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On the beaches here on Cape Cod my old trusty DFX was unable to auto ground balance but instead would initiate default factory settings. Scrolling through the many settings I always selected "ground tracking on" Hopefully, soon I'll have a Nox 800. as the DFX needs a new coil and/or some box work. Too old. Sorry DFX. Would using "tracking on" on the Nox provide better performance?

Just arrived in the mail, Nuggeteer 18 x 6 mono, mounts nicely on the Tdi pro using a Minelab lower rod. It is weighty at 1 kg but easily balances on the Tdi Pro, just don't have any metal in your shoes.. When the weather clears I'll go down to the beach and give it a good run. Useless air tests, test garden results and beach run results in the very near future.. karelian

The way I “classify” beach sand determines which search mode I use on my Equinox. It works well for me on our central Florida beaches. Since all beaches differ in terms of salinity/mineralization, I’d be interested in hearing from other beach hunters if they too make this “4 layer classification” of beach sand conditions. Dry Sand: area where the surf doesn’t or hasn’t covered. The sand is extremely dry and where most beach goers spread their towels and chairs. Area to the lady’s far left in the photo. Damp Sand: Area where the surf once covered but has recently receded to the point where it no longer does leaving the sand still somewhat damp. Smooth area to the lady’s immediate left. Wet Sand: Area where the surf still covers as the waves come on shore but recedes with wave action leaving the sand distinctly wet. Smooth dark area to the lady’s direct front and immediate right. Surf: Self explanatory...in the water. In the Dry and Damp areas, Beach 1, All Metal with sensitivity, recovery speed, and F2 settings adjusted for conditions works best. If I try to use Beach 1 and All Metal in the Wet sand and Surf, the amount of falsing naturally increases significantly. In the Wet sand and Surf, Beach 2, discrimination activated and sensitivity being situationally dependent works best...the EQX settles down considerably. This simply confirms Minelab’s recommendation but I’ve distinguished between damp and wet sand where they use dry, wet and surf classifications. Question: Anyone else see a performance difference in Damp and Wet sand modes/settings?

Hello everybody yesterday was the best beach handing day so far. Why? Because I chose the right place. What was the right place? The beach in front of a close for winter beach bar. The result was 38.40 euros and a silver cross. Think that I search only the half beach (I didn’t have enough time) looking only for coins and silver with discrimination -10 to +17. If I can make it, I will go soon at the same place and I will tell you the results.

It has probably been over a year since I've used my 3030. Tonight I used it for a bit over 2 hours and I got the hang of it again. It is a much different sound than the 800 and now I remember why I had a learning curve about hearing targets. One of the things that came back very quickly is the ability of the 3030 to be 'played' like a violin. By that I mean you can get a target and swing on it and make the detector 'sing' really loud. This was what was happening with the many tent stakes I found. You could tell that it was a mostly iron target because it was down in the lower right of the screen. I still dug most of them and some of the other iron pieces were just the same. The 3030 has clear identification of the target and that lets me choose to dig it or not. If I was getting better targets then I may not have dug so many of those stakes. When I get tent stakes with the 800 it kinda blanks out rather than sings out. The depth was good with the 17. One of the quarters was 13-14 inches. I use it with the Minelab harness because it is a bit bulky and heavy. When I first got the 17 years ago I used it without a harness for the first 3 weeks and I got something akin to tennis elbow. That took about 6 weeks to heal and I've never swung the 17 for more than 20 minutes without the harness since. The screen now has a flaw down the right side where it doesn't show data but I can live with it as a backup. The battery didn't last too long. We'll see what happens after this charge up. It was a real pleasure being able to turn on the GPS and see where I had found rings in the past. Many I had transferred but a few are still there and that made me slow down in those areas. This was an end of the weekend, end of the day hunt and I saw where several detectorists had been out before me. I'm ok with the results.

