Mongo

   Yeah for that amount it wouldn’t be worth parting with. Make an interesting topic of conversation for my grandkids when they get older. 

2 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

Awesome find. Wonder what it's worth?

Man that’s a good question. One found in Europe vs one found in an American POW compound, hard to tell what if any difference there would be. I would say there’s probably a market for these kinds of things, I’m just not familiar with any. I will say this, when I first found out what it was my immediate reaction being stunned, then the thought struck me, “This dude took a bullet for Adolph Hitler.” It’s a pretty sobering thought. Some would place a higher value on its worth than others, so I’m sure there’s some market around

That’s very interesting, I hadn’t heard that before. I didn’t think they would have allowed them to be kept but not for safety reasons. It makes me wonder if they tried to destroy them or saved the ones confiscated to return to the prisoners when they were shipped home. I found this fairly close to the vfw hall which served as the camp headquarters. Makes me wonder how it got there

Thanks!

Gold Seeker, you did it. The WW2 edition seems to be the one. Thanks guys! I’ll be sure to update on any new finds

Ye it is oval and quite heavy for its size. There is a place on the back that looks like it might have been a pin or post but it’s gone. There are two crossed swords behind the helmet in the background

There’s an old ww2 POW camp in the town I live in in Oklahoma. German prisoners were housed here on what is now the county fairgrounds. I’ve been going over this place for about three months now, found quite a few 1941-45 wheaties and an American coat button with the eagle. I found this last week and just got it cleaned up enough to see it. Can anyone tell me more about these things? Thanks for any information!

Would love to get to know others around just to compare notes and tips. I’ve gotten pretty good at sniffing out pennies and dimes and quarters, lots fewer nickels. I’ve found a butterfly pendant in two pieces in different holes, and a sterling silver ring that evidently tangled with a lawnmower before I dug it. Only two wheaties and strangely enough only a handful of coins overall that are older than I am. And I’m loving every second of it. My only worry is running out of places to hunt!

8 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Yeah, but do what I suggested first. 🙂

The Equinox can go full auto tracking (the wavy line top right) of you let the button go while pumping the detector to get a good ground balance. Did that a lot myself🙄

Really appreciate the help, I see what you mean by clear patch of ground. I had to move quite a ways to find an area where there was no sound or target. Completely different readings.  I actually might just run in the auto tracking for a day just to see if I can tell any effects it has. Thanks again

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

This may be an oversimplification, but Ground Balance is the ability to get the detector to accept and ignore whatever minerals and salt or any other detectable element in an area of ground that has no targets in it. It will then give you get a clearer ID of what is there when your coil passes over a real target.

You won't get an accurate GB if you're hearing an iron tone or a symphony of tones when you balance the machine, you should just hear the up and down tones, a buzz that goes high and low while pumping the coil. 🙂 When it stops you're there.

If you hold your detector off and parallel to the ground and you are still hearing stuff you didn't do a noise cancel. If you did a noise cancel and it didn't work, it is because you have strong EMI or you pointed it at your shovel  😀 you may have to switch to single frequency.

if you are holding  the coil stationary  just above the ground and it's going nuts after you got it quiet elsewhere you may be over a buried power line. You don't want to dig in that spot. 😬

Try and find a quiet area of ground, or at least clear the targets from one and then balance the detector over that spot, but be sure there's no underground power. You are only getting a general reading anyway if you're not tracking. It took me a while to get that, keep at it. 🙂 I'm pretty sure auto tracking eats more battery, generally not using it won't.

Okay, now that is starting to make sense. So, ground balance is basically the processor in the control unit calculating how the ground at that particular spot affects the tones or tid. Kind of? Anyway, maybe I should follow GB advice and just run continuous tracking. I wish I could remember where I I read to avoid it, but I think where I’m hunting it might work. Not gonna hurt to try

13 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Yes.

Yes, that's its entire purpose.  I think it was developed (a couple decades or more ago) by multiple people (??) including Dave Johnson, now at First Texas.  For ground with varying mineralization it is extremely useful, but works fine in non-variable ground.

I think it's difficult to over-emphasize the importance of reading and especially rereading the manual.  Did you look at it after I pointed out the page it was explained?

 

Sure, I read it, along with other articles that recommended not running in that mode. The manual doesn’t explain WHAT gb is, just what tracking gb does. “When Tracking Ground balance is active, the detector continuously adjusts the Ground balance automatically….”  I get that, pretty much says it. But how does that affect the rest of the settings? And I still don’t know what gb even is. I’ll figure it out eventually

On 3/31/2022 at 8:59 PM, GB_Amateur said:

The Equinox (both models) have ground tracking.  (Look in the User Manual/Guide.  It's on p. 41 of my copy.)  It works quite well from my limited experience.  Try that and see if it helps.  If it doesn't, then your problem isn't likely the ground balancing but something else.

Is that the continuous tracking option? Does that help with mineralization? I’ll have to give that a try as well, certainly can’t hurt. Thanks!

On 3/31/2022 at 8:39 AM, JCR said:

Mongo,   For some odd reason Ground balancing seems to be troublesome to new detectorists, both understanding the concept & performing it with their machine. I know it was for me too.

The key is to be sure you are over clean ground & listen to the detector's response during AND after the actual GB procedure.   Often it takes several trys.  After a while you will know the expected number range & not have too much trouble.

As far as mineralized ground; try not to run the sensitivity too high. Less really is more when ground conditions get difficult because of mineralization OR trash density. Also be mindful that target IDs will not be as accurate or as deep. Learn to trust the audio as primary, TID is secondary by quite a bit. 

