Running The Equinox 800 In All Metal Single Tone At The Beach?

[Bill (S. CA)]

This morning I was at Santa Monica beach with my Equinox 800 and the 15" coil.  There were at least 8 hunters there at 6:00 AM, 5 - Deus II's and 3 - Equinox 800's.  

Targets were sparse but everyone came away with some clad and at least junk jewelry.

On my way back to my car a buddy of mine who has switched to the Deus II from the Equinox 800 asked me what I was running at the beach.  I told him Beach 1, 5 tones, sensitivity at 20.  He told me that the best way to run an Equinox at the beach is in all metal single tone which he swears gets better depth, comparable to the Deus II.  He said that he hunts by ID and ignores the tone so he doesn't need any multi-tones.  I'm not a fan of all metal all the time but this guy is an experienced hunter who does very well.  It's tempting to try his idea out but my experience over the years is that on really deep targets I may not get a target ID but I will get a sound.  In his setup, without tone ID I would have no way of identifying the target if there is no ID on the screen.  And to be totally honest, the 800 is a depth monster.  I dug a nickel with a repeatable signal and TID of 13 in the wet sand at about 16".  

Any thoughts/opinions on this?

Bill

[CPT_GhostLight]

I'm no expert, but I always go by the sounds more than the TID. TIDs will jump around sometimes and numbers of bad targets can mimic good targets, but sounds are often more accurate to me and give more clues about what the target is. That's just from my perspective, though.

[Jeff McClendon]

I'm sure Dave (midalake) will chime in eventually. 

I have about 100 hours saltwater beach hunting (not nearly enough to even tie the bootlaces on the pros) with the Equinox at mild to moderately black sand beaches. I usually hunt with the horseshoe button engaged, with 2 tones (ferrous/non-ferrous) and go by the sound both for possible conductivity and depth first and rely on target ID and the actual depth meter only on shallower targets.

[Rick N. MI]

That's interesting. I haven't tried single tone. Haven't heard anything about single tone.

[midalake]

4 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

He told me that the best way to run an Equinox at the beach is in all metal single tone which he swears gets better depth, comparable to the Deus II.  He said that he hunts by ID and ignores the tone so he doesn't need any multi-tones.

Yes, I hunt this way, except I use Beach 2 because Beach 1 cannot handle my Black Sand/Wet sand-salt mix.  
 

4 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

which he swears gets better depth, comparable to the Deus II.

In direct wild target testing we could not get the Deus 2 to beat the Equinox in the Horseshoe mode.
 

4 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

my experience over the years is that on really deep targets I may not get a target ID but I will get a sound.  In his setup, without tone ID I would have no way of identifying the target if there is no ID on the screen.

I have taken this one step further because of what the Horseshoe mode can do. On deep targets, if the target single rings and does not have a directional breakdown on 360 inspection it is nonferrous 95% of the time. These targets WILL have negative tid numbers, if deep enough, including gold. 
Likewise, any target that double rings or breaks down on a 360 inspection is ferrous, 100% of the time. 

This works down to the faintest signals. Signals that will not even appear in the discrimination mode. So I would not worry about "missing anything" 
 

[F350Platinum]

26 minutes ago, midalake said:

These targets WILL have negative tid numbers

Great info! 👍

What kind of negative numbers? As low as -9?

[midalake]

26 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Great info! 👍

What kind of negative numbers? As low as -9?

No not down to -9.
Usually a splattering, -1 to -5 [because the target is already deep and nonferrous.]

[Bill (S. CA)]

This is really fascinating stuff. How high do you run your sensitivity when hunting this way and any other settings different than the pre-sets that I should be aware of?  I'm very curious to try this out the next time I'm at the beach.

[Badger-NH]

The idea sounds plausible. I can't wait to try some tests. I wonder if it increases depth on land as well.

 

[midalake]

10 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

This is really fascinating stuff. How high do you run your sensitivity when hunting this way and any other settings different than the pre-sets that I should be aware of?  I'm very curious to try this out the next time I'm at the beach.

I can run sensitivity between 20 and 24, depending on Black sand.

IB, and recovery both at 6. IB the original f-6.

I do run 1 or 2 points of threshold [it seems to enhance deep targets] and really even with the good headphones I have you cannot hear the threshold at 1 or 2. 

Because it is going to sound like a new world to you> hearing everything even Black Sand ticks try not to run the sensitivity at your max. Run it pretty clean and if you get a deep target [and are unsure] then bump the sens 1or2 to look at just that target. 
Once you get a hang for the single, double ring targets, then increase your sens.  
One more point, good coil control is needed to hear the double ring, you have to swing slow over the target and be centered best as possible. It is OK to have have a half fast regular swing but when you get a hit [slow down] It is real easy to know where the center of the target is in horseshoe mode, and you will never need to use pinpoint again! 

I really don't like Beach 1 and never hunt it. I can get much more sensitivity and less falsing in beach 2. Sensitivity wins with the equinox. 

What sensitivity range are you hunting now?