schoolofhardNox

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!

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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

I have the pleasure of sporting the worst cold I have ever had. I should be doing battlefield metal detecting, but for the past 5 days I am just enjoying this cold.? So, not feeling like doing any real work or going anywhere, I decided since my beach hunts are over until fall, I would gather up and count and post all my finds for the whole season…. A season wrap up, if you will. Since I couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to do everything in one post I figured I would at least post the good stuff. So here it is – the Gold and Silver finds from last Labor Day thru this Memorial Day. I managed 36 beach trips, not sure how many hours but probably about 250 hours of detecting. The breakdown goes like this: Gold total – 36 pcs, at an average of 1 pc per visit. Silver total (coins and other) – 207 pcs, at an average of 5.75pcs per hunt. The breakdown for silver is: 146 coins consisting of 6 Half Dollars, 27 Quarters, 98 dimes, 15 War Nickels. The other items (rings, chains, earrings, pendants, odd broken pieces etc.… - amounted to 61 pcs. Coming later “someday” will be the clad count, and a breakdown of the junk items to show the ratio of good to bad that comes with the territory. It was a great season for me and I look forward to shifting gears and doing the battlefield hunting and maybe some cellar hole hunting if I get a chance. And since I have neglected my other hobbies, maybe doing some of those until Labor Day. Most of the gold was found because of the Equinox, probably 75-80% of it. Most of the silver was found with the GPX (at depth) probably 90% of it. Not a great comparison since I have found most of that gold in 8 visits and the silver was found with about 28 visits and I was specifically looking for deep silver, so I did not use the Equinox for that, mainly due to the fact that it was busy finding gold Seriously, I was too inexperienced to get that kind of depth out of the Equinox, as most of that silver was in the 14" deep range, basically sitting on a clay layer with the sand above it containing small wisps of very fine black sand. But that combination worked well for me and I'll probably stick with it for a while.

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

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.

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.

Thanks Dean. It's been a unbelievable end to my season, since I bought that Equinox. Hopefully I can sneak in one more hunt. I guess home "to do" list can wait one more time Thanks Steve, I have to check the numbers of that heart on the machine again. It looks and feels like gold, but I'm worried it may be a recent drop. If it reads low than it's probably gold. Under 10 and I'll consider it possibly gold. Over 10 and it's probably plated brass.

Possibly my last beach hunt until fall. They don't allow detecting while the public is using the beach, once they open for the season. Today I tried 2 beaches, but quickly left the first one to go back to a more reliable one. It was a good move. The gold streak continues with 2 (possibly 3) gold items. I found some nice silver too, including a beefy .925 Academy ring. Great day to be out detecting and I finally found my first gold chain with the Equinox!

Great hunt! The Equinox loves gold. It's amazing!

Nuke em, When I tried the 40Khz next to the train I was able to keep a decent sensitivity. Higher than if I kept multi frequency. I would have had to drop it down to 15 or less! in multi. Try 20 KHz or 40 KHz at about 20 sensitivity and let me know how it does. Hope you can find a solution, because sounds like you have some spots most people can not detect with great accuracy! As for the headphones cutting out, make sure your 800's volume is set to full . That way you can turn down your headphones, which may make it behave better.

Yep, I used 40Khz the other day when I had to detect next to a train. Multi was not going to work anywhere near this train. 40 worked rather well. Like Steve said try 20 and also try 40.

Good luck getting them away from my wife. The down sides of being married, your gold rings are history even before you get home

Thanks martygene. I've found 25 pieces of gold in 7 hunts with the 800. I may have just paid off the machine already strick, I think the 2 rings with stones read 09, or close to it. Not sure on the nugget ring but it should be close to that also Chase, you may be surprised. These beaches were kind of stingy before I used the 800. They did give up some rings with the CTX and GPX, but not like this!!

