I Love My 800 :)

[Dan(NM)]

I went back to the place we've been hunting all year with the Nox to try some different settings at a spot that we hit several times before. I hit it with the CTX using the 11" and 6" coil and the Nox using the 11" and 6" coil  earlier this year.

Today I ran the 800 with the 11" coil with these settings:

Park 1

Recovery speed 3, used recovery speed 6 the last times.

Iron bias 0, have always ran 0

Manual GB this time instead of factory preset of 0

Sensitivity of 23

2 Tones

No disc, dug everything from +9 and up

All the mini balls and buttons were deep, 8+ inches and gave a repeatable tone. I used a much slower and deliberate sweep this time compared to a faster swing in the beginning. All in all, I was very pleased with the outcome, my plan is to go back and come at it from a different direction next time.

[Guest calabash digger]

Very nice!

[Chase Goldman]

Dan - nice finds and like your settings.

I always come back to that 11" coil (even though I like the ground coverage of the big coil)  It just feels right.    Just goes to show you don't need to necessarily run a "2" mode to snag mid-conductive and tiny targets.  Even though Equinox in multi is very forgiving on less than ideal GB, I always GB as part of my startup routine even if I am running tracking or even on dry sand where I know GB is likely going to end up around 0. Since the Equinox always remembers the last GB setting it is prudent to do so if you weren't running 0 GB on the last session to get GB back "in the ballpark".  0 IB all the way.  I plan to do a lot more testing at lower recovery speed settings when relic season "heats up" this fall.

I don't know if you've tried this, but I would also give Field 1, (two tone, 0 IB by default) a spin at that site too.  It is set up almost identical to how you set up Park 1 and should have a similiar Multi IQ frequency profile.

HH

 

[GB_Amateur]

16 hours ago, Dan(NM) said:

No disc, dug everything from +9 and up

Can you estimate the number hits per swing that were less than +9?

 

[Dan(NM)]

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

Can you estimate the number hits per swing that were less than +9?

 

I honestly couldn't say, I don't watch the meter until I get a target that I wanted to investigate. Even then the numbers don't determine whether I will dig or not. I will say this, next time I go back I'm dropping my tone break down to zero.

[Jeff McClendon]

Great finds Dan.

I too have had very good success on Civil War Era relics at depths past 12" with the Nox 800 in Field 1. I had mine set with nothing discriminated out and just set the iron volume level at minimum. I found several .58 cal. 3 ringers at 14" that had numbers jumping from -5 to +18 on the same target due to depth and Rocky Mountain mineralization.

I am so impressed with my Nox 800 and 600 after 18 months of constant use. I have beat the crap out of these detectors, replaced one of the wobbly shafts with one from Steve G, and covered the gigantic armrests with covers from Doc's after glueing the foam back on several times. The Equinox is not perfect by any means. It is one fine series of detectors however, and I am just beginning to get really confident detecting with them (even after well over 1000 hours) since I keep having opportunities to use them in so many different detecting environments which require different settings.

Jeff

[Chase Goldman]

2 hours ago, Dan(NM) said:

I honestly couldn't say, I don't watch the meter until I get a target that I wanted to investigate. Even then the numbers don't determine whether I will dig or not. I will say this, next time I go back I'm dropping my tone break down to zero.

I figured you already had the tone break at zero if you were running 2-tone no disc.  So you had it set at +8, then?

[Dan(NM)]

That is correct

11 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

I figured you already had the tone break at zero if you were running 2-tone no disc.  So you had it set at +8, then?

That is correct Chase, the reason that we were running our tone break at that point, the amount of aluminum slaw and tiny pieces of aluminum foil was overwhelming. With the tone break set at that point we, could still pick up percussion caps without wasting so much time chasing worthless debris.  I'm having to drive an hour and a half one way to get to this place and I wanted to maximize time spent digging the better targets versus trying to dig it all.

[Chase Goldman]

53 minutes ago, Dan(NM) said:

That is correct

That is correct Chase, the reason that we were running our tone break at that point, the amount of aluminum slaw and tiny pieces of aluminum foil was overwhelming. With the tone break set at that point we, could still pick up percussion caps without wasting so much time chasing worthless debris.  I'm having to drive an hour and a half one way to get to this place and I wanted to maximize time spent digging the better targets versus trying to dig it all.

Gotcha.  You killed it.  Like that old style Sharps and a few P caps too.  And you always seem to come away with a few Eagles.  Wonder how Field 1 would do there.  Good digs.

[Dan(NM)]

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Gotcha.  You killed it.  Like that old style Sharps and a few P caps too.  And you always seem to come away with a few Eagles.  Wonder how Field 1 would do there.  Good digs.

 Thank you Chase.

I started with Field 2 in the beginning. I decided to do a test with a 50 or 60 cal. round musket ball that I had dug that morning.  I set Park, Field and beach modes, both 1 and 2 in all modes, exactly the same, identical, including the tone breaks. I buried the musket ball at exactly 9", I always carry a plastic 12" ruler to measure target depths.

  Th soil here is very sandy, basic desert dirt, I've checked with a magnet to see whether or not there is any black sand mixed in, none, very clean and benign sand. I figured Field 2 would bang on the ball, you know, higher frequency weighting and all that jazz. I got nothing???  I went though every mode one by one, I Gb'd and did a noise cancel every time I switched modes. The only mode that would hit the musket ball was Park 1 and it did it with a tone that I would recognize as a dig me signal, the kind of fringe signals I'm looking for and will dig. The numbers jumped into the upper 30's, pretty consistent.

  I was a bit shocked because Park 1 is supposed to hit better on high conductors and the field modes, low. It was the exact opposite of what I anticipated. I did the same test when I got home in soil that's nothing like where I did the first one. I buried an eagle cuff button at 7" and did the same test as before. Once again, the only mode, Park 1, was the only one that gave a, dig me signal.

 So, from that day on, I was use Park 1 and will mess with recovery speeds depending on how much noise i get from the particular area I hunt at the 1850's site. It's been a great spot the learn the quirks of the Nox.