scoopjohnb

For my beaches I’ve settled at recovery 4 as well. It draws out the deeper targets just that little bit better. Sens 23 to 25 when I can get away with it. What’s nice about the Nox is you can actually set it in increments and adjust the machine just to your conditions. Not a lot of hassle, just adjust a step, hunt for a while and see how she handles. Great little unit!

At a recent dealer convention we were promised 35 new or revised machines. We actually got to see 1 prototype and 1 rip-off from another company. Even the Big Dogs steal bones. In stead we got all the social media CR@p and 1 figure stood out for me. Those kids with a prostetic cell-phone attached to their fore-arm on average check Facebook 40 times a day. So that is where todays marketing is focused. Our current CEO couldn’t tell you the difference between dull and sharp side of a unit. We sell Stihl ? And they live in clean hospital white offices crunching turnover numbers and discounts on their laptop. Even the good old manual has gone extinct and been replaced by an APP. Within the near future I see the mechanic becoming extinct as well. Parts are becoming increasingly expensive. Add some labour to it and they are cheaper off buying a new one with a loyal customer deal. Times are changing,...

Used 2-tone today in beach 1. And decided to drop the reactivity from 6 to 4. Suited the targets and iron just fine, depth was more than ample and just drawed out the tone on those deeper targets that little bit longer. Gold mode was again a No-Go. She did an awesome job in the damp sand at the high tide line. Back in business.

Allow me to enlighten my colleagues in discussion. An Excal is an excellent wet beach hunter. However I’m not after an Nox 800 that is an Excal. I’ve got an Excal! That upper tide line when the tide is out can be worked with an 18 kHz Deus. You can get the machine stable enough it will hunt. All be it with very little depth. The 18 kHz picks up the small goodies. Beach 1 has found me small gold and small targets an Excal has problems with. I would like those same small gold and small targets, but with the audio of an Excal in pinpoint. I really don’t need ID at the beach, it just a bonus. I just need to find 1 small dense target and then I simply grid that area. You are after thin gold rings with stones in. The bonus side of the ID is just that, You dig the ones you know,... you certainly dig the ones you don’t!

What is actually wet salt sand. We’ve got about 400 meters of tide and 6 hours from flood to eb. My trick is starting hunting the upper tide line, preferably a cut when the tide is out. So the sand has had 6 hours to drain it’s wet salt water. It’s still damp but not saturated. That gives me about 5 hours detecting time. Just trying guys, just trying. Because Beach 1 on basic settings allready brings home the yellow. Just trying to get the audio the way I like it. First time I switched gold mode on at the beach it went ballistic. It deemed to me then that it needed to be tamed. Anyway, I’ll report back positive or other. Haven’t touched a detector in 6 months. Fishing with a Capital F ?

Been fiddling in the basement with Noxy. I desperatly want to hear the ground at the beach and have high hopes for the GOLD 1 program. Way too much reading of the manual! Select Gold 1, a comfortable threshold pitch, drop the sens way down. Think of the reactivity setting as a SAT speed, I set it at 8. Cranking up to 1 seems to hold on to the target much longer. Ground tracking on. Switching between locked and tracking couldn’t be easier. And hey presto, fishhooks give me that butter smooth double blip. Raise the coil and that slight rise in the threshold tells me somethings there, but out of reach of the ID circuit. Hitting the horseshoe trips disc in and out. Just what the doctor ordered. Of to the beach we go!

I’ve been running in all metal, the horseshoe thingy on the Nox. At the beach there are all sorts of goodies lurking in the iron range. Just curious if she could run like the All Metal in an Excal and still use the frequency range in multi. It appears to hit hard on just about anything ?

Getting geared up for my beach hunting season. Not the usual sunny day morning clad hunts. I like to go behind big winter tides, preferably with a hefty sea ripping into the beach giving me some cuts to work. Pretty use to the Excal running in pinpoint mode and my SDC hunting with a SAT. Trying to figure out how I can fool a NOX 800 into thinking its an Excal. The Nox 800 has allready given me some gold in Beach 1 and pretty basic settings, just curious if I can really get her to Hunt in pinpoint mode with a SAT.

A nice solid TID 5, probably from the “large” part. Now and again I hit left overs from beach fires BBQ’s, they hit 2-5 range. But just that slightly longer drawn out signal in pinpoint and they tend to jump a number. Being the natural sluice that it is. When your hitting foil or those small bbq leftovers. You’re just that tad too high up the slope. You just let the beach tell you where the targets are and then grid the area.

Ah the dreaded 2€ coin and it’s nemesis the pulltab. You can tell someone has walked the beach with a single frequency VLF when you’re finding 2€’s with the CTX. They disc out pulltabs :-) Same with a BBS unit, a little too much pulltab disc and gone is the 2€ money maker. When I’m hunting 2€ coins I just break out my CZ-6 with 8” coil. It hates steel crown caps and has a very exacting pulltab break off point. Tried hunting parks with a Deus,... well that was a big mistake. Steel crown caps drop wright in where our former Belgian coins hit. And tracking was a bit,... euhm,... well it actually wasn’t :-) Hunting parks for 2€ coins you need to use your sens like a disc,... too much and it will light up all the aluminium. No need for that :-)

Another first for the Nox 800. A baby's gold bracelet from the wet beach. Still on Beach-1 mode. Can't read the hallmarks, but the engraved date 01/08/96 is a clue to the gold content and purity :-) 22 years on the wet beach in the older coins strata. 1,8 gram and the nox had me chasing a few smaller targets that fell through the scoop. I'm really starting to like this machine an awfull lot!

