Down To Three Detectors

[Steve Herschbach]

As explained elsewhere my metal detecting is winding down from my glory days. I will never quit detecting, but it is a more casual close to home thing going forward. With that in mind I just don't need the dozen detectors I usually have had banging around the house for most of the last couple decades.

I had already weeded things down pretty well but job one was to stop getting new detectors. The last new detector I added to my mix was the XP Deus 2 a couple years ago. After disposing of other models, like the Tarsacci for instance, I was left with the following:

Minelab Equinox

Garrett Axiom

XP Deus 2

White's DFX

For what I do I'm pretty satisfied with the Axiom as a general purpose PI so that's settled. The DFX sports a Bigfoot coil, and I own the machine as much to run the coil as the other way around, so it is not going anywhere. In fact it might become my most used VLF soon.

So what to do with the Equinox 800 and Deus 2? The Manticore was really looking like a replacement for both. I can't really get enthused about the XP way of things. People rave about the light weight being a real factor for them, but I don't consider weight to be an issue for me with any detector weighing under three pounds.

At the end of the day coils are a big deal for me, and I don't like proprietary limited coil options. Wireless coils leave me cold. People can argue with me all they want but they are wasting their time. I like wired coils, and I lean to detectors with third party coil options.

So it is the coils that decided it for me. Minelab took too long with Manticore coils and now I just don't care any more. I'm also peeved XP has withheld the 5x10 coil from Deus 2 owners.

My Equinox 800 I have a 6" round coil, the Coiltek 5x10, the stock 11" coil, and the Minelab 12x15 coil. XP has nothing similar to offer in way of coils. Nor does the Manticore. Plus I have custom rods for my Equinox perfect for both compact backpacking and for beach use. I even have an S rod that I have yet to use. The icing on the cake is a set of custom Tony Eisenhower underwater headphones I really like. Would I get rid of all that and keep the Deus 2? No. Would I trade all that for the Manticore as it exists right now? No.

So I think I have after ages finally weeded it down to three detectors. The Deus 2 will find a new home. And I am left with...

1. Garrett Axiom - my most used detector for gold prospecting and beach detecting
2. Minelab Equinox 800 with full accessory set - do it all coin, relic, jewelry, gold nuggets, you name it
3. White's DFX with Bigfoot - Park jewelry use almost exclusively

Maybe, just maybe the Manticore will tempt me again in a year or so, once the software bugs and coil drought get straightened out. But after 50 years I feel like I have got off the new detector merry go round. There really is something to be said for using a machine you know inside and out, and fact is my Equinox talks to me. The Deus 2 still speaks French and frankly I just don't care to make the effort to learn French. Too old to learn new tricks? Maybe. The main thing for me is I won't waste any more time thinking about this machine or that machine and instead just focus purely on using what I have to best effect. Compared to what I started with 50 years ago I'm drenched in fabulous technology I once only dreamed of, so now matter how I look at it I'm thrilled with the detectors I have now.

Minelab Equinox 800 with 6" coil and telescoping rod

White's DFX with Bigfoot coil

Garrett Axiom with 7x11 coil

Equinox 800 with 12x15 coil and steveg counterweighted rod

The perfect pair? Axiom 7x11 and Equinox telescoping 5x10

[Bill (S. CA)]

Steve,

I really admire your discipline with regard to thinning the herd.  Can't argue with any of your choices but I am curious about the DFX/Bigfoot combo.  With that large profile coil how do you navigate through the trash in the park?  Also, do you think that the DFX offers an advantage for park hunting in general or is it specific to using the Bigfoot? 

[ColonelDan]

Steve, I agree with your approach on clearing out the stock of multiple detectors.  After all, as Leonardo de Vinci said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

My simplicity level has landed on XP products.  Deus II, MI-6, WSA II XL.  I also have a set of Tony Eisenhower headphones but I very rarely go into the water these days.

I sold my CTX 3030, gave one of my Equinox 800s to my son in law, gave the Vanquish to my granddaughter and donated my Excal II to the local metal detecting club.

Simplicity.....that's me.  ?

[phrunt]

I can't bring myself to thin my herd, I got rid of the QED but that was out of principal more so than I wanted to get rid of a detector, I also got rid of my GPX 4500 but mainly because a guy I know wanted to detect black sand beaches here and he bought a Tarsacci with their infamous NZ black sand coil they say was made for NZ's black sand beaches and it sucked basically and wasn't suitable and I knew my GPX handled it with the 11" DD so I moved it onto him seeing I have a 5000 anyway and was unlikely to use it again.

So instead, I just have gear I use, and gear I collect ?

And my herd is as follows in order of amount of use

Equinox 800 (tops the list as I use for gold and coins)
GPZ 7000
CTX 3030
GPX 6000
Garrett 24k
Manticore
Ace 300i

My other detectors are just decorations.

