Condor

JW, If you manage to do some filming, please include the bump sensitivity part. If people think the new Equinox is the ultimate VLF gold detector, they're going to be disappointed. It is a very fine gold detector, assuming you have some experience and understand the absolute skill of coil control. At these extremely high settings, you simply will not be able to poke that 11" coil down between rocks and crevices without bumping and falsing. I was very happy on the flat ground and tailings mounds, but deep down in the rocky gullies and desert washes I was quite frustrated. Now that I better understand the machines limitations, I will concentrate on the areas where it excels and leave the others to my more capable machines. Just remember all the complaints about the Monster falsing with higher settings. This machine is no different and perhaps worse because of the coil design. I'm not a basher, just realistic. I like this machine for all its flexibility and I wouldn't trade mine for anything like priced. Caveat Emptor. Edit 3/10 - See follow up post.

The machine with these high settings is very bump sensitive. From my previous tests with test nuggets, if you were concentrating on 1/2 gram and larger nuggets you could turn down the threshold to near silence. It will cut out about half of the bump falsing and still hit the nuggets pretty clearly. You can certainly turn down the Sens and achieve less falsing, but over test nuggets the depth drops off dramatically. Real world results on undug targets may differ. Bear in mind this is basically my 3rd time out with this detector, so don't count my word as gospel. I like the machine, and I want to like it even more because of its weight and ease of use. Paul: No problems with EMI 10 miles outside of sunny Yuma. The Marine F22's fly here everyday and they play havoc at times with the GPZ, but no issues with the Nox. I detected directly under power lines and there was a noticeable hum, but no real problem. Edit 3/10 - See follow up post.

I've been laid up for over a week with the friggin flu, but JW's finds with the Equinox inspired me today. A sunny 78 degrees in the Desert Southwest, so I decided some fresh air and detecting were in order. I picked a spot for easy access and easy walking, not wanting too many challenges to my recovery. An old hillside placer that we had found a number of tiny nuggets with the 7000 seemed like a good prospect. I plugged my earphones directly into the the Nox and ran the Gold 2 program with no discrimination. I jacked the sens to max and just puttered along, low and slow. I picked up these 4 micro nuggets for about 2 hrs effort. None of them registered a VID, just a barely repeatable tone. The biggest was down maybe 2 inches and gave a nice steady hum. The others were less than an inch, just a squeak of a tone. The hillside was fairly flat, so I was able to manage some decent coil control, otherwise the Nox at full power will false with every bump. You'd have to be pretty bored to make this kind of detecting a habit, but it served its purpose today.

I purchased an Equinox 800 hoping to put a little more fun into gold prospecting and try my hand a coin/relic detecting. I've put about 5 hrs detecting time in, first in a really trashy shallow bedrock wash then in running through old drywash tailings. 5 hrs is not enough to really get to know the machine and I was not able to get that coil over undug gold, but some initial observations can be shared. In the shallow bedrock, littered with bits of ancient decomposing food cans from an old mine camp, Nox is awesome. I ran it in the standard Gold I setting, with no discrimination. The rotting can trash was unmistakable in the -3 to -5 VDI reading. Modern steel items like machine fittings etc, sometimes ran up to +2, but lead and my test nuggets consistently gave VDI of 8 to 10. A 1 gram test nugget consistently hits 9 to 10. Hot rocks show up in the -7, -8 range. In the drywash tailings, I was looking for depth and the ground was a little hotter. I ran in Gold II with the sensitivity between 19 and 21 where conditions allowed. Again, ferrous trash was unmistakable with good logical VDI numbers. I ran into a lot of hot rocks in the -8 VDI. Given that I could not get the coil over undug gold, I opted to do a little testing with test nuggets. First, a .2 gram nugget sounded off perfectly to about 3 inches, VDI at depth is iffy. I think more depth is possible on that size with a little more tweaking. Then, a 1 gram nugget down 6 inches in the fine drywash tailings. Tone was unmistakable, but the VDI was all over the place. I went down 8 inches and the tone was clear, but now the VDI starting hitting at -8, the same place as a hundred hot rocks I had been over and had quit digging. I'm still not sure how to interpret that bit. More practice and more testing. Ideally, an undug target is the place for that, I just need to get over one. My one gripe is that the coil is very bump sensitive. That spoke design catches on brush and the tops of rocks causing a hard chirp from machine. A few times I was trying to work that 11 inch coil down between rocks and every bump gave me a chirp or 2. It really breaks the concentration when you're trying to find those whisper signals. At this point I would not opt for the 800 as my exclusive gold prospecting machine. Good thing I have the workhorse GPZ for that. Edit 3/10 - See follow up post.

