schoolofhardNox

Great finds. I may get that 6" inch coil soon. That real is sweet!

14 hours ago, dewcon4414 said:

Beach 1 is a better choice for small gold on the WET sand than beach 2.   Interesting you can even hunt with gold mode on the wet sand because if my dry sand is damp most of the modes like to chatter really bad.    Its going to be a matter of picking out those small targets that with any depth on the wet sand sounds a whole lot like weak minerals.   I assume you are use the threshold and tracking....... some IB and maybe a high recovery speed...... like 6?   Might try that 6" coil and work smaller areas.  From what was shown on one of the other threads the 6" seems to be a pretty deep coil especially on small gold.  

I primarily hunt in beach 1. All those finds were found using that mode. I was trying to figure out how to use gold 2, but it falsed and chattered like you described. But if there is a way to get it to work, it hits a lot harder than beach 1 on those small gold targets. At home I keep some sand from different beaches and the gold 2 mode made targets much easier to hear (and deeper) than beach 1. But when I got to the beach, it was a completely different story.....unusable. Now that is a future update I would definitely be interested in

What a hunt! Some great pieces there. Check the axe carefully for some round circular makers marks. Very early ones look pretty much the same as more modern ones. I'd call that a very successful hunt! 

What an interesting thread. Great work and attention to detail. If you ever get to the point of selling them, let me know. But for now I have inadvertently solved the problem of a wobbly shaft and the adjustment problem as well. You see if you do not clean your stock shaft after each beach use, it seizes up and you will never get it to come apart....ask me I know …...

I don't know if you tried just the 40K frequency, but that is my go to when I am near interference. I'm not sure if that would work on multiple Equinox users.

I would like a detector that actually analyzes the metal. In other words it actually knows it's gold because it has analyzed it's composition. (like and XRF unit) does. Then add pulse depth, waterproof and the ability to discriminate out metals I don't want to respond. Simple right?  

20 hours ago, Alluminati said:

Nice finds.

I assume you are in salt? If so I can't help ya.

In fresh I run threshold of 5 or 6 and sens of 22.  No noise cancel or GB. Machine will make audio if I pump the coil but rarely enough to trigger a TID response.

 

Yep it's salt. I detect mostly on the wet part of the beach, that also has fine layers of black sand mixed in. I'll figure something out or I'll just stick with the 2 beach modes. Thanks for the reply.

It's been a very busy summer/fall, so I was dying to get out to the beaches to see if the Equinox would still be kind to me. These pictures are from 5 of the 6 beach hunts.  It's early in the season and the beaches are not shedding sand yet, so the finds are slimmer than last season. I did include a picture of one clad hunt that yielded over $17.00 in change in a 5 hour period. Most other clad amounts were much lower. Total clad after 6 hunts is $31.54 (average of $5.25 per hunt). It's going to be a long season and I hope to get out more often than once a week, but time will tell. So far I'm thrilled with 4 pieces of gold and the decent amount of silver I've found. I have been experimenting with Gold 2 mode, but so far with only a one tone option, all signals (including falsing from wet and mineralized sand) make a audible response. Can't figure out how to stop that. Wish it had 2 tones. I even ran a tight disc pattern, but the falsing was still reading in the low gold range. Anyone having success with the Gold 2 on wet sand??

I'm thinking it is a child's cuff button. I've seen some child's shoe buckles and they were tiny too lol

The Nox did well for a short hunt. Hope you get better faster than they think. But the down time can be used to find new sites on the computer.

I always regret selling a machine. Just hate to let go of those great memories. Sometimes I buy them back and then realize those days are gone. Sadly, those old machines can't compete with new technology. I remember them as being better than they were. The only machine I will really have a hard time selling is the GPX 5000. The combination of the Equinox 800 for small gold and coins and the GPX for deep silver can't be beat on beaches in my area. But one day that too shall pass.

No offence meant by this, but some people might look over a forum just to see what is going on, but do not have a lot of time to post. I am one of then.  I recently have been doing battlefield archaeology metal detecting, roughly 3 days a week. I just browse and figure I can catch up on replies later.  It's only been 10 hours, so give it some time. I can't speak for anyone else, but my detecting time is also limited due to my regular work, so I have not even tried many of the programs. Quite honestly, I have stopped sharing my programs recently. A lot of people on other forums I browse, are almost rude in demanding people's settings. They do not want to buy the books, learn the machine, practice different settings, etc.. They just want someone else to do it for them. I've had people friend me on Facebook, and once I shared some beach settings, I never hear from them again . There are some good videos on YouTube that may help you. There are also a lot of boring or bad Equinox videos too.  I've tried some of the settings people shared on YouTube and they were not very effective in my area. So someone's settings may not help everyone. But hopefully someone who is willing to share their settings will do so for you.

