ColonelDan

95% of my personal hunting is on the east coast Florida beaches. The other 5% is done in support of a local museum focused on the Seminole Indian wars. The CTX 3030 is my "go to" machine in both cases with my Excalibur II and XP Deus getting very limited use. With the fielding of the Equinox, it may become my "go to" multi freq travel machine depending on how it performs and meets my particular needs....that is still TBD.

I agree with Steve. I’ve done a lot of east coast Florida beach testing for Kellyco on quite a few detectors and single frequency machines are really hampered/limited in salt water and on wet salt sand compared to multi freq and PI detectors. Granted, you can quiet some of them down to a degree but you must adjust the ground balance and sensitivity to such a point that you lose significant depth performance. Without question, the best choice for salty environments are the multi freq and PI machines. Just the view from my salty foxhole...

Steve lists all my reasons except one...I want a more packable travel machine that works on the beach. If the Equinox works on my Florida beaches as I expect it will, I'm in.

In as much as 99% of my detecting is on our Florida beaches, Minelab gets my nod...both Excal and CTX. Multi frequency machines is the only way to go for me. As for PI machines, yes they're great on saltwater beaches also but given that I'm about to celebrate my 70th birthday, I don't relish digging 20 inches down for a bobby pin...especially in the hot Florida summer sun. I've tried many different machines including my XP Deus (which design comes very close to state of the art in my view) but I always find my way back to the Minelabs...and I'm eagerly awaiting the fielding of the Equinox as a light weight travel machine and back up to my CTX. If it does well on the beach, I'm in. Just the view from my foxhole.. As a side note Steve, I'm new to your website and really enjoying these forums you've put together. Outstanding job soldier!!

Excellent Steve...just excellent.