Daniel Tn

That is awesomeness! I swear though, I know her doppelganger; she is an archery shooting friend of mine. They could pass for sisters for sure.

GB_Amateur -- One site in particular made me take note as to hunting in different modes. I was hunting a Civil War camp and hunted about half of it in one of the modes. I can't remember which but I did do a video of it and the following hunt. Anyway...that first day I recovered several minie balls and larger pieces of camp lead, etc. I came back the next time and finished the camp area...then kinda skimmed through it in a different mode. During that skimming process, I realized I was going to have to rehunt the entire area...cause now I was finding small brass, buttons, etc that I had somehow missed. Sure enough, I think the 2nd hunt produced a half dozen buttons, smaller bullets, etc whereas the first one was mostly .58 cal bullets and 1 button. Oddly, I have NOT hunted all that much in the Field modes. In my particular testing, I have favored the Park modes. Currently, I admittedly have been using/testing the Tarsacci MDT detector more than the Equinox. Except for in the water.

I had the luxury of being able to go back to some of these swim areas when the water level was dropped this past fall/winter, and recovering all/any targets that remained after hunting all summer and early fall. It was clear to see why these had fallen through my scoop. Just a short list....small split shot sinkers, .22 LR bullets, swim trunk drawstring eyelets, etc. These were all mostly single digit hits on the Nox, with some venturing into the 10-11 range. I didn't find any jewelry doing this, althoughI was hoping to. I use a Stealth 920 scoop, so it does have fairly large holes. I bought a scoop with smaller holes but find it more trouble to use because it keeps too much in the basket...rocks, clay, etc. Takes a lot of digging to find what's in the basket. The only effective way of using it was to actually make a floating sifter out of pool noodles and dump all the scoop contents into it. That grew a little annoying to me, so I reverted back to the Stealth scoop. If I realize that what I am scooping is falling thru, I just move on now. Another thing I failed to mention is that the Nox can make it somewhat difficult to decide what to use when it comes to what mode to use. Nobody is absolutely clear as to what the "secret sauce" does between the modes....say Park 1 vs Park 2. When all other settings are changed to make them match...disc, iron bias, tones, etc...there is still a difference in how each mode handles/responds to particular targets. I have all the books written on the Equinox, have read lots of posts over the year too, plus my own trial and error testing. At best, everyone is still guessing as to what is going on, based on Minelab's description of the algorithms and weighting. But here's the thing in a nutshell as it just happened to me a couple weeks ago...just one example. I was hunting a freshwater swim area looking for a ring that a young lady lost over Memorial Day weekend. I had pretty much cleaned this beach out last yr of all trash and such so any signal located meant that it was a recent drop, which is exactly what I was looking for. Well, as far out as I could get while keeping my head above water (not diving). I hit it with Park 1, because to me, it runs quieter and I was looking for a recent drop. I was finding a few recent coins out in the water. But no ring. I hunted for an hour and covered most of the suspected lost zone...the area she said she was in when she noticed it missing. I had actually turned around and was rehunting it from a different pattern direction (thinking maybe I had missed getting the coil over it) when I got a scratchy one way hit. I kept going over it and over it. Down in about thigh deep water I could see a round shiny object on the bottom that looked suspiciously like a ring. Something told me to try Park 2....flipped over to it and that signal was high tone, loud and clear repeating every sweep over it. Park 1...broken up. Hmm. Checked disc...it was the same (everything positive was accepted, 50 tones, iron bias at 1, recovery speed the same) and Scooped it and there was her ring. I decided to just rehunt the whole area in Park 2 just for kicks. Found a lot more small junk but also found 1 more ring and even some more coins that took me a few scoops to get (meaning they were deeper). The catch there is...I was also able to get out deeper than I could last year. Last year it was unseasonably wet...rained pert near all summer. So water levels were higher than normal. This summer has already started out dry and I noticed I was able to get out considerably further than I could last year. What would have been 2 feet over my head in depth last yr, is now just around shoulder deep. Anyways, Park 2 is typically more noisy overall for me but did respond better to this particular ring. Ring had no stamp in it for metal type. The young lady said her father had made it to fit her and that it had a lot of sentimental value to her. Whatever the case...it was just one recent example of many like it that I have personally saw over the past year. I like having the versatility at my disposal but don't like how easy it is to pass right over and dismiss a good target as trash in one mode but then it turn into a no brainer "dig me" in another mode. Especially in an area when something good could turn up all across the metal size and compilation spectrum. It truly is like having multiple detectors in one. When time has allowed, I have often hunted an area in one mode, then rehunt it with a diff mode to see what turns up. I have been surprised by this several times now.

