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Having only one detector now I have been forced to learn how to use it for hunting gold. I have had the Nox 800 for about 2 years, and have not really used it that much. A little on coins in the summer months when I am back in Michigan, but never while in Arizona hunting gold. It has been a real learning experience with many many hours in the field the last 3 weeks with little to show for it. I am hunting one of the most pounded area in western Arizona and maybe the US. I have read and re-read many articles on gold hunting with the Nox but by far what has help me the most was a series of 3 articles produced by Steve Herschbach back in 2014 “Finding gold with a VLF” published in ICMJ magazine. It is very good reading for those who have not read it. After apply Steves principles things started to come around for me. I have hated being without my Monster and my GPX6000 but maybe it was for the better. I surely am becoming more capable with any detector I pick up now but I am still learning everyday out in the field. That will probably never end. Some days are still great even though my best detectors are in for repairs. I don’t have any fancy pictures but here is a couple of my finds with the Nox.

I’m glad the articles were so helpful to you. The Equinox is a contender for best all around VLF gold nugget hunter. Some might say a Gold Monster can hit a tinier bit of gold, but I say an Equinox with 15x12 coil slays the Monster for hunting large gold in tailing piles, and for covering large areas. And far better discrimination. For specific scenarios other VLF detectors may have an edge, but for overall versatility in a wide range of gold nugget detecting possibilities the versatility of the Equinox is hard to beat. If I have to own only one VLF detector to hunt gold, it is my pick. My tips on gold nugget detecting with the Minelab Equinox

Caution!....lotsa swearing

Yeah, you blokes toss tiny bits like that back, or just walk past them if they are sunbakers… not worth the trouble of bending over.

I am kind of amazed at how good we are collectively at metal detecting. People are like ants armed with metal detectors. We have swarmed and come close to cleaning out the vast majority of the good gold in the U.S. and Australia. Every nugget found is one less left to be found, and fact is a lot of gold has been found with metal detectors. A lot. Sadly, the good old days are now in the rear view mirror, and what nugget detecting we are doing now is more like cleaning up leftovers. Sure, for you dreamers, there are still undiscovered large nuggets and even patches to be found. But anyone that thinks things are even remotely close to being like they were 20 years ago is just kidding themselves. As a result, I have finally changed my mindset from “gotta make a buck at this” to “just get out and find a little gold, and have fun.” I ran my prospecting as a business since 1980, and turned a profit with the IRS in all but a couple years. I still have some claims in Alaska churning out some lease fees, but I folded my main prospecting company last year, after over 40 years in business. It always was just a side business for me, but one that made a tidy profit each year. The last couple years though it was getting to where just covering vehicle and food expense was a stretch, and the profit so small it was not worth all the expense tracking and filing paperwork. I closed it all down last year, and have officially entered the ranks of the hobbyist detectorists… just out for a good time! I have to admit it's nice, takes the pressure off, can sleep in or quit early if I want, or just sit and enjoy the view now without feeling guilty about it.

