Need A Settings Check Please...

[Happa54]

Hey Everyone;

I would like to get your feedback on how I use my settings on my 600.

I was never into digging mid conductors with the exception to nickels.  I have been killing it on the niks and I’m hoping to pick up some more buffs & V’s this year. And if silver gets in the way, then I’ll take them too.

Here is a pic of my settings in Field 2, 50 tones,  0 thresh, 0 iron bias, multi, sens 20, recovery 3.

I have basically disc’d out all mid-conductors except 12, 13, 14 for the niks and open on zincs to silver or small/large clad. Before I dig, I put it in AM to check for stability on the VDI from when I first picked up the signal.

The reason I open up the iron is because I read somewhere that the less filtering of targets, the less depth is affected. This could be a theory that holds no validity but it’s a strategy that I use now at my old polluted L.A. parks.

I don’t mind at all listening to the iron because I can easily tell what it is against my nickel signals. Then of course, the high conductors have a sound of its own and there’s no mistaking those.

Some of you have racked up a significant amount of hours on your Nox’s in various modes and I would like to hear the positives or negatives on these settings that I really like. Is there any validity to the theory of disc’ing this way? Am I giving up something or gaining?

Your feedback is appreciated.  

[Jeff McClendon]

Hi,

two of the gold rings I found with an Equinox 600 gave a solid 17 response so discing out that number range just above nickels could be a problem.

 

Jeff

[Chase Goldman]

I only have a couple of comments:  First, I think its ok and to hear the iron too if you can tolerate it because that tells you a lot about the site, whether you need to do a ground balance (lots of "false" iron (as opposed to iron falsing) variable -7 to -9 vdi's on a sweep with no targets indicates excessive ground feedback and is telling you to GB the machine - I just do that regardless because it only takes a a few seconds, but that is one way to know you need to), and also whether you are swinging your coil over a non-ferrous target or a mixed ferrous/non-ferrous target indicative of rusted junk like a bottle cap.  I will say that the way ML appears to be running the disc filtering on this machine that discing out the iron segment -9 to 0 does not appear to have any adverse effect on detection depth of non-ferrous targets and neither does notching out segments.  In fact, I suspect the ML seamlessly incorporated disc and notch to have no depth effect on the non-filtered targets (on some machines if you run disc too high, then you will affect depth and the notch filters are typically just audio filters - ML does not differentiate between disc and notch which means there must be some post-processing done that does not affect "raw" detection depth for non-filtered targets).  Iron bias on the other hand is a definitive tradeoff.  You can use it to cut down on iron falsing (false high vid's and tones or wraparound on round iron or nail heads or big iron) but the drawback is that you will definitely lose unmasking capability to find keeper non-ferrous in thick iron, so I really have backed off on using iron bias other than in "safe" situations in low ferrous dense sites where I am cherry picking coins (not because I "like" iron bias under those situations but because i am generally just running Park 1 for the high conductors and am too lazy to change the defaults).  That leads me to my next comment...but first a comment on your notching out from 14 to the low 20's.  I get it but am adverse to notching anything just because I have seen keepers pop out of the ground that I never expected based solely on the VDI.  So live by the notch, die by the notch.  If you just can't stand digging the aluminum trash, etc. then of course play the odds, but discing out that range may keep you from digging the odd war nickel which has an unpredictable VDI due to variations in composition, thin tokens, obviously a number of gold targets (again depending on composition), etc.  If you can live with that or if the pull tabs are just unbearable, then go for it otherwise you just may be missing out on the targets I described.

Great program IF you goal is to snag nickels and "easy pickings" silver, as you have stated, but I would run with the exact same settings in Park 1 if you want to occasionally tip the scales to deep silver, and you will still hit nickels but not as deep as your Field 2 program.  Also experiment with the same settings that you have programmed into Field 2 on Park 2, if you haven't already,  to see what you think in terms of nickel snagging capability.  For some reason (I mainly relic hunt vs. coin shoot with the "2" modes) I find Park 2 to sound "harsher" on non-ferrous targets and like to hunt in Field 2 but I wonder what the performance difference is between the two when everything in the user settings is set up the same and ponder whether the harsher sound just means Park 2 is hitting harder than Field 2 on the mid-conductors and therefore might be a little deeper, but I have not run any testing to confirm.  In any event, I did not see any reason to switch to Park 2, but have always wondered what the difference is, Multi IQ wise.

Anyway, if its nickels you want and the occasional gold jewelry, and of course silver targets of opportunity, your program appears to be a winner but you may leave some of the less common keepers in the ground (e.g., war nickels) based on your aggressive notching.

 

HTH, HH.

[Happa54]

Jeff:  Yes, I realize I'll be missing some good stuff but I have to let go of something since the power of this Nox throws too much at me all at once. I've never hunted for gold so I guess I don't what I'm missing...yet.  Thanx for your input.

