Badger-NH

In the areas with moderate to heavy iron and nails, I would definitely try using Recovery 8 at some point. I've been maxing out my recovery speed around some local cellar holes and pulling out some good targets that were barely just squeaker tones. Just last month I got a King George copper using recovery 8 at a cellar that has been hunted by everyone for 30 years or more. I need to go back there and try gold mode next time.

With Gold mode, it's best to not look at the screen at all and just hunt by tone because the numbers can be way off, especially around iron.

I relic hunt in Gold mode sometimes. Multi has shown to be deeper than the single freqs in Gold mode at my test garden. I run single tone and disc out everything below 0, or higher if needed. My ground is generally pretty mild so it behaves quietly most of the time.

I don't know what Joe and Snowy are doing. I don't even know if they still metal detect. They didn't seem to be doing much detecting during the final year of the forum. Was pdunc your name on the Maine forum?

Here you go Popeye. I already knew you were from Maine https://mainemetaldetecting.com/

What part of Maine are you from? I'm just south of the border in Portsmouth. When I saw your forum name I thought you might be from North Carolina until I saw in your post that you are from Maine. I know quite a few Maine detectorists. I used to belong to the Maine Metal Detecting forum before it shut down. One of the members just recently started a new Maine detecting forum and it's slowly becoming active. I have the 800 and love it. I'm not a water hunter so I don't plan on ever submerging it. I mostly hunt the wet sand. Very rarely will I bother with the dry sand. I also have a CZ20 with 8" coil that I bought in '98 and still use from time to time. I prefer it over the Equinox on rocky beaches. I enjoy beach hunting but my main thing is relic hunting. We relic hunt year round down here as long as the snow isn't too deep which is most of the time.

If the ring is heavily corroded, that likely means that the metal is breaking down. Even 10 karat gold will not corrode. Also, in the photos, it looks like the thin gold plating is flaking around the edges. You could try electrolysis. That would clean away any tarnish. The ring will be all shiny gold if it's solid.

I could easily be wrong but the ring looks gold filled to me, not solid gold, or has that already been confirmed?

That has been my experience as well. I think I read somewhere that Iron Bias is supposed to have the biggest effect on thin flat iron like bottle caps and rusty cans. The tones don't change much if at all on thicker iron and elongated ferrous targets like nails when adjusting from 0 to 9. I've tested it on thin flat iron targets that give mixed tones and it has helped to give it a more accurate ID (low tone). Iron Bias is there for those who need it. For me, at the sites I hunt, I haven't needed it, so it stays at 0. I imagine there probably are places with tons of rusty can lids, pieces of cans, roofing/siding, and/or bottle caps that might be unhuntable without Iron Bias.

The Explorers are sealed up pretty well for water resistance but accidents can happen. I try to calculate any risks before taking them and stay constantly focused on my surroundings. That has kept me out of trouble pretty well. Growing up at the beach and being a surfer, I learned to always keep an eye on what the waves are doing. Whenever we get big surf, it's fun to watch people walk into the water to get a selfie only to get knocked down because they didn't know a wave was coming. Sometimes it can be dangerous and people have been swept out.

I never took risks like that with my non-waterproof machines. I would freak out if even a few drops got on my Explorer housing. I used to put a zip-loc bag over it if there was any mist in the air. Heck, I don't even let my Equinox get wet. I have to remind myself that a little rain is okay. Those protective habits are still with me. 99% of the time I had no concerns about using the Explorer on the wet sand and/or occasional shallow water.

I'm sure it has probably happened but I've never heard of anyone having their detector damaged by water at our beaches. Obviously, we're not going to put our detectors in a situation where they could get wet. We don't wade in the surf when the waves are big. It's just common sense. But like I was saying, there really isn't much advantage to going in the water except maybe to cool off in the summer or detect a tidepool cut.

I used the Explorer SE on the wet sand for over a decade and never had a problem. Before that I used a White's that wasn't waterproof. The Multi frequency Explorer was made for detecting the wet sand. Setting it down on the sand isn't going to hurt it. I often waded out to knee deep with mine. Lots of people did this I'm perfectly capable of walking in the water without falling. The Explorer and Safari were a common sight on our wet beaches up until the Equinox came along. I don't know what you're talking about. Most of our beach hunters are also avid relic hunters so it makes sense to have a detector that will do both.

In NH we have over 100 yards of wet sand. There is no point in detecting in the water because the negative tides allow us to access another 50 feet beyond that for a few days each month. That's why we don't need the detector to be submersible. Believe me, if it was worth our time to be in the water, we would be out there. Here's a sky shot of one of our local beaches at low tide. It's packed with people in the summer. There are four centuries of history on our beaches. Lots of very old coins, rings and relics have been found. https://goo.gl/maps/MsHrHUweimQPc3jC9

They call them crown caps because they look like a crown when you turn them upside down. Good luck trying to ID pull tabs and pull rings. If you don't dig them, you might be passing up a nice gold ring. If I don't feel like listening to trash signals, I discriminate everything below 20 and cherry pick mostly coins. When I run out of targets, I open up the teens. Digging the teens is sometimes more work and requires patience. You can tell I don't detect sites with a lot of modern trash very often. I'm used to digging every non-ferrous target. I rarely see a bottle cap or pull tab at the places I detect.

If they are going to make a terrestrial version, it would be great if it had the ability to perform like the AQ on wet salt sand as well. Non-waterproof and ultra light for land and beach. All for under $2000.

Yeah, that looks like it might work, as long as a standard 1/8th inch jack will work with it.

No, it has nothing to do with whether its worth the price. A headphone jack adapter would simply allow you to use any headphones which is a good thing. I guess we got sidetracked from the original topic.

That's it! A simple adapter to connect to the AQ would solve the whole problem. The adapter would have the same connection as the waterproof headphones but it would allow you to plug any non-waterproof headphones or bluetooth transmitter into it. It should come with the AQ.

Any 1/8th inch headphone jack will plug into the Equinox. I plug in my waterproof ear buds when it rains or when it's too hot for big headphones. No special connector required. If the AQ had this type of connector, I could use any headphones or even use the Trond Bluetooth transmitter and go wireless.

I never said it could not be used on the wet sand. It's just that the waterproofing is proving to be an unnecessary hassle and raises the price. Not only are we forced to buy headphones we don't want, but if we choose to use normal headphones, we have to find someone to wire a special connector to them.

Do they make one that will work with a standard headphone jack?

Well, I sure hope they come out with a non-waterproof version of the AQ for the rest of us to use on the wet sand. If not, they are passing up a huge part of the market.

That totally blows. Why can't they use a connector like the Equinox that accepts any headphones?

If it comes with waterproof headphones, why would I want those? I'll probably want to go wireless. Even if I did decide to go in the water, why can't I use what I have or choose what I want?