Historically, the 'game changers' have been with leaps in technology. Ground balance in VLF detectors, like the early-mid 1970's Whites, Gardiners, Garretts and Fishers detectors, thanks to George Payne's ground breaking work. Then, SAT type auto threshold circuits like the Goldmasters etc. DD coil tech which reduces sensed mineralization, higher frequency detectors for more sensitivity to small gold nuggets. Auto ground balancing (tracking) started with the Minelab GT16000. Once all variations of these different techs were exhausted, then Pulse Induction tech came along with Eric Foster's Goldscan range and then Minelabs SD2000. To my mind, the only 2 big leaps forward since then have been Minelab's 'ZVT' and 'Geosense' take on ground signal reduction in PI tech and simultaneous multi frequency 'SMF' tech in discriminating VLF detectors. Its starting to look as if all of the recent true innovations have all been created by Minelab and no-one else has even bothered. To my mind, as far as a list goes, these detectors added the most to the world's end-user success and technological advancements: 1970's-1990's VLF/IB Whites Coinmaster VLF range, Whites Goldmaster range, Garrett Groundhog and Deepseeker ranges, Fisher Gold Bug 1 and 2, Tesoro Diablo 1, 2 and Lobo, Minelab 15000, 16000. Whilst detectors like Garretts GTi range, Minelab Sovereign, Explorer & Etrac and Whites Eagles got a huge following later, they didn't really offer any ground breaking tech. Only the Equinox added truly new tech with SMF which everyone else has now 'copied' in essence at least. PI detectors. Apart from Eric Fosters Goldscan and C-Scope CS range which were only ever a small addition to the picture, Minelab created the first truly successful commercial PI detector in the SD2000 and the tech has been expanded upon ever since with various Minelab patents like MPS (dual channel PI), DVT (select voltage for each MPS channel), MPF (super fast sampling of the remnant signal) and now ZVT (instant voltage switching to allow superior ground signal elimination) and Geosense (rapid sampling and evaluation of the ground signal to alter the pulse train code on-the-fly). When these detectors were released using these patents: SD2000, GP Extreme, SDC2300, GPZ7000 and lastly GPX6000 they all added literally tens of thousands of ounces of gold to peoples pockets. A great many brand names and models mentioned there and Ive owned many of them. 44 detectors in 41 years!

I messaged back and forth with @vanursepaul a couple of days ago. He is in the Philippines, learning primitive tribal skills from the elders. He was making a wooden metal detector as we messaged. I'll message him now and let him know to check back in to the Detector Prospector HQ.

Got my 11" Deus 2 coil Friday after my hunt. Had a lot to do over the weekend, but got out today to give it a run for my money 😀 Got an early start thanks to the time change. At first it seemed like the extra weight and "nose heavy" orientation wasn't much of a problem, but as the day wore on, my arm got really tired, I've been using the 9" my detector came with, and the 10x5 on my other detector so they both run light. While I appreciate the extra coverage a larger coil gives, the edge falsing and slower swing speed and less accurate centering are a distraction. Reminds me of the 11" coil on my other detector, and why I don't use it anymore. 😀 I honestly believe that I am not getting much extra depth, but that's because there really isn't anything deep in my fields but large iron. I think the deepest target today was about 6 or 7 inches. I would easily have found everything today with the 9" coil and saved my arm from fatigue. Got a larger amount of trash today, the falsing was much greater, but I got used to it. Some larger pieces of iron, lots of buck balls (you have to dig them if you want buttons), and copper junk. One piece I got in pieces, and they didn't really add up to anything interesting. I got a lot more iron due to false signals, this field is loaded with it. It seems the 9" is better in this regard, and with separation. I was running my modified general program, and using a modified relic program to verify iron. I had both set to reactivity 0 for max depth. I tend to run the detector hot so it's a bit chatty, it keeps me focused. Battery lasted 7 hours and had one bar left on the coil. Ended up with some relics, a very old key and some unidentifiable but brass stuff. Might be a drawer pull, I think people gathered here and bought stuff from vendors, I've found a lot of them in this field. I got 4 buttons today, two with gold still on them, I almost had a heart attack with this one: It even has gold on the edges, I thought it was a coin. Solid 90. Will I continue to use the 11" FMF for relic hunting? Uhhh, no. It beats the heck out of me like my other detector's 11", and for sure the 9" is going to be better in heavier trash. Will I keep it and get a second shaft (carbon fiber) to use it for beach hunting? Yep. The extra depth and wider coverage will help there, and it won't feel wobbly on carbon fiber. It will also come in handy if anything happens with the 9" coil. 👍 I really wanted to get the 11x13, but yikes, as heavy and unwieldy as this is, I couldn't be more thrilled to have bought the 9" D2 package up front. 😀 Saw this not so little guy today, and let it be. Got the coil nice and dirty!

