Howdy From Oklahoma!

[tomdoughman]

Greetings from Oklahoma! 

Picking up my first detector today.  Equinox 600.  So, I'm a total newbie and any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

TD 

[NCtoad]

15 minutes ago, tomdoughman said:

Greetings from Oklahoma! 

Picking up my first detector today.  Equinox 600.  So, I'm a total newbie and any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

TD 

Welcome to a great forum!   There’s tons of info on the equinox.  Just check out the equinox forum.  You got a great first detector!

[F350Platinum]

Welcome. I use a 600 myself. 👍

What kind of places are you going to search? Parks, house sites, farms? Beach? Your best bet is to start in your yard. Get a good plug shovel or hand digger (or both) and get practice digging plugs, especially if you're planning to dig in public areas. There is a lot of great content out there regarding digging. A spade will do, but the specialty shovels do make a difference. I dig with a spade in farm fields mostly.

Most important is knowing the local laws regarding metal detecting. Remember that if the property is not your own metal detecting must be allowed, or you have to get permission from the landowner, either verbal or written. Beware of people who say "they won't mind", or "no one will care".

Here is a good place to start, looks like Oklahoma is a good place to enjoy the hobby:

http://www.mdhtalk.org/cf/city-regulation.cfm?st=OK

There is a wealth of information on this site, you can get books related to the Equinox. Do read up some before you get going! Here is one bit of advice that I was given - "Don't overthink the Equinox". Believe me, you can literally walk out the door and find great stuff if you don't get all mired in theory and settings at first, but do try to understand how the detector works. Start out digging the better signals using any of the modes that correspond to where you are without much tweaking.

Another important thing is research. Use USGS topographic maps and old aerial photos. The easiest site to use is historicaerials.com which can show both, with current road overlays. On older topographic maps there will be square dots that show building locations. Local word of mouth and historic publications are available everywhere. You can really up your odds of finding great stuff if you do this. If nothing happened in a certain area, nothing will be there! 😁

You are going to dig a lot of junk at first, and really forever. 🤣 It just gets to be more interesting. Don't get upset about it. Metal detectors detect metal.

Try to ask specific questions of us, there are some really great and patient people on this forum. Good luck!

[JCR]

Welcome from Texas.

[rvpopeye]

Welcome to your future addiction Tom !🤗

 

These should get you closer to pro level !

Courtesy of our wise and fearless leader.

 

[GB_Amateur]

Welcome, Tom!  First off -- read through the manual.  Don't try to understand everything but at least be familiar enough so after you've been out and have questions you'll be better positioned to find the part of the manual that provides insight to your question.  (Equally important -- after your first couple hunts, reread the manual!)

Here is a shortcut to forum posts about the Equinox that Steve Herschbach (site-admin) has compiled:

That's a lot of info so I recommend just choosing some pertinent introductory topics at first; there will be time later to get into the detailed ones.

(Note:  if the following is confusing -- likely -- the section of the manual titled Target ID and Discrimination will hopefully help clear things up.  That's on page 30 of my v7 of the manual.  Also see Accept/Reject which is on p. 49 of my manual.)  After the Equinox goes through its bootup process (takes 5 seconds or so after you press the On/Off button) the screen view will stabilize and you will see around the perimeter an arc.  This shows the 50 digital Target ID segments which correspond to the available large numerals that will show up in the center of the screen.  At turn on the lowest (most counterclockwize) dozen or so bins will not not be highlighted.  On the lower left is a button with a horseshoe icon.  That is a toggle switch and pressing it alternates between those bins showing up or not.  Any bin that doesn't show when the detector is quiet is 'notched out' meaning a signal in that bin will give a null sound through the speaker or headphones.

My recommendation is that you keep all bins active and "dig it all" for your early detecting 'lessons'.  (Note:  you want to make sure you are in a location, whether private or public, that digging is allowed!)  You want to know what good targets ID at and what bad targets ID at.  "Digging it all" is the way you learn the difference.

Enjoy the ride!

[kac]

Welcome!

[tomdoughman]

Thanks for the responses.  Can't wait to get going.

[rvpopeye]

Once you get it put together and charged .

Here's the link to check for updates.

Download a manual while you're there too.

https://www.minelab.com/usa/metal-detectors/equinox-600 

[Joe D.]

Howdy Tom,

   Welcome to the forum! Glad you found us! You will save alot of time, and aggravation by using this forum often! Wish I had found it sooner than I did!

Good Luck with the new detector!🍀👍👍