Mark Gillespie

Nice rings

This is another machine I've always wanted to try.

The main thing for me is, will it outperform my present detectors. The answer is yes, but my TDI in bad ground is still my trump card. But that is not a fair comparison.

Awesome write up.?

That is an awesome piece of gold. To me that is very valuable.

Wow,I wonder how it would compare to in ground targets.

Well I broke into my wife's jewelry box, not really, she dug out the gold bracelets and necklaces for me to test. Sure enough they read anywhere from -1 to 3. And stretching them out on the ground proved one thing, the equinox can detect the finer stuff.

To start with I have nothing to gain from either Minelab or 1st Texas by any statements mentioned in the following post. Let’s take a moment and state the known facts: Minelab has been in the business of developing and manufacturing metal detectors for 33+ years. Minelab is a major competitor of 1st Texas metal detecting products. They're several people on this forum, that are regular testers for 1st Texas products, who will jump at a chance to accuse their competitors for possible gain, which in turns causes damage to the competition. Minelab has developed many new detecting technologies which has increase the demand for their detectors, as other companies. With each new technologies developed, more and more hunted out sites come back to life, as other companies. They strive to provide its customers with what they ask for, as do other companies. They strive to improve on each machine release based on customer complaints and concerns, as do other companies. They make good quality equipment, as do other companies. Minelab employs some very bright and well educated engineers, as do other companies. Now let’s explore any possible assumptions: We are assuming that Minelab have purposely deceived the public with the Equinox’s claims of multi-frequency transmission, but multi merely means, more than one or at least two or more. I must assume there is a lot going on in the internal signal processing of the Equinox that the general public will never know. I must assume the engineers were not naive enough to believe, that if they tried to fool the public, someone would reveal their deceptive tactics. Conclusion, my opinions: Not sure scoping the output of the equinox is enough to come to the 2 frequency conclusion The interaction of the system attached to the coil may be necessary to have a true picture of what is actually going on with the Equinox. I have tested and tested the different program functions many times over and know for sure the Multi-IQ is better than any of the single frequency choices on the Equinox. It provides the most accurate ID of any single frequency machine I’ve owned. Case in point. I have many different coins buried in my test garden of 10+ years and will confess the Equinox is the only detector to accurately ID my deepest targets. Hats off the Minelab for a job well done. Mark Gillespie

A 13 on my Equinox, I thought for sure it was a nickel, very surprising.

All but two of the gold items are smaller in diameter and should ID below a nickel. I've dug a lot of tabs in my life, I hate those things. Imagine what it would be like if they were never invented???????????

Well after a length phone conversation with "Tinfoil" last night I might have programmed my range a little off. Originally the gold range was 3-13 and the reason it was this range was, of all the rings I've found, all fell between those numbers with the exception of two wedding bands that rang up as 17 and 18. Normally I dig quite of bit of pull tabs but wanting to cover more ground in hopes of finding a ring I limited the tabs I dug that day. But during our talk he mentioned my range and then indicated that most chains might fall down to maybe a -2. Jerry "Tinfoil" is one of the original ole timers to the forums and has a wealth of detecting knowledge that he has shared with me over the years. Thinking more deeply, he is right as usual.

Awesome recovery

Very impressive rings to say the least.

Going back and checking all the gold rings I've found in the past 20 years I've fabricated my own Equinox program to attach the majority of the rings in one group of ID/audio signatures. When I'm hunting for gold I never pass up a nickel because the majority of rings I've found read 12-13 on my Equinox. I love that pile of nickels. The Equinox is a super nickel finder to say the least.

Always enjoy Carl's knowledge inputs. Now I'm waiting on a true PI detector with a good discriminator or a time function to eliminate unwanted metal targets. "If man can think it, he can make it" with time. My TDI has found a lot of good targets masked with iron. And to add just a little, even gold that has eluded even the very best VLF's in the world.

This was my first hunt with my own modified Equinox program. Went through all the good jewelry I'd found and set the machine up to give one tone for the range of gold rings. Dug every nickel signal, didn't dig any gold rings but found one nice .925 ring that ID as a solid 31. Very unusual and it sparked me to dig. Of all the rings I've dug the majority range from 6-13 and most will read 13. Amazing machine, very enjoyable to hunt with.

Very good to see you finding stuff at the beach.?

The sensitivity being to high will cause any detector to false over bits of iron. I would suggest, as already mentioned, open up the discrimination and work around some of these iron signals. By that I mean rotate a little around some of these clipped audio reports and see if the clipped audio starts to clear up, if so there might be a good target mixed in with the iron trash. Any kind of metal mixed in with good targets will cause false audio reports from any detector. Iron can both increase and decrease both the ID numbers and the audio signals from any good target. Good example below.

