Equinox 6" Coil Finds Extremely Small Gold

[Condor]

Many thanks to forum member Rege in PA (Minelab Dealer) for holding the Equinox  6" coil for me.  I was in and out of cell coverage for over a month and Rege held the coil for me despite having numerous other buyers making inquiries. 

Anyway, it's still too hot here in Sunny Yuma for any serious detecting so I took the NOX and little coil out for some early morning practice.  At sunup it was 79 degrees, heating up to 105 in short order.  I decided to hit some old drywash tailings piles that are easy to reach, moderately flat with no brush cover at all.  The ground is relatively mild, with some hot areas of red clay and alkaline grey volcanic ash down deep.  After playing with the settings a bit, I settled on Gold II, factory presets then added a little threshold up to 10 and sensitivity at 23, running with no discrimination.  I used my usual corded in-ear monitors(earbuds) plugged directly to the machine.   That much sensitivity is a little too hot, but I just slowed way down which suited my body in these temps.  I dug everything that gave a threshold flutter just to see what the NOX was capable of.  I hadn't gone 10 minutes when the first truly sharp signal and a positive VID number, ranging from +2 to +4 came through.  I scrapped off the top layer of loose gravel maybe an inch worth and had the signal in the red clay.   Luckily I had my cheater reading glasses and a good plastic scoop because this nugget is supremely tiny.  I found the second one nearby, again a consistent positive VID number at +4.  If I hadn't had my glasses, there is no way I would have believed those bits were gold.  I dug a number of other - (minus) VID targets just to make sure the NOX VID wasn't getting fooled.  Hot rocks were a consistent -8, -9.  Tiny scraps of metal sometimes reached +1, but no higher.  I had one screaming positive target that turned out to be about .5 gram of lead bullet fragment down about 4 inches.  The VID on that ranged +7 to +10.

The coil was pretty stable given those conditions with flat ground and no brush with little to no falsing.  

My standard detector is the Z7000, but I have off and on over the years used VLF including Gold Bug II, Gold Bug and quite a bit of the Deus with the High Freq coil.  I am truly amazed at the capability of this NOX.  Under my conditions today, it would lose nothing to a Gold Bug II.

Minelab Equinox Rocks!

[Condor]

I tested the 11" coil last winter with some test nuggets and a couple undug targets I located with the Z7000.  They were in the .5 gram range and rang up consistently in the +8 to +10 range.  As you may recall the bump sensitivity of the 11" drove me batsh__t crazy so I really didn't use it much after that.  I did test a .5 grammer this morning with the 6" coil.  I laid it on some fairly hot ground, but still was not much more than an air test.  It screamed loud and clear, consistently showing +8 VID at about 6" above the target.  I should be able to get out for a couple hrs over the next few days.  I'll try to find a good target with the Z then follow up with the NOX. 

[Steve Herschbach]

Good going Steve. I figured you would like that 6” coil 

[mn90403]

Since we are comparing the 6" to the 11" for me 11" -- 5 nuggets (one nice specimen), 6" --- 0.

I've learned how to pinpoint with the edge of the 11".

Mitchel

[Northeast]

On 9/13/2018 at 5:37 AM, phrunt said:

Back with the 11" these bits for sure would of been in the 1 to 2 range but with the 6" they all appear to go up higher.  Any gold I've found since having the 6" coil has been VDI numbers 3 to 8 and I am sure if I was lucky enough to find a slightly bigger bit it would go even higher.

Haven’t got the 6” yet and have just found my first bit of gold with the 11” (2 days ago). 

This little speci...

Showed up as a constant 5 on the display which surprised me. Thought there must have been a significant amount inside but when cracked open...

It was more than was originally showing but not much. The second photo is with the flash on and you can see the little tiny specks of gold through the quartz besides the main piece. Also smashed and panned the rest of the quartz and got the 2 little flakes in the pan to the left of the speci. 

Whether it is the quantity or the type of gold the VDI above 1 or 2 surprised me.  As with all things detecting, there are no hard and fast rules...unfortunately  ?