DetectingWales.com

What would you go for and why,  ???

Deus of course way out in front of all machines ,lots of options available and a depth multiplier attachment due soon,which turns it into a hoardhunter in minutes

4 of us went out last week each with different detectors. Etrac,  dfx, Deus and my f75. Ray buried a hammerd penny about 4-5 inches down. The etrac, dfc and the f75 managed to hit the penny each about 4 inches off the ground before we lost the signal. The Deus however was still hitting it clear at about 8-10 inches off thr ground.....would definitely look at getting a Deus in my opinion.

Go for a Minelab!


........... It'll leave more for us Deus users!  ;D

Both very good

Never used an Etrac but have a Deus and I'm very happy with it. My last detector was a Garrett AT Pro so I guess the Deus is in a different league.
I have seen people comment that the Etrac is a better detector than the Deus on pasture, is this true?

Dues this dues that at the end of the day whatever detector you got to go over it to find it  ;) by the way Minelab SE  for me  ;)

Best answer i guess would be to try them both and then decide. I've not long had an etrac and love it. In the short time that i've owned it i've had some fab finds including Treasure trove.

Etrac all the way for me  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Deus without a shadow of a doubt

The Etrac with its weight and its poor recovery speed lets it down big time in iron infested areas

The Deus with the 11 coil its a brilliant combination on both ploughed and pasture  ;D 

None of the above................T2 best machine by far ;) Especially when you take into account prices, here is the crux of the matter, you need to know your machine, this only comes with putting in the hard hours on any detector.
I upgraded from a Euroace to the T2 a few years ago, at first I hated it and really struggled, but I persevered and that paid off, I still don't know it completely and am always learning, but I wouldn't change it for anything else. There are pros and cons to every machine, but my advice is whatever machine you prefer take the time to get to know it.

This topic is like Groundhog Day seems to be on here all the time   ;D

I was appalled at the abysmally slow recovery speed of the Etrac and totally gobsmacked at the recovery speed and sensitivity of the Deus.

The weight thing can also be and issue if you have back problems.
What is impressive is the Iron rejection properties of the Deus and the individual tones that can be set.

My friend went out with my Deus yesterday just to test it for himself and pulled this out from around 8 inches and a Soldino is a rather thin and tiny little coin.


(http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz199/the_goldpanner/sol2.jpg) (http://s827.photobucket.com/user/the_goldpanner/media/sol2.jpg.html)
(http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz199/the_goldpanner/sol1.jpg) (http://s827.photobucket.com/user/the_goldpanner/media/sol1.jpg.html)

thanks for the replies everyone and it has just confirmed what I thought Deus it is !!!!

Well good luck  mate :)
Hope this is the last of the dues saga  ;D

T2 !!!!   ;D

yes Dave the t2 is an awesome kit that's why I have one ;D!!!! just lost my mojo at this point in time :-\ so was looking for a possible upgrade ???, but would never sell the trusty T2  ;)

As Herbie said its also the hard hours you put in, more hours more finds.
At the moment im having a lot of fun with the Tejon, a simple turn on and go, set just above iron, sensitivity 6...... 10x12 wide scan coil, a good set of headphones is a must, as iv found out, and that's it, more that enough power to pick out any small hammered coinage, romans, even tiny lead pellets, no worries...... mines to stay

well i started off with an ace 250,then euro,then the xs,then i had a laser rapier trident plus at the same time as the xs that was brilliant best pinpointer ever.
then i had an se pro,and then an etrac then swapped the etrac for the Deus about a months back.
i read all the blurb at the time and ended up following through with the same make mentality thinking from machine to machine things wont change too much and i wont have to re learn if i stick with the same brand.
so i did and ultimately got to the etrac,and every time i got a new one i took it to a little patch of green by the river at a weir where everyone sits when its nice to test.
everytime ive found a few coins more than the last,when i got to the etrac i found about 10 coins in 30 mins which was best ever.
then recently i did it with the Deus and found 20 coins in 15 mins.
the Deus is mind blowing compared to the etrac for me BUT i never really liked the tone system that much even ttf was a pain in the arse i used to dig piles of iron.
and i would have an etrac again if i had a few spare quid for when i was feeling strong(the main reason i got rid was weight)i have found a couple of gold rings with the minelabs but in my experience they're not overly keen on gold.
but for the first time with the Deus i can hear every target i found about 6or 7 old coins the other day(not treasure btw)including a couple of 1940 silvers.
and the thing about the Deus is beep,burp,beep,beep its dead easy within 20 mins of using it i understood it.
i didnt really understand the etrac when i swapped it.
but the guy who gave it me said he'd had an etrac before and wanted to go back to what he knew,and he didnt trust what the Deus was saying..........so looks like we both got what we wanted.
but one thing people say is the etrac is a deeper seeker but if it is its not by much and the etrac also isnt particularly happy about disturbed ground whereas the Deus loves it all and is notoriously better  on ploughed.
in comming years minelab are really are gonna have to pull their socks up in the design stakes,weight is a massive(pardon the pun )problem.
the Deus with a slight modification ie a piece of aerial cable is a ready made water detector which was also something that was pushing me towards getting a second detector(at pro) when i had my etrac as i have land with streams on,now theres no need.
i love the Deus and every time i go out now it amazes me.
i wish so much id have had it instead of the etrac when we went on holiday in july as the etrac was completely useless on a wet beach and i found next to nothing.

