Mark Gillespie

I live in the red/orange iron bearing areas of Virginia, (USA). 

It will take all but 10 minutes in my test garden to evaluate the performance of this new machine.  Over the past 11 years (this spring) I've had some of the most expensive detectors visit and provide a demonstration of their abilities to detect the targets in my test garden.  It's surprising how cost doesn't necessarily mean best detector in my area and my ground conditions.  Some have completely failed detecting my deepest targets while others have performed very well (not perfect).  I have kept detailed records of each machine and can say only one can reliably detect all my targets, but not necessarily from every direction.  Two other machine give an audio, but the wrong audio and the ID floats from low iron to silver half dollar.  Adding the ground to complicate target ID it has become obvious that a standard VLF machine can't be relied on beyond certain depths.  That being said a true motion all metal mode works very well in detecting the deep targets, but still the ID is off.  I've almost convinced myself to purchase the EQ 800, but would entertain a complete evaluation from Steve once they are release to the public.

Glad to see you here Randy, I like the fresh air theme.  I agree on all points.

This site has become my go to for information.

Any comparative information on air test between the Garrett pro pointer and the Minelab pro find pin pointer?

https://www.minelab.com/usa/metal-detectors/treasure-detectors/equinox-600

Don't really look for 1st Texas machines in 2018, not after the layoffs.

I figure they discovered the new machine was still a ways off and decided to cut back to save money.

9 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I found the First Texas 19 kHz models and the X-Terra 705 to be near identical in their respective all metal Prospecting modes. Both are a little weak on silver coins compared to top coin detectors. Great on mid to low conductors. The X-Terra 705 by comparison to the F19 is a feature rich detector especially as regards tone and notching options.

I have always been drawn to the tones of the Minelab machines.  I loved my Etrac, but it became to heavy for the long hunts so I had to part with it.  Hope the Equinox has similar tone capabilities. 

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 10:27 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

This is a White’s forum so please keep the discussion to White’s machines. The Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons Forum is the appropriate place for brand comparisons.

With all due respect to your comment John my hope is for White’s to get back to the program of building more powerful and competitive detectors. Anyone who is not pushing the leading edge of the technology will eventually be left behind.

Left behind for sure.

I've wondered for years about how the F19 would compare to the Minelab 705 with the high frequency coil?

Love to read anything on this topic.

Thanks.

Tried another network test and the minelab.com site is still offline.

I'm very curiously wondering if the site would still be up in Australia or UK?

For us, in America to access sites across the globe we must go through dozens of servers.

Just did another network test and it indicates the servers are currently offline.

Yes Steve, very unusual to say the least.

Wow, that's an interesting story, thanks for sharing.

Didn't work yesterday or today. 

Network ping to their server indicates it's not online.

anxiously waiting.....for more.

As always, very thought out essay on detecting machines.

Ever since Minelab announced the Equinox, top players have really been offering specials on combos to draw attention from Minelab to them.  Frankly it's not working very well.  And the other day I heard 1st Texas is in the process of major layoffs.  Not good for them or the ones loosing their jobs.  That being said, I've lost all confidence in 1st Texas releasing anything new for 2018, especially the VLF flavor.   I believe they started running specials in hopes of keeping their loyal users but I don't think it worked.

Just thought of something that has happened several times over the years.  

A little information first:

The headphone port is designed to cut off the internal speaker when the headphone is plug in.  I've had several times where the speaker suddenly quit.  The problem was a small speck of dirt in the port causing the detector to cut off the speaker output.  My solution:

Shoot short burst of compressed air into the port hole, then insert the plug in and out.  Repeat and see if the problem is corrected.  Still no sound, then take apart and inspect the connection and the port .

Amazing what we forget.

I've fixed many issues just like the one you mentioned.  You can do it.

I get 1 7/8" with a nickel on my Garrett Pro Pointer.  Looks like this new pinpointer is a must.

Just imagine how much more quickly a recovery can take place. 

22 hours ago, Geotech said:

Air hots are pretty good (nickel @ 3+" @ med sens) and should be the same in ground. It has a frequency offset adjust (16 levels) so you can minimize interference.

Wow that sounds awesome, my Garrett Pro Pointer gets 1 7/8" on a US nickel.  Thanks Carl.

Steve, please keep us posted when you get yours.  Be nice to do air test between the Garrett and the Fisher.

Steve do you have any updates on the F75+?

Is it as you stated?

I also found several pieces of Lead or pewter, not sure. One chunk was the size of a softball.  Extremely heavy.

This is made of lead and has threads

I'd like to add one thing, but it will take several facts.

Since the first inception of the original F75 I had one

Found a lot of good finds, but was always looking for something better

Sold the F75 and bought something I thought might be better, didn't work out

Bought another F75, hunted a good while longer until I found another machine, then sold to buy a different machine.

Hunted a while and knew the F75 was what I need, so bought another F75.

On and on for some 5+ more years.  I can say I've owned at least 5 different F75's including the F75 LTD.  That's about $5k, need to say more.......

It's not a do all machine, but............

Still waiting?

Had a couple hours yesterday so I thought I'd hit a county playground where I'd found some gold jewelry in the past.  Headed out with my PI and a recently borrowed 5 x 9 folded mono coil to see what might come up. 

You know, I never realized there could possibly be so many bobbie pins in the world.  This machine has no difficulty locating these small metal objects.  But with careful listening, the audio gives just enough hints so I became very close to 100% sure of what these targets were before digging.

Well anyway, on with the story.  I'd been hunting about an hour when a young man carrying a back pack comes to where I was hunting and proceeds to ask if I'd found anything good.  Reaching into my pouch I pulled out my very meager finds and a small silver pendant.  Not much but I was enjoying the day none the less.  The young man proceeded to open his back pack and removed several containers of silver, copper coins along with many old relics including some nice buttons and buckles.  Some of these coins dated back to the 1800's.  Looked like his entire treasure was in his back pack and in fact it was, he explained, when I leave the house I take them with me, fearing someone might break in and steal them.  I had to ask how he had acquired so many coins and relics and he stated he too was a hunter and uses the Mine lab Etrac.  Had to ask again and this time he answered mostly old home sites.  I continued to ask where and his answer was I knock on doors and ask to detect and this is where most of his finds have come from.  Amazing what this young man has found in the same counties where I have hunted for some 20 years.  He seems to have done everything right to acquire that many old silver and copper coins and on top of that many gold rings to boot.  Well we continued to talk and I had to ask if he belonged to any of the treasure forums on the internet and his answer was no.  But he said I have a private Facebook group and invited me to join.  The conversation continued for some 30 minutes or so exchanging hunting experiences and finds.  The whole time thinking just how smart this guy was and what I stand to learn from him even though I had more than a decade of addition experience.  The park was starting to get crowded so we decided to leave.  What a chance meeting to talk to a fellow hunter in my area.  That afternoon I checked my email and sure enough Shane had subscribed to my you tube site.  So I requested to join his treasure hunting site on Facebook and he accepted and the journey begins.