MontAmmie

7 hours ago, Thegoldenone said:

I like the idea of the bed liner! did the stuff layout flat? Or maybe I should say smooth....

I was fairly smooth after I sprayed it on, and it did wear off on the bottom after a year or so.  I didn't win any prizes for prettiest detector on the block either.

I wrapped my Infinium mono coil in Gorilla tape.  I got a coil cover, but it was like trying to swing a boat oar through the water.  I sprayed my DFX coils with bedliner stuff for trucks.  Worked like a charm.

I got mine today.  It's still in the box for reasons which I promised not to mention.  

1 hour ago, midalake said:

Coil covers... Throw the coil cover in your closet. It has no place being on a detector in the water. To protect the bottom of the coil take JB weld or two part marine epoxy and brush a thin layer all over the bottom side. Mine will last about a year, just touch-up missing areas as necessary.   

Dave,

Will putting epoxy on the coil not void the warranty on the coil?  Thanks!

12 minutes ago, Toddbbq said:

beach 2 is the way to go for wet sand and recovery 2 works very well, did not try all metal mode as the presets were very good. beach 1 is for dry sand and I notched out up to 5 as there was soo many foil targets. One thing I learned was YOU WILL DIG rusty bottle caps.

I've dug so many bottle caps with the Infinium that I think I've cleaned our beach out of 'em.  Targets of any kind are few and far between here and I'm hoping to find some stuff the Infinium is missing.  I amazes me that it will find the barb off a fish hook at 10 inches down but it can't see a gold chain touching the coil.  Thanks, Todd!

Steve-

I want to go clean out our beaches of gold chains this weekend.  There's gotta be tons of them out there since my stupid PI machine won't even pick them up.  Which program would you suggest to get the max depth?  Beach 2 with the recovery speed on about 2?  I'm used to going slow because of aforementioned machine. Would the all metal mode go nuts in the salt water?  I'll probably just hunt the wet and dry sand since the Atlantic is still kinda cold right now.  We're supposed to be getting some huge waves (right out of the NE!) to stir it all up starting Sunday.  I can't wait!

TGO,

Did you mess with the recovery speed or just leave it on factory default?

Ok, never mind, I read it again and this time "used stock settings" registered.  Sorry, I'm getting senile.

I've been hearing other people complain about the pin pointer.  Good thing you don't really need one on the beach.

32 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Noxtradamus

On 2/14/2018 at 8:53 AM, Judy said:

We reckon that if there has been erosion and the dry sand has gone it has been pulled down and making it deeper over the low tide area. Usually seems if that area is soft to walk on leaving footprints it has been freshly deposited . Just an observation here in Oz .

The first thing I do when I get down close to the water is stomp around a little on the sand.  If it's mushy and my feet sink I know I'm not finding anything but aluminum trash there, so I move to another spot.

I have grudgingly forgiven Brevard county for the massive sand dump last month.  It is really coarse sand with bits of shell in it, and looks almost like oatmeal.  It's also thicker and seems to be holding recent drops a bit longer than the native fine sand did.

I was on the beach today and I had 3 different people walk up to me and ask about metal detectors.  What kind do I need, who do I buy it from, etc.  I usually have at least 1 or 2 people ask me every day.  So that got me to thinking, and since I do my best thinking when I'm on the beach swinging my Infinium, I came up with a plan.  Corporate sponsorship.  Like race car drivers.  All you dealers can send me free stuff and I'll wear your T-shirt with your business address and phone number on it when I'm on the beach.  I'll even point to it and make sure they get your phone number when they ask me.  That way you can spend 15 minutes explaining the difference between a PI and a VLF machine and I can be digging up gold rings instead of talking about it.

I'm only half joking here.  

12 hours ago, Daniel Tn said:

I hate you guys.  I put my first preorder in on Sept 15.  That dealer says he lost his list and I ended up 19th on his new list. Things happen, I know. But I found it strange when his buddies all ended up with 1 out of the first couple batches, and the rest of the people got nada.  I have went thru another dealer in which I was supposed to be next in line.  I prepaid with this one. Not heard a peep since.  Looks like the Equinox 1000 Pro will be out by the time I get mine.

I certainly wouldn't be buying my 1000 Pro from him! 

11 hours ago, relicmeister said:

I don't mind people complaining- it's pretty much all we CAN do!   

I think if you pre-paid for something 5 months ago and you still don't have it, you have every right to complain.  

I'm not going to post photos of my 800, or talk about amazing finds, or even what I like/dislike about it until everyone who ordered one has theirs.  I can't make a thousand Equinoxes magically appear on people's doorsteps, but at least I can do that much.

In the water at night in Oz?  Wow, Judy, did ya'll dip yourselves in chum-flavored Worcestershire sauce first? 

Seriously, thanks so much for posting this.  I'll be using my 800 in some Montana lakes.  No sharks, but some serious iron-flavored dirt.

I think I'll be bumping the recovery speed down to about 2.  I'm used to swinging that Infinium really slow anyway.

On 2/25/2018 at 2:49 PM, oldknifemaker said:

I recently found a class ring from the local high school.  Wanting  to return it I called the administration office and asked if they could help me identify this person so I could return the ring.  Sorry the nice lady said, because of the Privacy Act we can't give out any information on our students.  Catch 22.  So, I asked the lady if she would find out the identity of this student and try to return it?  She said yes.  I dropped off the ring and she took my name and phone number and said she would call if successful.  In the past I have been successful in returning 2 rings, 1 bracelet and 2 wallets.  That's not a bad record.

Kudos on the attempted return!  Do you get it back if they can't find the owner to return it?  

I was #6 and pretty sure I was in the second shipment.  Mine is supposed to be here Friday.

