Mark Gillespie

Received a message from my ole friend of 15+ years, "Gene Scullion" former metal detector dealer and also former Senior Sales Manager for 1st Texas "Their Loss".

He had went water hunting and this was his finds and his statement, "One white gold, one silver and one stainless steel.  I'm liking the EQ800!"

Beautiful ring.  If I'd brought that home, my wife would have claimed it right away.

Upon returning from my beach vacation and a difficult week at work (always seem to get behind when I go on vacation) I returned to the school construction site.  A lot of dirt has been moved in the last two weeks and I got another one of those 1st (Francs 2).  The mercury was on edge by the way the audio responded, but it's amazing how the Equinox will not vary much on the ID when it comes to coins and pull tabs.   Even though the coin was on edge, the ID was a steady 23-24.  I knew it was a coin of some sort.

Wow, totally awesome finds.

Had a great time even though the finds have been very limited.  Actually dug a dime at around 6" in the wet salt sand of low tide.  Gave a solid ID and an audio that was surprisingly pleasant.  My confidence has approached the inland hunting confidence.  I know the machine will do well in the wet sand but since so much sand has been hauled in the old stuff is not accessible on this trip.  But did land another earring.  Not silver, but okay.

Second day hunt.  I must also confess something very important.  You know how the human brain tends to fabricate information at times.  Well, I'd been hunting an hour or so and not even hearing a target.  Started to doubt if the machine could detect anything past 4-5" in the wet salt sand.  So I decided to head back up to the edge of high tide and the towel line and got a really nice 9-10 ID, with a great sounding audio.  I had to start sifting the sand with my hand to find this nice .925 earring.  Amazing at the small targets the Equinox can find.   At the end of the hunt I had found quite a few coins, swivels and the usual junk, but my confidence returned with the sight of silver.

Moral of the story, machine confidence carries a lot of weight when it comes to hunting.  Stay tuned for tomorrow.

Getting a week at the beach for a little R & R and yes detecting.

I must be honest my first day was not that grand (two zincs and a shell casing) with the Equinox 800.  Hunted with the stock beach 1 program with no adjustments found very little in the way of nice finds.  I had high hopes the beach was like it was a couple years ago, but sand had been hauled in and built up by maybe 5'.  Even the wet slope didn't yield much in the way of finds.  But decided to hunt the towel line the second day and found a matching set of earrings some 4" deep at the edge of where high tide and the towel line began.   Talk about small, but the Equinox had no problem finding small targets.

Very ornate ring.  I can say I never pass up a nickel and will add most of the women's rings I've found register at or below a nickel. 

Thanks Steve.   A couple days later at the same location I met a women who stated the military had practice maneuvers at a locations some 2-5 miles off shore from Holden Beach NC.  She also stated her husband had all but ceased to find any good targets on the beach but had also found similar casings too. All this answered why I was not finding much in either the wet or dry sand.  She also stated that the sand had been dredged and hauled from about two miles out in the ocean. 

That's a nice CW relic, never dug one before.

Interesting, I think I'll have to visit the soccer fields again. Great recovery.

Wow that is some fantastic finds

Interesting

Amazing what the road of life brings.  Born in Texas (dad in Airforce), lived and travelled around.  Went to the 1 grade at this site, move to Turkey for the 2nd grade, then moved back here for the 3rd grade (same school) twice, I guess I didn't learn anything in Turkey. And have stayed here my adult life.  My dad was born and raised in this little town.

9 hours ago, relicmeister said:

Well I don't think better customer service is even possible. Last weekend my Equinox 800 suddenly would not charge. After concluding it had to go in I left a message at the repair center in Illinois. Monday morning they returned my call and issued an RMA and it shipped out on Tuesday m. On Wednesday late afternoon  I got an email from Minelab that they received the unit and would contact me after it's looked at. Less than 24 hours later I get another email that my 800 is in shipment but no details. I replied asking what they found as the problem. Minutes later they replied that faulty units or parts are evaluated in Australia, but that the unit would not charge with a known good charger, and that changing the Lithium Ion battery also did not fix the no charge problem. So I replied again " am I to understand you have shipped a new control pod?," and moments later they replied " that is correct" 

     Tracking says it will arrive on Tuesday. 

   First class customer service, Minelab!

That being said, I would confidently say this is a first time incident and Minelab wants to know exactly went wrong.   I agree, over the past 20 years I've never had a 24 hour turn around.

Awesome how the Equinox will give an audio hint of good targets between the trash. 

Me and I hunting buddy watches this site very close.  Each day they are moving and spreading out more dirt.  At some point they'll spread gravel and it will all be gone.

One more thing on the waterproof White's PI, I need some discrimination.  I know you can adjust the GB to help to some degree, but an actual way to filter out nails and keep the same settings would be great.  Hey if you're going to wish, wish big.

Has anyone saw a picture of the internal battery location and connections?

That is truly a fantastic story.

I had a week of salt water beach hunting in 2016 using only the TDI SL and can say for sure I dug coins and rings to over the 12" mark using the stock 12" coil.  Very capable machine even in the soggy wet sand areas.  I kind of cheated the water proof thing by covering the entire control box with a 2 gallon zip lock bag.  Hope to go again this year, but the Equinox will by my go to machine.  Now on the other hand if there was such an animal as a water proof PI from Whites it would be going for sure.  That is how confident I am.

 to say the least

Awesome finds

Awesome write up on your hunt.  Very excited for your success.  I hope to do some beach hunting later this year. 

Thanks for sharing.