European here. You're looking for your Roman coins on ploughed/plowed land ? The Roman coins are there to be found because of the ploughing, bringing ( some of ) them within detection range. A deep detector is not your primary weapon. .. one that can discriminate out iron ( or audibly allow you to distinguish it ), pluck out non-ferrous from among iron, with reasonably fast recovery, is what you need. Your Eqx is going to be just fine.

And that's big gold? Good grief! If they got so excited over that bit, what would be the reaction if they found a real big piece?

These eyewitnesses might disagree...."

4&5 are for bone phone connections. 4 neg. 5 pos. You must use 4&5 for bone phones. Square tones only. 1&2 are for speakers, PWM and square tones.

In 54 years of detecting, I tried to think of and list all the detectors I have used. Wow! What a change has happened in all those years. I have used nearly every one of these that you mention and then some. Thanks Aureous for bringing back those memories of days past! snakejim

Great hunting and hope that you will learn everything about it, just so that you can teach me how to use it. I haven't been able to detect for quite some time now, and am ready to get back to it. Good luck and good hunting.

Not revolutionary, but practical handheld pin pointers have been a great step forward.

No revolution , but a list of evolutions : My main detectors : - 1998 Tesoro Silver Sabre Micromax - 2002 ML Explorer XS - 2007 XP Goldmaxx - 2013 XP Deus1 - 2022 XP Deus2 Of course I have used-tested other detectors , but they were rather second machines , or for testing purposes ( Example : the ML Vanquish 540 )

Three come to mind. For me, the first would probably be the White's 5900 Di Pro. Nothing extremely revolutionary about it, but it was revolutionary to me because it was the first detector that I owned with a Target ID. Even though it was analog, it was still a big step up from the previous machines I had used. The next one would be the Etrac. I was a long time White's hold out (several XLTs, a V3i, etc), so this was my first Minelab. I had seen everyone else having really good results with FBS, so I finally gave in and tried it for myself. They were right! It was an outstanding detector which was not only a silver sucking BEAST, but also very easy to use. I liked it so much that I upgraded to the CTX 3030 when it came out, and I stuck with Minelab all the way up until this year when I swapped to the third detector on my list.. The Deus 2. I wasn't a huge fan of the original Deus for the type of hunting I do. It had some serious up-averaging issues, and to me, it just didn't work very well for hunting coins in modern trash. Then earlier this year I tried the Deus 2 and had a lot of success with it. All of the issues with the original Deus have been sorted, it has a huge selection of audio options, very descriptive audio, its deep, its super lightweight, easy to swing, and sniffs out coins like a blood hound. A great all around detector which covers a lot of bases.

Hello and welcome aboard, Smigo. Glad you joined. Hopefully this will help a little. Good Luck & Happy Hunting

I carefully cleaned up the large cent today with a toothpick and an Andre steel wool pencil. I can almost say for sure it's a Draped Bust large cent. I don't see any evidence of a staff or cap, and the back spears to have the later wreath. Unfortunately the date just isn't visible. 😵

For background, relative novice here -- I've messed around lightly with an Ace 400 for a few years, and escalated the hobby with the Equinox 800 and Nokta Legend a few months ago. Tons of fun so far, and I'm ramping up my game finding coins, relics, and [knock on wood] tiny gold. I've also discovered I like comparing detectors and exploring their relative performance/outcomes and features. Anyways, question for the detecting veterans in this fine forum: What have been revolutionary detectors for you, and why? What changed the game after it hit the market? Best/worst quirks? What kind of history do you have detecting, etc.?

your right Reg, sure a couple of ounce bit is nice, but it's not really life changing cheers dave

Nah, nah, The Phantom of the Goldfields.

