Search the Community

? Made you look! OK, there is a dectecting story behind this, and actually more typical finds below. The theme is that sometimes you're out detecting and find things you weren't expecting, and even things your detector might not see (or could see but wasn't needed). Two weeks ago I was out a new site (park). Someone I was walking past asked me if I had found any mushrooms. "No, but then I wasn't looking for them, either." So I go back this week, detecting again, and while peering down at the ground while swinging my detector, there plain as day was this morel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella) Actually, around here they sell for around $25/lb when fresh. So in those units it's worth a bit more than a US silver dime (but I'd rather have found one of those). My wife fried it up for me -- two small bites after all the water was out of it. Pretty tasty nonetheless. This sorta reminds me of another hunt I had a couple weeks ago, this one to a school built in 1959. I was thinking "that's about 10 years for silver coins to have been dropped" so I was hopeful for those or maybe some Wheat pennies. Less than 30 minutes after starting a survey hunt (the school grounds are many acres in size) I got a high but inconsistent tone. Looking down I could see some silver, and dropping to my knees started pulling out a chain with a pendant, then seeing more silver, another chain and two rings. About a foot away I saw something white that turned out to be a porcelain elephant, likely part of some kind of jewelry box. Why was all this jewelry (every piece marked '925') laying on top of the ground in a schoolyard?? We can only speculate. I did dig another sterling silver ring (on the right in the pic below) about 6 inches deep in another part of the schoolyard later that same day. Although I've been back two more times and found lots of clad, nickels, and copper Memorials I still don't have a single old coin from this site. And I haven't found any more jewelry, either.

Found this next to a fence in a local ball field about 8-10" down. It rang in as silver and has no tarnish so I am guessing it is pretty pure. Back has no maker marks and shows a small pebble finish so it was originally sand cast or delft clay. The symmetry isn't perfect so it was hand made or at least the original pattern was. Anyone have any info they may know on this such as approx. age etc? The jump ring is iron, wild guess is it may had had a leather cord.

Got out again today with my Equinox 800. Did not find a lot of coins, but did pull 1942s wheat penny and 14k gold ring. Stones in ring tested as diamonds at least according to my diamond tester. I used my usual Park 1, with recovery speed lowered to 4. Ring came in at solid 12 at about 5-6 inches. Excellent day.

There’s been some sand movement in SoCal beaches and I got there just in time to get a few crumbs. There was another hunter there before me since I could see the opened holes and junk laying besides them. Luckily he left me a few keepers. I hunted 3 days for a total of $35+ in clad and 5 gold pieces. Good luck out there and happy hunting.

When you get a not so great high tone on the Equinox, but it is above most trash and reads below most coins...do you dig it? Well I did just that yesterday and pulled this little Bear (#18) from about 5". Lets see your odd # dirty swinger find.

I was able to go out detecting with the Nox 800 for the first time this year several days ago. The weather has been bad in Northern Nevada this year and I had minor knee surgery in early March. I didn't find a lot of coins , but did manage to find an unreadable date wheat penny, a tiny gold ring, and beautiful 17" necklace(unfortunately not gold.). The gold ring measured in at .9 gram and was by far the smallest gold ring I have found in 16 years of detecting. The Nox sniffed it out at about 6 inches down with a solid "9" . The ring was so small it was even hard to locate with my pinpointer , but finally managed to capture it. I was using my standard Park 1, recovery speed 5, iron bias 1, and sensitivity 18-20 based on conditions.

Found this in the mix of pull tabs last year with my Tejon. Neighbor that does antique dealing said it is from the 30's. I tried emailing the maker that is out of NY their mark is CID but they just ignored me or chucked my email in their spam box. Any idea what it might be worth? Has 7 deep blue sapphires and 4 small diamonds approx. 1/4 karats ea.

These are some of my recent beach gold finds with the 800. I’m glad they are not fish or else I would have throw them back for being too small ? I’ve had the detector since April and really enjoy using it, so now my excalibur II just collects dust. Good luck out there and happy hunting.

