cudamark

This is just my opinion based on 52+ years of detecting with dozens of different machines. The tech has come a LONG way since then, but, almost all machines made in the last 20-30 years can still be competitive depending on the venue and the competency of the user. Will an Ace 250 find the same targets that a Nox, D2, and Legend find in mild ground or dry sand at the beach? 90% of the time, yes. It's that 10% we're fighting to get these days. That little extra depth, stability, tone/I.D., and/or processor speed to get those tough-to-find targets in worse than average ground. Having a higher end machine that can be adjusted to the conditions will sometimes get you that extra 10%. Naturally, experience on a machine is key, but, all things being equal, someone with the proper experience using the better machines will out perform the same experience with a lesser machine at certain venues. In some cases, it's much more than a 10% increase in finds, sometimes it will be virtually 0%. Will that same Ace 250 find the same nuggets that a GPZ 7000? Not a chance....more like a 90+% advantage for the GPZ. At a nail infested home site? The Ace may reverse those odds for an experienced user. As for your list on how to get good results........you need to match the site, with the machine, with an experienced detectorist to have the best success. It's not necessarily one more important than the other.

We dig everything too (non-ferrouswise) at the beach. We generally don't find square nails at the beach, but, having better iron I.d. will help us avoid sketchy sounding junk iron that we really don't want to bother with.

That will leave the door open for someone to design and market a solid skid plate and/or a clam shell coil cover to keep things from filling the "bathtub". Wouldn't work in the water, but, that should work good on land.

The specs look pretty good to me so far. We'll have to see how they pan out. They just added 6 feet to the underwater rating. That in itself indicates they've done something to improve the waterproofness. 10 preset and 10 user programs are welcome too, as well as the enhanced EMI rejection.....which is really becoming a problem in some areas with powerful WiFi signals. I guess we'll have to wait until the other shoe drops to get a price.....

It's interesting that you mentioned the -5 readings you were getting. It's a common thing that I find here in our black sand polluted beaches. I'll get a deep non-ferrous reading (sometimes a pretty sketchy one), take a big scoop, resweep the target and get a -5, -6. Lots of people I know would figure it's deep rusty iron and refill the hole. Not me.... I continue to dig until the target is out of the ground. Almost all the time it's a non-ferrous target once out and on the surface.

I wonder if they finally ran across one of my complaints about coil design? I've been advocating for years that the "ears" should be on a replaceable yoke at the bottom of the shaft, and not on the coil. Being someone who hunts the beach and large fields often, I'm drooling over seeing that (supposedly) 15" coil! Time to fire up that credit card! 👍😀

Agreed. salt water is a whole different venue over fresh water. If you want to find tiny link gold chains in salt water, use a PI machine. The D2, Minelab BBS, FBS, Nox, Legend, etc, will find chains if they have big enough links, and/or shallow enough, but, they're rather limited in their salt water modes in comparison to what a PI can do.

What's the expression......Two countries separated by a common language? 😄

Yeah, not the greatest beach video. We'll have to wait until someone who knows what they're doing on a salt water beach to show us the real "scoop"! Speaking of scoop, he didn't even show us what was found let alone use a scoop to do it. Not as stable as I would hope it would be.....at least with his settings. It would make it a chore to ferret out those deep targets amongst the chatter.

Nice set of videos Steve! Well done! 👍

Include a 12 Gauge shotgun type pin pointer and you'll be all set! 😄

I'm sure that contributes to the problem. In my case, I've owned at least two dozen detectors, and probably twice that many coils in my 52 years of detecting. I've never broken a single coil until I got the Equinox 12 X 15" coil.....and I'm on my third one so far. Same tightness, same wear, same use. You would think that Minelab, after getting many warranty claims on broken coil ears, would take a good look into their design and make changes to thicken or gusset the ears so that doesn't happen. What, it might cost them another $.02 in plastic? That's got to be cheaper than having to supply a new coil and shipping.

That applies to more than just gold nuggets....👍😀

So far, it's WiFi signals that give me the most fits.

Looks like you have an Equinox 800. What's the problem using that?

