Search the Community

Well, it's with a certain wistfulness that I am about to spend my last night in Indian Harbour Beach, FL. This little island has been the closest thing to a "home" that I've had for the past 5 years. We towed our "big house" to Georgia a few days ago and got it all tucked in and safe from the Florida hurricanes. The "little house", our 27 ft toy hauler, is parked in our spot and all ready to go exploring for the season. There was a minor glitch with the Polaris as it wouldn't start when we took it in for new tires Thursday. Route 1 Motorsports says it's just the battery and I'm sure they will get it all straightened out for us before we leave Florida in a couple of weeks. I hunted "my" beach for probably the last time yesterday and had an awesome time with some old friends and some new ones. None of us found much except clad and lead sinkers, but Terry Shannon did say he found a 10K ring the day before....which Mrs. Shannon promptly confiscated. We'll be in New Smyrna Beach next winter, if we can get a spot reserved, so it will be fun learning to "read" a whole new set of beautiful Florida beaches. I've heard that they're not as sand-truck happy up there as they are here, so that will be a big plus. I do wish I'd had more time on my new Equinox before we left here, but at least I'll get in a couple more weeks of beach hunting at St. Lucie and Daytona before we leave Florida. Tomorrow I face the "downside" of this RV lifestyle, saying goodbye to some dear friends and knowing it will probably be the last time I'll ever see most of them. Those of you who also live this nomad life know how it is. You always say "we'll meet somewhere halfway in between for lunch next winter" and then you never do. At least with Facebook you can still stay in touch. So we're off to St Lucie in the morning, so ya'll please say a little prayer for safe travels, if you're so inclined. It is always greatly appreciated. On to the next big adventure! Ammie

Took the 800 NOX out with new 15x12 coil for a quick swing along fresh water beach. And I have to say I was most Happy, this is the same beach I detected when I 1st received my 800 with 11 inch coil in March 2018, then detected again with 6 inch coil. Both of those coils found coins ( 1 1964 nickel ) the rest so far have been newer coins. But when I went over same ground with the 15x12 coils I found 10 more coins ( no silver ) but these coins were deep, I'll say in the 15inch to maybe 20 inches in depth, hard to tell because ground is really wet and water table hasn't dropped much. Was running Park 1 with a little messing with sensitivity. When reading 21 to 32 it was always a coin, to bad I couldn't tell if coins were laying flat or on sides. Now I would like to start digging 13 / 14's to see about finding nickels, I have been cleaning beach up of crap, so maybe a couple of more coins are in my future. Happy Hunting

Not getting much detecting time in lately.....but managed a few hours at the beach. Found these 5 rings and two silver dimes at the same beach. All the rings were found in the water. The rosie and merc were found around picnic tables. The gold ring is 14K and weighs in at 12.25 grams. The silver ring with the amethyst also has fire opal in it. The three other rings are all 925 silver.

Last week I went to Bill's outing. I was there mostly to learn (I say that now) but I also picked up the big Nox coil. I didn't use it in the desert but I did use it on the beach. The first hunt was pretty uneventful. Bad beach, bad results as they say. The next time I used it a couple of days later the beach was not that much different but I was ready to test it to the max. I'll have to admit that I didn't walk very slowly. I wanted a big sound to stop me. I also had a specific place in mind. On the way there I got a signal that was mostly 'deep penny' sounding but some of them you have to dig. I kept digging and digging (later measured to be about 15 inches) and I saw something about the color of the sand and it looked like a blade or utensil. When I got it out it was the piece in the center. Sword shaped but used as a pendant? Someone told me it might be from some type of uniform or costume? I've never found anything quite like it. It weighs 1.33 oz and it has a mark of sterling but nowhere does it say .925. After this I continued on down to my beach and I got a signal and looked down and the darker stainless steel ring was on the surface in a footprint. On the way back I gridded an area and came up with the other stainless ring. Here is a previous hunt with the 11 inch coil. You know what detector someone is using when you find this! I have many desert 'tourist' photos I could post but there are no finds to go with them. Mitchel

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.

Didn't find much. A few dollars, a junk ring, wine bottle opener and, what I think, a nose ring. I was surprised to find such a small thin item with the 15" coil. Or should I not be surprised that the big coil found the nose ring even though it is so small? Big coil, small coil no difference in hitting the small items? It was certainly hard to pin point. Here is a pic with a dime for comparison. The nose ring has tested as silver.

