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That is an impressive month Tom... Well done you! ~Tim

Very sad news. ~Tim

Good Comments CD. I am interested to give the 3 tone a try... or maybe a 5 bin/3 tone hybrid: Conductivity VDI Range Tone Low -9 to 0 1 Small Gold 1 to 11 12 Nickel 12 to 13 25 Large Gold 14 to 19 12 (or maybe moving the high range to 17 per Alluminati's comment) High 20+ 25 (and making this 18+ per comment above) The one reason I have been doing most of my hunting in 50 tone is a personal preference to my own ear. I don't care for the sound the 5 tone makes when a target bounces across tone breaks... I prefer the blended sound of the 50 tone... but I'm always willing to try new things :). Thanks for the suggestions through your thread. HH Tim.

more likely... "tested it" :)

I have found a V Nickel, my only barber, and that was with the CTX... still searching for my first Equinox Barber. Lot's of competition in the area, and a lot of nice finds I hear about... I keep plugging away (pun intended). Looking forward to hearing about more of your finds through the forum. HH. Tim

Nice finds SD - looks like you are in my neck of the woods (WA state). Barbers are tough to come by up here... congrats!! ~Tim.

I was able to get out for a short hunt Saturday with both my old firmware 600 and new firmware 800. I ran Park 1, Sens 20, Recovery 6 (3 on the 600), IB 2 (1 on the 600) - 50 tones. I chose a site that had given me a few silvers and several wheats in the past, a 1940's elementary school. Finds have been in keeping with the age of the school.. 40's - 60's coins (and newer). I made my rounds armed with the 800 and 10 plastic soccer cones (borrowed from my kids :)), and marked diggable tones. I then followed my same path with the 600, my digger and my pin-pointer. Most of the targets were similar it tone and id... ground was fairly hard packed due to a long dry summer and lots of clay in the ground, and the targets were mostly in the 4"-6" range. 2 targets in particular were iffy enough with the 600 that I wouldn't have stopped to dig them. I left those targets marked, and returned for the 800 to verify, which it did verify the diggable tone on both. I re-powered my 600 to cross check yet again... and with effort, I was able to narrow and slow my swing enough, as well as alter my angle of approach to get a tone that was diggable, but it took work. The two coins that I ultimately dug are at the bottom of the picture. Both in the 5"-6" range, and the silver was on an angle. This was by no means an exhaustive experiment... but I am convinced I would have left both targets in the ground had I been swinging only the 600 that day. All the other pennies were memorials, and most were copper in the 1960's and 1970's range. I did dig a few zinc tones for reference, but those were shallow. For what it is worth. So, to answer the thread question... I am sticking with the new firmware on my 800. More tests to follow. ~Tim

I left my 600 on the original firmware for just this reason. Because it took me so long to finally get the 800, I have logged more hours on the 600, so I have a pretty good feel for it and trust the settings.... I updated my 800, and now I can do side by side comparisons between the two firmware versions. Now I just need some time and a few deep targets to test on. I am all about the field hunt rather than backyard testing... so the ability to reach for the other machine (or even carry them at the same time due to the light weight) while in the field, makes me even more happy I chose to buy both. HEH (Happy Equinox Hunting) All! ~Tim.

Agree with the comments above. The stock coil separates so well, the 6" would be reserved for only the trashiest of trash sites and in small confined areas (having owned the 6" for all my previous machines as personal reference...). But the 15's and 17's I have owned usually share equal time with the stock 11's. The 15" is the one I'm anxious to hunt with - and the coil that is tailor-made for beach hunting.. Tim

Thanks Steve! I'm looking forward to catching up on your summer successes. Thanks GBA! Much to my wife's dismay... my interest has not waivered. haha. Thanks Andy!

+1 on CG's comment. I tend to set my hunt expectations in reverse. It isn't about what exactly I find first... that is the icing on the detecting cake... sometimes there is a little less icing than other days. But what I learn about my detector (whichever one I happen to be using that day), and how well I choose to listen to said detector on that day. And what I learn about the specific location I am hunting (ground conditions, target types, trash ratio etc). Sometimes it ends with a pocket of trash and zincolns. Other times a little silver, rarely, but on occasion some gold. But as long as I learned something about me, my machine, and the ground... success. Tim

Greetings again everyone! I am sorry to say I have been away from the forum and detecting for the last several months... and I have missed both tremendously. I am gearing up to embark on a breakneck re-immersion into detecting with my 800 and 600... it has been a long dry summer (literally and figuratively). I just discovered today that Minelab has come out with an update (to tell you how far removed I have been... :( ), and I have been reading through the posts.. I am anxious to load the update and see how the changes feel, though it has been so long, I may have to teach myself how to detect again LOL. Looking forward to reconnecting with you all as I catch up on a couple months of forum posts, and hopefully sharing some nice finds in the process. \ Tim

Late to the party, but I agree with noticing the lag. I have tried aftermarket and the minelab LL, and there is enough of a lag that I went back to wired. I blame my swing speed. Using LL, I hear the targets, and then can narrow and slow my swing speed to get the target location... so I wouldn't say it causes me to miss a target... it just takes me longer to pinpoint it for extraction. So my preference is the immediate feedback of wired phones. Now, when there is an option to hear my pinpointer in my LL phones, I might have a reason to put up with the latency. ;) Tim.

