going from the E-trac to the Nox 800...

[randy]

Here's an interesting side note that just came to mind. I have one of the older Etrac's that was made in Ireland, before Minelab moved production to Malaysia several years ago. Some of the Nox guys I hunt with, "SWEAR" my Etrac is super hot. They think it has better electronics and higher quality control tolerances than Malaysia made Etracs. I have no idea if that is true or not, but if true, maybe I'm experiencing a different level of performance than many other FBS/FBS2 users, potentially skewing my viewpoint.

I also have one of the very old E-Tracs, and concur. Unless you compare the Malaysia unit side by side, there is no way to know for sure, however.

I am disappointed with my Nox, but will reserve final judgment until I have 100 hours on the machine. I'll admit I'm a one trick pony -- deep silver is all I care about. I don't really care that the Nox is supposedly good with nickels; around here, the soil is so acidic that the nickels come out toasted (as do the coppers, but they are still fun to dig). Perhaps the Nox is also better on gold coins; as much as I'd love to dig one, not much of a worry for me.

Just as I compared the E-Trac and the V3 side to side back in the day, I intend to compare the E-Trac and Nox side to side after I learn the latter better, and see which is better for what I enjoy hunting for.

If you are lucky enough to afford to own 2 machines at once, I think that side by side comparison is the only way to go, as we all have different goals, and all have different dirt.

 

[bunkeru2k]

For me, in my soil, and with my 800....my best targets are not rock solid signals. I am mostly looking for coins and quite honestly I am looking for signals that are jumpier and deep. The deeper coins for me are really good tones, but will jump in VDI...such as a silver dime going from 21 to 28, but tones being strong. Seems liek for me that anything that is in the 7" or deeper range will typically jump around but still give good solid tones to it. The pinpointing will help tell if it a larger target or coin sized when you hit those jumpers. The bigger screw off bottlecaps are easy to pick out with that as well.

 

[woodbutcher]

For those who say they haven't touched they're etrac since getting a equinox,,I have a equinox 600 I'll trade for that worthless etrac that's catching dust.

 

[longbow62]

I also have one of the very old E-Tracs, and concur. Unless you compare the Malaysia unit side by side, there is no way to know for sure, however.

I am disappointed with my Nox, but will reserve final judgment until I have 100 hours on the machine. I'll admit I'm a one trick pony -- deep silver is all I care about. I don't really care that the Nox is supposedly good with nickels; around here, the soil is so acidic that the nickels come out toasted (as do the coppers, but they are still fun to dig). Perhaps the Nox is also better on gold coins; as much as I'd love to dig one, not much of a worry for me.

Just as I compared the E-Trac and the V3 side to side back in the day, I intend to compare the E-Trac and Nox side to side after I learn the latter better, and see which is better for what I enjoy hunting for.

If you are lucky enough to afford to own 2 machines at once, I think that side by side comparison is the only way to go, as we all have different goals, and all have different dirt.

I have harped on this topic a lot. I have two buddies that hunt with Etracs. One of them exclusively. We compare a lot of signals Etrac vs. Nox 800 and the overwhelming trend is the Etrac calls dimes from pennies slightly better when the ground is clean and the dimes or pennies are in the 6" range.

When targets start getting deep the Etrac does not call them any better than the Nox. The Nox can always see what the Etrac sees, but on numerous occasions the Etrac has failed to call the target a coin. I have pulled many silver dimes that the Etrac would not give a I.D. close to dig it.

I will add at least in the case of my buddy a long time Etrac user I can call deep iron better than he can. He has me check stuff for him all the time. I can get deep coins he can't tell is a coin or iron.

I run no discrimination and a low Iron Bias on the 800 so the Etrac with a park pattern is going to be much easier on the ears and is much easier to just casually swing without a lot of work checking targets. You definitely have to work harder with the Equinox. I can totally see in some instances it makes more sense to be swinging an Etrac, but the Equinox definitely sees some stuff and can pick out stuff the Etrac can't get.

For me, in my soil, and with my 800....my best targets are not rock solid signals. I am mostly looking for coins and quite honestly I am looking for signals that are jumpier and deep. The deeper coins for me are really good tones, but will jump in VDI...such as a silver dime going from 21 to 28, but tones being strong. Seems liek for me that anything that is in the 7" or deeper range will typically jump around but still give good solid tones to it. The pinpointing will help tell if it a larger target or coin sized when you hit those jumpers. The bigger screw off bottlecaps are easy to pick out with that as well.

Exactly most of the time I'm doing the exact same thing. The only stuff I really want to mess with are those deeper soft high tones that are usually pretty tightly located. The tone stays good and I.D. neither goes to high or to low.

Okay my second edit. I think this is the definitive statement based on my observations regarding the Equinox vs. Etrac. For the EASY silver nothing will find it and I.D. it better than FBS will. For Masked silver it's much easier to find it and call it with the Equinox Multi-IQ.

 

[Rattlehead]

Etrac calls dimes from pennies slightly better when the ground is clean and the dimes or pennies are in the 6" range.

When targets start getting deep the Etrac does not call them any better than the Nox.

I will add at least in the case of my buddy a long time Etrac user I can call deep iron better than he can. He has me check stuff for him all the time. I can get deep coins he can't tell is a coin or iron.

Maybe it’s the difference in soil, but I’ve had the exact opposite experience with FBS vs the Nox. The main reason I reach for an FBS machine when coin hunting is its ability to accurately ID coins that are past 6” deep. In my dirt, this is about the point where TID becomes nearly useless on most other machines. IMHO FBS is still the undisputed king of coin shooting due to it’s remarkable ability to ID deep coins and coins near iron or other trash.

I actually get fooled by deep iron much more often with my Equinox than my 3030. Matter of fact I rarely ever get fooled when using the CTX thanks to it’s unique 2D pattern discrimination. Digging falsing iron really hasn’t been a problem with my Nox either, but it does happen occasionally.

I do agree that the Nox will see all targets that the Etrac can see, and some that it can’t. Nox is definitely better at picking out good targets that are semi-masked and coins on edge.. But when it comes to TID and selective digging, it’s not even close in my soil. FBS wins hands down.


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[ghound]

Most of the deeper high conductor coins i dig with the Nox, don't read anywhere near the same ID number once out of the ground. But nearly everytime it gives the same telltale signs that it is a high conductor and not iron, so worth digging, and once you learn those audible traits you'll amaze yourself at what you can find at depth.
To to be honest, I've found that with a detector that isn't restricted in depth, once you go past their effective point where it can't discriminate the small metal target signal from the much stronger ground signal the detector is just giving you it's best guess, but it's what and how it tells you at stage that's important.
Folk say the AT Pro is brill at ID but it's not that deep, well that's the way it's made, if it was a deep detector it to would struggle just the same with ID as a deep detector.

 

[Rattlehead]

That's the thing.. FBS simply doesn't struggle with IDing deeper targets nearly as much as most other detectors. If you wanna see a good example, just go watch IDXmonster's latest YouTube vid. Channel name is Monster Tube. Targets are 9"+ deep and the ID is as steady as can be. This is part of the reason many coin shooters still swear by these detectors. The other part of the reason is the tones & 2D disc.

Don't get me wrong.. I own a Nox 800 and love it. It will definitely see targets that the Etrac/CTX will miss.. But it simply can't compete with FBS on accurately IDing deep coins IMHO. At least not in my soil.