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And to be a little more specific... I can run my Excal. in pinpoint mode with a sensitivity around 9 in the saltwater. I can run the Equinox around 20 sensitivity and recovery speed around 3. Any thoughts on which one punches deeper on a coin or ring size object? Thanks!

I tried finding my previous (2019) summary report and New Year's resolutions but failed. Well, I have the data (from my logs) and I roughly remember my goals -- find some new detecting spots. I left my old heavily searched (by me) schools and parks alone this year and returned to a couple I had barely detected plus one I had never detected. 90% of my year's detecting was spent on this last (previously undetected by me) site. All three yielded silver coins. Not surprisingly I spent most of my year in the one that seemed to be the best producer. I finally retired for good in February (I'd been 50% for the previous 1 1/2 years) and it did lead to more hours in the field, but not large multiples (311 hrs vs. my previous best of 263 hrs). My most noticeable increase in raw numbers was almost doubling my "other old coins" finds, those being pennies before Lincolns, denominations no longer minted (e.g. 2 cent), 5 cent pieces before Jeffersons plus the silver Warnicks, and all higher denominations prior to 1965 -- i.e. the silver years. I keep a separate category for Wheat pennies. My other old coin count (still modest compared to many here, some of you reporting 100 or more for the year) was 43 (previous record 22). I found 103 Wheaties along the way (previous record 90). Most of the increase in the 'others' was from nickels across the board (especially Buffies and Warnicks). Here's a photo of my last 6 month's 'other old coins': No rare or even semi-key date+mintmarks there. Both Indian Head Pennies are from the early 20th century (very common). I can't read the dates on the very badly worn V-nickel and two of the three Buffies (other is 1920 plain). The Jeffie (lower right) doesn't count as "other old coins" but is included because it's a fairly low mintage 1950 plain (not to be confused with the lowest mintage of the series which also came out that year, with Denver mintmark). The silver charm(?), at least I think it's silver, is not marked but I think it's some kind of artisan silver piece -- rather crudely made as you can see. Surprisingly I got very little silver jewelry this year since I dig everything about 20 on the Equinox (i.e. above Zinc pennies). I didn't buy a single detector this during 2020, only a couple coils (both for the Fisher F75). I feel like I learned a lot about using the Equinox but nowhere near everything I'd like to know and apply. Oh, one of the IHP's was found with the Tesoro Vaquero. (Only 9 hrs or about 3% of the year was spent hunting with anything except the Eqx and almost all of it with the 11" coil.) I used to buy a new (or used) detector every 8 or 9 months. The risk (and I paid for it) is not ever really learning one properly before I shelved it for the greener grass on the other side of the hill. I'm not making that mistake with the Equinox. For 2021, my goals/resolutions are the same, but to a higher magnitude. I'm going to find some local old, forgotten sites thru research and at least make an attempt to get permissions (if they are private, which is likely). The pandemic did hinder me a bit in 2020 with no detecting trips out of my local area. I have three promising permissions on hold (a 19th Century picnic/swimming hole, a 19th Century church site, and an 18th Century New England homestead -- none of these has ever been detected according to their owners). I missed getting out west for natural gold searching and ghosttowning. I should at least get to Colorado late spring or early summer for both and maybe Nevada (fingers crossed) again this year. While the weather is uncooperative for detecting I'll do more backyard testing and (finally) learn how to clean my now 294 Wheaties, many with dates currently hiding under the infamous green scale. (Maybe some semi-keys among them -- I hope, I hope.) If I can figure out how to pan in my (heated) workshop without making a mess I'll do some of that on uncooperative winter days as well. I do have some unpanned promising material and don't mind practicing with pseudo-gold (lead flakes), either. I hope all of you're pleased with your 2020 efforts and especially hope you harbor high aspirations for 2021. Happy New Year!

Coming from Tesoros I have picked up a NOX 600. I am use to setting threshold to a barely audible hum. Then setting discrimination. The quieter the threshold hum, the better discrimination works. Or so it seems. So what exactly then does setting threshold do on the NOX? According to the manual; it is used to notch out an item, like a nickel or penny. Can someone please explain the differences. And also explain that if I set the threshold on the NOX to a barely noticed hum what are the consequences? Thanks Terry

