mn90403

As I was swinging tonight on the beach I remembered the experiments I had done in the afternoon. I had adjusted Iron Bias for the first time and played with Recovery Speed. I had run through many of the modes and sounds but didn't get out of Multi. This got me ready for the beach. When I got there the tide was coming in but on the way out I had found a 'ring' in the dry sand. It is the electrical fitting ring, not the kind you wear. I got down to the wet sand in the dark and finally had some interesting targets. They were 'easy' to hear compared to my previous uses and a couple of quarters to get started. Then the thought occurred to me that the 800 is like an instrument and I was 'playing the ground' with it. I could make the ground sound like I wanted it to so that is what I did. I experimented and I won't go into all the details but I thought about the base instrument, let's say a piano. I know what a piano sounds like. I also know what some of the sounds an electronic keyboard makes which enhances the keyboard strokes. What is the basic sound of the 800? I went to Beach 2 because I'm not going in the water diving anytime soon and I went to Recovery Speed and put it on 1. I put Iron Bias on 0. Tones are on 5. Now I have done Noise Cancel and Ground Balance. Sensitivity is set about 22. What does the 800 sound like? A cello or bass. I can hear everything because I have a little threshold. I feel like I'm moving a bow over the strings because the ground is moaning. The targets are coming thru in their normal fashion it is just that everything is 'long' and maybe this is was a smooth CTX sounds like because it uses slow recovery. It is nice to know so now I go to Recovery Speed 2. It is a big difference. All this time I'm thinking about the power of the 800 to see into the ground and salt water. All of the adjustments are filters on what we hear. I was pleased to hear it as smooth and I had it on all metal so I could hear the bobby pins. These settings helped me find the Canadian Dollar because it is magnetic and the magnet. There were a couple of jewelry pieces so I was pleased with that also. I'm not going to keep these setting everywhere because there are places where a fast recovery is needed but not on my beach tonight. I felt like it could see deeper but I didn't dig anything over 10 inches. Try the power of turning off most of the presets. As Kevin Hoagland once told me about my 5000 ... take that manual (as he was throwing it across the room) and shove it. Get a threshold and listen to the ground. He was right. I took the power and listened to the ground. Amazing. Mitchel

Well done Flak. What Fred said. You can also spray it with one of those rubber sprays (tape it first like before you paint) with the cover on and it completely dry. I do that to my PI coil covers when they get thin. I just got back from the beach and will post up a bit later after a picture. Mitchel

I had a boxy 94 Trooper bought in 98 that I never put into 4WD until 2010. I used it like a cargo van for years. Then I started detecting so I already had 4WD. I loved that because I could sleep in it and I had it when I found my big nugget. It will always be in those pictures. It died and parts are too expensive now. I've been places with a 2WD 2003 Escalade and had adventures it was never built for but that is what I had. My present 4WD is a 2002 4Runner. This model was the last of the narrow 4Runners before they started getting so big. I consider it to be a highway quad with the Cooper tires I put on it. Lots of parts for them around but hard to find a good one with low mileage. Mine is a bit rough. An alternative with some luxury is an Infiniti QX4. Many of them are street only around here so they may have a straight frame. Mitchel

Steve, It sounds like I have a better chance of seeing you in Reno before you make it down here. I'll up my Equinox on the beach appraisal with the larger coil. I'm just wondering if I'll be able to swing it without an assist. I had been using the CTX without an assist and then I got the 17". After about a week I had tennis elbow and could never swing that on its own again. That is still my preferred beach setup over the Equinox. I haven't used it since I got the Nox. With a bit better beach conditions then I could see the true Nox performance. Mitchel

Skate, If Steve came now he would be disappointed. I'm disappointed with our beaches. Mitchel

Skate, Good to see you get to the beach. Your experiences on the beach are similar to mine. We should get together some time and see what we can learn from each other. This afternoon I went out also. I thought the storm would produce larger waves but alas it did not. Our beaches are not holding very many coins right now for lack of energy to move them. I hunted for patches and it was not to be. I have the volume up on the bluetooths and I think the pennies are louder than the quarters. Mitchel