Hey Steve, Do you think the EQX can be made to fit the Golden Mask collapsible rod assembly?

The tire options are even better now. Great radial tires out there really help the side hilling goat trail riding. I'll be out to SawTooth this summer exploring the "ghost roads" up in those hills.

I had a similar one on Treasure Classifieds. I kept stringing it along to see the cashiers check and turn it over to the Postal Inspection Service. I think he smelled it out and quit emailing.

Frankly, I don't advocate anyone taking the kinds risks I take, whether riding a Rokon in rough ground or prospecting in Baja. Certainly there are enough assholes on both sides of the border to make prospecting a dangerous hobby. Several years ago two hunters from here in Yuma were killed in N. AZ by a fellow they befriended on their hunt. Is it more likely in Baja, possibly. Paul and I had our GPZ's stolen from my driveway in Yuma. Would you flash your Rolex after dark in Detroit? Did the Argonauts of all the various gold rushes stay home because there were wild animals, dangerous serpents, bandits or wild Injuns? It is all a personal choice and everyone gets to decide how much risk is acceptable. When I start encountering shoeclerks from Payless in Baja, then I'll know it's time to move on. I've been traveling in Baja for over 50 years, with very few problems. That may all change tomorrow, but until it does I'll take my adventures where I find them.

It's great to have a mechanic in the family. I did put the pick inside my pack and it punctured my camelback bladder. I had to cut that day short after running out of water. So I went back to camp and drank beer.

You're right about that Fred. I've done some upgrades, to that little Honda 160cc engine. They need to breath a little more so I added bored out racing carb, exhaust header, high flow air filter then jiggered the governor to squeeze out every bit of rpms. So much torque it will jump out from under you, and now more top end speed than I will ever need. I also added the aftermarket new front fork with shock absorber. A sweet machine and will no doubt result in another Dr. visit or two.

My prospecting partner from San Diego and I made a quick trip down to Baja for some prospecting. The area is an old placer site about 190 miles south of the border. He's been detecting the area for over 20 years, from Gold Bug through Minelab 2200 and now with the GPZ. All the patches have been hit pretty hard but we managed to scrape up a few nice pieces. We had 3 good days of detecting, I spent one day on the old patches and the rest of the time exploring for new spots. My nugget total was half of his since he opted to stay on the old patches. We drove as far as we could up an old wash then traveled another 2 to 3 miles by motorbike, then hiked another mile or so up some steep canyons. He uses a Yamaha Big Wheel trail bike, I used my newest prospecting steed the Rokon 2 wheel drive mototractor. The Rokon is a terrain traveling son of a gun, if you can hang on. I managed to dump it a couple times, invariably in bowling ball sized rocks or on steep boulder strewn hills. I'm still nursing a bruised ankle after that 200 lb machine came down on top of me pinning my leg and ankle underneath. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or those that are 2 wheel vehicle balance challenged (like me). All my falls occurred from momentary indecision and hesitation. The solution seems to be pick a line, then hit the gas or stay at home. My nuggets all came from a single wash where recent rains had blown out some of the overburden leaving bedrock within detector depth. My partner pulled almost an oz swinging low and slow over the old hillside placer diggings. This was really our tune up trip, preparing for an extended trip another 300 miles south after Christmas.

Can't say I'm surprised, a quality reviewer with a fair and balanced approach. Bravo Zulu

Wait a minute! Did Steve just admit he's testing the NOX?