I'm running the new version but I haven't really ran into any issues with it as of yet. The only time I run into deep iron with the Nox is if I have hit a spell where I've not dug anything in a while, and then I start trying to force signals; digging those that I'm pretty sure are bad, but there is just enough of a high tone coming thru every now and again that makes me curious. It was that way with the first version and the newer one. What I have noticed though is something pretty eye opening when comparing to the Multi Kruzer. Here lately I've just been using both machines with their respective small coils...6 inch for the Nox and 7 inch for the Kruzer. In my soil, the Nox still goes deeper, despite the Kruzer having a slightly larger coil. But that's not what I am getting at. It has to do with iron. This Multi Kruzer loves flat iron. I'm talking it will sing out on it, repeatable and consistent 50 to 80 IDs on flat iron....it depends on the size/thickness of it too in what it will read. I started noticing this when I would be comparing both machines....as in hunting with one, marking good signals with it, then getting the other machine and comparing those same signals. I noticed when I would hunt with the Kruzer, I was getting several signals each time that it was giving an unmistakable good signal on...ID higher than the nickel range, and into the coin range....that when checked with the Nox, it would only give single digit numbers or at most, an ID of 10. Well that's quite a difference....when you have one machine reading into its higher conductive coin range and the other not even registering as a nickel. I thought to myself "uh oh...". That was until I started digging these things. 100% OF THE TIME....not just once...or twice...the target is iron. I have a whole pile of iron now that this is verified on....the Kruzer will read as a mid to high conductive target when it is flat iron. The Nox will single digit read it AS LONG AS it is in multi freq mode. If you go to the single freq on the Nox...you will get the same exact thing that the Multi Kruzer is doing over the iron. It causes it to instantly shoot up into the 20-30 ID range.

Has anyone tried using just the vdi of 11 with every thing else discriminated for gold rings?

Does anyone know what the difference is between park one and field one as far as algorithms? If all the settings such as recovery, iron bias, etc. are set the same what would be the difference?

I have a couple of old parks/homesites that I hunt that I know have silver and old copper left in them. My problem is, there are innumerable little pieces of trash mixed in with the good stuff., mostly foil and modern trash. I am thinking of notching out the known nasties to help make the good signals pop. Specifically -9 through 11 keeping 12,13,14 (I want old and new nickels) notching out 15,16,17,18 and keeping 19 through 40. I know some aluminum will ring up in the nickel range but I am just trying to eliminate the overwhelming amount of signals. Thoughts?

A question on another forum sparked my attention so I pulled out a few of mine to see how they rang up on the Equinox 800. The coins were laid separately on the ground so this was nothing more than an air test in Field 1. Coin Date VDI $0.50 1860 3 (California Gold fractional coin) $2.50 1925 15 $5.00 1881 18 $10.00 1888 21

I'm always wanting to tweak my Equinox 800 settings to maximize searching for old, deep coins. Would love to hear from the experts here about their favorite. Specifically tones, FE/FE2, frequency etc.

Hi ive recently brought a equinox800 and upon detecting in the grounds of an old house that has been built on an old mot and bailey. The hose I’m told is at least 1300 ive hit a signal of 15-19 on the screen, approximately 15ft from where the existing brook used to flow. (It still flows it just moved over the years) ive dug down to at least 18 inches into the river bed (the pebbles make this apparent) and the signal has grown to 32+ but I’m yet to find the source! the signal is strong but I’m doubtful the detector is reading true?! the deeper I go the stronger the reading, I’ve detected the soil I’ve recovered nothing! move filled the hole in and shall return with maybe a better tool? any ideas or experiences?

I recently did a custom coin shooting program I really like searching for deep silver: park 1, multi frequency, 50 tones, Fe at 0 Fe2 at 0, recovery at 1, -9 through 11 notched out keeping 12 and 13, notch out through 17 keeping 18 through 40. I hit a clad dime today at 8 inches and realized I was running my sensitivity at 16 because of EMI! BTW, always run sensitivity as high as possible and ground balance before hunt. I am really starting to learn my Nox and am loving the versatility and depth as well as target separation. Let's hear your settings....

Hello, I had a problem with my metal detector, I was using it in the water, after several months it does not turn on and shows the message "CD" on the screen and then you can see the water inside .. the guarantee I change it for another without problems a fast process I have read, that water enters through the union of the handle to the pda (subjecting screws to the mast), according to what they say, this problem only happens to those made in Malaysia ... those made in Australia do not have that problem, the first series they come out perfect does anyone know about this topic? How do I know where my detector was manufactured? I can attach photos of the box (where the manufacture comes) and compare with other users..thanks my detector is equinox 800 February 2020

Hi, I am new to this site and looking at purchasing a metal detector for my husband for Christmas. He has always wanted one and really likes the Minelab (not sure why), I was looking a at the 600, though reading about the 800 it has extra features. As this is his first, and I know he will use it. Which one would everyone recommend and as a beginner would these be suitable? Thanks so much! Annie THANKYOU so much to everyone, I have read all the comments and must say this is an amazing group and so helpful. I defiantly think I will be getting him the 800 and letting him know to join his group! Thanks, Annie