Editor note: split from https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/9945-my-salt-water-report-card/ I agree with ya on some of your points and grades. After a year of using the Equinox, I can give a fair assessment on where it ranks and how it compares to other detectors for the uses that I do. If I were solely a beach hunter, I would personally feel more confident with a CTX 3030. I personally feel it has more depth to it in that arena. Even in freshwater, I put a good season of water hunting in with the CTX and all last year with the Nox. I found more rings last year with the Nox but I also found triple as much small junk that slowed me down...stuff that fell through the scoop, and or just disappeared. This alone has me wanting to snag a good used CTX. On saltwater beach...this is an even stronger feeling of favoring the CTX to me. I personally didn't mind the weight of the unit. I find the screen is easier to see on the Nox, particularly in direct sun light. I even like the feel of the Nox. I just feel from what I see, that the 3030 has more muscle to it in that area. I can't ever remember having a target that disappeared/vanished on me once I scooped a hole while hunting with the CTX. I had some I almost gave up on cause they were so deep though. The Nox will do the Houdini act in salt sand and in dirt....it doesn't like open holes at all. When it comes to hunting in mineralized soil and coin/relic hunting back home...this changes big time. Even though the CTX is revered as a great coin machine, it is handicapped a lot by red dirt. The Nox runs circles around it there. Like night and day difference. Hunting in iron...same thing. Heavily favored to the Nox. This leaves me in a split mood. Most of my summer hunting IS in the water for jewelry, albeit freshwater. The Nox will find the same rings as the CTX...but it also wants to lock onto those small pieces of crap that fall through the scoop. I need to figure out a way to have both and hope the wife doesn't find out ?

Tracking info says my copy is in my mailbox. Will dive into it tomorrow and see what is shaking. Am interested to see whom he tapped for settings and such. It is my opinion that the people that had them the longest, are on this particular forum, and thus would have more experience behind them. I ran across a self proclaimed expert a few days ago on social media. He is one of the YouTubers that actually lives near me and hunts the same areas...so the dirt is similar. He was telling how bad the Equinox does and that it's a terrible over hyped unit and he is extremely disappointed in it. I called him on it as my experience is the exact opposite of his. As it turns out, he's had it exactly 2 months, but was going on like he knew everything there was to know about it because he has been detecting 25 yrs, knows how to set metal detectors, etc. Turns out he didn't even know how to noise cancel it or GB it. But yet he was giving advice and his expertise on the machine itself. Lol Hopefully Andy didn't tap someone like that for the book. Just cause they are popular on social media or YouTube, don't mean they are knowledgeable..

Haha I didn't even have to mention a name and ya'll got the reference. For me, it is more of the over posting fatigue that gets me. I can't stand a whole lot of talk that doesn't go anywhere. Like spinning tires. Asking questions for the sake of hearing yourself talk. I'm definitely interested in the new machine but until I get one in hand, I don't have anything really to say about it. A lot has been fretted over due to an imaginary price...I really don't care. I say, the people that want one are gonna find a way to get one. If it does what they say it does, it wont take long of seeing their buddies who have one torching them every hunt...they'll find a way to get one too. Some people also just need to swallow their pride and come to grips that they can't afford everything they want in life. I love to fish. Would love to have a new 18 foot aluminum boat with a 60 hp 4 stroke on it. Those are about $25,000 now. I drool over the Trackers every time I go to Bass Pro Shops. But I can't afford one of them right now. Maybe some day. But right now my budget is more inline with a sit on top fishing kayak haha. I'm good with that though. I'm not on the manufacturer's forums whining about how the price should be more inline with my budget.

My take on the GB issue is simple. Test it for yourself and go with whichever gives you the best results. I have areas of mild ground and areas with severe ground. In every place I have tested the "leave it at 0 vs ground balance" on actual targets, it has widely favored ground balancing. Your area may be different. It's a simple test to do and a setting to change back to. In my opinion, that is better than just relying on what you read or what others have said. If I took to heart what people say on the internet forums, then validated 12" Fisher CZ machines and only Ireland made FBS machines can find silver coins. And or, a Tesoro Mojave can do everything these other machines can do. And if you go by what is said on YouTube channels and social media...the Garrett AT Series is the pinnacle detector series of the world. I know all that to be hog wash...but point being, test it out for yourself. I've had an Equinox since April/May last year and it gets the most use of any of my machines.