Fred, Curtis can be like a noisy patch of hotrocks sometimes and at other times he is a low mineralized sweet patch of ground! Thanks for asking. Mitchel

Steve, Has OnX kept you on public lands for the most part? I've got a good GPS on my phone and it will let me download offline maps so even if I don't have cell service I can see where I am on roads and terrain. If I have done my research before I go then I can go on to My Land Matters and put in points that are pretty accurate. Another program I have has historical mine data that comes in easily on the phone so I can convert it to Google Maps and points if I want to. Land Matters research includes a link to the county recorders office. An individual claim can be looked up and the bounds of the claim have to be recorded by law. This part I haven't done yet. I've asked Clay if there are plans to make MLM phone friendly and he said a while back no. Maybe that will change one day also. Mitchel

Lunk's name can go in the met bul books again for the meteorite. Nice chunky gold too. Mitchel

Well done! I agree on keeping the tones to 5 or lower. Today I decided to use 1 tone and 2 tones on the beach. Mitchel

Randy, I looked to find anything from Gordon available now but could not. Maybe one of these days but I did find a partial solution to my problem. I said that I like the way the Equinox sounds in Gold Mode. That as it turns out is a single tone response. Why not try it on Beach Mode? I did and I'll say that dumbing down the sound makes it easier for me to recognize a target. Once heard then I can look at the numbers. Today I found two rings. The gold looking ring is not. It is mostly copper and when I was digging it I thought it was going to be another penny. As you can see it is not. The second ring sounded like a ring (low positives) but turned out to be stainless steel and a bit odd at that. Still learning. Mitchel

Randy, I echo Steve's remarks about the finds and thank you for what you have shared about the 3030 'sounds' that have been mimicked for the Equinox. (I wonder if it is possible to mimic smooth and long but they seem to have done it with gold mode on Equinox!) I had previously subscribed to Mal's Beach programs for a couple of years but didn't make my English trip so I've since dropped its new content. I'll be looking for the settings you mentioned. My hearing is failing but most of it I can handle with volume or now I use a booster with a 7000 out in the gold fields to hear the subtle signals. I look forward to more of your Equinox posts. Mitchel

I thought finding nuggets was so now we all have to rethink you!! Very nice pieces. You did not waste the gold. Mitchel

Randy, You have done a better job of writing what I experienced with the Equinox. What is very true is that all signals seem to be of the same intensity which is quite unlike the 3030 and SE Pro which I will compare this to. I have found some beach gold and was impressed with its depth on that coil. Your depths in Field 1 and 2 are similar but you do have to 'listen hard' in order to just go for a dig. My learning curve is great also because of the total dissimilarity to the 3030. Everything from the button combinations to the sounds and ground balance procedure requires thought and some reading. I'm still so new to it that it is like a new language. I try to imagine if I would be finding more or less with the other detectors. Mitchel

Jonathan made some points in the blog that were very true for me in regards to the Equinox. To me it is a great sounding gold machine. You can adjust the threshold and the single frequency target response is very nice. He did make a note that you have to take some of the initial positive ID numbers and dig based upon that. It does want to jump after you start digging. My settings and ground were not as good as Jonathan's but I feel like what Steve has said that the Equinox can find gold smaller than the 7000/14 (if you want it). When I used the Equinox yesterday on areas where I had found many nuggets before I could imagine it finding lots of gold that is already gone. I have no reason to buy a Monster now. I might even consider selling my 2300 because it is a pain to use and the 800 is easy. Mitchel

