Cal_Cobra

23 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Wish they could have made it more than just 1 oz lighter.  But that gives them license to say lighter than Nox, at least.  

Seriously, though.  Looks like we got the Multi-IQ eTrac/CTX variant we have been clamoring after for 4 years, why am I not more excited about that? 

New detector launch fatigue and a bad case of manufacturer cynicism, I guess.  And also knowing that we are on the vlf performance plateau and the only real innovation left is in usability vice performance.

Considering it's light years ahead in the weight department over their legacy Etrac/CTX machines, and they still managed to shave off a little bit, you won't hear me complaining about the weight.  Never found the EQX800 to be a heavy machine.  Was it the most ergonomic, no, but compared to many from the past it was.

8 hours ago, scoopjohnb said:

An early bird hinted to me that it sounded like an F75 on steriods. 

God I hope not!   Once your memory muscle syncs with the Equinox full tones audio, it works great. 

I used a F75 LTD/LTD2 for almost ten years, the audio wasn't great, definitely not Delta Pitch.  Audio fatigue was a thing on the F75, very digital artificial in nature.

1 minute ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Doubt it. Wanna bet it’s a V8 remake? They have the mold. And notice, same marketing genius wrapped the cable for this photo! 

We'll see.  I fail to understand why they can't make these a close loop design, can't be a COGs issue.

3 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

That’s more like it. Comes with 11” coil, and I can choose a 5.5” x 8” as a second coil right off the bat. No waiting a year for one of my favorite coil sizes.

Great size for sure, I hope it's a closed loop mechanical design.

28 minutes ago, NAGANT said:

$1599   

 

Terrible video (turn your phone, that's why they invented 16:9 ratios!!!), but some nuggets from the ML rep. Expanded frequency range, likely where the + comes in on their MultiIQ+ moniker. 

If you read into what their saying it sounds like it has more power (increased depth as per them),  more accurate target ID (which some complained about on the Equinox) faster, lighter and looks to have much better build quality. 

We can speculate about it all day long, but none of it means anything until we get our hands on one.  Don't count on any aftermarket coils anytime soon, the ML rep said the coils on this, like the Equinox, have electronics in them as well.  

2 minutes ago, cudamark said:

I wonder if they finally ran across one of my complaints about coil design? I've been advocating for years that the "ears" should be on a replaceable yoke at the bottom of the shaft, and not on the coil. Being someone who hunts the beach and large fields often, I'm drooling over seeing that (supposedly) 15" coil! Time to fire up that credit card! 👍😀

Yep I'm jumping in line to pre-order one!  The Equinox was a total game changer (for me) and I have no doubts that this will take it to the next level, can't wait to take one out!  Hopefully we don't have to wait as long as we did when they announced the Equinox (did they learn that lesson???). 

I see my prediction that a new generation of Equinox would be announced this year and we'd likely see a proto at Detectival!

A next gen Equinox with a control pod that (hopefully) doesn't leak, and a better rod setup to alleviate the flex and what not, better coils, and a smart screen like the FBS machines.  Very interesting!

Nice hunt!  I'd say you've only scratched the surface, and if you're digging IHP's there's bound to be silver there and with it's colorful history, perhaps gold coins are in the cards 🙂

That's a nice haul and nice display 👍

Nice hunt, and congrats on breaking into the 1800's 👍

Nice haul!!

I used to use my dug U.S. clad coins for bridge toll.  I'd hand them five bucks of quarters, dimes and nickles and they'd want me to wait there while they took their time to count them (not).  Told the bridge toll trolls that they were getting paid to count the coins and I was not, and if it was short, they could bill me 🙂

I also started taking them to the casino and they don't care, they're happy to take your money 😂

1 hour ago, Doc Bach said:

I hit the like button but the fact of the matter is that I am envious of your site beyond words in addition to all of your notable great finds their must be some amazing iron relics and tools such as small Spanish pump drill bits a common trade item and shards to some serious early pontiled bottles being dug as well.D.B.

Hi Doc Bach,
We do see some old broken glass, but more pottery and porcelain.  I'm sharing photos of the all the finds from just this trip, including the iron implements I dug (except the first iron hook item that was dug a while ago, but is interesting).  I'm sure if one wanted to kill themselves digging iron, there's more interesting relics to be found.

No idea what this hand forged item is (Lincoln cent for scale):

A few Indian trade items from this trip: trade silver snippet, cobalt blue faceted bead, opal glass blown bead and an Indian trade ring:

Surface finds: pottery, doll head parts, and a piece of blue and white porcelain (no idea what the red bit is?):

The trips take for the seemingly endless supply of ammunition shells, some lead, rivets, and whatnot:

Here's some iron implements that were dug on this trip.  The item on the far left appears to be a knife blade, perhaps for shaving?  There's a chisel, iron garment buckle, a button hook, part of scissors or shears, a square nail that's been fashioned into a hook, and some kind of keeper on the far right:

The obligatory harmonica reeds, and I thought the quart pieces might be knapped (Lincoln cent for scale):

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Yep.  Different back mark though.  So likely made by a different button manufacturer.