Hello all, I went back to the lake where i found a 1935 Walking Liberty Half, at the beginning of the year! I believe that coin was a fluke find, as none of my other coins found there even come close to that date range! Today, i went to another shallow water area where jet ski's tend to hang out, while people rest, or work on them! I had no expections of this spot, other than it has been on my "to detect" mental list for awhile! I was there about 3 hours, and only worked about a 5x20 foot area against the shore, but the targets were layered and plentiful! I unfortunately did not get any old coins or gold, but the amount of targets in this small area kept me plenty busy! I used Park 1, with sensitivity at 23, in a depth from few inches to about 2 feet! I was digging most every signal, and got very good at telling what denomination the coin targets where! And for many, i used my pinpointer for the final recovery, as most where under four inches in depth! I was really hoping for some lost jewelry, but no luck this time out! It seems that no one has bothered to detect this spot, due to the amount of targets i found in such a small area! While these are not very worthwhile targets, they are typical of my area, and provide some good practice with the Nox! I'm sure i can get a few more good hauls from this spot, as there is still quite a bit that is still unsearched! Maybe a little gold the next time out!🤞 👍👍 ** I wanted to add my thoughts on the bullet below! I'm a hunter, but by no means a bullet expert! So you ballistic's guy's, please chime in!! I believe that this bullet was fired in the air, and landed in the lake intact! I'm almost certain that there are rifiling marks around the base that show it was fired! (two are visible in pic)! Not sure of the caliber, but it's on top of a quarter for scale! Let me know your thoughts!👍👍

Hi, just though this was worth sharing as it turned out so well. A number of things happened to bring this together - the biggest one being having just bought an Equinox my neighbours changing their curtains for blinds. I ended up with 3x6ft lengths of wood curtain pole. I also (long story) smashed my right hand up some years ago in a bike crash - straight stem won't work for me. I had read the threads (various threads on straight vs S) and puzzled over the alloy pipe bending method. But then I already have a Mars universal shaft and took a closer look at this. After reading the thread on the Garrett gizmo that screws into the end of the stem so the arm cup can be moved along I got to thinking some more - I don't own a Garrett but am always intrigued to read what others are up to. So the Mars universal shaft will come apart. Held by a holding screw and with some hard pushing and pulling the arm cup pole (I'll call it that) will release. I measured the length I needed, then by hand whittled the shape to Mars flat sided (not round). A tight fit and the holding screw back in place to hold. The strength of this part of the Mars hand grip (the bit under the hand grip) left me confident that it could cope with some pretty minimal stresses - like it would have to do anyway. The curtain pole hand whittled at the arm cup end, then drilled through with a slightly under size drill bit. I didn't note the size, but it waggled freely in the Equinox upper stem hole for the arm cup. As I drilled it I waggled the drill to make it a little splayed out (as is the shape of the plastic fitting in the arm cup bits). For the Equinox itself a similar blind hole, but on an angle (judged by eye) as per the angled shape of the Minelab underneath grip bit - and also drill waggled around to get the splayed out shape. Two lines of wood were whittled away to the correct diameter for the equinox and it lower grip to meet perfectly. It could be neatened up. I may spray it black. Some things considered were the Equinox grip needed to be far enough away from the Mars grip to allow fingers of winter (thick) gloved hands - and also the coil cable and head phone cable. The Mars shaft can be made to shorten - and in effect smash into the back of the Equinox unit. I would just put a wrap of tape around the release lever. I won't ever release it - I don't need to I have a long detector bag - but I guess somebody could. Weight for weight the wood pole is pretty light. I weighted the Minelab top piece of shaft, and my piece of wood was 14 grams heavier. The next step (which I am waiting to arrive) is a proper Minelab Equinox lower stem end piece for the coil to go on, The Mars universal one is a bit narrow and this looks it will swap over fairly easily.

I decided to see if I could balance out the Nox without too much time or $ involved. So far I'm at $7 and we'll see if this will even pan out. First, I moved my control box forward 11/2" moved my armrest forward as far as possible and added some ballast at the very back. I used 9 3/4" washers, with a piece of 3/4 round stock in the center as a bushing. I ran a 1/4" hole thru the bushing and mounted it in the last armrest hole. I'll see if the extra weight is worth trying to balance the machine just a little bit more tomorrow when I take it for spin.

