Park Hunt With 3030 And 800

[Vez]

I went out with a friend who had just gone from the ATMax to the 800 and he wanted some help getting used to how the minelab spoke and some initial instruction on setup.  I was most interested in seeing  if I could get the sound attenuated like I did in my 3030 and having a hunter with me to call over for a "whisper" on my 3030 was most helpful.  I was running a wide open screen manual 24, high trash, deep on, and rest off.  I find a quite deep tone and have him come over and we dial back the sensitivity until it started to sound clean, but quiet.  He was running park 2, GB 4, 50 tones, bias of 2, and recovery 5.  We pulled the target and it was a deep brass? star at about 8.5".  This park has given me tons of deep keepers so we pressed on.  The next person to find a deep target was my friend, and he called me over.   He turned off the wireless so I could hear it and he was tagging it good and it was coming in softly.  It was undulating between 13 and 14.  I was excited thinking it may be a deep nickle.  I tried it on the 3030 and I couldnt get it.  I bumped up sensitivity to where it started to get chatty and I dialed it back by 1 putting me at 26.  I couldn't get it, not even a null.  I tried going from high trash and fe-coin and ground-coin...  Nothing.  So he pin pointed it and I cut and popped the plug for him, I was too excited to stand and watch.  I get the plug open, put the pointer in, and no hit.  Plug was only 5" deep so I went further and I started to hear it with the pin-pointer.  Here is a picture of what it was...  I was gob-smacked...  Small 2 piece button.

I turned off the 3030 and retrieved my 800.  We both got dialed in and it turned into a day of history retrieval from the park.  What a fun day with a friend and had my best silver day in a park for a loooong time.  His take was an 1889 V nickle 1891 IHC and some other fun stuff.  I had a 46 Rosie, 44 Washington, a nice clay marble and some other odds and ends.  Thanks for looking and may you find the treasures you are looking for!

[Steve Herschbach]

While people may debate about CTX and Equinox on high conductors all they want, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind which one excels on low conductors.

[Vez]

Just now, Steve Herschbach said:

While people may debate about CTX and Equinox on high conductors all they want, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind which one excels on low conductors.

Well I cant honestly answer the high conductor question, but the two silvers I found at a spot that I have hunted like crazy with an Etrac and 3030 for over 5 years.  It is where an old footpath was and at one point slag was used with gravel for the path and the silvers came out of there.  The rosie was 8" and the washington 7".  It was very entertaining to see results like this and I cant wait to get back into a park.  Trouble is the good ones are so far away and in the semester I can only get 1-2 hours to hunt and a 30 minute drive kills that ? 

[Steve Herschbach]

The main problem is people confusing absolute depth with relative depth. In the real world targets are rarely all by themselves. Once you put nearby trash into the equation, recovery speed starts to be important, and the denser the trash and ground mineralization, the better Equinox will do compared to BBS/FBS. I have said this a couple times before - if a detector finds a coins surrounded by trash at two inches that another detector cannot find due to target masking, then the machine going two inches is the deepest.

I can see this all being a question if you know of places that have never been detected with BBS/FBS. But if a park has been hit for decades by BBS/FBS and is no longer giving up the goods, then the depth question is moot. It is only targets hidden by masking that are likely to remain, and Equinox is the tool to get them.

[GB_Amateur]

42 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

In the real world targets are rarely all by themselves.

May we add that quote to your tombstone, Steve?  (So simple, but it absolutely deserves to be chiselled in for posterity.)  Tom Dankowski opened my eyes to masking and the Equinox certainly appears to be challenging that problem front and center.

 

[NSC]

A good day out, well done both of you.

Having had both a CTX and a 800 I know which one I prefer

 

[steveg]

Wow, very nice report!  Another fine testimonial for the Equinox.  Great hunt, by the way!  You and your friend did VERY well!  Don't you just love "comparing targets," with both of you having the chance to listen on an un-dug target?

Congrats!!

Steve

[Dubious]

22 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The main problem is people confusing absolute depth with relative depth. In the real world targets are rarely all by themselves. Once you put nearby trash into the equation, recovery speed starts to be important, and the denser the trash and ground mineralization, the better Equinox will do compared to BBS/FBS. I have said this a couple times before - if a detector finds a coins surrounded by trash at two inches that another detector cannot find due to target masking, then the machine going two inches is the deepest.

I can see this all being a question if you know of places that have never been detected with BBS/FBS. But if a park has been hit for decades by BBS/FBS and is no longer giving up the goods, then the depth question is moot. It is only targets hidden by masking that are likely to remain, and Equinox is the tool to get them.

Unmasking is where the Nox shines, all right, especially around iron; for me, it does find coins the Etrac can't see (and yes, usually not that deep).  Otherwise, in cleaner ground, I still believe my Etrac does better on high conductors, mainly because of more accurate id and depth info.  But for the targets they see, the Nox usually seems at least as deep as the Etrac, even on high conductors (hard to be sure, given all the variables).

As for nickels, using the tricks others have suggested, I am doing a little better at rejecting pull tabs, but not that much better--the ratio is still daunting...

[“Spartan800”]

22 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The main problem is people confusing absolute depth with relative depth. In the real world targets are rarely all by themselves. Once you put nearby trash into the equation, recovery speed starts to be important, and the denser the trash and ground mineralization, the better Equinox will do compared to BBS/FBS. I have said this a couple times before - if a detector finds a coins surrounded by trash at two inches that another detector cannot find due to target masking, then the machine going two inches is the deepest.

I can see this all being a question if you know of places that have never been detected with BBS/FBS. But if a park has been hit for decades by BBS/FBS and is no longer giving up the goods, then the depth question is moot. It is only targets hidden by masking that are likely to remain, and Equinox is the tool to get them.

Well Steve,

mr. Newb on the podium here but I would like to say getting trash, small or large out of the ground with the f-pulse before hand helps me detect areas that could be “masking” targets deeper in the ground. 

That helped me understand why some of these hunted out areas are still giving up treasures for the equinox with its trash separation.  

 

[Chase Goldman]

4 hours ago, “Spartan800” said:

mr. Newb on the podium here but I would like to say getting trash, small or large out of the ground with the f-pulse before hand helps me detect areas that could be “masking” targets deeper in the ground. 

Wow, that sounds tedious.  The separation and unmasking provided by the Equinox is supposed to work WITHOUT having to do that, but I may be misunderstanding what you are actually doing with your pinpointer.