It is slightly different, different back mark as you noted, and the button on their site appears to be a one piece, whereas mine is a two piece (which would lead me to believe their one piece is an early version, and mine is a later version as two piece buttons started to come into use).  Also of note is that mine has a twisted rope border whereas their example is plain.  Aside from that the button design is identical, leaving little doubt on the King William IV attribution IMHO.

Interestingly this desert site has produced quite a wide variety of buttons from all around the world.  It was a Spanish outpost, on both an emigrant route and ancient trade route, and there was a trading post either on the site (which we suspect) or nearby that's now inaccessible.  What's fun (to me at least) about this site, is that when Tom and I discovered it about ten years or so ago, we believe it was a virgin site.  For some reason this site just spoke to me, probably due to it's colorful and dark history, and given its seemingly virgin site status, I worked out a deal with Tom ($$$) to keep all the finds so that we could have a fully intact historical context of the site.  It was never an easy site to work, there's been plenty of trips where Tom or I  dug no coins, but always relics.  Tom hasn't been that interested in it for a while because it can be a punishing site.  He seems to favor virgin sites with no modern trash and where the finds are just jumping out of the ground 🧐  Who doesn't, but I'm not afraid to work a site that's interesting to me, and this site has produced a lot of finds over the years.  Dozens of seated silver coins including some high value ones and a mystery seated dime button cache, a rare gold coin, lots of buttons, buckles, some Indian trade silver and Indian trade beads, and Spanish era artifacts such as a myriad of religious medallions, Phoenix buttons, and reales, on to Mexican era coins, and into the Western era.  You rarely find anything past the 19th century there when the site effectively ceased usage.   To me the site has an untold story to tell,  telling it one find at a time.  Eventually I plan to exhibit the collection of artifacts from this site as a whole in my man cave (if I ever get one haha). 

The button mystery has been solved, a forum member on another forum nailed it:

https://www.batesandhindmarch.com/product/william-iv-period-court-dress-button-fire-gilt-23mm/

Turns out to be a King William IV court dress button.  King William only ruled from 1830-1837, which dates nicely to this site.

On 8/17/2022 at 8:29 AM, F350Platinum said:

Great hunt! Buttons are my favorite thing to find. 👍

I managed to find one somewhat like the button in question on a card of "British military buttons", but cannot make out the writing under it:

I'll keep looking. 🙂

I cleaned up the button I dug with some lemon juice, it has an incredible amount of gold gilt left (amazing how well lemon juice can bring out any remnants of gold gilt).  Although it has some similarities to the one you shared, after getting it cleaned up, it's pretty different.   It has a rope twist boarder, with a horizontal lined background, and the letters (they're really hard to read, not because the button is in bad shape, it's the font they used).  For sure the last letter is a B, but the first two letters 🤔  The back is marked "SURFACE GOLD".

I'll keep looking around to see if they mystery can be solved 🙂

On 8/17/2022 at 10:32 AM, GB_Amateur said:

I have a couple comments (not criticisms but more/less observations):

1) No Indian Head cents were minted with the 1856 date.  First year was 1859 (and as you know that from alloy 12% Ni, 88% Cu -- aka 'fatty').  There were some IH pattern 'coins' dated 1858 but the chances of one of these being in the ground anywhere (let alone as far West as you detect) is astronomically small.  So we're all left hanging as to what that date is.  😎

I cleaned the IHP a bit and turns out the date is 1896 🙄    It's pretty toasty on the front, not so bad on the back, so must've had the front oriented towards the elements and whatever seeped down to the coin to cause the corrosion.  Oh well, at least it wasn't an 1877 😉

9 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great video and thanks for sharing it, nice looking button and I hope that you can identify it.

Thanks, I'll post an update if I can positively ID that button.  I suspect it'll be something interesting.  This particular site has produced quite a variety of buttons from the early 1800's to the mid 1800's, just never know what you'll find at this site.

4 hours ago, JCR said:

Those are some interesting finds from a pretty special time & place. The dry climate sure helps preserve the condition of the relics.

Half of what I dig lately has been ruined by boggy ground.

Still hope to read how The Legend performs for you at some point in your quests.

That dry climate and the sandy loamy soil is generally very kind to the relics and coins.  Also there's been no agriculture (fertilizers) or animal grazing (urine) to aid in destroying the coins and relics.  We have a site down the road from this one that's grazing land and almost all of the silver coins come out of the ground screwed up.  It's been a cattle and sheep grazing area for over a hundred years, so they've had plenty of time to contaminate the soil. 

I actually brought the Legend with me, updated to the latest and greatest firmware and all, but it was so hot, I simply wasn't in the mood to play with it.  Most of our sites in the summer are overgrown,  have cement like ground, or are just too darned hot to detect, so this fall and winter I'll be back at it and give the Legend a workout. 