Thanks Ron! Have you been tearing up the beach? Not sure if that big storm that rolled through here Monday night worked to your advantage 🤔

Yup, you can remove the controller off the shaft, I have a little leather pouch that has a belt clip on it I can use for it, or I can just leave it at home entirely and run the coil off the headphones. It's quite a good design really for those that like lightweight detectors especially ones that don't cherry pick. If you're good at hunting with tones and enjoy featherweight detectors and hunt for shallow targets in trash it'd be a good choice. For prospecting I think it'd be good, as that's a tone type detecting method for me, it it makes a sound I dig so it suits that well. The problem is I rarely use a VLF for prospecting now, with the GPZ and 6000 now basically matching the VLF's for small gold capability while using even larger coils for ground coverage and giving better depth on everything else there is little need for a VLF anymore, other than as a pinpointer when using a larger coil to help recover the tiniest bits quickly. The time I use VLF's the most is creek detecting for nuggets and the Deus isn't good for that at all, it's better suited to the Nox.

"Just remember we're going halves?" I always figured Aussies have a good sense of humor. I also like his downplaying in the size, although he probably meant "over an ounce." Eventually he said it might be worth as much as 10,000 (AUD). If that's only an ounce then my dinks shouldn't even register on an 0.01 g scale. I would have thought it would be covered in that red soil, although maybe the finder washed it before they got it on camera? Good stuff.

Congrats! Great finds in my opinion.

Doubt if that's a fake. Never heard of a fake holed coin. I know a couple guys who have found Roman coins out here. People came from all over the globe, and some brought good luck pieces

I bet your heart skipped a few beats that day! And did you turn it back over to make sure it was a 1916?? 😁 I do something similar with ever Jefferson nickel. I first look at the reverse to see if it has a mintmark. If so I know it's 1964 or earlier. (Unfortunately it's uncanny how many times it's a 1964 -- well, the highest mintage up until then but it still seems way out of proportion.) If 'D' I say "come on 1939". If no MM I say "come on 1955". If 'S' I wish for a 1938. Hasn't work for me yet. 😞 I'll tell you what's way worse -- when you show someone a coin you find and *they* rub it. If there were a Miss Manners in metal detecting she'd rip that person a new one. I'm too polite for that, but it makes me not want to show a find. Some people carry 2"x2" plastic holders in their vehicle and put their good coin finds in those before showing them around. Now I know why. Sorry to hijack your thread, NCt. Yes, that coin saw very little air time before it was lost, probably a century ago. Common date but a good display piece. If not for your excellent photography we probably wouldn't notice the scratches. 🤷‍♂️

If you are really interested in the hobby and want to know more about the evolution of the machines Inside the Metal Detector is a good read. Amazon sells them. People will all have their reasons for what ever machines they think are ground breaking from their successes but end of the day the machines are very similar.

I didn't want to be another Minelab early adopter after my 6000 experience, although that was over a year after release I stepped in and was still an early adopter 🙂 Either way, for the Manticore I am without a doubt going to be an early adopter, I can't resist, the Equinox is just such an awesome machine that it's successor can only be better. I really hope it's not a lemon! And as a wise man once said, the first generation of a product is the one with all the bugs (Equinox), the second generation should be the good one.

For Me it was the first Computerized Non Analog detector I had, and that was a Whites Eagle 2. With Analog the only possible target I.D was the sound, and some were good at giving different sounds for Ferris and Non Ferris, But with Computer Analysis of the wave forms it was now often possible to I.D not only that it was a coin for instance, but now often What Coin.! Now that is revolutionary. And Whites at it's best.

I recently purchased another GPZ 19 inch coil, just so I could use them for snowshoes. Now they finally have a useful purpose. 🤣

I got the XP Deus 2, WS-6, WSA II XL, 9" coils and MI-6. I am ready to learn this baby and have fun.

Thanks! 🙂 You are correct. 👍 I was starting to get tired about 6 hours in, and I remember now shortening the shaft, I'm 6'1 and have thin arms despite all the physical stuff I've done all my life. 😵 I went from about 4 to 3, and was able to continue without stopping to "shake it out". I guess I could have made it even shorter. I just ordered a coil centering device and a sling, maybe that will help as well. 🙂 Meantime I'll be using the 9", it's been great so far.