Used the same system on my 705 for a while. The tube sliding in and out means you can really fine tune your setup. Since them I’ve gone the bicycle drink bottle strapped under the armcup system. All a matter of preference, us beach hunters with the Excals have been debating the behind elbow versus under the elbow mount for ages :-) A rule of thumb for however you set it up, actually a rule of fingers. I grab the handle with my index finger and middle finger, close my thumb around the handle. And the armcup should naturally come to rest against your arm. Slightly nose heavy. For me getting the ergonomics wright is the first thing I do.

We are at best simple users which enjoy the genius and knowhow off those that design and build and help finetune. Often fall pray to overthinking stuff when out of the box it just plain performs! Great read Mr H

It has a very forgiving ground balance point and at the same time a very correct ID. Compared to the single frequency VLFs that we are use to that is sort of a contradiction. The CTX when ground balanced is spot on, deep. And slightly annoying when trying to do undulating terrain. It really likes everything just wright. The Nox 800 with a ground grab feels like you are hitting it in the ball-park. And what those little Minelab electronic fairies are doing on the inside is super fast tuning it to the actual conditions. Funny thing is they don’t mistake faint signals for ground. Truly amazing! Have had a few targets not ID-ing, but... it hit them with the wright tone. Something to think about.

It’s just a feeling but Beach 1 feels an awfull lot like my CZ-6. I’m pulling the same kind of targets. Hitting the mid conductor range at the beach with a vengeance. And Hey,... it’s an awfull lot of fun to drive as well :-) Can’t wait for my next hunt,... but alas weather and car troubles are keeping me from my hunting.

He probably just had a bad day. Everyone gets them. Even I now and again have them, usually Monday till Friday during opening hours :-)

Equinox is designed for patient people :-)

I beg to differ. They supply the machine with 3 coils, 3 coil weights. So they would need to balance it using 3 weights at the back of the machine. From a manufacturing standpoint pretty easy. But a lot easier to just drill 2 holes each side on the bottom lips off the rest. And attach a cheap bicycle drink bottle under the armrest. Mine contains a spare set of earbuds, some rags to prevent everything from cluttering around and I add weight at the very back in the form of fishing sinkers. You can really trim the machine so that its slightly nose heavy and it swings like a dream. Add a bungee at the bottom of the handgrip which attaches to your harness and it is near weightless. What I don’t understand is the camou treatment people give their detectors. But I’m sure there is a valid reason why they want it to blend in.

I came home from a first beach hunt with a few coins, small bits and pieces, gold and a big smile on my face. My other half knows me far better than I do myself and stated very firmly: ”Don’t You go messing around with that Beeper,... it brings home the goodies!!” I just hate it when She is Absolutely Positively 1000% wright on the money,... makes me feel like a hammer in the toolchest. Use when needed :-)

Only have a few hours of Nox under my belt. But who ever designed the audio should get be very pleased with themselves. This machine is a real pleasure to listen to, no audio fatigue what so ever. The tones have a nice full body to them. Especially that Iron tone is spot on. Its there easy recognisable even the deep small stuff. But it doesn't become annoying.

Well, weather was nice-isch. A few rays of sun, not a gust of wind and with my chores all done. OFF TO THE BEACH. Beach 1, Adjusted threshold pitch to suit my ears and dropped it just below audible, GB-ed often and kept it fixed, Sens 22-23, All Metal, Noise Canceled. I always hunt All-Metal at the beach, dig it all except iron and I even dig iffy iron. Usually the larger stuff but often the stainless kind. Hit the towel line, with the tide coming in. So the sand had about 6 hours to drain out, moist but not waterlogged. This Puppy Hunts! Gold ring 2.0 gr with a gem, partially worn through, will need to get it tested, hallmark is unreadable. This Puppy Hunts or do I need to fill in my lottery ticket today?? Just Lucky I guess. Tried engaging Gold mode at the beach?? Oh My God it turned this machine into Starship Enterpise doing Warp 9. Need to read the manual again :-) Don’t hunt by numbers people, this is a Deus Killer that hunts by ear. It just loves those iron core, copper filament coins.

What kind of animal is that on the far right :-)

The trailcam at a local lake yesterday. I'm probably going to try the beach if this weather persists.

Noxday was cut very short with the ground still frozen and sleet coming down. Managed to use my X-terra armcup with my bicycle drink bottle. A bit of weight in the bottle balances everything out nicely. Straight out of the box settings, Park1, conservative sens, GB-ed, Multi-freq and out pops a 0,5gr target next to iron. That's a nice surprise for an 11in coil!! Nox is charging, time to read the manual in earnest.

So with all these machines not flowing out the factory like a tsunami. And dealers having to make cloak and dagger deals with their loyal customer base. People getting tired and frustrated that their Nox hasn’t turned up. Out of the blue, lightning struck on a clear sunny day and it’s sitting in my mancave as I write??? The agony of it all,.... a second one is inbound via another channel and I really have to read the manual now. Sunday just turned into Noxday!!