Test Garden

[Tony Two-Cent]

This is something I should have done a long time ago but I just never have taken the time. I made a test garden this morning. It's just four coins so far, I will probably add more later.

I was somewhat astonished and disappointed with the results. I have always felt like my E-Trac wasn't getting good depth as I never seemed to find coins deeper than 6" or so, maybe 8" if it was something big like a half dollar. Here are the results:

Silver Quarter buried at 10" in the soil, 12" including the grass
Neither my E-Trac nor my Equinox 800 would pick it up.
If I turned the sensitivity up to 30 on the E-Trac and set the response to Long and I would hear random mid-tones but nothing repeatable.
When I turned the sensitivity up all the way on the 800 it still did not respond to the target.

Clad Quarter buried at 7" in the soil, 9" including the grass.
Both machines produced a signal but it was more consistent and repeatable with the E-Trac.

Silver Dime buried at 6" in the soil, 8" including the grass.
The E-Trac gave a consistent, repeatable signal.
The 800 produced a more inconsistent signal but still diggable.

Buffalo Nickel buried at 5" in the soil, 7" including the grass.
On this coin the 800 outperformed the E-Trac. The 800 gave a solid, consistent, repeatable signal.
The E-Trac heard the coin but the signal was jumpy and inconsistent.

These are just my initial unscientific findings with stock coils on both machines. I will make further passes with the settings tweaked on both machines. The E-Trac definitely produces more diggable signals with the response set to Long.

[Bucknut]

Sounds like a perfect test garden to me. For me I have always found that my Equinox 800 was lacking depth especially compared to my eTrac. This was the only reason why I got the 900 and the Manticore. They both are hitting my deep coins in my test garden…even the Manticore at sensitivity set at 18 hits a clad dime at 10 inches with ease. My old 800 never heard the coins.

[Full Metal Digger]

Those are very surprising results, Tony!

[OxShoeDrew]

Generally, how's the dirt in your area? I know some of my fields can't hit anything below 8in, but other areas are deeper. The first thing I noticed with the Nox was its nickel prowess. Thanks for the post!

[Tony Two-Cent]

We don't really have a problem with mineralized soil in this area.

It's likely that both machines would perform better on a coin that has been in the ground for 100 years.

I'm curious how a Manticore and a Deus II would do on this test garden.

[OxShoeDrew]

It's likely that both machines would perform better on a coin that has been in the ground for 100 years.


:lol: I originally typed the following then erased. "I'm guessing if that silver quarter was in the dirt since silver quarters were a thing you'd hit it with both machines" I was going with brevity :lol: