maxxkatt

It does not happen often, but it does happen. I wrote a small booklet on the 1715 Spanish Treasure coast wreck including the GPS location of the wrecks and the corresponding on beach locations and places to park. But as you can see you have to wait for the right conditions to hunt the treasure coast.

Great find!

No you don't. Think Simplex+ and Vanquish 540. I have had the Equinox 800 since March of 2018. If you are a newbie or never used a Minelab detector hold on to your hat, you are in for a wild learning curve ride. If you truly don't understand some of the 800 settings, then just pick  some of the standard default modes and you will be fine. Just make sure you noise cancel and ground balance.

I had the Simplex+ but sold it. Just did not like the tones and ID range. This is just a personal bias, it is a great machine for the $$.

So is the Vanquish from what I have been reading. I have on order the Vanquish 540 with 12" and 8" coils. Looking forward to a fun coin machine.

Let's hope the Garrett announcement is a really good detector that sells really well. Why? To keep things competitive in our hobby. This  competition is what gives us quality metal detectors at decent prices. I have used the Ace 250, The AT Pro, the Nox 800, Simplex+ and now waiting on my Vanquish 540. The CTX 3030 was always out of my price range (well my wife would not speak to me for a year had I bought a CTX).

Having great detectors at a modest price help all of us. Even more reason to keep your favorite sites a top secret.

I have been on the forum since June 2018 but mostly reading  other's posts. Lots of good people on this forum. I have learned it is a good place to learn because most on this forum know what they are talking about.

Used an AT Pro for 3 years and bought a Nox 800 in March 2018. What a learning curve. I now have a Vanquish 540 with the 12" and 8" coil on order. I tried the Simplex+ but too different from the Nox 800 so sold it for only that reason. It is a good machine. The Vanquish will come with little or no learning curve for an Equinox user. The steep 800 learning curve was enough for me in one lifetime.

My main interest is research and hunting for Civil War relics which are still available if you do your research around Atlanta and north of Atlanta up to Chattanooga.

I have a Simplex+ and am thinking seriously of thinking selling the Simplex and buying the Vanquish 440.

I have nothing really negative to say about the Simplex. I have the Nox 800 and think that the TID on the Vanquish will be similar to the Nox 800 for the same targets? Am I right?

With the Simplex and the Nox 800 I have two sets of numbers to remember. Don't need that.

Plus I like the tones on the 800 better than the Simplex. How do the tones on the V 440 compare to the 800?

Plus I like the Multi-frequency aspect of the Vanquish.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Miccus SR-71 5.0 bluetooth will not work on Equinox 800. Equinox is bluetooth 4.2.

Trond TD-BH01 if it is bluetooth 4.2 will work on the Equinox 800.

How do I know? I own both of the above headphones. Trond has better fidelity than the Minelab wireless headphones SL-80 for the Equinox. This is just my opinion.

Pick the mode  closest to your type of hunting. Noise cancel and ground balance. Turn on the horseshoe (all metal) and find a piece of ground with absolutely no ferrous or non-ferrous targets and ground balance. you don't want to ground balance over metal targets.

Quiet your machine down with reducing your sensitivity as necessary. Adjust other settings ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Using other people's programs that are set for hunting sites completely unlike yours (eg mineralization, trash, etc) is a prescription for a unbalanced or un-tuned Equinox. Speaking from experience. When I first got my Equinox I was looking at programs other people used and found they really don't work for anyone else.

On 1/9/2019 at 4:32 PM, afreakofnature said:

Hello all!

One thing that I have not seen or heard since the Nox has been out is what people are finding for Spanish treasure and relics with the Equinox out on the FL Treasure Coast.  Of course ever since the Nox has been out there has not really been any storms to get some good beach erosion going on.  Out of curiosity, what settings and mode are folks using for the relic/treasure hunt on the treasure coast beaches, including the iron settings.  Can't wait to hear the answers!  I plan on being down there for a couple weeks in Feb and if the weather gives some good erosion I'm gonna be out there with the 15' coil swinging away!

But even if the weather doesn't "cooperate" I'll still be looking for that modern bling in the Beach modes.  I think I have to be the only person that goes on a FL vacation that hopes for a NorEaster  

Funny think about the Treasure Coast of Fl. When you get the right conditions, beach combers have been known to snag gold and silver items as well as detectorists.

On 3/5/2020 at 1:53 PM, Bill (S. CA) said:

Some of you may recall when the Equinox came out Steve's advice was to use the stock programs which he said were quite good.

 

I wish I had listened to him. Instead I wasted time messing around with all the features and the results were on many hunts I had a  de-tuned Eq 800 not working well for me. I have learned my lesson.

Clive hit on that pphenomena first by many questions from Equinox users sent to him. I just happened to stumble across it a couple of weeks ago when in frustration I did a factory reset and just hunted in field1 and started producing results in the same area.