Sometimes there is something better than a detector.... Another one (won’t embed)... https://youtu.be/zbXNcUqLAM8

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/regional/florida/wwii-land-mine-found-on-vero-beach/67-f09a5534-27fe-4728-a81e-60b41d0880fd

Last night after work i took my Nox with the 11 inch coil this time for another search of the beaches i went to 2 days ago. I took the Bus to the beaches further along beyond where i finished the other day . I started at around 10 pm and found a few coins but soon found that area was too built up for any successful hunt so i went to where i finished last time and worked back to where i started last time . Again i saw that there were new holes about , and again i started to find coins near and around where these holes were . It was a lot harder this time and the beaches are building up due to the longer tides and the sea hitting the beach straight on . I didn't stay out as long as i thought i would and finished at 12.45 am . I counted up and went home . My total for this search was £20.53p and a unidentified Pre Decimal Penny and a George VI Farthing . My next hunt will be either Saturday night or next week sometime . Someone on my last hunt post wanted my settings , i will put them on here when i have had some sleep .

I've hunted this fresh water beach the last 3 days with some decent luck. The first 2 days I hunted it with an Explorer 2 with an 8" coil, and did ok. I went back today with the Nox and did even better 🙂 My settings were: Park 2 2-tones 0-ground balance Disc -9 to 0 recovery speed 4 F2 0 sens 20 The gold ring hit a solid 12 the 2 little pendents rang at 1...found within 6" of each other. silver ring 5 open ring, not connected at the top silver beads 12, I've found 8 so far The little junk beads hit at 1 all the cleaned up silver was found with the Explorer 2

First , Happy New Year to everyone . Today I had the chance to go out for the first time this year. Last year my total finds were £1632.53p in coinage , 1 returned Platinum ring , 13 Gold rings (1 returned) and 44 Silver rings and around 20 other Silver items and 20 junk rings of all types, Titanium , Tungsten , Steel etc . I searched 72 times for around 500 hours in total , maybe a bit more . This year I have set myself a much lower total due to commitments doing decorating which will take some time and not having the time to get out as much also because of my Oz Holiday soon . Work also gets in the way with shift work . Today I got my Nox with the big coil on and the 11 in coil in my rucksack and went to the beach at 5am by Bus and got to the beach just before 6am . I checked out the first 2 beaches and found that someone else was detecting in the distance in front of me as I saw his headtorch . I in any case searched in his tracks and found a few missed coins . When I got to the end of the second beach and crossed over to the next beach it was getting lighter and I saw it looked a lot better and detected the areas that looked best , I didn't see many holes but started to find targets here and there . That carried on for around a mile over 3 hours and before I stopped I found a large Silver ring . Where I stopped there are public toilets so I cleaned up my gear and switched coils to the 11 inch so I could search better between the Iron nails that litter the beach . I counted up before starting back and it was £55.15p and some foreign coins and a George V Penny and the Silver ring . I started back and found targets I missed but it was mostly quiet so I must have hammered it quite hard but shortly before I finished at 11.45am I found another Silver ring and a George Vi Penny and a George Vi Half Penny and a very worn Victoria Half Penny . My total for this search was £65.31p , 2 Silver rings , the 4 Pre Decimal UK coins and 5 Foreign coins and a Decimal 1970's Half Penny (discontinued 1982-3) . I have set myself a target of £700 , 6 Gold and 20 Silver rings for this year , more will be a bonus . But as cash is now getting very rare due to the cashless society I will be surprised if I find many fresh loses this year . I will also do 50 hunts unless I can get more in . Believe me it might take 50 trips to get my target ! How times have changed :( As for the Nox . I don't find it the most informative machine to use , target info is a bit poor . But I do have to admit that if the trash levels are not to high its a good machine to use . I have been using the 15 inch coil a few times and I find that coil the best for the machine . Normally I find the stock 11 inch coils are the best for most machines but I find the 15 inch coil is the best for the Nox . It gives it a bit more depth and I find its capable even in amongst the Iron nails better than the 11 inch coil !! . Maybe its settings but I use very low reactivity . I also find that the new V2 software has made it easier to tell not only Crown caps with I have been finding less but it gives better signals on Aluminium bits or blobs , I makes them scratchy on my settings most of the time. I do dig many of them just to be sure of them but I seem to suss them nearly all the time . My next search will be on Monday night from 9pm till 3am or about .

I just moved back to Texas a couple of months ago and am about 4 hours from Corpus Christi and Galveston. I need some info on where it's legal to hunt and what to expect. Never hunted near the water except around a couple of lakes, any info would be greatly appreciated, thank you!!

The beaches here have been so socked in, but we finally had a one day event recently where there was some erosion and nice cuts. When that happens, we all drive frantically along the coast looking for the best spots to hunt...lots of competition. I got lucky and found a nice area with a big cut and only one other detectorist. Since this part of Florida is not touristy, you don’t find a buhzillion rings like Gerry does(see his recent post). This is what we dig up.... I did manage to find a nice tungsten ring with a gold band though, but I was more excited about the old nail...maybe from one of the shipwrecks? Also got a nice old tack... Along with this stuff....was REALLY hoping the item on the bottom of pic was a small Spanish reale.... But when I carefully cleaned it up, no sign of the cross etc...bummer. It’s actually 2 thin layers... So not sure what it is....rings in at 19/20 on my 600, same as some of the small reales found before by others here. I’ll have our Local Legend Terry Shannon look at it. And yes, HE found a nice half reale with visible cross etc that day! Hopefully, some day it’ll be my turn!

Two nights ago I went out to the beach and tried a place that I have had good success. I got there and discovered that I didn't bring my headphones. I decided to go anyway and just use the 800's speaker. That proved to be very difficult. I found a few targets but I was not able to hunt in my normal way. The waves were loud and I could not hear clearly no matter what setting I tried. I did end up in 5 tone mode rather than 50 but it was still a challenge to get the few targets that I did get. I am a headphone guy, especially at the beach. Tonight I went out (I had the headphones) and found a little patch with my 3 hour hunt. It was not a great quantity but the quality was good. I got one 14k/4.2g gold ring and a stainless steel ring. There is a cheap chain, a portion of a Kennedy half dollar pendant, an earring and a couple of chain rings. My sensitivity was best at 23 and I switched between 5/50. My clues were the crusty quarters and the tent stakes. When I found those I slowed down to a grid and overlapped, perpendicular to the beach above the black sand line. The stainless steel ring, chain and earring were within 10 feet of each other at about 8 inches deep. Mitchel

After 2 weeks of lots of work, I was finally able to get to the beach for a hunt. I was hoping that I could try the 18” DD coil I just bought for the GPX. The area I did well at with the 14” coil, was even more sanded in and that defeated the purpose of comparing it to the 14” coil to see if it could find something else there. But I did use it for a while, and it was heavy. I put a side arm on, to offset the weight and that worked, but trying to carry a bigger shovel and holding the arm did not work well at all. It seems I will have to get a bungee harness set up for any coil larger than a 14”. So, I brought the Equinox out and hit a patch of rocks that I later found out was being pounded days before. I heard it was a good section. I did ok, considering the amount of sand and other detectorists that hit this beach regularly. Junk, clad, possibly some silver rings, 2 Mercury dimes, a nice 14K earring and some good observations. First observation was that some iron was encrusting the small stud earrings. That’s not new news, but it only happens sometimes, and you need to pay attention to those times. That leads to the second observation, which just seemed like some junk jewelry trapped in the salt/sand mixture. But at home I noticed it looked gold and did not show any signs of being plated. It may be a low karat jewelry that was not mixed with copper, or the usual green copper encrustation was already gone. The other problem on this beach are the black rocks. Not all the black rocks respond to the Equinox, but the ones that do read a solid #1. That is the exact number that a lot of fine gold rings and chains ID at. But it was nice to get out and hunt for about 6 hours. 2 silvers and possibly 2 gold for me is a good hunt and worth the long drive.

