Dan(NM)

Thanks Steve, For a place that everyone had given up on, we have taken a vast amount of relics outta here in the 7 months. I'll miss it for sure, that is until I find a similar place in Texas 🙂

After 20 years of hunting in southern NM, it's time for a new adventure in Central Texas. I met up with a couple of fellow hunters, Jimmy from NM and Phil from Az for one last relic hunt. It was a pleasure to meet Phil(Bergie), he is one on the nicest guys you'd want to meet and hunt with. Jimmy and I have been hunting together for the last 5 years and I couldn't have asked for a better friend and hunting partner. Turned out to be a great day to hunt, the weather was perfect and the targets were plenty. Everyone scored some nice buttons and relics, I couldn't have asked for a better way to close out my hunting days here in the southwest. I did manage to find a couple of my favorites buttons, a Dragoon and a Kepi along with the usual pre-civil war relics, bullets, percussion caps, epaulette piece and some small buck and ball lead. Jimmy unfortunately had to head out a bit early to tend to some family stuff. I'm sure he and Phil will post their finds later. The last picture is what I found after Jimmy headed home, the copper coin is from the mid 1800's, it's a Mexican copper 1/4 reale, we have found 8-9 at this location. My settings Park - 1 Sens - 24 F2 - 0 Recovery - 3 2- tones No disc Tone break set from -9 to +8 Thanks for looking!!

I figured out how to access the new FE feature. Go to the iron bias setting, push accept/reject button(far right) Once there you can adjust the settings from 0-9 , what that does I cannot tell you 🙂

Running new version now.

https://www.minelab.com/usa/equinox-software-update-2-0 Minelab Software Upgrade Instructions pdf EQUINOX SOFTWARE UPDATE 2.0 At Minelab, we get your passion. And like you, we never leave any stone unturned. It’s that same grit and determination that drives us to make every product and every innovation just that much better. WHAT IS NEW? Difficult ferrous targets — the common enemy for all detectorists. That is until EQUINOX. Hit the download on our EQUINOX update to make those pesky bottle caps, rusty nails and other falsing targets a thing of the past. Fire up the Minelab Update Utility and you’re on your way. It’s simple. You’ll experience the enhanced Iron Bias feature, improved EQUINOX 600 backlight and much more. Improved Iron Bias Iron Bias has been enhanced with the addition of a new Iron Bias settings profile. The original EQUINOX Iron Bias 'FE' settings will still be available, but there is now the option to switch to the new Iron Bias 'F2' settings, which have an improved capability to reject a much wider range of difficult iron targets, including bottle caps. EQUINOX 600 Backlight Brightness The EQUINOX 600 now has the ability to adjust the backlight brightness to an additional 'Low' setting that matches the minimum setting on the EQUINOX 800. This 'Low' brightness is ideal for detecting at night and in low light conditions. MINELAB UPDATE UTILITY (MUU) DETAILS Minimum System Requirements: USB 2.0 port EQUINOX USB Charging Cable with Magnetic Connector Windows 10: 50 MB of hard drive space 20 MB of RAM MAC OS: Greater than 10.13 High Sierra 50 MB of hard drive space 30 MB of RAM Note: Only one EQUINOX can be connected to your computer during the update operation. The EQUINOX must be ON during the software update. Any custom detector settings will be preserved while performing the update. An internet connection is required to download the Minelab Update Utility to the computer, however, an internet connection is not required to update the EQUINOX and this can be done offline. The EQUINOX coil must be connected to perform the update. Important: Do not turn off or disconnect the EQUINOX during the update process. Version displayed after the update is 2.1.12 How To Rollback Equinox To Previous Software Version Click on image below for larger version...

If you plan on prospecting for gold, you might as well forget the CTX, it'll be useless. Honestly, if I were prospecting for gold and that was my main focus, I would get a pulse induction machine. If you don't want to spend that kind of money then I would definitely get the Equinox.

Thank you Chase. I started with Field 2 in the beginning. I decided to do a test with a 50 or 60 cal. round musket ball that I had dug that morning. I set Park, Field and beach modes, both 1 and 2 in all modes, exactly the same, identical, including the tone breaks. I buried the musket ball at exactly 9", I always carry a plastic 12" ruler to measure target depths. Th soil here is very sandy, basic desert dirt, I've checked with a magnet to see whether or not there is any black sand mixed in, none, very clean and benign sand. I figured Field 2 would bang on the ball, you know, higher frequency weighting and all that jazz. I got nothing??? I went though every mode one by one, I Gb'd and did a noise cancel every time I switched modes. The only mode that would hit the musket ball was Park 1 and it did it with a tone that I would recognize as a dig me signal, the kind of fringe signals I'm looking for and will dig. The numbers jumped into the upper 30's, pretty consistent. I was a bit shocked because Park 1 is supposed to hit better on high conductors and the field modes, low. It was the exact opposite of what I anticipated. I did the same test when I got home in soil that's nothing like where I did the first one. I buried an eagle cuff button at 7" and did the same test as before. Once again, the only mode, Park 1, was the only one that gave a, dig me signal. So, from that day on, I was use Park 1 and will mess with recovery speeds depending on how much noise i get from the particular area I hunt at the 1850's site. It's been a great spot the learn the quirks of the Nox.

That is correct That is correct Chase, the reason that we were running our tone break at that point, the amount of aluminum slaw and tiny pieces of aluminum foil was overwhelming. With the tone break set at that point we, could still pick up percussion caps without wasting so much time chasing worthless debris. I'm having to drive an hour and a half one way to get to this place and I wanted to maximize time spent digging the better targets versus trying to dig it all.

