A Few More Equinox 900 Tidbits From A Beginner

[Jeff McClendon]

Me being an inland gold jewelry hunter.......Here is an Equinox 900 low/mid conductor targets photo. This was done in Park 1 Multi, sensitivity 20, recovery speed 5, iron bias 1 using the 11" coil with the targets being passed about 3" from the center of the coil opposite the coil nut.

This photo is of targets that I find often that are regularly shaped. I did not include random bits of foil or can slaw and I also didn't include damaged/bent pull tabs which can definitely change the target ID. 

BIG DISCLAIMER........this is a photo of air tested target IDs.

Even from my little time behind the 900, some of these change slightly with depth, soil conditions and search mode used.

So this photo is for reference and for hunt strategies only and is absolutely not definitive.

It starts with tiny gold chains and earrings and ends with a copper jacketed 40 S&W hollow point slug. Coins are 1853 US $1 gold coin, modern nickel, Indian Head penny and zinc penny. Women's small engagement/promise rings are in the teens. Bigger rings are everywhere up to almost 60. The highest reading gold ring I have is 18 K and weighs 10 grams.

Targets are placed below their target IDs.

 

[Rick N. MI]

Will the D2 & Legend hit the tiny gold chain and earring with Id 1 & 2, that you got with the Nox 900?

 

[Jeff McClendon]

25 minutes ago, Rick N. MI said:

Will the D2 & Legend hit the tiny gold chain and earring with Id 1 & 2, that you got with the Nox 900?

 

Deus 2 = 25 to 29

Legend = 11 to 14

[TedinVT]

Great write-ups, Jeff. Great photos. Thanks for taking the time and sharing!

[abenson]

Great write up Jeff. I'm seeing similar results with my 900. Really liking it and will add some thoughs after I use it a little more.

[GB_Amateur]

15 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

This photo is of targets that I find often that are regularly shaped.

That's a lot of work and I know you've posted similar correlations for other detectors.  Thank you for this community service.  At first glance (so don't take as definitive) the scaling looks close to what has been reported with the Manticore.  E.g. USA 5 cent 'nickel' at 26-27.

BTW, I've heard one or two claims that the Equinox 800/600 to Manticore conversion is a factor of 2.  That made no sense to me and your data refutes that claim.  Yes, it works pretty well for the nickel but look at the fresh Zincoln -- 62 / 2 = 31, not 21 as is the Equinox 800/600 VDI for that coin.

[abenson]

Not trying to high jack your post Jeff. But thought I would add some thoughts about a park hunt I did recently. The park I visited gives both the D2 and 800 fits and it was no different with the 900, if anything the 800 ran the best of all 3. Which leads me to believe the sensitivity levels of the 800 vs 900 have no correlation. To run at a level that was manageable, the 800 did well at 20, the 900 more like 18. Parts of the park I could run the 900 up to 23 but most of the time at 20 or below.  I haven't found anywhere yet I could run the 900 at 28.

The new VDI is taking me a while to get used to. Way different than the 800 and doesn't correlate to D2 either. I dug quite a bit of aluminum trying to dig some nickels. The Buffalo and War nickel threw me for a loop as they were stacked on top of each other and read 45 initially. First one out of the hole was the Buffalo and that really confused me until I checked the hole and had a 54 still in there which turned out to be the war nickel. Best find was probably the bracelet made of two silver spoons. Sorry for the bad photo, the sun was low in the horizon. Also found a silver necklace but returned it to a couple of girls that asked me to look for it while I was there.

Really liking the ergonomics of the 900, the upgrades they have done are worth the money IMO.

[Rick N. MI]

Great review. The Equinox 900 is looking good. I had some trouble with the 800 on land. It was great in the water. I think I know what I was doing wrong now. The 900 has me interested. I have the Legend and need to try some things with it this spring to decide if I want anything else. I was thinking about the D2 and know the 900 has me watching it. I may just stay with the Legend and pass on those.

My Detectors:  Nokta Legend, Xp Orx, Tesoro Tejon & Vaquaro, Nokta Gold Kruzer, Garrett AT Gold & Garrett Goldmaster 24k.

[Dan(NM)]

I did a recon trip today looking for a new spot to dig. I did find a swimming/fishing hole that did produce a couple of good finds. The place I wanted to hunt was off limits to detectors, so....I went next door and dug. The earring is 925, I gave up on gold due to the amount of trash. I'll go back and chase the low and mid conductors next trip......Not a bad hunt , but I was expecting more.

 

 

The pulltabs depending on if they were complete.....mid 30's to mid 40's, broken one hit in the teens.  The lead hit mid 50's to low 60's and all the way to mid 80's if they were deep, small round ones hit low 20's.  The mercs hit 80-82, I thought they were clad dimes.  The .925 earring hit 55,. The bracelet hit 75,  appears to be copper.  Zincs were  mid 50's to mid 60's. Copper penny's hit in the 70's.  I was able to run my sensitivity all the way to 26 with a recovery speed of 6. Manual GB hit on 0. Since nothing was real deep, I dropped my sens to 24 and lowered my recovery to 3.

[Rick N. MI]

That's a lot of finds. A beautiful spot to hunt. With all the finds, there has to be gold there.