6 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Thanks for the excellent video, C_C.  As always you extract some attractive finds.  Looks like F350 has a lead on that unknown button.

I have a couple comments (not criticisms but more/less observations):

1) No Indian Head cents were minted with the 1856 date.  First year was 1859 (and as you know that from alloy 12% Ni, 88% Cu -- aka 'fatty').  There were some IH pattern 'coins' dated 1858 but the chances of one of these being in the ground anywhere (let alone as far West as you detect) is astronomically small.  So we're all left hanging as to what that date is.  😎

Thanks for keeping me honest, that's what the date appeared to be, but I'll clean it up some more and see if I can get a better read on it.  It's odd that it's cruded up because most items dug from this site come out pristine, I've even dug IHPs from there that could probably pass as un-dug. 

6 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

2) You mention iron composition objects sometimes giving a dTID of 13.  That's interesting since I've noticed that a dTID of 12-13 (USA nickel sweetspot), when mixed with iron grunts (dTID < 0) is almost always a non-ferrous target.  (I think the iron grunts are either from the ground or from nearby ferrous trash.)  I do occasionally get fooled with an old crown cap, though, giving that nickel sweetspot dTID.  Since I don't typically reject good dTID's which have iron grunts, maybe those crown caps are mixed ferrous-nonferrous signals -- I don't remember/notice.  (Note:  I don't use any discrimination when coin&relic hunting with the Equinox; just turn down the iron region volume.)  Are you getting iron comp objects with dTID 12-13 and no associated ferrous indications?

Honestly this site is so full of iron, you're likely to get iron TIDs on every sweep, but I'll pay more attention next time.  I have noticed this phenomenon for years on the Equinox though.  I've dug iron tools (axe heads, pick heads, chisels, you name it) that produced a TID of 13.  The audio is different versus say a nickle though, whereas the iron implements produce a flat audio tone and the non-iron 13's produce a bright lively audio tone (if that makes sense).  Either way I still dig them at these old sites.  I don't notch or use any discrimination when relic hunting, but as you I also have my iron audio volume reduced so I can still hear it but alleviate potential audio fatigue.

8 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Great hunt! Buttons are my favorite thing to find. 👍

I managed to find one somewhat like the button in question on a card of "British military buttons", but cannot make out the writing under it:

I'll keep looking. 🙂

Thanks for looking, that sure looks like the button!  I couldn't make out the letters either, which are likely key to ID'ing this one.   This particular site has produced a lot of buttons over the years, quite a variety of both foreign as well as American from the early 1800's to about Civil War era. 

Had a business trip to a cyber security conference in Las Vegas and wove in a side trip to my Spanish outpost site.  It's been hammered pretty hard for the past ten years or so, but I still managed to make some finds.  It was hot as he!! and the ground was parched bone dry.  In my experience at this particular site, the Equinox tends to do better when the ground's damp versus bone dry, so I have hope that there could still be some future finds to be made during the winter or spring time, but it's definitely time to find a new site 🤠

Does anyone have any idea what the button is I found at 1:05?  It's a two piece, probably Civil War era more or less, and looks to represent some European Monarchy given the crown.  I ruled out Spain and Mexico already, but couldn't find something similar. 

I'm going on a business trip next week where I can [somewhat] conveniently weave in some detecting at one of my favorite western frontier and Spanish sites that's hard to get to due to it's distance.   I'm going to bring my Legend and Equinox and I'll try the 5x10 CoilTek at on my Equinox.  I've had really good luck here with my Equinox, really opened the site up for me after we'd already hunted it hard. I may also try the factory 12x15" coil to see if I can hear some deepies. 

Wow you covered a lot of ground!  Monte's WTHO trips are fun and some good finds are usually made.  

I love these epic multi week long detecting trips, I really need to retire 🙂

Nokta Makro have done a great job with audio adjustments going back to the Racers, Impact, Multi Kruzer, etc.  Super useful and I appreciate that they continue to enhance these features.  Your finding of saving each individual audio mode within a hunt mode (within a user profile no less) is an example of well thought out user operation of the detector. 

With all the new 1.08/9 settings, I need to make a field cheat sheet for the Legend.  A laminated 3x5 card would be useful.  I remember the Etrac came with a little laminated foldable wallet sized cheat sheet, that was a nice touch when you were getting used to the Etrac.

On 6/20/2022 at 5:38 AM, Mark Gillespie said:

I'll need to try Colonial next time since I paid $209 At Big Boys.

Years ago I used to buy some detectors/gear from Big Boys, and they'd deal with you, and you could get competitive rates.  The last couple of times I've sent a pricing inquiry it was full pop, plus shipping.  Richard @ Backwoods has been one of the better detecting dealers I've worked with over the past decade when looking for a deal.