Bayard

Site 9:  I found a 1962-D dime and a wheat cent with my Etrac.  The silver dime was a very faint signal.  The Equinox then got me a 1952-D dime with a strong signal, plus another wheat cent. 

The Equinox seems to find quite a bit of clad that the Etrac misses, including quarters.

4 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

Sounds like some great site options you have Bayard.  And I like your approach... canvassing the ground with the Etrac for keepers, then going back over with the Equinox to snag the more masked targets.  How do you like the 2 tone option on the Equinox?  Is that similar to what you are running on the Etrac? Tim.

I like the tone break at 22.  I can use it with 2 tones or 50 tones, although I've been using 2 tones.

I like it because it high tones on silver coins and low tones on nickels, much like an Etrac.  I didn't initially realize that a 600 could do this, since the 800 is promoted as having adjustable nonferrous tones; however, this is a great setup to avoid zincolns and find everything else.

Returned to site 4:  Etrac got me two silver dimes, a sterling crucifix, and six wheat cents.  Equinox in Park 2 then got me an additional two wheat cents.

Site 8: Machine was very noisy in Park 2, had to turn the sensitivity down to 18.  The only old thing I found was a key with a piece of iron also in the hole.

I like your two tone setup.  I think I'll try it with my break at 22.  I'll then block everything 21 and below, accepting nickels and Indian heads if the site warrants.

1 hour ago, Skate said:

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!

I was discriminating out everything 21 and below; so, I got a consistent high tone that was slightly faint.  I switched to "all metal" before digging and could hear the high tone surrounded by junk, second based on your terminology.

Found with an Etrac using the stock headphones?  Is the user relatively new to detecting?  It's difficult to imagine an experienced user sticking with the stock headphones.  Terrific find regardless.

Site 7: two wheat cents from an extremely trashy old site.  I was impressed by a 1968 dime that had two rusty folded over bottle caps and half a beavertail in the same hole.

27 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Lower settings = more depth and faster settings = less depth is totally wrong unless you detect in the air.

The manual page you posted says increased speed results in "less detection depth."  Some clarification would be appreciated.

This is a topic of interest to me.  What setting on the Equinox corresponds to the speed of an Etrac or CTX?  Is even the lowest setting faster?

I've heard Park 2 deeper, so I tried it today with encouraging results.  I didn't have time to cross check my Etrac finds with the Equinox yesterday. 

I've reduced recovery speed to see if it will make an iffy signal improve, haven't noticed a difference yet.  I'm using the factory default iron bias, don't even know how to adjust it yet.

Site 6: found nothing old with park 1; however, park 2 got me a number of deep targets, including a wheat cent, a junk ring, and quite a few nickels.

I've been taking my Equinox 600 to sites that I've hit hard in the past, and found multiple silver coins, with an Etrac.  I've exclusively used Park 1 and a recovery speed of 3, the maximum.  The results are inconclusive so far.

Site 1: found a wheat cent.

Site 2: found two wheat cents.

Site 3: found a war nickel and a wheat cent.  The wheat cent was completely surrounded by iron.

Site 4: found nothing old with Equinox.  Tried Etrac immediately thereafter and dug a Mercury dime and wheat cent.

Site 5: found nothing old with Equinox.  Tried Etrac immediately thereafter and dug a relatively shallow Standing Liberty quarter.

I've been using a 600 for the last few days in old parks that I've hunted hard with my Etrac in the past.  So far, the only 800 feature that I've missed having was the ability to turn down the backlight.  The 600 backlight is like the sun compared to the backlight on an Etrac.

I don't care for the straight shaft of the Equinox.  Could a White's middle rod be substituted, or, otherwise adapted to fit?

I use a 12 pound Lortone to clean my clad coins with aquarium gravel.  It works great.

I'm buying a 600, already paid for it.  I have zero interest in gold nuggets or microjewelry.  The adjustments that the 600 lacks are unimportant to me.

I'll apply the $200+ savings toward the big coil and go deeper than your stock 800.

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

 And although I have not had an issue digging bottle caps with Equinox it was promptly misinterpreted as meaning I am out digging lots of bottle caps with the Equinox. The post and those that followed have therefore been deleted.

I didn't have any such misinterpretation.  What I read is that crown caps report in the same range as pull tabs.  If true, that may be a problem for those of us seeking war nickels and other deep nickels. 

Regardless, I don't think any posts should be deleted unless they are clearly in violation of the forum rules.

I've heard from acquaintances that the V3i lacks depth.  What's the deepest silver dime you've dug with the V3i using an 11 inch or smaller coil?

I've used an Etrac for years, dug 102 silver coins with it in 2017.  Why should I bother to get an Equinox?  Minelab says the Equinox is less sensitive to silver coins than FBS.

I figured I could happily do without an Equinox, until Steve posted some Mercury dimes he found with the Equinox that his CTX had missed.  I intend to buy an Equinox solely because of this.  If the Equinox doesn't help me find more silver coins in the turf, it will either become my dedicated water machine or get sold off.

There is confusion and ambiguity about where the Equinox fits in the Minelab product mix.  Is it a stealth flagship?  Will it outhunt the Etrac and CTX for a fraction of the cost?  This ambiguity is the source of resistance and hostility.

Now multi-frequency for gold mode too. 

That review was posted on another forum some time ago; however, what actually persuaded me to buy an Equinox, and join this forum, was your Mercury dimes.

5 minutes ago, Mike Buck said:

I called a dealer last week and they said they had 50+ pre orders for the 800 but only 4-5 for the 600.  I feel like the availability of the 600 will be better depending on how many units dealers are getting.

I'm planning to buy a 600.  If Minelab would make an even lower priced model without the ability to select single frequencies, I'd buy that. 

After years of using an Etrac, and avoiding crown caps with FBS, I have no use for single frequencies.

I would expect preorders to be larger for the 800 than the 600.  The only people who know about the Equinox right now are hard core enthusiasts who want the latest and greatest.  Once their orders have been filled, the remaining mass market will likely gravitate to the less costly 600.  The world is full of AT Pros and Aces because of low price, and those price sensitive buyers vastly outnumber the membership of all metal detecting forums combined.

5 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

 It is fairly obvious that because both machines offer so much capability for so little money that most people are going to just go for the Equinox 800 automatically. That being the case some savings on the purchase may be lost on resale because the Equinox 600 may not hold value as well as the Equinox 800.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the 600 is the bigger seller.  I suspect there are many more coin hunters than gold nugget and micro jewelry hunters.

As for prices of used machines, once the initial hysteria passes, a used 800 will eventually probably end up selling for no more than a brand new 600.  How many people will buy a used 800 for more than a new 600?  The extra features on the 800 are something the vast majority of users do not understand, appreciate, or need.  On the other hand, how low can the price of a used 600 go before it's a compelling deal as opposed to an AT Pro, AT Max, F75, etc.?

It's possible that a significant percentage of the pre-orders made without deposits won't turn into actual sales.  People wanting a single machine could have placed pre-orders with multiple dealers, as a strategy for getting the quickest delivery, and even some people who only placed a single order, without trying to game the system, may back out for some reason or other.