It is all in what your ear likes. I prefer the sound of 50 tone (or even 2 tone) over 5 tone... the way the in-between targets (the ones bouncing from one tone section to the other and back) is not pleasing to my ear... in 50 tone, the tone variance is not as large, so it creates a smoother and pleasant tone, and I can better separate a desired target from a non-desired target... but that is just ME.. My friend prefers the 5 tone (as does Tom in his note above and others). The beauty of it is..... we have the ability to choose which one we like better :). Good luck MarksB! Tim.

I am interested to hear how you address the loose cam Steve. I have the same issue with my 800 I received last week. My 600 is rock solid, the 800 has significant play. I would like to sure it up myself rather than having to send it in. Thanks Tim

Great report Steve! Those are some awesome data points for those of us hunting with the Equinox. I would be interested to know how the equinox would have sounded using a faster recovery.. having just received my 800, I am experimenting with with 5 and 7 (since I got somewhat a feel for the 6 recovery equivalent on the 600). I have found this as well, the Equinox has been giving me a more stable ID at depths where my other machines start to get squirrelly. And... nice find btw! A buff and a indian in the same small area is pretty awesome!! Tim.

Thanks Norm, I have my 800 charged and ready for action. Now all I need is a break in the workload and a break in the weather. :) Thanks GBA! No new hobby for me - just been sidetracked with work and family. That and spending too much time at my 'quest for silver' school with no luck. My wife said she is going to sneak down and plant a silver Rosie there so I can stop obsessing haha. ;) Thanks Chase! I can say from first hand knowledge that Bald is Beautiful ;) ~Tim.

Agreed Steve. For many reasons, getting the 600 while waiting for the 800 was one of the smartest things I have ever done.

At long last (and sometimes not so patiently waiting), my Equinox E800 is scheduled to arrive at my home tonight. Unfortunately, I was travelling for work all last week - so I wasn't able to do any hunting, but just before I left town I spent some time at a 1940's school with my E600. In all my time detecting, I have found only one Half - a clad Kennedy. I have had better luck finding various dollar coins. So when I got a solid 35-36 signal I was expecting a nice sweet piece of bent rusty iron... but to my surprise, I found a beautiful silver rim at 7". A few steps away, a more broken, but solid 30-31 signal revealed the Washington on edge... and was off center to the pin point by about 4inches - at a depth of 7". A part of me hesitates to transition to the E800 after all the success I have had with the E600. But of course, I am very excited to utilize the additional functionality of the E800. While my time with the E600 will not be ending (I plan on equipping it with the 6" or 15" coils when they are released, as well as using it for water hunting), if the E800 exceeds my experience with the E600 - that will be INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE based on my experience with the E600 over the past few months. HEH (Happy Equinox Hunting) to all. - Tim.

Awesome Awesome Awesome STEVE!! That is just incredible!! And thanks for the detailed write-up of your hunt. I can hear the excitement you were/are feeling in your words. 1864?!?!?! wow. I also love the history you shared with the homeowner. Happy for your Steve! Tim.

Yes, it was angled, maybe at about a 45 degree... I pinpointed it about 3-4 inches off center, that is probably why.

Thanks for the response Tom, Just today I found a similar odd id target. I was sweeping a park that has been refreshed since I got the Equinox 600. I was focusing on digging mid-tones since I had already been over this area with the Equinox... so basically my intent was to clean the ground a little and see if anything interesting popped up. About 10 steps into the park, I get this 14-15-16 tone but every once in a while it peeps a 27-28... I even got a few 37-38's in my multiple sweeps, but it was repeating in the mid teens. I got some modulation with the pinpointer, so I knew it was probably 4+"... and fully expected to pull a bent rust nail. Low and behold, off center in the hole, at about 6"... a '52 Rosie. So I agree, it is very interesting what the ground/other target conditions can play on the ID's. I did resweeps the hole, and it was silent, but then, there could have been iron nearby that I was then disc'ing out after breaking up the halo by digging. But, it gave me a solid enough tone to investigate... and that is what I am enjoying with the Equinox. Thanks for your info above, more relevant data for the 'ol computer between my ears. ;) Tim.

Outstanding Tom!!! Interesting that you are running IB 3. And did those Indians come in using your custom settings, or were they below 22? Tim.

207 :)

I have 5 kids too, but mine are from 10 - 16. Total age of 60. Which is about how old I feel most days. ;) Tim