Me, I currently have 15, so, I guess I'm terminal. 🤪

Nice report! I wouldn't mind seeing what each of them can do on the real deep and/or iffy targets. I don't want to paint any of them as second rate either, but, in some areas (especially ones that have been hammered over the years) finding good items on the fringe of detection is important. Finding a machine that does the best at that can be a game changer. Naturally, site conditions will vary and one or more of them might be better under condition A, and another might be better under condition B. With enough feedback from various soil/sand conditions, we can make an intelligent choice in detector, coil, and settings for our hunting sites and conditions. Thanks, well done.👍

I guess I'll throw my two crusty zinc cents worth of opinion on this subject too. I have both the 800 and D2 at this point. I have thousands of hours on the 800, but, only a couple dozen hours on the D2, so, admittedly this isn't a totally fair comparison until I get many more hours on it and get used to it's differences and quirks. These are just my initial impressions of the D2, and what I like and dislike. Like: 1. the weight 2. the collapsibility 3. The adjustability and number of canned programs as well as the extra custom slots. 4. More robust waterproofing 5. Turning on/off the detector also turns on/off the headphones 6. Not having to mess with any cables, which will make coil changes (whenever they actually have a 13" one for sale) even easier 7. Coil mount/bolt/tensioning design....at least so far, although I'm not a fan of a rear mount. 8. The depth seems very good with a stock 9" coil. Can't wait to see what a 13" one will do! Don't like, or like less than the 800: 1. The menu tree....more like a forest than a linear tree. Not very intuitive IMO (ie. the number of tones choice is under the discrimination expert heading? WTF?) 2. No threshold tone available in anything except in Pitch. (I like full tones) 3. Having to use 2 different buttons to use the pin point feature...one to turn it on, a different one to turn it off. Idiotic... 4. Turning off the machine erases many current settings unless you save the program 5. The need to stop and add the antenna to walk into the surf 6. No depth meter 7. I can't seem to get as close to playground equipment or metal fences as I can with the 800, even with the 9" compared to the 800's 11" or 12 X 15". It seems to be much more sensitive to large nearby iron. Things I'm undecided on, or, on the fence about: 1. The tones/sounds....always hated the original D1 sounds. The square tones are a real improvement, but, still not as good as the 800 or many other machines I've owned. They might grow on me over time 2. The backphones. I like the weight and the tone quality is good. They just don't feel right yet. 3. Silent search. I have always used a threshold tone and feel "naked" without it. 4. The D2 seems a bit less sensitive to tiny mid conductors at depth than the 800. Still testing that though. 5. The flexy lower shaft is actually a bit worse than the factory 800.....didn't think that was even possible! Doesn't really bother me, though I would prefer some nice light and stiff carbon fiber. On a side note.....some taller people (I'm 5'11") will find that lower shaft a bit short. I have it all the way extended and it's adequate, but, not much more than that. I'll add more as my caffeine deprived brain triggers more thoughts.......

That's one good thing about the Excalibur.....put a brick on the gas pedal and hunt!

The targets that give me the hardest time are the cut coins at a turfed site. Those suckers sound like a GOOD deep target. They have the good target I.D., deep reading on the meter, and the faint signal that usually indicates a deep desirable target. It's only after popping the plug and chasing the sliver of a target with a pin pointer that you get your heart broken. Anyone know of a way of telling the difference between one and an actual good deep target? I have one old park I like, but, they have a real sharp lawn mower that has strewn coin shards everywhere. Makes it a real chore to hunt.

From what I've seen over the years, it's currently about a 10:1 ratio men:women, up from 50:1 years ago. This is for general metal detecting at parks and beaches. Relic hunters are more like 30:1, and prospectors even higher. When it comes to divers, I have yet to see a woman doing it. I'm sure there are some out there, but, just never ran across one.

Maybe Jeff Mc... and Gerry Mc... would be a good choice if Steve bows out.

Here's where using a different detector, such as a BBS machine, might hold the edge. In my area of the U.S., BBS machines do better with EMI than the Equinox. There may be others even better, but, when you need MF for salt water/sand, you're rather limited with choices.

You might also check with Nokta/Makro since they're in your country. Maybe they have something that will work for you or they might have a local referral. Just don't tell them it's for an Equinox! 😄

In salt water (especially with black sand) I need to sink the TRX tip into the wet sand, and then turn it on, to tune it properly. Otherwise it will false just touching the wet sand. After you do that, it works just fine for me at my hunting locations and with my mineralization.