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I will do that comparison, but I'm afraid it will have to wait until next winter when I'll be back in Arizona.

If you’re hunting bedrock and relatively shallow ground, the Minelab SDC 2300 handles really bad ground and hot rocks with ease, and can find gold as small as a grain. Also a tad less expensive than the GPZ 7000. ?

Can’t go wrong with the Gold Monster 1000; it handles bad ground and hot rocks extremely well, and is an excellent meteorite hunter. And the auto ground balance and auto sensitivity gives you the freedom of adjustment-free detecting. With 2 coils, headhones, rechargeable battery, backup AA battery pack and lightweight weather-proof design, it’s hands-down the best bang for the buck if you’re on a budget. During this hunt I was using the Monster: And a Franconia hunt here: Good luck hunting those space rocks with whatever machine you decide on.

Yes I have Fred, and it’s an excellent meteorite hunter. Although I couldn’t mention it at the time, this hunt was with the GM 1000: And a Franconia hunt here:

Yes Kiwi, I covered that spot with the Monster last season, and for whatever reason it missed those three bits. Definitely blown away by the sensitivity with 11” coil; can’t imagine how hot the 6” will be, and with a solid 6”x10” elliptical optimized for the Gold Mode, the EQX 800 will be a dream machine. Until that happens though, I’ll just have to be content with fabricating solid skid plates for the 11” and 6” coils. ?

Kiwi is right - it’s merely a play on words. I throughly enjoy crumbing.?

Hopefully.?

Oneguy & Goldseeker 4000, It was great meeting you and talking gold out in the hills, and WTG on the nugget finds; you guys are deadly with that Monster. Cheers

https://www.google.com/search?q=pick+mattock+small&client=safari&sa=X&hl=en-us&biw=320&bih=454&tbs=vw:l,ss:44&tbm=shop&prmd=sivn&srpd=2665801446871838834&prds=epd:11599798283747585563,paur:ClkAsKraX37drluhzvURbad-kwsy90a95jV6ryaCnWL-6OoH-KAN-EILMw2TAks-vHQnInkh1jKMO16Xs48nxt3OqGGP_oHR7-ogfI_XtdW1XHwjXNiMdYyMaBIZAFPVH73h-bLb6bvKCA-0fIa-bMcWvTd2HQ,cdl:1,cid:12622343721110400501&ved=0ahUKEwii47mjkfLaAhUFy1kKHfQiDwsQgTYI3QQ

My first time nugget hunting with my Equinox 800 - full story here:

So I headed to the hills yesterday to get acquainted with the Gold Mode of the EQX 800. Equipped with ear buds and the WM08, I used Gold 2, and only deviated from the factory presets by adjusting the volume to 5, the tone volume to 5, and notched in the 0 segment on the discrimination scale. The ground mineralization was a little too hot to run max sensitivity; backing it down to 20 quieted the ground nicely, but still allowed the targets to really pop. I chose an old thrashed patch that I’ve worked with many detectors in the past, including the Gold Monster last summer. Seems someone had been detecting the area recently , as they left their excavations open. I powered up the EQX, and performed a noise cancel and auto ground balance. Not 5 minutes into it, and the Nox got a nice hit in the bottom of one of the shallow dig holes; scraping out an inch or two revealed a bright little nugglet. Just a few feet away I got another good response, this time in virgin ground. After removing the overlying carpet of moss, the target was still in the ground and much stronger. Digging another inch or two into the weathered quartzite bedrock, and the target was out: another golden bit.? After hitting a small patch of tiny foil bits, the ground yielded one more yellow goodie. During most of the hunt, I was running in all metal, unless I got into a healthy patch of hot rocks. They read a consistent -7,-8,-9 on the EQX display, whereas the nugglets were at 1 or 2. Iron falsing on square nails and such was much higher at anywhere from 11 to 35, and was easy to identify because the numbers weren’t consistent and wouldn’t pinpoint. All up, 0.25 of a gram.

Heck of a deal, Steve! Thanks everyone. I’m planning on getting out into the hills with the EQX 800 this weekend for a little nugget shooting, so we’ll see how that goes.

Count me in!

With summer on it’s way, its back to work for me at my seasonal job. ? But the combination of Minelab’s Gold Monster 1000, GPZ 7000 and the warm, sunny weather of the desert southwest all made for a nugget shooter’s paradise this past winter. Super-sensitive VLF technology along with the deep punching power of ZVT made finding gold of all sizes, types and depths a wonder to behold - and all from old patches. Total weight: 6.5 ounces troy.

I know, right?! I guess if Minelabs’ 40 engineers and 3 physicists can’t make it happen, no one can. I’m thinking it may have something to do with the coil configuration.?

At the recent Minelab Americas annual Partners Conference, there was a Q & A session with Minelab engineer Mark Lawrie and Peter Charlesworth, President and CEO of Minelab. I put to them the question of when we could expect discrimination on the GPZ 7000, and their response was that discrimination is NOT possible with the ZVT technology. Needless to say, quite a letdown.? On the bright side however, they did say that there will be 2 more software updates for the GPZ 7000, but did not give any details on what they might be.

My thoughts exactly, roddosnow. It's merely a cosmetic issue that doesn't affect the performance of the headphones in any way. It appears that the consensus so far is that only a very small percentage of headphones were defective.

Good plan Phrunt, thanks for reporting back. It may also be a manufacturing defect in the molded plastic piece itself that is exacerbated by the through-holes for the screws and the pressure exerted on it by the foam padding.

At Gerry’s Metal Detectors, we’ve noticed a consistent physical defect with the supplied Equinox headphones in three of our staff members’ personal units. The small plastic piece that is screwed down over the end of the headband padding is breaking at the stress point located between the two screw holes; upon opening one brand new unit, the broken piece was found already detached and lying on the bottom of the headphone case. Folks, please inspect your headphones at the affected area (see pics below) and report back here. Hopefully it’s not a widespread issue. Normal, undamaged part: Broken part, with upper half of plastic piece missing:

This publication will make you an amateur expert in no time: Rocks from Space: Meteorites and Meteorite Hunters

The second software update for the GPZ 7000 includes a Salty Soil mode, in addition to the Locate Patch mode and Semi-Auto Ground Balance mode. New GPZ machines now include these additional features as standard. I can attest from personal experience that the Salty Soil mode works extremely well in the damp alkali rich soils of Rye Patch. https://www.minelab.com/usa/go-minelabbing/treasure-talk/gpz-7000-ground-smoothing-options-software-update-2

Yeah DukeBoxer, there just isn’t a whole lot of videos out there showing nugget detecting with the EQX; I assume it’s because most of the purchasers are coin, relic and/or jewelry hunters. From your description of what you like to see in a video, I think you would really like the offerings from Gordon Heritage, if you haven’t seen them already. Although he uses a 2-tone setup, I enjoyed them for the same reasons you mentioned: https://youtu.be/_Mlu1zwsdpo

Here are a couple of YT videos.

Nice finds Gerry, WTG!

Nice haul, WTG!