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DukeBoxer

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  1. That ankh isn't silver? Great finds by the way! I can't wait to try one out!
  2. Phrunt, nice gold! I don't think I saw that picture before, maybe it just didn't load. I have high hopes for the Equinox down there to find me a couple little guys like that and that picture proves yet again it can do it! I went one day with my father-in-law and we were panning in a river, rio chiquito, above where an old mine was and I got down to black sand but there was no gold. I had never panned before but I watched some videos and thought I'd try it out. We took an old aluminum pot that was shaped like a gold pan from my mother-in-law and used that. I do swear though that at one point I had the pot full of rocks and sand and I saw a piece of quartz with a little bit of gold in it...right as it was falling out of the pan and back into the river and then it was gone. Whitbey, I've heard only great things about Osa. My wife went there on a school trip, she studied eco-tourism. The closest I've been to there is Golfito but it's on my list of places to go when we're settled in. I was talking to her the other day and told her I wanted to get the equinox to bring down there to use on the beaches and rivers for jewelry hunting and she rolled her eyes at me. Then I asked her to tell me how many people she's ever seen there detecting, her answer was no one. I haven't checked to see about a Minelab dealer there and that might be a problem so I'll get on that right away!! Lunk, I've stumbled across his videos and I've liked what I saw. I'll get to watching more now that you reminded me! Thanks everyone
  3. I just wanted to see how people are swinging it, the tones they are hearing, what they are digging, why they decide to dig the target. To be honest most videos are kind of lacking to me personally. I mean I love seeing finds but show the swinging before the find, let us hear the tone and mention what it is about that tone that makes you want to dig it. I don't make videos, and I don't think I will, so excuse the criticism but I do think things could be done better. Like field videos should have the swing, the hit, the tone, the dig. Not just a hole at each take and something coming out of it. Be a little more informative. The air tests and the nail tests should be done with an approaching swing as if you were in the field, not just swinging right over the target and doing short little back and fourths. That would make it more believable that you can hit something in that scenario in the field with your wide swings. Lunk, I've seen both of those videos and I liked the first one best. Thank you though!
  4. Thanks Steve, I thought this much but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something! I'll keep my eyes open
  5. Well I called Gerry this morning, got the voicemail/answering machine so I just hung up thinking I'd call back at a later time. I work as a cook/chef (not professionally trained so I avoid the chef word out of respect) and I was starting to get busy. I was starting to email everyone on Minelab's list when a the phone rang. Well guess who it was? Gerry was returning my call, not because I left a message but just because he saw I called! I talked to him for a little bit, told him I wanted the Equinox 800, why I wanted it and he let me know that he has a very reasonable waiting list and asked if I wanted to get on it. I said of course I did! He took my name and contact information and told me he'd be letting me know something very soon. It's been said before and I'll say it again, Gerry is a stand up guy! I've never dealt with him before, he could walk right past me on the street and not know who I was and yet he took care of me like someone he has been doing business with for years! Thanks again Gerry and thank you to everyone on here that recommended him, for this machine and for anything else!
  6. I'm moving to Costa Rica soon and I want to bring an Equinox 800 with me to detect down there. I've been all over the place on what detector I want to bring and I decided on the Equinox 800 since it covers all the areas I'd like to use it. The hundreds of beaches on the coast because it's silent in wet salt and waterproof, little swimming holes and rivers because it's waterproof, in fields just to see what I can dig up and also on and around old mining grounds to check the spoils piles and see if anything was left behind. This is the reason I would like to see videos on gold detecting with the Equinox since I've watched videos about almost everything else, park, beach, and field. If anyone could point me to some it would be awesome! I was hoping to see some videos from people in australia but I can't really find anything. Maybe I'm not searching correctly I have an AT Pro which I will probably give to my cousin and detecting partner when I leave because I have started using the Tesoro Mojave and the Compadre and I have really jived with it. I will bring those two down with me also but since they aren't waterproof I think the Equinox would suit me well. Just a little background, my wife is from there and we've been slowly building a house down there for probably the last 10 years. It's done now and her and my 2 girls are living there and just waiting for me to get my butt down there. We live in the northeast province of Guanacaste near the town of Tilaran. Around there, there have been mines near Rio Chiquito and Abangares and there is a place called Campos de Oro, or Gold Fields near these mines. I'd like to take the equinox to rivers and try to do a little detecting and panning for gold in those areas. Thanks!
