Vez

Cool you got a mention!  I have been friends with Mike ever since he sold me my first Minelab in 2012!  Good, knowledgeable, and helpful guy.  

I can see where both you and Steve are coming from.  I was just talking to a friend about how Minelab is probably making more on the sales of them because there does not appear to be any easy way to use the military discount on Cabela's website.  

I have the Garrett carrot and think it does a great job.  Worked well wading and detecting in fresh water.  My next purchase is going to be the "Land or Sea" pointer as I have great interest in snorkeling and scuba.  That pointer is PI behaves SIMILARLY to the Garrett and is water resistant up to 30 feet.  Good luck with your purchase!  

That's my dealer!   Keith is a swell guy.  I think I am 67 on his list, hope to get one before a trip to see a friend down in FL.  

4 minutes ago, Woteva said:

My Sovereign GT is getting tired, (maybe it's me?) so I decided it was time to update and join the digital age

Was considering an Xterra 705 back in Sept when I got wind of the Equinox , supposedly coming out soon.  

Soon has been a little longer than anticipated, but hopefully its only a few weeks away now.

Heck yeah man, what a way to break in.  If you have been swinging a GT for as long as it has been out, what is a couple more months??!?!?  Good luck and HH!!

I am swinging something that came out some number of years ago and it is light enough that when my son wants to come he can use it!

4 minutes ago, Dave.H said:

Hi there Vez,

here in the U.K., I experience some difficult ground i.e. Searching a Roman site for example, 

I totally agree with you using the factory's stock settings, ( until a least we become familiar with the Equinox),,,as you can see I'm only diverting slightly from the stock settings!

Dave.

It actually looks spot on to field 1!  I would mess with that one rather than get rid of the 50 tone in field two.  I cant wait to try out 50 tone.  But I am just concerned with the auto ground balance as the manual has warned that it can slow down machine performance.  I wont be able to bounce setting ideas off of you for some time as I am number 62 on the waiting list with my dealer.  Cant wait to see what works for you!

Is the ground very mineralized?  I have not had to use the ground balance feature on my 3030 in Ohio, Maine, or FL hunts.  I would try a full on hunt with just stock field settings before messing about with the detector.  I think deviating too far from stock settings can create unwanted frustration.  I cant wait to see what you pull out of the ground!

Spending time at Steve's website peaked an interest I hadn't had previously.  I want to find a nugget with a detector!  I am on the waiting list for the ML EQ 800 and have seen the small nuggets are that the detector is capable of finding! 

The questions:

I live in in Northeast Ohio, I have seen videos picking up dust high-banking.  Will I find nuggets here? 

If not and I want to be a casual (once in a couple years) prospector and travel abroad should I join a club?

As you can probably tell I am not too terribly serious about it, but it would be something fun to do with my children from time to time.  Hopefully by the time I die I have a small collection to pass on to them to visualize the time we spent together!

Thanks for your time!

From reading all this and letting it digest, it sounds like I would personally want it on the lower end.  I do not get upset when the iffy is an 8" deep square nail or iron bearing.  In parks this is especially true.  Good read yall thank you for that!

2 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Hi Vez,

No, I set one up but never went live with it. If I were to do videos they would be educational in nature, but I don't know that I will ever get around to it. Shooting video, editing it, etc. takes a lot of time and if I was to get serious about it I have fairly high production standards I would want to achieve. Do it right or do not do it at all sort of thing for me. I did get a GoPro however and I will start shooting video more often when out and about, in hopes that I may make something of it in the future. Don't hold your breath however. Right now if I have excess time, it goes into this website and forum.

You and I are like minded.  I have an old Kodak sport video camera and have shot hours of 720p60 live digs and finds and CRH footage.  I just couldnt do the editing portion!  I didn't want to put a half-fasst product!  Thanks for the response :)

I am not a fan of this vs that videos personally.  I like to just watch people doing recoveries with a particular machine of interest.  Steve, do you have a youtube channel?  I looked in your profile and did not see a URL.

12 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It is simply a default that was deemed a good idea for the Gold Mode and not the other modes, but easily engaged at the touch of a button. However, many detectors can have issues with employing ground tracking on saltwater beaches or alkali ground. The salt range and gold range overlap, and aggressive tracking in a salt environment might tune out small gold. I always use manual myself in a salt or alkali environment. Even in prospect mode I usually turn tracking off unless I need it to help me in really bad variable ground.

Defaults and presets are just best guesses. You can’t possibly come up with one group of settings that works for everyone. If you could, we would not need settings! 

Wow prospecting sounds way complicated compared to my parks and fields!  Do you do lessons for folks that are ever out your way?!

I think it is neat that they tell you the anticipated latency with each type of wireless in the manual.  17ms with the WM08, 40ms with ML80, and 100ms with bluetooth.  What really got my attention is I can have 4 WM08 modules connected!  So for those that make videos they can have audio shared with the camera and keep headphones in.  For me I am thinking about buying a second so that I can do 1 on 1 instructional sessions.  How neat are the possibilities with this?!?

