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Are the Minelab Explorer or E-Trac metal detectors as good as a Sovereign GT on the beach or are they an even better machine to use?, or is just a matter of personal preference to the type of detector.

Thanks for any advice.

Having used all of those I would say that the Sovereign range still have the edge for the beach. But remember that there is no difference in performance between any of the Sov range, the newer ones are just more "user friendly".

my etrac has done me well on the beach,yet to hit gold with the sovereign >:(

without a doubt the sov,all the way,i dont think it can be beat on beaches,

Sovereign gt for sale with 10" tornado coil, rechargable battery and charger and dry cell battery holder and box cover in very good condition £400  ono   (ps 1 of the best detectors for the beach)

The safari is equal or better of any of the above detectors on wet sand ,but with the bonus that it is the easiest of them all to set up .  I've found coins at incredible depths with it and runs at nearly full sensitivity without so much of a murmur of a false signal . Like all the other , finds at extreme depths , the tones have to be learnt . With the Safari . Iron signals , with the depth on the meter at its lowest , have to be worked at from different angles and any hint of a high tone , you have to dig it , when a vicky silver comes up at over 12" you'll see what I mean . Also at these depths you have to go a lot slower sweep .as others have said , don't run it silent , you need a threshold to listen for iron . The more iron the slower the sweep speed . Good luck with whatever you choose ,there all great machines on the shore .

Sorry, forgot to add that I run mine in all metal , if you use discrimination you need to here the threshold so when it cuts out you know you have gone over iron .

Hi all ,just getting back into detecting after many years in the wilderness , forgive me if im wrong , and ive heard these minelab machines are good , but would they offer any advantage over a good pulse machine( i have a goldquest ss v2] that i havnt used for years , maybe things have moved on? because as we know the salt soon gets rid of most of the ferrous items at the low water line ,so if you have to hunt in all metal with a vlf machine is there something im missing regarding the supposed advantages of these minlabs in the salt?

Hi and welcome back to the fray ;) If you have experience and are comfortable with the Goldquest then stay with it, it is still far more sensitive to VLF machines and you do have slight tone discrimination. The benefits of machines such as the Sovereign is that it's tone discrimination is far superior and so faster to hunt with, the trade off is that it's not as sensitive on micro jewellery such as fine chains and ear ring backs.

To put my penny worth into the thread, sov elite are a very good all rounder detector inland or on beach. Though the se pro i found to be just as good, as long as you sweep low and slow.

Although I use the xp Deus, i can never seem to find the rightsettings.

A lot of it is down purely to personal taste and getting onto a beach and try different detectors  ;D

E/trac E/trac E/trac it finds the gold 8) 8)

Have never tried the sovereign, but I have both the explorer2 and the E trac, I use them both (not at the same time), here is what I find, the Explorer is a lot quieter on the wet sand, amazingly so,it also seems to be a touch more sensitive to very small items,its a bit heavier and slightly more tiring to use than the Etrac,the standard 10" coil on theEx 2 is much more robust and can take some knocks, the 11" on the Etrac is much more of a flimsy build,and wouldnt take much bumping around. the deepest coin with theEx 2 was a 5p at 11" in wet sand ,pretty good!.The Etrac reacts a bit faster to targets,and because the conductivity has been extended to 50 as opposed to 35 on the Ex 2, it gives a better idea tonally the type of target you have,

The day Minelab comes up comes up with a machine capable of the performance of either the Explorer, E- trac or Sovereign as light as the Deus and similar construction, I will be the first in the queue for one as would many others, come on Minelab go for it :) I have used Explorer and E -trac but settle for the old faithfull Sovereign as you can remove the controll box and hipmount to make it lighter and allow longer searches. To sum up Minelabs Rule. ;D ;D

i'll be second........... ;D

since my earlier reply my sovereign has done me well also,yet to hit gold with my pulse  :)

Lets be fair guys they are all cracking machines..
Deep damn deep too bloody deep sometimes t dig a ringpull or washer...
But 10/10 had a GT now got etrac..
Get best machine you can afford???