Search the Community

Since i posted on the 18th i have been out 3 times but haven't found any more gems . I went out early in the morning and worked the tide out each time , all the beaches are either building up now or are very quiet . The first of the 3 trips i used my Explorer XS and found £13.00p exactly . The second trip out i took the Explorer 11 and it was a better search , conditions weren't that much better but small areas had changed which enabled me to pull out £33.95p and a 2 Euro coin and a coin which i haven't identified . Today i took the Explorer 11 as well and found only £8.47p , i didn't stay out as long as it was obvious all the beaches were hopeless , i was lucky to find what i did . All of it other than a very few coins were high in the dry . Thats my lot for this month . Total for this month was just over £166 , 1 Gold and 2 Silver rings for 7 trips out , my first trip isn't on here . That was on the 6th and had £13.20p. My next trip is in a weeks time , though i will be missing the long tides . But that doesn't matter much , the long tides mess the beaches up at times so i will be happy to hit the beaches after the peak tides.

A Hawaii beach report from the DUG THAT OFFICIAL MINELAB EQUINOX 800-600 GROUP If you are not on Facebook you may not be able to see this video...

Well after seeing the beach yesterday and finding nothing but trash and also having bad weather last night i went back for another look . I went to the areas that i found my last 2 rings and left the main beaches i normally go to alone . I got there at around 6am and saw the beaches hadn't got any worse and looked better than yesterday so i switched on my Explorer XS and got stuck in . Yet again i started to find lots of coinage about , though mostly in hot spots and sometimes in lines along the beach which slopes up to the road. I walked around a mile or more till i got to the area of the other beaches then stopped . By the end of the search at around 8.30am i had found another Silver ring , 3 coins worth 50 Euro Cents and another foreign coin like the one i had a few days ago , and another with a hole in it . My spendable coinage score was £30.34p this time . I am working for the next 6 days so thats me out of the scene till Thursday next . Really winds me up passing the beaches in my work and not being able to check them out .

It is not what you think. MAN = Maximum Amount of Nothing This is a tough year. I think the worst I have ever had on the beaches. I went out today on Zuma Beach (another Big Beach) and I got a Maximum Amount of Nothing (MAN)! It took me about an hour and I only started digging one target at 12 inches. I took a couple of scoops and it went total iron and I stopped and soon I left the beach. It is there (good targets) or it is not. If it is not then time to leave. Mitchel

Will a vlf detector with a frequency of 5.7 khz be less affected by wet salt water beach sand than a 10 khz machine?

I am looking for the best edge I can get looking for $2.5 gold coin in the wet saltwater sand. The beach has a lot of magnetite and a few nails. This is not a diving situation. It is definitely a situation where the detector will get wet sometimes. Currently I am using a CZ 21 with an 8" coil. I sure appreciate the wisdom of the brain trust assembled here! Thanks, Tim

Which one of the three would be best on dry beach sand? All with standard coil. 1. Old Tesoro Diablo-2 Gold Demon (20 khz). Gnd Adj, Sensitivity, Threshold. No discrimination capability 2. Old Tesoro Silver Sabre Umax (10 khz). 3. Old Fisher 1235X (5.7 khz). 4. New Fisher F22 (7.5 khz).

I am getting questions via PM instead of the forum.... “Why did they put an external speaker on the Equinox? Is there anyone that even uses them now days? I know a few that have had trouble with the speaker leaking on the CTX” and “I saw a post saying the Equinox may well have a true AM mode like the Xterra does for prospecting. Would this bring it to an equalizing depth against the Xcal and CTX in the salt water? Have you tried the all metal mode and IF you have, could you do a post on it (true all metal, threshold based, does it lock on when the button is pushed or do you have to hold the button). Curious as to if it is something that could be used like an Excal in Pinpoint or if it is just a quick push of the button to go to a non-notched mode of discrimination.” My perception of Equinox is that it is a general purpose all terrain detector intended to take market share from Garrett AT and Deus. It is waterproof to ten feet and does have a multifrequency beach mode. I think it will do well in salt water. I question whether it will replace a true diving detector like the Excalibur with the hardcore water crowd. For people like me who get in the water maybe three weeks out of the year it’s just great however. Whether it proves sufficient for the hardcore water hunters, only time will tell. The all terrain, all purpose intent of the Equinox pretty much demands it include a speaker. It is just a fact that people expect detectors to have an external speaker. The Fisher CZ-7 was an early attempt to make a detector without a speaker (it had a plug in accessory speaker). It was not a well received idea. The Minelab SD, GP, and GPX detectors have no external speaker, and people have been selling external speaker kits ever since. The vast majority of people think a detector should have an external speaker.. Again, we are talking an all terrain detector here that will see more use out if water than in it, not a dedicated diving machine like the Excalibur. The Equinox has four Detect Modes. Park, Field, Beach, and Gold. The Park, Field, and Beach modes are discrimination modes. Everything is discriminated visually by target id and/or tones. You can block or notch out specific target id numbers or ranges. You can also, at any time, by hitting the “Horseshoe” button, go to a wide open “All Metal” mode where all items are accepted, similar as to the way it is done on X-Terra and CTX. This is not a true non-discriminating all metal mode, but a discrimination mode set to accept all items. The discrimination filter is engaged. You can at any time engage the pinpoint mode, which activates when you press the pinpoint button, and turns off when you press it again. It might serve like the all metal pinpoint on the Excalibur but I am a bit doubtful of that. The pinpoint of the Equinox currently “ratchets” automatically to focus on and pinpoint targets. This is still being tweaked so I can’t say for sure, but I personally would not buy an Equinox thinking it will duplicate how the Excalibur acts as far as pinpoint mode goes. It might in the final version, but I would not want to bet on it. The Gold Mode on the Equinox 800 is somewhat like the Prospecting Mode on the X-Terra 705, a threshold based all metal mode. It operates at 20 kHz and 40 kHz plus MF (MultiFrequency) and is too hot for salt water or wet salt sand. It might be good on dry sand for micro jewelry, but that’s it. For wet salt sand or in salt water, the Beach Mode, which only operates in multifrequency, will be the go to mode for most people.

Taking the misses away caravaning again and seeing that the last two trips were too gold-bearing spots I decided to take her to the coast instead. I've never detected beaches before and until I get the new equinox will have to settle on the 4500. I'm assuming the gpx will work on sand. Would I use the salt timings? And what about ground balancing? would you turn that off? The other question is coil choice. Go with a DD and use discrimination or don't bother and dig everything. Only got 2 DD's. the standard 11" and a coiltek 24" Would a mono coil work? I've got a 13"x17" nugget finder that's waterproof. The place where staying at isn't popular so I don't think the rubbish levels will be like most beaches. Of course, ill try and keep sand and moisture out of the gpx box.

¿Por qué hay tan poca información sobre el equinoccio en la playa? . Mi intención es usarlo especialmente para la playa, pero sin saber cómo funcionará con sus hermanos con la tecnología BBS y FBS. Tendré que ver antes cómo se comporta en la playa antes de hacer el pedido.

Here are some Equinox Saltwater performance clues... Almost as well as BBS/FBS. My question now is define "almost".

Hi and my first current post here. Guess my detecting passions lean towards gold nugget hunting, but mostly Caribbean shallow water treasure hunting. For years I have travelled with a group in search of such Caribbean Adventure, sharing comradery and expenses. I and others in our group have pretty much tried every water detector available, including customized land machines in waterproof boxes/bags, in search of the best Caribbean gold jewelry finder. There have been some Winners and mostly Losers for our style of hunting. On a 1 to 2 week treasure hunting vacation one needs an efficient detector that finds the most gold in the least time. I'll come right out and say the Top Dog for us has been the Minelab Excalibur- Period! The Excalibur consistently finds the most gold for us in the least time and so much so, all in our group use them. (our trips could almost be ML infomercials with a pile of Excaliburs in the back of our rental van!) I call the Excalibur a Caribbean Gold Magnet! (as many others already know). The Excalibur has a good balance for shallow water vacation travel. By that I mean, good in salt, loves gold, takes the abuse, long battery life and packable... The CTX 3030 has done well, but needs to be handled more gently, the battery does not last as long- with potential leak problems and is not easy to securely pack. The Garrett Infinium was the only PI that could give the Excal a run for the money and clearly outperform it in black sand. But listening to Infinium Hi-Lo and Lo-Hi tones some 8 hours a day becomes buggy! The ATX was interesting, but a heavy beast to pack. For quite some time I have suggested to ML that they come out with a new, smaller and lighter Excalibur... because the technology to do so is here! (I've been told an Excalibur can be stuffed into just headphones today!) A waterproof simplified BBS machine for beach/shallow water. Easy to pack so I can travel with 2 (one as back-up) and hot on gold jewelry. It does not even need an all metal mode, nor discrimination. With an Excalibur none in our group use discrimination- we hunt by ear/tone and rarely do we use pin-point. What I dreamed of was a lightweight Excalibur package and it looks like I will finally have to settle for something potentially even better- the Equinox! I want the new Equinox to work as I imagine so bad I can taste it! The ultimate Caribbean shallow water travel machine! Will it be? I sure hope so because just 1 or 2 gold/platinum finds will pay for this detector easy! I've decided to go out and join on the Equinox limb with others by ordering an 800. All it needs to do is find gold jewelry in the sea similar to an Excalibur. But can it? I suspect yes, because of what one can read between the lines. Like... Steve sold all his other similar machines! What doesn't that say about Equinox capability? Plus it would be very surprising ML would build a new technology multi-frequency waterproof detector, that didn't work well in saltwater? Then ML writes in plain English, talking about their Multi-IQ Technology "This enables maximum target sensitivity across all target types and sizes, while minimizing ground noise (especially in saltwater)". No, ML did not say their Equinox is a Killer saltwater machine here, but it sure is implied! I sure hope the Equinox release is soon, as I would love to take an Equinox on my next scheduled Caribbean trip this mid January! So Santa do you hear me now?

Any of you Deus owners tried it out on wet salt sand? I need something lightweight for trashy beaches (yeah, I'm a wimp-ette). I love my Infinium for the water and wet sand, but the bottle caps drive me nuts on the upper beach. I've done tests and bottle caps and gold rings sound identical (of course they do, it's a PI machine!). If the bottle caps drive me crazy at the ocean beach, I have a feeling the Infinium is going to be almost useless when we go to fresh water beaches next summer. My old DFX is great on the dry and will tell me instantly if it's a bottle cap. But at 5 lbs, it wears me out quick. And it really doesn't get much depth once I start wandering toward the surf line. I need a light VLF that will do a good job on any beach. Maybe the new AT Max? CTX 3030 (it's kinda heavy too)? PS. The Infinium has already paid for itself!

I have a Makro Racer 2 and it performs well and silent on the beach....how much better, if at all would the Equinox 800 be on the beach? Coz it almost seems that anything even remotely related to the Equinox and wet sand performance is avoided by the testers or anyone working for minelab. I'm very very keen on the Equinox...but 95% of my hunting is done on the beach. Dry and wet. Anyone have any idea at all if it would be a definite upgrade in beach performance compared to Racer 2? Seems to be absolutely zero videos or write-ups with regard to anything to do with beach performance? Cheers Matt.

Hi Guys! I've been back home in Indian Harbour since Tuesday night. We still don't have electricity, but we do have a generator, which runs the air conditioning enough to keep it almost tolerable in here. Florida LP says everyone on the east coast will be back online by Sunday. We'll keep our fingers crossed, because it is HOT here. So in case anyone is curious, I have been hunting for the past 2 days (duh). Four different beaches near Melbourne, and pretty much all the same conditions. First, the hurricane DID take some of that "renourishment" sand away. I'm pretty sure the sand was up to and level with the end of this boardwalk before Irma. (photo 1) No cuts to speak of, unless you count the cuts into the dune line. Just below these cuts were where I found crusty old coins. (photo 2 and 3) With the extra sand gone, it's just a gentle slope from the dune line all the way to the water now. Very few rocks showing at low tide. (photo 4) Before, there was the dune line, then a "hump" of added sand, then a fairly steep-ish grade down to the water line. Lots of the coquina rocks were showing at low tide. (photo 5, taken about 2 months ago) I'm not finding much except very corroded clad coins, which seem to have been buried for a very long time. The oldest was a 1958 nickel. You would think with a couple of feet of sand gone, there would be lots of targets. Nope. It's like Irma came in, scraped some sand off the top, threw the rest in a blender, then dumped it all back on the beach and smoothed it down nice and flat. The only good thing I've noticed is that most of the aluminum trash seems to be gone. I was using the Infinium all the way up to the (new) foot of the dunes yesterday. I'm thinking that any gold or silver was churned up and sank even lower when the waves were taking the sand away. Those cruddy tent stakes, which I don't dig, were buried DEEP in what I think used to the be towel line. Sadly, I saw quite a few turtle eggs which had been exposed, then eaten by the feathered rats. I'm going to try to go to a good touristy beach, maybe Cocoa, Sunday. I'll let y'all know if I find anything, if you're interested. Ammie

So I was on the beach yesterday just swingin' the DFX having a great time. Had my headphones on, minding my own business, when this foreign tourist (sounded like New York) walks right up to me and shows me some wire-looking stuff with a fish hook attached. She then asks me what to do with it. Really, lady? So I stop what I'm doing, take off my headphones, and politely suggest any one of several garbage cans conveniently located just across the dunes. She then asks me which one I use. Huh? Still trying to be polite, despite the circumstances, I told her "the one my bike is parked next to". She then says "I bet you don't throw your garbage away". Excuse me? I said "I bet I do" while I pull a handful of bottle caps and can slaw out of my right pocket and show her. She kind of sniffed and said, "Well maybe you do" and walks on down the beach without another word. What is it about swingin' a detector on the beach that makes people think they can say whatever asinine thing to you that pops into their silly heads? People that would never dream of going up to a complete stranger in say, Wal-mart, and making some rude comment, think it's perfectly fine if you have a detector in your hand. I have no problem with kids that want to "help" you dig treasure, beach bums asking for your crusty quarters, and the inevitable old salt with a story about the Hopeless Diamond that he dug on that very beach in '72. But going out of your way to ruin a beautiful day for someone else is just beyond me. Rant over. Thanks ya'll!

Hi Ya'll and Happy Saturday! In anticipation of my Garrett Infinium being ordered (maybe), I decided to have a look at Google maps and see where I could go water hunt nearby. As some of you may know, there are areas where it is illegal to detect in the water just south of my area, from about Sebastian inlet south to Ft Pierce. I thought it might not be a bad idea to know exactly where these areas are, so that I could avoid getting into trouble. So I googled this search to death and found that information about these lease areas is pretty scarce. In my Google search I did find the Facebook page for Queen's Jewels Salvage Co, which leases the salvage rights from the state. These salvage areas presumably include the wreck sites and a 3000 ft radius around each one, excluding the beach area from the low tide line up to the dunes. So, law abiding citizen that I am, I pm'd whoever is in charge of the FB page and politely asked them what areas the leases cover and if Melbourne beach is ok to metal detect in the water. Here is the answer I got: "It is illegal to detect anywhere in the water. A permit from the FLA Department of Historical Resources is required to search for any historical artifact. The only detecting permitted I. The State is on the beach." That didn't sound quite right to me. I've seen lots of people in the water with detectors on the beaches all over the state and nobody was hauling them off in handcuffs. So I asked nicely if it is ok to just search for modern jewelry and does this mean that the whole state is off limits to water detecting. Well, apparently, it technically is. "Obviously that's not what you're looking for or you wouldn't have asked us. Do as you wish, I'm just telling you what the law says" Whoa there, Smeagol! I wasn't trying to steal your One Ring from you! So does this mean that all the guys detecting ankle-deep in the water at South Beach and Ft. Lauderdale are desperate fugitive criminals just waiting to be caught by the long arm of the law? Apparently so. From MDHTalk website: "As for metal detecting in the water, all lands that are below the mean high water line are considered state sovereignty submerged lands and, while it is not against the law to possess a metal detector in the water, it IS against the law to disturb the bottom sediments. So, if something is detected, it would be illegal to dig for it. " Yeah, if it's fun, somebody, somewhere has probably passed a law making it illegal. I'm beginning to wonder if detecting in the water here is a good idea. Do any of you Florida guys do it and have you ever been harassed for it? Thanks! Ammie

Total haul metal detecting on the beach this morning: 12 cents, one spark plug and 3 bottle caps.The looks on people's faces when they saw me waving my coil in the air and screaming at seagulls like a banshee: priceless.

I accidently found this website that posts pictures and reports almost daily. Lots of photos of some famous finds, beach conditions, etc. Be sure especially to look for the Treasure Site Reference Link List in column on left. Check it out.... http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/

Well, the Infinium arrived this morning, and I just couldn't wait to get some sand on the coil. So I headed for the closest beach about 1/2 mile from our house and hunted for about 3 1/2 hours. I didn't get past knee-deep as I was just trying to find some targets to dig and get used to it first. First impressions of my new Infinium: 1. I don't like the stock shaft at all. I'll be upgrading that thing ASAP. 2. Hip-mounting the control box is the way to go. My arms and shoulders are usually hurting after 3 hours of swinging the DFX, but after some food and iced tea I think I could take the Infinium out again! 3. This thing goes deeeeep. These are guess-timates on depth, but a lead sinker at about 10 inches down in wet sand? pull-tabs at 8? There were a couple of targets I just gave up on because my scoop wasn't up for it (gotta upgrade that too). The Infinium didn't find any gold or silver, but it found an abundance of junk, so the good stuff will eventually show up in the scoop too. Looking at my junk pile, I would estimate that the Infinium found me about twice as many targets as the DFX did in wet and damp sand on the same beach in the same amount of time. Yay! 4. Iron junk wasn't really a problem. I didn't try that reverse-disc thing on every target, so I dug two nails that I probably would have passed by with the DFX. One of those nails did that "double signal". I dug it anyway to see what it was. 5. I'll have to rig an external speaker of some sort on it before next summer. In Montana, people are not the top of the food chain, and I need to hear what's sneaking up behind me. 6. All that stuff I read about "hard to learn"? Nah, it seems pretty simple to me, but I've only run it at the beach, so that might be the reason. It is a little bit noisy in the shallow water, but when it hits a target for real, you know it! I was running the DFX pretty hot anyway, so I was used to it and it didn't bother me at all. 7. Gotta dust off that PADI card and probably take a refresher course at the local dive shop. This thing is going to be awesome in the water! 8. If there's a speck of gold left in a river in Montana, my Infinium is going to find it for me. It LOVES lead sinkers, which, from what I hear, are the redneck relatives of gold nuggets. The bottom line is that I REALLY like it. We all know it's a numbers game. So what I'm thinking is that double the pull-tabs will equal double the goodies in the long run. I can't wait to get in the water with it! Ya'll have a great weekend! Ammie

Still trying to pick a water detector. Question for anyone who has used both VLF and PI. Would a PI machine really find deeper stuff in our fluffy, sanded-in beaches? I'm sure it would in New England, but in pure silica Florida sand? The more I read about the PI machines, the more I think I might be just as well off with an Excal 2. But if it means an extra 2-3 inches in depth on wet sand and in the water, I want a good PI. I don't mind digging at all. I usually run the DFX in modified relic mode and dig everything anyway. Some days targets are so scarce here that I would almost be happy to find a pull-tab to dig. Almost. Anybody? Thanks, Ya'll!

I went out this morning looking for what the storm has brought in. We had some waves in the bay up to 15 feet! When detecting after a storm it can be good but it can also be 'blown out' with very little pattern. I hunt for 'focused energy' and patches. This can take a lot of walking but can also result in rewards. My initial pass at the beach was along the cut (such that it was) which was mostly pushed over. The waves and tide had gotten so big that nothing stopped and it blew right over the blanket line. This makes for a good day if you are a beach comber but difficult for detecting. I kept walking and finally found a patch while the tide was still high. I came back to it an hour or so later when there was a bigger beach. The gird began and I was in a nickel, dime and quarter patch worth sticking with. This got me $18+ and a couple of keys. Then on one of my shallow penny hits I looked in the scoop and GOLD! Really? I put it back down on the beach and tested again and still penny on my 3030 ... must be gold plate. I'll check it when I get my glasses on ... time to work the patch more. When I got home I looked and J A 585 with a diamond ... maybe it was the size ... a penny won't quite fit inside it. It weighs 11.5 g. Yahoo, GOLD RING.