Greetings from sunny Yuma. The temps have just started to drop, still reaching high 80's by 11 AM, but the mornings are cool enough for a bit of detecting. I've been out for about 12 hrs total over the past week. We had just enough rain last month from a MicroBurst storm over parts of the placer areas here close to town. I found a couple washes where the big rocks had moved around a little giving me a chance to put the GPZ coil over some ground that might not have received good coil coverage last year. It paid off handsomely so far. I'm running my GPZ with HY, Normal, Sens 17, no threshold and using my old Etymotic in-ear monitors (earbuds). I'm looking forward to cooler temps and longer detecting days. Hey Beatup, you and Eric better hurry down here before I get all the gold. I don't know how we'll manage without NursePaul for comic relief.

It's a mere 114 degrees here in the Desert Southwest and I've got another bunged up knee. No stitches this time, just a bruise on the critical moving parts, but it gave me an opportunity to futz with my Deus conversion to the collapsible Golden Mask rod. The problem with the Deus HF coils is that the battery is stored in the rod tube, so you have a critical wire lead from the battery to the coil. Deus solved it by making the rod connection to the coil ears a hollow split design so that the battery wire runs straight up the rod with a curly wire section that acts like a spring to keep the wire under tension. The Golden Mask rod has a solid tip at the connection to the coil ears with no place to run the battery wire of the new Deus design. So, I got out the saw and the Dremel and started making some modifications. The first thing I had to do was cut off the Golden Mask solid connection tip that bolts to the coil ears. The tip is solid HD plastic that inserts into the carbon fiber hollow tube about 2 inches. So, I cut the carbon fiber above the insert so that I could reuse the insert. I then used the Dremel to cut a slotted path for the coil battery wire to run from the bottom of the coil ear connection insert with sufficient clearance for the wire to slide smoothly. The portion of the coil ear connection that inserts into the carbon fiber tube is more or less hollow, so I continued my wire path through the outer wall into the hollow section. That way, I could run the coil wire through the groove, then slide the wire inside the tip connection and when I re-inserted the tip section the whole mess is captured inside the tube, very close to the Deus type design. The battery pack fits squarely inside the 2nd segment of the Golden Mask collapsible tube with just enough tension to keep the wire sliding freely. I then put some black electrical tape around my grooved section to keep the wire firmly inside the groove. The only other thing was a rubber washer 5/16 X 3/4 from Lowe's hardware to shim up the coil ear connections for a tighter fit. What I end up with is a detector that weights less than 2 lbs, collapses to 24 inches and extends to a maximum of 51 inches. My goal has always been to make the Deus into a discriminating pinpointer to augment the Minelab 7000. Some of my Baja prospecting excursions have resulted in way too many deep holes to recover ferrous trash that falls off the turn of the century type drywashers the oldtimers used down there. At my age, it's all about conservation of energy. You can only dig so many 2 ft holes in 85 degree temps before your day is used up. If my new discriminating pinpointer can cut my digging time in half, I'll be thrilled. By way, I had the opportunity to compare the Deus side by side with the Gold Monster on undug targets in N. NV. I was certainly impressed with the GM target audio responses and its ability to quickly adjust to changing conditions. If I were starting out gold prospecting and could only afford VLF, I'd certainly make it the GM. I like my Deus as a supplement to my Z7000, but it is not a turn on and go machine. I think at the end of the day, GM users would cover more ground simply because it's so simple and target responses are unmistakable.

He's going to need isolation and decontamination when he returns. I hope he can stay with Scott this winter.

Hey Paul, I don't see a check for a WA woman. Maybe your preferences have been modified, you never know

All I know is one of the videos, testing the various Deus functions, showed a significant depth loss by adding too much silencer. I have only used mine for gold prospecting, but I always adjust to 0 just in case. My own testing has been relatively sparse using the 9" HF coil on gold nuggets.

