Dan(NM)

Thank you Steve!  Knowing what I do now, I should have saved myself a couple of hundred bucks  and went for the 600 in the beginning. I still haven't used the WM08 or the headphones Minelab provided. I'm using wireless earbuds and doubt I'll use wired phones unless I go into the water. I bought the 600 to use while my 800 was being replaced by Minelab, for the second time, and haven't missed a beat with the 600. 

 I have an Etrac as a backup as well and am really having a hard time deciding on which one to turn loose. I'll see how I feel once I get the 800 back, lol, I may keep both and dump the Etrac ?

I was invited by a buddy to hunt a permission that he scored a couple of weeks ago while out sight seeing with his wife. So, today we headed over to the place about an hour from my house to see if this old place would produce. The pictures tell a little history about the old house, our excitement was tempered by reality within the first hour ? 

   The majority of finds were modern trash and clad, nothing what we had envisioned finding at a place surrounded by so much history. I finally scored a wheat which told me the place hadn't been hunted completely out by previous metal detectorist.  Three wheats and 40 minutes later I finally score a silver rosie, 1964 ? Well, it wasn't a complete loss after all. I hunted my way closer to the house and picked up a couple of Colorado tax tokens, it's always a treat to score a token or 2. 

  While my buddy was talking to the owner of the place I decided to go back over an area I had hunted before and was rewarded with a 42 Washington quarter. My partner was not having a good day at all, he could not get his coil over anything worthwhile the entire morning. The owner had given us permission to hunt the old place next door, so we decided to go ahead and see if it might improve his luck somewhat. Well....it did for me anyway  lol...first target was a wheat and within 10 minutes I dug my second Washington quarter.

  I was scanning along the side walk and got a nice soft repeatable 28-29, down at 8 1/2"  out comes what I thought was a Mexican coin, turned out to be a large brass token.  A couple more wheaties were found before we needed to head out for the hour long drive for me and 2 1/2 drive for my buddy.

  We think that this small old town has been targeted in the past, especially the Dolan house, not one find dated the place and nothing there was deep. We did see a picture of the house back in the day, could be fill was brought in at some point and the older stuff was buried beyond the range of the machines.

 Not a bad day overall, went home with some silver and some cool tokens to add to my stash. My settings were what I normally run when my time is limited and I want to maximize my hunt time.

 Sens....20

2-Tone,

Tone break set to 22

Pitch set at 2 from -9 to 21

Recovery 3

Iron bias 0

Field 2

I'm debating whether or not to sell the 800 and just use the 600, for my type of hunting the 600 performs like a champ and gives the 800 a run for it's money.

9 hours ago, steveg said:

Holy smokes, Dan, what a hunt!!!!

CONGRATS!!

That token looks like it could possibly be a sales tax token; Oklahoma or Alabama possibly; I'd say definitely made of aluminum...

Steve

Thanks Steve, no doubt the token is aluminum and a trade token. The only word I can make out is trade, it's very worn for a token.

14 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Great haul!  You just never know what you'll find.  If we hit a HR every time out it wouldn't be nearly as fun when we come across a site like this.  Another beautiful Walker..., can hardly wait to find mine.

Thanks for showing the dates on the Wheaties.  A little fuzzy -- what is the far left one on row 2 and the far right on row 3?  (I'm hoping 1933-D and 1931-S respectively.  Think positive!)

I can't tell either, I tossed em in with my pile of other wheaties, I'll have to wait until the end of the year when I go though em ?

11 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Nice finds, esp. the quantity of coins and, of course, the Walker.  What search mode were you using and recovery speed?  When are you supposed to get your 800 back from ML?

Thank you.

Park 1...2-tones...1st break -9 thru 11 pitch set to 1... recovery 3 ....Iron bias 0 ...sens 18....  Second and 3rd passes I ran Field 2, same settings.  Minelab received my 800 yesterday, I haven't heard when they will be shipping it back.

8 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I guess you had a great day - hard to do better than that!! 

This hobby make no sense sometimes, I obtained permission to hunt a 1890's homestead, beautiful big trees in the front yard, large grassy areas in front as well.....pulled 4 wheats and a handful of clad ?