I had to come here for a break and a breath of fresh air. All the current detector threads on Dankowski have been taken over by one individual....everything related to gulf side Florida beach hunting with the Equinox, MDT 8000, and now the Impulse has to go through him for approval or so it seems. I've got fatigue from his posts. I feel sorry for LE.JAG cause everything he posts over there, this individual hits him from all sides when he does.

I am very interested in this detector. I live 8 hours from the nearest saltwater beach and may only get to the beach once a year for a few days. My thought process is a bit different than others though; I want to try to make the best of my time while detecting at the beach for the time that I am there. I don't want a machine that I can just make do with. I sound like a broken record by now, but before the GPX got popular at the Culpeper, VA hunts, most of the people were using the Whites MXT, Fisher T2/F75, and the Whites 5900. Those people would often heckle the few pulse users by saying they were crazy for spending that kind of money to hunt relics a couple times a year, when their machines could do just as good in the right hands. They were playing this up to be an experience thing...that in the hands of a skilled user, the VLFs could do just as good. This was proven to be incorrect, and it didn't take long for it to catch on. Now I dare say 95% of the people use a pulse machine of some sort, with most having a GPX. I never doubted nor heckled...I was one of the first to get one to be honest. And thus I will be when the new Fisher hits the market. Since I don't live close to the beaches, I don't have the luxury of waiting for the perfect tide sequence, or for the big storms to erode the beaches. I have to make due with the conditions while I am there. They may not be the most favorable but I hopefully will have the machine in hand to give me the best chances at finding gold while I'm there.

The problem here is, there is no clear cut answer to your situation and conditions. I've been in some soils that shut down most VLFs to a depth of around 4 inches max...that the Equinox could handle pretty well, and get down to 8 to 10 inches in. I encountered some dirt last week that I was digging dropped Civil War bullets left and right with the GPX...and when I saw I had walked into an unhunted Civil War camp, I got excited. Stuff wasn't deep and it was everywhere, and mixed in with a lot of iron. I was having trouble with the iron and the GPX so I swapped over to the Deus that I had with me, and this ground completely shut down a Deus, and I had both 11" X35 coil and a 9 inch HF coil. I tried every setting I could think of for it, and still could not get a bullet beyond 4 inches with it. I came back the next day with the Equinox and was confident it could handle the site decent. Just on the east side of this same farm, I had done extremely well with the Nox back in the fall. The west side of the farm is where I was this go around...and the dirt is vastly different. Another big difference...is that this side of the farm has had cattle on it some 60+ years. I'm talking about hundreds of head of cattle. I fired up the Nox, got my favorite relic program, ground balanced and started hunting. It was so noisy I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with it. I was getting constant 1 and 2 signals. I finally put the thing down and fired the GPX up til I located what I was pretty confident was a drop minie ball. Lay it down to signal check with the Nox and BARELY got a one way signal that bounced in the teens. I circled it....played with iron bias and recovery speed settings, and the different modes. I couldn't ever get the signal any better but could make it worse. I was hoping and praying that I was wrong and the signal was actually iron or a piece of junk. Nope...it was a dropped minie around 6 inches. About 10 yards away, another signal on the GPX....same thing on the Nox...one way hit. If I pressed the horse shoe button to fully open the whole disc range, I could hear it iron grunting most of the time. Another dropped minie. Long story short, I dug 30 something dropped bullets, some carved bullets, 3 large round balls, and a button, plus about a half pound of camp lead. Had I been hunting solely with the Nox, I dare say I might have dug 6 to 8 bullets tops. Had I continued with the Deus and either coil, I would have walked all through this camp and not found the first thing. I believe it was 9 mineral bars on the meter for it in most places. My theory is a crazy one but here goes. I think with all the cattle that is on this farm in this one area...the cow poop and pee has altered the soil and made it very salty and acidic. You figure, 60+ years of over 100 head of cows on average. You can't hardly walk across the field now without stepping in piles of poo...and I've always noted that cow poop will make a detector false. I did not try salt modes on the NOX....may try that next time I go down there. It was down hearting enough that I listed my Deus for sale and sold it.

I swear I looked and searched this topic and somehow missed that thread. Haha. Good info in it. I have tried aftermarket battery systems but always go back to the stock battery. I wish the smaller Minelab one had better battery life. I'm not buying one that only lasts a few hours at most.