Thanks Matt. I love this machine. Thanks Cal, I usually don't sell any of my finds. I did recently sell some early dog tax tags to someone who collects them. Thanks Dean. I'm shooting for 8 in a row next week. Beach days are ending here soon, as the season opens up to the public. Thanks Terry. I swear this machine makes gold out of thin air Thanks Jack. Never had a machine this good on gold.

Well today was beach hunt #7 with the Equinox. There wasn’t a lot of detecting room, with the way the tide was today. Also, a lot of people walking and laying out on the beach. It’s getting crowded out there. I was hoping to keep the streak alive today and I didn’t have to wait very long. First good target was the pink stone 14 K Gold ring. I almost didn’t believe it. That made the rest of the hunt less stressful and more enjoyable, as the gold streak would continue. But I didn’t expect to get too much more, but the finds kept coming. All the time I just kept shaking my head, I can’t believe what Minelab has done!!! 4 gold rings, some silver and a small amount of clad. The broken class ring was found in 2 separate holes about 60 ft apart. The breaking points match up perfectly…they were part of the same ring. The tiny targets were out in full force, as well as the pull tabs too. A small price to pay for the good finds that can come with it. Probably the smallest chain this machine can pick up. Had a hard time locating it once it was out of the hole. I was glad to get out today… a picture-perfect weather day!

Don't get too caught up in the numbers. Look for solid (2 axis) repeatable hits. They should sound good. Then look at the numbers. Iron will be very hard at first to not dig. It will sound good one way but will not the other direction (90 degrees). Except for large iron and flat stock, they usually sound pretty good. Don't crank the sensitivity either. Go fairly slow, but not too slow. I do a 2 second swing in one direction. But most important - have fun!

Beauty of a dime Especially an New Orleans mint!

It looks like a newer rosette. The back bar was bent causing it to break away from the attachment point

Yep, me too. If you move quickly it goes very, very quiet, almost like it has the volume turned down to 1. But if you initiate the pinpoint and stay still for a second or 2 the full volume come on. Now if I can just remember to do that I will be fine

Thanks Terry. The 585 ring is modern and looks like it was laser engraved with the style #, manufacturer and 585. I'm always leery of modern rings being cheap China fakes I also had a ring on a previous hunt which I thought was too tarnished and actually rang up high on the CTX (12-31), so I thought it was fake. I tried that ring and the 14K FG ring (reads 12-19 on the CTX) on a stone and old acid test kit I had kicking around. The FG ring did not dissolve in the acid even up to 22K. The other ring did dissolve in the 18K and 22k, but not the 14K, so that one is real. Here are both rings. Thanks for the help on them.

Had a chance to do a beach that was not very productive last fall. I did not want to keep hitting the same beaches, as I would have to move on sooner or later, so I tried this beach out. I wanted to see if the 800 would get anything. This beach was heavily sanded in and only the light targets were shallow. The good stuff was deep. I knew it was going to be tough finding any gold so I decided to hit the beach early and stay late. 11 hours and I was able to get a partial gold (9k?) high school ring, and probably a 14K white gold ring (says 585). The other ring is 14K FG and is not gold. Two .925 rings add to the better finds. Rest is clad and junk. The Equinox made the hunt on one charge but was down to its last bar. I don't think it would have lasted much longer. Next week's hunt will have very bad tidal coefficient (between +0.5 and +0.7) on the beaches I hunt. Not a low enough tide to get the areas I like to hunt. We shall see what the 800 does that week. I still amazed this machine has kept me in the gold streak for this long.

Nice hunt! I'm guessing the 18GP =18 the silver/Amethyst =16 and the small thin ring = 8. How did I do ?

Coming off of the CTX, 17" coil, and the GPX, 12.5", 12x15", 17x21"coils, The Equinox is a breeze 9 hour hunts and no issues so far. Haven't had any issues with it being nose heavy, but that is probably because I'm comparing it to that 17x21" snowshoe coil.

Thanks! Clad coins do not hold up in certain areas of the beach...maybe if I tumble them they will look better