Unfortunately this story isn't about an interesting find. I haven't had many of those this summer but autumn weather (cool temps, cloudy skies, and many fewer park visitors!) are opening up so maybe I can break the bad streak there. I was in my favorite park where I've been searching most of this pandemic year. I've saved some of the parts which are most frequented by park visitors and thus the most difficult to exercise social distancing. (Most wear masks, but not all, and I don't like to detect with a mask on so I just do my best to stay far away from people, which works.) There is a ~2 meter wide walking trail about 120 meters long which is hilly and wooded on one side with a shallow creek on the other. The trailhead is in an open area which I've hunted more than once this year with modest success (old coin wise). As I got a few meters from the trailhead (detector running) I started to pick up quite a few ferrous hits -- considerably more than typical for this site. I quickly decided there may have been a building or fence closeby in the past. But as I started up the trail it continued. I'm talking 6-10 ferrous hits per swing. And it's pretty consistent. I checked my ground balance and it was fine. The hits were peaking in the -4 to -2 range, so very unlikely to be hot rocks (which are rare around here, anyway). I walked into the wooded part next to the trail and the ferrous hit rate dropped. I was using the ML Equinox w/11 inch round DD, Park 1, 5 custom tones, gain = 23, recovery speed = 4, Iron Bias F2 = 0, no discrimination/notching. As I've been doing lately, my user profile was Park 2, 50 tones, recovery speed = 6, IB F2=0. I use that for target investigation. I continued up the trail, only having to step aside for one small group of 4 people. On the way up I was covering the full trail with my overlapping swings and on the way back I went more quickly but still covered maybe 50%. During the ~2 hours time I found two 22 casings (surely over 50 years old since this is a municipal park) and one green (95% copper) Memorial(!) cent. Date turned out to be 1967. It was as green as most of my oldest Lincoln cents and the typical Indian Head cent finds in my area. I also dug a couple beavertails, but only 2-3. Normally I'd get about 10 or more at this site over that time period. None of these recoveries was deep; the Memorial was deepest -- maybe 3 inches -- and it was not a clean signal (nor pure VDI) at all. In that particularly recovery I got two pieces of wire and a boot tack(!). (Gold detectorists, you know the feeling. 😁) Another hit that sounded decent (far from ideal) turned out to be a small nail. So what was up? Here are some more clues. The trail itself was gravel paved, with the size ~1 inch and larger. But unlike most of the trails in this area, it was water rounded gravel, not sharp crushed limestone or tiny river gravel. That was another headscratcher. Also, this park was a Work Progress Administration site (1930's federal government employment program to improve infrastructure and provide jobs) with many signs of that still remaining. After getting home and contemplating all this, I think I figured out what was up. (I'll let you speculate if you're still following this post and have interest in trying your sleuthing skills.) The lesson I learned (again, only after getting home) was that I should have adjusted my detector and settings. Would the 6 inch coil make more sense? What about a faster recovery speed? And now reading ElNino77's comments on discrimination, how about silencing the low (ferrous) VDI bins? (BTW, I did check what the Beach modes sounded like -- just as bad.) This trail has been used over 80 years (WPA ended about then). Maybe there are detectors better suited (e.g. XP Deus/ORX) but even they won't make this area a cake-walk. That means there are likely some juicy old coins here as any previous detectorists would have had similar problems. Any other suggestions on change of settings or detector are welcome.

Newbie here,how do I connect the Garrett Z-Lynk to the Equinox 600? Doesn't the WT-1 box of the Z Lynk have to be physically connected to the 600 via adapter cord? I didn't see any such cord on the Minelab site. I just bought this 600 havn't even used it yet but fter reading post from different sources, I think I'm going to hate this thing.

Steve, congrats on your Work with the EQ team.! That's awesome. I thought something big was coming when you put up most of your machines for sale. Question. Can the EQ handle be loosened on the shaft and repositioned ( slid up or down ) and tightened , to adjust for arm length? also can the batteries be accessed by taking the handle off the shaft? Keep dropping those subtle tips for us hungry wolves!

I've been using the Equinox 800 for about two years now. It's by far my favorite detector. I have found that GB is pretty important in my ground for best results. In my ground in Park2 the GB number ranges from mid 40's to mid 60's. I would say mid 40's to mid 50's average. In Park2 in the test garden if you keep the machine on default GB 0 it will not hit deeply buried coins nearly as well as when properly GB'ed. Many times I have started detecting at a spot and forgotten to GB only to then remember after awhile, and once I do the Nox comes alive. I'm sure it matters how much your ground is mineralized, and how far from 0 your Nox GB's in your ground. I have seen arguments where people say don't GB and just leave it on 0 it's not needed, but I would argue otherwise. Also would those in the know consider ground that the average GB number is in 40's-50's to be medium or highly mineralized ground?