Found this rather lengthy explanation of holed coins and tokens from another site. This is cut and pasted. “holes near the rims were for bracelets or charms. Larger rim holed coins were for teething or birth years and ocasionally saw use as watch fobs.Larger round center holes were used as washers for slate roofs when the suppliers tried to jack up the prices from 1/4 cent each to two cents each.Ragged center holes were made by indians so that they could use them for buttons on leather garments. Two knots on a piece of rawhide did the trick.Wartime coins with holes were sometimes for hate money. I've seen them with holes like buttons in them. When it is on a peacetime coin it was for use as buttons so that people with arthritus could dress themselves. On wartime coins it was usually so they could be sewn to the inside of military belts as "hate" money and the coins were taken from the corpses of the enemy. “ Strick

The rumors are flying now!! Two comments on related forums today: 1. Its been reported, that one of the engineers working for Minelab, has stated that the Manticore details have been finalized! Should be released very soon! 2. ...they are going to make an announcement next week.

Ouija board?😃

I put vernier dials on my SL. Made a HUGE difference in setting fine Ground Balance, and Threshold. I used to sell them, but am far too busy to monkey with them right now. Here's a link to the dials I used. If you want numbers, you have to make a disc, with numbers, to go on them. https://mgs4u.com/product/vernier-reduction-drive-14-inch-to-14-inch/ Jim

Looking fwd for your results with the 11" coil in this area. In theory you should find a few deep targets that the 9" has missed ... I am interested because I plan to buy a 11" coil too ... 🙂 thx ...

I find that foot often in my photos so it isn't creepy any more.

It's on this Garrett Forum, just below this thread last I looked. Yes, I am making exactly that statement, that Axiom will be a great all around PI, for beach, relics, coins... not just gold nuggets. I'm also just saying that I'm off the reservation saying that, as Garrett wants to keep it focused on the gold nugget market. The only people that did any testing were nugget hunters. Their use of a coin in their ad was for scale, nothing more. In my post, it's definitely intended to send the message that Axiom is for more than just nugget detecting. It was not a junk signal. It was a low/high signal. That can be interpreted as junk, but only means "large/strong target" and high/low means "small/weak target". The tones correspond exactly with other dual tone PI detectors like all the Minelabs and the Infinium/ATX, as it is a byproduct of the dual channel ground balance system. The flip point between the two signals is determined by the current ground balance settings, but tends to end up somewhere in the region of a zinc penny when in bad ground. Just where depends on the exact ground and ground balance setting. In mild ground it could be far different. I need to experiment more with that, plus determine where the default setting is at. If you get a target right at the tipping point, you will get a weird "tone flipping" response, that is actually a third tone indication. The TDI and Fisher Impulse, as single channel models, have a simpler tone arrangement, either low, or high. However, the basics are the same. I wrote an extensive article on all this, referencing all my previous articles, for those that want to delve into how to use a ground balancing PI detector to discriminate items. The secret is knowing that is not about target composition so much as it is about target size and conductivity, with ferrous on both sides of the scale, small on one side, and large on the other. So small gold / low conductors and small ferrous read the same. Large ferrous and most coins / high conductors read the same. Take all that, and add the Axiom positive response Iron Check, and you have a pretty versatile discrimination system for those that will learn it. The way to do that is completely forget anything you think you know about VLF discrimination, and learn this new way of doing things with a fresh and open mind. I'm really hating the fact that I'm coming off like an Axiom salesperson, as that was never my intent when this all started. I simply wanted to help a U.S. manufacturer do something to stay in the game, and give people who are interested some different options. I have done the best I can in that regard, but I'm not the one who designed or makes the detector, just a guy trying hard to make sure it ends up being the best it can be for what it is. I have no doubt some people will like it, and that others will prefer other detectors. That's fine. My advice as always is that people wait six months to a year for the dust to settle. People jumping on the bus sight unseen always do so at their own risk, and hopefully realize that before spouting off about stuff in a couple months. If it's not what you wanted or hoped for, well, it's nobody's fault but your own for pulling the trigger early. Any doubts and concerns, just wait and see. It's really that simple. Anyway, my part in all this is basically done now, if because of the weather, if nothing else. I've put well over 200 hours on the Axiom in the last year, in Nevada, California, Alaska, and Australia. Garrett has implemented a lot of my suggestions, so working with them has been a pleasure in that regard. I think it is a better product for the effort. Gerry has me for total weight, but I've no doubt found more gold nuggets than anyone with the Axiom so far, with a couple ounces of mostly small stuff in my vial now. Now comes the sit back and see part for me, as I am truly as curious to see how the Axiom is received by the general public. In large part though, it is Africa that matters a lot more than the U.S. or even Australia. Results there will be far more opaque to most of us, and it is there that the real success of the Axiom will be gauged by Garrett. 2.25 ounces of gold I found with Axiom in last year. 20.33 grams Nevada and California in upper left, 13.15 grams Australia in upper right, and 36.61 grams Alaska along bottom. Largest nugget in upper left a gorgeous California 1/4 oz specimen. Smallest nuggets around 0.02 grams. Gold found by Steve with Garrett Axiom Better picture of that 1/4 oz California nugget

