bado1

I haven't done anything in Park 1 or Field 1 yet. I've used Park 2 and Field 2. My impression of Park 2 was that it is more geared to sifting through modern trash like aluminium and jumps on the higher conductors. Field 2, on the other hand, Is very "sparky" especially when the Iron Bias is set to zero and the speed set to 6 or 7. I used Field 2 on a site that is polluted with mostly old iron trash and hot rocks from rail road track ballast. It was very immune to the hot rocks. I found that if I raised the Iron Bias up to 2 that it was less "sparky" on this site. Bringing the IB up seemed to make the tones more mellow... or made it report the tiny iron bits less (?). Field 2 jumps all over the mid and lower conductors like lead and copper.  

Dean

Seems to be a difficult concept for some to grasp. Just like the whole mono vs. DD coil and "depth" in the nugget shooting world.

Dean

Very nice! I like finds like that as they are not so common.

Dean

Cool. Thanks for the link.

Dean

Thanks, TNSS!

Yes, Field 2 has a lot going for it. Gonna have to play with it a bit more.

I thought that you would be interested in that .38-55 case. I've never seen one.

Dean

Thanks, Skate. I was having "coin envy" after seeing your seated finds! The IHP pales in comparison. Congratulations!

The IHP was very shallow (1") and, as such,  gave a double beep with a VDI of 19-20. Lower than a zinc penny. 

Dean

I followed TNSS's lead and did a hunt entirely in Field 2 today. The site is a late 1800s rail road spur that serviced a large mining town. The mine produced large amounts of copper and silver. They smelted the ore and then shipped it by rail to a refinery. They spilled a lot of the "raw" smelted metals while adding cars to the line at this spur. The site is very polluted. We have hunted it with various machines. The Nokta Relic, Impact, and AT-Gold did pretty good here sifting through the trash BUT only if they were wearing small coils and hunted slow. The Equinox excelled here with the stock 11" coil and I found that it performed better hunting fairly fast. Settings were Field 2, Speed 6, 50 tones, Iron Bias 2. The 6" coil will be killer on a site like this one!

I found my first Indian Head Penny (1905)! That probably sounds funny to you guys that hunt back East and find IHPs all the time. The trade off... I can drive 20 minutes from my house and find gold nuggets. It's a cross I will have to bear I guess. A few lead box car seals, part of a baggage tag that says Prescott on it, a brass or copper piece that looks like the hinged top from a drawing compass or the base of a hand held fan (?), suspender buckle, and some really odd shell casings....303 British (with bullet), .56 Spencer, and oddest of all a .38-55. The large chunk of smelted metal in the upper right corner acid tests as silver. It IDs in the mid 30s on the Equinox. I've found some other nice chunks of smelted silver here. The black rock-like object (looks natural) comes in at a solid 12 on the Equinox. Not sure what it is. When I hit it on the grinder it is solid metal of some sort (very heavy) with a bluish hue kinda like the color steel becomes when over heated with a torch. 

Anyway, Field 2 seems to like the low conductors best and is very immune to the hot rocks from the track ballast (which gave the AT-Gold and the Impact fits). Nice and sparky with Iron bias set to zero but tames down when set on 2 as TNSS mentioned. 

Dean

Wow! Congratulations! I believe that you've made a good decision on going all in.

Dean

Awesome! 

The Nox is making us all look good! Thanks for posting that up.

Dean

Excellent report, Skate! Thank you.

I noticed nickels coming in at 12-13. Not ever 13-14 so far. 13-14-15 is always a square tab (so far). 17-19 in modern sites has always been junk but in old sites the large "three ring" bullets come in 17-19. Somebody had posted that they were irked that the Equinox's VDI scale was "compressed" in to 40 numbers of non ferrous and that it is going to cause issues (they probably hadn't even used it yet). To me,  so far, I find the Equinox ID to be rock solid and reliable. It does not feel "compressed". If the tones are good and the ID is bouncing around it has been junk. I, also, don't use the pin pointer function much. Never have. I have a pretty good "feel" for where the target is under the coil, if necessary,  I use the wiggle and pull back method. Anyway, I'm loving the Equinox thus far. I'm down to just three machines now...GPX, E-trac, and Equinox. I don't feel wanting for any other machine currently offered by anybody and my man cave is a lot less cluttered by various machines. I'm confident that I have all my bases covered. 

Looking forward to more reports from the field.

Dean

I liked the particular settings of Park 2 mode. Had to start somewhere is all. I'm gonna have to give the others a go. I've only got about eight hours on it so I've got a long ways to go before I really know what's up. I'm headed to a 1875 era mining town this weekend. Tons of old square nails...mostly old trash no modern pull tabs and such. I will try a different mode and see how they compare. My hunting partner got his Nox yesterday. I will suggest we hunt with different modes and compare notes during our hunt.

Dean

  Thanks!  IB =Iron Bias setting.

