Norm S

Yep that is a good number I hit 32"s three times today unfortunately they were all cans.. 

I have been able to separate the screw caps from pennies and dimes.. I had a dime today lying on top of a screw cap and the dime gave the stronger signal even though I was picking up the screw cap as well

Another beer can day. I hit 27 beer or soda cans in about 30 mins. I could usually tell with my TRX pin pointer because I would get solid beeps in all directions about 3" from center. They rang in mostly around 26 but some came in at 31 and 32. It was a really trashy park that was built after Katrina. I did pluck a few dimes out of there but it was slim pickens and I am beginning to learn the foot print of the cans by the Equinox pin point center. It will center the pin point sometimes in more than one spot up to 4" away from where I got my strongest signal.. I am still so green with this detector I am trying to read more into some of the signals that what's there. Still using park 1.

I do love how I can pick a good target out of multiple targets close by. 

I have found a days worth of production of soda cans and beer cans. I did learn from it and learned to tell that's what it was. When I went back to factory settings in Park 1 I never dug another can and the detector was silent until I hit a signal worth digging. I had an ATPro, Whites V3i, and I have an E-Trac and CTX. The Equinox has the best factory settings out of the box of any of them.

I am coming close to being convinced the Equinox is the best clad hog on the market. I have learned a lot from the 4-1/2 hours I have used it.  My ears are becoming alert to signals I should dig. What I am learning most of all is how to separate good signals amongst trash. I am finding if there is a good digable signal the tones are very clear when I sweep it. I have dug many iffy signals and my gut was right there was nothing there but I kept digging them to prove it to myself, 

Four hours is very long to learn much but already knowing the different tones to be listening for helps. I feel confident that by the end of April I will be pretty darn proficient. I surely am not trying to tweak the settings before I am confident that's what I like. I tried that on V3i and didn't find a thing more than I would have in presets. The most I am likely to do is adjust the threshold some and tones some. 

I had a 38 this morning and my heart was pounding and all i got was a rusty piece of metal commingled with some lead. 

It rained again this morning so went to lunch and casino after I was out for 1-1/2 hrs this morning. I will most likely hunt in the factory modes until I get used to the sounds and VDI's. This is the 1st detector that impressed me out of the box.

Even the E-Trac I wanted to trash until I had about 50 hours on it. 

All I did after I got the head phones working was turn the detector on and away I went.  I liked the way I could single out a coin it the middle of other signals a few inches apart. My confidence level is still low only having 2 hrs and 15 mins on it but the results are stellar. 

I swung the detector at about 2 seconds per swing left to right.  

It is well worth the all the complaining I did about the availability of the Equinox. 

I did $2. 87 in clad this morning in the 1st 45 mins and nothing after that. I am pretty confident I have hunted out the patch. 

The depth is more than I need. I was digging coins at 8"-10" and was beginning to wonder how deep it would go. I did dig quite a few cans at 10" or so and guessed they were cans when I dug them

I didn't post pics of the coins I got this morning. I am terrible at taking pics with my phone. I am not a phone guy and probably have only used it to call or text 3 times in the last month. 

Tomorrow I am going to another soccer field that has been hunted to death by me and others. The last two times I was only able to get about 60 cents each time. 

$4.30 in clad in 2 hrs and 15 minutes is pretty good especially since I was there last week with my E-Trac and only found $1.25  in 2 hours

I went out this morning to a hunted out sports field. I had hit this field hard with my E-Trac and even last week I was hunting there again with the E-Trac based on my theory that you never completely hunt a location out.

I knew rain was coming so I knew I didn't have much time. Actually being my 1st time using the Equinox more than 2 minutes I was a bit confused with the different sounds and some light chatter. I went out in Park #1 and never changed a thing. After about 5 mins I hit a good target in the 20's and not knowing the different ID's of coins I did know most numbers in the 20's were good to dig. 1st target was a clad dime. The pin pointer was spot on. Then I hit a tab posing as a nickel with a solid #13. Then I hit 3 quarters from #26 - #30. Finally I had a solid #13 and was skeptical after digging a tab but it was a nickel and the next target was a nickel. All together I found $1.43 in clad in 45 mins before the rain came. I also found a spent cartridge.  

