Chase Goldman

Yeah, right. Fenn was already independently wealthy so what would have been his motivation? Tell that to the people who were scammed by an actual criminal, Bernie Madoff. So some people got some fresh air, why is that a scam?

Yes, I'm hoping Forrest would reveal where he hid it now that it has been found. No need to get the finder involved. I guess the only hindrance to Forrest doing so would be that if the finder publicly revealed all or part of his solution (I am taking a stand against using the populist zombie verb-as-noun "solve" though I have been know to falter on this forum with the word "ask") so someone could potentially link back to him. I really don't care about whether or not that quells the conspiracy theorists. They are not my concern and are usually divorced from reality and can continue to wail and waste their time. What I want to know is how well the actual location matches up to the clues, that's all. I agree with you Chuck, the best treasures are those you find that were never meant to be found.

Wow. FInally. Going to put a cottage industry of Fenn's treasure bloggers and associated sites out of business now. Lol. Don't really care who found it, presuming they want to remain anonymous, but it would be interesting to finally find out where it was hidden

Excal it is, then. As an alternative you can consider one of the handheld pinpointer/coil units from Nokta or Quest. If you are just looking for metal dropped overboard and in springs, you really don't need all the fancy discrimination or displays at depth. You just want to know if you have a small chunk of metal, recover it from the sand/mud and move on. Nokta and Quest are recognizing that this niche market exists - and have come out with 8" coil options or "pro coil" options for these more powerful and sophisticated convertible pinpointer detectors. Google "Nokta PulseDive" and "Quest ScubaTector" for more info. Here is a forum link on the PulseDive.

Rick, regarding the bracing, the other downside I thought of is that once you do that, you have actually modded the coil mechanically and as a result have likely voided the warranty on the coil should it subsequently fail even if that failure had nothing to do with removing the bracing. Just another thing to consider.

Chances are you will be ok and you can replace the braces if need be. Only one way to find out and if it works it will definitely reduce your water drag.. In any event, hope you have a great water hunt. It is getting to be that time of year. Hopefully, I too can get out there soon. Good luck!

All I am saying is that for whatever reason, ML felt the need to put the extra bracing in there, knowing it was going to be used in the water. They are motivated first and foremost to make the coil as light as possible and to also lower swing resistance in the water, so I don't think they put the bracing there for grins. I suppose it could have been designed to not need them and there is probably design margin to whatever dynamic loading they were assuming. But comparing it against a different manufacturer's coil and an elliptical coil at that which has a different dynamic loading profile than a round coil is probably an apples to oranges proposition. Hell, what do I know. I'm not a coil designer, just trying to use logic here.

Hmm. The bracing was put there for a reason. The dynamic pressure of the water could now put a lot of flex on the coil which could disrupt the induction balance effect and cause some false signals. Maybe not so much of an issue light wading but not something I would do in surf. Not personally a fan of having a fanny pack full of water and the screen at that angle just seems awkward so not my cup o' tea. I'm usually carrying a scoop in my left hand and hanging on to the detector with the other so I like having the control panel within reach of my thumb with my right hand gripped on the handle for pinpoint and target interrogation. With your setup I would have to let go of either my scoop or the detector to manipulate the controls. But, hey, if it works for you, that is great. Hope you get some rings and bling with that set up. Good luck, Rick!

Yes, it was me Canoe, who first recommended it. You should enjoy it, but it WILL be a different beast than your MXT, so will take some getting used to the tones, target IDs, and responsiveness. Best advice I can give that other than adjusting the volume control to your liking, doing a noise cancel, and an auto ground balance (unless you on a white sand beach or extremely mild ground, then you can just take your chances with the zero default setting - but auto GB takes all of about 5 seconds, so I just recommend doing it as a part of your normal startup routine), and adjusting sensitivity to the point of just silencing any chatter - don't futz with any other settings and run with the mode defaults until you get a feel for the machine. In fact, I recommend just sticking with a single mode - Park 1 or Beach 1, applicable, as good general purpose land or beach mode. ML did a great job with the default settings, so for the most part you can select your mode, just do the startup routine above, and swing away. Note that most user settings including noise cancel and ground balance are mode specific and not "universal" other than sensitivity- this is explained well in the downloadable user guide. So don't tweak or mode hop until you are comfortable with the machine. Also dig all targets, including probable junk, in order to learn its "language". It is really not a complicated machine, just a versatile machine - just like any other VLF in terms of its basic operation, discrimination, tones, and IDs, including the MXT, it just happens to have 8 modes that give it some unique "personalities" akin to having multiple detectors in one package, and a couple of less familiar feature settings like recovery speed and iron bias, and a lot of tone customization capability. Refer back to Steve's Equinox Essential Information compilation thread if you have more specific questions or ask away here if you can't find the exact questions/answers there. Good luck and Happy Hunting.

Maybe this will help... Stay strong, Tony. You can beat this thing...

Anyone reading or posting in this thread, repeat after me, "My name is ______________, and I'm a coil-o-holic."

Well it's my truth, so I know that. But of course my hunting buddy would have a different opinion. And just like about anything metal detecting, ymmv.

It can run at 13 - 14 khz for "general purpose" target hunting. I have hit old and deep silver with both Equinox and Deus. In fact, at my "old silver" site each machine has snagged me a seated quarter. Could it keep up? Depends on the park conditions (trashy or not) and the familiarity and experience of the detectorist with the idiosyncracies of each machine. If you primarily want deep silver, the x35 coil family is a better choice as it can run from just under 4 khz up to just above 25 khz.