Dean

The results of my second hunt in two very polluted sites. One site is an Indian Wars era Calvary Camp that has been extensively hunted by multiple machines. It had stopped "giving up the goodies" so I hadn't been back there in a while. The other site is an old CCC camp ground so polluted with aluminum and iron trash that the E-Trac's threshold would just go null for entire swings. The three ringers and black powder rim fire cases came from the Calvary Camp the coins from the CCC camp. I hunted in Park 2, multi freq, 50 tones, IB 2, recovery speed 4. 50 tones gives that wonderful high "silver warble" on the high conductors. If you are familiar with the E-Trac/CTX you know what I mean!

Zinc pennies come in so consistently at 20-21 that I stopped digging them knowing what they were. The deformed three ringer appears to have been purposely smashed in to a square shape at the bottom  (so it could stand up) and flattened at the top and then shot.

Skate, I don't mean to hijack your thread. Thought this was relevant to the early days of the Nox hunts. Thanks!

Dean

Awesome, Skate!

I'm headed out shortly to my iron infested Calvary Camp that has been detected to death by many different detectors. Can't wait to get the Nox on it.

Dean

Yes. As you stated..."you seem to hear everything". There is no "smearing" or "blending/bleeding" of tones. The Equinox is so fast that it seems to report everything as it's own "separate" tone. I used to believe that I liked the Blendy/Bleedy tones of the Nokta Core/Relic/Impact (I've had all three). Well, after using the Equinox just once, I can say that I no longer care for the Blendy/Bleedy tones anymore. Truly eye (ear) opening. Steve had mentioned this early on in his testing and he was right. The speed of which the Equinox can report each target as a single "snap shot" is astounding and, as such,  gives us a clearer picture of what is in the ground.

Dean

Excellent report, Skate! 

My first hunt was much the same as yours... minus the two silvers ( I did find a silver plated spoon). In 2.5 hours I found 50 non ferrous targets most of which were coins! Super trashy site. The Equinox is unbelievably fast. When the threshold is brought up (Park 2) you truly can hear everything in the ground including the nulls in the threshold from disc'ed iron. I'm looking forward to my next hunt.

Dean

Excellent! That's the video and results that I've been wanting to see. As a ghost town/ old home site hunter,  that hunt gets me excited. I'm more concerned with separation and unmasking than depth. Great video!

Dean

Excellent tutorial.

Dean

WTG, Dan! Thanks for posting!!

Dean

Well said, Tim. My dealer, who is my good friend and hunting partner, said the same thing that JP said...Minelab made no promise of delivery prior to January ( I was called a troll on another forum for stating that, though). He ( my dealer) was a bit disappointed at the meager number he received on his first shipment.

It is what it is and I will swing a couple of other great Minelab units until an Equinox with my name on it arrives. Soon,  I hope!

Dean

20 hours ago, Goldgetter said:

I am to curious about this coil. I use a 14" elite mono and have great luck,punches deep, excellent on small gold...... really happy with it. I do need a big, best depth coil just to check all my spots. I was researching the nugget finder 25" mono and seen a video on the detech 15" coil out punching the 25. kinda thru me a curv ball, I was set on the 25 but if I can do the same with a smaller coil then ill get that. I'm just waiting on more info

Goldgetter,

I have found gold with this coil and was surprised by it's sensitivity for being a large DD. I couldn't speak to it's depth capabilities though as the ground I have hunted with it isn't that deep. I got it for very mineralised ground. The only draw back is it's weight. I have the 8"  version too and absolutely love it. Super sensitive. Excellent DD coils.

Dean

I have a bunch of them laying around but didn't have a multi- port charger. Sod-buster had posted a nice looking one. So, when I was at Walmart, I went and checked them out. My wife didn't know that they were made like that (multi port) and wanted to know why we didn't have one! She is very organized and doesn't like stuff plugged in all over the place. So, I picked up a 6 port 5V 12amp charger. It was less than 20 bucks. It will charge quickly at 12amps.

Dean

Very nice! 

Dean

Thank you, Steve.

Dean

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I assumed that when the 70 page owners manual came out there would be people finding all the neat previously unmentioned function details and would be excitedly discussing them. Who knew that the “what comes in the box” photos freely available here and elsewhere for a couple months would suddenly be the issue of prime importance now that some people have noticed after a couple months that no charger comes in the box. Wow, secrets hidden in plain sight! “Charger Gate” is a perfect characterization.

The decision may have been logical - I have no less than maybe thirty ways to charge my Equinox, and have randomly grabbed any USB charger in sight the last couple months will no ill effects. Yet the blowback may have Minelab wishing they tossed one in. Good chargers typically retail around $10. Then you have adapters for international use to deal with.

Whatever, it is what it is. Hopefully dealers are educating themselves so they know to inform customers they need one. Online dealers should add a purchase option for one on their sales pages.

Why would you assume to know how people are gonna act? Especially a bunch of old guys that still use flip phones!  Of course we are excited! I, too, have a bunch of chargers... just wanted some input from someone that has had some experience with the product.

Dean