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Which of these makes the best gold (nugget) hunter----the Equinox 900 with Coiltek 5X10" & Minelab 6" coils---or the XP ORX with the 5X10 h.f. coil?

I tested 50 gold pieces, rings, pendants and anything gold, with the Equinox 800 and the Deus 2. The Dues 2 numbers were jumpy just by two or three, but it did sound good on most. The Equinox hit strong on everything with a solid number. On odd shaped and small objects of gold even a small gold chain the Equinox sounded much better. Both were in Park. Why?????

Howdy All, With the recent Minelab sale I'm looking at either the Equinox 900 or the Manticore, primarily for gold prospecting. One of the appeals of the 900 is the wider variety of coil sizes from 6" all the way up to 18". Does anyone have any thoughts on the differences the 900 may offer with a wider selection of coils while prospecting? The 6" should find smaller gold more consistently, and the 18" should find it deeper, but does the Manticore beat the 900 even without those coil sizes? Are there better detectors in the same price range that may be better suited for gold prospecting? Thanks for any thoughts and feedback!

Exactly! If it was going to crap out it would have done it shortly after it was submerged. I’ve heard the nokta legends are better in water than the original equinox. Is this true?

At times of the year, I really struggle with Black Sand in my location. This year was no different. I have done more comprehensive testing on updated machines. On many days I hunted half days on each machine so I could tell differences in same conditions. [thanks to my wife delivering machines] I want to outline a few general recommendations: 1. Slow Down, 2. Use Tracking GB, 3. Sensitivity set so you hear just slight Black Sand interference. 4. Look at your fringe targets with a couple more points of sensitivity. 5. Don't trust your machine is working well with moving water, wave wash. [do checks]. D2> So much to unpack here. First, the D2 is a tale of two machines. One [the devil] in Black Sand, the other, [the angel] in non-Black Sand. The positives> Light to hunt. Fair separation of iron from non-ferrous. Good separation of targets. Good at noise canceling. The negatives. Noisy. The Menu. Clipped target sounds at depth for non-ferrous. Moving water takes D2 out at any depth. Must look at many targets from Mutiple directions[time consuming] . Equinox 800> Not much to unpack. The Positives> Better Black Sand handling. The Menu. Good separation but under the D2. GOOD sounding targets [not clipped]. MUCH better target sounds at depth. Better and faster deciding iron from non-ferrous. Works with moving water unless target is deep. The Negatives> Lousy noise cancel. Heavier to hunt with. Waterproof issues. Sometimes loss of targets in the hole. Hunting summary> For about a week I hunted the D2 exclusively, I really wanted to get a gold chain hunting in Beach Sensitive [which I think is better than Equinox Beach 2.] [no gold chain] Then had the Equinox out a few times. Then updated the D2, and started hunting both machines daily. Every day I started with the D2 and switched to the Equinox. There was not ONE DAY that I wanted the D2 to remain with me. I find the D2 ear exhausting, both in how it handles Black Sand and in deciphering targets. The clipped and bite-y sounding nonferrous targets at depth are a real PIA. The range of pull-tab numbers are ridiculous. Tough to make headway with the interrogation needed on some targets. Not much difference in hunting with a max frequency of 24 or 40. Maybe 1-point sensitivity lower with 40. ANY moving water would completely wipeout the detection field of the D2 in both Beach and Beach sensitive. At best I could only pull a 91-sensitivity setting, but most detecting was done at 87-89. The Equinox> So MUCH better on handling Black Sand. Most hunting was done at 21 even with water contact. Detection field works in moving water but not on targets of depth. With the Horseshoe mode on telling the difference between Ferrous and nonferrous is MUCH easier and quicker. The unmistakable double ring of iron is clear and smooth. Target investigation time is cut down. I don't think there is a winner in the small bit category. Both machines seem to find small bits well. While I did not do any head-to-head burying of targets. Both machines seem to have their moments of man that was shallower than I thought and also the holy crap, that was deep moment. NOT trying to make this a one is better than another, your conditions may provide different results. If you have compared other machines to the ones I have PLEASE post! I will answer all questions of settings or conditions or ??? In the picture: ALL of the larger jewelry was found with the Equinox yesterday. Only a few small bits with the D2. This has been a bit of a trend. I give the nod to the Equinox's ability to tell ferrous from non-ferrous at depth. Most of this jewelry was deep with negative numbers but had clean one beep hits. My D2 will be in the closet until the black sand subsides.

I have not been able to determine the usefulness of the EQX 900 iron bias setting. It appears to only suppress the overall target signal. In the attached video the Nokta Legend has an iron filter, bottle cap reject plus an iron stability setting. It appears the Legend “iron stability” setting isolates and actually addresses false positive signals. What do you think?

IYO----Which one is the most effective gold (nugget) hunter----the Manticore with 5X8" coil or the Equinox 900 with 6" coil?

What are most of y’all using these days? Which one is deeper? Better on small gold?

I'd rather they put the 800 into the 900 body and keep it alive.

Both of these machines have been out for awhile now.---Would like some opinions.---Which one is the best/most effective (for relic/coin hunting-- working in mineralized/iron/square nail proliferated sites)?-------Thanks--------Del

During the last month I’ve been taking my new 18’’ Nox coil along to compare it to both the 15’’ and 15x12’’ coils on wild targets.. To keep the swapping around to a minimum, the 18’’ coil is always kept on a Nox 600 and the others are swapped around on a Nox 800 on alternate days.. I realise this doesn’t make it a fair comparison as from one day to the next I’m comparing the 18’’ coil to either the 15’’ or 15x12’’ coil, never all three at once on the same wild target.. In my defence I can only say that I’ve found that both the smaller coils are pretty similar in performance.. Some days one might sniff out a target that the other one’s missed, on other days it’s the reverse.. In terms of depth and sensitivity to targets there’s no real noticeable difference between the two.. What I’m after here is a comparison between a very big coil (for a VLF detector) and its more modestly sized cousins.. Is bigger really better? As far as added hassles go, it’s been worth the effort of walking back to where I left the other detector as for me wild target comparisons are the best way to get very intimate with the latest addition to my coil harem.. So far there’ve been no ‘Wow that’s deep!’ moments but I wouldn’t be surprised if the knockout blow is yet to come.. I’ve still got a gut feeling that given time the 18’’ coil will sniff out deeper targets than the other coils, just not sure if that’s gonna be by as much as 30% as Coiltek claims.. Having said that, the 18’’ is surprisingly sensitive for such a big coil.. It didn’t pick up a small gold ring that the 15x12’’ coil sniffed out, but to my big surprise it did hit on two silver 6-pences, a copper 1 cent piece and bits of junk that the other coils couldn’t find - despite cranking up the sensitivity.. Not even a faint iffy signal or a quick flash on the target ID, whilst with the 18’’ coil all these small deep targets screamed ‘Dig Me!’.. While I can see the large coil missing a low-conductive target, I didn’t expect to see the smaller coils missing high-conductive targets.. What voodoo is at work here? On wet/dry salty sand I’ve been running the 18’’ coil on the same settings and sensitivities as the smaller coils (between 21-23).. In bays with layers of black sand beneath coral sand or in moving salty water I’m using lower sensitivities (between 18-21).. In trying to make the coil run ‘better’, I haven’t noticed any real depth loss or gain by mucking around with the sensitivity settings only between the Beach 1 and 2 programs.. Which is the same as the other coils.. I’m finding the same amount of targets at the same depths running within the same sensitivity range I’d normally use in that situation.. The only real variables for me are black sand and moving salty water but these just make the coil a bit noisier compared to the others and don’t seem to effect its overall performance.. In bays with high EMI it sometimes squawks its head off.. Coverage wise this thing is a monster but it’s not much heavier to swing than the other coils.. It’s been great for making sure I’ve covered long stretches of beach as best I could without missing anything too glaringly obvious.. I haven’t used the under-the-armpit-around-the-neck-along-the-arm harness yet but that’s mainly because I’ve been swapping around with lighter coils.. After a long day swinging this coil you’d definitely be a bit sore by sunset.. While I’m waiting for it to stun me with its touted knockout depth, I’ve got no regrets so far about buying the 18’’ Nox coil.. Whatever voodoo it used to sniff out those small coins when the others couldn’t makes it worthy of its place in the toolbox..

I wonder if Minelab could make an update for the Equinox that would make the Vanquish coils compatible with the Equinox. If it could be done, it would be a masterstroke that would surely bring them more benefits. I myself would buy a vanquish just for the coils

This afternoon I got in a quick hunt and saw some really nice local waves. It was a great day for them and I remembered my surfing days from Florida and Hawaii. I pretty much gave it up when I moved to California's cold waters. While watching out of the corner of my eye I was looking for a patch. My normal spots were not giving up anything so I moved along until I found a few quarters in between all the pennies. When the new 'hits' ran out I returned to work everything a the spot. It was the best chance I had. There was no time to go to another beach. As luck would have it I got just enough to keep me going without saying 'enough is enough' and out of a scratchy sound came this ring. It is 6.6g. That is for certain. It feels like gold but I really can't tell because the mark (which includes an 'N') has been written over with an inscription. It says "B + C Always 1-20-93" which makes me wonder the materials most in use in 1993. The stone reminds me of glass more than precious but who knows. The break at the resizing area made it sound real scratchy. It didn't have the full tone of a normal ring. It reads 8-9 on my 800/15. There is a green corrosion at the break area/resize area. Could this have been a ring someone inherited and then they resized if for a wedding? That would make the manufacture date and materials somewhat different. It was a good little hunt none the less and I think I go back tomorrow. This was a little 'target' I found before the ring. It really slowed me down a bit as pinpointing it and scooping it up became a problem. Just as I was about to move on I spotted it and felt it with my fingers. It sounds good in the lower teens but to my surprise it has a stone in it or ?? It weighs .25g.