As Steve and others have pointed out, the GM is really a turn on and go. Obviously, it's fully capable of finding small gold. The XP Deus has a multitude of adjustments that I'm just now learning, but I'm quite confident it will keep up with the GM in the hands of a knowledgeable user, especially after the new elliptical coil arrives. I just don't think it will be the machine for a casual user who doesn't take the time to learn its various and, at first glance, complicated options. My testing a couple weeks ago with a .25 gram nugget really opened my eyes to the Deus possibilities. Way more performance tweeks to be explored. Naturally, I've got my share of confirmation bias since I already own the Deus and really want to believe in it. It's not my primary detector, but I'm anxious to work with those tweeks and squeeze some more performance out of it. It's all in what you want out of your secondary detector. Ease of use, pick it up and go with confidence that you're getting a good share of the detectable small gold, then the GM is the answer. If you're like me and need to fiddle with stuff thinking you're improving your odds, then the machine with more user control options makes sense. The key selling point for me was the packability of the Deus. I want to collapse that machine and stick it in my backpack just in case I run into small gold terrain while running my main machine the GPZ.

What's the good word on NursePaul in OZ? You didn't use him for Croc bait did you? Post some pictures of all the gold he has recovered from your secret spots.

It is an expensive piece of equipment for sure. Although I haven't put the stock "Goldfield" program through its paces, in my limited use I was not particularly impressed and other than complete wireless operation, it wouldn't have any particular advantage over the existing gold detectors. I really like the idea of the wireless master controller and its "expert" menus. After some more study on the issue of Discrimination and Notch, I'm leaning towards the 4 tone program, with negative Discrimination then extreme low tones, one for ferrous and another for hot rocks. A much higher "sweet" tone for everything else. I'm anxious to try it out, but I'll have to wait till I get up there. I think those 120 degree temps in Yuma will decidedly temper my enthusiasm for VLF detecting in the desert Southwest.

I've been bored on my dog sitting endeavor, so I've studied up on the Deus, and looked at a history of used sales. At least in the near term, it doesn't look like the Deus will be available in a strictly High Frequency model. So you're stuck buying the whole kit and then adding the HF coil. Retail for the whole kit is $1520.00 and then another $400.00 for the HF coil. The $1520.00 kit includes the wireless backphones and the main controller. The "puck" on the backphones can be removed and used as a standalone controller, albeit without the "expert" menus. Personally, I see no need for the backphones, the main wireless controller is really all you need and has all the "expert" menus. I've looked at buying the components individually, but you still end up paying dearly. The controller retails for $800.00, used ones on Ebay are roughly $500.00. The original (non HF) black 9" coil, retails for close to $500.00, used ones sell in the range of $300.00. The backphones retail for over $300.00, used ones sell for $200.00. A used Deus kit with backphone and controller sells for somewhere between $1000.00 and $1200.00, not very many are available though and they get snapped up quick. Rob at Rob's Detectors has a very lightly used one for sale at a good price, you'd have to check with him on actual price and shipping. So, if you assembled a Deus HF detector from components at retail, you'd spend roughly $1500.00. If you bought used rod/shaft, and controller, with a new HF coil, you're looking at just over $1000.00. Or,you could buy the whole kit and sell off the components you don't need. Better still, you get the whole kit, add a new shaft/rod assembly and end up with two detectors, one equipped with the "puck", the other with the main controller. Just random thoughts from a bored dog sitter. I'm in S. Cal right now, but sunny Yuma by the Sea will see temps of 118 to 120 this week. I'll get home just in time the catch those max temps, sweet!

