Been Gone Awhile

[Norm S]

I haven't had much time to detect in the past couple of months due to honey do's and other things getting in the way. I did try for some gold in New Mexico and got a bit of color and one tiny nugget about 1/16". I had a lot of hits but I didn't have a plastic scoop so that made things really hard and the closest place to buy one was at least 35 miles away. It was late afternoon andI had about a 2 hour drive to my next motel so I gave up. I did consider it mission accomplished because all I wanted to do is find gold with my 800. I tried a cpl of tailing piles and got a cpl signals but couldn't find what it was.

Yesterday morning i went to a park I hit hard in the spring knowing there had been a lot of activity there recently. In less than an hour I found $2.60 in clad and one 1962 silver quarter. The funny thing was I had to dig for everything and most of the coins were very tarnished. I thought for sure I would find a lot of surface drops and didn't find one. Most of the coins were 2" to 4" deep.  I kinda a guessed my success of not knowing my equinox very well when I 1st hunted the park back in March and April. That park was my learning curve. Yesterday morning I hit most of the coins in holes with tabs or nails so I think I may have passed them up back in March. I used both park 1 and park 2 in 50 tones. 

My ear may be even better now than then. Going out again in the morning for at least 2 hours and that will tell me how much I really missed back in March and April. I pulled over $200 out of that park and was pretty satisfied I found most of what was there. Like the old saying goes you never find all of it.  I did have one ghost signal yesterday and never could find it. I dug in about 4 places where it pinpointed and when I got down to 4" or so the signal disappeared and nothing beeped with my pinpointer.After digging the 4 holes the detector went silent like nothing was ever there.

When I was walking back to my truck an ATP user said you didn't find anything did you and I said not much about $2.60, He said no way I hunted that park and only found about 75 cents in almost 3 hours. I said you need an Equinox and he said they are all hype and I said yeah maybe so but $2.60 vs 75 cents is all the hype I need. I said buy a 600 at about the same cost as your ATP and you can hunt salt water too and you can't with the ATP. I said the ATP is a good detector but the Equinox is better. He said maybe so but Garrett has good service and I said so does Minelab. I said all mfr's have great service. I said after about 100 hours of use your AtP will collect dust and will be used as a backup. I said out of the box it is easier than the ATP. I said buy one you won't be sorry, He said I will think about it and have a nice day

I opted not to buy the 6" coil because although I know there are places it will shine I rarely go to places like that.where it will benefit me I still need to update my 800 and tonight I just may do that. 

I had to get back on here to catch up on the latest info available and to see if anyone had a magic setting that will only produce good targets....LOL

[Steve Herschbach]

Welcome back Norm!

Just let the AT users go on being happy - too many Equinox users out there already anyway. I just got back from three weeks in the UK and was surprised at how many Deus owners have already switched to Equinox. I guess I should not be surprised because I better than most know it does perform, but people usually are very resistant to change, especially if it means switching brands. I have always believed brand name loyalty is the best way to shoot yourself in the foot as a detectorist. I guess I am a detector whore - I will sleep with any of them as long as they get my rocks off! 

[Norm S]

I can't stop laughing Steve. I have had Garrett ATP and Ace 250, plus the Whites Spectra V3i and the E-Trac. I fell in love with the Equinox within days of owning it. I had a cpl problems with it and sent it back to Minelab but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm. I love it so much I bought a 600 as a backup.  Sold the V3i and At Pro and gave the E-Trac to my grandson. I think the E-Trac is the 3rd detector I gave my grandson.. I have used other detectors friends have and although they were good they didn't flip my switch.

I know a Deus owner that won't use anything else but he is a relic hunter. In parks I always find more and of course he calls it luck and even when I walked in his footsteps he said any detector could have found what i did and he said he missed it by not overlapping sweeps. 

The ATP is still selling like hot cakes and that's good because most guys will quit before they try another detector. I never find much at the beach but it pisses off the ATP guys when I step into the water and they get nothing but static and scratching. I usually tell everyone they have a good detector unless they tell me like the guy did yesterday I won't find anything because they hunted it with their ATP. 

It's cooler weather now and I will go out daily. The Equinox amazes me each time I go out. I learn so much from this forum and I learn little nuances every time I use the Equinox

I quit being brand loyal a long time ago. Drove Chevy's for 30 years had recalls and other problems but because It was a chevy it was ok with me. I had a Ford company truck and put over 100k in miles without it being in the shop once. I have driven Fords for 17 years and have bought 5 over 17 years without one recall or having to take it in for repair. I have 150k on my present truck and the only thing I have done is change the oil and filters, new tires and brakes 

The Equinox is the best thing since power steering on cars

[schoolofhardNox]

I had a similar incident on the beach. I was hunting when a group of people entered and spread out around me. I don't know what brands they were using, but I kept an eye on them. They barely ever dug a signal. I noticed they were watching me too. I was digging a target almost every swing. Deep coins, mostly quarters. One of them came by my area after I left and detected for a bit. I went back to his area after he left to see if there were any targets there. There were. All probably just a bit deeper than they could hear. Technology always wins once you learn it. Some people are better off not using the latest machines. They are more comfortable with their old machine. I started in 1971 with a RadioShack., the Bounty Hunter, then White's for many years and finally Minelab. No one has come up with anything that will make me switch again.