When conditions are right then slow swinging wins the day. The silver band is a half ounce! The other silver ring has a nice little amber stone. Mitchel

Had a couple hours to kill this afternoon, so I took the Equinox to a park here in sunny Arizona that I’ve not been to before. Typically, my goal on these time-constrained forays into the parklands is to cherry pick the higher conductive targets in hopes of finding a silver coin. But this time I decided to also dig targets that fell within the nickel range of the EQX. The first target was a shallow 20-21 signal; yep, you guessed it - a stinkin zincoln. Next up was a 13-14...could be a nickel, but most likely a pop can tab...sure enough, it was a can tab. Swinging along, next signal was a solid hit at 24-25; at 4 inches, out popped a 1963 D copper Lincoln cent: cool, definitely some hope for silver. After digging another pop tab, I got a strange deep signal that would bounce around from 25 to 31; a coin spill perhaps? The culprit was down around 10 inches, and turned out to be a corroded 1945 D copper wheat-back penny. Checking the hole and plug revealed no other targets...a total head-scratcher, but even more reason to suspect slver coinage was in the area. Moving on, the Nox responded with a tight 12 on the display. Down around 6 inches was a surprisingly corroded 2013 D nickel. Next was a broken pop tab around the 2 inch mark, then a nice sounding 27-28 ; the silver dime I’ve been waiting for? Nope, just a flattened aluminum scew-top.? Then I get another solid 12 hit at 4 inches. Fully expecting another nickel. I popped the target out of the hole and was flabbergasted to see a gold and diamond wedding ring! At 14 karat, it’s my first ever solid gold ring. I figured that I’d better stop at that point, since there was no way I was going to top that amazing find, but I decided to keep on swinging for another half an hour since I hadn’t found a silver coin yet. The very next target was a deep sounding solid 31, so I’m hoping beyond hope for a silver quarter. Getting down past 8 inches and the pinpointer was sounding off in the bottom of the hole; another couple inches and the target was out...a Washington quarter alright, and a gentle rub revealed the date: 1941...YES! I decided to quit on a high tone and call it a day. What a super awesome hunt, and I couldn’t be happier.?

Gold fever has been particularly bad as I am not able to get up into the mountains until the end of the month, so I decided to give the park a try. I found as expected, tons of trash but near the end of my search I came across a small 925 charm. Not worth much but it really drove home the point that I need to start thinking outside the box.

This was my first beach hunt in a few days because I had been out in the Rye Patch area over the weekend. While I was gone I understand that it had rained and some wave alerts had been sent to my email. Our area beaches get hit hard by detectorists but I know them pretty well and followed my intuition when I got there. We don't have a negative tide right now and there is a Santa Ana wind blowing so the new waves are very small. On my way 'out' I hunted near the waterline. There was very little to find. I walked about a mile or so with very few targets. There was a bit of a trough at the bottom of the hill (beach slope) but nothing seemed to be holding. I was thinking about leaving and I worked back in the direction from where I had come. Then I got a clue. The clue was the junk wire pack. It was completely buried in the wet sand and had a thin plastic bag around it. It certainly is an unusual beach find for me. This pack was at the bottom of the hill and just above it for about 6 feet or so was hard sand and just above that was about 10 yards of 'past wave' deposited sand. You need some energy to move targets and you need the right conditions for those targets to be 'grouped' and deposited. Some beaches will stay this way for a few days and some beaches will only keep targets for a few hours. I look for these pockets. I liken it to a crab crawl on the Deadliest Catch. Anyway, I went up into this area and found a hoop earring among the bobby pins, pennies and a few other coins. I was using the Nox 11 on all metal and I was digging EVERYTHING. Sometimes I skip pennies and bobby pin sounds but not last night. Then I was surprised by one of the silver hoop earrings and its mate was just about 5 feet away. Then came a copper hoop, and then another and all of them within 10 feet. They're all water tarnished. Then I got what I thought was a ring ... earring it turns out but then a stainless steel bracelet. Then another earring (GOLD) and finally a couple of silver rings (.925). I worked the patch with a grid pattern and it kept giving. I had had enough after 4 hours. A 'bad' beach had turned into the most hoops (10) I've ever found. I've been on beaches where I've found 5 chains in a session but they are as rare as this beach. You never know. Follow your clues. Mitchel

To find something, anything gold, I tried beaches, water detecting, playgrounds, etc... and finally scored! ? 10k. Rang up 13-14 on the Equinox 600 which is usually pull tabs.

Hadn't taken any pictures in a while for show and tell. But now that I have some, its show and tell time. Nothing spectacular but its still pretty eye candy. A couple of few weeks back I was out with my V3 and got some silver and gold. The 14K DAD ring is the smallest diameter ring I have ever found. In the same patch I also found this really neat silver CZ charm. This past week I took the Compadre/Cleansweep combo out to another patch and found the One Ring! Nothing happened when I put it on so I think its just gold plated stainless. Anyway....some pics to keep the spirits up. HH Mike

First dig of the day on a baseball field was a strong 34-35 on the screen of my Equinox 800. About one inch down was a pleasant surprise; I thought it was going to be a couple quarters together. It is silver and they are real diamonds. Not sure what the middle stone is, but it is a very dark blue. About an hour later I got a strong 9 on the screen and out popped a class ring (#3 for me and always a neat challenge to track down owner). If you know what the "K" in the inside stands for, please share (I assume it means that it is some sort of alloy and not precious.) I think I know the name of the person already, now some more detective work to come up with a good contact number. I was using Park 1, 23 sensitivity, speed 7, and ground balanced to 0. The soil is almost exclusively sand with grass on top.