14 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

Schoolofhardnox

It’s been a beautiful dream that I hope I never wake up from. I just got a few years on you detecting. I was 24 going on 25 when I started. I was prospecting some years before that.

If I make it to Heaven I know I’ll get kicked out for digging up the streets.

Chuck

If you get kicked out of heaven, you are welcomed to join me where it is a bit warmer and metal detecting is allowed ? When I am done detecting, then I will be officially old. Life would be boring without at least the occasional hunt.

In the spring of 1971 I was celebrating my first full year of metal detecting at the ripe old age of 9  Thank God for my older cousin (technically my second cousin) who was 10 years older than me. Started me detecting in the spring of 1970. How time flies  Thanks for posting them.

18 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I had one of those also, but was too stupid at the time to realize the power I had in my hands with the very first ground balancing metal detector. Ground Exclusion Balance (G.E.B.) was our introduction to VLF ground balancing technology. The funny part is all I focused on was the Coinmaster V Supreme would find nails per swing that my earlier T/R models ignored entirely. If I had caught on to what potential the machine had for nugget detecting things might have been a little different, but I let it go way too soon.

Here is an ad blurb from the 1976 catalog, plus a picture below of a little later model Coinmaster 5/DB (crude discrimination added) at the White's factory. Click on photos for larger versions.

I'm still trying to figure out when the Coinmaster V Supreme first came out. GEB was top dog then . But it cut right through mineralized ground and had some pretty good depth, if you like digging those whisper targets. Nails could be figured out somewhat if you did a 90 degree turn. They would double bleep if they were close enough. Not 100 percent effective though. We dug a LOT of holes back then. I had the 5DB also (or was there a 5000D model?)..... the worst machine ever. Total loss of depth. I heard the later model Di's were good but I left whites for a while, and only returned when The Eagle and Eagle Spectrum came out. That Spectrum was another great machine from them. The older units weighed a ton and changing them 14 AA batteries hurt the wallet! The word ergonomics wasn't even invented then

Great topic. Besides a $19.99 radio shack detector, my first real detector was a Bounty Hunter Rebel (BFO), soon after, a Bounty Hunter Outlaw (w/ Good/ Bad meter). The first White's machine was the Coinmaster V Supreme. What a machine.... NO more digging hot rocks that sound like a coin.

4 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

For those who don't like all metal, next time your hunting in a stock program with discrimination and you start hearing what sounds like false chirps, open up the screen with the horse shoe and you'll hear what is really going on.  Super feature.

Yep I run mine with everything accepted, but I run iron volume at 0. I don't want any nulling of targets, but I prefer not to hear the iron. I just watch the display as the negative numbers flash on the screen. For me I have learned to hunt this way for gold on the beach.

I run multi all the time....except when I was hunting an area that had a major highway on one side (rt 95 in CT) and the electric powered high speed Acela train on the other side of me. Probably about 200 ft. from me on each side. Multi would not work with both of those producing different EMI. I had to go to single frequency and the only frequency that worked well was the 40 KHz. Without it, I could not hunt there. That's an extreme case, as most times multi works just fine where I hunt.

5 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

I'm speechless.  The very best collection of beach finds I've ever saw.  I'd be happy with 10% of what was found on any hunt.

Thanks Mark. To say I wasn't surprised myself would be an understatement. I struggled the first time I went beach hunting about 2 years ago. I would never have thought anything was left to find. I was naïve and under-educated on how a beach works. Not that I have learned how it does work, even today . My answer to lack of knowledge is to dig a lot of holes  We shall see if I can repeat some of it this fall. I did see the same results with some New Hampshire guys on You Tube. They were killing the silver and gold like never before. Their beaches were stripped way down!

22 hours ago, Happa54 said:

It is interesting you say this re the Nox. A couple of months ago I was at an old 30's small semi-desert park and the infill was sand and grass on top. I hit some deep high CO signals and after about 8" of digging I covered the holes and walked away thinking deep rusted iron or irrigation pipe. I think I understand now and I may have walked away from some good finds.  Also have the So Cal beaches at my disposal and yet I have never hunted them. I do good on coins but lousy on jewelry. After seeing your wrap up I think I better head to the ocean and at least give it a try. Thanx for sharing. 

Deep iron can still fool you sometimes. Getting used to the pinpoint on the EQ is tricky sometimes too. You may have just been off a bit. If the signal was weak then maybe it was a bit deeper. If the signals was very strong you may have been slightly off center and missed it. If you do those beaches, I use beach 1, sensitivity  as high as I can get it and a slower recovery speed. But just the stock program works well too. Good luck if you do them.

