Lacky

I should add that when I talk about water hunting it is all fresh water.  I am many hours away from any ocean. The simplex will be a decent choice for freshwater hunting for all the non coastal folks.  The vanquish for salt beaches well away from the water, the equinox 600 for salt beaches at or in the surf line (assuming everything works as well as we hope). Its a pretty decent lineup of choices really.

All that said I'm still glad I bought the equinox 800 which does everything pretty well. 

I agree!

I never find gold (so far) but I assume if I am digging lead shot down to size 8 it isn't a talent problem with the detecting.  Its actually kind of comforting digging tiny bits of lead.

Pretty much the only time I switch to single frequency is using the trick of switching to 10khz to check a suspected iron target (when I remember). That trick does work to avoid some bottle caps etc, and of course missing some good targets too, no free lunch. 

I agree most people wont end up in the water much, but I dont expect a new to the hobby buyer to know that. I suspect having that option open will be a significant choice factor when deciding which to buy as a first detector.  It definitely leaves the simplex as a solid competition.  I'm glad, I like competition. 

He really needs to fix the date stamp on his camera. Other than that decent first effort.

I have zero doubt about the link Noah posted being the product. I'm surprised they didn't go with waterproof. 

I don't,  but I hope you get an answer because I have a sample that looks just like it I found a couple weeks ago. Has a target id of 12 on the equinox. 

It was a flat black when I first cracked it open so it is oxidizing. Mine also started out as a fist sized chunk of solid quartz.

If the pics are real then they did include a pretty accurate mockup of the vanquish in the ad for the simplex. Good view of it at 0:20

I assume there are more modes outside the frame of the picture. But not waterproof and ugly are problems. 

3 and 4 are the hard ones. I tend to go places that have been pretty much ignored for the last hundred years or so. Usually all I have to go on is free gold was mined there then and maybe a rough total quantity. It is very hard to find more info than that on minor production areas from ago.

I've thought about that one just because it would make it easy to stick it in a backpack until I get to where I want to detect.

Yep, I hear ya, I've told my family (wife and 4 daughters) for years that if they somehow disappeared I would just live in a van and be fine.

I'm just saying I would think the find has historical significance. I would try an auction with a good story before anything else. That might turn out to be lucrative if you catch the right bidders. Or if lucky the farmer will value it more than you.

I'm much like you though, the only "things" I value are ones I can directly convert into future adventures, touring bikes, metal detectors, hunting/fishing gear etc.

Just my opinion Steve,  but I would have it documented and keep it unaltered.  It has to be worth far more, historically and financially,  as is than turned into something else. If you really wanted a ring make a replica then alter that.

Understood.  I have an autistic kid. We spent her first 8 years just keeping her alive. Its gotten better as she has gotten older, no longer wanders, developed a self preservation instinct finally.  Hobbies took a back seat in my life for about a decade.

Geez, no idea man. Me and mine have been together 26 years and she has always had all kinds of crazy hobbies and so have I. I also used to travel for work quit a bit. We have always been supportive of each others interests. Different dynamic I guess. 

I guess you'll have to decide if it's worth putting you foot down and just going and doing your thing.

48 minutes ago, 2Valen said:

Just don't let my wife know, she would tell me I can't have that much fun without her.

You must be fairly young. Give it 15 years and she'll be glad you have hobbies to get you out of the house.

I can't say anything about the VX3, never used one, and dont hear of too many talking about using it. The equinox is hot new machine at th he moment with lots of people using it.

I have an equinox 800 and can say I've been very pleased with it. If money isn't an issue you might consider getting the 800 instead of the 600. Just looking at the detectors the $250 price difference might seem a bit much for the extra features/settings, but the extra $250 also includes the wireless headphones and a wireless module for corded headphones or earbuds.  Those are worth most of the $250, so you essentially get the extra features/settings for free. That's the things I thought about in making the decision anyway. 

I came back after being away a long time too. It was surprising how nice the wireless headphones is. Not having a cord connecting you to the detector makes setting the detector down and digging so much easier.  I really didn't think it would matter much,  but it did for me. I probably snagged the damn cord on stuff more often than most though.

Good luck!

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

That’s back when I was active on all the forums and took advantage of that to collect info. A project for somebody else now if they want to tackle it. I am sure the ratio of GPX to GPX has shifted in favor of GPZ and quite a few Gold Bug users moved to Gold Monsters. The 24K is too new to have had any real impact

It will be interesting to see in a few years how many go with the equinox instead of the gold monster.  Most of the comments I've read from people that have both is there isn't much difference in capability for nuggets,  but the equinox is more useful everywhere else. 

I'm doing everything with the equinox by necessity (and inclination I suppose,  I've always been a own one of something and know it well type person),  your doing it by choice, I'm wondering how many others will go that route too.

Yeah, that's just weird.

I tell people quite often that our modern history has occurred during a exceptionally stable 2000-3000 years. Normal for the planet is constant gradual change, with periodic big sudden change. Even if we suddenly got it together and stopped the whole global warming mess (we won't,  we'll just keep talking about it) people should really get used to the idea anyway. Earth is in constant change, always has been. It just happens slow enough we dont see it.

"Old" and "ivory" are very nice words 🙂

Yeah, current unexploded ordnance I'd worry about enough not to be digging stuff up. 100 year old stuff, not so much.

Really I shouldn't be digging up artillery shells looking for gold anyway.  I'd like to think I could tell it was too big to be gold. This ain't Australia. 

I would suggest detecting the sluiced areas at some point for any nuggets wedged in bedrock cracks. Since you removed material you are closer to them now, should detect ones you were to far from before, maybe. 

Haha,  no, the area is several miles behind the area that used to be a training base during the world wars. I'm guessing they did training excercises with live artillery in the area 60+ years ago so they feel the need to post it. By that logic shouldn't pretty much all of Europe have a sign?

I'm of the opinion that if it didn't explode fresh and slamming into the ground it probably won't  from my gentle digging 60+ years later. If I get myself blown up someday I give you all permission to make fun of me without feeling bad.  I'd have it coming!

Edit to add- was just reading up on it, they actually stopped using it as a training base in 1919, so very old. But during/after the fires that burned the hills in 1997 they found live 75mm shells.

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

A lot. I don’t have any way to quantify that, it’s just been my experience using the smaller coil.

A lot is good! 

While I'm asking, how much does going to the 6" coil reduce the knocking? I imagine I'll go that route by next year.