With all the newer transmit/receiver style units out there now I was wondering if there was an update for anyone that has made the jump to wireless for the GPX and how it is working out. I have tried two systems so far and not bee happy with either one. Detectnix (sp) unit with their headphones....it worked but there was interference pending on where the unit was located. One video on YouTube showed putting it in a specific spot on the control box and it helped...but still got a lot of signal dropouts and static sound, there is also a delay in audio. I went to a newer low latency Bluetooth dongle and synced my Equinox wireless headphones to it. It too works, but still has the static sound to it. The signal doesn't or hasn't dropped out yet and there is only a very very slight delay in the signal. It is useable but I'm wondering if there is something better out there. I see Gray Ghost has a set of headphones and dongle for the Minelab machines. Also wondering if the Garrett Z-Lynk headphone kit would work well with the GPX. Minelab has the ProSonic but is the most expensive of them all and reviews are not what I hoped to see as far as the GPX goes.

That was the point. If I understood the question, it was if the lack of recovery settings on the 600 limited/hindered me in bad soil. My answer was no, because in the end, even though my buddy has an 800 with more settings, what he found to work best and what I found to work best, are essentially the same setting. There might be other places where he can go one setting above or below where I can and eek out an edge, but I personally think the three settings in the 600 are all a person will need. I've not ran into a situation where I felt outgunned or longing for a faster or slower speed. Now when it comes to audio options...that's where I sometimes wish I had an 800. If I can find a used one for a decent price I am gonna snag it anyway but I'm not gonna buy a new one just to play with tones.

Not really. My buddy has an 800 and brought his12x15 coil to test. He had saw a video somewhere that said the recovery speed setting made a huge difference in depth with that coil. On bullets I/We found at this same site, I saw no real difference between how his 800 hit them and my 600 hit them. There were none of them that he could detect that I couldn't. He went thru his recovery speed settings to try and find the best one for him. I think he was on 4 on his 800 when he settled on it and my 600 was on 2.

Yes sir!! I truly wish they would have made those an option for the Gold modes! Especially a tone option for it. I've never liked VCO audio. That was one of the reasons I originally sold the 800 and kept the 600. I wasn't going to use the Gold modes. Now that the price has settled down on them and they are available anywhere, I think I will pick up an 800 again just for the customized audio part.

I think a $499 price for it would have been more ball park for what it is. $899 is too high for what I would spend on one. Then again I wasn't really wow'ed by the Deus and think it should be more of that $700-800 price range for the full package, remote, headphones, and your choice of coil. I would like to retry one with a HF or X35 coil with the higher frequencies. Was supposed to get to borrow one with HF coil from a buddy but haven't yet.

The site in that video is going to be a subdivision soon. All of it will be gone. I have been back twice since that video. In the video I found 41 civil war bullets. My next trip, we were mainly marking bullets to test the new MDT 8000 detector and did not hunt hard for bullets. I think I found 12 that day. The last trip resulted in 21 bullets. My buddy that hunts with me has got about the same...so all in all, 3 trips have produced around 100 or little over that, bullets. Still plenty more of em in there. I always used this spot as a testing area for new detectors. Gonna be sad to see it gone. Other relic hunters in the area have recently found it and have been hunting it some. The Nox does fairly well there for a VLF. It is not a pulse machine but does better in disc mode than any other VLF on the market that I've used.

Sounds like similar conditions to a civil war camp I hunt too. A high tension powerline runs right thru it. I have not found a magic setting on the GPX to allow one to hunt there. I have tried small coils, AI coil (11"), Cancel mode, and various other tricks. I tried hunting thru the warbling and motorboating and did pull some bullets and burnside casings out of my camp but nothing deep. I hunted it with a TDI and could get closer to the lines but not under them. I hunted the edges really well though. In my case I haven't had a VLF that ran smooth there either but the DST mode F75 in all metal seemed to work decent and was deeper than the GPX running throttled back. Have not had an Equinox on that camp yet but have ran into emi with mine in other areas so I figure it will be hard to hunt there with it too. Gonna give it a whirl though this week.

