Steve Herschbach

A $2.5 gold coin is a small target so the larger coil on the CZ will not help any except for ground coverage. It could actually hurt depth in a magnetite mineralized beach. And CZ-20/21 coils are hardwired so not just something you swap out. A PI can give you some more punch in mineralized beaches, but at the cost of having to dig everything. Hair pins you never knew existed with a VLF appear everywhere. A TDI for wading or in my case an ATX for submersed work are both ground balancing PI detectors that do well on mineralized beaches. The White’s Surf PI does not ground balance but can also do well as long as you can maintain an even coil height over the sand. Again, kind of hard to say you need to run out and get a PI though given the trade involved regarding discrimination.

Updated my post above to add this template for use by myself and others when talking about target id segments and where targets appear, etc. You can create color versions like the one on the previous page by using a simple program like Microsoft paint to change the colors of the black squares. Click for larger version.

Personally I am a fan of the CZ so I vote sticking with what you have unless you wanted to use a PI. The CZ in particular has a good ground balanced all metal mode that serves well anywhere the trash is such that you can get away with digging everything. As close to a PI as you will get in the water without buying one. The Excalibur is probably the most mentioned alternative, but I don't think there is enough difference between the two, if any, to make it worth an additional purchase. Just my opinion though. Waterproof Metal Detector Comparison Chart

I don’t but then I don’t post videos. Welcome to the forum Tom!

I never said people don’t need training - just that I am not planning on doing any personally outside this forum. Whatever can’t be gleaned from the forum will hopefully be provided or offered as a service at the dealer level. If Minelab were to ever sponsor training sessions I might consider getting involved, but that would be about it as far as I am concerned. Welcome to the forum Joel!

Sadly, I have not used any accessory coils

Thanks Gerry, now I have to wait a couple hours for the swelling of my head to go down so my hat will fit again. Seriously, despite my age I am best viewed as a kid that loves detecting and who just wants to have fun. I don’t consider myself to be all that technically proficient when it comes to detecting. That’s part of the problem when people want video scientific proof of this or that. I just go use them and after 45 years of metal detecting I know what I like and what I don’t like. There are some detectors that might in theory “go deeper” but the overall package and day in, day out useability do also matter to me. All detectors have areas where they are merely “good enough” but make up for it by the overall aspects of the package. So what I see in Equinox is simply a detector that checks off a higher percentage of my desired features in one unit that I have before now ever encountered. It’s a really great package with excellent performance at a bargain price. I do think it is just the leading edge of things to come for at least the next decade from Minelab and so the more collective knowledge I can glean about the detector the better it is for me and I assume for you all also. The knowledge gained will probably be applicable for quite a few years.

You have spent enough time in Oz that I now can barely understand what you are talking about Paul!

Nice! 2017 was one of my poorest jewelry years in some time. I did not focus on it enough, and the times I did were either not productive other than typical junk jewelry.

Welcome to the forum! If you are hunting gold jewelry and not going to get into wet salt sand my choice would be Diablo. If you want less hots on small aluminum (and tiny gold) the other models will serve.

Welcome to the forum! When I hear the words “Long Range Locator” I usually think of dowsing devices dressed up to look like science based devices. The scientific end of things is called Geophysical Prospecting. I wrote a previous post that summarizes some of the methods available to geophysical prospectors. I hope that helps. Be cautious with your money. There are many who would like to take it based on excessive promises. Good luck!

With a Troy Ounce being 31.1035 grams that is as close to being on the money for a 1 Ounce nugget as a person can get. Great find - congratulations!

It actually had quite a bit of oxides covering the gold when found but cleaned up beautifully with a little soak in Whink 1% HF.

Hopefully we will see them show up in the next couple weeks to find out - good things come to those that wait

I don’t think that was even a third of a five gallon bucket - you are probably sitting on around $1000 in your bucket strick!

I let the common coins pile up for years. Last time I cashed out was spring 2013 so it might be time for spring cleaning again. Here is the 2013 result - 38 pounds of coins. Screen and wash with a sieve to get out the large chunks of dirt and small trash that sneaks into the pile. After that I put them in a five gallon bucket with water and soap and stir/agitate vigorously, adding clean water until it stays clean. Then dump, dry, and pick out obvious corroded coins that won't pass a Coinstar machine. Just most of them - Coinstar will sort the rest. Then take to a Coinstar machine, and cash in for an Amazon card (for example) as the fee is waived if you get a gift card instead of cash. And you get a neat printout showing you not only the value but how it all broke down. Over 4000 recovered coins.

Very nice, thanks for posting Fred!

Great report! I never use the disc mode on the Gold Monster except as an extreme last resort. It not only loses a lot of depth but if a nugget is misidentified as ferrous you won't hear it and will never know its there. I prefer using all metal always and relying on the meter for a dig/no-dig decision. And that usually comes down to getting just one non-ferrous hit on a target, even if the other six swings show ferrous. I would rather dig some ferrous that falses positive than skip nuggets that false as ferrous if I can avoid it. If the area if littered with trash and hot rocks that make such target by target analysis impossible, then it's time to engage the discrimination, but there is a steep cost. The graphic below and on the detector is pretty spot on The SDC has very aggressive timings based on the "Fine Gold" timing of the GPX 5000. It aggressively rejects most hot rocks and bad ground, but in doing so there are "holes" in its ability to detect gold. Since gold and ground varies wildly, there is no way to know exactly where the holes are since they move around as the ground balance changes. Long story short, GPZ as a continuous wave detector fills in the "holes" left in ground balancing PI designs - one of its main design features.

