Goldpick

I can't understand the logic of being put off having to charge the wireless coils, what if you forget to charge your Equinox, still the same issue of being a non starter??

Does sound expensive, though I love my Deus to bits and will be likely to upgrade in the future. 

Just keen to see what it is capable of before taking a leap - the tones/audio on offer will also be of great interest.

$2499 in Australia........😢

5 years warranty on a waterproof detector shows XP have a lot confidence in their final product. 

Not that I've ever had an issue with the regular Deus over the years - extremely reliable.

Most likely a bunch of shiny mica flakes going off the second pic.

Here is a couple more outings at the same locality, the 1860 English Shilling was masked by a shallower flattened beer can, hence why many others overlooked it.  The lead object with the handle appears to be some sort of stamp, still not 100% sure.

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Now that's some dirt fishing! Good stuff. You can almost feel the grit. Is the red stone set in gold? 👍

Like most Victorian era jewellery it's only gold gilt, though I do certainly wish it was solid and hallmarked.

Yep, I'm in Southern Australia.  Oldest coins we get here are usually KG3.

Tried out the new charging clip and it works a charm, easy to clip on the HF coil (unlike the XP clip), and also easy to remove without putting clip under any stress.  So far, so good.  

I literally just received a 3D printed charging clip from Detecting Doodads in the US, as I have gone through several XP clips in the past.  Will give a report on ease of use, fitment etc. before heading out this weekend.

15 hours ago, strick said:

Good find I bet that was a nice reward for you after all the shot gun caps and 22 cartridges...

strick

Thanks for the kind comments, yes it was a due reward after chasing many low conductor targets.  Still pinning my hopes on finding a full or half gold sovereign one day due to the former residents being quite wealthy.  Whether it will be found in the iron contaminated areas or on cleaner ground that is simply too deep for the hf coil remains to be seen. 

You really have to give it to Nokta/Makro on the build quality and robust coil ears provided on these accessory coils, especially when compared some of its competitors. 

No there are not many signals, you do come across the odd patch of iron and scattered tin roofing, other than that coins stand out like the proverbial (if you can get your coil to the ground}.  Problem is that the finds tend to get dragged a long way from their origin considering the ground has been ripped in the past, so a bit of a lottery on what you will find. 

16 minutes ago, kac said:

Love those dog tags, here in the USA we have aluminum crap. Amazing the detail they put into them.

...and those tag dates are 1892 & 1889, which is even more amazing given the lack of oxidation.  They slowly morphed into aluminium ones and finally the current ones are plastic - a hole on the bottom of the tag denotes a female, whilst the rear of the tag will have the district and dog number. 

I started out with the 11" & 11x13" coils, ended up mothballing the 11x13" due to weight/nose heavy properties, and preferred the 11".  Years later I moved to the 9" HF coil and haven't looked back.  Achieves excellent depth over my mild ground, light as heck and perfect size for swinging over older coin/relic sites typically hidden away in thick vegetation.

I do find that with a smaller coil you tend to spend more time thoroughly investigating areas of interest vs trying cover it all with a larger coil, and sometimes missing targets in the process.  I am currently in the process of going over old ground (Victorian era) previously detected with an Explorer SE Pro, and I am pretty chuffed at what that little Deus coil has me found so far - both deep targets and also targets co-existing with iron.

I've attached a few pics of the results from utilising 14.4kHz, have yet to even touch the higher frequencies.

If the Deus LiPo batteries are anything to go by, the Mi-4 should give years of use on the internal battery - and with up to 30 hours life from a single charge.  So plenty to like about the Mi-4, and yes all parts are replaceable.

You do have to be careful using the TRX in a hole with multiple targets, as despite having "tip only" detection, there is second point of detection further up the TRX shaft that can possibly simultaneously pick up on other targets in the hole.

Think I was about 16 when I purchased a Micronta detector from Tandy Electronics (oz version of Radio Shack).  Thought I was going to find loads of gold nuggets and ended up finding lots of buried fencing wire and an inch thick steel plate about a foot down, and also had plenty of bump sensitivity issues with the coil.  I first tested out the detector in our front yard and used Dad's wedding ring as a target and couldn't locate it - it was found eventually.😂

Ended up ditching the Micronta and purchased a second hand MInelab XT17000, though had little time to use it once employed in the gold exploration industry in some pretty remote areas.  

Later on for some silly reason I thought of trying to locate an old Micronta detector for nostalgia sakes, probably a good thing that it never eventuated.

Used mainly the Deus with the 9" HF coil throughout the year, still the most convenient setup with wireless headphones and Mi-6 connectivity, plus lack of weight for extended periods of detecting.  Ended up adding the Nox 600 mainly to go over old ground looking for deeper targets (with good success), and recently purchased the Simplex+ with full wireless headphone/pinpointer package as a backup and for the wetter winter months ahead. 

My Tejon and Infinium have effectively been retired, sold off the F75, and still retain the G2 and Racer 2 as spare units.

Nothing has failed or even worn on my original stem assembly, despite being taken to hell and back over the last five years.  Just a brilliant well thought out design that is more robust than one would think.   I remember when the Deus first came out that many thought it looked like a toy, and made the assumption that it wouldn't stand up to a beating - they assumed wrong. 

Also very convenient to receive an extra lower shaft and related accessories with new coil purchases, rather than have to purchase them separately.

I should have said more well balanced vs perfectly balanced, with the battery pack offsetting some of the coil/shaft weight.  More to the point is even if it were "perfectly balanced", there is still a reasonable amount weight to have to control on each swing of the coil - something that I don't think I could comfortably deal with these days, especially after using much lighter platforms.  I do have to agree that the s-bend Explorer and Etrac shafts were definitely not well balanced.  Despite loving the SE Pro, I did end up with a bad case of "trigger finger" after several years of usage, mainly thanks to the crook angle of the hand grip.

I guess sometimes we are a bit spoiled with the current crop of detectors using minaturised electronics, lightweight lithium power sources and composite/carbon shafts, you do tend to forget what is was like hauling around the older FBS detectors in the past.

One of the main problems with the Equinox is the grip, more to the point your hand wanting to slip up the grip to the screen all the time.  Hence you tend to hold the grip quite tightly trying to prevent this from happening which can be tiring after a while.  In comparison the Simplex grip is more ergonomically correct with the notch below the screen preventing hand slippage resulting in a much more relaxed hand grip. 

I do see a lot of people with lower shafts near fully extended when it is maybe not so necessary (depending on how tall you are), personally I prefer a shortened shaft closer to my feet vs being extended out a fair way from my body.  If I can get a detector to effectively hang off my arm using the cuff strap and with the grip loosely held, then I know it can be swung comfortably - essentially an extension of my arm.  Same for the Deus S-stem, the balance and lack of weight is so good that I never need to run with a cuff strap - in fact it being a bit nose heavy tends to work in its favour.  The pivot point transfers the weight to the forearm via the cuff, and the grip only needs a moderately tight hand to keep it in check.  I guess that is why I still prefer s-bend shafts that have the main shaft in-line with your arm - most the detector weight/swing is controlled through the stronger muscles in your upper arm and shoulder vs relying on the hand/wrist. 

As for counter-balances, the jury is still out for me on adding extra weight for balance vs total swung weight.  Much like some saying that the CTX is perfectly balanced, though there is still a fair chunk of weight to swing/control for extended periods.

What Minelab should have offered is a universal control box with either an optional straight or S-stem shaft, similar to that provided with the Vanquish.  Though it is pretty hard to please all involved with so many personal preferences, having such options available should appeal to a wider user base.