Hello metal detector colleagues, I went on the beach yesterday with my minelab safari. I worked in all metal with discrimination from -10 to 0 (iron), sensitivity on 18 and trash density on high. 3 hours later I had dig around 40 holes with pull tabs, so I decided to increase discrimination from -10 to 20. I quitted from finding gold jewelry and I was focused on coins. In one hour I found 10 coins (7.05 euros).

This little thing actually kills it! My cousin and I have been using the pulse dive in salt water exclusively and although it has a small coil, the ability to swing this thing like mad hugely make up for that fact! So far I’ve found the design/ quality of the PulseDive to be very ideal for salt water hunting. The machine simply beeps and buzzes in your hand, is easily audible through the water and there is practically no maintenance other than just cleaning the rubber seal/gasket every now and then but there is no knobs, cables, headphones or anything that I can see deteriorating on this detector. Depth is definitely surprising when digging targets but still decent in air tests with a nickel/10c Aussie coin hitting at 4” air test and depending on minerals in the sand it’ll hit deeper 5-6” even due to its non-motion nature. Anyone who wants to try water detecting I highly recommend trying the PulseDive, the small size and lack of headphones make it ridiculously convenient and even stealthy if you want to be discrete or are a bit shy! This isn’t really a review but just a quick mention of what I think is important to know about the machine 👍 Here is the gold we’ve found on the last few outings 👊👊👊 Pulsedive Scuba Detector & Pinpointer

Mountain Lake Detecting - Metal Detecting is a great Hobby, teaching the younger generation how to find hidden treasures underground is a great way to spend the day and pass along knowledge . Me and my friend Adrian hunt a Mountain Lake's Beach for hidden Gem's and Treasure's from Hot wheels to Pull tabs see what we uncover on the adventure (SG 014)

How many crabs have you dug up using your Nox? I've dug up 4 of those toe pinching speckled crabs so far. lol

Hey guys, I have never beach hunted or hunted for coins/relics/jewelry. I have only hunted for gold nuggets. We are heading to Maui and my son wants to metal detect the beach where we are staying. I have a new in the box Equinox 800. I don't have anything other than my nugget hunting gear. It looks like I should pick up one of those beach scoop things with a long handle. Is there anything else I should get? Any tips on beach hunting? Thanks for any advise and yes I will start searching the forum and youtube for other threads on beach hunting basics. Can't remember if the Nox is waterproof?

I spent the afternoon at a beach that likes a NW swell. It kinda pushes everything up and out if the waves are under 10 second intervals. I found 10 'hoops' for the afternoon but I worked a bit over 4 hours to get them. One set of hoops is a pair. In addition to the hoops I dug 108 coins and 4 rings. One ring is a 6g .925 that looks a bit like a nail made into a ring. Some of the targets were in the tops of the 3-5 ft waves I was walking in. It was getting near sunset so I had to cut the trip a little short and cherry pick to get my car before it got a ticket.

After finding a decent amount of silver on my favorite beach the other day, I had to get out there again. A storm had just passed and I wanted to see if the silver continued in my new area. I had a lot of competition, with 8 other detectorists. But they were all hitting an exposed area like piranhas 😄. I was alone in my area. I used the GPX for this section because I needed the extra depth. I wasn't expecting this good of a day. A total of 34 silver coins, a silver chain, a silver religious medal and a nice 14K gold and ice? cross. I can never seem to get a good shot of anything that sparkles with my waterproof camera. 137 coins for the day. My copper to zinc penny ratio was threw the roof at 62 copper to 2 zinc. That is what a good storm does for you 😊 I won't be able to get back until next week, but I'm hoping I can start where I left off. Fingers crossed.