Ummm? Lets go to a beach, you bring a Deus and I'll bring an Etrac  ;D I'f you thought the Etrac was useless on a wet beach then I'm afraid your in for a nasty shock lol

The Deus is not intended as a beach machine

It’s an inland machine, if you want to find all the hammereds and small gold items the E-trac misses when detecting iron contaminated ground

Then buy a Deus

If you want to detect the beaches and need something to lean against when you have a fag then buy an E-trac

Strange then that it has a Wet beach and Dry beach setting? the pumping ground balance will solve any problems.
Check out the Youtube videos where its been used on quite a few beaches.

The Etrac is a fine machine untill it yanks your arm from your socket or if you only want to detect for 2 hours.

Many machines are useless on beaches for many reasons, set up and not understanding the machine is the main reason.
Both machines are equally as good but the weight thing with Minelabs ARE an issue no matter what anyone says.
I'll  take a Deus over a Minelab every time, beach or land, because when your arms hanging off I'll still be detecting

Yes it does have wet beach and Dry beach settings I have never tried it on the beach to make any comments on its performance

But it is still intended primarily as a land machine, and to be honest it’s in a class of its own

i tried everything with my etrac,even had the sensitivity between 10 and 15 not much more it was a nightmare.
and as gold goldpanner says you only have to look on youtube at the Deus beach videos to see it works....wet and dry.
the etrac will work on the beach but its not very good and better on dry sand the etrac dosnt like salt.
make your self up a test bed and and put a couple of pounds of salt in it and give it a go lol.
either mine was on the way out or i had the only etrac in the world that didnt work on the beach.
but it was fine on the dry(didnt find much mind i think i found about 85 pence between 2 beaches all week)but as soon as the sand darkened off the boil it went.

I'm afraid if you believe normal VLF is as good on a wet beach as the pulsed FBS then you really don't understand the technology. Yes all machines can be setup to "work" on a beach but to what extent?
I was detecting yesterday for 8 hours with the Etrac and my arms isn't falling off ???
But and it's a big BUT, there is no getting away from the fact that the Deuce is one of the best machines out there and is a joy to use, the depth from only a 9" coil is incredible and XP have shown what a little thought in design can do as far as weight, portability and usability are concerned.
At the end of the day there is no point getting into a pi**ing competition about which is best as that's just tribal mentality and they're only tools to do a job, each will find 99% of what the other will find with that missing 1% being a weakness in each system.
As Celticspikey has shown recently, going over a previously (Minelab) detected area with the Deuce has brought it back to life but I feel certain that had the machines used been reversed the same results would have been reached.
Those who poo poo the FBS system quite openly admit that they either haven't used them or never truly understood the tone system and that's fine as it took me over a year  :-[ and had the Deuce been around then I probably wouldn't have bothered.
So for very good results almost out of the box, get a Deuce. But remember neither can beat the laws of physics and the more you use them the more you will find ;)

"the more you use them the more you will find"....

With Roman Ray being the exception to the rule  ;D

Don't let Badgers hear you say that the Etrac doesn't like the wet sand, Have you seen his finds from the beach ? He mainly uses an Etrac on the beach and has paid for itself 50 times over. The etrac is ONE of the best FBS machines for the beach. I also use an etrac and my arm isn't falling off when i use it either. To each their own i guess......

