earthmansurfer, did you see the field report on
> undug targets where the Deus and CTX were
> compared? At least on bullets if I remember right
> the CTX couldn't hear many of the found targets
> and they weren't masked either. That's from
> memory, though...I should dig up that field
> comparison and refresh my memory on it. The gist
> of what I hear is that the Deus indeed doesn't get
> Minelab depth on coins in some soils, but that
> extensive head to head report had me scratching my
> head and wondering about the validity of that. I
> await more in depth field reports on comparisons
> of it to various Minelabs...

Goodmore and others - thank for the comments.
Regarding your questions on Germany:

- Do others do it?
My neighbor detects but uses a very old Compass and doesn't seem to find anything beyond 5"-6". I don't see others out ever but my sites are very limited. People that talk to me say they never see people out doing detecting.
- Is it like England where you have to submit your finds?
You only need to submit finds found on public property that clearly have some worth. I believe the govt will give you 50% value. From speaking to people, they tend to hunt on private land and never tell the government. The State here doesn't seem very concerned - I just think not a lot of people do it.
- Do people let you on private property? I noticed you said sites were being hit hard.
Sites are only hit hard by me! The site in question is semi-private and I need permission but that is the exception. I have never approached a person to hunt their land. A little shy with my German.
- Do the Nazi objects draw a fascination? When I was there ( in the eighties) people were still trying to forget the Nazi thing. Almost like a shame. I find them fascinating myself. I know in some of Europe like France Nazi items are taboo.
At first they did but now I don't really like to see them. It was really interesting at first but then when I took in what happened, along with all the bullets and bomb fragments I found AND horror stories from people - it isn't really nice for me. I think in America it's a bit different - if you find relics from the Civil war there are no people around to talk about it that lived back then. And of course it's hard to compare a World War and the hollocaust to anything like a war labelled "civil"! I don't mean any harm in my statements. I do find the rare silver nazi coin quite interesting - ok, I have found just one! Even with the bad history a pretty silver coin is that.

jrk - I'm no expert with the CTX but I have around 45 hours on it now and had maybe 3X that or a bit less on the E-Trac.

The E-Trac needs that sensitivity on 23 - 25 range to get depth. That is where the boost takes place and I think the CTX is the same. To need the sensitivity on the E-Trac at 23 to pick up a 12" quarter is not a bad thing as most units can't do that maxed out. The Deus is certainly interesting in how well it functions at depth. But when you are hunting a spot with a lot of deep targets and using the Deus, since there is no VID (in my ground) after 7" or so, what do you do? I dug 10 good sounding deeper targets with no VID and only one was a keeper but not a coin. Yes, the Deus hit's well at depth in my ground - but the spot I have been hunting has a lot of targets in the ground and the Deus' lack of VID made it hard on me. I still think the Deus will separate better than the CTX just due to it's raw speed but I'm not sure by how much, just a "guess" as I never compared them head to head.

Regarding the 12" quarter not being hit on the CTX - What is your ground mineralization like and what ground setting were you running on the CTX? What will auto (neutral) sensitivity run at? What settings exactly did you try (there aren't that many). If you have some mineralization then high trash will bounce all over, try ferrous coin. If the level is higher then try ground coin. I am not sure I could ever get a silver quarter at 12" in my ground and the mineralization isn't so high. A silver Dmark (exactly quarter sized) hit hard at 9" though (in 2 directions due to iron) but not so sure about 12".

Albert

If everyone is as dissatisfied with the CTX as I am then no wonder they're coming up for sale. The only advantage I see over the etrac is its h2o proof. I see no gain of depth and pinpointing is difficult to say the least. I've had mine 2 months and find myself using it less and less . It's heavy and I just don't see any advantage. Swing away boys there's stuff in them hills

Thanks for the info Albert, as always. In this test garden, I believe the soil is rather low in mineralization, as the DEUS suggests not much at all. My other sites are very mineralized. If I can remember, in auto +3, the CTX was reporting 19. I suspect EMI. In this setting, no break in threshold at all. Don't remember what the ETrac ran on this dirt, but I never ran auto, always ran at least 20 or so. I knew about the boost thing. I was hoping for Auto to hit this guy as I've heard the CTX ran hotter in this mode than the ET. Settings were deep on, fast off, ferrous coin, open screen. I started with the canned Relic and changed as needed. I also had target trace and target trace pinpointing on. Can you recommend better for deeper acquisition?
I've not as much time on the DEUS yet. The real hunt targets have all been within 10 inches so far, but the only shaky visual I'd I've had has been rusty nails or junk mixed in with good, but audio was excellent. It might come down to the fact that although I'm pretty visual, I've found that the audio on the Deus is much stronger/decisive in its report, to my ears, than the ETrac was/is. I've come to slowly understand that i like a clear simple audio, and if i need to, use the VID as extra info. I think for me, it has been somewhat opposite in my use of the Minelabs. On the iffy sigs with the ET, I sat over the target much longer trying to process things...jumpy ID and tones all over the place to my ears. I was/am hoping that what I hear about the CTX hitting harder with more stability with VID to be true, as I've got plenty of civil war stream/river opportunities on some of our land.

Thanks again for info.
Randy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2012 03:00PM by jrk.

Hey Randy, thanks for the settings and such. I run very similar settings to you but run with deep off. I have yet to find deep on to work in my ground. I would try to run your sensitivity in auto +3 for a bit and then go up from that number in manual sensitivity - step by step. Make sure to do a noise cancel. I like to do it on the ground. Read this excellent article regarding doing it and I agree - [www.mapsurfer.com]. I almost always run in manual and try not to run below that "boost number". If your soils mineralization level is higher I would play with ground coin. Of course you know your ground best and perhaps my advice in your higher mineralized ground might be bad as I don't have that here! But I am curious. Ferrous coin should not work well in higher mineralized sites according to the manual. It says high trash (which I disagree with as it gets bouncy) and ground coin for higher mineralization levels.

