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Nox Continues To Sniff Out Oldies From Heavily Hunted Parks


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1 hour ago, schoolofhardNox said:

Personally I'm excited to see Raphis post about his results in parks. He has proved over the years that he is a solid detectorist, so I much rather hear about his newest adventures with the EQ that to hash up old days arguments.

I agree.  I’ve been provoked by Tom on this subject matter of Nox vs Explorer/Etrac/CTX, etc too many times now....it seems like every time I create a post, his replies are always trying to stir the pot.  I never go on any hunt to try to spank/crush my hunt partners‘ psyche, and I have hunted with over a hundred different th’ers over the years.  If they feel intimidated by my finds compared to theirs, that’s their problem 😂.  I’m not going leave finds in the ground to make them feel less intimidated. 😂. They could seek out other hunting partners with equal abilities to theirs.  I’m always in a challenge with myself to try and eek out the remaining oldies from a site.  I just grew tired of posting all my finds across 4 different forums for 8-9 years straight.  I used the forums back then as a means to blog all my hunts/finds, and to gain insight into new electronics and meet other passionate hobbyists and see what everyone else was finding across the country and other continents. Today, I post my finds a lot less, but still enjoy seeing what others are finding, in addition to the many interesting topics/articles/threads on this site....

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I hunt very similar in parks and don't dig every deep target I hear. I have to be pretty sure on what I am going to dig before I start making a big hole.

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You've mastered the deep turf capabilities of the EQX, congrats, it proves it's a very deep silver slayer in a junky park setting!!

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8 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

You've mastered the deep turf capabilities of the EQX, congrats, it proves it's a very deep silver slayer in a junky park setting!!

Thanks Brian, for the reply!!  Only a few individuals don’t want to believe it’s true about the Nox, but the the old saying, “the proof is in the pudding“, is reverberating off the walls!! 🤗☺️

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On 9/7/2021 at 12:27 PM, schoolofhardNox said:

.... In New England, it crushed the previous machine (any brand) and I was fortunate enough to be shown that in person by someone who had figured out how to use it in trashy inner city parks. ...

Loved your post.  That was the same history that happened here in CA too : 

 

When the XS and then the II came out, all of the sudden :  Show & tell started trickling in, on forums.  Of : "such & such silver today, from such & such park".  At parks where, old-timers were scratching their heads thinking "Gee, it takes a hardcore expert to pull more silver from there, yet this yokel just casually gets 3 more barbers from there yesterday ?".   🤔  So you can bet a bunch of us perked up and paid attention.

 

I even went out and took my Whites, to compare flagged signals with the II user.  At a park where silver doesn't even START till 7" or-more.   And within 15 minutes, the "lights went on" .  And I knew that something was up.  He was showing me signals, and correctly assessing their call, that .... it was EVERYTHING  I COULD DO to even hear it.  Ie.:  I probably wouldn't have been drawn to them, if they had not been pointed out to me.  HHHmmm.   Conversely, I gleefully show him a  few suspected deepie wheatie/silver signals.  He swings over the flagged signal and says :  "not a deep green wheatie.   It is most likely a corroded zinc at 4" "  So I dig it up, and ... he's right. 🤪  I tucked my tail between my legs, and quietly went out and bought an Explorer.   Doh !

 

Within 3 or 4 yrs, a group outing that might have previously been a mix of Fishers, Whites, Garretts, and Minelabs, was now 90% Exp. II's (and the subsequent SE, Etrc, CTX, etc....).  Doh !  😬

 

So the point of this story is :  Comparing flagged signals, with 2 proficient users, who can be totally honest about their assessments (ie.:  Would I have heard that on my own ?, etc...) is very useful.   It can go beyond "mere preference" and "mere experience level", and actually have evolution-bending results.

 

This is a very niche category, of course.   And  no doubt the Explorer (and subsequent incarnations) will get its #ss kicked in other hunt environments.

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2 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

So the point of this story is :  Comparing flagged signals, with 2 proficient users, who can be totally honest about their assessments (ie.:  Would I have heard that on my own ?, etc...) is very useful.   It can go beyond "mere preference" and "mere experience level", and actually have evolution-bending results.

My take is that comparing flagged targets is a useful exercise to learn how to detect or to learn the ins and outs of a new detector, but for the purpose of crowning a king of metal detectors, it is a complete waste of time just like air tests and you tube video comparisons.  Life is too short and I would rather be out there detecting.