I honestly couldn't say, I don't watch the meter until I get a target that I wanted to investigate. Even then the numbers don't determine whether I will dig or not. I will say this, next time I go back I'm dropping my tone break down to zero.

I went back to the place we've been hunting all year with the Nox to try some different settings at a spot that we hit several times before. I hit it with the CTX using the 11" and 6" coil and the Nox using the 11" and 6" coil earlier this year. Today I ran the 800 with the 11" coil with these settings: Park 1 Recovery speed 3, used recovery speed 6 the last times. Iron bias 0, have always ran 0 Manual GB this time instead of factory preset of 0 Sensitivity of 23 2 Tones No disc, dug everything from +9 and up All the mini balls and buttons were deep, 8+ inches and gave a repeatable tone. I used a much slower and deliberate sweep this time compared to a faster swing in the beginning. All in all, I was very pleased with the outcome, my plan is to go back and come at it from a different direction next time.

Greats finds, love that button!!

Great find, congrats!!!

Excellent work, that's just too cool!!

Man you're killing it on your lunch break!!! Congratulations on the last two hunts, those are beautiful coins.

Thank you Steve, it is mind-boggling how much stuff is out here. It sure makes for some interesting hunting.

That bridle rosette was, from what I was told, used during the civil war, but, I can't confirm that. The collar disc you mentioned is the first one I've found from the 3 sites we hunt. Im unsure what it represents.

It's a military horse bridle rosette from WW1, when I first dug it, I thought I had a watch fob.

I got out this past Sunday to hunt a place we hunted a couple weeks back to give it another pounding. It's a WW1/WW2 dump site out in the desert, it looks to have been burned somewhere and dumped here and spread out. Just under the surface is powdered ash, some things look burnt, others don't. It's littered with every type of metal you can think of, copper, alum, brass, lead and iron everywhere. I was running park 1, using the 6" coil, recovery speed 6, sens 18, 0 disc, 0 iron bias, 2 tones with my tone break at 17 and ground balance at 0 I decided to go over the same area that me and another guy had hit previously only from a different direction, ? man we both suck lol, it was like we never hunted it before. I spent close to 9 hours going slowly thru all the crap, I was amazed at how much we had missed !! I finally had to call it a day when it hit 104 ? As you can see, it pays to hit a spot from different directions multiple times. My favorite finds are the large rosettes, the 2 WW1 dog tags, the heart rosette and the collar buttons.

Did you try taking the coil cover off and cleaning it out. My buddy's machine was acting up, he had a small piece of wire inside the coil cover.

Yes, I always have to press the detect button twice after I do a noise cancel. If I don't, my machine will still function normally, but, it will not display the vdi, only the noise cancel screen. It has been like that from day one.

Met up with a couple of fellow hunters to hunt a WW1/WW2 dump site, it was a button feast today. Also was able to score 2 mercs, a barber and a wheat. Overall a great way to celebrate Independence Day, thanks for looking.

Those are some very impressive finds, congratulations!

Thank you, my buddy and I have not heard of anyone else digging one in New Mexico, but who knows. Back in the day a couple of gold coins of came out of here, so we are on high alert ?

Yesterday my buddy stumbled onto another hot spot at the 1850's site we've been hunting since the beginning of the year and found a Dragoon and an R button along with a really nice rosette. He wasn't able to go out today, but he gave me his blessing to head over and hunt it today. I'm sure he's not to happy about that now ? I got there at 05:30 this morning and right away period items began to come to light, dropped musket ball, pistol ball, percussion cap and a trouser button on the first pass. That's always a good sign when you start to pull some keepers right from the get go. On the next pass, a percussion cap, 2 pulltabs, a pistol ball and then I get a 21-22 on the Nox 800. We seldom get very many items that hit in the 20's except aluminum slaw or deeply buried aluminum cans, most hits are in the 9 to 19 range. I fully expected to dig a piece of trash and was totally unprepared for what came out, when I saw what it was, I just threw it back onto the dirt pile, stood up and started walking around stunned. A major bucket lister that I always wanted to dig, but just never figured I'd ever see come outta the hole, my first Spanish Reale. My goal for the day was to at least dig a Dragoon or maybe another R button. This was the last thing I thought would ever come from this site, I'm still in awe that I was privileged to find such an awesome coin. Somehow I was able to compose myself and continue hunting for another 9 hours and ended up with some excellent relics to add to my display case once I finish hunting this site. I did dig a lead, 1 piece button, my 3rd from here, anyone have any idea if it's period and what it's from? Once again my settings on the Nox 11" coil Sens 23 Recovery 4 Iron bias 0 No disc GB at 3-6 Park 1 2-tones Tone break -9 to +8

Still hunting the 1850's fort site that we started hunting around the first of the year and I was able to dig a few keepers. I started the morning using the CTX, but within 30 minutes, headed to the car to put her away. There's a time and place for the 3030, but, this place isn't it. Wandered around for a little while trying to get in tune, so I decided to hunt in between a couple of trees in an area we haven't put much pressure on. I stayed in that one area for about 7 hours and dug an unusual amount of epaulette debris today. I managed to score my first R button along with a Dragoon and a plain Eagle cuff. Targets were plentiful, so, we'll be back to give this spot a good working over. Towards the end of the day I dug a toasted copper coin that was banging 28-30, which after a little cleaning at home, it looks to be a mid 1800's Mexican 1/4 reale. This makes the fourth one to come out of here so far. My settings on the 800 were: Park 1 11" coil Sens 22 Recovery 4 Iron bias 0 2-Tone Tone break -9 to +8 Auto GB No Disc