Relic Hunt With The Eq800

[Cal_Cobra]

First, a special thanks go out to Steve for sharing his tips and knowledge on the forums!  I followed his suggestion to use Field1 vs Field2 for relic hunting, and it did in fact seem I was digging less tiny bits and bobs, and I only got fooled by a few old nails.  The next time I have more time to hunt, I will likely detect in Field2 and cross-check targets with Field1 to see first hand the differences.  This is a site that my hunt partner and I have been wanting to try for a long time and we were able to sync up yesterday for a few hours to give it a whirl.  He used his trusty Exp2 and me the EQ800.  I used Field1, changed it to 50 tones, did a noise cancel, ground balance, bumped up the sens to 21, and I was off the the races. 

I'm amazed at how quiet this detector is.  A few times I ran it over the eyelets in my boot to make sure it was working   To be honest, one of my favorite features on this machine is the incredibly accurate pinpointing.    Not sure if the depth meter is accurate, but I'm not a depth meter watcher,  as I mostly hunt relic sites, so I'll figure out the depth when I dig the target, but the pinpointing is exceedingly accurate, and easy to use, don't have to look at the screen, just zero in on the BLAST and dig, I absolutely love it!

No time for videos yesterday, just a quick hunt to check a long awaited spot to determine if it's worthy of further research, and spending a future weekend detecting it. I'd say from just the few hours we spent there, I am eager to return!  Tom found the best find, an 1849 French 1 Franc, no doubt a gold rush era loss, and it's in beautiful shape, so likely brought here right after it was minted. 

Here's an example from online as I didn't get a photo of his coin, but this is what it looks like:

 

Surface eyeball finds:

Here's what I found, and right out of the gate I dug five oldies in a row, so I knew this was going to be a good site if we put the time into it. 

Bits of green copper, we find these kind of old, hand worked copper losses at Spanish/Mission era sites, but this is not one of those sites, it's something entirely different.  I like that little shield shaped thing, it had an iron pin through it at the top that rotted away, so was likely a little latch on a lid of a box, or something like that I would guess:

This was my first target:

Rimfire shells and a "Davies" four hole button:

Here's that little latch type thing again.  Does anyone have any idea what that interesting looking item next to it is? 

OK, I don't normally get excited about digging nails, but these (the first two) are incredible, hand made bronze nails!!
Does anyone have any idea what the bronze item on the far right is?  It's not a nail, the top is flat'ish, I have no clue, but it's interesting and dripping with age IMO:

I thought this gold disc was, well, gold when I first dug it, but I'm thinking it is actually modern, as it's not heavy and appears to be plated, the disc in the center may be newer too?

Nothing earth shattering, but I think this site has the potential to have something special, perhaps a gold coin or other interesting old historical relics if we put the time into it. 

Thanks for looking and HH,
Cal

[strick]

Tom is a metal detecting magnet....he always finds the good stuff...still trying to get a grasp on all his gold coins...does he only use the one machine? 

strick 

[Steve Herschbach]

Great digs Cal. I am always curious to hear the reactions from experienced hunters like yourself to Equinox. I know just how very picky we all get about certain small things, and the tiniest differences often make or break a machine for many of us. There are lots of great detectors out there that will all make the finds in the proper hands. They either click or they don't.

I obviously have a few more hours on an Equinox than most people so I do want to share what I can, but I am very far from knowing the machine inside and out yet. My hope all along has been that all you great people would take to Equinox and in turn I also can learn from all of you. I love it when a plan comes together and so far could not be happier for all of you that are seeing why I kind of went head over heels for Equinox. Thanks!!

[Cal_Cobra]

31 minutes ago, strick said:

Tom is a metal detecting magnet....he always finds the good stuff...still trying to get a grasp on all his gold coins...does he only use the one machine? 

strick 

95% of the time he uses his Explorer2, and for heavy iron sites he's uses a Bandito, BUT it's location, location, location.  Not to knock Tom's detecting skills, because he's very good, but the three gold coins I've seen him dig could've been found by a Bounty Hunter (no offense to BH users ).    Same goes for the one I dug in December, it wasn't deep, it was location, and putting in the time.  I wish I could say they were 12" deep, in a mass grave of iron, but at least for those four examples, it wasn't the case.  That said, some other targets are different stories (love detecting sea of nail environs!!).   I'm looking forward to when he gets his EQ800, I just hope that he puts in the time and effort to learn it, as I know he's quick to kill joy new machines saying his Exp2 or Bandito are better....so we'll see how he takes to it

[Steve Herschbach]

I get where Tom is at. There is a point where you just want to settle in and stick with something that works, and what he has is working. I am kind of in the same mood right now but I was waiting for that magic compact  lightweight detector that did most everything really well, and now I have it. Equinox is not perfect, but I can see myself getting old with it. Or at least until something better comes along! 

Be sure and check out these videos by Equinox Tester Gordon Heritage.

[Cal_Cobra]

17 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Great digs Cal. I am always curious to hear the reactions from experienced hunters like yourself to Equinox. I know just how very picky we all get about certain small things, and the tiniest differences often make or break a machine for many of us. There are lots of great detectors out there that will all make the finds in the proper hands. They either click or they don't.

I obviously have a few more hours on an Equinox than most people so I do want to share what I can, but I am very far from knowing the machine inside and out yet. My hope all along has been that all you great people would take to Equinox and in turn I also can learn from all of you. I love it when a plan comes together and so far could not be happier for all of you that are seeing why I kind of went head over heels for Equinox. Thanks!!

Thanks Steve! 

I hope with further relic hunts, I'll have something to share.  Right now, for me, the best learning venue is hands on, see what works/doesn't work, note things I don't quite understand (like what the BIG number in the middle of the screen is when I pinpoint), see if the manual addresses those topics (will look that PP# thingy up), and if not see if fellow forum members have figured them out. 

Cross sharing knowledge sure speeds up the learning process, but one of the biggest take aways I've learned since I started detecting, is that you simply have to try a detector and see if it works for you at your sites.  You could have the best magnet on a stick on the planet but if you don't click with it, you won't have fun, and for me, at the end of the day, detecting is all about having fun and saving history. 

I need to retire, detecting is fun, working is ... well.... work!!  It severely limits detecting time, and learning new machines, but a necessary evil I suppose - lol   

[bado1]

Awesome Cal!

I figured that you would like the Equinox as we hunt the same type of sites and I'm impressed with it.

Thanks for the report!

Dean

 

[Chase Goldman]

Cal,

Been looking forward to your first Equinox relic hunt post for quite awhile.  The way things were going, wasn't sure either of us were going to ever get our machines.  So far, folks experiences relic hunting with the EQX have been positive.  I had a great beach run today and am looking forward to my first relic hunt soon.  Those bronze nails are amazing.  When I first saw them I thought they were annealed cut iron square nails.  Keep the reports coming.