All together I only dug 3 signals posing as a coin. One was a can at 8", one copper strap and one rusty piece of iron that was the size of a 1/2" nut but it wasn't a nut and couldn't determine what it was. 

I feel confident the Equinox will live up to the all the hype about it over the last 7 months. 

This attached pic is very poor because I rarely use the camera on my phone. 

Tomorrow I will either go back to the location I was today because I barely scratched it or a hunted out soccer field. The rest of today will be reading posts on the forum and the users manual

I am 73 yrs old and can swing an E-Trac for 2 - 3  hours with worrying about balance or weight. I surely am not worried about the Equinox. The 1st few days I swung by E-Trac it wore me out so I purchased a harness that lasted all of 10 minutes before I trash canned it. After 4 - 5 days with my E-Trac I never noticed it was heavy. I have only used the Equinox a cpl hours and all I noticed was I had to compensate for the balance somewhat but I am sure after 4 hours or so today I will get used to it being the way it is. At my age I keep things simple 

Rather than be on any list with Cabela's or a dealer. Do what many others have done and get online and send emails to every dealer in the USA. Not every dealer has a list and not every dealer even takes orders for something thy don't have.  

You will get 49 no I don't have any in stock and I will add you to my list etc. But you will get maybe one to three dealers that have one and will ship asap.

There are even some dealers that have lists as short as 5 people. 

I have been on many detecting forums and this is this best forum I have been on. Everyone on this forum is here to share info, ask questions or just plain learn from it. I don't recall reading anything negative other than the problems with the Equinox release and many including myself have been upset with their dealers due to no fault of the dealer because he can't ship what he don't have. 

Most posts on here tell stuff in layman's terms so everyone can understand it.

This is the most comprehensive Equinox forum on the internet in my eyes. 

I actually remember that Lucy show when it aired. I hated that show but we watched what mom & dad wanted to watch

This guy has one in stock

I found a dealer in Beaufort SC and he is very responsive and follows through on everything. Just a nice guy that I will do business with again

Exactly Chase, stay in your line until you find a better line. There are some lines as short as 3 people but most are more than 10 people. You have to contact every dealer in the USA to find the short lines and as of right now I only know of one Equinox 800 anyone has in stock or say they do. 

I will say this too, most of the dealers are really nice but I ran across a few not so nice. One dealer said he won't carry the Equinox because of battery issues and warranty. I told him he was confused and what he heard wasn't true. He called me an idiot that didn't know what I was talking about so I said you're right I am an ill informed idiot. 

Many dealers will put you on their list with no pre pay but there are others that promise if you pre pay you will your detector in their next shipment if you can believe that. 

I got this right from an employee of Minelab that wishes to remain anonymous. They made the statement of trying to have all pre orders filled by the end of March based on the pre orders they had before the release date but the orders coming in hasn't slowed down and in fact picking up. I thought I had an inside track with this person and he couldn't help me but did tell me where I could most likely find one,

They didn't anticipate the demand because of the Equinox being a detector that is so versatile with the multi IQ . In most releases a detector release is targeted for users that do specific kinds of detecting such as the Gold Monster and they know the geographic areas that are most likely to use them and when they launch they target those areas. With the Equinox filling every niche they made a global release and they are shipping every 7 -10 days throughout the world. If you have been told by your dealer that you won't receive one until sometime in April or early May it's because the worldwide demand hasn't slowed. 

For those of you wondering why Cabela's had them online and your dealer couldn't get them. Cabela's is a preferred partner with Minelab and along with Bass Pro Shops have stores all over the USA. They sell more detectors than anyone. Try and order one from Cabela's, you can't. In the past week Minelab even told them no back orders. 