Regarding your test bed, I don't mean to make excuses, but Minelabs don't seem to do as well in them - though I imagine the older the better. The Deus excels in them and freshly buried targets. That said, I would just inch up your sensitivity bit by bit and then try the different ground settings. That is where I find the greatest differences to occur. And I would try running 50 CO vs. Combine. You can try an open combine and then compare it with some disc (same as you would run in 50 CO - at least that is what I do, but minimal disc). I would be VERY CAREFUL of running your test bed settings in your actual hunting spots for the reasons I and you already mentioned though. I can't imagine getting more than 9" or so in highly mineralized ground but I guess anything is possible.

I think I know what you mean about the Deus' clearer sounds. The warble on the E-Trac, though attractive, probably wasn't super clear. On the CTX in combine mode though, it is completely different (though I prefer 50 CO).

Hope that helps, report back your results, especially in that higher mineralized spot. I wouldn't put too much weight on the test bed again.

Albert

Another 3 CTX's popped up for sale today, eeek. Won't be long they will be affordable on the used market............... Reminds me of my last passion for years, Adult Precision Airguns. You can spend some money there boy's. The price got high and the Americans dumped on the airgun mfgrs. It's tough to lose 5 bills in a month just to try a machine, you have to pay to play. I sure want to try a CTX myself but I'll let the used market figure out the correct asking price first. I'll be amazed if it will replace my ETrac.........

Sonny..... did you buy one and now have it for sale? What was it you didnt like?

Dew

dewcon4414 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sonny..... did you buy one and now have it for
> sale? What was it you didnt like?
>
> Dew

Wow, 2 days of use and only for $1875. That didn't last long. I could never sell a unit that quick but am curious as well why Sonny sold it (especially so quickly).

Albert,
Spent some more time playing around with this new guy. After a heavy rain the night before, I played with settings across the board. I'm hitting that quarter pretty well now, and when all is said and done, the two main settings, I think, that have enfluenced this target acquisition have been sens in manual at least to 22, and ferrous coin. If I play with the latter, the numbers get jumpier. With said settings, I'm pretty impressed, as the numbers lock on pretty hard, and more impressive, depth states 12" which is exact depth. The latter may be a default machine communication that acts like an exception, similar to an "otherwise" clause in a Case Statement, indicating "it's not 11" or less, so I'm just going to indicate 12. .
I found some rusty crap, maybe an old deteriorated nail or something, but the machine was pretty sure it had found ferrous junk and a coin in the same hole, as it gave bad and good on that one target, with some rather "orange/red" conviction.
I realize test gardens are not on ML's resume, as I've been down that road with my ETracs, but they're fun to play around with, especially when aged a bit.
I was on the fence on wether to sell and grab another Deus, but I might hold onto it for a hunt or two and see how it goes. Pretty cool machine, but I'm astounded by the Deus.

Randy

Great to hear Randy. The ground types can VERY MUCH affect the depth and croshair movements. Also, compare 50 Conductive to Combine in your ground. I prefer the first but am getting more used to running combine.

Curious - How deep did the Deus ID in your ground? As I stated in another thead, my one problem with the Deus was the lack of VID after 7" or so (completely gone). In more trashy sites it made searching for deeper coins a bit frustrating.

Albert

The Deus will ID the quarter, but ranges it. 91-95 then blank, then 91 or so again.

Wow, the Deus will ID targets so deep in your ground? I never would have sold mine if I could get it to run with ID so deep. My iron mineralization (or iron flakes) just hurts most detectors at depth. The E-Trac in high trash and CTX in high trash often bounce all over at depth.

Not really looking, but just noticed another one or two new ones up for sale in the last few days on FM. With the one the guy dropped the price once already from his original asking price.

Albert,
Plan on starting up a new thread regarding CTX setting questions that I hope you have time to visit/contribute so I don't continue to hijack this thread.

Randy

Just noticed another CTX up for sale on another site. I think a day or so later the price was dropped and still doesn't look like any takers yet. The momentum of the initial rush of buyers who just have to try every new machine might be slowing down perhaps?

This is a common part of the buying process, otherwise known as "eating crow."

go-rebels Wrote:
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> This is a common part of the buying process,
> otherwise known as "eating crow."


Or...simply experimentation based on curiosity, as was in my case.

I think the new and used detector market is stagnant right now. I see a lot of detectors going on the boards but nobody's buying anything. The reason you're seeing CTXs is because a part of your brain called the reticular activator. It's the phenomenon when you buy a new vehicle and before you bought it you didn't notice anybody else in town with one...then when you buy one, you start seeing them all over town. Your brain was awakened to spotting them. Since there's so much interest in the CTX...you're brain is firing excitement for seeing the mere name of it on forums. In actuality, this goes on with every new machine that comes out....I've been on detecting forums for about 14 years now and its happened with every new machine that has ever came out. As long as there are forum classifieds to unload them, it will continue with every future machine.

Saw that another guy sold his CTX and went back to his other Minelab. He said something about not being able to give the classic "warble" sound on silver found on the other FBS machines no matter how he set up the audio. In particular the Explorers are known for that lovely warble sound. I think he was the same guy who I saw sold his CTX due to the heavy weight on his bad shoulder, despite the better balance.