Help Needed On Equinox 600 For Culpepper Hunting

[Chase Goldman]

 

 

On 2/3/2020 at 5:28 PM, RME said:

I am in the learning process with this detector & to much information at once can be confusing. I have a hard copy of the factory owner's manual as well as Andy Sabishch's Equinox series Handbook. What I was looking for were a couple of actual programs that had already been used in The Culpeper area with the EQ 600. I wanted to spend as much time detecting as possible & not  all of my time learning the machine, I can do that here. I can use the factory preset programs & make adjustments to the best of my ability but The Culpeper area is not the normal place to hunt. Just looking for a little help from someone who's used this machine there.

Thanks

 

..

Roy,

Good, I can work with that feedback and walk you through this so you can at least have some success in Culpeper.

As abenson stated you need to just move away from the thought that there are canned magic programs for the Equinox at Culpeper, as it really doesn't work that way, unfortunately.  But I CAN help demystify Equinox a bit so you can make some good decisions on settings.  The good news is that Minelab has provided pretty good default settings out of the box, so you really shouldn't have to tweak much, and you should try to only make slight adjustments at any time.

I will break this down into 5 hopefully easily adjustable parts -

Mode Selection/Standard Startup Routine

Key Setting Adjustments

Interpreting the Machine Audio and Visual Target ID

Tips to further enhance target identification and make a dig decision

Finally, I will give you some hints at how to attack Culpeper independent of the detector you are using.

Mode Selection/Standard Startup Routine

Mode selection - To keep things really simple, I am going to say things as if they are Gospel without explanation unless you want me to elaborate.  With that in mind: for relic hunting your best modes to use are Park 2 or Field 2.  They are optimized for the mid-conductive targets (brass, lead, gold) that are typical of CW relics.

You need to select your mode first because the next two things you do are MODE SPECIFIC.  Noise Cancel and Ground Balance settings apply only to the selected search mode.  So if you pick Field 2 (my favorite relic mode), your NOISE CANCEL routine and GROUND BALANCE routine are only applicable to THAT MODE.  If you switch modes, say to Park 2, you will have to Noise Cancel and Ground Balance for that mode separately.  Your ground balance and noise cancel settings do not have to be repeated for the original mode if you switch back unless you are hearing interference of ground noise that sounds like you need to re-ground balance.

Key Settings Adjustments

I will focus on Field 2 - Familiarize yourself with the default settings for Field 2 (p. 62 of the user guide).  The key parameters are:

Number of Tones:  Default = 50, I recommend shifting to 2 or 5 tones.  2 Tones is just ferrous/non-ferrous

Ferrous Discrimination Tone Breakpoint = 2, Recommend just leaving this as is. This is the setting that determines which TIDs sound ferrous and which sound non-ferrous.  Anything 2 and below will have a ferrous tone and anything above 2 will have a non-ferrous tone (either 1 high tone or 4 progressive high tones for various TID bins depending on whether you selected 2 or 5 tones as I recommended).  Don't mess with any other breakpoints or tone volumes.

Recovery Speed Default (600) = 3.  I recommend starting out with this default setting, it is the fastest recovery speed and best for target separation, especially from iron.  But if you want to eek out a little more depth, try 2.  I think 1 will be pretty noisy in Culpeper.  Here is where burying some known test targets in the ground 4 to 6 inches is worth it so you can see how the target audio signal varies with adjustments to recovery speed.

Iron Bias Setting (600) = 0 for FE, 2 for F2.  I recommended selecting the F2 iron bias filter (see how to do this in the manual) and just keeping it on the default of 2.  This will help a little with iron falsing (don't expect miracles, large iron and tiny square nail heads will still sound off with high tones sometimes).  It is a good middle of the road setting, just leave it alone.

Sensitivity - 20 is the default.  If you can run at 20 without chatter, then do it.  Don't be afraid to bump it down a little if you have to if other machines are causing an issue (and you have already noise canceled).  I would not push sensitivity above 22 or 23 otherwise you are just going to introduce more noise, especially in the high mineralized dirt in Culpeper.

Interpreting the Machine Audio and Visual Target ID

Coil Control and Target ID - If somehow you manage to get a repeatable non-ferrous target ID, dig it.  Buttons usually fall around 12 to 16.  Minie balls fall around 17 to 19.  Basically dig anything repeatable above 0.  If you are getting a lot of ferrous and jumpy IDs but are occasionally getting a sweet number like an 18 or a 16, then try to use the Equinox's high recovery speed to zero in on the target with a coil wiggle.  Sometimes you can get all those other miscellaneous noises and numbers to sort of fade to background if you can get the center of the DD coil spine wiggling right over the target.  You might have to rotate around the target to be able to get a good 2-way tone.  Practice this with test targets (including iron nails) close together and you will see what I mean.

Tips to further enhance target identification and make a dig decision

First of all there are three other "on the fly" settings you need to understand.

All metal, horseshoe button - This removes all discrimination an can be useful to use when you get a repeatable non-ferrous hit to see if there is any ferrous grunts associated with it.  Problem is, in Culpeper, with the mineralized soil, you will likely get ferrous grunts even if the target is non-ferrous.  That is why I recommend that you hunt in all metal.  It may become overwhelming, so you can switch back to ferrous discrimination, but I guarantee, if you do that you will not hear some non-ferrous targets that will be discriminated out at depth.  Your call.  Again, using some practice targets before you go out will be helpful.