My last trip of 2017 took me to a small prospect I had never visited before and so as an exploration trip more time was spent scoping out the area than actually detecting. Still, I surprised myself by banging this little 3.1 gram specimen almost immediately with the Gold Monster. I did not know it at the time of course but it was my last gold for 2017. I will get back to the area in 2018 now that I know how to get there!

There is a method to my madness. First, I really am ready to just settle down with Equinox for the foreseeable future. I would like to know everything there is to know about the detector, and I can't possibly figure it all out on my own. So by all of us here working together to use the machine, learn what it does best, learn where its weak, and how to work around that, then we have a win win for me and everyone here. There will be many who try the machine and don't like it for various reasons. Some machines I abandon just because they don't feel good on my arm, or I don't like something about how they act. That's expected and that's fine. I don't care how many people like Equinox or not. I am just looking to find the people who are interested in it, with whom I can share information in some kind of sane fashion. So when somebody posts a video "proving" the Equinox fails in this way or that compared to some other detector, I expect it, and I am fine with it. Go use that detector, and be happy . I get it. The thing is I have used the Equinox, and it suits me. Many of you will use it, and it will suit a lot of you. Some of you won't like it - ok. For all of us that do like the machine however and want to continue on - that is what this forum is all about. That includes being able to honestly talk about areas where the machine has deficiencies in hope of finding solutions. Finally, by having a calm, sane discussion, we can provide on-going good feedback for Minelab, that can be used to discover and issue bug fixes perhaps. Or information that can be used for the second generation of Multi-IQ. And yes Chuck, this is all predicated on people actually getting and using the Equinox!

Can't see it, but it may be the one already posted elsewhere?

Since this is an Equinox forum, people may assume it is supposed to be all sunshine and roses. The truth is I love well written critical commentary. The problem with most negative posts about detectors is they come down to "I saw a video somebody posted and that machine sucks". Personally, I see minimal value in that sort of thing. What I want to see here is posts and reviews from people who A. have actually run the detector and B. can offer straight up critique without the extraneous "boy, how dumb can they be" commentary. What do you like, what did you not like. What worked well, what does not work well, and why. Things to do, things to avoid. Whatever. It's not that you have to heap praise - if you don't like something for some reason then simply explain why. Here is the first review I did on a Nokta product. Notice I mentioned several things about the machine I was not wild about. I did not beat the company up for it - just stated the facts as seen from my perspective. Notice I went back later and also commended the company for later addressing those very issues. Where is my similar review as regards Equinox? Can't do it until I have an actual production unit in my hands or assurance that what I have would match a production unit in every way. When the time comes I will do my thing, though it will not need quite the detail of the Nokta review just because so much of that stuff has been covered already here on the forum. Just wanted to get that out there. It is probably premature so I will bump this up again when units start shipping. All we want to know, all of us, is what people around the world think about various aspects. Some things will be great, some ok, and a few not ok. That's real, and real is all I ask for. Thanks!

Same story as phoenix - never used the Evo but the UFO coil sure was good to me. Great design for covering lots of ground. https://www.nuggetfinder.com.au/products

Hopefully somebody will be able to run both in Virginia and let us know, because I don't know. Minelab has been very specific to testers that they do not want us speculating on BBS vs FBS vs Multi-IQ until the engineers themselves tell us what the technical differences really are and what to expect. I expect those explanations to come in the next few weeks. I will immediately add to that discussion when it comes my own personal thoughts on where various strengths and weaknesses of the three systems are at. I think everyone is caught a bit off guard because Minelab is thinking AT Max versus Deus versus Equinox when many longtime Minelab owners are thinking Excalibur vs CTX vs Equinox. Usually when discussing detectors you want to stay apples to apples, and that usually means how do similarly priced detectors compare. Things get stickier when trying to compare a $900 detector to a $1500 detector to a $2500 detector - and all three still have their place. The bottom line right now is Minelab is focused on competing with the competition and so explaining this Minelab versus that Minelab is a little less of a priority at the moment. Important of course, and info soon, but if you want them to ship Equinox then that is where they need to focus all the effort right now. It's an all hands on deck thing at the end. Anyway, Minelab by rights gets first swing at all that, and then when the gloves come off a few of us testers can take a stab at it. Let's get real though - it will all stay up in the air until those end user videos show up from Culpepper. I am pretty sure Daniel (TN) will be on top of it, and he will be quick and to the point with a thumb up or down.

Ultimately who knows exactly why some things get found and others missed. There are so many variables all we can do is talk generalities, and those have exceptions. Ultimately as much as I like theory and discussing it when I hit the field I am far more practical. It is just kind of a "whatever works" thing and no one detector has a corner on what works. Equinox appeals to me because it packs quite a toolbox of different possibilities in a compact, lightweight package. It will not always be the best choice, but there is enough there to work with I am confident I will not be left wanting very often.