Quick Iron Balance Test

[midalake]

3 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I never discriminate 😀 I always run detector in all metal. I think I'll probably wear the horseshoe button out first. The only way I have found to get iron on both swings if the target is all iron is to use F2=3. Even then if it is a bolt or vertical nail I get some non ferrous tones. Just a lot less!

Wish I had an 800 now, it would help. 🤗

I have been writing about this for sometime. In beach 2 [which is all I work in]  In horseshoe mode, the equinox will double ring on ferrous targets, to great depths. 

Non ferrous targets will single ring at depth [only and always]   I have been able to find very deep non ferrous targets that will not even register in discrimination mode. And of course will not id correctly in fact will id in negative numbers. 

I have no idea if this works in other modes of operation do to frequency weighting and other changes in different modes. 

I did test F2 Iron Bias mode. I did not think F2 worked as well for this feature.  

[midalake]

10 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks for the replies so far, one thing I'm getting here is the thought that I should probably run F2=0 on the beach, I recall a post that suggested (although it was more a prospecting thing) that small gold would be missed (stud earrings) with an iron balance that is too high. This would also apply in sand tot lots at the campgrounds.

Are you talking salt beach?  Wet sand/water contact I would run at least F2-1 on that 600.  One of the biggest issues will be how quiet your machine runs in salt. The higher the IB, usually the more stable. You might be able to up your sensitivity by 1 notch higher too. 

I know there are some obsessed with "small gold". But frankly, small gold don't pay the bills. 

Obsessing on super small targets will suck up detector time. I vote for coverage all the time. Even in recovery 6 and IB 6 I have found some amazing small gold items.   

[F350Platinum]

8 hours ago, midalake said:

I have been writing about this for sometime. In beach 2 [which is all I work in]  In horseshoe mode, the equinox will double ring on ferrous targets, to great depths. 

Non ferrous targets will single ring at depth [only and always]   I have been able to find very deep non ferrous targets that will not even register in discrimination mode. And of course will not id correctly in fact will id in negative numbers. 

I have no idea if this works in other modes of operation do to frequency weighting and other changes in different modes. 

I did test F2 Iron Bias mode. I did not think F2 worked as well for this feature.  

I and definitely going to try this! Thanks. I have read somewhere that beach 2 doesn't go very deep, but maybe that's just in salt.

[midalake]

44 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I and definitely going to try this! Thanks. I have read somewhere that beach 2 doesn't go very deep, but maybe that's just in salt.

Well, it is possible to be with a very high sensitivity level on land [in beach modes]  My next trip I am going to work beach 1, and see if it does the same. 

I only had one other person PM me and said he saw what I was saying about deep non ferrous and ferrous in beach mode. Said he was going to experiment in the other modes, but I never heard back.   Let me know. 

[BchPatrol]

I have a question about the use of F2. The manual states that F2 is "best used in all-metal mode with iron tones available". What exactly does that mean? Pressing the horseshoe seems to be "all-metal" mode to me as it turns all of the disc indicators on regardless of accept/reject settings. I don't want to do that as I have a couple of non-ferrous IDs turned off that I would like to keep that way (1 and 2). I do have all of the iron IDs turned on though using A/R. Does that satisfy the requirements for "iron tones available or do I really need to be in all-metal(horseshoe mode)?

Sorry for the rather wordy question.

[Jeff McClendon]

33 minutes ago, BchPatrol said:

I have a question about the use of F2. The manual states that F2 is "best used in all-metal mode with iron tones available". What exactly does that mean? Pressing the horseshoe seems to be "all-metal" mode to me as it turns all of the disc indicators on regardless of accept/reject settings. I don't want to do that as I have a couple of non-ferrous IDs turned off that I would like to keep that way (1 and 2). I do have all of the iron IDs turned on though using A/R. Does that satisfy the requirements for "iron tones available or do I really need to be in all-metal(horseshoe mode)?

Sorry for the rather wordy question.

As far as I’m concerned your custom setup satisfies the requirement for using the F2 iron bias function. As long as there are some iron range target IDs accepted, the F2 adjustment if set above 0 will give the Equinox a better chance of identifying iron targets with iron target IDs and the corresponding iron audio tones. Since you are accepting the iron range you are good to go Fe2 iron bias wise.

When I am saltwater beach hunting I set F2 according to the amount of black sand and according to how many bottle caps and other iron targets are likely at that location. Everybody hunts differently and my main focus at a saltwater beach is to get a good handle between iron targets and non-iron targets using just 2 tones since I want to dig everything possible. At some beaches, the deeper the non-ferrous target, the more likely that its target ID will skew towards ferrous. It is also debatable as to how deep the F2 iron bias setting if say set at 1 or above is actually effective on deep targets. Depending on beach conditions, sanded in or not…...if there are lots of shallow steel crown bottle caps, I might raise the F2 setting to 4 or higher. If there is the possibility of some really deep jewelry or older coins I might put the iron bias at 0 so that the tendency to skew deep targets into the iron range won’t be aided even more by using too much iron bias…..

[BchPatrol]

Thanks Jeff. One of the beaches I hunt has the normal amount of bottle caps but it has a lot of tent stakes. I came home with ten last trip. I am trying to minimize the hassle from them. I had to turn F2 up to 8 the other day and trying to find the best combo of settings.

[Jeff McClendon]

13 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks for the replies so far, one thing I'm getting here is the thought that I should probably run F2=0 on the beach, I recall a post that suggested (although it was more a prospecting thing) that small gold would be missed (stud earrings) with an iron balance that is too high. This would also apply in sand tot lots at the campgrounds.

Small gold nuggets/flakes might be missed prospecting in highly iron mineralized dirt running iron bias above 0 since the likely hood is that the small nuggets might already register as borderline iron targets in that type of situation. Running too much iron bias may completely mask them as being part of the iron rich ground itself.

That is an extreme example on extremely small targets. If I was hunting a bark or sand tot lot that might have micro gold jewelry, I would use Park 2 or Field 2 (reset the default iron tone break back to 0) and use as little iron bias as possible depending on the level of iron/steel trash. 

At the normal southeastern USA saltwater beach, I would go ahead and run F2 on a 600 at least at 1 or 2 to get more accurate iron ID. Beach 1 and Beach 2 can still hit plenty of tiny gold targets on beaches without much black sand using those F2 settings.

I agree with Dave, spending a lot of time searching for tiny gold jewelry at a saltwater beach is probably not worth it when there are so many other possible bigger gold targets to concentrate on. So it is a “got to find some gold no matter how small it is” versus cover as much likely recent gold jewelry drop areas as possible balancing act.

[Jeff McClendon]

15 minutes ago, BchPatrol said:

Thanks Jeff. One of the beaches I hunt has the normal amount of bottle caps but it has a lot of tent stakes. I came home with ten last trip. I am trying to minimize the hassle from them. I had to turn F2 up to 8 the other day and trying to find the best combo of settings.

So those tent stakes are steel or aluminum or some mixture of both?

[BchPatrol]

1 minute ago, Jeff McClendon said:

So those tent stakes are steel or aluminum or some mixture of both?

I'm not much of a metallurgist but I'd say they are a mix. They are the normal freebies that come with a cheap sun shade/canopy.