Beach Settings Questions For Nox 800 Please

[Dan(NM)]

7 minutes ago, midalake said:

Nice ring, yes there are stand outs. But if one wants to put odds in their favor and cover lots of ground there will be tradeoffs. 

Thanks and I agree, especially if time is a factor and it usually always is.

[BigSkyGuy]

I have noticed that in the ground, zinc pennies will generally read 20-21, but will occasionally jump up to 25-26. For me in my ground, this is a dead give away. But like Steve said at the beach things could be different.

[cjc]

at the risk of talking "hunt by numbers" (something I disagree with) I will say that it takes a "freak of nature" ring to hit above  24, but these lunkers and 22k items with silver for hardness do exist.  I run 24 as a cut off checker a lot of the  time but it's a dangerous game and anything thats smashing up against that top should be looked at.  B1 is a lot deeper and if you can manage it by bringing up the 1st Tone Break or even adding some (Feild mode style) disc do so.  I ran some tests and in Horseshoe saw B1 hitting haloed small coins at 17-18" on a salt water incline--big coil.  This represents a full signal  balancing task--Sens, Rec Spd, sweep speed--all of it lol....

Also, if you want to learn to tune this machine in salt, try B1 to get an idea of the variables and what affects what...

call it signal balancing 101--start with the extremes and work backwards...

practice in 2 Tone to better hear what's going on as you adjust...

Got this big 19k 15.2 gram ring going in behind other hunters by running a balanced 2 tone signal with some Disc / Tone Break, that allowed me to run Sens 23, s  tock coil--super deep and tarnished local pros had been walking over it daily for months. 

cjc

[Tom_in_CA]

On 1/16/2023 at 10:54 AM, cjc said:

.... it takes a "freak of naure" ring to hit above  24, ....

Thanx CJC !

 

I've enjoyed hunting with this Nox 800 loaner for the past 2 weeks.  That's for sure.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

I do a lot of beach hunting w the 800 and 15" coil.  A recent sturdy I just completed with 19 gold rings and the Nox 800 VID (VDN) numbers.

Gold Ring Numbers on Equinox 800

Listed below are the visual display numbers (VDN) to 19 gold rings. The gold rings varied from 10k to 18k and weight varied from 0.8g to 11.05g. The numbers are based on air test, but generally, these match well with the numbers I get at the beach. Based on Equinox 800 with 15” coil in Beach 1. Air test at 3”. Other settings standard (eg, recovery "6").

VDN Number of Hits

5 (1) I

6 (0)

7 (1) I

8 (0)

9 (0)

10 (0)

11 (3) III

12 (0)

13 (3) III

14 (3) III

15 (1) I

16 (1) I

17 (2) II

18 (1) I

19 (2) II

20 (0)

21 (1) I

 

For my Equinox settings in Beach 1 and locations/conditions, nickels are a solid #12, pull/push tabs vary from #13-17, zinc cents overall vary from #18-21, copper cents around 22-24, modern dimes from 26-27 and modern quarters from 26-30. (Of course there are always exceptions, like cents appearing around #12 and quarters around #20 and pull/push tabs around #9 or #22).

If I hunted based on VDN numbers alone and ignored push/pull tabs (#13-17), I’d miss over 50% of the gold rings! Thankfully, I can rely on the sound of the target, sort of, given I’m “hearing challenged”. Push/pull tabs are generally much more variable in VDN with each pass of the coil (e.g., +/- 3 units) while gold rings are very stable (+/- 0-1 unit) when within range (i.e., not too deep). I have read threads that gold rings have been found at a VDN as low as #1 and as high as #25 or #26. Based on 3 ½ yrs of personal experience with two 800s and with about 55 or so gold rings found during that time, I have found gold rings from #5 (in data reported) and as high as #23 (not in current analysis). I have reported previously that there is a positive relationship between gold ring weight and VDN; as ring weight increases the VDN also increases (a statistically significant positive correlation between ring weight and VDN).

So the next time you’re out hunting with the 800 and tempted to ignore one more pull/push tab – look at the variability of the VDN and listen closely to what the target has to say...you just might want to dig that pull/push tab after all. Of course, that is easier to say when digging in soft beach sand vs hard, frozen dirt. 

One more thing, esp about ignoring cents: For me, silver rings are often found in the cent range (19-23).  So the next time you want to pass on a cent, it just could be a gold ring or nice silver ring.

Happy Hunting