Had a day to hit my favorite gold beach, so I took advantage of the day. What looked like some sand had been removed in reality didn't pan out. Still fairly sanded in, and after digging some pull tabs at 10-12 inches, I figured it was going to be a strictly exercise kind of day. Not many coins on this small beach so I was just going to enjoy the day. Got another deep signal that I thought was going to be a crusty zinc penny and after digging 12" I final got it out. Now to use the pin pointer to get my crusty junk money, but instead what appears is a fairly good size man's gold ring. To say I was shocked is an under statement . Made my day and the Equinox was hitting nickels hard, most at 10". Two war nickels, 1935 Buffalo and some earlier Jefferson's ('39, 47 etc.) I mostly use Beach 1, manual ground balance (there is some black sand mixed in) and as high a sensitivity as I can handle. The only drawback is I can not get myself to stop digging them small targets. I always think I may miss small gold studs, or thin earrings. When you keep digging the extremely small disc that holds the two pieces of a pull tab together, you think you would learn a lesson, but not me. Even on a fairly sanded in beach the Equinox always seems to give me something good.

Headed out tomorrow to a beach a couple of hours drive away with my Nox800. My question is- Should I wait for low tide and hunt the water beyond that, or just go and hunt the sand above the water line while the tide goes out?

It's been a very busy summer/fall, so I was dying to get out to the beaches to see if the Equinox would still be kind to me. These pictures are from 5 of the 6 beach hunts. It's early in the season and the beaches are not shedding sand yet, so the finds are slimmer than last season. I did include a picture of one clad hunt that yielded over $17.00 in change in a 5 hour period. Most other clad amounts were much lower. Total clad after 6 hunts is $31.54 (average of $5.25 per hunt). It's going to be a long season and I hope to get out more often than once a week, but time will tell. So far I'm thrilled with 4 pieces of gold and the decent amount of silver I've found. I have been experimenting with Gold 2 mode, but so far with only a one tone option, all signals (including falsing from wet and mineralized sand) make a audible response. Can't figure out how to stop that. Wish it had 2 tones. I even ran a tight disc pattern, but the falsing was still reading in the low gold range. Anyone having success with the Gold 2 on wet sand??

How many of you have had an itch that no detector can scratch? Is there a set of features out there that haven’t been combined yet to make your dream detector and you think about it all the time? I constantly think about this hole in my detecting life that has yet to be filled! I’m posting this in the Nokta-Makro forum because they like and respond to these kinds of threads. Heres the dream machine that would obsolete a lot of detectors for me. Dream Beach Detector General idea: -A waterproof pulse induction detector -ground balance available with on and off -internal coil cable? -collapsable for diving -changeable tone to suit hearing <5lbs -hard wired headphones (reliability) loud headphones! (Comfy!) -12” DD great coverage, weight and size(hardwired if necessary) -some form of ferrous rejection! -EMI tuning for quieter use in suburbia -li-ion rechargeable with gold contacts (or something with no opening required) and 10hours+ battery life. -membrane style buttons for durability or something NOT a knob! -10m+ waterproof -overall reliable beach and water unit I know Steve still wants a lightweight ground balancing PI that can preferably go in the water for his Hawaii holidays, what does everyone else dream of?? :)

Got in the water on the weekend with the Equinox for the first time in months (been too cold) and had a blast 😁 I’ve finally got some good waterproof headphones for the equinox that are really acceptable under water volume wise 👍👍

The Equinox got wet for the first time today, it survived and will be without a doubt my primary water detector. I can do 80% of the area I want to do without needing the waterproof headphones, which is kinda nice. The beaches are fairly well sanded in here right now, but I know where to look for a few spots of clay. Things are going to get real interesting this fall when the mighty winds shift. Pictured are the older coins. A 1957 Penny, 1959 silver dime and a 1952 silver quarter. Not a bad bit of change considering I only found 5 coins total. Also a brass ring and a nail that might be from a horseshoe.

