mh9162013

Impressive F350! I guess you better call Saul who can help you clean all that money! 😄

At least for me, avoiding headphone use is about situational awareness. I do most of my detecting in yards, parks and I'm often next to roads. Yes, I can hear targets/sounds better with headphones, but it's not worth the cost of having almost no idea what's going on around me. When I'm focused on a hunt, I'm oblivious to almost everything around me, at least visually...whether I'm in the middle of a swing, digging or using my pinpointer. Basically, the only thing that will catch my visual attention is law enforcement or a park's grounds crew. Therefore, I rely on my ears to warn me of anything else I should be on the lookout for. If I ever do use headphones, I only use them with one ear. The above applies when I used my Vanquish 540 and will apply if my Equinox 800 arrives as planned *crosses fingers*

I may do that! When I've got the itch to hunt (or test batteries), but don't feel like going to a park or knocking on doors, that's definitely something I can do.

ScoTTT2, What machine do you use? As for the old house, I have no idea when it was sided, but it wasn't recent, that's for sure. The owner told me his front yard was tilled, graded and leveled, so I wonder what effect that had on the silver coins that may have been there. Assuming it was never hunted before, it was probably a bad thing, as far as metal detecting is concerned. But if it's been hunted before, I suppose it's a good thing. But it's reassuring to hear about how once you get the shallow targets (trash and desirable items), that the lower items begin to show up. Looking back, that explains my front yard. I've found so much clad and after the most recent hunt, I'm always telling myself, "yup, got all the coins!" Yet when I hunt my front yard again the next time, I almost always find a few more pennies. They're not recent drops, so I know this is an instance of me learning my ground better and digging up prior targets which could have masked or otherwise distracted me from the recently found pennies.

That's my experience, too. The majority of my hunting has been shallow coinshooting in parks. We're talking coin targets 3 inches or less below the surface...and my AT Max and Vanquish are pretty accurate (each within a few VDI points). But when it comes to digging targets 4 inches deep or more, I have much less experience; most of my experience is in my yard. The good news is that my soil at my home is fairly comparable to the soil in the parks I hunt at. The only notable experience (that I can remember in great detail) I've had digging a coin target that was deep (8-10 inches) was with 2 clad quarters. The AT Max's VDIs were all over the place, but would occassionally hit some numbers that indicated there was at least a penny in the ground. I also got a high tone in at least one direction. In a park or permission, I'd normally let this signal go, as it's a deep dig and I assume there are other good targets that are easier to dig up, ie shallower. But this was my heavily pounded front yard, so I had the "what the heck" attitude. I have no problem taking this approach with a permission, but only if: a) I'm confident there's no pipe or wire I could hit and b) I'm confident I've already found all the good targets that are much shallower. I'm guestimating here, but I imagine I can dig 2 or 3 shallow coin targets (3 inches or less) in the time it takes to dig 1 deep coin targer (6 inches or more). So what am I saying? What I'm saying is that I will "triage" my digs based on my prediction as to the density of "high value" targets. As a case in point, a week or go so I was digging around a public pool at a local park. This park would normally give me plenty of pennies and dimes, with the occassional quarter. But around the pool, I was getting quarter after quarter after quarter. In the end, I found 18 quarters in a span of about 1.5 hours. This is an incredible quarter:other coin ratio that I had never seen before. So there came a point that I was actively passing up penny targets so that I had more time to find and dig quarters. But of course, I've spent over a dozen hours hunting that park, so I was familiar with its soil and types of targets it has. I had no such familiarity with the old house. So i wanted to make sure I did at least one pass over the front yard, back yard and sidewalk areas looking for the "easy" targets before spending time on the iffy (relatively speaking) signals. I guess this just goes to show how it takes more than 2 hours to learn a site...

That makes a lot of sense; thank you for the explanation. As for relying more on sounds and less on VDI, are you referring to the decision to give a target a second look or the decision to dig? When it comes to a potential target, I always rely on sound first. Only when I get the high tone (or mid time, if I'm willing to dig for nickels or gold), do I look at my VDI. However, even with a high tone, if it's in the 70s (or really jumpy and all over the place) and I don't feel like digging a penny, I'll let it go. So are you suggesting that if my goal is to get silver coins I should dig all high tones, no matter what the VDI is doing? Thanks again!

The owner was friendly enough, so I think I can go back. But while hunting, I took the approach that I can't assume a second hunt. But I'll definitely try to hunt there again. So 2 hours really isn't that much time, eh? Sounds like there's an echo in here 😄 Up until this thread, I honestly thought expert or experienced detectorists could dial in their machine to their soil and intended targets within 30 minutes or so (assuming they had the right equipment).