I'm sure running the Reactivity up to 3 would have quieted the ground and on coin sized targets, you wouldn't be sacrificing much overall performance. It has been said that raising the Reactivity tends to shrink your coil coverage footprint. I don't know to what extent that occurs, but on tiny gold nuggets I'm looking to get all the performance I can out of a detector that was originally designed for coin, jewelry and relic hunting. My primary detector will always be the Z7000, but there are times when I would like to jump out and check some exposed bedrock or old tailings piles without the whole suiting up with the Zed. My other primary purpose for the Deus is to use it as a discriminating pinpointer when chasing deep targets with the Zed. This last year detecting in Baja involved far too much digging deep trash in hot weather. It really cuts down the number of productive detecting hours when you burn out on the first 5 or 6 deep holes. I found myself looking for reasons not to dig obviously deep targets. I guess my point is I'm looking at a better mousetrap, for some pretty narrow circumstances. The Deus is attractive to me because of its overall weight and collapsible enough to fit in my pack for 3/4 day hikes in rough terrain. And, if I ever get excited about coin/relic hunting I have the perfect machine for the job. I imagine once the Deus Elliptical coil comes out, we'll see some good comparisons and side by side testing by guys a whole lot smarter than me on this stuff.

We had a cold snap in sunny Yuma, low 70's at sunup. Didn't reach 80 till nearly 9am. I took the Deus out for a little testing in an area we have absolutely hammered with every known detector. I didn't find any gold, but the Deus surprised me with some of its capabilities. Per our discussion on the Notch vs. Discrimination theory, I set up the machine for 3 tones, relying on tone discrimination rather than true Notch or Iron Discrimination. With the Deus software the first setpoint for Tone discrimination really becomes a null, so 3 tones becomes 2 tones. It's actually a little more complicated than that, but won't help us for this discussion. So, I set the first actual audio tone, (2nd notch) for iron ID of between 0 and 20, and made it as low an audio tone as was possible. The next Tone breakpoint takes over from an ID of 20, where the last one left off, and all out way out to the end of range in the '90s. That tone is our sweet tone, you can set it at any level your hearing prefers. During my previous outings over undug targets, gold ID'd in the mid '50s. If you recall my first outing with the new HF coil, I was underwhelmed with the audio. Over a test nugget at the time, I missed the dynamic "zip" audio of the Gold Bug II. I thought the Deus audio somewhat anemic at the time. That all changed for me today. Using the remote to access the menu functions, I upped the audio response to 6 from the preset of 4. Wow, what a difference. So much difference that the machine got a little "chattery" in some of the hotter ground. But I live by "chattery" using the Z7000, so I just went with it. I found half a dozen shotgun pellets that just screamed dig me, showing a VID between 55 and 60, the same as gold. I buried a .25 gram nugget in some of the hottest ground I could find. The machine clipped and chirped, but at about 5 inches, the audio over the nugget was bright and crisp. No mistaking that audio, everything I thought I missed about the GBII audio, was alive and well in the Deus. Over the same test nugget and same hot ground I played with the other settings. I was running Sens at 85 and upped it to 90. While the target sound was somewhat brighter, the resulting feedback from the ground would have negated it for practical use in the field. Steve H would find a way to run this machine maxed out, but for me less was better. Raising the Reactivity helped quiet the "chatteryness", but I wanted to run the machine as wide open as possible. I settled on a Reactivity of 2. I then played with the Discrimination over the same nugget in the same hole. I ran it from negative 6, to positive 10. I found no benefit in this ground to running max negative Discrim, but a sweet spot seemed to be around negative 3. The more positive discrimination above +6 starts to give the test nugget at 5 inch depth, a breaking audio, alternating from the Iron tone to a true gold tone. No bueno for real life field prospecting, although it would be enough to make you stop and investigate. The Deus has a separate control for Iron volume, but that is disabled when running negative Discrimination. So, my current working theory is running Discrimination at +1, setting the iron volume at 1, then using the (Low)Tone feature to handle the rest of ordinary Iron problems out to an ID of 20. I tried the Deus standard Goldfield Program over the same ground. It just didn't do it for me so I left off without really giving it a true workout. Maybe it works, but I wanted to fiddle with all the other features of this machine. I'm off to ranch sit, taking care of horses and dogs for the next week or so. No more moments of clarity with the Deus till I make up to CA gold country. I might make it out for some beach detecting, so who knows. Until then, keep er low and slow.

Awesome stuff Rick, I bet you wished you had some of your world famous "redneck eggrolls" as a treat for Rudy's outstanding effort. Bravo Zulu to all you boys