Gold Monster 1000 Or Equinox 800?

[Steve Herschbach]

If you were to take opinions from people like Gerry McMullen and I at face value, one might think the Equinox has got it all over the Gold Monster as a general prospecting device. I don’t waste time on depth comparison quotes as they as context sensitive. Like I said before, the machine has to be learned, and those looking for pickup and go are better off with the Monster. I personally find the Monster to be very limited, and constraining, due to the lack of tuning and coil options available. But as far as depth, just think about how a Monster with its largest 6x10 coil might compare for depth with an Equinox running a 12x15 coil on a half ounce nugget. Which would you bet on?

Tips On Nugget Detecting With The Minelab Equinox

[Gerry in Idaho]

The GM-1000 is a fine machine and I sell many of them.  It's the most dummy proof, user friendly, turn on and go VLF gold detector on the market at this time.  But it has it's faults and when compared side by side to the Equinox 800, the issues show up.

What's cool about the NOX, I can make it just as User-friendly as the Moster and still get the extra benefits the 800 provides.   Or I can fine tune the additional features and walk all over my Monster.

I'm not going into details where the NOX shines as it's been posted on here a few times. 

I'll close with this and these are facts.   All of my Field Staff Experts owned,  loved and found gold with Gold Bug-2.  After the Monster came out (and we learned it's capabilities, +/-'s)  we all went to it, some faster than others.  When the EQ-800 came out,  Lunk and I  were the 1st to start using it for gold.  In fact it hadn't even been really touted as a gold detector,  but we were of just a few dealers who actually took the time to show up to the Dealer Equinox Showing with Engineering there to answer our questions...and boy did we have fun.

Now, all of my Field Staff use and own at least 1 NOX and some of us own 2.  I can also assure you, we've found more gold with the NOX than any other VLF gold detector.  These are facts and not by 1 or 2 guys,  but at least 10 of us.

Happy hunting. 

[Steve Herschbach]

17 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

In fact it hadn't even been really touted as a gold detector

Except by yours truly, who was finding nuggets with it in the U.S. before anyone else in the country so much as laid hands on one, and wrote articles trying to get the word out. I can’t help it if people don’t listen. 

Here are the first gold nuggets below ever found in the U.S. with Equinox in January 2018. Equinox 800, Gold Mode, MF, relatively mild ground and so I was pushing sensitivity levels high, 22 - 25. Three nuggets, two only 0.6 grain each (480 grains per ounce) and one 9.8 grains (0.6 gram). The 0.6 grain nuggets are one smaller, fatter one plus one thin flake. The kicker? I found these with the 11” DD coil!! The Equinox did not even start shipping until February of that year, and I had yet to lay hands on the 6” coil.

So yeah, I knew this dog could hunt on my first nugget outing with it. I also knew it was different, and prospectors don’t like different, so I expected an uphill battle. The lack of  6” coil caused me to soft pedal my report at the time, but I ramped it up after running the 6” coil finally. All while screaming bloody murder for the 6x10 that would end up taking 3 years more appear, and still was not the Monster coil clone I craved.

The thing is, nugget detecting was last on the priority list in Equinox design. Imagine a multi-iq detector designed with only nugget prospecting in mind, with coils made just for that task. That will be a detector worth having, and will probably put the last of the single frequency designs in their graves.

Just so people know, the article I wrote for Minelab was updated with new experiences on my part, and better advice, in the version posted on this website.

[Swegin]

59 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Except by yours truly, who was finding nuggets with it in the U.S. before anyone else in the country so much as laid hands on one, and wrote articles trying to get the word out. I can’t help it if people don’t listen. 

I listened and I am glad that I did..  ?   I have never posted gold finds on any forum but I may here maybe.

 

[Gerry in Idaho]

And I listened to every single word in each of your sentences, paragraphs and phone calls.  I also took advice and doubled down on my order.  That was the 1st detector in all my 25 years of being a multi line dealer that I blew past 100+ units in a year.  

And YES, Yes, yes even to this day, there are a few dealers who do not talk the Equinox 800 as a Gold Detector.  So sorry for the customers who talk with such unknowledgeable dealers as it really does not leave the customers with as many options and or give them the same opportunities as the Multi Use Equinox 800.

Here's the kicker and even to this day.  Minelab Marketing folks are clueless as to what their detectors can do.  If I was in charge, they'd certainly have a different job.  Go to their website and type in Gold Detector.  No mention of Equinox 800?  I've told them so many times, but yea like they really listen to what one of their best dealers selling gold detectors who has been with them 25 yrs actually knows.  Oh well.

https://www.minelab.com/usa/metal-detectors/strike-gold

And don't tell me it's because it's not a genuine gold detector.  Heck it will walk up and down the back of an X-terra 705 Gold and they have it up there.  Just totally clueless so many wasted minds.

Hey, I'm just a stupid guy from Idaho who likes sticking rocks in my mouth.  Yea, big flipping heavy rocks and I love heavy metal too.

[Ridge Runner]

Gerry  

 if ever have one of them potatoes slide down your gullet it may put you in bad trouble.

 Heck I may try that myself that way my wife couldn’t call me worthless .

 Chuck 

[Swegin]

31 minutes ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

And YES, Yes, yes even to this day, there are a few dealers who do not talk the Equinox 800 as a Gold Detector.  So sorry for the customers who talk with such unknowledgeable dealers as it really does not leave the customers with as many options and or give them the same opportunities as the Multi Use Equinox 800.

This is why you are one of the very few dealers that I trust.

[phrunt]

The Equinox isn't a gold detector on their website because they still want to sell the Gold Monster which they probably have 10000 units of sitting in their warehouses and many more thousands on dealers shelves around the world.   It's also a better money maker for them, cheaper to produce and far less warranty issues, if you drown your Gold Monster too bad, if your drown your Equinox they have to replace it.

I don't think it's they don't know what the Equinox is capable of, they've seen all the photos and stories on Forums and other social media, they know exactly what the Equinox is doing on gold for people. 

It's no different to the rest of their Minelab Sales rule book, don't let one detector step into another detectors line.  Do anything possible to keep them different to get the most sales of each model possible.

As long as they don't pull a stunt of removing the gold modes of the Equinox 1000 so they can make their Gold Monster 2000 with Multi-IQ.  Sure I'd likely buy both anyway but I'd be very upset if they removed the Gold Modes off the next Equinox.

[Gerry in Idaho]

Phrunt,  You make up some very good points and I would agree with them all..but 1 thing.

Minelab quit selling the X-Terra 2 yrs ago and it's still on their site?  Just goes to show the folks in charge of Marketing their site and detectors is...a lost cause.