StevenB

Thanks everyone, what a thrill! I've noticed the same effect as Happa54. This one was different because the ID was pretty consistently in the upper 30's range. Incidentally, I've found that I still dig lots of rusty nails despite using the upgraded Iron Bias function. It has almost completely eliminated rusty bottle caps, but nails not as much.

I had an amazing hunt yesterday with two friends, at a farm field (most recently planted in corn) near an old house site. Normally, when I get a signal in the 38-39 range it ends up being a large trash object, so often that I sometimes pass them by without digging. In fact I have never in my two years of EQX800 ownership dug any "keepers" in that range, But this one had a nice tight pinpoint so I went ahead and dug, and at about 9 inches out came an 1884 Morgan silver dollar! I was absolutely stunned, truly a dream find for me. Not five minutes later, and just five feet away, the Equinox registered a nice 35 and this turned out to be a lovely 1902-O Barber half. Of course, I started gridding the immediate area closely but couldn't find a single additional coin. My buddy did the same with his CTX and also found nothing. So it apparently wasn't a buried cache, just a freak drop of two coins that somehow managed to survive plowing without significant damage. Of course, having gotten used to bypassing many of those high 38-40 signals, now I'll have to pay closer attention in the future! Having a solid non-jumpy VDI and tight pinpoint are key. (I was hunting in Park 1, modified 5 tones, recovery 3, Iron Bias F2=4)

Haven't had a chance yet to test the new update myself, but based on what I'm reading here I think a good strategy to try will be setting F2=0 or 2 to unmask those difficult targets, and set User Profile to F2=9 to quickly recheck targets for bottle caps and other iron falsing.

Same here. I hunt on dirt exclusively and usually check U.S. nickel range (12-13) signals by switching to 5Hz and I've found this method to be very effective in identifying bottle caps. My big problem is bent rusty nails. I haven't seen any testing on these yet with the new update (though I realize that air testing on rusty nails is of limited value). I downloaded the update last night and hope to get out to an old site soon and see what happens. Would be very interested in hearing other folks results as well.

I'm in central Kentucky. I believe the soil here would typically be considered mild to medium mineralized. When I'm able to find a clean enough patch to ground balance it usually ends up in the 45-55 range, which I realize is not an absolute measure of mineralization but it's all I have to go on.

This is a great discussion. All I can contribute is this, for what it's worth (very little): two nights ago I went back to an trashy 1890s median that I've heavily hunted recently, changed recovery from 6 down to 3 (Park 1, 5 tones) and in a short time dug two deep wheat cents and a 1940 quarter-size bronze coin from Iceland (!). Did the change in recovery speed result in these finds or was it just random luck, who knows. It may not have helped but it didn't hurt, and I was pleased with the response of the machine. The bottom line, as we all know, is that results like this are anecdotal and there are so many variables even on returning to a known site (ground moisture, EMI, etc.) that it's hard to draw conclusions from any one person's results. Still, I love getting tips and inspiration from more experienced hunters, that's how we keep learning.

That site looks awesome! I dug an identical heart "rosette" earlier this year at an old home site, and found all kinds of conflicting information online about its age and use. Then I flipped open my 1929 Montgomery Ward catalog and lo and behold I found the answer (see photo). It's actually a buckle cover, not a rosette. Mystery solved!

This discussion of using lower recovery speed, 2-3 on the 800, is a bit mind-blowing, as I've never ventured below 5. I seem to recall that in the early days of Equinox availability, it was pretty much gospel (on this forum and elsewhere) that if you weren't using 5 or above you were pretty much wasting the capabilities of the machine. Anyway, on my next trip out I'll be lowering it to 3 and slowing down and see what happens!