Sevastras it was great to meet you. Thanks for stopping by our camp. You only left one tiny nugget behind for us to find! Our hunt was slow as well, but at least we found a few over the course of several fairly relaxed days. The weather did improve for us.

This was from last night. No gold patch yet. I was looking for it and only dug a few of the coins ($8.31) I heard because they were coin numbers in a jewelry spot. Some parts of your patch you have to dig it all. I got tired and disappointed a bit with my 'go to' spot for gold.

Thanks for your detailed reply Chase, I'm suitably impressed with the D1 and it's elliptical high frequency coil when running at 80kHz. Tinkering with settings I was able to make it very similar in performance with the Nox and 6" coil while having a larger coil, so effectively it was doing better than the Nox as it was hindered by the bigger coil. The Nox with it's closest comparison coil the Coiltek 10x5" the D1 was doing better I thought, if only it had a smaller coil it'd be deadly. I don't think so far the Nox blows it out of the water for my prospecting scenario, in fact they're neck and neck all things considered so in my case perhaps the extra ground coverage and lighter detector may end up winning. As a gold prospecting machine it's pretty good by the looks of it, I haven't obviously had a lot of time with it yet but I'm pretty happy with it so far and quite like it for that purpose from what I've seen. As a coin detector for my scenario of deep coins in mild ground its terrible in any default mode regardless of frequency, in my mild low trash soils it's left behind by just about every detector I own for depth, even entry level machines from competitors are capable of giving me a good target ID on targets the Deus doesn't see at all or gives a much lower ID on that it should or no ID at all with some coils, this could perhaps be because the Deus seems to only have quite small coils available. This is all very early reports obviously as I've only had it a couple of days and only stuck with default settings other than frequency and sensitivity when looking for coins. I have the 9" and 11" X35 and the 9' and elliptical 9.5x5" HF coils and I've tried them all on in ground deep coin targets I've found with my Nox or CTX and then compared the Deus on every frequency and coil using all of the default programs on maximum sensitivity along with the default 90. It's not looking like a depth demon that's for sure, especially when it comes to target ID's which are pretty poor except on rather shallow targets. I am all about depth and ID on deep coins and that seems to really be the D1's weak spot, if it finds deep coins it's more of a dig all non-ferrous type detector. I was hoping it would be good at finding deep coins below more recent nail drops as it's a scenario I do encounter where coins have been in the ground for a long time and the nail drops are more recent from roof replacements and shonky roofers throwing the nails all over the ground surrounding the building. The problem is if a nail is above the coin in any default Deus mode the Deus only finds the nail. It's odd as I see these guys banging up Youtube videos of a nail sitting directly on top of a coin and the Deus giving good coin tones showing it sees the coin, but this seems to be a bit of a trick as I can repeat the same test and it does indeed give a good coin tone, but if the coin is under the ground and the nail at the surface or slightly below bye bye coin, all it gets is the nail. This is no different to any other detector I own, I was just hoping the Deus would be better in this situation, so far with everything I've tried it's no different but perhaps people can give me advice on settings adjustments to improve this. As a nugget detector I'm seeing potential and the whole wireless coil thing is slowly growing on me, I sure see the benefits when I can change coils in a few seconds to compare them to each other, and the feather weight of it is also quite a nice attribute, if anything it's inspired my 12 yr old daughter to give detecting another go as she even finds it light and it quickly adjusts to her height, she always found other detectors awkward and heavy. The Deus 1 seems like it started life as a coin and relic detector and grew into a gold detector, perhaps XP saw the market for gold detectors was a big one and chased that market. It's a shame they never tried to make deep bigger coils for it but I guess it'd throw it right out of balance, not that I'd care as for me performance is everything, the other attributes are more a bonus than a necessity. The Deus 1 was to tie me over until the Manticore release 🙂 As a gold detector I quite like it and will likely use it quite often, as a coin detector for me, not so much, and added bonus because I've got 4 coils for it I don't need Christmas lights on the tree this year, I can just hang my 4 coils up, they flash constantly and would look nice on the tree.