Use the wiggle/rotate method described above to zero in on the target.

Pinpoint - Pinpoint is useful not just for pinpointing but also for sizing up the target.  Since it is a non-motion mode, you can trace the footprint of repeatable target and that might give you a clue as to whether the target is large - perhaps a horseshoe or plow share.  Could also be a belt or box plate or a bayonet.  You never know.  Now is good time to remind you that some of the coolest relics are ferrous.  Bayonets, sword blades, gun barrels, spurs, camp cookware/utensils, clothes irons, artillery pieces and fragments can all be iron.  So you may want to dig that big ferrous grunting signal just to be sure.  Also, getting that big piece of iron out of the way may unmask or uncover another relic hiding nearby or underneath.

Single Frequency - If you are struggling with multi frequency.  Give single frequency a shot.  The lower frequencies (5 or 10 khz) can sometimes penetrate deeper than the multifrequency signal which has to share its power across multiple frequency signals.  Single frequency can also sometimes come in handy when you are having trouble with interference.  Perhaps that buzz you can't fully eliminate in multi IQ even after a noise cancel, can go away completely if you pick the right single frequency.  If you do go to single frequency, be sure to noise cancel and ground balance specific to that frequency.

Don't be afraid to try another mode like Park 1 or Field 1 - Just because I said Park 2 and Field 2 are somewhat optimized for relic targets, don't be afraid to to experiment with the other modes to see if they change your luck.  I do recommend that you use the same user settings I recommended for any mode you try (2 or 5 tones, disc breakpoint at 0 or 2, Recovery speed at 3 or 2 and Iron Bias at F2=2, sensitivity at 20 to start).  All the other stuff is basically the same, you are just using a different multi IQ profile.  I do advise against MODE HOPPING out of frustration. Stick with a mode as long as you can and then if you are getting skunked after an hour or 2, then try another mode and try to stick with that one for awhile.

Practice with the mode and settings you are going to use in Culpeper BEFORE you get Culpeper so you can get used to the audio and detector response.  That mode might not be the ideal one to use in South Carolina for coin shooting or beach hunting, but that is not the point.  The last thing you need to be doing is starting out with something that sounds completely alien to you on day one at Culpeper.  Culpeper is hard enough without being bombarded with something new.  Be aware though, that the machine is not going to respond the same in Culpeper as it will in SC due to the mineralization.

I have relic detected in SC near Georgetown, and used Field 2 successfully at the old rice plantations and snagged several great relics there.

How to attack Culpeper independent of the detector you are using

First of all, set your expectations realistically.  The ground is hot and the grounds have been pounded.  Right off you are going to be at a severe disadvantage - you are using a relatively new machine and it is a VLF.  It is not all gloom and doom.  You might happen onto a hot spot.  If you do, dig in and just pound it.  Try sticking will small plots (mark off 20 x 20 yd boundaries with your gear/day pack) and just pound that patch before moving on.  You can try running and gunning, but the relics tend to be concentrated in spots rather than evenly scattered across the site, so you need to find those hot spots and dig in.  Your machine might get you into something and if you see evidence of other relics in the dirt you dig (broken glass, charcoal, dishware, or other metallic finds that didn't initially register than dig that spot out until it plays out and move on.  The big lead disc detected by my Equinox is what got me into a small trash/fire pit out of which I also pulled some minies, a flattened Eagle button used as a poker chip or checkers piece, a sword hanger, a pot leg, and some other goodies.  There was no way I was going to detect some of those other things from the surface because they were too deep, but the lead disc got me in there in the first place.

Think like a soldier in camp.  I want to be near a water source, I want to be on high ground, look for high concentrations of nails that might indicate long gone camp huts, look for old tree roots that might have served as firing range targets, look for flat rocks that might be used as a table or or chair.  Those are all things that might get you into a hot spot, so think about the terrain and landmarks.  Get other folks to tell you about the history of the site.  Was it a battlefield or a long term winter camp, or a short term bivouac setup.  See if you can do some advance research and gather intel.

Have patience, be optimistic but realistic, don't dispair, and try to be prepared enough not to be wrestling with your machine settings.

Hope this helps a little.  Ask here or PM me with specific questions.  The light bulb might go off on some of this stuff once you get some swing time with the Equinox in your town.

Good luck.

[RME]

Chase, thanks. Your post is most helpful to me and i'll bet a few others reading it also. I am working hard at learning the EQ-600 machine and your help is greatly appreciated. 

 

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Superb post Chase! It will be the first one added to the Essentials page in quite some time.

[GB_Amateur]

On 2/3/2020 at 8:23 PM, Chase Goldman said:

Problem is, in Culpeper, with the mineralized soil, you will likely get ferrous grunts even if the target is non-ferrous.

Great post, Hugh!  I will point out that the above can be true in other places than Culpeper, VA.  I've seen similar firsthand in my neighborhood.  The deeper/smaller non-ferrous targets can get ragged.

As is almost always the case (metal detecting or otherwise), rules-of-thumb will get you 80-90% of the truth/reality, but not 100%.  Of course you know that, but I thought it was worth emphasizing.  The better you know your detector the better you will be at trusting your ear to find that last 10-20%.