Sometimes you just have to find the right beach ... the right energy. That is what I did this morning. I got out about 3 hours before low tide (4:30 AM) at a regular beach and found next to nothing. There was nothing that had been moved by the tide or the waves in one of my favorite beaches. This half of a mile beach was dead. It was time to go over a jetty and detect a beach that could get waves and energy from a different direction. That got me started. The waves overnight had been small and the tide was not really going to be very low but the beach had quite a slope to it. I found a couple of quarters. I gridded as I have done this beach before and the quarters kept coming. These were 'old' quarters as my wife sometimes says. That means they are tarnished and have been in the water for some time. Now enough energy had focused on this beach to move them up. What comes with old quarters? RINGS! The first one came at the bottom of a grid. It was the stainless steel black ring. More quarters and more dimes and then the bracelet, and then the second ring and more quarters and a little trash and I'm skipping some pennies. Then I get an 18 on the 800 and I did it and it is the 3rd ring. Another cheap one but still a ring. I'm closing in on 3 hours and I need to go move my car but I also want to complete my grid pattern. Then for about the 3rd or 4th time this hunt I get multiple signals but the 800 is fast enough to distinguish the sounds. I focus on a 'ring sound' and sure enough I get the 1.9g/14k ring. It was among 2 other quarters, a couple of nickels and a dime. These were all within a 5 ft circle digging down about 6-8 inches. It was a good day and a good lesson once again about the energy. The places I hunt need energy to move valuable objects. Some of the heavies will be at the bottom of the grid but the gold ring was near the top. Quarters will get there also with the right waves and wind. I don't need a negative tide to find some good stuff. Totals 38 Quarters 37 Dimes 14 Nickels 23 Pennies (I could have dug more but I do a little cherry picking to save my arm and time!) 4 Rings The beach is not always this good and looking for gold in the desert has its challenges also. You have to take what you can get. Mitchel

Received a message from my ole friend of 15+ years, "Gene Scullion" former metal detector dealer and also former Senior Sales Manager for 1st Texas "Their Loss". He had went water hunting and this was his finds and his statement, "One white gold, one silver and one stainless steel. I'm liking the EQ800!"

Hello did a good sesh today ,3 hours i could have stay another 2 ......i really have fun when i take the lobo out as i know it sniff the goodies in a way that my other dont..... Anyway here are the goodies.Weather was pleasant after the heat of July it seems we are back with a typical british summer......An Irish guard decoration a silver and a nice lead seal and few coins modern and old RR

I have been limited at the moment in going to the beach because i have to see Mum in Hospital nearly every day in London . She has now had her Lung operation and is hopefully on the mend . But yesterday i didn't go to see her and will later today . I instead went to bed early last night and at 1.30am this morning got up and took the ET to the beach . I wanted to have a quick search on the tops before going onto the wet and looking for rings . I didn't expect much coinage , the weather has been raining for a couple of days and other detectorists would have cleaned up the coinage if any in most places . I got to the beach at around 2.15am and searched the dry tops for 2 hours getting little coinage mostly , though most of what i had today . When the sand started to show i went onto it and almost immediately found a Silver ring (middle left) on the blue tack and a few coins . A bit further along i had a 12 23 signal and i did think yellow , i just had that feeling and when i dug it out it turned out to be just that . Its a 2.7g 9k (top) , that is my 7th for the year so far , a short time later i found a junk ring ( bottom) . On that particular beach i found no more and left and searched a small beach but that was baron on the sand and as i had now reached the point where the tide was turning i went straight for one last place . I searched and found mostly 1p and 2p coins and the dark £1 coin in black sand . Then i had another high tone which i thought 2p but that turned out to be the Silver ring with the turquoise stone in it . I found a junk chain with stones not long after and the junk earring and a Silver Pendent with the Amber in it . At the end of the search at around 6.15 am i had found a total of £15.16p and the said jems . I have to see Mum today and i might not be home before 10.30pm tonight so i might not make tomorrow morning ? But it is a long tide and i have the game on and smell yellow so might bare it and go on the red eye at 4am if i wake up. That will be an ET search too . My Nox is still in the box and not set up , being that i sold my first Nox . I will get that out and use that in a few weeks time when the Summer season is over . That is for the sand only when its stirred by the waves and wind.