I have an 800 and primarily hunt for coins on land using 5 tones, and I consider the adjustable tone breaks to be one of the greatest features of the machine. The Equinox is designed for the worldwide market and the default tones are essentially linear, in groups of 10 TIDs. But each country's coinage is different so it makes total sense to adjust the tone breaks to reflect local conditions. (Mine are currently set at 11, 13, 17 and 23)

I love my 800 and still on the learning curve but I have to say the depth indication issue is its greatest weakness, particularly the lack of audio modulation on anything five or six inches deep or shallower. (And yes I realize that this can be seen as a positive feature, not a bug.) I spent part of the weekend searching an older local park which has been heavily detected for decades. I was lucky enough to dig two IHP's which is a good testament to the Equinox's abilities, but they rang up almost as loudly as the carpet of zinc pennies throughout the park. I found that lifting the coil seemed to be the best strategy to determine depth. Of course I do this with my AT Pro as well but not nearly as much, and probably the AT Pro might not have found the Indian pennies so there you have it.... (also found my first Civil War era musket ball, so yeah I'm loving this machine!)

Congratulations! This is an inspiration to us all!

I just tried this and maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't think sensitivity level can be saved in the user profile. I think User Profile only saves local settings and sensitivity is a global setting.

Congrats on finding the gold ring. A 15 on the TID is almost always a pulltab; I wouldn't have dug it and would have missed out!

I was wondering the exact same thing. The manual implies that you should just leave the ground balance at 0 unless there's a problem, but I've been habitually using auto ground balance since that's what my previous machine (AT Pro) required. The EQ800 has been balancing in the 40's for me in our relatively mild soil. I wonder if I would be better off just setting it back to 0 and leaving it. I'm strictly a dirt digger, no beaches or gold prospecting.

My Equinox 800 arrived last week and today for the first time I was able to spend some time searching some spots in the neighborhood I've previously searched with my other detector. In short, I was very pleased with the results but definitely have a lot of practicing to do to learn the new machine. BIG THANKS to everyone on this site who have contributed their knowledge and experiences; it's really helped me hit the ground running and it felt like I knew a lot about operating the Equinox effectively before I even opened the box. Sorry about the overexposed picture but this is a 1935 Walking Liberty half that I dug today, my first Equinox silver and in fact the first Walker I've ever dug in three years of detecting! In all fairness, it was only about 3 inches deep and any detector could have found it, especially considering it was in a curb strip! This was a new location for me. It rang up as a 33/34 on the EQ. On nearby sites that I've hunted extensively before, I dug a 1902 IHP and five wheat Lincolns (two of them dated 1919). Also a Chester A. Arthur commemorative token, probably from the 1950s, that was slightly larger but thinner than a quarter and rang up at 22 on the EQ. Also a small amount of clad but surprisingly no dimes of any type. Pull tabs of various types came in mostly at 14-17 and aluminum screw caps sounded off nicely in the mid 20s (too bad!). Probably the most interesting find, to me at least, was a rusty nut and bolt with a copper washer still attached. The fact that the Equinox saw the washer was impressive!

Thanks for the video link. I've tweaked my settings less drastically since I'm not interested in zinc pennies; we'll see how that works out for me tomorrow! I love the customization possible with this machine.

Just curious, where do you have your tones breaks set at?

I'm expecting to receive my EQ800 soon but in the meantime I have a question. I've noticed that most of the early reports seem to indicate that most folks are using Park 2 (or Field 2) as their main setting. If I read the manual correctly, Park 2 is supposedly a bit more sensitive and deeper, but Park 1 is weighted more toward the lower frequencies in Multi. In other words, Park 1 should be a better choice if the primary goal is to find silver coins/jewelry. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this or has tested this out.

I ordered from a smaller dealer in early December. He only received a couple 800s last week and I'm still #7 on his list, so like many of you I may have a bit of a wait. But what I'm hoping is that Minelab airfreighted a small initial shipment to the US, with perhaps a much larger shipment on the way by sea, so the pace of deliveries to customers may pick up. Of course this is just speculation and wishful thinking on my part, but here's hoping.

I've been reading this site for a while now but this is my first post. I really appreciate all the information that's been shared and I feel I have a great head start on using my Equinox when it finally arrives. Thanks Steve for running an excellent site and passing along your knowledge and experience.