Hey all, I got up to Treasure Coast for a couple of hunts, to break in my new/used Equinox! I haven't had one for a few months, but i got back into it in a hurry! The area is always full of detectorists for any rare erosion event, and this past week was no different! The blue erosion bags are a main indicator of the level of erosion present! Normally they are covered by up to several feet of sand! The orange sand is the original sand we look for, when looking for the old stuff! Last friday was the better of the two days i was there! I found a few pieces of lead, iron, copper, and modern coins! For a few lucky hunters, there were musket ball's and spent bullets! There were a few coin and artifact finds, but those were on various other beaches nearby! The highlight of this trip was recognizing, than meeting a local legend here; Terry Shannon, a super nice, very experienced detectorist, and author! He has a few very good books out on Amazon! He was my best "find" of the day! I also went Monday, but i caught the tide incoming, and just got beat up by the big waves, with very few targets! But i will keep going there, whenever i get the chance, to finally find some of the elusive and rare Spanish items!👍👍

I keep hearing that a major advantage of the Equinox (and Vanquish) is that it allows users to make finds in locations that have already been pounded by earlier hunts. I believe this, but I want to know "how" this is happening. Let's use a hypothetical to illustrate my question. Let's say you have a park and most detectorists are using the Compadre, Ace, F2, F75+, AT series...or some other single frequency VLF machine. But you've got the Vanquish or Equinox and you're able to make "great finds" that the other people are missing. How does this happen? Is your Multi-IQ machine able to see something that the machines can't? Or is it able to see it with a "better" signal (i.e. higher tone, louder tone, higher VDI number, etc.)? In other words, is the non-Multi-IQ machine completely missing a target while the Equinox or Vanquish see it? Or do most machine see the target, but only the Multi-IQ machine sees it as a "diggable" target? Alternatively, do all machine have roughly the same ability to see targets A, B, and C. But only the Multi-IQ machines can see targets D and E? I'm just trying to conceptualize the term "better."

I've been playing around with running 5Khz just to see if maybe I'd get a hit on some deep copper or silver in an old zoo that's finally playing out. The first time I did this I got 5-6 nice repeatable hits in a spot that I have beat to death with the CTX. All targets were deep and hitting in the mid 20's, every one was a ring tab. I had my disc set from -9 to +18, which made didn't make sense that I was getting a hit on the tab. Every one of them that I checked out of the hole would not register a positive signal. The second time I tried the same setup, 5 Khz, same disc settings, I decided to test the hits in multi IQ, nothing, not a peep. When I went back to 5Khz, there they were, loud and clear, same targets, ring tabs. I was thinking to myself, that, possibly, I might get a hit on some deep nickles running 5Khz without having to listen to all the mid tones. Well, today, I do the same thing, only this time, I had just made a pass with the CTX over this spot and didn't get a good repeatable signal. Low and behold, I get a solid 28-32 both ways and dig a 6" plug and out pops a nickle ? At first I'm thinking its a war nickle due to the high numbers, but, nope, just a plain Jefferson. I pass the coil over it, nothing, not a peep, notta. Any idea's as to what's going on here, I don't think it's a bad thing, just a bit weird I thought.

I was river hunting yesterday and came across a solid +1 in 4.5 ft of water. After spending half an hour digging down approx 2ft. into the gravel bar, the signal broke into 2 centers. I finally gave up because of depth of water and size of hole. Anyone else have an idea as to what is down there... the site is about 1/2 mile down stream from a bridge, and the river has been close to flood level all summer.

I used the: Equinox 800 w/ 6" coil Park 2, Sensitivity 23, 2 tone, Iron Bias f2 0, Recovery 4 Xp Orx w/ 9" hf coil, 4 tone, Sensitivity 96, recovery 2 Gold Kruzer 4x7.5 coil, Deep mode, Sensitivity 80 I wanted to see how well these detectors did in no emi area at a low mineral sandy beach with a 0.89 gram 14k gold ring buried at a measured 9". I was very impressed with the results. The Equinox 800 w/ 6" coil and the XP Opx w/ 9" hf coil hit all the way around with the coil lifted 3"-4". The Gold Kruzer w/ 4x7.5 coil hit it one way w/ coil raised 2"-3". The other was a weak signal harder to get. I was happy with that. I didn't bring the 5x9.5 coil. I'm sure it would have done better. Over all I was happy with the results. The Equinox 800 w/ 6" coil did really good. Equal with the Xp Orx w/ 9" hf coil. The Xp Orx hit the ring very well at 31 khz and 54 khz.