One area on the beach that many people overlook is the "walking track" just above the waterline.  Of course that changes with the tides, but that area has been pretty good to me lately.

The only nice ring I've found in a park was in the grassy area behind a basketball hoop.  I usually only coin hunt in the parks anyway.  Way too much aluminum trash in the parks around Melbourne.  I have way better luck finding jewelry at the beach.

I'll play!  I called about 5 different dealers back in December before I snagged a number 6 spot.  It must have been just before Christmas because I was at my mom's house in Tennessee.  I just got my email today from him.

6 minutes ago, relicmeister said:

Asked my dealer for an update:  he says Ive moved up from #7 to #5. Woo Hoo!

good for you MontAmmie. I hate to lose your periodic analyses.  

Oh, now I'll be anal-yzing my new toy.  And you guys know I'm always good for free relationship advice-worth every penny you pay for it!

Seriously, I feel really bad for the people who paid for theirs in September and still haven't heard a peep from their dealer.  I just paid a deposit on mine in December.  When I finally decided to pull the trigger, I knew I was going to have to put some serious cash down to even get on a dealer's list.  So I shopped around first.  I called about 5 dealers before I found one who said I'd be number 6 after I paid a substantial deposit.

Just now, cobill said:

So, did you??? or maybe your FB poll woke them up to our reality!

Bill

Yup.  I can't believe I hadn't checked my email all afternoon.  I wasn't really expecting it on a Saturday.

Upon further reading and reflection, it occurs to me that I may have been too hard on poor MineLab.  Hear me out?

Maybe MineLab is just a "victim" of a perfect shite-storm of circumstances, coupled with a bit of poor planning on their part.  Maybe this public relations disaster is just a product of:

1. Unprecedented demand for a detector model, which caught even MineLab by surprise.  

2. Dealers taking pre-payments from hundreds, if not thousands, of customers long before even MineLab thought they would be available for purchase.  Would most people really be this aggravated if they hadn't forked over their hard-earned cash already?  I know I wouldn't be.  A waiting list is one thing, prepayment five months ago is quite another.  I'm honestly not picking on the dealers!  I understand why they needed some cash up front, and I think they were just as surprised as the rest of us at how long this whole process is taking.

3. A contract with Cabela's to deliver X amount of detectors.  Maybe even a contract specifying that those units had to be delivered within a certain timeframe, like within 30 days of initial roll out.  So maybe they were between a hot rock and hard place.  Like either make your customers and dealers not like you very much OR get sued by Bass Pro Shops for breach of contract.  Hmmm....maybe this was what Steve was trying to tell me with all of that talk about contracts......

4.  Some poorly-worded press releases, which certainly didn't help matters.  Like this little gem, "We will be doing our best to get detectors to all customers across February to fulfil pre-orders as quickly as possible."  Or this one, "Our new EQUINOX Series of detectors is now shipping to our distribution network and on to customers who have pre-ordered detectors.*".  Which certainly made it seem that the pre-order folks would be taken care of as quickly as humanly possible. In February.  I honestly think they would have been better off to have turned off their FB page, shut down their computers, and sent their whole PR department to Malaysia to help crank out Equinoxes.

5. Failing to anticipate the absolutely unbelievable power of modern social media.  I don't think those MineLab people ever even considered that A) 6.8 seconds after those machines hit the Cabela's website, everyone in the known universe would know about it , or B) that 8.9 seconds later the unruly virtual mob would break out the pitchforks and torches.

What do ya'll think? 

PS.  MineLab, if you-all are reading this, I would be WAY happier out swinging my 800 than sitting here speculating about your business practices.  Hint.  Hint. 

Edit.  Wow, MineLab, that was quick.  I just got THE EMAIL from my dealer!

4 minutes ago, Hextra said:

My order of a Nox 600 from Cabela's is out on the UPS truck for delivery today. YAY! This will be my first detector.

By the time I had the cash and called a reputable dealer to pre-order he had the integrity to NOT take my order because he couldn't fill the orders he already had.  I greatly respect a dealer that will do that and he will get my future business.

So, when the Cabelas web site had some I jumped on it and I'm one of the lucky ones that is getting one.

Awesome, Hex!  And kudos to your dealer as well.  MineLab could learn a lot about customer service from their dealers, if they would just listen to them.

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The email people are now getting from Cabelas:

”Thank you for your order for EQUINOX 800 METAL DETECTOR. The vendor has advised us that the item is currently out of stock and has been backordered. They are expecting to ship approximately the end of March. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused & thank you for your patience.l

Credit where credit is due - Gerry called it right. I still however advise against dealer cross-talk but Gerry was trying to let people know not to get out of whatever dealer line they were in and it is proving to have been good advice for many.

From my totally unofficial and unscientific poll on a FB group, it appears exactly half of the people who tried to order from Cabelas have actually gotten a machine or at least a tracking number from them (5/10).   There have been 7 units delivered from another dealer vs. 5 delivered from Cabela's.

Of the 68 people who said they have ordered an Equinox, 12 have actually gotten them or they are being shipped.

It's a small group of US Equinox users or wannabe users (576).  Probably not enough responses to tell much from it yet.  I'm going to let it run another day or so, and I'll post the results if anyone is interested.

You guys feel free to throw verbal rocks at me all you want, but I gotta say it-

All of these delayed shipment notices are making me feel just a tiny bit better about my own situation.  Not that I don't feel for you guys who are getting the run-around from Cabela's!  But at the rate they are going now, if Minelab had filled all 1000+ orders they processed Tuesday before they got to my order from last December.... Well,  I'd still be waiting for mine in March 2019.

I'm still sorry any of us are having to deal with this BS!