longbow62

I knew about the Profind and the Quest. A buddy has a Profind, but have not noticed him using it lately. He never really bragged on it. I had assumed the Quest was similar to the Profind. I know the Sun Ray's were popular on some detectors like the Etrac, and they were based off the detector for tone and I.D.. If a wireless pinpointer could be made to work thru the detectors electronics that would be a great thing. 

I'm bored and it's snowing again here. No detecting until Sunday at the earliest.  Just thinking out loud is there a reason fancy discriminating pin-pointers are not a top priority? I've often thought about if it was possible to convert a Tesoro Mojave into a pin-pointer by somehow making a coil for it kinda like sunray did and mounting the detectors guts and speaker in a different box. You could control sensitivity and discrimination easily with the knobs. I'm not sure why Minelab or another company has not taken the pin-pointer to the obvious extreme of discrimination and wireless that might even read out on the detector screen in a pinpointer mode. Is that even possible or wanted. I don't chase a lot of iron looking for a target in a hole or plug that often, but it does frustrate me occasionally. The available pin-pointers seem pretty primitive except for the wireless XP pin-pointers. Again I'm bored and it's snowing. Off the top of my head it seems like a discriminating pin-pointer would be useful.

At this point I'm pretty much totally burnt out on all testing videos. I don't care whose doing them or what detectors they are using. I'm not interested in any of the releases available right now anyway. That's not to say others aren't though, but I find it hard to believe most people aren't burnt out with them too.

Edited because I didn't notice this was the Nokta/Makro section.

What I am saying is at the one site the coins happen to be much more shallow than normal. That's where small coils shine if I understand it correctly. Shallow good targets in amongst trash. Small coils didn't help there even though theoretically the trash and the coins were on the same plane.  

Mostly my silver is deep where I hunt mostly 6"+.  You posted:

"If my 3 hypotheses are correct, then that might explain why some people don't see what the big deal is with smaller coils on the Equinox. For example, imagine an old house with silver coins in the yard. But the silver is located 5-9 inches down. But from the surface down to 5 inches, there's nothing but a dense blanket of iron trash. The stock 11" Equinox coil might be more capable of sniffing out the silver coins compared to the 10x5 or 6" coil. Or, it's ability to pick up on those silver coins is at least comparable to the 10x5 or 6". But since you get more coverage and depth with the stock 11" coil, that ends up being the preferred coil."

I agree with the above.

I'd like mention I've read where the 6" and the 10x5 are deep for there size. One of the places I re-hunted with them the coins were shallow to begin with. Like 3" deep. Very shallow for my area. It made no difference. The Barber dime I found with the 11" had it's I.D. pulled down by something near it because it was reading 18-19 in the ground, but the correct I.D. in a clear spot on top of the ground. That's what made me want to try the smaller coils there. Shallow coins plus some obvious trash that I had actually saw affect the I.D. of a good find. What better place to use them. I came up empty for my efforts. No biggie, and believe me I'm not basing my view of the smaller coils just on these last three places I've used them. I'm basing it on my continued bad luck with them trying to find something the 11" missed. 

I have a thread going on another forum I started the other day about how the small coils have done nothing for me. I have the 6" and 10x5. I have been back over three places I have recently got silver and all were pretty trashy. One basically iron only. the other two a mix of iron and modern. I found nothing more going back over these spots. I have never even found a silver with either of the smaller coils that I can remember. The crazy thing is I also never seem to hear anything very deep with them. I'm talking 4" maybe 5" max. I hunt pretty slow to begin with. I'm not going to fast. I've tried jacking the sensitivity and lowering recovery a tad. I've kept all settings the same too. Unless your working around obstacles I've yet to find a good use for them.

Minelab Equinox 800. A buddy got one before I did and he let me use it. I instantly jelled with it. I knew it was a keeper when I dug an SLQ under a pecan tree that at least 5 different detectors had beat to death over and over. I then took it to a park a buddy with an Etrac thought he had cleaned out. The previous detector I had which will remain nameless had never found a silver in that park. First time in with the Equinox I got two very deep Mercs, and was digging very deep Wheats right and left. My buddy about had a cow. 15 silvers later I think the Equinox has found all it can. I just can't find another halfway diggable signal. Believe me I've tried.

I've always been a top of the line buyer for my hobbies even as a newbie. The first detector I bought was a Whites XLT in 1998. A very expensive machine back in the day. I did not stick with detecting at the time, but kept it and when I did start back almost 5 years ago I actually found some nice coins and relics before I upgraded to a Nokta Impact(sold now) as the second machine I bought. Then the Equinox 800 I have 2. One bought new the other I traded an Etrac for. Heck I even have a brand new Deus I bought last summer. I plan on pairing down soon before the next Minelab release. I don't care if it's over $2000 I'm getting it as soon as it's available for pre-order. 

I think people who are super serious about the hobby might flinch at $1600-$2500 for a relic/coin detector, but end up making the outlay if the tech and features are there.

As a example look at hunting compound bows or crossbows which is my other hobby. You can easily reach the same price range as high end detectors. Some compound shooters upgrade every couple of years. Many every year. The same can be said of hunting and targets rifles. In the target rifle game you better be prepared to pay to play.

Not going to try to talk you out of it. I have no idea what or where you hunt. If you hunt beaches/water and relic sites mostly then your probably good. If you hunt parks and yards or places with lots of modern trash the jury is still out on your selection.