4 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Definitely not at this time at least. You never know what the future may bring but right now Equinox does not interface with XChange2 at all. You cannot save settings outside the machine and you cannot adjust it via any external methods.

I do hope that will change :)  Thanks for letting me know.  Did you try connecting it for sh-giggles to your pc?

Welcome the hobby!  Couple of tips that were given to me when I first started:

Know the laws where you are in regards to metal detecting.  Some places require a permit or it is outright forbidden.

Know how to cut a nice horseshoe plug in the park or in someones yard.  You don't want to look like you were ever there.  Cutting a plug during very dry times will kill the sod.  Use  small digger to do this, I have had the cops called on me in a park where it is allowed when I used a small shovel rather than my lesche.  Perception is important.

Knock on doors and ask for permission!  It can be awkward but my bust hunts have been on a permission.  If they tell you know take your lumps and move on with a smile.  The owner sometimes changes and if you think it is a really good spot after all your research just keep an eye on it from time to time.

Again welcome to the hobby and happy hunting!

P.S. If anyone has some simple starter tips I forgot add them in!  We are all ambassadors to the hobby and want to make sure every encounter within our control is positive!

Right, as it says in the manual it will be used to deliver firmware updates...  What I am asking is if the "adjustable and Save-able settings" can be adjusted and saved with xchange2 :D  Thanks!

I poured over the manual and the only mention I saw of using the software was to update the detector.  Is there any word on being able to use this to make programs to put directly into the machine?  I had more success designing and installing them onto the 3030 this way.  Thank you for ya'lls time!

2 hours ago, Mountain Mike said:

I would be interested in the combination of settings that would mimic the sounds of the etrac or ctx. After years of learning the etrac and ctx language I think it would speed up my learning if I could make the EQ similar. Multi conduct tones.

There is still the ability to use the 3030 way of doing things with 4 tones in the upper part of the screen and an iron tone across the bottom.  This is appears to be the same idea but in 50 tone instead.  It will not be necessary to adjust tone pitch here and I am willing to bet after a season I will be able to hear the difference between an old wheat and a new wheat!  I would warn against trying to modify a bunch of settings to make it like your 3030 at the outset.  I made that mistake on my 3030 trying to get it to mimic the settings on my Etrac.  I cant wait to see how awesome you do with it Mountain Mike!

Yes! How i hunt in 4 tone in the 3030 is now 50 tone!!!!  That'll be neat!

4 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

And so it begins.... or does it 

Looking forward to using the EQ, and reading how everyone gets along with it 

I am too, I bet a lot of people pull it out of the box start futzing with settings and get frustrated.  I did that with my CTX trying to set it up just like my Etrac.  Got so mad LOL.  Then I set it back to stock coin started learning it THEN I modified it and have been using the same program for almost 4 years now, just changing separation depending on the place I am hunting!  I bet people that play with it in stock settings and modes for a while will get along with it better!!

If you are not in a terrible rush I would go with the 800.  It will be a great coin machine and have good saltwater gold capability if you go beach hunting.  The 3030 does good with gold in saltwater as well, but I doubt it is finding nuggets as small as what I am seeing in 800 pictures.  Minelab has always produced top notch coin shooters.

Minelab is having a sale for military folks for 15% off, if you have DD214 or active duty ID, but the line to get an 800 is looooong.  I signed up for one today after finding out that the Equinox had a feature that I have enjoyed as far back as the Explorer.  I am number 60 in line with the dealer I chose to do business with.

Yes the map is way cool, but it seems like the community has dubbed that option moot.  Alternatively one could use a phone or GPS to do geo cache. 

Cant wait to hear what you go with and how much fun you have!  Maybe get your gold machine first while waiting for the 800!!!!

Wow top three are pretty clos!

I have had both the Etrac and the 3030 and they are both great machines, but the 5 tone mode where you have 4 tones for conductivity and 1 tone for high Fe content has mad a huge difference in how I find coins and relics in parks.  I hunt with a wide open screen on the 3030 and I had to discriminate with the Etrac.  There is a huge cost difference in them, but in the last 4 years of 3030 ownership I have seen the value.  I like being able to go snorkeling with it and the ability to map your hunts and mark where you found a keeper has been valuable to me too.

As for the different sized coils they allow you to go deeper on smaller targets with a bigger coil, or get better desperation of targets with a smaller coil.  The minelabs use a DD coil that basically send out a D shaped blade of RF into the ground and when you change the size of the coil you change the size of the "blade" being broadcast from your coil.  If you are in a trashy area, too many targets can get under the big coil and it will be like driving at night in the fog with your high beams on, so you can go with a smaller coil to avoid this.  The smaller comes at the cost of depth and ground cover.  Ground cover is important because you need to overlap your swings so you dont miss targets.  I am guilty of getting sloppy and not overlapping well and my son or hunting buddy will find something I missed.  It wasnt the machines fault, because I go and swing over it and the machine rings out.

Good luck with your new machine and happy hunting!!!!

4 years of tracking targets at a local farm, all relics, buttons, or coins: