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What Is Your Favorite Gold Jewelry Hunting Machine?


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Thank you, Ringmoney.

I didn't know about the concentric coils.

HH
Mike

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GB_Amateur, Wow!!! , small world!!! My business ( machine shop ) is located at 72nd and Lowell, which is about a mile west of Samuel Dr. . I was a member of the Eureka club for one year, I think that was in 2007. Great club, with some very skilled detectorists. The problem for me was, they have their meetings on Friday night. My wife and I have a cabin about 100 miles from our home. We like to leave home on Friday afternoon, when we go to the cabin for the weekend. So I missed a lot of Eureka club meetings, that is why I dropped out after one year. You probably remember that old line about Colorado weather, "if you don't like the weather, just wait a day, it will change"

Speaking of the weather, folks. I mentioned that 62 degree Friday that I let get away in my prior post. I " waited a day" and by mid-day on Sunday it was 48 degrees. I grabbed the DFX/Bigfoot and headed to a local school, that happens to have some fairly steep south facing slopes. Got about 2 1/2 hours of detecting time before the sun started to set and my fingers started to tingle. I decided to call it a day, and just hunt my way back to the truck. I was about half way to the truck, but couldn't ignore a tot lot with two swing sets and wood chips ( I like wood chips ! ). Figured I would give it a quick pass, got a symphony of broken tones and a smear of bars on the meter. I brushed away an inch of loose stuff, but the next couple of inches was frozen solid. I broke a 10 inch piece free and pushed it away with my foot. The exposed wood chips were loose, dry, and laced with coins. It must have taken 15 minutes to get them all.  I put them in my pocket to keep them separated from the coins in my pouch, and headed for my truck. The pouch, 50 coins ( one 1952 D wheat penny ), 1 ( kids ) necklace, 2 ( kids ) tokens. The pocket, 41 coins ( none of them notable but still fun ). 

Oh, and the weather. At 11:00 pm, it is 6 degrees and falling, 8 to 12 inches of snow by morning, with a daytime high of 8 degrees. Good news is, 60 degrees on Monday, bad news is, the ground will be covered with snow. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I like my V3i ... the wife uses the MXT and I have an Eagle Spectrum with a bigfoot coil I get out once in a while.

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  • 5 years later...

Hey folks,

     I was reading this before my next shift, and was wondering, having only an equinox 800, and being solely focused on finding gold jewelry, or jewelry in general; What can I do to fine tune the equinox for the task? I primally hunt the river when it's toasty out, and parks if its cool out. I'm in Northern California where the soil can be moderate to hot. I have a 6in coil, and a standard 11in coil. 

     I have played around with the settings, read books, and took advice from other detectorists. One man told me to run my sensitivity low, as to focus on the fresh drops. Any advice, especially with regards to what will cause that gold jewelry to stand out more, would be greatly appreciated. 

     I love the forum, and hearing from you guys!

- Luke 

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There are some very proficient jewelry hunters and Equinox users here, but I'd say any of the modes will find gold. I prefer Park 2 in most parks with the 11" coil (before I got the 10x5" coil). I also like Park 1 in more trashy areas. I only use the 6" coil for small high trash density areas because you have to go really slow. I also don't notch anything out and run horseshoe/all metal on with 50 tones because I like to hear it all including iron to help determine if a good tone is seperate or has iron mixed in which might be a nail falsing. Dig every good solid repeating sound because gold will ring in from 1 to around 28 depending on the size, shape, composition, and weight. Also be aware that aluminum will mimic gold tones, so you are gong to dig a lot of trash, but there's no way around that if you want the gold. That's what works for me in my highly mineralized dirt.

There are some really good fresh water Nox hunters here who can help you with that. Best of luck to you.

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On 5/20/2022 at 5:28 PM, LukeJMG1986 said:

One man told me to run my sensitivity low, as to focus on the fresh drops.

If it's fresh drops you're after, the Detech Arrow coil may be the way to go.  You have several choices of detector then (but not the Equinox 😞).  However, if you want to stick with the tools you already have (Equinox with 11" stock and 6" DD's) then I defer to others here, just adding that unless you're in thick trash I would think the 6" stays on the sideline.

