Compass

21 hours ago, Joe D. said:

Hello again Compass,

   I ment to ask you; is that canoe in the picture your handiwork? Those are some "Mad" skills! 

(I think i used that term correctly?!)👍👍

Thanks Joe, Yes, it is something I've been wanting to build for a while and the "stay-at-home" period seemed like a good time to start. I have some remote locations I want to detect and a boat will make it easier to get there.

Welcome Captain! New here myself. I think that it's cool that you were 13 when you first started. I started when I was young too. Welcome also to the Equinox club- I think that it is a great multi-purpose detector. 

4 hours ago, BeachHunter said:

Welcome back George. See you at the beach. Good luck!

Thanks BeachHunter, I'll keep an eye open for that VW. I learned to drive a stick in one of those. 😉

I love all gold but old gold is special- congrats OBN!

15 minutes ago, Joe D. said:

Welcome back George,

 Glad to have you experience here! I actually found your "first" post a few minutes ago! Keep up the info and finds!👍👍  

Thanks Joe, Wow, I just looked at that first post too and it was right before I got the Equinox. Exciting times- just like now!

8 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Holy cow that’s a lot of targets dug in one hunt and some GREAT finds! Unusual using the 6” coil, but hey whatever works! CONGRATS

Thank you Aaron, A lot of my hunts are all day affairs such as this one was so the targets do add up. At this particular lake the water is very murky and the bottom can be sandy, muddy, rocky or dense clay. Since the digging can be brutal, pinpointing is especially important and I pinpoint better with the small coil. It's a lot easier to push around in the water too!

29 minutes ago, 2Valen said:

Welcome aboard and don't be afraid to ask questions and go through the posts.

 

Thank you 2Valen! Lots of good information here.

48 minutes ago, KOB said:

Hey KOB, I think I got here a couple minutes before you so...Welcome to the Detectorprospector Forum!

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Very nice, I love seeing neat stuff like pendants or charms... something to break up the rings!  A testament to your detecting skills also.

Interesting you are using Gold Mode. That and a 6” coil are my staples for nugget detecting, but I’ve not really given Gold Mode a fair try for other types of detecting.

Thanks Steve, Yes, I can't use the gold mode near salt water but really like it for freshwater lakes. I think the reasons I like gold mode are:

1. The responses are more like the pulse detectors I'm accustomed to.

2. Seems to hit "harder" on targets  which helps with my partial hearing loss.

3. It seems, to my ear, to be the deepest of the 4 modes.

2 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Looks good Compass! Love the Gold Cross!

Thanks OBN, I was pretty happy to find it but disappointed that the bottom is damaged from what I'm sure are teeth marks. The damage was made worse because the cross is hollow.

Last week I took the Equinox 800 and 6" coil to a favorite lake of mine. There were quite a few people in the water but I think most of what I found were not recent drops judging from the tarnished coins and the fact that that lake was closed the past couple of months due to the pandemic. I found my 3rd and 4th gold medallions of the year (all from the same lake) but could not find the gold chains that I'm sure were lost with them. I plan on going back soon and will spend some time trying to find those chains.

I really like the 6" coil. It helps with pinpointing, has good depth for its size and hits the smaller gold targets. The small 10 K gold ring is so thin that it doesn't even register on my scale. The 14 K crucifix and 14 K medal are 3.1 grams and 1 gram in weight. I probably dug more trash than I needed to but I'm still digging most everything until I get a better handle on the TID numbers.

Oh, I suppose that I should mention that I hunted mostly in the "gold 2" mode. It is super "chatty" in that mode but hits harder on targets than the other modes.

Even though I registered a couple of years ago I really haven't spent much time here. While looking for more information on the new Fisher Impulse AQ I found this site to be a great resource so I've been spending more time here lately. I've already seen a few other names that I recognize from another forum that I frequent so it looks like others have the same idea. 

Anyway, my name is George and my first detector was a Goldak back in 1970. I found a lot with it but, wow, was that thing primitive compared to the detectors of today! It had a pressed wood coil bottom, fixed shaft and hard black plastic headphones that I think were from the Army Surplus. More than a dozen metal detectors later I am recently retired and have more time to do what I like to do most and that is finding lost jewelry, usually, in the shallow freshwater or on the wet sand and surf of the southern California beaches. 

In the lakes my detector of choice is the Equinox 800 with the 6" coil which I find great for smaller gold. It also helps with pinpointing in murky water. Before the Nox I used the Fisher Aquanaut quite a bit in fresh water.

At the beach I went from swinging the Pro PI to the Dual Field to the BeachHunter, which I currently use. I'm hoping that the Fisher Impulse AQ will be my next detector as I have been very impressed with what I have read about it, so far.

Even though I've been in the hobby a while there are 2 things that stand out to me:

1. I learn something new almost every time I go out detecting.

2. Finding gold never gets old!

Thanks Goldskulldiver,  I used to think that the Dual Field had a somewhat stable, noise-free threshold. It is pretty stable but compared with the threshold of the Beachhunter it is a bit noisy which probably prevented me from hearing some weaker signals.

I read this article a couple of times and it really helped my understanding of the effects of salt water on detector performance- thanks! It also made me think about all the targets that I've missed over the years when the Dual Field with its 15us pulse delay was my primary beach detector. 😞

Thanks Mn90403, You got me there- I wasn't thinking about pulse detectors used primarily for prospecting. I think I've only seen one of those on my local beaches. Sounds like it is still challenging even with them.

Informative report and enjoyable read- thanks for doing this and good luck today.

Thanks for the quick response OBN. 7 grams is not a bad sized chain- I don't know if any other pulse machine could detect a gold chain that size. 

OBN or Steve, Love these first reports- thanks! When possible could you please do a test with gold chains? I am thinking that the AQ with its 7us pulse delay should detect gold chains- at least larger ones. I don't believe that most PI detectors will "see" gold chains (my Dual Field with its 15us wouldn't). The Beachhunter with its 10us does detect larger gold chains. 

That is one beautiful ring- congrats! Been seeing some impressive finds with the Equinox so far. Tomorrow is my first hunt with one and I hope I can follow suit! 

I'll be trying the gold mode at the beach next weekend as I get my 800 this Tuesday. My guess is that it may be "chattery" but, hopefully, will add a little more depth over beach mode.

What a great article- thank you! A lot of this confirms what I was already starting to suspect about the pros and cons of the different Minelabs (I have an Excal). It also makes me feel even better about my Equinox 800 purchase (arrives Tuesday). I too am more interested in the low conductors and also see the Equinox as complimenting my other detectors depending on the the conditions and locations.