Making Use Of Monte's Nail Board

[Jeff McClendon]

As far as Monte’s Nail Board Test, the Equinox setup optimally will do just fine. My video showed that it is very capable. So is the Simplex and some of the other Nokta Makro detectors like the Racer series and the Impact and the FORS series. I named those Nok/Mak detectors knowing your preference for user replaceable AA batteries and the Teknetics T2, Patriot/F70 and the F75 do very well on Monte's test also. They can handle both iron trash and modern aluminum trash better than the AT Max, AT Gold and AT Pro from my experience.

So again, I asked all of those questions earlier to find out what your soil conditions really are. I did not want to intrude, but knowing what part of your state you live in would help. Kentucky is known for having very good soil which is not known for high iron content. The  West Central part of the state does have some high carbon content from coal sediments.

In the last 20 years of living and detecting mostly in Colorado, I have gone through a litany of over 30 detectors in order to find one that would give me consistent results at various depths and be versatile enough to handle beach, water, coins, jewelry, relics, gold prospecting and especially high iron mineralization. The Equinox 800 and 600 check those boxes for me very well. They may not be optimum for you or anyone else. I do keep a Deus for relic hunting and gold prospecting in really bad iron contaminated sites and for its easy back packing and ergonomics at high altitudes. I also am totally delighted with Garrett’s Gold Master 24K. From my experience and weeding out process, it has to be the best VLF smaller nugget gold prospecting detector on the market today and it works great for micro jewelry too. 

[kac]

On your Max you can drop the ground balance down about 5, this can help quite a bit and give you a bit more depth. Do a manual ground balance then hit the - and back it off a bit. I do that on the AT Pro. It can make it a little less chatty. If you have a lot of flat iron the 6x9 concentric can help as it won't mask out like a dd does. Just don't expect the id's to be the same as concentrics can combine targets.

[mh9162013]

7 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

As far as Monte’s Nail Board Test, the Equinox setup optimally will do just fine. My video showed that it is very capable. So is the Simplex and some of the other Nokta Makro detectors like the Racer series and the Impact and the FORS series. I named those Nok/Mak detectors knowing your preference for user replaceable AA batteries and the Teknetics T2, Patriot/F70 and the F75 do very well on Montes test also. They can handle both iron trash and modern aluminum trash better than the AT Max, AT Gold and AT Pro from my experience.

So again, I asked all of those questions earlier to find out what your soil conditions really are. I did not want to intrude, but knowing what part of your state you live in would help. Kentucky is known for having very good soil which is not known for high iron content. The  West Central part of the state does have some high carbon content from coal sediments.

In the last 20 years of living and detecting mostly in Colorado, I have gone through a litany of over 30 detectors in order to find one that would give me consistent results at various depths and be versatile enough to handle beach, water, coins, jewelry, relics, gold prospecting and especially high iron mineralization. The Equinox 800 and 600 check those boxes for me very well. They may not be optimum for you or anyone else. I do keep a Deus for relic hunting and gold prospecting in really bad iron contaminated sites and for its easy back packing and ergonomics at high altitudes. I also am totally delighted with Garrett’s Gold Master 24K. From my experience and weeding out process, it has to be the best VLF smaller nugget gold prospecting detector on the market today and it works great for micro jewelry too. 

Thanks for your advice about the N/M models. I haven't done much research on them, but from the videos I've seen online, their sounds don't sit well with me.

As for the T2/F70/F75 models, I strongly considered them as they seemed to have great recovery speed and target separation. But they aren't waterproof or even weather proof. After having to end a few hunts due to rain with my Vanquish and detecting once or twice in a heavy downpour with my AT Max, I don't want to use a detector as my primary machine unless it's at least weatherproof. I guess a Fisher F44 is an option, but I don't think they're worth the money. Although maybe I'll find a great deal on one on Facebook Marketplace...

I live in western Kentucky, so there's a lot of farmland. But when it comes to yards and parks, there's always the clay. The only question is how much less-mineralized soil is on top of the clay. In many parks that I hunt, there is no soil on top of the clay. In the others, there's plenty of milder soil,  but it's almost always fill dirt with a ton of trash in it. 

I think right now, I'm going to work on a making Monte's Nail Board and run some tests on all my machines. If I can bring myself to spend the money, I'll also get a 5x8 coil for the AT Max and an Equinox 600 and test those, too.

Thanks for your insight, Jeff, much appreciated.

 

[Jeff McClendon]

I owned an F44 for awhile. I really liked it but........it is still an entry level detector with entry level performance. Compared to the Simplex which has similar operating features not to mention the many features that the Simplex has which the F44 doesn't have, it's not remotely a contest. The similarities between the Simplex and T2 are much closer feature and performance wise. I used to just put a plastic sandwich bag over my F70/Patriot when it rained. I did the same with a T2 that I tried but EMI was just too bad in my area for using the T2. The plastic bag worked for me just fine along with the many control box covers that are available. To me, an F44 is mostly a sideways move considering you have an F2.

The 5X8 coil is the way to go in my opinion (or a small coil from Nel/Cors or Detech) along with trying some of Ken's ground balancing and sensitivity suggestions.

[mh9162013]

9 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I owned an F44 for awhile. I really liked it but........it is still an entry level detector. Compared to the Simplex  which has similar operating features not to mention the many features that the Simplex has which the F44 doesn't have, it's not remotely a contest. The similarities between the Simplex and T2 is much closer feature and performance wise. I used to just put a plastic sandwich bag over my F70/Patriot when it rained. I did the same with a T2 that I tried. EMI was just too bad in my area for using the T2. The plastic bag worked for me just fine along with the many control box covers that are available. To me, an F44 is mostly a sideways move considering you have an F2.

The 5X8 coil is the way to go in my opinion (or a small coil from Nel/Cors or Detech) along with trying some of Ken's ground balancing and sensitivity suggestions.

That's good to know about the F44. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Flydog]

While spending to much time on youtube last night I came across this AT max vs Teknetics G2video. He also has a couple other vids comparing AT Pro (?) vs Bounty Hunter and...?

Now some may say you cant put too much faith in youtube revues, but if this is how the AT performs I'll pass.

It would be interesting to hear if your nail board test is similar to what he shows, or better/worse.

 

[Chase Goldman]

You did not post any video links...

[Flydog]

Doh!

 

[Jeff McClendon]

3 hours ago, Flydog said:

While spending to much time on youtube last night I came across this AT max vs Teknetics G2video. He also has a couple other vids comparing AT Pro (?) vs Bounty Hunter and...?

Now some may say you cant put too much faith in youtube revues, but if this is how the AT performs I'll pass.

It would be interesting to hear if your nail board test is similar to what he shows, or better/worse.

 

This video was made during the time that John was an FTP only dealer so………….

Not saying this wasn’t a fair review but no way could the Hunter GT make an FTP product look bad when this video was made.

[mh9162013]

Yeah, that certainly wasn't the most neutral comparison video ever. Still an informative video.