  7. I'm looking to buy an 800 before I move to Costa Rica, hopefully sometime in the next couple months, so I took Steve's advice and started calling some people around me in the northeast. I was met with a lot of answers of people just basically tired of receiving calls asking about it. One guy even said he doesn't expect to have any extras until September. But that's how we are up here so I guess I should've called other areas of the country ha! I am on a list with Colonial Metal Detectors but his is just an email list and when he gets some, he sends out an email and people need to go to the site to order so if I'm not on top on my email I lose out. I'm going to call around today to see if I can find one somewhere else. I'll call Gerry in a little bit but I was kind of put off from calling and asking with the answers I got the other day.
  8. Phoenician, not Templar...Phoenician! Haha My top of list item is an 8 real coin or some gold. I've never found either.
  9. I was trying with a dime and not getting it to do the double beep but I may have been a little above iron. I'll check again with lower disc. Yesterday I dug everything that beeped in the playground and rolled the disc up and back down to try and guess what was under the coil. Most of the time I was right about something being garbage or a good target by listening how the sound came back in after getting disc'ed out but one thing did catch me off guard. I dug a target that disc'ed out right above iron and came back in solid and I thought it was just a nail or something but when i dug it, it was a little junk earring. Everyone that has one says the same thing, it's amazing on the playgrounds and hits just as hard on the tiniest pieces of metal.
  10. TabZilla, I watched all your videos about the mods you did, I especially like the waterproofing idea! Luckily I work somewhere where there are many many engineers and I have already talked to a couple about helping add the ground balance and sensitivity potentiometers. I just wish I could find a detailed how to with parts used and solder points and all that info. I'm sure these guys could figure it out easily but I like to be thorough and know exactly what needs to be done. Steve, I hate reading someones problem and then at the end it says "Ok I fixed it" with no explanation. That defeats the purpose, I think, of having an informational forum. Anyway I've been out a couple of times with it and this thing is a coin shooters dream! I had it on max disc and was swinging pretty fast on a little slope at a park and every single repeatable, full tone hit I got was a coin! The obly thing now that I can't seem to get to work is the double beep next to metal posts. I think that might have something to do with the sensitivity and that I turned it up pretty high but I'll explore that more if and when I do the mods. Otherwise this thing is absolutely amazing and it was a steal!
  11. Ok, I fixed it. Here's my solution just in case anyone else is having thins problem. From the video above you see that the detector is in "Max Disc" and is still hitting on the rock that I assume is basalt and is high in iron. I took off the face plate and adjusted two screws, the ground balance and the sensitivity. See this photo (found on the internet)...First I turned on the detector and set it to "IRON" and adjusted the "Ground Balance" screw CLOCKWISE until the rock no longer gave a signal, it was a very minimal adjustment. Then I took out coins and started testing them. I have some Costa Rican coins and passed those and they all gave a beep (They are bronze and aluminum coins) then I took out a large cent, a silver Roosevelt dime, a silver Washington quarter, my silver chain with solid silver pendants and a generic .999 silver 1 ounce round. The reason for the .999 round comes in to play later and I did this after reading "Monte's Power Balancing" and his story of a detector not hitting solidly on a walker half. The large cent hit perfectly, nice loud tone to about 5-6 inches. The silver dime hit good at about 4 inches. The quarter wasn't hitting great until it was about 3-4 inches from the coil which seemed weird and the .999 1 ounce round was only hitting very close to the coil.I then adjusted the "Sensitivity" screw COUNTER CLOCKWISE, turning the sensitivity up high until it started beeping erratically, then i adjusted it back CLOCKWISE (lowering) until it was silent again. After this adjustment I then went back to the ground balance screw (trimmer I guess is the correct word) and adjusted it COUNTER CLOCKWISE until the rock in question was giving a signal. From there I again adjusted CLOCKWISE until the rock wasn't giving a signal and tested all the coins again. Now the silvers are hitting perfectly as they should, along with the Costa Rican coins and my silver chain. This is my solution for my problem, it might not be everyone's solution but it did work for me. I wasn't able to find a clear problem/solution online but instead pieced together from many sources what might work and it did. The only thing that is different now is when I adjust the Disc from zinc to max it gives a little beep but so far it doesn't seem like a problem.