Morris this place in Laredo Tx has one in stock, they take paypal. They have an office in laredo but I think the company is a mexican company

El Dorado Metal Detectors Inc

Just  a little common sense here. Why would Minelab ship detectors to people in the Northern snow covered states that in many cases won't even see grass until April and dealers in the south get one or two at a time. I go detecting everyday it don't rain and I know several guys down here that are patiently waiting with me being the loudest voice. I made one call and had one in 48 hrs but I had an inside track that not even a dealer can beat. The old it's who you know thing. I did wait until my dealer told me he only got two in the last shipment. In one call I could have had two for me.. I have never been one to use people I know to get an advantage but I did this time. 

In any company the key to success is communication and that goes for product roll outs. There would be very little talk on this site about delivery had Minelab said we shipped 1000 to the US last week and another 1000 shipping this week etc. 

Cablea's has Equinox 600 in stock

Ya I joke a lot but the frustration is real. Pre pay or not, 1st order in or not there seems to be no logic as to when someone ordered their detector. I am not talking about Cablea's either. 

I usually don't get caught up in hype but I somehow did this time. What I do know is the Equinox is not going to obsolete any detector. The people the benefit from it the most will be experienced in detecting. It may be a better option for plug and play but if you have no experience in detectors that won't help much. It's still gonna take 100 hours to learn it well enough to make you think you got your monies worth. 

Why does Norm want an Equinox. I want one for the challenge.  I am also down to one detector from 5. I need a backup and I need one so when my grandson visits. 

Well I know a lot of people are really complaining about their dealers not delivering. I know for a fact that some of the biggest dealers in the U.S. only got 1 or 2 800's in the last shipment. That don't say much for Minelab when we all know about the Cabela's thing. Twice I had an 800 in my cart at Cabela's. The 1st time in early February then about 10 days ago in the next shipment. I didn't ck out thinking my dealer would be getting a decent allotment and I would get mine soon.

Now I hear late next week for the next shipment and if I don't get a tracking # next week I am cancelling my order. I have joked around and stuff about it but if I don't get mine next week I will wait for Whites. You know they have several they have torn down are trying to emulate with just a touch better software and I would bet will be out by the end of the year. 

It was reported to me today by a postcard from my dealer mine is on it's way. Jose Filipe Ramirez is bringing it from Bolivia on his burro. Estimated arrival in at my house April 8th  by 5 pm. 

Ask your dealers all you want it isn't going to help, when he gets his allotment he will send to whom he wants. The dealers are human and if they have a friend of a friend they know about the friend of a friend will get theirs 1st. No one will ever know. So no matter what place you are on the list to make much difference. 

I don't expect mine for awhile and anyone that has one now will do nothing but brag about it. In 6 months to a year the real stories will come out. It's a metal detector with some new technology but still a metal detector. I can't see a CTX owner putting the CTX on the shelf in lieu of the Equinox. The CTX cost almost 3 times more. My gut feeling is if your willing to pay a little more for a 1st class just above an entry level detector there is not another one on the market that comes close.. The beauty of the Equinox is simplicity for novice users. 

I read about so many people trying to dissect the Equinox like it is heart surgery. For me it's plug and play and swing and learn it. It's in the sounds and how you learn them is how successful you will be

I am happy for you. There are lots of good dealers that sell detectors and most are guys that just love the sport. I have never dealt with a smaller dealer that did me wrong. I even bought a detector from Steve's old company about 7 yrs ago. The guy that waited in me knew detectors and actually talked me out of a detector he had in stock and ordered one for me and sent it to my home. 

I bought gold pans etc while in Alaska from AKMining. One of the employees there knew metal detectors well and talked me out of getting a detector they in in stock and told me I would be better off with one they didn't have in stock and I actually bought it from them and shipped it to my home in IL at the time

I think Minelab pretty much led everyone to believe that when they said they were starting to ship that there would be a steady flow of detectors and within a cpl of weeks all pre orders would be filled. No one expected 1 or 2 here and there.. Then Cablea's pops up with them for sale online. That got to everyone. Some people had prepaid months in advance and boom Cablea's get some and they didn't. In my eyes anyone that prepaid should got theirs 1st no matter when they ordered..