Yes it is getting a bit tiring this what machine s best noncense

Just use the machine your comfortable with

Although I hate the E-trac I have to disagree with the beach comments as its multi frequency it will always out perform a single frequency machine including a Deus on the beach, and I have heard it excels in wet sand   

A lot of elderly and people with disabilities seem to use Deus which is a good thing really because if it wasn't invented I doubt these people would be able to detect. And would only read of finds.  No offence intended.

Regardless of  being a Deus user I'm going to get an FBS machine in the next few months to make sure I have all bases covered  :D Fancy something a bit easier to use than an Etrac though as I'm a simple minded soul, what are the Safari or Explorers like?

Ta

yep its each to his own,and everyone has their own opinion and i would have another etrac but id have a new one instead of second hand or at least nearly new im certain mine was going wrong.
cause as you say i got all excited before my hols looking at etrac beach vids and was quite dissapointed.
that having been said i didnt find much in the fields either so may have been a fault,but when you buy second hand you dont know what theyve been through.
every now and then it would lock on a signal and do a really low pithched almost inaudible squeal of a tone and would lock like that and stay like it if you either didnt turn it off or find another signal.
but it still worked but also never found anything that deep apart from rubbish.
but it used to find bits of ring pull that were tiny at 12 inches,it was very confusing at the end thats why i had to let it go.
in fact id say i found more with my xs than the etrac.

The Etrac is an Explorer but more user friendly :-\
The safari is a nice machine but doesn't quite have the oomph of the Explorers, I'm afraid the truth is that if you don't put in the effort to learn the tones and suffer the blips and squeaks you won't benefit from the system :'(

theres nothing confusing about the etrac in fact the etrac is easier to setup than the Deus i have now.
but its not even that with the Deus i now have to learn what the different settings like the silencer and reactivity do to alter the machine thats all.
the etrac is easy to use my problem was that it wasnt working but when they are they have to be the best all round machine on the market apart from the Deus.
i now prefer the Deus as i wasnt mad on pitched tones where as the Deus is a yes or no machine really,and when its not happy with something i can tell more than i could with the etrac and can choose not to dig it or not.
but if you can afford an etrac,you wont be dissapointed buy one you are in the top 3 or 4 of all machines on the market then.

That would be "pitch hold".....not a fault just a changeable user setting ::)

i dont mean that,what i mean is every sound setting on the etrac starts low then goes higher dosnt it?
so therefore all the tones have a pitch do they not?
whereas the Deus like lots of others machines is bleep,or buurp do you see what i mean?like a garrett door bell type.
and what i did for a long time what hunt with too much disc may have been the problem but as we know when you disc out lots of screen you mask the good stuff dont you...im not having that problem with the Deus.
i feel it does a lot better with iron than i was with the etrac.

I think that most high end machines will do the job, patience is the secret, don't expect great results first time out. I use a Deus  and I find it very user friendly and have had good results with it. It's better to stick with the same machine and learn it properly, instead of chasing makers over exagerated claims and so called field tests.

Yes but what you've described is pitch hold rather than the other 3 settings. It is an audio discriminator therefore to get the best from it it should be used with an open screen (no disc) so there is no recovery delay at all, the tones will tell you good from bad. It's like all things in life the more you put in to it the more you'll get out.

Thanks Chef

Very true Dungbeetle I totally agree, learn your machine, as the saying goes...."A good detectorist with a bad machine will always find more than a bad detectorist with a good machine" ;)

i think for me personally ill always have a Deus now but may get another machine as well if i could get an explorer 2,would like to try another fbs for deffinate.

Yep I agree
I got another machine as a backup.
Another Deus

I'm lucky enough to have both machines and they both get used depending on the site i'm on. Etrac for deep pasture and beachs and Deus for the rest (and when I need a rest, the Etrac is a bit of a lump  :o).

Both great machines

Dave

So that's it Two great machines  ;)

my etrac rocks lol ;D

Right that's it STOP now I've decided I'm getting both lol just don't tell the wife!!!  ;D

Are you sure that you wouldn't  like to hear some more opinions ;D ;D

lol i love it on here when people get all irate,its just a machine that helps us follow a hobby.no need to so mardy lol.

Which machine is the best, there's only one way to find out.........FIGHT ! ;D ;D

i think as ive done its just a case of a couple of years trial and error trying different machines and then you find a machine to stick with,im fairly sure ive found mine i love that Deus i really do it properly does the bizzo.