I had a couple of hours to go play at the beach on Christmas day. I am posting this because I know all you Equinox owners will understand how well your detector has to be working to find stuff like these two little items. The partial neckless was about six inches down and I felt good about understanding that the intermittent signal it gave off was worthy (Diamonds and saffires). The little ring was even deeper but gave off an unmistakable 'dig me' tone. Happy Holidays to everyone.

His 1st gold with the new White's GoldMaster 24K Metal Detector. Boy the heavy thick 18K gold ring with diamonds is a beauty.

Usually after a while of owning the next great thing in metal detectors, you kind of settle into the reality of what you purchased and how much of the hype is real or not. The Equinox is no exception. I am speaking strictly about beach hunting here, as I have not played a lot with it in real dirt. Today I hit my favorite gold beach. The tide was awful having a (coefficient of 35), meaning there is not much difference between low and high tide. This beach has terrible EMI from trains that run regularly and are close to you. Chatter city for about 5 minutes when they pass. I do realize that a small beach has to stop producing after a while, especially since there are a LOT of beach hunters in my area. So today the clad count was around 1 dollar. (8AM to 4 PM) I still can not believe a machine can continue to produce good finds under these conditions, but the Equinox does. Today was a stellar hunt after a slow start. 4 Mercury dimes, a buffalo nickel, some wheats and copper pennies and the 2 gold rings pictured. This 10K and Aquamarine beauty surfaced about 2 hours into the hunt. The last target of the day was what I believe is a 14K gold square cut diamond ring that may have been colored either with Silver or most likely Rhodium. It's marked and has the TWC (total carat weight) inscribed in it. It's worn but I think it says .48. Also has very worn numbers in it which may be a registration number in it. I was floored that the Equinox continues to give up the finds on pounded beaches. Hats off to Minelab. That Diamond ring was sitting at 10 inches on packed rock bottom. Rang in a choppy number 6. Out of the hole it was a solid 6 also.

A place for all things related to water detecting with the Equinox, fresh or salt. Feel free to post questions, suggestions, pictures of daily finds, etc.

Has anyone elses high K gold increased with this machine? Had it about 6 months now and nearly half of my gold has been 18K and above...... even a couple of 24k which ive never found. So is that a good thing? Im not sure when your goal is smaller gold. I cant figure if its just been this season. Me and a buddy tested it and on small gold the Nox is the obvious choice over an Xcal. I have some rather larger ... to me.... in the 1.4 gram range open earrings the Xcal just couldnt get. I got another 18K white gold 8.6 grams today....... read digit 18. High K gold normally is a little more conductive oddly. Oh...... and by the way im using the OLD program. It just works better for me..... especially in the wet sand. This machine to me is still a head scratcher because im not sure its does any better than the others on lower K gold IN the water.

Minelab Equinox 800 does it again! 22ct gold ring at 10 inches deep in the sand. This is not my find, it's my father's that he found a couple of days ago. 2.7 grams 0f lovely 22ct gold.

Diane and I went to a Willie Nelson concert in Paso Robles. Since we were going to be near the ocean, I brought two detectors for a bit of beach hunting. I only got in one hour of swinging resulting in a bunch of beach toast coins and this nice little ring..

3 rings within 1h on the dry-sand - that deserves an extra thread for me, even if they're "just" silver Here's the first one (925): The second one has a mark, but I can't read it clearly. I think it's silver, too: And just when I thought the 14g was the most heavy one I've ever found, I found this lump of 925 : 37g .. holy smokeria Tone-wise I first thought it is a big lump of iron, but it was too small for that..

Last time I had to chance to take a metal detector outside was about a month ago. FINALLY was able to plan for some detecting time Sunday morning. I'd been thinking about my G2+LTD audio profiling abilities, so I unpacked it Saturday night and go it ready to go for Sunday morning's hunt. Was hunting gold as always but was mainly into audio target size profiling so I was digging coins too. This was just another stinking zincoln signal. Boy was I surprised when about 3" down out pops a silver ring. 925 silver with a EC hallmark. Don't have any idea if the stones are real or not. Being silver I don't have my hopes up but you never know. Its like a starburst on the finger in the sunlight. I'll get it tested and find out. If they are real its ching ching. If not, it is still a $100 bill. HH Mike