Viscous Remnant Magnetism. I thought the Rockwell Retro Incabulator was supposed to solve this issue? What happens if we have a pole shift after this new coil comes out?

A friend has had a Deus II on order for awhile. Who knows when he will get it, but it will be interesting to see how it does in places EMI gives me fits with the Equinox. I can say without a doubt EMI where I live seems to have gotten worse in some places over just the last few years. We have an area called the " Historic West End" where most of the older homes are. It's a roll of the dice when you get out in this area how bad the EMI will be. It totally runs the gamut from very light(20 sensitivity) to basically so bad you can't even detect (10 sensitivity for stability). I seldom dig a silver under 4", and most of it is 6" plus.   

I'm not a newbie, and I wouldn't say it's still not a major issue. Just last weekend I detected a place where my 800 was absolutely useless. Several more places it was absolutely compromised by EMI. I've always said EMI was the Equinox's achiiles heel. If the Deus II is actually worse at handling EMI then I'd call that a big problem for urban detecting.  

EMI is the SMF worst enemy. I fought it all day today with my Nox 800. It was super frustrating when you know your not going to find anything very deep because of EMI. By very deep I mean anything other than clad 3"-4" tops, and all your silver is more 5" plus. I didn't have my smaller coils with me or they would have got the nod for sure. There was one spot I had to turn all the way down to a sensitivity of 10 just to get it quite, and you could still tell it was not liking it.

My buddy has a Deus II 9" on order, and I've told him already to be prepared for EMI issues. While your test is perfectly fair for an urban EMI positive setting I'd like to see the depth without EMI killing it.

I hope it's at least by Detectival 2022. Mid August will be the full year earnings report. Maybe at least a hint then.

The Codan half year earning report states Minelab has significant progress on 4 new products to be released in the near term. I wonder what near term means in this instance?

So for instance a gold ring that air test 13 on the Equinox same as a U.S. nickel in this case will not read 13 at 6" even though the nickel still does?

By the way I am land locked. No beaches for hundreds of miles other than a few man made fresh water beaches. As I mentioned I don't concentrate on hunting for gold rings. Maybe that is the reason I have yet to dig one. Chances are my coil at some point has been over one and I just passed it up.

I have never dug a for real gold ring in almost 5 years of land hunting. Junk rings many. gold plated/filled a couple. I'm not a surface target hunter. I don't dig many targets that are not at least 4" deep. You would think I would have dug at least one by now. You would also think there would be more deeper gold rings than shallow gold rings anyway simply because of the more lost over time element. I dig my share of old nickels and IHP's so I'm cursed I guess.  

Congrats on the silver! I was snowed/sleeted in this past weekend. Could have maybe forced a hunt, but next weekend supposed to be nice so decided to just wait.

My Equinox always has a lower GB number in Park1 than it does Park2 in the same dirt. The lowest GB number in Park1 I ever hunted was a 9-12 range multiple GBing during the hunt. The same place Park2 was in the low to mid 20's GB number. This dirt achieved the maximum depth of targets over any place I have ever hunted. It was almost pure sand. My hometown dirt is a red Loess that always GB's in the 30's Park1 and upper 40's to mid 50's Park2. Depth in this dirt is still very good, but as mentioned not as deep as the places my detector GB's to lower numbers.

Codan/Minelab has a mid-year report coming out in a couple of weeks. Maybe it will give a hint of something on the way.

Minelab has been awful quite lately. No Equinox software updates either. I would have no problem with them releasing a land only detector. As in rainproof only. If a company makes a completely submersible detector I think it probably complicates matters immensely. Maybe make 2 versions of the same detector with the submersible ones released later with the price being higher. It needs to have an ergonomic carbon S-shaft and be at least as light as the Equinox. Build quality needs to be better than the Equinox.

I want a smartphone size color screen. I like the way the Equinox menu is set up. I want recovery speed at least as fast as the Equinox, and just as deep is fine. As long as it has Etrac, CTX, or at least Equinox audio I'm good. I'd like someway to control volume of selected bins even when using 50 or even up to 100 tones. Enough with the cheap headphones. How about some audiophile quality wireless headphones with a simple way to go wired if you wanted to.

I want FE-CO V.I.D. plus some other type of visual clue to show what the target might be. Maybe a colored bar graph like the old Whites Signagraph. I'm not super interested in the pattern discrimination of the Etrac or CTX, but if it is then okay. It does need the simple horseshoe button to bypass discrimination though.

Come on Minelab impress me!         

Can someone explain why coils are different between a CTX and a Equinox? Or an Etrac and a Equinox? What's going on with the coils that makes each model not compatible with other models? I understand we are talking about 3 different types here FBS, FBSII, Multi-IQ. It just seems odd to me to put something in the coils that make them function only with the model they were designed for.

Should be an easy guy to track down. Just look for the guy sitting in an RV park, drinking a Cherry Coke, and eating a Hostess cupcake.

Writing on can in English. There is a Hostess brand pastry in the background. It looks like the inside of a motor home to me. I would guess it was found in the good ole' U.S.A..

I don't think the Deus II has taken the wind out of the Equinox's sails yet. Maybe on the beach. In 6 months I may be singing a different tune, but for now I've yet to see anything that would make me dump my Equinox's.