12 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Average of 1 gold find and 6 silvers per hunt?!  Obviously you not only have some good sites, but particularly know what you are doing.  This sounds like the good old days when virgin ground was abundant.

It continually pains me to see the condition of the silver you get on the beaches.  Does seawater always do this (I mean around the world)?  Land hunting here in the US Midwest, silver coins come out of the ground as pristine as the day they were dropped.  (Pennies and nickels, not typically.)  I've done just a smidgen of waterway hunting (just a couple creeks) and have yet to find silver there so don't know about that.

It seems odd that someone in the US Northeast takes the summer off from detecting and can do so well through the darker (colder) months.  Due to the warm weather, schools being on break, and (late summer) creeks being low it seems to be my best hunting time.  Maybe I should head up your way when the sun goes to reduced hours.  ?

Thanks,  The beaches up here are hammered pretty well. We have a lot of detectorists now, more than ever. The difference is nature is eroding our banks and producing stronger storm surges. This strips away more sand, just allowing some of the older targets to be in range for certain machines to find them. Exposing the coins also exposes more black sand and more rocks, so the average detector isn't gaining much because of the conditions. Now, the PI units and the experienced detectorists can hit some of these targets easier than before.  Yes our silver is oxidized due to  (I think) Sulphur and/or Chlorine reaction which is not good for silver. Tumbling in the sand doesn't help either!  Yep for me, winter is great for beach hunting and summer is cellar holes and battle field projects I do.  If you are ever up this way in the colder months, PM me and we can hit a beach. CT and RI beaches.

10 hours ago, strick said:

Nice work! looks like beach #2 was the hot spot this spring. Looking forward to your "battle field" stuff.

strick

Thanks strick, Beach #1 and beach #2 traded targets. One was great for gold and decent on silver, the other was great for silver, but decent on gold.  Just did my 3rd battlefield hunt (today). They are boring compared to the beach, as I only found 5 round ball (musket balls). But believe it or not, that was a great couple of days work. In 1637 round ball was the weapon of choice for the English. The Natives on the other hand had brass arrow points. For those hunts the EQ is first to go over an area, but it is no match for the GPX. When that thing enters the field, no lead is left behind lol.

8 hours ago, Randy Lunn said:

schoolofhardNox,

Congratulations on a superb year. I hope you are feeling better soon.

Thanks Randy, I'm really grateful for my success this year. I will see this fall if any of it is repeatable. I'm feeling a bit better today and  I was almost presentable at todays hunt. I kept to myself most of the day though. No one wants to hang out with the old sick guy LOL.

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Fabulous display of gold and more - very impressive!!

Thanks  Steve, With the right equipment, reading forums like this one, You Tube (after weeding out the junk videos) and Clive's book, All I had to do was add the time and muscle. In essence I am a well equipped ditch digger :)  I di want to thank you for having this forum and for keeping the rules realistic, but firm. It really shows.

5 minutes ago, Happa54 said:

Holy Cow!!!!!!  That is a super fantastic wrap up. Not only do you have the "much wanted gold", but you have (more than most can get) a large amount of silver too. You must be up there in the 1%-5% class. Congrats on that impressive haul !!!!!

Thanks Happa54. A lot of people on different forums have bashed the Equinox as not being much different from Minelab's previous machines, but nothing could be farther from the truth. My CTX never found that much gold and neither did the GPX. This machine hits well enough on shallower small gold and chains, and hits very hard on smaller gold rings, even if the band is cracked. That difference alone is responsible for me finding more gold than ever before.  And the GPX, properly tweaked, can hit those deep silvers even with the clay and black sand. I watch others walk all over the area I was finding most of those silvers, and they never stopped to even dig one hole.  Without those 2 machines I would be in the middle of the pack percentage wise.... maybe 

19 hours ago, foreverteachable said:

I think I found one gold ring ever and I usually release my fish unless it is a batch of porgies. If I bring home some gold I bet my wife will tell me to go fishing more ?

There is a drawback to finding a lot of gold.... You only own it until you get home, especially if it is jewelry!

44 minutes ago, foreverteachable said:

Holy smokes that is awesome! You sure inspire me! Now I'll have to bring my metal detector to the beach when I go fishing or better yet I'll have to bring my fishing rods when I go metal detecting LOL

Bring both....Catch dinner first, then detect for gold  Thanks, but it's Minelab that deserves the credit for these finds. Even my other Minelab machines never found this much gold.

1 hour ago, Mark Gillespie said:

I'm debating on whether I'm taking my Equinox or TDI Sl to the beach. 

Either way you won't fail. If the beach has very few targets, then I would probably go with the TDI, but if there is a lot of iron I would take the Nox.