Nothing is going to be settled in terms of "best performance" because 1) too many variables still come into play when comparing flagged targets and 2) with the state of detecting technology as it stands today with maximum vlf detection depth achieved probably 20 years ago, stable and accurate TID achieved within the past 10 years, and the final (achievable) performance holy grail, max recovery speed (for unmasking), being conquered first by Deus and then subsequently by Equinox., there is nothing left to prove.  Simply make the detector choice that checks most of the boxes that you require for your particular detecting objective (nuggets, coins, jewelry, relics), detecting terrain (beach, water, field, park, woods) and that has the ergonomics that suit you, get on with detecting and stop trying to figure out what is the "best".  The "best" is more of a subjective personal choice at this point.  The best detector is the detector you use most often.  Simple as that.

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5 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

It can go beyond "mere preference" and "mere experience level", and actually have evolution-bending results.

I totally understand Chase’s remarks above.  I have the same reasonings as he does about comparing two “highly capable” machines built by the same company, in the hands of two highly capable hunters who have used those machines for a particular style of detecting for many thousands of hrs...read on... 

Tom, there will be no “evolution-bending”, “eye-opening” results between similar, VLF style, state of the art machines within the same company...What you witnessed over 15 years ago between your trusty/loyal Whites machine and a new Minelab Explorer hunting deepies in a trashy, old park is not gonna happen between any of the Minelab FBS/multi-IQ machines with regards to turf hunting.  

My E-Trac buddy and I compared signals with each other for the past 8-9 years.  In that time, we have flagged/compared well over 1000 deep signals.  The verdict??  Neither of us ended up wanting to change/swap our detectors for another one.  Actually, every time we flagged/located a deep target for the other hunter to hear, that last thing on our minds was that we were gonna end up wanting a new machine at the end of our hunt...🤣.  No way, shape, or form!  We just wanted to let each other hear an obscure/deep target in hopes that the other person would agree with your conclusions (I.e. it was a deep silver coin, or it wasn’t iron falsing, etc) before they had to put a shovel to the dirt and dig to China ☺️.  When two people are near the top of mastering a machine for a specific style of hunting, and are confident/successful/comfortable with their hunting style and machine selection, you just don’t ask yourself if your buddy’s machine would produce more keepers than your current machine which you’ve been so comfortable/successful using for so many years.   That’s not what a confident, successful hunter would say to themselves.  We continued on using our same machines for years, and we were very successful, averaging a combined 700-800 turf silver a year between us.

You’re still using an Explorer, right? Why haven’t you bought the ML successors to your Explorer (E-Trac/CTX)?  Its probably for the same reasons my buddy and I didn’t feel the need to get a different or successor machine (because of little to no benefit of operational performance).  So, I can understand why there’s little chance you’d swap your Explorer for an Equinox because there’s not going to be any evolutionary-bending, eye opening differences between those machines with respect to detecting deep coins in the turf.  The performance differences are very subtle, but the physical characteristics between the machines are “evolutionarily” different.  As I aged, I grew tired of swinging my boat anchor Explorer with inline probe.  I typically would have a sore shoulder after a day’s hunt, and was hoping/praying that Minelab would design a super lightweight, highly capable turf hunting machine that operated/performed every bit as good as my Explorer does for deep, masked turf targets....The verdict?  The Equinox does a fine job, and definitely meets my standards as a highly capable deep, partially masked target, turf hunting machine!!  I haven’t felt the need (not even for a second) to pull my Explorer out of the garage and use it again.

 

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When guys come over to me while I'm digging craters on the beach, they always want to hear the next signal. So I try and find the faintest signal I can with the GPX, and then I watch them struggle to hear anything, even ground noise. That's the devil in me 😈 😄. Comparing signals for me, has been around for as long as I have been detecting. It is useful if the losing person takes the time to try readjusting their machine. But most of the time it turns into a competition of some sorts. It also breaks egos and hearts. Nothing like spending a lot of cash on a machine and see someone hear a signal that you can't. I almost never ask to hear a target that someone else has flagged, unless someone is teaching me the ropes in their area. If I traveled out of area, I would appreciate the lesson. It does pay to let those guys with cheap VLF's on the beach watch me dig deep coins. They usually jump in front of me and clear the first 6-8" of junk targets 👍

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5 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

  When the XS and then the II came out, all of the sudden :  Show & tell started trickling in, on forums.  Of : "such & such silver today, from such & such park".  At parks where, old-timers were scratching their heads thinking "Gee, it takes a hardcore expert to pull more silver from there, yet this yokel just casually gets 3 more barbers from there yesterday ?".   🤔

And to add insult to injury, these new machines were pulling from the deep layers. So the coins were Barber and Seated with a couple of masked or on edge newer silvers. These were the coins that made you feel like you were king of that park.... and these new guys are pulling them out like they are weeds. 😄

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12 minutes ago, schoolofhardNox said:

It does pay to let those guys with cheap VLF's on the beach watch me dig deep coins. They usually jump in front of me and clear the first 6-8" of junk targets

There was a saying here about old parks being detected....they may have been White’d (Whites) out, but have they ever been Explorer’d? 😹🤣

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