On 8/10/2018 at 6:03 PM, Chase Goldman said:

I did not know they were repairing EQ's at the PA repair center, thought they were being sent to the distribution/exchange center in Naperville, Illinois.  Are they actually being sent to PA now for repair/exchange - is that what the shipping label said?

My Nox is going to Naperville on Monday, there's nothing to repair, just swapping control housings out according to Jamie @ Minelab.

11 hours ago, dewcon4414 said:

Mine charges fairly fast as well even after 7 hours or more hunting.    Im well over 500 hours on my machine and the batteries seem to be holding well.   There have been times ive left the back light on after hunting in the AM for those 7 hours too and really i still have a good bit of charge time.

Dang Dan thats just bad luck.   I hear of a few that have problems...... but im assuming there are a lot of machines out there by now and we kind of expect a few to go....... but two.... thats bad.  ML must have done something special to mine because im normally the one that can break anything out there.

It is what it is, I bought a 600 as a backup just in case the 3rd one is a turd. I have my return auth. # so Monday I'll send her back.

Looks like I'll be sending my new Nox in again for repairs. It was replaced 6-7 weeks ago because of a faulty power button, now it won't charge. I tried doing a reset, I tried another charger and nothing. It goes straight to a solid green light and will not charge. So, once again off to Minelab for I'm sure another new control housing.  I may have 20 hours of use on this one, I've charged it 2 times before it quit charging. Not a happy camper as I had a weekend hunt planned coming up in 11 days.

15 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Dan(NM) said: "I think your right about the backlog being more less filled..."

Tell that to folks still on the Kellyco waiting list.  Yes it still exists.     They are just now filling orders from March.

I would have bailed long ago. I bought 4 new 800's since Feb. One for me and 3 for some buddies, they were there to be had if you did a bit of calling around.

Norm, I counted a dozen 800's for sale on E-bay at $899 shipped last week, so I think your right about the backlog being more less filled. My hope is  Minelab will focus on getting the coils and the accessories to the dealers in short order.

 I have to agree about the fun factor using the Nox, I've had either an Etrac or CTX as a back up since Feb. haven't taken either one out on a hunt yet, just didn't feel the need!!

5 minutes ago, Andy2640 said:

Thanks Dan.  If i may, i had another question on my mind.  With the Nox what do you prefer in regards to ground balance method?  Ive read that for most detecting a 0 is ideal. However on 90% of ground i have hit in the UK so far, has been crazy high, like 54, or 70 ish

Then i hear that if i use ground tracking, it slows the machine down some.  What do you use personally?   if you dont mind me asking.

 

Loving this forum, good to meet you Dan.

 

Andy (UK).

Hey Andy, greetings!   I did the manual GB at first, but, I really couldn't tell the difference between that and the default. I only run tgh default  setting of 0 now. I'll be moving to a different part of the country next year, so, that may change depending on what I run into.

41 minutes ago, Andy2640 said:

Hi Dan, 

I was wondering, how does the CTX compare with the Nox?  You mentioned it covers more ground, how so buddy?

Im interested cus it was a toss up between the CTX and the Nox, with me choosing the nox.

I am still interested in the CTX you see, cheers!!

For me...I have to swing at a much slower speed to get the most out of the CTX. The Nox is much more forgiving with a faster sweep speed. I believe I increase my odds of hitting what I'm looking for by covering more ground faster.v

I haven't been out much in the last 2 months due to getting the house ready to sell for a big move to Texas. So, the last couple of days I've had a few hours to finally get out and hit a couple of places that had played out for the most part with the CTX.

 I went to the local zoo hoping to score at least a wheat or a Rosie, well, it turned out better than I expected. I sure love the fact I can move right along with Nox rather than crawling with the CTX and cover some serious real estate. Using my trusty 2-tone cherry picking mode I popped out 2 rosies, a merc and a wheaty.  Having big fun lately ?

59 minutes ago, Norm S said:

What Dan did is what he found worked and worked well for him. He didn't try any magic settings that so many guys are looking for. it pretty simple the magic setting is the factory setting that you tweak to your liking.  It depends on what area of the US you detect in whether you need to ground balance or not and I think unless you're in a highly mineralized soil leave GB at zero.  I have never used GB nor have I tried it. Never had a need to. I used two settings, sensitivity and discrimination. I hunt by tone and look at the vdi as a confirmation. 