I have owned just about every XP coil variant except the 11x13 LF and X35 versions (too nose heavy and flexed the stock shaft from my brief swing of the beast). Almost exactly 3 years to the day I got my hands on a 9" HF round coil and I have never looked back. I have used to the 9.5" elliptical and one of my hunting buddies swears by it and has had great success with it including some great deep finds, but it never quite clicked with me. I like the 28 khz sweet spot on the coil and have done great with it at the beach, relic hunting, coin shooting, and contest hunting. It just feels right and I don't question whether I am getting sufficient depth like I do when I am using the elliptical. I sometimes use the 9.5" elliptical in tight swing situations, but that's about all. I don't think the depth delta between the two coils is that significant, especially in mineralized ground or when hunting micro targets, but the 9" round just feels right overall for me whether it is attached to the Deus or Orx. I know that is pretty subjective, but that's the truth.

Exactly, sometimes there is a downside to being too responsive to the masses and you gotta realize you can't please everyone or you might back yourself into a corner where you can't please anyone. This latest update seems ridiculous.

I suppose that the APTX people would not be putting out incorrect information while at the same time trying to market their product. But I found the above chart to be in conflict with the one posted below. Specifically, if I read the above chart correctly, the time lag on APTX would range from 40 ms to 80 ms. But the chart below which was posted a couple of years back on the Equinox forum (I've included the link here btw) shows APTX from 60 ms to 80 ms (vs. 40 to 80 ms) and APTX-LL 30 - 40 ms. That extra 20 ms can make a huge difference. Presuming your are leisurely swinging the coil over 3 times its width over a target centered in the middle and it takes about .8 second to traverse that distance of say 3 feet. Then .070 seconds delay (70 ms average aptx delay) = 36 inches/.8 sec * (70/1000) sec is ~ 3 inches. In other words, your coil has traversed about 3 inches over the time it has taken to hit the target with coil until it actually reaches your ear. At APTX-ll average delays of 30 ms, that distance has narrowed to 1.3 inches. Not ideal, but better. SBC (regular bluetooth) is 220 ms and it is just unbearable with a swing error of almost 10 inches! Basically, every 20 ms delay results in a swing error of about 1 inch and gets worse the faster you swing the coil. Regular SBC bluetooth delay is unusable. APTX I have found to be annoying but if I had no other choice could deal with it. APTX-LL is pretty indistinguishable from real time from my experience. Minelab Wi-Stream proprietary wireless protocol delay is about 16 ms which I suppose is similar to Garrett's Z-Lynk wireless performance. Let us know how it goes with those APTX buds, Rick. Would like to know if they do better than the ones I have tested. Thanks!

I hunt at a farm that has a lot of molten aluminum globs due to a tractor fire. They sound pretty good but "slightly" hollow. I am not going to sit here and tell you that I could really tell the difference between those globs of aluminum and the 160 year old brass and lead-backed cartridge box Eagle Breast Plate in the center of the picture below, but I did dial it in and knowingly bypassed some additional globs before I dug the Breast Plate which rang up high too, but did sound different due to its symmetry and metal mass. Also pictured is a crushed aluminum can and a nice "high ringing" rusted nut and bolt.

Thanks for weighing in Clive, you are one of the great experts on coil control and learning the language of the machine. Plus you DO have a few settings tricks up your sleeve too. But you are absolutely right, nothing substitutes for building the "brain muscle memory" of swinging the machine for hundreds of hours so it all clicks without having to think about it. Settings can help you get in the ballpark and help you learn but they can't instantly make you an expert. NO shortcuts. And no matter how experienced you are, you will still get fooled. But you feel less surprised when it happens because you have appropriately set your expectations from the 10-hour swing timer "I bet it's a ring" attitude to the 200 hour swing timer "I'm pretty sure I'm digging a tab" attitude - and the surprises are then usually good surprises.

OK now I'm totally confused. I give up with trying to decipher what Chuck is trying to say... Can't be reading the entire forum trying to look fo his "clues". Fun for some, I guess... Update: Had my morning coffee - now I'm feeling better and Chuck Proof. Good luck with that Equinox. I hear it is a good machine, Chuck... Didya get that 6" coil you always wanted, too?

I think you mistook my question, which was a legit question. And it looks like you sort of answered it, Chuck, but still you like to use riddles. I was asking if you were getting an Apex (test unit ) and it looks like that is the case. Congrats. Oh and congrats on detecting longer than me. Not much of an accomplishment though. I was a late bloomer.

I basically considered it a slap in the face of Equinox customers when they went out of their way to use a different connector on the Vanquish coils to ensure they could not be used on the Equinox. Really a craptastic move by ML IMO. So you tell me whether that makes sense or not?

They are APTX but not APTX Low Latency like the Avantree's you originally posted, so you may suffer from some lag which can be annoying while swinging the coil over a target. See below. GL Customer questions & answers Q: Does anybody game with them? I haven't found any budget wireless ear buds for call of duty mobile that dont lag A: it will lag a little since it is not Aptx-ll only Aptx or SBC codecs which will have little lag. By IO Error on May 24, 2020

??? This has something to do with Apex ???

This is one of those situations where the audio of the Deus kind of helps sniff out the modern trash vs. a deep coin signal. Right tool for the job. That being said, I would really listen for audio nuances between an actual deep coin and the micro aluminum. Both may not give the most stable VDI but if you switch to 5 khz, to interrogate the target, once a signal is acquired in your search mode (e.g., beach 1 or 2), I bet the deep coin signal will lock in better than the micro aluminum. Try it. Remember, I reserve the user profile slot as my interrogation mode whether it is a single frequency mode or gold mode or just Field 1 vs. Field 2.