Chase:  Good points in your reply. Had to read it 3 times to understand what you were saying... LOL. But, all-in-all, I always take away valuable insights from your postings. I think at this point, I'll just run with the settings described since you have validated a major part of my understanding of discrimination. By the way... If you look at my pic, I have 18+ opened up so I don't miss the silver war niks and injuns. I have several war niks both mid-co and high-co. All I'm basically doing is cutting out the other mid-co's....yes, yes, yes, I'm missing potential gold but I got to give something up for now. I do hunt in Park 2 as well, in factory settings, but only in the newer parks. Field 2 is for my buffs, V's and other old silver. The Nox basically gives me 6 machines in one and I have to take my baby steps in learning them. As I sign off from this post, I'm getting the Nox into the car, a cooler with cold drinks, snacks, cuz it's about 90 degrees out there today.

Have a great 4th of July everyone!!! 

[Chase Goldman]

On 7/4/2018 at 4:47 PM, Happa54 said:

If you look at my pic, I have 18+ opened up so I don't miss the silver war niks and injuns.

I need to have numbers not blurry pics through a case.  Lol.  Frankly, even a clear pic wouldn't help because I am not going to count tic marks, too lazy.  But point taken.  Like I said, though, the Wars can be anywhere (even 15, 16, 17), and most of the gold I've found was 10 +/- so you take your chances with notch.  But I think you know that and have decided to play the odds.  Nickels are fun to go after.  Glad you found my advice useful and I had to read it twice myself.    HH

[flakmagnet]

I have to read most of Chase's posts twice, but it's worth it...

[Cal_Cobra]

Dug a couple of silver war nickels and they TID'd @ 13-14.

18K gold ring rang in loud and clear @ 14.

[foreverteachable]

Great thread! I have not learned how to disc or notch out numbers with the 600 yet so have been using stock settings in park 2 and field 2 with either recovery speed of one or 2 since 3 seems to give me more random signals that often  end up as iron so 2 works for me and I switch to horseshoe if in heavy trash and it locks onto targets just as well as recovery speed of 3. I also use 5 tones . I am having so much fun just digging 12-13 and sweet signals that bounce between 18-20 or higher that I have not messed around much with other numbers and my pull tab collection has not increased much at all. I am hitting my first old field that has been mowed in an area dating back to early 1700's tomorrow so I will dig all non ferrous signals and see how it goes. I am interested to see if it works better then my buddy's idx Pro which is the large cent King when it comes to searching old fields.

[Chase Goldman]

5 hours ago, foreverteachable said:

Great thread! I have not learned how to disc or notch out numbers with the 600 yet so have been using stock settings in park 2 and field 2 with either recovery speed of one or 2 since 3 seems to give me more random signals that often  end up as iron so 2 works for me and I switch to horseshoe if in heavy trash and it locks onto targets just as well as recovery speed of 3. I also use 5 tones . I am having so much fun just digging 12-13 and sweet signals that bounce between 18-20 or higher that I have not messed around much with other numbers and my pull tab collection has not increased much at all. I am hitting my first old field that has been mowed in an area dating back to early 1700's tomorrow so I will dig all non ferrous signals and see how it goes. I am interested to see if it works better then my buddy's idx Pro which is the large cent King when it comes to searching old fields.

Don't feel that you have to notch or play with custom tone breaks to be successful with the Equinox.  Sounds like you are doing just fine.

I have had the Equinox for 4 months and have not disc'd or notched anything above ferrous + 2 nor changed any tone breaks or tone pitch from their defaults.  Thought I was going to customize the non-ferrous segments and all that for cherry picking etc., but 50 tones clicked for me pretty quickly and using the simple tools provided for target interrogation (primarily ALL METAL, Pinpoint, and quick switching to an alternate program in user profile) are about all I use now.  I'll still dig pull tabs.  There really is no magic bullet for them because I have found their VDI to be variable and unless they are bent, they are "round enough" to give a very coin like tone.  But bottle caps and large aluminum (e.g., crushed cans) are rare now.  And I pretty much can choose to dig big ferrous if in a probable ferrous relic situation (cannon balls, bayonets, knives, barrel bands - which are telltales of potential deep non-ferrous goodies) and can easily recognize small ferrous (nails).  I prefer to run with no iron bias except when lazy and the odds of missing a masked target are low (e.g., when I feel like just running with stock Park 1 for casual coin shooting). 

Notching/custom tone breaks are a personal preference thing (kind of like running with threshold) and are only "necessary" if you want to cherry pick certain targets as Happa is doing with success or if that is your preferred style of hunting coming from another machine, or can't afford to dig trash due to site time constraints or don't want to dig that many holes due to landscaping concerns.  You will leave stuff in the ground, regardless.  I personally prefer to let my brain do the discriminating with the audio because the multiple variables that affect what VDI finally gets processed keep me from picking precise notch regions with the confidence that I won't cancel out a desirable target.  That's just me.  Oh, I will definitely leave stuff in the ground too.  Not many of us can truly say that our coil sweep discipline is such that it is covering every square mm of ground, believe me.

[dewcon4414]

Quote

Another good way ive found since i dont run a threshold as well is to open up the iron ...... but lower the volume and tone khz on it.   It sort of replaces a threshold allowing you to just hear it which tells you a lot about iron in the area yet isnt annoying.  Chase is right ...... disc targets doesnt always affect depth but can lower sensitivity on near digits chopping them.  Also...... you will notice some of that falsing which you hear in the lower bin.... switches back to the iron bin.