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Detech Arrow isn't available for the Nox. Trashy areas your 6's should do fine. I find jewelry with all my machines though the smaller earrings and chains are trickier to find. Higher frequencies help but overall don't plan on picking them out at any depth other than an inch or so at best.

One thing that helps me is I pay attention to the type of trash and the numbers they run or their sound on the Tesoro. Trash like can flip tops tend to be similar in areas. Where you end up doing more dig all is with foil and tiny aluminum.

Can slaw signal will carry bit longer so when you get a hit, lift the coil and see how far it still picks up and make a mental note of that. Gold drops off faster than alum so it may save you a few junk digs.

Almost all the gold rings I have found were below nickel range. Beefy platinum comes in just above and class rings are up near pull rings. Thin silver rings can be in around penny range and silver chains and earrings can be below pull rings.

More activity in an area (more trash) the more likely you may find something.

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6 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

If it's fresh drops you're after, the Detech Arrow coil may be the way to go.  You have several choices of detector then (but not the Equinox 😞).  However, if you want to stick with the tools you already have (Equinox with 11" stock and 6" DD's) then I defer to others here, just adding that unless you're in thick trash I would think the 6" stays on the sideline.

I would have to agree on the 6 in. I like it in trashy parks, but the river is just too big of an area. I was thinking of picking up the coiltek 14"×9" to cover even more ground. For now, the equinox is what Ill be using. Honestly, I've only been detecting since 2020. I've been reading books, as well as these forums. I have found a decent amount of gold, but I'm never sure whether or not there is something I could be doing better. I have been going with a Park 2, custom 5 tone program, that I switched to 4 tones (all metal). One tone for ferrous -9 threw 0, one tone for lows 1-10, one for mids, and one for highs. I put the F2 at 0 and usually use 6 or 7 for a recovery speed. Today I ran those settings with a gain setting of no more than 5 out of 25 (25 being the max setting) I will have to look into the coil you mentioned, along with other detectors, once I've truly mastered the equinox, and have a firm understanding of exactly how everything works, when to adjust settings, and what settings to adjust in any given situation. I have enough rings and a bracelet from the last two years to probably afford the deus 2, but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger being as how I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of the the equinox, and the hobby itself. I appreciate you reply! This has been the only forum I bookmarked in my browser because of the guys on here, that are willing to answer questions, and provide a welcoming atmosphere for newcomers!

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Big coils will give you good ground coverage but if targets are too dense or there is iron in the area you can be more prone to masking. 11" stock should do the trick for that type of hunting.

Water hunting I used to use my 12x11 but find a smaller 9" concentric better. Most VLF's in the 15-20khz are plenty fine for jewlery hunting with the right coil.

Your nox should do just fine, doubt you will really see much difference other than being in the hole for $1600.

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11 hours ago, LukeJMG1986 said:

I would have to agree on the 6 in. I like it in trashy parks, but the river is just too big of an area. I was thinking of picking up the coiltek 14"×9" to cover even more ground. For now, the equinox is what Ill be using. Honestly, I've only been detecting since 2020. I've been reading books, as well as these forums. I have found a decent amount of gold, but I'm never sure whether or not there is something I could be doing better. I have been going with a Park 2, custom 5 tone program, that I switched to 4 tones (all metal). One tone for ferrous -9 threw 0, one tone for lows 1-10, one for mids, and one for highs. I put the F2 at 0 and usually use 6 or 7 for a recovery speed. Today I ran those settings with a gain setting of no more than 5 out of 25 (25 being the max setting) I will have to look into the coil you mentioned, along with other detectors, once I've truly mastered the equinox, and have a firm understanding of exactly how everything works, when to adjust settings, and what settings to adjust in any given situation. I have enough rings and a bracelet from the last two years to probably afford the deus 2, but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger being as how I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of the the equinox, and the hobby itself. I appreciate you reply! This has been the only forum I bookmarked in my browser because of the guys on here, that are willing to answer questions, and provide a welcoming atmosphere for newcomers!

If you are looking for a bigger coil for more coverage, I'd recommend the Minelab 15x12" over the Coiltek 14x9". The 15x12 is cheaper and much lighter than the 14x9", has great separation, and can hit tiny targets. When I do beach hunts, I use the 15x12 most of the time and switch to the 11" for super trashy beaches. HTH

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