And my pinpointers that get used in order of use hours are

Garrett AT
Sphinx 03 (too new to clock up enough hours)
XP-Mi4

Others are just decorations.

 

[Kostas 13]

The machines I use to locate caches containing WWII gold pounds are usually geophysical and pulse.

what i have to say is the more machines you have and operate the more your head hurts.?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeff McClendon]

Thanks for posting Steve and for all you do to help all of us have a fantastic forum.

I still have 

Equinox 800 with upgraded collapsible shaft and 3 different coils, 6", 10X5" and stock 11" along with several different Bluetooth APTX LL wireless headphones and earbuds. Love the 800 for just about anything except submerging it (out of warranty) Huge fan of the WM08 WiStream module too!!!!

Nokta Legend....what the 800 lacked feature wise and in build quality the Legend provides very well and it has faster recovery speed, better target separation, better target ID system and it doesn't leak. Uses the same third party BT APTX LL wireless headphones and earbuds as the Equinox 800. Love the Legend for just about anything.

XP Deus 2 is great for everything except gold prospecting. However, after testing it head to head for a few days against an ORX with 9" HF coil using Gold 1 or Gold 2 at 50 to 58 kHz, it looks like the Deus 2 in Mono with the 9" coil running at 45 kHz, -6.4 disc in Pitch tones with all other settings pretty close out performs the ORX mostly because there are more reactivity settings on Deus 2 and there are also audio response settings on Deus 2. However, running Deus 2 in its FMF Gold Field mode...........no way.

GPX 6000......I splurged on it and often regret it BUT it is a fantastic PI gold prospecting detector due to its extreme sensitivity and lightweight.

Whites TDI Pulse Scan (big box) with Reg Sniff mods. Great for relic hunting, deep coin/jewelry hunting and even for a gold prospecting backup when the 6000 goes nuts in EMI. Really smooth operation with a lot more sensitivity to small targets than I was expecting. Nice to have all of Steve's and other's hints on how to use it for coin, jewelry and relic hunting on this forum too.  Scratches my "love Whites forever" itch.

[Steve Herschbach]

3 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

Steve,

I really admire your discipline with regard to thinning the herd.  Can't argue with any of your choices but I am curious about the DFX/Bigfoot combo.  With that large profile coil how do you navigate through the trash in the park?  Also, do you think that the DFX offers an advantage for park hunting in general or is it specific to using the Bigfoot? 

The Bigfoot is 3” x 18” so no more items under the coil at once than you might have with a 6x9 coil. The Bigfoot is unique in that is uses a figure 8 winding, and the DFX is unique in having been designed specifically to use with the Bigfoot. There are other detectors that can use the coil, like the MXT, but the polarity (tones) reverse front to rear. The DFX corrects for this so the tones are identical front and rear. But the real zinger is the DFX pinpoint mode shuts off the signal from the rear half, and you get laser like pinpointing using just the 3x9 front half of the coil.

I do not go after super trashy locations anyway. More like soccer fields that have probably been hunted before. Large areas and semi sparse targets, and specifically anywhere hands are flinging. Places where people play ball or frisbee, toss the ball for the dog, whatever. I use a pinpointer but it’s more to sort out deep targets. The Bigfoot is not a deep coil anyway, but it still hits too deep on some stuff. I don’t want to plug but only use a screwdriver to pop targets, so if my Carrot can’t see the target, I’m moving on. It’s all about volume, recovering lots of gold range targets fast. Volume in the right locations. I focus on targets that give a single tall bar on the SignaGraph display, good, clean, “round” sounds. If there are ring tabs present I’m going to be digging them  but some turn into rings. Last platinum ring I found was with Bigfoot in a Reno park in a frisbee location.

I love this type of detecting as getting rid of the plugging gets rid of the work as far as I am concerned. I in effect go aluminum detecting, knocking out zinc penny and higher targets, with just quarters notched in as I generally find lots of them while doing this. Anyway, long story short is I have not done this for far too long as the nugget hunting got in the way, but it’s to the point now where I might just do better on gold in the parks. We will see as I’m going to be doing this the remainder of the year, and will report back later with a picture of all the finds, trash included.

Another thing I like about my DFX - it’s the only detector I own now that will run a concentric coil.

[Bill (S. CA)]

Steve,

This is fascinating stuff.  I hope you can take us along on some of these hunts.  It sounds like a blast.

[wltdwiz]

great write up steve

i to have thinned the heard  getting old i guess 72

im down to the nokta multi kruzer i has a concentric coil & dd  & 6 x 3 dd

the minelab  vanquish 440 

minelab gold monster

& the fun tracker 4

these are all ill need