Compendium Of Equinox Relic Hunting Tips In Mid To High Mineralization

[Chase Goldman]

For mineralized soil relic hunting with Equinox I am hearing a few common themes emerging (my thoughts in parenthesis):

Most seem to be building around Park 2 (I will also experiment with Field 2 and Gold 2. Sticking with the "2's" because they favor mid conductors or strike a balance between mid and high conductor detectability or favor hot soil conditions (Gold 2).)  Field 1 seems to be popular in the UK.

At least perform an Auto or Manual GB (am wondering myself about the effectiveness of tracking).  GB will help  with performance since mineralized ground will likely have a ground phase reading other than the default and the mineralization allows the GB algorithm something to grab onto give you a good GB setting.

Don't overdo sensitivity.  If you can run stable at 22 that's fine.  No need to push it much higher than the default 20 setting.

Hunt with recovery speed 6 to 8 (high end of 800 settings).  Lower settings in mineralized soil increase ground noise, affecting signal-to-noise ratio and detracting from the ability to detect deeper targets countering the flawed claim that "slower is deeper".

Minimize iron bias if you want to maximize ability to unmask non ferrous amongst thick ferrous junk.  Drawback is propensity for non ferrous signal component falsing from the iron.  These can be checked with the AM button.  Upping iron bias to 3 or 4 (800 settings) in sparse iron situaions is ok as you run a much lower risk of encountering a masked target.  This is definitely a YMMV area and experimentation is encouraged for your particular site conditions.

Search in AM or without discrimination (AM gives you one touch access to turn disc off/on, so more convenient IMO to hunt with a iron disc'd out and punch AM button when necessary).

Listen for both ferrous and non-ferrous hits and try to center the coil on target to determine ferrous-nonferrous symmetry (donut) for dig decision or dig it all if you are so inclined.  Non-symmetric behavior and inability to find a non-ferrous tone and ID sweet spot are good indicators of trash or nails.  But remember when relic hunting there are several desirable, relatively big non-ferrous artifacts worth recovering including sword blades, knives, bayonets, spurs, horse tack, cooking implements and ordnance. EQX should hit fairly deep even in mineralized soil and can give you some key additional info if you carefully interrogate the target.

Tones:  I have seen anything from 2 to 50 tones recommended and numerous tone break recommendations so post your custom tone setups and why.

I am sure I missed a lot, especially custom tone setups which are more personal preference based versus performance based, so please add your tips, wisdom, and experiences to the thread.  Thanks

Shout out to Steve H, Daniel TN, Skate, Mtwolf2270, SteveG, Cal Cobra, Mitchel (mn90403) and all others I failed to mention (my apologies) blazing the Equinox relic trail.

[Chase Goldman]

Thanks to Mtwolf2270 for the link and experienced Equinox tester Derek for putting together the programs in the associated PDF that relic hunters and others might find useful.  For me I am finding more value from Derek's descriptive amplifying rationale for the settings rather than the settings/programs themselves because the programs appear optimized for UK field hunting.  Understanding the settings rationale, however, allows you to tailor program settings to your needs.

Equinox Programs - Derek

[Mtwolf2270]

Great grouping of relic hunters thoughts and experiences. I have been working in field 1 and 2 in heavy iron in hot soil. 

I found the tommy gun to be effective in my conditions but your point is spot on as too the rationale. In fact in default field 2 I basically moved to 5 tones adjusted my pitch etc to make iron just a backround sound.

I find keeping am on with iron quiter it allows me to know when you move away from from iron patches this really helps iding the homesites in big fields. 

I have also found iron bias to not cause masking the way we think of it .  What I mean is the ctx ignored iron so well with the slow recovery speed did mask targets. The equinox is so fast especially at 7 that with iron bias at 2 or 3 you don't see masking.

What you gain is that deep iron junk sounds great with 0 bias in field 2 but with a jumpy id or mostly 1 way hit. Bump up the iron bias that goes from iffy /maybe to not worth digging.  Now the is the key if you drop your recovery and raise iron bias too high I believe the more typical masking will occur I think it's more from the slow speed.

It's early and we are all still learning and certainly things will evolve as we go. I will be running the nox and further expermienting in Culpeper, VA over the next few weeks of course my gpx will get alot of time but will certainly work the nox in some of toughest soil I have hunted. 

[mn90403]

Chase,

Thank you very much.

I like that you have a list of 'published programs' and I have seen Gordon's but don't know apart from the Searcher Magazine if they can be published here without his permission.  (I would think it would be ok but I don't know the gentleman.)

I'm wondering if Steve has such a list of 'named' programs we can share.  He likes to listen for his targets in the 'noise' so to say but these programs you are compiling make certain objects stand out by design.

Mitchel

[Chase Goldman]

7 hours ago, Mtwolf2270 said:

What you gain is that deep iron junk sounds great with 0 bias in field 2 but with a jumpy id or mostly 1 way hit. Bump up the iron bias that goes from iffy /maybe to not worth digging.  Now the is the key if you drop your recovery and raise iron bias too high I believe the more typical masking will occur I think it's more from the slow speed.

Thanks.  Yeah.  Iron bias is definitely going to have to be trial and error.  i get what you are saying regarding the low numbers not creating masking.

 

7 hours ago, mn90403 said:

I like that you have a list of 'published programs' and I have seen Gordon's but don't know apart from the Searcher Magazine if they can be published here without his permission.  (I would think it would be ok but I don't know the gentleman.)

Mitchel,

Thanks.  I should add you to the Kudo's list (and will) in my post as I have gotten some pointers from you too.

I lifted the link for Derek's programs from a separate post by by MtWolf2270 who posted it after myself and another forum member asked about the tommy gun program.  Like I said, it is not so much the programs as the written rationale for the settings that I consider to be most useful.