Skate

I'm going to be in Avila beach in two weeks with my Equinox so I will probably get everything in Pismo before you get there. I'll leave you a few zincs in the dry sand so you can learn the tones.

The equinox should work well. Dial back the sensitivity since it's going to be located in the stems of the grass or the first inch layer of mulch or soil. By turning down your sensitivity the detector is going to clue in to finds on the surface which should quiet the machine and make the ring stand out. You don't want to hear anything 3-6 inches down, just on the surface. Women's rings will likely hit between 8-13 so possibly assign a high tone to that area on the nox. I'm assuming she lost the ring in the outfield and if so she likely lost it while throwing a ball towards second base. I coached High school softball for nearly 20 years and I can tell you the most common outfield to infield throw is to second base and the area to each side of second. This should be an easier one to find as I doubt your competition is another detectorer as unless she broadcast it out there that she lost it, you're the only one looking for it. The only other issue is the mower. This is getting technical but maintenance always mow the fields the same way, same direction. Discharge is usually to the right so it could have been thrown a bit but still on the surface. Good luck and be sure to post an update an a pic after you find it. Skate

That's absolutely fantastic. Just one would be the pinnacle of most hunters careers and he found 9. It just shows how research and perseverance equate to "making" luck. That's great he's a long time customer of yours Gerry as this will likely sell a few detectors for you. Everyone wins in metal detecting.

My ration of wheaties to silver is 8-10 wheats for every 1 silver so you're due! One of the cool things about the nox is you can really cherry pick which is what I would do at the school yard. Maybe switch to 2 tones and go up to 24 for one tone and 25 on up for you're higher conductors and just mash it there. Part of the initial confusion at a site is the amount of tones a site will give you. If silver is what you're after make it as easy as you can given the time available to hunt. I look forward to seeing the silver roll in.

Super write up! It looks like you are quickly becoming at one with the 600. Congrats on that 59 rosie. You just never know anymore where a good find will turn up. Best Skate

Cool. Thanks for the insight!

Out of curiosity, how did the 68 dime sound? When you swept the coil over it did you hear the dime first, second or third? The unmasking via separation is uncanny to me and I'm interested in how you ascertained a dime was there. TIA!

If someone wanted they could write a manual for the equinox just be perusing this forum from as far back as Steve began writing about it. In terms of learned information, this forum has been a reliable, go to source for information on the use of the Equinox. Unlike other forums, the Equinox is discussed intellectually here and that's because Steve and a lot of the posters here are data driven folks and have left the emotional garbage for others. If you do some searching throughout the different forum topics you'll see it's a who's who of the detecting world that congregates here.

Yay for Chase!! I was wondering when you were going to get your's and i see it was a success! Great little write up and I agree that the tide line is going to be fruitful for all of us as it's an ignored place between water hunters and other VLF detectorers. Glad you were able to get out as I'm waiting out the rain today. I'm really interested in seeing how it does in the dirt in your neck of the woods. All I've ever heard of the Virginia dirt is that you need a backhoe because the dirt is so bad. Can't wait for report #2!

I don't know if this will help but when locating a target under the coil, once the line of the target has been established horizontally move the coil vertically (as you swing) to see where the target/tone falls off. Then move the coil back to horizontal sweet spot, move it vertically again (using the wiggle) in a much smaller fashion and you should be able to triangulate the target under the coil. Hope that helps. Skate

Beautiful ring. Stunner. You had a great hunt.

You're going to have a blast! Fair warning though, detecting is like playing a slot machine, the next swing is always the winner. I can't tell you the number of times I said to myself "ok, this is the last target" only to find myself detecting an hour later. I agree you are likely to do quite well simply due to the fact that you have no preconceived notions. I look forward to seeing your finds when you get rolling. Best of Luck!

Really good report. If there was a book being put together about the Nox, your thoughts and Steve's confirmation should be included. We need to appreciate the Equinox for what it is and what it does, not try to make it more like another detector. Today I hit another spot previously hunted to death and while i didn't find any winners I found around 12 memorials that had been missed by me and two other detectorists. They were all 3-5" down. All masked by trash until today.

Having accomplished exactly what you have in terms of hunting isn't exaggeration. I completely agree with it 100%. It is simply a spot on machine. I went to an old home site from the early 1900's yesterday to hunt. I've been there probably 30 times to hunt along with my father-in law. Together we've pulled out 40-50 total coins and the last 3 times I went I was skunked with my deus and my CTX. I thought I would declare the site done only after I hunted it with the equinox and lo and behold I got two more wheats. Both were crystal clear high tones, you just knew before you dug. I hope I can get a few IHP's before you get them all.

Very cool finds, a bit of everything for sure. Your description of the tones for deep targets is spot on. Future is bright and shiny for you and the silver.

This is the key point. I got my deus turned it on and I was lost even though I had watched Gary tell me everything. That's not a knock on gary at all just that the deus requires so much from the user to work. While it is helpful to know how to detect, the equinox would work for my wife who has never detected in her life. All I'd need to tell her is when you get a tone and the screen reads 29-31 dig it because it's probably a quarter. You couldn't do that with a deus, CTX or Etrac for that matter.

Pretty much what I got last week at the beach in Ventura. All my finds had been there some time and were a result of getting a bit of erosion from the storm. The VDI's really didn't waver all that much and I knew after a bit exactly what I was digging. I didn't score any jewelry so I can't say where they will hit at. Unfortunately most people love to hate a winner especially nowadays. ML put out a machine that pretty much everyone has been asking for years in terms of weight, waterproof, ability and price and it's still not enough. When people start threads on other forums telling you all the reasons why they wouldn't buy an equinox before they were even released tells you all you need to know. Personally I love it. The last thing I want to see at a beach near me is someone swinging an equinox who got there ahead of me. I hope no one buys another one and they all gather dust on the shelf.

Outstanding! The people like yourself who really take the time to learn what the machine is telling them are going to clean up. You can run it fast and cherry pick or you can tune it, slow down and get it all. Well done Mitchel.

Very nice first hunt. I had the same trouble with pinpointing as you, but that video will help us both. I think you are going to kill it on the beach this season, much gold in the scoop!

that would be the Buttasaurus rex. Once thought to be extinct several have been spotted in the wild as of late. Approach them with caution as they can be a bit dangerous.

I have no idea what mine is doing with this but the one time I saved my settings to the user profile(park 2) and I went back to the user profile(after messing around in field 1 and 2) the tones had changed. I hadn't shut down the machine or anything just saved my user profile and then went to other modes. Instead of the high pitched chirp it was now more of a blended tone. Not sure what happened but I simply went back to park 2 and recreated my original settings and the high pitch tone 25 came back. Has anyone else seen this?

I think you ought to trademark 'Old Yard" mode. Best description of a setting I've heard yet!

That’s the thing. Depth is way overrated to me. A one inch IHP surrounded by iron and junk is more likely than one being 8” down in my experience. IHP’s are beautiful coins. I’ve only found a few. You did well.

I ran it in Park 2, sensitivity 23, 5 tones. Everything else was factory. It’s that good out of the box.

As I'm sure you know a faster recovery speed will clip your target tones and as an experienced Etrac user you are used to going slower. I would imgaine that it is an easier leap to go from a Deus to the equinox than from an etrac to the equinox. I wouldn't be too hard on yourself though. You did make great finds in places you had hit hard the first time out with a brand new machine you don't know all that well. I'd say you had an awesome first couple of hunts.