You know, I hadn’t even thought of the sensitivity being an issue, I’ll be giving that a try tomorrow. I’ve been running all this first week running at 22 not realizing that this thick red clay and the trashy park areas might not be the best for that high sensitivity. Since the park I’m hunting in was built in ‘94 I doubt that losing depth will cost me finding any pre-statehood coins down deep. Thanks for the suggestions, very helpful. I got my machine a little over a week ago and have been out every day since. I have 2 qtrs, 4 dimes, 1 nickel, and 4 pennies. Only one of those is older than me, and I’m 58 ha! That one nickel may be the only one I ever find because those pull tabs are killing me! 

11 hours ago, JCR said:

Your red Oklahoma dirt is probably more mineralized than many other people's soil. The more minerals you have to deal with, the more important is is to keep a good Ground Balance for stable operation & best target ID.

Welcome from East Texas red dirt!

Yeah, I remembered today to do ground balance several times today. Anywhere from a 6 to an 87. I don’t know what those numbers even mean, but sure does seem like a big range. Go 100 miles any west direction and you run back into old fashioned dirt.

   Anybody have any tips on settings to help with mineralized ground?

25 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Two things first: tap "quote" when you reply, most get emails or push notifications letting them know you have replied. That'll get you noticed quicker. Second: "follow" your personal threads using the blue button at the bottom. 🙂 If you allowed yourself to be notified when someone comments you will get an email or push.

To tell ya the truth Ground Balance helps, but it ain't the be all. In some of my fields I can run sensitivity up to 24, I don't mind a "bump beep" or two if I know the detector is running hot. I use park 1 both in the fields and dry beach, I switch to beach 1 when I'm close to the water. That's pretty much it for me.

When I'm in one spot near a cell tower, I have had to use 15khz single frequency, in a campground it was 10khz. There are places where the detector will get too jumpy and then I will ground balance again. Lowering sensitivity helps too, you're on the right track. 👍 Best combo for me is stable (no EMI) with the highest sensitivity I can use, and I always try to get back to Multi when I can. Minelab says it's the deepest option.

You're doing great! Soon enough you will do better. 😎 Just keep at it. If you don't laugh when you dig pull tabs, try it. 😀

Crap, wish there was a “quote” button on my Nox, that’s a neat trick, thanks for the tip!

Ahh, the ground balance! I usually only remember to do that at the beginning, but don’t ever do it again during the day. Maybe I need to do it more often? I’m actually pretty good at remembering to do the noise cancel stuff fairly often but never do another ground balance after that first time of the day.

Thanks GB, very good info. I’ve found that running at the preset of 20 on sensitivity has been good i think, no chatter that I’ve noticed. Just a lot of false signals or inability to differentiate between the trash and good stuff if they’re close together in a hole. I’ve just been digging almost everything, and I guess I’m either in terrible trashy area or just not capable yet of finding those good tones. I just don’t want to be leaving stuff behind because I am hearing something that I’m not knowledgeable enough to interpret correctly. Is masking the right word? I get a lot of strong number blips that completely disappear when I dig, maybe the junky areas are a bad idea just starting out lol. I’ll keep digging, thanks for your help!

Been out 3 days in a row, has not been terribly successful treasure wise, but I am starting to find what a strong signal is, I have a dime and a nickel and two Pennie’s but they all gave me reason to believe they were there. I’ve been hunting in a large local park and of course, I am getting a lot of jumbled signals. What do you guys do to fight through noise to try and identify a reasonable target? Are there specific things I should be listening for, or adjustments I should consider? I used to coach hs football and know that the practice and repetition is necessary but bad practice or ignorant practice is what I’m concerned about. 
    I’ve been running in park 2 and have set (I think) the fe2 at 4. I also am recovery speed of 2. I also have already gotten in the habit of noise cancelling so should be good there. The park is fairly clean, so not sure what’s going on underground. Any suggestions or advice are appreciated. And no, I don’t have pics of my pennies, nickel or dime haha

Thanks so much guys, I really appreciate it. I actually got to go out today, dug around 20 holes or so…..meh no goodies. I did dig out a big piece of cast iron that rang up at 28-30. I also came to the conclusion that people drink way too much pop.  I also dug some holes that had strong signal but as I searched around for it in the hole and plug, it completely disappeared. I’ll be out again tomorrow, sure wish I could dig some gas money! 

Hello Tony and TomD, fellow Edmond area here that also just got a 600 a couple days ago. This red clay is miserable to dig in when it’s wet, ugh.  Gonna try tomorrow, see if the wind has dried it up any. Nice to see some fellow Okies here, maybe we can compare notes on settings and stuff. Anyhow, good to meet ya

Thank you sir! I’ve been reading the Sabisch book and it’s very informative. I’ve also been watching some select videos, digging and replacing plugs, etc.  Just have not been able to get out and hunt. Oklahoma red clay is of the same consistency as modeling clay when it’s wet, and brother it’s wet! I’m just anxious to  start learning this thing. All the adjustments and settings and terminology are a bit overwhelming, and I learn best by doing. I don’t understand a lot of what I’m reading and how it relates to the ground I will be hunting around here, so it needs to dry up so I can go figure some things out! By the way, I’m 58, so I also have a long way to go and a short time to get there haha.  
    Hope to talk more soon, I’ll let you know how the 600 acts, maybe we can compare notes. 

 Hey all, newcomer here and to metal detecting. Just got my eq 600 2 days ago, high followed the first rain here in over 2 months and of course, it was a doozy. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like for a 10 yr old to get one of the coolest presents ever, but made to look at it for days, sitting there, mocking you…well if you want to know, I’m your guy.                                                                                                                                                          
   Anyway, anxious to learn all I can from yall’s experiences and knowledge of the science.  Thanks!