Review of Clive Cylick third Equinox book – “Skill-Building with the Minelab Equinox Series Metal Detectors

I think this is the best book in his Equinox series. It is written for a large group of new Equinox users. It is not written for very experienced users of other Minelab products or the Equinox experts and there are a few of those experts around. It is written for and I think most helpful for the newbie who bought the Equinox 600 or 800 and experienced detectorists coming from other non-Minelab machines. The total newbies to metal detecting should buy a good beginners metal detecting book and all three of Clive’s Equinox books.

The book is packed with information that for me told me two major things: 1) why I was not getting the performance out of my Equinox that others were reporting and 2) how to make the Equinox do what I need it to do to perform at a level it was design to perform. I am not going into a lot of detail because that would be like quoting everything in the book. I will tell you I learned what my biggest problem was with me and my 800. By playing around with all of the features without not truly understanding the physics behind most of the settings I was operating with a detector that was often greatly de-tuned or not balanced. A balanced Equinox means selecting the proper modes for your type of hunting and small settings adjustments to make the 800 a little more balanced.

The Equinox engineers made the different modes for park, field, beach and gold very balanced. In most cases just using the default mode best for your type of hunting will serve you will. Only until you truly understand the settings and how to effectively use them you should leave them alone. This is why just copying other detectorist’s settings will get you into trouble. Their settings are for their environment, not yours. Keeping in mind that sensitivity (gain), recovery speed, and iron bias all affect each other. So, you really need to make small adjustments of all in a manner that none or many of these adjustments cause an unbalanced detector.

Sounds complicated? Yes it is. But it becomes a lot less complicated after reading Clive’s third Equinox book carefully. The book is packed full of information on the above topics. I was surprised to learn that even the detector’s volume level affects your ability to hear deep targets and not buy turning up the volume which is what most of us would think to do. I recommend all three of Clive’s books for the novice as well as a good metal detecting beginners book. For the more experienced detectorists who have never use a Minelab detector the third book will probably be enough to get you over the Equinox learning curve hump.

I used to hunt gold nuggets in the Georgia mountains with my two sons back in the late 80's. We had a firm rule, never go into any gold mines. I still obey that rule today. Not worth the risk especially since the majority of them are not hard rock tunnels but rather tunnels in the dirt or dirt and soft rock mixture.

I have located two gold mines that I have access to after much research.

one mine about 4 ft tall in the side of a hill and has a nice pile of quartz rock tailings pile. rocks are about 12" wide. Should I remove all of the larger quartz rocks to get  down to the smaller rocks before I hunt with my 800 using a six inch coil?

the other is in the side of a creek bank about 2 feet high. No sign of tailings pile, so I guess just hunt the creek with my Equinox 800 and 6" coil in front of the mine and down stream and on both sides of the creek in case they had their washer equipment set up at that location.

both sites are rather remote so should not be much trash in the area.

thanks for any help.

Looking for anyone who has hunted Civil War locations in the 70’s, 80’ & 90’s in Dekalb county, Georgia that might wish to share locations and help me out. I am looking for Civil War camp sites, river or stream crossing or skirmishes that happened in Dekalb county in Metro Atlanta, Georgia.

Or if you know someone who has hunted those areas in the past that would be helpful also if you could give me their contact information.

Please send me a private message with any info.

do meteorites just land anywhere on the planet? or do they typically land in specific areas?

For instance would Atlanta, Georgia USA have meteorites on the ground somewhere?

I posed this same question on another forum and got blasted for the question from a lot of Garrett AT Pro users. Apparently over there quite a few AT Pro users are very sensitive and defensive.

Glad to see the topic discussed openly here with out name calling.

I have used many detectors including 3 Garrett detectors with 3 years on the AT Pro before I bought my Nox 800 in march 2018. Heck yes the AT Pro was a great machine, but not keeping up with the new technology.

I suspect the big dog engineers at Garrett are on the security side. Almost every major concert or outdoor events that I have attended in the last 3 years that has security detectors use Garrett. They should spin off the hobby part in new separate company with a few top young engineers. Then and only then I feel we would see something to give the Equinox and XP Deus a run for the money.

Hi Rob,

I have owned my 800 since Mar 2018. 

"Gotta say the EQ600 I had earlier this year ran NOTHING like this unit. This thing is smooth and I can understand it."

Just curious can you go into more detail about why you you think the 600 is nothing like the 800? Not trying to trash the 600 but never had one and I always wonder what the difference is from the 800.

thanks

john

One can only imagine the number of Garrett AT Pro  metal detectors sold because of the videos by Aqua Chigger, Nugget Noggin and Relic Recoverists.

I am sure that Brad of Green Mountain Metal Detecting has help Garrett quite a bit with his very good videos. But I really don't think Brad is part of the Garrett Gang.

On 9/23/2019 at 11:10 AM, flakmagnet said:

Or at the very least (Minelab's favorite way), include some inserts with the coils, it would be so simple…and certainly would be far more expedient than having to replace whole coils.

Donut on another forum told me to only tighted the coil nut just where the coil swivels easy and not to crank down hard and get it super tight. This adds stress and then an accidental bump against a solid object can add just enough additional stress to break the ears. I guess that is what is happening. Now I am more careful since I was trying to get them very tight.

