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First Equinox 800 Hunt And Beginners Luck Strikes Gold!


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That is one beautiful ring- congrats! Been seeing some impressive finds with the Equinox so far. Tomorrow is my first hunt with one and I hope I can follow suit! 

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Steve those last two posts are gold. I am a fairly experienced detectorist but I am not technical. The way you are writing about the Equinox is in language that works for me. I love a wide-open detecting style but with the Equinox I am starting in the presets and taking the time to learn what the machine is saying. If I don't do that I will never learn to hear what the changes mean.

I am lucky, there is a fairly old-for-California park near-by where I have been able to find coins since the mid-70's. It is giving up rather amazing amounts of coins to the Equinox in the pre-sets. I start with Park 1 and then go back over it Park 2 to see what I have missed (not much up to now). Later I may try the Field modes and see what happens but right now the two Park modes are keeping me busy.

I also live near the coast and have had eye-popping results on the beach. I still have trouble with deep targets in damp sand but I just dig everything that gives some sort of repeatable signal. 

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to put things in a way that a non-technical person can relate to. It really helps.

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Beach 2 for the worst black sand. Instruction Manual page 25 (emphasis added).

Beach 2: Underwater / Surf
Beach 2 gives the best results when either wading or shallow diving, with the coil and/or detector fully submerged. In these instances, there is a very strong salt signal present, so Beach 2 has a lower transmit power, which results in much less noise. This profile may also be useful in dry conditions where there are extremely high ground noise levels. Beach 2 Multi-IQ processes a very low weighted multi-frequency combination, using the same algorithms as Beach 1 to maximise ground balancing for salt.

Difficult Areas – Black Sand
Some beaches contain black sand, which has high natural iron content and is often magnetic. This causes continuous false ferrous detections, making normal beach detecting impossible. Beach Mode automatically senses black sand and reduces the transmit power to ensure that targets can still be detected without overloading occurring. When black sand is sensed, the Beach Overload Indicator will appear on the LCD. When this icon disappears, full transmit power automatically resumes.

minelab-equinox-beach-2-mode.jpg

 

Yes, you will lose small gold sensitivity, that's how the trade off works. Use the hottest mode you can but in the end you have to use what works. Here in rough order are the modes from hottest on small gold (and will cause more ground issues) to less sensitive to small gold (but less ground issues):

Gold Mode 1 & 2
Park 2 & Field 2
Park 1 & Field 1
Beach 1
Beach 2

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Steve thanks for posting your tips and sharing your knowledge, Field1 worked fine, and so far I'm enjoying the EQ800.

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Cal-Cobra?  Is this the same person who did not want to wait for their EQ-800 like most of the other folks?  Heck buddy,  if you told me you were going to walk out there and dig up a gold ring on video, I would have flown a machine to you personally.  Hats off to you my friend, as that is 1 stunner of a beauty. 

At the 20 minute 54 second mark, it looks like the ring might have a stamp on the outer band as well?  I recovered 37 gold rings last year and one of mine did have the stamp on the outer band.  All the others were on the inside as expected.

Well done video ( a little long) but you sure had a Golden 1st hunt.  If you decide to sell the ring, let me know your price.

Looks like the wait was worth it too.

Keep it up and wishing you more success.

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3 hours ago, phrunt said:

I am looking forward to testing my EQ800 in a black sand area to see how it goes, I won't be bothered if it can't handle it but it will be interesting to see how it goes.  It arrives Wednesday, no doubt i'll be there Saturday trying it out :biggrin:

Love to tell you that the Equinox is colour blind . I have been detecting in jet black shiny glug and it just hums as if it's not there . 

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2 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Cal-Cobra?  Is this the same person who did not want to wait for their EQ-800 like most of the other folks?  Heck buddy,  if you told me you were going to walk out there and dig up a gold ring on video, I would have flown a machine to you personally.  Hats off to you my friend, as that is 1 stunner of a beauty. 

At the 20 minute 54 second mark, it looks like the ring might have a stamp on the outer band as well?  I recovered 37 gold rings last year and one of mine did have the stamp on the outer band.  All the others were on the inside as expected.

Well done video ( a little long) but you sure had a Golden 1st hunt.  If you decide to sell the ring, let me know your price.

Looks like the wait was worth it too.

Keep it up and wishing you more success.

Yep, the same Cal that was getting impatient and cranky, patience is a virtue.... ppffft :huh:  The older I get, the more cranky I get LOL
image.png.9c2058e55f1ed74cd94ef55b44cddf6b.png

OK, I'm not that old, yet.  You know Gerry, I louped the ring and your right, it does have hallmarks on the bottom of the band! 
There's three hallmarks, that would, IMO, make it European, maybe Russian or English?

image.thumb.jpeg.c5e6de3f452584066dfad0b44907bf0c.jpeg

Two of the three hallmarks are fairly worn, but one is fairly legible:

image.jpeg.a602952766cdaede148b42e5b0ac914f.jpeg

I believe the stones are rubies, sapphires and emeralds.  We thought it might be a Mother's Ring when I first dug it up, but I'm thinking Mother's Rings are a modern invention and this probably has some age to it.

Thanks for spotting that :biggrin:

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3 hours ago, Judy said:

Love to tell you that the Equinox is colour blind . I have been detecting in jet black shiny glug and it just hums as if it's not there . 

I haven't cranked up the sensitivity yet, as this machine is different from anything else I've ever used.  I'm braking it in slowly to get the hang of it, and learn it's language.   I"m really impressed by how quite it is, and it's still going deep, so I know it's quietness isn't because the gain isn't cranked up.   It'll take a while for my muscle memory to learn the 50 tones, but so far I'm digging almost any signal I can get to come in as a repeatable signal, and it's been doing just fine. 

 

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2 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

I haven't cranked up the sensitivity yet, as this machine is different from anything else I've ever used.  I'm braking it in slowly to get the hang of it, and learn it's language.   I"m really impressed by how quite it is, and it's still going deep, so I know it's quietness isn't because the gain isn't cranked up.   It'll take a while for my muscle memory to learn the 50 tones, but so far I'm digging almost any signal I can get to come in as a repeatable signal, and it's been doing just fine. 

 

Talking about repeatable signals . One beach with the most black sand the rings 10 ct and the 925 rang a distinct  11 but on the beach with not as much black sand the 9ct and the 925 came in as a 6 . I have no technology regarding the workings in a detector but just the basics but now I will definately dig everything at each new beach to get the guist of what those rings come up on each one . And it is only the jewellery as everything else I can pretty will guess before I  ( oops hubby digs ) 

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