The tone is from the salt content in the wet vs the drier sand. If it becomes annoying to you, rather than swinging the coil East to west you can swing north to south to remove or greatly reduce the the ping. Also slowing down your swing speed and raising the ATS may help. The operating voltage is regulated. Joes small battery should give approximately 5 hrs 15 min. run time.If it falls below the regulated voltage I’m not sure what takes place. I would assume it shuts down. If you own one of the first 30 machines or so sold, there are issues with the machine. One is, no matter where you adjust the frequency, it will default back to factory setting once you switch to any of the 4 operating modes. This along with several other timing issues were corrected after the 30 or so machines were sold.

There is no doubt that Minelab has always been an innovator in Metal Detecting Technology. There are those out there who will buy their products no matter what. I tend to lean towards a company based on its values. I once purchased a GP 3500 Gold detector only to find that it, plus a customer’s (same batch), had been put together (in Ireland) with contaminated solder. I was going to get out of the sales part of the hobby and bought an Equinox 800. I read in this very forum that they tend to leak. One guy had THREE IN A ROW! I sold it. Their response was that because they sold so many, a certain amount was bound to drown. They have never really listened to their customers. When the folks in the USA wanted coils for the SD, GP, and GPX series to have waterproof coils, Minelab was like, we designed them for the arid Outback. So, no we’re not going to change that. People complain about the coil ears breaking. Still, no fix unless you want to order an aftermarket slip-over reinforcement from Sun Ray. The leaking NOX was the final nail in the coffin for me. I don’t care if you make the best stuff in the world, if you’re a sucky company, I’m going somewhere else. I guess I spent too many years in Retail to put up with sub-standard customer service. At one time, they were four months behind in repairs. What does that say about your quality control? Oh wait, they sell so many that they have more to repair, right? However, the one thing they have that nobody else does is a dedicated Field Representative who is at almost every function keeping their name in front of the Prospecting and Metal Detecting Community. I wish Garrett had that. I’d be first in line for that job! I love Nokta because they share a mutual dislike for Minelab. They listen to their customers and make adjustments accordingly. Their machines are ruggedly built! But, their last two offerings were in my opinion, Minelab knockoffs: the Gold Finder 2000 and The Legend. Living in Oregon, I have a fondness for American Made, Family-owned businesses like White’s and Garrett. Now the two companies are one. Garrett’s products may not be as sophisticated as others, but they are simple to operate. The Apex is easier than the Simplex! It amazes me how people expect them to compete with companies with cheap labor and still offer the same features. We have Minimum Wages, Worker’s Compensation, and Employee Benefits. Third-world countries, don’t! I recently sent an older Sea Hunter Mark II in for a once-over. They almost completely rebuilt it and shipped it back for less than $90! Now that’s CUSTOMER SERVICE! Sorry if I’m a little off topic. I just thought if we were going to bash Minelab, I’d get my two cents in. Walt