The magic in the Equinox is the same as  with every other detector. It's your ear guys. I have fun with my detector and I let Minelab science out the detector for me..LOL

The nice thing about that type of hunt is being able to cover a lot of ground fast. I'm not talkin an absurd swing speed but I'm talking moving along until I hit that tone that I'm looking for. Once I get that Hi-Tone then I'll slow down, do the wiggle, try to clean up the signal and then go after the target. Cherry picking at its finest :-)

1 hour ago, NCtoad said:

Congrats on the silver!  That's a great idea using 2 tones with the break at 22, I'll have to try that.  What approach would you have used at an older park?

 Park 1.... 5 tones...with tones breaks set to make the nickle range tight (12-14)  other setting the same.

5 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Nice haul, Dan, especially the silver!

Did you leave the ground balance setting at 0?  About how deep were your key finds?

Thank you,  when I first got the Nox, I would do a manual GB, now, I leave at 0, it seems to do just fine at that setting.  Most of the finds were 4-7" down, not sure how I missed them with the Etrac or the CTX. I had gridded the site from both directions with both machines. I cannot explain how in the world I missed the wheats and the silvers ?

 When I first read that the 800 had adjustable tone breaks, adjustable tone pitch and an extremely fast recovery speed, I knew at that moment I wanted one. The waterproofing and lightweight are just the icing on the cake. I had tried the Makro Impact and Racer looking for a fast and adjustable machine for my cherry picking hunts, but, I just never gelled with either one.  From my very first hunt with the Nox,I felt that my expectations had been satisfied with a very affordable and feature packed detector.

 Today was the perfect example of why I bought the Nox,  short cherry picking hunting. I was running Park 1... 2 tones...default GB...recovery speed 6....iron bias 0....tone break at 22...full volume...no discrimination and sensitivity at 22

  I hit a very small park that was built in the late 50's   I've taken a couple of dozen wheats out with the Etrac and CTX, but, no silver. That came to an end today while hunting with the Equinox . First good hit was a 57 wheat, I checked the spot after I replaced the plug and got a nice high tone with a solid 31-32 VDI, I already knew what was there Prettiest sight I've seen in quite some time, some shiny!!  Within 30 minutes I hit the rosie followed by a couple more wheats, an oriental coin and the junk ring. I did not dig one zincoln today   

I think I may have dug 4-5 pieces of junk, but, I spent most of my time digging nothing but coins. If this had been an older park, I would have had a different approach obviously.

I just got my control pod back from Minelab after a replacement due to a faulty on/off button. 11 day round trip, they got it on a Friday afternoon and shipped out the new one on a Monday afternoon.  Due to the extra warm weather 10-12 days of 100+ temps,  I wasn't going to do much hunting anyway.  Every rep I talked to thru the process was very friendly and helpful.  Thank you Minelab!!

11 minutes ago, Norm S said:

They will replace it. I sent mine back twice.  Minelabs office and repair center in America is in Naperville IL. 

I sent my CTX to PA. to be repaired, it used to in FL. They moved the repair center to PA  last year, I think since it's just being replaced, that's being taken care of in Naperville.

36 minutes ago, Rick Kempf said:

It’s all welded together - replace, not repair.  No non-destructive way to open it. Unless other information comes to light, it appears to be unrepairable. Guess that saves having to stock a bunch of spare parts though.

I think I saw a video of someone opening the pod, and your right, they basically destroyed the pod to open it. Fix or replace, no problem to me, I figured now was a good time to send it in, the temps are hitting over 100 for the next week or more and it's bone dry here anyway.

After getting my RMA# and printing out the return label, I noticed the package is being shipped back to Naperville Il. instead of the repair center in Pa. The on/off button is difficult to operate, you have to manipulate it just right to get it to engage. I take it that it's going to be replaced rather than having the repair center take a look at it. Not complaining, just making an observation.

I use the Fisher F-Pulse, there are times when the Nox is on a certain channel, the audio on the Nox will sound erratic when the pinpointer is on. I simply do a noise cancel when the pinpointer is on and that takes care of the problem.