Well I made it to the coast on Friday on the last day of the storms in my area. Winds were 22 MPH and the waves were huge. How those guys could para surf is beyond me. I found a fair amount of very green clad and wheat pennies. Got one Buffalo nickel too. I was not able to get to the low part of the beach since the low tide was not very low, and the surges were very unpredictable. I used the Equinox exclusively and got hammer many times by those rouge waves 😄 The GPX stayed dry in the car! Even though I know the gold was out of range, I still got a decent amount of silver and an earring that may have a gold post, if you can count that as gold 🤔 Was a fun day out and I made sure I had glasses on all day. I did not need my eyeballs dried out and sand blasted.

In my signature, I wrote that our challenge is : Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets. Just as an amusing exercise, I thought I'd see what that looks like in terms of square inches. 1 square mile of beach = 4,014,490,000 square inches Standard 11 inch coil = 95 square inches a good target = 1 square inch...maybe Given that reality, I think it's amazing we find what we do! Of course you can reduce that beach area with careful beach reading skills but you get the point! Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets.😁

On Monday morning i went to my best beaches early in the morning , the tide was in but going out and the tides are short at the moment . I didn't expect much . I started to detect and found a few coins here and there , it was enough just to wet my appetite so i kept going . I got to a groin and entered the next beach which i knew would be a lot quieter , i found a few coins and then with my ET i got a target reading 12 19 . I am always suspicious of that number and this time proved why . I dug down and out popped a nice 18 k 5.9 g Gold Signet ring , by this time the tide was showing that the beaches had scuffed out quite a bit . So i searched below the cut and down to the waters edge , i carried on till i reached 2 wooden groins and after that turned round and started back . At that point i found a Silver ring and after talking to a person who saw me and talking about detecting i carried on . Then i saw another Detectorist and we talked for a while . When we parted i found another thin Silver ring and not long after that a bit of Silver from what might be a Chain . Further along i found another Silver Signet ring then a heart shaped locket which broke when i tried to open it . When i reached the area i started i stopped and went to the Bank to pay in my last Months finds then got the Bus home . I stayed on the beach for 4 and a half hours and found the Gold ring , 3 Silver rings , the bit of chain pendent , the Locket and 95 Euro Cents , 2 small other foreign coins and £35.17 p in change which i have cleaned and will Bank next Month. My next hunt will be next Tuesday morning or Friday next week . I might take the Nox but that depends on the conditions and the weather . I get so much more from the target info on the ET and it is easier . But if the beach in the right state i will take the Nox and give V 2 a go .

This morning I woke up with a start of a cold and nearly didn't get up . I had updated my Nox to the 1.7.5 and wanted to give it a try . I was going to take my ET but as it was raining I thought better not . So at around 7.45 am I got a Bus to the beach and when I got there the tide was in and it was rough . I had other things to do so I did them and at about 11 am I got to the beach and started to detect. I immediately got my feet wet . So my cold will be double Man Flu by morning tomorrow LOL. I started to find a slow but steady trail of coins below a cut and I covered about a mile then turned around and went back in case . I found on the way back 3 rings together . I think its a Russian design . Found a Gold one a few years ago . This one I think is Silver but I need to get it checked. After finishing the beaches where I searched , I went to another beach to the East and a few more coins came up , but not many . I found a US Dime and another large coin of some sort with a hole in it . And a 50 Euro Cent . After walking another mile and feeling knackered I went to a shop and bought some food and headed home . My total was £32.77p , the ring and the 3 foreign coins . I found out about the version 2 update so that's been done now for next time. Most of the time I use my ET , its easier for the beach . I just know the targets better . But the Nox has its place and did well today. I wont be out till the end of next week now . Its going to be wet most of the time and I am working anyway . Also today I reached a target I was aiming for the year £1400 so I will pay a donation of £200 to Cancer research at the end of next week . Total coinage for the year so far is £1425 and Pence. Way down on years gone by but its now getting pretty cashless out there and in a few years it will be baron for coinage unless a storm opens up the beach . So far I have had 12 Gold rings (1 return) 1 Platinum (return) , 1 Gold Pendent (too be checked) and 36 Silver rings this year . Plus a few other Silvers ranging from chains to ear rings and things .