More than 10 years ago I started inquiring about some old locations I hunt. Most of the locations are old, shut down schools where coal was used as a heating source for decades. Before the EPA was birthed most people did whatever pleased them when it came to disposing of waste, regardless of what it was and these old school sites are no exception. The burnt coal waste was spread over many acres of school property which created some extremely harsh ground conditions. Grass and weeds find it hard to get a start and most areas are void of any vegetation. Most of the school grounds look like Martian landscapes with small BB size or smaller pieces of coal waste everywhere. This material attracts to a magnet with little effort and can reduce depth of all VLF detectors by well over half. In fact until recently maximum detection depth was actually 2-3”, any target deeper would give a solid iron audio report if any sound at all. After many years of hunting these areas all but completely unsuccessfully I finally purchase a White’s TDI SL with the stock 12” coil. It turned out the SL opened up these old sites and many nice coins and relics were unearthed, but not without many trials and numerous adjustments. Case in point: one particular area had been, in my opinion hunted out with many different VLF machines over a 10 year period and I was certain there were no good targets left. I had been hunting about 15 minutes and all the SL was giving were very short audio reports, which sounded more like chatter or EMI and not targets. This prompted me to increase the time delay to about 15 “which increases the time before a transmitted signal is analyzed” thinking the small pieces of coal waste were the short reports I was hearing. Continued hunting another 5 minutes and noticed the short audio chatter continued but not to the same magnitude. Stopping and increased the delay to around 17 and off I went hunting again. Suddenly I noticed the machine was running very quiet, to quiet. A minute or two later and a very loud low tone, which on the SL means a high conductor, I stopped and reduced the delay to 10 and found my definite answer. The coal waste was causing all the ground chatter and false audio reports. Increased the delay to 17 and recovered a wheat penny around 4” deep. Now to be honest I had to stop for a moment and think about what just happened. Decided to start over I returned to where I began hunting and discovered I had passed right over many good targets. After digging a few more wheat’s I decided to start checking these targets before digging and discovered if I decreased the delay most of these targets became the short sounding audio reports I had heard earlier. The PI was just the trick to discovering some nice coins deeper than 4” in these barren areas. I must add the SL is not the best choice to make if there is an over abundance of nails because of the very limited discrimination capabilities of this particular machine. As a final note I must admit this machine has opened up a lot of hunted out harsh ground sites. This machine is a specialty machine, by that I mean it’s not a cure for all hunting situations but for me has allowed me to hunt my harshest areas. Then a year later I found the largest class ring ever found and with the SL, in one of these same coal waste yards, amazing for me because this area has been hunted by many friends and the very best VLF detectors in the world yet not detectable until the TDI.

Being a hard wired coil, I wonder if all the TDI coils would work, but would require internal work, which might void warranty if the end user changed. Can't imagine the internal workings are different, jut water proof. Now at the beach I always have my switch to all or the ground balance off: This is a wonderful machine at the beach and since I don't venture into the water it's more than sufficient for me. From page 11 of the manual: "Target Conductivity Target Conductivity refers to the reactance of the target either above or below the ground balance point of the TDI. Generally-speaking, gold is considered to be a low conductor (high tone) and silver a high conductor (low tone). Iron often produces a confused, warbly pitch that jumps back and forth between high and low tones. The two-tone response is disabled when ground balance knob is turned to the OFF position. Be aware that target conductivities can vary considerably, even targets of the same metal. Small gold nuggets are usually low and large gold nuggets are usually high, but where the transition occurs depends on the composition of the gold alloy. Be mindful that searching in low-conductivity mode could eliminate very large nuggets, if any happen to be in the area1. The same is true for relics and jewelry. Many bullets, buttons, and most buckles register as high conductors, but cuff buttons often respond as low conductors. Most small jewelry responds as low conductors, but larger men’s rings can easily fall in the high-conductive range. Most coins fall in the high range, except for e.g. US nickels and small or thin coins like hammered silvers or very small bronze coins."

Daniel, believe or not using the small coil I bought from you many moons ago I can actually tell if a target is a bobby pin before I dig. I was hunting with my TDI SL at a ball field where a lot of girl softball leagues play (looking for gold jewelry) and I was shocked at the number of pins I was digging. I was hunting with my conductivity switch set to all with GB at 7 1/2. I was almost ready to pack it up and head home when I noticed I could hear a difference. Started experimenting and to my amazement I could hear a difference, the audio was slightly elongated with a slight jitter to the audio. Ended up finding my best ever gold ring with the TDI and the small coil.

Both are very good sites, but neither has what I'm looking for. Not critical, but thanks for the links.

Didn't know there was a site like that, thanks for sharing.

How many here might remember the Tesoro forum, the original one, that went down several years ago. It had some of the very best adventure stories I've ever read. Very motivating and the information learned about Tesoro detectors were very good. At that time I was using the Vaquero and I can honestly say I found a lot of rings with that machine. The audio, in my opinion was superior for me. I could tell if a target was a pencil eraser end without digging. A few years later I bought a Tejon at the advise of Gene Scullion (when he was the owner of Badger Metal Detectors) and wow what a fantastic machine. The audio again was superior and I found more rings. But keep in mind these are purely audio machines which lends itself to finding more rings because I didn't have an display to inform me as to what the target might be. But the dual discrimination feature was a plus over the Vaquero and helped with not digging some junk targets, but still found more rings. Now it did have a serious drawback and that was recovery speed and the relationship to target masking (which at the time was not published information). But finally after years and the relentless detector advertising on both the internet and TV I gave in and bought my first display detector. Its been a very exciting journey, detecting that is. Met many hunters along the way and found some interesting artifacts to boot. It would be nice if there was a way to pull up or locate the original Tesoro forum website. A lot of lost information and fantastic stories of past hunters and their experiences.

In recent months I've had the great opportunity to meet many new relic hunters. No young guys all between 50-70 years of age and very avid hunters. Conversations from modern day sites to colonial and everything in between. Being very curious, at some point I ask, what detecting forum do you belong to? Answer 100% of the time has been, none. Thinking, how can it be 100% no. So it got me to thinking, just how much history has been recovered with no record, other than their own experience. One guy even stated he would not post his finds, even if he belonged to a forum because he was afraid someone might see and follow him to his private hunting site. Now that make sense. Just sharing my thoughts and encounters.