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New Member, New 800


Sasquatch

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Hey just got an Equinox 800 last week, my first detector.  First of all thanks for all the info, it has really helped me figure out this thing!  So far I've only detected around the house and found a wide range of trash: Nails, stakes, nuts, bolts, old chunks of iron, shell casing, a piece of buckshot, molten aluminum nugget from a bonfire, stainless steel wire, tarp grommet, bottle cap, tin can lid.  Nothing amazing but happy with the results, right now I'm digging everything with a consistent signal to learn, figuring out the Target ID and learning the sounds.  Probably a little tough area to start at, but as soon as I figured out the sensitivity and ground balance, the signals are much clearer, I've been impressed how deep it has found some things.  Also suprised I haven't dug any hot rocks yet, there are a lot of rocks in our driveway that are magnetic and I expected to be having to dig a lot more, but so far haven't dug one.

Thanks again for all the advice on here, excited to go look for some nuggets and lost stuff.  Really happy with the machine, love the wireless headphones!  Seems hard to beat for an "all-around" type machine.

 

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6 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

I'm digging everything with a consistent signal to learn, figuring out the Target ID and learning the sounds.  Probably a little tough area to start at, but as soon as I figured out the sensitivity and ground balance, the signals are much clearer, I've been impressed how deep it has found some things.

Welcome, Sasquatch!  I assume (with a nick like that) you don't like to get your picture taken.  ?

You're on the right track.  You might try digging some of the inconsistent signals to see what they are, even if that just emphasizes what you don't want to dig in the future.  In my experience not all inconsistent signals are bad targets.

6 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

Also suprised I haven't dug any hot rocks yet, there are a lot of rocks in our driveway that are magnetic and I expected to be having to dig a lot more, but so far haven't dug one.

Presumably you are running in "all metal" (horseshoe button toggle) since default discrimination eliminates ferrous signals.  Why not pick a couple of those magnetic rocks off the driveway and see where they ID (if you haven't done that already)?

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I have been running all metal around the house, mainly to see whats there and pick up nails that are near the surface. But I have done testing to get basic ideas of Target ideas and the iron discrimination in Park 1 works great.

Will try testing a few rocks, but so far they don’t seem to trigger the dectector, even in all metal.

First time I tried it I was getting crazy signals from all the nails, like where someone had burned a bunch of pallets, the sensitivity was too high or I hadn’t ground balanced.  Once I turned sensitivity down and ran all metal it became clear what was going on. Now I do seem to sometimes get unrepeatable chirps, especially moving through taller grass and such, think from just the coil getting bumped.  But in testing I do see you can get inconsistent or jumping target ID’s especially when you put something ferrous and non-ferrous close.  Amazing that you can learn to hear the subtle difference between nail sizes, rings vs coins, etc.  

Thanks to all the tips on here this has been far less frustrating than it would be trying to glean all the intricacies out of the manual!

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On 8/13/2018 at 8:21 AM, Sasquatch said:

Now I do seem to sometimes get unrepeatable chirps, especially moving through taller grass and such, think from just the coil getting bumped. 

Yup, it can be sensitive. It might help to use velcro straps to hold the coil wire snugly against the shaft so it doesn't have any wiggle when bumped. Like loose socks, it can slough down and wiggle when bumped, and being metal... 

Others have commented that noisy coil can come from dirt under the coil protector. I've not pried mine off yet but should. That too might help. 

You started with an awesome machine and likely won't feel a need to upgrade any time soon, unless you want to get into some specific detecting that would do better with a machine focused to that task. 

They say 100 hours use to gain competency, and I believe it. I learn more each time out and am nowhere near 100 hours yet. There's still lots of settings to explore/learn about.

Enjoy your time, take good mental notes and don't worry about digging everything at first, it's how we've all learned!

Welcome aboard, we're all in for a great ride!

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Hi and welcome Sasquatch

Seems an age ago now when i first started with the nox, in truth its only been around 2 months.  Out of interest, when you say your finding deep stuff, what average depth you talking of, and what do you personally consider deep.

Cheers

 

Andy.

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Most stuff around my house is fairly shallow, it hits virgin ground and bed rock pretty quick and is mostly trash, but a couple chunks of iron were about 12" down.

Tomorrow is a big day, planning to head out on my first gold hunt.  Today I was impressed to find 3 small air rifle pellets, and perhaps a deformed small caliber bullet.  These seem to sound pretty close to small gold nuggets/pickers I've tested with with detector.  We'll see if I find anything!

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Howdy Sasq,

How did you get on.  Any decent finds?

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No luck this time. Went to Crow Creek Mine, but couldn't cross the stream due to high water, will try again in the late fall.  Walked around all day, just getting a lay of the land, seeing where trails went, trying to see where the different layers were between the stream and cuts in the hill.  So much iron around, many large pieces of iron read back high numbers, really wanted to get out of the tailings and trash.  A large portion of the claims were blocked off and a no tresspassing sign hung up, so couldn't explore as much as I would have liked, did find lesser used trails and poked around a lot of cut banks.  Then visited a friend that was camped out there and showed his son the detector and we found a few coins and nails aroud the campsite.  Today detected around the house and found interesting trash, a stud from an old studded tractor tire, few ammo shells and bullets, ring pulls, bottle caps, quarter, old Carousel soda can.

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