After work yesterday i went to the beach at 9pm for a start at 9.30pm . There is a big thing going on at this weekend and the beaches are very crowded . I started low down the beach but found little so started to search between the crowds and found coins , if the beach was less busy at that time i would have found much more . Later in the search i found a £10 note and then a £20 note . I also found a few mobile phones but left them alone , cant be bothered with them . As it says in the title it was a big q!55 up and there was tons of rubbish all over the place . I always take a rucksack with me and i found during the search 16 440 and 500 ml tins of Stella and other Beers , i also had 3 liters of drink in the ruck for me too so i was getting weighed down by the time i found all that and there was lots more beer i could have picked up but had to leave . At the end of the search which i had to cut short because of the Beer i had found 2 junk rings , the 2 notes and £62.92p in coinage , no picture of the Beers , 3 have gone now . I would have stayed on the beach till the first Bus at around 8am but i was knackered . I dont know if i can get back out this week . Mum is going into Hospital in London Guy's Hospital for her Lung Cancer Operation on Wednesday , when she comes home all being well she will need to be looked after and i am taking unpaid leave from work to do that for a week or 2 . Maybe Thursday or Friday is possible but ? On Tuesday i will be selling my first Equinox 800 to someone i know from a previous club membership . He needs a new machine and i feel i only need 1 Nox anyway , i will buy new coils laters for it. The next search will be with the ET or the Terra again . I will use the newer Nox later .

This morning i took my Nox to the beach for a look at the low tide , i didn't take the Terra too so was going to have to use the Nox on the difficult dry tops too if necessary . I got there at 5am and went straight for the normally best beach . It didn't look brilliant , the lower beach had built up a bit but was workable. There were others detecting the dry here and there so i went straight for the wet . I got lucky and found a few coins almost immediately and not long after a small toe ring , it looks Silver and had a high tone but isn't marked . It compares well with tones on other Silver rings of the same size that i have . Further along i found another ring , it also has no hallmark but has a high tone , i scuffed the metal and it stayed Silver looking . I will get them checked one day but will consider them Silvers . The tide was too short to do much sand so i will have to do that tomorrow when the tide is out further . Time for a Gold . After that i went onto the tops with my Beach 1 mode and only listened to high tones for the Pound coins . Lower denomination coins are impossible to tell with so many junk targets about , thats normally best for the Terra to look for. After a while i left that beach and worked East and it was hard work , i looked at an area i searched last week but found little . I was about to give up when a Man came up to me and asked if i could find a bunch of keys he lost , there were car keys , house , shop and other keys so i went for a look , he said he would pay for my time . I doubted i would find them . We got to the area he and his family were at and i searched that area but there was no sign of them . I asked if he was sure about the area and he then said maybe it was a bit further down . I searched for a while and then suddenly i got a target that seemed right and i scuffed the surface a bit and saw the keys . He was very happy as it was not long before he would have had to pay for parking and he has to display the ticket inside the car . He could have been given a ticket let alone the cost of all those keys to cut. He picked out 3 x £20 notes and said have this but i said no i couldn't and said only £20 . . I think i am getting quite used to finding peoples lost rings and things when out , might have to start a business 🙂 , bet that will pay . Like Hell it will ! When i left i counted up and my total was £38.25p and the 2 rings . Tomorrow the weather will be a bit stormy after the heatwave we have had , so i will be there looking for the Gold if any and will be out from 5am till 2pm . I am going to use the Nox firth till the sand fills in the do the tops till i have searched them out . Thats 2 miles of beaches if i can . On Sunday there is a nice dig on with the Weekend Wanderers which i was thinking of going too but i am not likely to go , the weather is iffy and i dont like the heat on fields either . but the main reason is that i dont want to be far from home right now . On Thursday my Mother went to the Hospital for an Echo scan of her Heart so the results can go to Guy's Hospital in London . She will soon be there to have her operation for Lung Cancer . But when she was going into the entrance she tripped up and fell on the floor face first . Theres no broken bones but she does have a big bruise and black eyes . Both are black now . She is getting the most out of the NHS right now! I will go to another dig another time. Been a long time since i have searched land .

Found some cheap-ish waterproof phones on eBay and also noticed that they do the same ones with the Garrett connector, anyone tried them? https://m.ebay.com/itm/Underwater-headphones-for-MINELAB-EQUINOX-600-800-METAL-DETECTOR/183235707657?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20180306143914%26meid%3D548e73500f864ba4b6f03cb386904682%26pid%3D100935%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D253645860653%26itm%3D183235707657&_trksid=p2056116.c100935.m2460

This is kind of a know-nothing post, but after finding so many pennies on the beach on my last four beach hunts, I thought I would throw the question out there. On the beach I mostly hunt there are vendors selling their wares. Boogie boards, fruit, ice cream, water and so on. All the charges are increments of 25 cents. Dollar, two dollar, five dollar, 50 cents and so on. Nothing ends in an odd amount leaving you or the vendor having to use pennies. So why all the pennies? In my last four beach hunts I dug up about 120 pennies and that's not counting the ones I passed on! So, I ask you, why so many pennies?