Steve, I've seen your pictures. Did they have any depth? Mitchel

Went out today to an area that has several patches near Barstow, California. We've hit this area pretty hard the last couple of years and it is pretty much a mopping up sort of hunt there on open ground and with Prospectors Club of Southern California. We've had lots of fun with 7000s, 2300s, Monsters, GB2s and now the 800. About 40 minutes after I arrived I scored a little .1 g nugget in the first scrape. All of my targets for the day were in the 1st scrape it seems. I was using Gold 1 in multi with 20+ sensitivity. I would noise cancel and ground balance. Later in the day I played with 20 and 40 single frequency. After the first one it was a couple of hours before I got another one that was smaller. (I have added the picture 24 hours after the original posting. The one on the right is the first nugget.) I was glad to get these two nuggets because recently I've gotten skunks with the 7000. Later in the day the wind was picking up and I was at a different location when Swifty showed up. He had told me earlier if he heard one he'd call me over. Sure enough he had a signal and he came up with a .4-.5g nugget. A few feet away he got another signal and I swung on it just to see if I could hear it with the 800. I could not. We scraped a bit and I got a variable signal with -9 to 7. (I was in all metal to hear the hot rocks.) It was not a strong signal to me and the wind is now blowing about 30 so he finished finding the nugget at only 3 inches. He now had two nuggets much bigger than mine. It had been a wonderful day until he proved who was king. Swifty and the 7000 are too much of a match for me with the 800 and my first time to the gold fields. I'm sure I'll have more and I need to learn how to get some depth. I've collected some hot rocks for practice. Now I've found nuggets and gold jewelry. It truly is a versatile machine on small size targets. Bring on the big targets! Mitchel

I got a chance to go out to the beach this morning. We have kind of a middle/ebb tide going on now and then one really low tide so I went to the wet sand where it peaked last night. There was very little there and deeper than I suspected. I tried my normal spots and then worked my way toward another stretch of beach. I noticed that the sounds were 'small' in Beach 1 so I decided to go All Metal. Shortly after I heard a small sound and started digging. It came in at 4-5 and was louder it seemed because I now had the iron turned on too. I got down about 10 inches and it was out of the hole. It then gave the Geiger Counter type of sound(quick little bursts) and I could see it. It only weighs 1.8g but it is a ring. The other objects didn't really seem that large either. The circuit board (which I dig many) didn't give a size of mass. The sunglasses were the deepest thing I've dug with the 800 at about 14-15 inches so I'm impressed by this but surprised by the small initial target sounds on most everything. The tiny little chain 'sounded' and I think I might have cut it up with my scoop. Mitchel

I thought Gerry was talking about the battery 'blowing up' and the 'competition' was using the story! Minelab has been developing some good products but they have also been developing some good hype prior to release making it seem like it is a 'must have' or you will be wasting your time swinging something else. I feel this way right now. Mitchel

I've just returned from an early morning hunt. I thought I was going to see a rocket launch but it has been put off for another day. There was not too much happening with the beach. Very little sand has been moved recently. I did get my first two rings ... well only one was worn. It is a cheap copper ring. It sounded just like a penny coming in a 20. It was just by luck I dug this one as several others I passed up. The other ring is some fishing gear. Mitchel

Norvic, It is a good question you pose about the GB. When you do the noise cancel you see and hear a completed task and then go to detect. I don't know what is supposed to happen with the GB. Mitchel

I'm finally posting my first two trips finds. The first picture shows the first coin I found which was a dime. My first water find was the hoop earring. Remember I was hunting with the WM8 and did not turn on the power. The second picture was with different beach conditions. There were more targets and I used the blue tooth only. That is completely wireless and I know that needs power Norvic. haha Another question for Norvic ... should I count the $2 in paper as an Equinox find? Maybe say it heard the little wire strip in it? Mitchel

I have both coils on order. I personally think that the large coil will be very useful also. I'm wondering so far with the stock DD coil if it really sees the 'fringe area' that is part of my detecting with the 7000 and the 3030. I know if I get directly over a target its killer so that may be good for gold in a hot rock area. Just wondering and would like to see a thread on this. Mitchel

Chase, It is a silver ring. Mitchel

Chase, I was answering questions at the other end of the thread before I read this question of yours. Your assumption was mine also about being hardwired. My first use I thought (or didn't think) that once wired then I was connected. I was muffled so I need to use the WM8 next time and turn on the headphones. As it turns out the 800 looks for the WM8 first then goes to bluetooth. I was just on the beach for about 3 hours and I used the bluetooth only. I don't know what the WM8 sounds like with the headphones turned on. Mitchel