I do that when I think I could be digging a large object. I'll also use my pinpointer on the surface to gauge the target's size. I've detecting enough with my F-Pulse to know what it sounds like when the target's just below the surface, but is larger than a coin. The catch is that many of these targets are within 2 inches of the surface. Sometimes it's just faster to quickly dig the target as opposed spend extra time to confirm its size before moving on. As for your approach to hunting a site in phases, it makes a lot of sense. I just hunt all permissions with the assumption that I can never go back and that I need to focus on efficiency given my usually short hunting times.

I know that using discrimination is a trade off, but I figured it was largely due to target masking. For example, if you discriminated out iron nails, but a silver coin is next to an iron nail, you risk hearing nothing when you pass over these two targets (assuming your detector doesn't have the recovery speed and separation ability to tell these 2 targets apart). I also understand that depth can be an issue here too. If a silver coin is an 85 on the surface and an 82 two inches below the surface, it might be a jumpy 60-70 eight inches down (depending on soil conditions, of course). So if I've set my AT Max to only hear targets 80 and above, I'll never know I've swept my coil over this target. But what other scenarios might "over discrimination" be a bad thing in the sense that you don't hear/see desired targets?

That's really good to hear, as it implies I'm not an idiot and that what I perceive as a challenge is due to the fact that it's actually hard to do. As for boosting discrimination, I understand that it'll likely lead to missing out on good targets. But if I were to dig anything that rang up as a 70 or higher on my AT Max at that old house, I'd literally be digging a target every 45 seconds. With respect to the larger targets, those were far larger than a coin, and only rang up as an 80 or so. I imagine a large cache of silver coins would ring up as a 90 or higher with an AT Max? Yes, I was using the stock 8.5x11 coil yesterday with my AT Max. The more I hear people talk about that coil compared to the 5x8, the more I wonder why Garrett made that the stock coil! I want that coil for the reduced weight, if for no other reason. Then tack on the fact that it's better in trash, and it looks like the only reason not to get it is if I find an Equinox 600 for cheap. I sometimes use Iron Audio, but not often. And I never actively hunt with it on. I only use it as a "tie breaker" when I have a target I'm debating whether to dig or not. If I go back to that old house (with or without the 5x8 coil) with the primary goal of finding silver coins, what's the advantage of only setting my discrimination to 35? Is there a realistic chance that my AT Max could detect a silver coin and have the VDI ring it up in the 40s? Thanks again for your advice here; it's much appreciated. 😀

Oh, I'm hoping what N/M (and likely Minelab and Garrett) have in the pipeline blow the pants of the Equinox 600/800. That means we'll see a bunch of used 600 and 800 machines for sale...and for cheap. Remember what happened to the used price of the CTX 3030 when the Equinoxes came out? 😇 In the mean time, I'll keep my eyes peeled for a good, used 5x8 coil...or just "buy" one from Amazon for free.

Thanks for confirming. I think what I'll do is go back to the old house and make sure I have at least 3 or so hours to hunt. However, before I do, I'll let the owner know I plan on doing a lot of digging and if he's ok with that. I'll explain that I need to remove all the aluminum siding and other trashy bits to increase my chances of finding coins. If he balks, no biggie, I got my curiosity satisfed (I always wanted to hunt that property). As for the 5x8 coil, I may need to get it to give the AT Max a fair shake when I inevitably compare it directly to the Equinox.

Thanks for your insight, kac. I figured there wasn't much else I could do besides be patient and suck it up. I imagine this parallels the "if you want to find gold rings, you gotta dig pulltabs" sorta thing. I'm really close to buying the 5x8 coil for the AT Max. But I'm not 100% sure it'll be my detector for the next few years. I keep hearing the, "get the Equinox..." whispers every time the wind blows...

Today I had a long day of hunting...my longest yet. It started off at a park and ended at a permission of an old home that is at least 120 years old. This post concerns my hunt at the latter location. I had a little under 2 hours to hunt the old home and just found a few clad coins, some trash bits and A LOT of aluminum siding peices. The aluminum siding pieces were mostly the size of postage stamps and half dollars, although a few were the size of a playing card. These larger pieces were likely targets I left in the ground after using my pinpointer (F-Pulse) and realizing the target was far larger than a coin. I mostly hunted the old house using the following three modes: One mode was Custom. Sensitivity varied between 2 and 8 bars and I notched out everything that was below 65 or so. This seemed to work ok, except I hit a lot of targets in the 70s, but they were almost always a peice of aluminum siding. Using this mode, I probably dug about 10 holes and found 1 coin, 1 soda can and 8 bits of aluminum siding (this is a rough estimate). The second mode was also Custom. Sensitvity varied b/w 2 and 8 bars and I notched out everything that was below 80. This was the most enjoyable hunting in that it was quiet and I wasn't digging as much aluminum siding. Using this mode, I probably dug about 6 holes and found 2 coins, 1 soda can and 3 bits of aluminum siding (this is my rough estimate). The third mode was Zero. Sensitvity varied b/w 2 and 8 bars and I notched out everything that was 35 and below. This was a very annoying mode, given how noisy the AT Max was, but at least I got to hear what my AT Max was "seeing" in the ground. I probably dug about 8 holes in this mode and found 1 coin, 1 soda can and 6 bits of aluminum siding (this is also a rough estimate). In case you're wondering, the soil was dark with little to no mineralized clay. I don't recall what the AT Max ground balanced at, but maybe in the low 80s, if I recall correctly. So my question is: what could I have done differently to dig more coins and less aluminum siding? Yes, the aluminum siding sounds a smidge different than coins. And the larger peices don't have the pin-pointy beep that a coin has. But for the smaller bit of aluminum siding, the sound is so close to the sound of a clad or silver coin. As a result, I can't bear to not dig something that sounds that close to a coin. I hope to go back to that old house and get permission to hunt it a second time. But if I do that, I hope to have a few changes I can make to make my hunting less tiring and less damaging to the owner's yard.