Back in 1980 at Wedderburn Vic. Aus. most of us hated the built in speaker there was so much beep, beep, beeping going on, even the birds were mimicking the the beeps. I can see the benefit of the UR40. I made my own Earphone setup to do the same with the best earphone that were available for stereo that I could get, and made a cage (like in a safety helmet) that allowed ventilation and keep the Earphones very close to my ear.

I am going to make a suggestion that is a little higher then your $500 budget but it is a smokin deal rite now and that is the Nokta/Macro Legend from the link I provided, it is $49.95 higher then your budget if you go this route I would call them and ask what all is included in this package when I went back and read this add at bigboyshobbies it seemed a little miss leading when I read it https://bigboyshobbies.net/legend-nokta-makro-metal-detector this package has almost everything included that you may or will need the only other thing I would suggest is a good metal detecting shovel if you are going to be digging in the woods, and even the shovel you do not really need but it is good to have one if you are going to be detecting in open fields, and wooded area I would not take a shovel into a park or someones yard but fields and wooded areas I would here is a link to great shovels https://www.predatortools.com/collections/shovels/products/all-new-model-24-the-phoenix-shovel and yes they are expensive but you will never purchase another shovel again, like I said you do not necessarily have to have a shovel the first link I provided gets you almost everything you need of the two detectors you mentioned I would go the simplex route it is a great beginners detector and is way more detector then the price would suggest

I would agree that the Equinox 800 is hard to beat for starting out or getting back into detecting. That's what I did. It is so easy to use right out of the box and it is advanced enough to grow with you as you learn the machine and want to customize settings for your areas. I got the Deus 2 later and it is a more complex machine, but also comes with turn on and go preset programs that work great for starting out. The Nox's tech is not out dated, in fact it the one that caused all the other companies to spend years trying to copy and have just got theirs out to buyers this year. The Manticore is not a newer tech Equinox, but a higher end detector with tech from the Nox and CTX in it. And as dogo pointed out, there really is no best detector, so concentrate on what will work best for you in your conditions to find the kind of targets you are looking for, will be easy to get going with, and for a price you can live with.

When I was at Monte Berry's WTHO get-together in Nevada in June, there was one extremely experienced detectorist (hunts mostly old Western trails and stops) who started with the 5"x10" and switched to the 6" later in the day. I asked him which performed better that day and he said the 6". Keep in mind that this was in an extremely trashy (with iron) site. I didn't have the 5"x10" at the time so I used the 6", to my satisfaction. My typical hunting site is an old park or school. My sole target interest is old coins. I don't care about jewelry (don't throw it back if I happen to stumble onto a piece, though 😁). Since purchase mid-summer, I've tried the 5"x10" in some of those and still prefer the 11", which is underrated in separation, IMO. (I'm not saying the smaller coils aren't better for separation, though.) So far it seems the 11" gives better dTID's for the deeper (6"+ in my moderately mineralized soil) coins. I realize you asked specifically 6" vs. 5"x10".... And in my case I'm so comfortable and experienced with the 11" that the 5"x10" has a steep hill to climb to become my favorite. As always, the answer to your question really depends upon things the rest of us can't likely answer -- your sites (and particularly the trash density and type), your goal targets, and your detecting style. If you can try both, that would be my suggestion. But if you're like me with no one around to lend equipment, you'll probably end up just getting the 5"x10" and figuring it out yourself. One thing for sure, you will get considerably more coverage for time spent with the 5"x10" than with the 6".