1 of 4 video series. 2 of 4...

After finding that the compound that i wanted to search yesterday was not cleared i went back this morning for an early start if it was today . But when i got there at 7am i found that it would be a few hours yet . So i wasted 2 hours till the bank was open so i could put some money in then After that i got a Bus and traveled a mile West . When i got to that part of the beach i found there were a few holes so i knew someone else had searched it . In any case i got to work and found that who ever it was had missed a few targets and by the time i finished and got to the main beaches i search i had a bit over £18 in coinage . I didn't find any gems . When i got to the compound they were not long in clearing the fencing . Another detectorist was in the area and we both went in to the area once opened up , that was about 12.30pm and stayed there till we had searched all the area that the Footy fans were sitting on . By about 4pm Michael the other detectorist had just over £25 and i had just over £40 and some Euro Cent coins and 2 US Cents. So my total for today was £59.33p , 1.10 Euro's and the US Cents . During the search my Terra kept cutting out , i changed the batteries but it did it again . I think there is an issue so i will contact my Dealer and see about getting it looked at when i can . Not keen on sending it away because it means using my ET on the tops and thats hard and heavy work in this heat . I will see if the Terra can soldier on till the end of the School Holidays at the beginning of September .

This morning i took my Terra and Nox to the beach at 7am hoping that either i would find a ton of coinage or a ring with the Nox on the lower beach . As it turned out i didn't use the Nox as the Terra was enough . I was hoping to have a go in an enclosure with a large screen that was put in place for the World Cup but that was not available today , not sure when it will be but will check again . Over around 3 hours i found a 1 Euro coin and 2 other foreign coins , a junk ring and £16,38p and a fishing weight and a toy car . Tomorrow i will take only the Terra and have a go in the enclosure if i can , that might turn out to be my best score this year so far but it will also give me a chance to see if the cashless society is as bad as i think it is . A few years ago i found £157.99p and a Gold ring in 4 hours . Wont do that but it should be fun trying .

Yesterday after work which i finished at 8pm i got home and had a while to rest before going to the beach for the night . I got there at around 1am and first because the tide was very high and long i used the 705 on the dry tops for the coinage . For the first hour or so i seemed to miss all or most of the coinage , seemed to be passing around them i think . Then when i got to an area near pubs i started to find a steady stream of coinage , after a while i found a then broken now fixed Silver bracelet and a lighter. After that i was still finding more coinage . At around 4am it was starting to get light and i knew it would be time to change to the Nox but for a while longer i stayed with the Terra and then on the tops which in a small area were being turned over by a digger i found an old Silver ring . At about 5am i took the Terra's control box and coil off the Anderson stem and put the Nox box and coil on and started the low tide , soon after i found a small Silver ring and a few coins but the finds were few and far between . At around 6am a few other people turned up to detect and 2 were using Nox's . After seeing and talking to the first one i saw i went along the beach into the surf a bit and found a Silver band . By 7am i was getting a bit knackered and wanted rest but the long low tide kept me going for a bit longer but apart from a few targets i was getting nothing else so at 8.30am i finished and left the beach. My finds with the Terra were £49.96p , a Silver ring and Silver bracelet and the Light and a small foreign coin and a 20 Euro Cent . My finds with the Nox were £4.86p , 2 Silver rings and 2 x 20 Euro Cents . The tides will be getting shorter from now so not sure when i will use the Nox next , maybe a different beach somewhere but my normal beaches are not sandy all the time unless long tides .

Well, I'm going to tell you I found a new 'category' of item this morning with the 800. I'm at the beach where I found a piece of .925 silver hoop, a puka necklace and just over $1.50. I hear this somewhat 'strange' wobble but not negative. It is repeatable so I dig. Upon digging I see this piece of glass and I'm glad to take it out of the beach/surf but then the signal is gone. What? Can't be the piece of mirror but it is ... Has anyone found mirror pieces with a detector before?