Legend Vs Equinox 900 Park Hunt

[GB_Amateur]

13 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

(Using the Eqx 900) I also pulled out 16 more USA modern coins that were in the 4 to 6" depth range from the testing area. Most of these were standing straight up on edge.............

Wow!  I say that not because of its contrast to the Legend but its contrast to the Eqx 800.  In both in-the-wild-ground instances and air testing I noticed the degraded performance for coins-on-edge in Park 1.  I also saw it for one of {Park 2, Field 2} -- can't remember which it was.  That plus the improved target separation you mention should put to bed any hypothesizing that the 700/900 were just fixes to the physical (coil ear, water ingress) weaknesses of the 600/800.   (Yeh, I know, different number of VDI channels.)

8 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

My longtime hunting partner died last month....

Sorry to hear that.  If you had posted it previously I missed it.  Having met him/her (can't remember) last summer I'll just say that was one sweet dog.  I've thought more than once about watching you detecting with your companion.  Many people have to take time out of *their* day to walk the dog.  Your dog took time out of his/her day to go detecting with you.  That speaks volumes of both of you.

[Jeff McClendon]

When I right a report like this, I'm am just sharing information. I am not trying to stir up trouble, start a detector war, issue a proclamation of which detector beat out another or make any claims that I can't backup with at least some actual experience.

I welcome constructive comments and questions.

I don't welcome backseat driver comments very warmly, at least not at the moment. 

Sorry to be that way but I have done it myself and I need to stop doing that too. Otherwise, these kinds of reports (they aren't anything but one persons view from their penthouse) may start drying up, at least from me.

[JCR]

We are a passionate bunch for sure. Just look at how much we can post on detecting shovels.🧐. Thanks again Jeff.

[UtahRich]

21 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

When I right a report like this, I'm am just sharing information. I am not trying to stir up trouble, start a detector war, issue a proclamation of which detector beat out another or make any claims that I can't backup with at least some actual experience.

I welcome constructive comments and questions.

I don't welcome backseat driver comments very warmly, at least not at the moment. 

Sorry to be that way but I have done it myself and I need to stop doing that too. Otherwise, these kinds of reports (they aren't anything but one persons view from their penthouse) may start drying up, at least from me.

 

Jeff, thanks for taking the time to do the comparisons and share the results here.  It is A LOT of extra work and hassle doing this.

Everyone should give this "field report" and/or "detector comparison" thing a try and see how it goes. If you've NOT done it, you will gain some appreciation for all of the work involved.

Thanks again Jeff,

UtahRich

[Bill (S. CA)]

50 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

When I right a report like this, I'm am just sharing information. I am not trying to stir up trouble, start a detector war, issue a proclamation of which detector beat out another or make any claims that I can't backup with at least some actual experience.

I welcome constructive comments and questions.

I don't welcome backseat driver comments very warmly, at least not at the moment. 

Sorry to be that way but I have done it myself and I need to stop doing that too. Otherwise, these kinds of reports (they aren't anything but one persons view from their penthouse) may start drying up, at least from me.

Jeff,

You have no need to say you are sorry for anything.  The types of informational "reports" like the one you shared have almost vanished.  Reason?  Too many people turn them into science experiments requiring more testing, more trial and error, more detectors and so on and so on.  My take on this is if you want more testing do it yourself.  I personally don't care a lick about this being weighted and that being weighted when a coin is at a 30 degree angle vs. a 45 degree angle.  What's next, that I have to wrap tinfoil around my head and stand on one leg while holding a coat hanger in my off hand to hit a silver dime at 5. 02975647 inches in moderately wet ground beneath an oak tree with a root density of .5? 

My interest lies in guys like you who know what they are doing using detectors and sharing results.  That is why your post has value for people like me.  I will add that I have heard similar opinions about the 900 being more than just a bug fix detector.  But none of the guys who have shared their results have posted on any forums for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

Please continue to share your views and reports, Jeff.  And tell the backseat drivers to get their own cars and drive them themselves.

Bill

[abenson]

12 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I’m 67 years old with two bad ankles and I needed to go to the bathroom after a 3 hour hunt and after digging over 100 targets with a screwdriver in semi frozen muck. My longtime hunting partner died last month and I am doing the best I can. I can’t walk around with two detectors at the moment for head to head testing in a public park. One has to stay safe in my car while I use the other one. I had several people walk up to me without my knowledge today.

Thanks Jeff for your efforts. It's not easy doing detector comparisons and to put that on video is even more work. Especially in public parks. It's not like you can leave 2 or 3 detectors laying around in a park these days while you switch off from one to the other and compare targets. There's always people that walk up to see what you're doing, ask questions, beg for change, see what you found, etc. I've had kids grab stuff out of the hole and run off before you even know what happened.

[Digalicious]

I complimented Jeff and thanked him for his efforts. I never thought that politely raising a relevant point would result in emotional and borderline angry replies.

 

[phrunt]

I believe most of the non-ground balancing VLF's like the Garrett Ace series and Minelab Go-Find series are lower frequencies as it will work in more ground types without the need for a ground balance.    They tend to hang around the 6khz to a high of 10khz, mostly towards the lower end of the frequency range for most models.

[Txquest]

Jeff, thanks for your time and info on different detectors in your ground type.  Txquest 

[Sirius]

11 hours ago, JCR said:

Jeff,   Thank you for the test comparison . There is a lot of good info in you observations. My East Texas iron ore based red dirt is not as bad as your soil. It is normally 3-4 bars on the Legend’s meter depending on moisture. 
 I use M3 often. In Park it is noticeably better dealing with Al trash than M1 or M2. Your multiple testing since getting your Legend bears this out. 
 What l have also noticed is that M3 is often the best choice in wet ground as Nokta stated due to it’s soil moisture subtraction. Where M3 seems to fail for me is depth in my higher mineral red dirt. M1 is noticeably deeper. I wonder if the soil moisture subtraction is the difference?  Take away the mineralization and M3 is a little deeper. It’s not the weighting, it’s the mineralization.

As Steve H reminds us, soil is what matters more often than not. Our own testing in our own dirt is the best gage but l learn from others too. Your well rounded efforts are appreciated.

To be honest you might not need a detector to go that deep depending on the parks you go to, so it might be better to be able to filter out some aluminum? Like most of the parks around me are about 60 years old and stuff doesn't get buried that deep in that amount of time. if extra depth is needed, then a bigger coil might do. Though pin pointing the target might be a bit more difficult due to the large coil!