On 10/29/2019 at 11:38 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

All I can say is I have no use for or any interest in canned programs or other peoples settings. I learn my controls and set my machine as seems appropriate for my location and personal preferences. If one combination of settings worked for everyone, we would not need the controls. Minelab could just dial in the appropriate settings and just have an on/off switch and maybe a sensitivity control. In trying to do this Minelab came up with 8 separate programs or presets showing that one size can't fit all. The Equinox presets however in my opinion are among the very best designed for any detector, and the farther you get from the preset adjustments the less happy you are likely to be.

“Equinox presets however in my opinion are among the very best designed for any detector, and the farther you get from the preset adjustments the less happy you are likely to be.”

I can  vouch for that. When I got my 800 in March 2018 I tried to learn and use everything and probably wasted 3-6 months of hunting and basically got confused and frustrated with the 800.

Another non-metal detecting way to find recently lost jewelry. Take a good bright LED flashlight and at night walk the mowed areas and look for reflections. It has been known to work and faster than sweeping a metal detector.

On 3/30/2014 at 2:41 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I went back and found a picture of that 25" coil I had in 2009 at Moore Creek. Note the makeshift swing arm I fabricated out of a broken fiberglass handle. The Tesoro Lobo was being used as a pinpointer.

 

put a trailer on your ATV and mount the coil on the back and drive slowly back an forth. Use a wireless or long headphones cable. I remember many years ago about a guy that did just that with 4 -5 detectors attached to a trailer on his jeep and ending up finding a monster nugget worth millions of dollars he sold to a casino in Las Vegas.

On 11/17/2018 at 2:33 PM, phrunt said:

What you are possibly indicating is multi IQ is basically a marketing gimmick, however.. even if multi IQ is over stated in it's abilities something is making the Equinox work better than a lot of other detectors, I've never had a detector with such accurate target IDs, I've found tiny little flecks of gold with it, I've found an insanely deep coin with it in snow, we are talking approximately 30 to 40cm deep buried in snow using quite a bit of discrimination and I also tested the T2 before digging with it's larger than stock Mars Tiger coil and it didn't even see the coin at all unless I changed to All Metal and then I got a bit of a noise on it but nothing to indicate it was a coin,  it's considered a deep machine and I do tend to run my gear maxed out as here, I usually can. 

The Equinox had a reasonably accurate Target ID on it so I was confident in the coin it was going to be before digging which is why I tested the T2 on it.  Others have obviously seen similar differences in it than their previous detectors hence all the hype on it.

I won't pretend to understand it, however something weird is going on inside that little box they call the Equinox.  If it's not multi IQ and multi frequencies causing the magic perhaps they've figured something else out to make it stand out over other machines and just aren't saying ?

I don't know if I'm confused by their marketing but this indicates you can run all the frequencies at once from what I can see

Multi-IQ Simultaneous Multi-Frequency

Low frequencies typically give more depth on large targets than high frequencies, which are usually more sensitive to small targets.

With EQUINOX you can operate across the full spectrum of frequencies simultaneously for maximum results. 

 

 

I think the key marketing phrase is "Multi-Frequency Range" and showing under it all 5 frequencies. What they should say is you can choose 2 frequencies from this range of frequencies or  two combinations of frequencies from this range of frequencies.

This is why we need smart guys to get down into the weeds and parse out the truth.

On 9/11/2018 at 12:58 PM, maxxkatt said:

well I hunted the tailings pile and found shotgun shells, 22 shells and a spoon. Walked to the mine entrance and there were several large quarts rocks with the equinox using the 6" coils gave sold 1 and 2 in gold one. Well this rock was 30 lbs so could not  find much bigger rock. Decided to hike back to the car with my detector, back pack, lesche shovel, gold pick, Nox and this 30 lb  rock. It was a little over a mile. That was quite a chore for me.

at home put it on a plastic tub and it still is giving 1 and 2 reading. I don't think there is any foil in there.

any suggestions other than break it up with my big hammer and a chisel?

Just start breaking it in halves and keep going after the gold signals?

I am new at this so don't want to mess up by not knowing what to do.

 

here is a pic of the quartz rock. looks like lot of iron staining shows where I broke off a small piece.

 

 

 

Ok, use the 800 in gold1 mode with six inch coil to pinpoint area of boulder where gold was located. Knocked off this portion of rock and expected to find gold signal in the main rock or  portion I knocked off. It was neither. smashed up some of the smaller pieces that came off and panned them. no trace of color. The 800 with the same settings did not show any gold in the main rock or pieces knocked off. 

so any ideas what was making the 800 indicate gold with 1 & 2 on the TID? Seems like it disappeared. 

 Was there not gold there in the first place? I think that is likely, but what was the 800 sounding off on?

when my boys were growing up 8 and 15 we spent two years gold hunting in an area around Dalonegha, GA. yes we always found a little gold but my best find was an 1800 hand forged mining pick.

I was using a fisher gold bug and when I swung over the pick it sounded like a buried volkswagen. This is one of my finest finds. In addition my older son found a 400 year old fully intact alt alt point.

The memories of our hunts are more valuable than the gold we found.