The Nox 800, The Right Tool For The Right Job

[Dan(NM)]

Ok, I've taken my 800 to several heavily hunted places where I had finally stopped pulling anything worthwhile the last couple of visits. I have pounded these places into submission with the Etrac and several large and small coils. Then last January I went back with the CTX and took out a few more keepers using the stock and 6" coil. The trash is light to moderate here, I normally run an open screen with combined tones on the CTX, 2TTF on the Etrac with no disc as well.

I had visions of taking the EQ to these sights and finding a few more coins and things I thought I may have missed with the FBS and FBS2 machines. Well, you know what happens when expectations meet reality, disappointment.   I spent 3 days and 15-20 hours hunting behind the CTX and I scored a big fat zero, nothing old, deep or worth keeping. I was kinda bummed out to say the least!!  I tried using Park 1 and 2 with a low recovery speed, 3-4 and iron bias at 2-3 and as high a sensitivity as possible.

 I was reading a post by someone on one of the forums about him hitting a iffy target with a recovery speed of 4, he then upped the speed to 7 and he got a nice clean repeatable signal in some heavy trash. Light bulb moment!!!  I came to the conclusion that I was trying to force the Nox to perform the same as the CTX and not for the purpose I had bought it(extreme trashy sites) I had sold a Racer 2 and some some coils to buy the Nox for the same purpose I had acquired the R2, fast recovery in heavy trash.

So, I set my 800 up in Park 2, 5 tones, full volume on all segments, tone break for high conductors at 21, recovery at 7 and iron bias at 3 with no disc. Yesterday I headed to an an old abandoned baseball field that must have been used as a dumping ground at one point, it is the trashiest place I've hunted in town.

 I fired up the Nox and did my noise cancel and GB, set my sens at 20 and began swinging. It didn't take long to see where this machine is going to shine for me, the speed and crispness of the tones even in a heavily polluted sight was amazing.  I used a moderate swing speed, faster then I would swing my CTX, but, not whipping it.

There was no doubt when I hit a target in my high tone zone I ended up taking out 2 Mercs yesterday a 1940 and 44 and one today, 1924, along with a wheat. I zeroed in one the nastiest places on purpose since I had spent hours with the CTX on the cleaner spots and didn't want to waste my time, maybe another day!!

I found more memorials today than I had in the last 3-4 trips combined, all intermingled with trash and iron of every kind. The high tones pop compared to the lower tones and left no doubt I had run my coil over a high conductive target. The copper pennies read 25-26 with steady numbers, deep flattened alum screw tops read 29-35, very bouncy. The merc I found today locked on at 28, 4" down and almost straight up and down with a sweet high tone.

So, what I now realize is, the 800 will not take the place of my CTX in light to moderate trashy sites, it provides way too much target info on the deeper high conductors. But, anywhere I need target separation and a faster sweep speed, the Nox will take over from there. I just need that 6" coil to really see what this machine can do, I'm sure I'll have another big surprise in store.

[Steve Herschbach]

You might want to go back to those light to moderate trash spots running your current settings. The relatively high default recovery speeds exist for a reason and people lowering them “for more depth” are often shooting themselves in the foot. There is a lot more to the issue of masking than most people realize. You might get a surprise.

Glad to see you got into the silver!

[Dan(NM)]

1 minute ago, Steve Herschbach said:

You might want to go back to those light to moderate trash spots running your current settings. The relatively high default recovery speeds exist for a reason and people lowering them “for more depth” are often shooting themselves in the foot. There is a lot more to the issue of masking than most people realize. You might get a surprise.

Glad to see you got into the silver!

After what I learned in the last 2 days, I believe I will! 

[Cabin Fever]

Nice hunt and report Dan..   I believe high trash and tough ground is where the Equinox is going to shine..

Looks like that Merc was on edge...   Surprisingly, I dug a Nickel yesterday standing on edge that still read a solid 13.. The high conductors are bouncy but staying in the correct range but the Nickels  have been rock solid so far..

Again, nice hunt and thanks for posting..

Bryan

[Mark Gillespie]

Great write up.  I have noticed the same type results in my heavy trash areas.  Amazing how you can hunt by tone and just how extremely fast the EQ can recover between targets with that sweet high tone.

Keep us posted on your hunts.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

If you block ferrous consider opening it up in those “low trash” areas and head where ferrous is thickest. If there are old sprinkler systems work around sprinkler heads and the old pipe systems. Sprinkler heads read like quarters here but are easily identified by raising the coil.

Your soil looks like it could also be subjecting you to ground masking effects even in the “low trash” areas. I never run a recovery speed here of less than 5 and am normally at 6 due to ground mineralization alone. I might bump to 7 in the densest trash.

The defaults have been very well tested and should be the starting place for almost everyone. Don’t try to outthink the machine initially. The default recovery speed of 6 in most modes is not an accident.

[Redneck]

Remember before the EQ came out, a dealer at the Minelab conference  took a pic of the Minelab rep comparing the EQ with the Deus and ATGold?   That appears to be the market the EQ was designed for.  Water,  multi frequencies , speed and separation.  Throw in excellent ground capabilities and Excellent ID .

[Guest Tnsharpshooter]

Nox 800 at speed 7 places it in a very elite group.  Actually this group I am talking about might just be the Nox itself. Lol

Folks will notice I have been using speed 7 chasing behind other detectors and YES some good finds are being located and recovered.

I have located 2 high conductive finds using speed 8. When toggling back to speed 7, signal gotten I rate as tone heard satisfactory only because I heard and suspected something was there using speed 8.

Good thread Dan !!

[Skate]

Really good report. If there was a book being put together about the Nox, your thoughts and Steve's confirmation should be included. We need to appreciate the Equinox for what it is and what it does, not try to make it more like another detector.

Today I hit another spot previously hunted to death and while i didn't find any winners I found around 12 memorials that had been missed by me and two other detectorists. They were all 3-5" down. All masked by trash until today. 

[Steve Herschbach]

17 minutes ago, Skate said:

We need to appreciate the Equinox for what it is and what it does, not try to make it more like another detector.

Thank you! 

Anybody not leveraging the Deus-like speed/separation capability combined with multifrequency id is really missing the entire point of Equinox.

Minelab E-trac, CTX 3030, Excalibur Versus Equinox