From the outside looking in, I think the Orx has more than enough features to satisfy the average to advanced detectorist. My take on people in general is that a lot think they are smarter than they actually are. ? This hobby is no different. That's why they can run a machine with limited or automatic controls and then get themselves way over their head with a machine that has a lot of manual settings. 8 out of 10 will use a Deus and never venture outside of presets. The pricing does come at a surprise. But then again if you break it down, it's not so bad. Used Deus with LF coil, out of warranty generally sell for $550-600ish. You could buy that, but then you'd need the HF coil to match the Orx's operating freq. Those are $425 new. That puts you at $975 and no warranty on the machine itself...and that's if you can find one for $550. That's about the cheapest I recently saw one sell for. At least with the Orx, you get the 5 yr warranty and the $425 coil. For somebody like me that has been curious about the HF coil performance but don't wanna drop $1,500 on a new Deus...that might be the route to go. Easy to sell if I don't like it cause it's new and with lots of warranty left. Yep it's still a single freq machine but those do have applications where they are still the best tool in the box.

I'm a Park 2 guy for most applications, including relics.

Just my opinion...I feel the power cord that goes from the battery to the detector is the weakest link in the whole detector system. You can just breath on the thin metal around the plug prongs and bend it. The factory Minelab ones are super fragile. If you barely bump them on something, they are going to bend. Last week I was hooking myself up to go detecting and the cord end hit the ground. Not pavement mind you...just grass and dirt. I picked it up and saw it had bent it! I luckily had a pair of needle nose in the truck and was able to halfway bend it back in shape to where I could hook it up but I was worried about it breaking. This isn't the first time this has happened with previous GPX models. Anyway...I decided to go after market on the cord. I bought a CoilTek and it came this morning. To my dismay...it too is very thin and came out of the shipping package bent! Why can't they make those things a little tougher!?? Such a critical part that is made so flimsy and cheap. I know a lot of guys go to the Gold Screamer pack and eliminate the big cord all together. I tried one and did not like the sound quality so I went back to the regular setup. I don't even mind being tethered to the battery...just wish the ends of the power cord were beefier. I was at a DIV one year where a guy dropped his cord in the hotel parking lot and he bent his so bad that he couldn't straighten it well enough to use. His hunt was shot because of a small incident.

I sure hope some smaller/medium coils come to fruition. Especially the two sizes already named. An 8.5 or 9 would be perfect for freshwater beach water hunting. The 5x10 would be awesome too.

Looks great Steve! I did some playing with my Nox and dug out some of my archery gear. I figured out if I moved my arm cuff forward, that I could get some of my stabilizer weights and attach them via the last hole in the shaft, behind the cuff. I ran a threaded bolt thru the hole and attached weights there. Thus far I have 12 ounces of weight on the back and with the 12x15 coil, it seems to counter balance it close...I actually think a few more ounces might be better for it. I think it would be too much for the 11 inch coil...probably just need 8 ounces for it. This will vary on the overall length that a person uses too. On the stock Equinox setup, I am in the 3rd hole down from the cam lock. Once you get your full setup ready it will be interesting to see what weight options everyone favors.

Thanks so much!! I was totally looking in the wrong place for the adjustment. These are different than all the other headphones I've ever used that have the sliding bands. Neato...each individual ear cuff can adjust. I have it set perfect now. On the cable length, I'm just a little taller than you, 6' tall without shoes but it is a smidge too short for me. It always pulls the slack out of it and is pretty taunt at just my normal swinging height. If it were any tighter it would pull them off my head. Audio wise, I like them better than the wireless phones for normal everyday detecting. I may pick up a pair of the Patriots to try them out. Tony's are the best thus far between the yellow Minelabs and the Gray Ghosts, in my opinion.

A person always needs to weigh out the options and advantages/disadvantages. I personally wouldn't buy a GPX new...the used ones by relic hunters here in the US are fairly new, in good shape, and I have seen them sell for as low as $1,000 for a GPX 4500 that had only been used at DIV relic hunts. They generally average $1,500 used though. On the flip side, on the forums I have saw big box TDIs sell for as low as $400 but they generally fetch more on the auction site. The TDI Pro is what most people want and I see them go for $1,000 easy. For me and what I do, there is enough difference for me to swing a few hundred extra towards the GPX in that case. The big killer for the TDI Beach right now, is the only coil offered is the 12" dual field. For it to be successful, they are gonna need to offer it with coil options. It is not so great in the water with that coil. For hunting wet sand it is great. Actually in the water...nope. Too big and too much flop from where the coil bolt mounts. A 9 or 10 inch center mounted mono would have been perfect for it. The other thing was, they eliminated the conductivity switch and made it be locked in All. For a beach machine I would have rather had the option.