  12. Steve, thank you again for your reply. For now I'll use it on playgrounds and try it out other places here and there and see what the results are. I've called Tesoro and was told that I could send it in, with the rock, and they could tune it for me. It's an option but for now I know it works well on the playgrounds so it'll be a dedicated detector.
  13. Thank you for your reply Steve! Someone else said to send it in to get serviced. I think I might hold off for now and just use it purely in the playgrounds/tot lots and see how it goes, if it becomes a problem then I'll go that route. I do like it even though I'm used to the AT Pro but I'm determined to learn this one. When you say reduce the gain, how would I go about doing that? Would I have to open it up and fool around with one of the potentiometer screw thingies it has on the board? I'd have to get a good video or written instructions if I do end up going that route. I wouldn't want to screw anything up. I made a video I'll link here so you can see whats going on. I also broke the rock open and showed the inside just in case I'm wrong with the type. I don't have the AT Pro with me to show how it doesn't hit on it but you can take my word. Thanks again for everything! https://photos.app.goo.gl/zpbHRl4dijokFvby1
  14. Today I picked up a Compadre at a great price to try out since I've read so many good things about Tesoros. I brought it home and played around with it a little in the yard. I think I've cleaned out my yard of good targets so I was just listening to the tone. Then walked into the garden against the house. I got a hit where I've been over multiple times before with an AT Pro and I bent down to check it out since it sounded like it was right on top. I moved a rock out of the way and probed around with the pinpointer and nothing. So I scanned the spot again and there was no beep and then I started scanning around thinking I moved whatever it was when I brushed away some dirt. Come to find out it was the rock itself that was making the detector beep. Here's the weird part...I had rolled the disc all the way up to max and it still beeped. I bent down and put the pinpointer against the rock and nothing. I went inside and grabbed my AT Pro and scanned the rock and again nothing. I thought it was weird and walked away. Then a little later I went to a park in my home town and was checking the playground with the mulch/woodchips. I found a dime and a zinc penny, both gave good repeatable tones and I had the disc set to the "N" in iron. Then I walked out of the playground and started checking around the edge in the normal dirt and was getting beeps all over the place. I turned disc up to max and again was getting beeps from rocks of the same type. These rocks are ignored by the AT Pro, the Garrett Pro Pointer AT and a Whites CoinMaster Pro that I had before I'm pretty sure these rocks are called basalt, they are brown on the outside and if you crack them open they are pretty solid and uniform and a blueish gray color in the center and a lighter ring around the outside. I'm also pretty sure they are high in iron and of volcanic origin (I learned about them years ago in grade school). I can upload a picture and a video of the Compadre hitting on them if anyone wants. I guess my question is for people using this machine, how do you deal with these type of rocks, do you learn the subtle nuances of the beep given off by these rocks compared to say a coin or junk or do you just try not to hunt in areas where they are concentrated? I honestly bought the machine to try and learn it and probably use it in playgrounds and tight junky areas. I don't see myself using it in fields or anywhere wide open since it has the 5.75" coil on it.
  15. Hopefully this reply is super duper top secret early tester code for we should be hearing something soon! Great finds by the way! I'm super excited to hear anything new about this detector!
  16. No one has replied to this so I will... Would you say that since that this article is coming out in 3 days that we can expect more information direct from Minelab at that time also? I would guess they would time it that way but I don't know squat. Just interested in more info about this detector.
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