Well, for what it's worth, you're motivating me to do some more park hunting! Yesterday I did pretty well at a park with over $7 in clad (22 quarters!). But no silvah... Later this week I'll try an older park and see if I can get a taste of what you've been scarfing down recently...😄

Gawd you suck...

I think you did ok, if you ask me. No, j/k. That's definitely an unbelievable day! I can only fantasize about a hunt like that. Well done!

Thanks for posting that, 67GTA. I recently experienced some of that when I hunted a curb strip with my Vanquish 340 with the V8 coil. I was hoping the smaller coil could cut through the iron, but no, not really. There may have also been a dearth of coins, so there's that, too. The worst thing was using my Vanquish 540 with the V12 coil and getting upper 20s and lower 30s, only to find highly mineralized damp/wet red clay. This is was ultimately made me sell the 540 in search of a machine that could ground balance.

I'll compare and contrast the AT Max and Equinox 800 based on the fact that I currently use an AT Max and used to have a Vanquish 540 and Equinox 600. The only reason(s) to get a Garrett AT Max over the Equiunox 800 is b/c one or more of the following applies to you: 1. You love Garrett products and have extreme loyalty to them. 2. You love buying products made in the USA. 3. You prefer your metal detector to use replaceable batteries and/or AA batteries 4. You prefer an S-shaft design (although the Equinox pod can be mounted on an S-shaft if you really wanted, but it looks very janky, in my opinion). 5. You need a truly reliable, all-weather metal detector. Yes, the Equinox is waterproof, but it's not as reliable as te AT Max in that regard. 6. You can find the AT Max for much cheaper than the Equinox 800. 7. You like the idea of having access to numerous aftermarket coils and experimenting with them. 8. You don't plan on doing any extensive saltwater beach hunting. TL;DR: Unless you have a very specific or unique reason for getting the AT Max, you're better off with the Equinox 800 (ignoring the price difference).

At least as of 10-15 years ago, Newegg lost a lot of respect (from me and at least a few others) due to the fact (or rumor?) that they modified their reviews so that certain negative reviews of products were taken down. I don't know if they still have that policy. And even if they did, it's almost a given that any online review (as well as aggregate rating) has to be taken with a few grains of salt (if not the whole shaker). Either way, I've ordered from them a few times in the past few years for basic computer components and have been happy with my purchase.

Not many people can still do that these days...or are willing to do that.

Gold prospecting looks like so much fun. Too bad there's nowhere to do that where I live.

See, that's the rub. Ground balance is most important in highly mineralized ground (at least in my limited experience). In milder ground, having your machine call a clad dime or copper penny a silver dime isn't a big deal. But calling wet, red clay a silver dime or clad quarter at 8-10 inches down? Now we've got a problem. I think you're right, MIQ has some form of ground balancing capability, even if it's not actually ground balancing as we understand the non-trade-seceret-protected concept. But MIQ's "ground balancing" is only effective in mild to moderate ground...where many experienced detectorists can manage to hunt with no ground balancing.

And it's not just the phone itself. It's all the pictures (uh oh...) passwords, music, pay apps, social media apps (and their login info), etc. on the phone. I think most people have password protected lockscreens, but there's also the hassle of having to call your mobile carrier, redownload all the apps, reconfigure your settings, etc. Or maybe most people use cloud-based services that negates that hassle? Don't look at me, I'm using a smartphone that was like $20 and it runs a version of Android from like 8 years ago...

I think the key with the above statement is that the prospective buyer knows they will eventually want the Equinox. Starting with the Vanquish is a good suggestion for those who aren't sure about the hobby. It's a lot easier to drop $200 (USD) or $280 than it is $600+ for an Equinox. Vanquishes also have respectable resale values, too.