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Monte
And those links you provided help get your message across. However, they leave me wondering how long it will be before you reacquire a Minelab E-Trac?

It might be a complement to your Equinox 800 for those open grassy parks and the like.
Monte
Monte,
The Etrac is a great park hunter, in my opinion, perhaps the best there's ever been. Except I hear from the CTX3030 guys that IT is even better than the Etrac. I never had a CTX. The CTX is $2500 new and has GPS and other features and is totally waterproof. And heavy. My Etrac became heavy for me as I've grown older and had shoulder and elbow issues. Makes it tough to swing for long periods of time. That's why I ended up with my 800. But the Etrac is a Cadillac, the 800 is a little more raw, base.
Etracs and CTX's are all over my area. You and I have had some long discussions about this. I'm hunting behind every other guy/girl out there using an Etrac or Explorer or CTX doing the same thing. How do i find what is being missed? Maybe change it up a little. It's two or three years later. Now I'm seeing a lot of Equinoxes out there. Have to laugh about that. Here I am again.
Could I buy another Etrac? Well sure I could. I still have spare coils and other Etrac stuff. I'd need to pick up a couple items to be back in the swing of things but I could call up Kickindirt and say, hey Joel, hook me up with an Etrac. It is Tempting at times. I texted him in the wee hours last night about an Etrac. I'm sure he thinks I'm nuts.
But, while the 800 isn't as polished and featured as the Etrac / CTX, it is really really good at park hunting. In my opinion it is more adept at finding low and mid- conductor targets and is better than the Etrac at finding collocates. And it is deep with a target ID that let's me know I'm likely over a deeper keeper. If I didn't have my 800 to use at the park, I'd use an Etrac or perhaps buy and learn a CTX. But my arm would suffer the weight and balance.
What about places other than a park, like the yards of old homes and parking strips and so on? Typically more junk in these areas. Not always, but usually. I like my 800 for these areas for the reasons above. It finds really hard targets, like a great hunting dog.
Anyway, I've shared enough of my 'opinion'. Time to sit back and take the heat.
Rich
800 / DEUS