Mf Machines On Mineralized Black Sand Salt Beach. D2 And Equinox [long]

[RIbeach_hunter]

Thanks for the information on the D2 and 800!

 

[midalake]

Back out with the D2 yesterday and the 13" coil. 

After weeks of hunting the Equinox, was not impressed with switching back. Black sand is still tough here.

A couple of notes though. It seemed that raising the reactivity to 2 on the 13" actually helped clean-up some nonferrous targets at depth. This is something that is very hard to do with the 9" coil because an increase to 2 gives you very tight non-ferrous signals and one has to watch their swing speed. 

Still have issues with iron wrap-around with the new update. Did an experiment on what I figured was a Bobby Pin registering 52. 
I hunt with the Disc. at 22. So, I lowered the Disc to 0 in Beach Sensitive and re-swept the target. The target response was more robust and even confirmed more to dig it. After removing, it was a Bobby Pin. 

It seemed Disc of 0 was the lowest value for Beach Sensitive. Not sure why I could not adjust to -6.4.  ?

 

 

[Bill (S. CA)]

I've been following along with Midalakes post because I like his testing approach.  He just tries things and tests and then posts the results.  This particular test has really interested me since here in S. CA the Deus II just rules the beach.  Period.  Nothing out here can beat it in the wet sand, and that includes black sand.  I'm not speaking from testing results, just in the field results.  I'm pretty good with my 800 and head to head, on deep targets, even using Midalake's "double beep" method, the Deus II goes deeper.  

My friend, Frank, uses a Deus II exclusively and constantly whips all of us.  These are the settings that he uses in the black sand.  I have compared signals with him in heavy black sand and can't hit targets at depth that his Deus II hits hard.  He has found several small gold earrings of late using his Deus II that neither the Manticore of 800/900 could hit.    Perhaps you guys could try out his settings and see how you do.

Bill

P.S.  He uses the 11" and 13" coils.

 

I'm using beach sensitive
Discrimination  6.8
Sensitivity  93 to 97
Salt sensitivity  3
Frequency  40
Iron volume  6
Reactivity  1
Audio response 6
Tones.... full tones
Offset 5
Bottle caps 2
Notch off
Silencer 0

[midalake]

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

These are the settings that he uses in the black sand.  I have compared signals with him in heavy black sand and can't hit targets at depth that his Deus II hits hard. 

I am clearly running with more Black Sand/Minerals here. 

We have the same Audio Response of 6.......But I cannot get my Sensitivity past 91 with either the 9" or 13" coil. 

What is the Offset??? 

Any idea why he is running his Salt Sensitivity so low at 3?  Does this allow him higher sensitivity.?? 

[Bill (S. CA)]

56 minutes ago, midalake said:

I am clearly running with more Black Sand/Minerals here. 

We have the same Audio Response of 6.......But I cannot get my Sensitivity past 91 with either the 9" or 13" coil. 

What is the Offset??? 

Any idea why he is running his Salt Sensitivity so low at 3?  Does this allow him higher sensitivity.?? 

No idea.  I just asked him for his settings and these are what he gave me.

[Bill (S. CA)]

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

No idea.  I just asked him for his settings and these are what he gave me.

I mentioned your questions to him.  He said that he does not run an offset and to be sure that you enable magnetic reject.  He says if you go slow you will hear the good targets.  He was out in the big storm today with 4 other guys.  Heavy black sand.  All five of them were swinging Deus II's and all five got gold.  I know each guy and they all used to use Equinoxes.  One also has a Manticore and it pretty much stays home as well.

[midalake]

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

I mentioned your questions to him.  He said that he does not run an offset and to be sure that you enable magnetic reject.

Ugh. ?

[Jeff McClendon]

With the 13” coil, I can see why running reactivity at 2 might help…….bigger coil surface plus salt/iron mineralization is begging for higher reactivity. If that enables you to raise sensitivity then it cancels out the depth lost from raising reactivity. 

Salt sensitivity at 3 sounds crazy since it is another depth killer.

I know you are allergic to ground grab ground balancing the Equinox and prefer to run in tracking for good reason.

I also understand that you set discrim on Deus 2 above 20???

Have you tried ground grab ground balancing Deus 2? The key to it is to start gently pumping the coil before pressing the pinpoint button especially with a big coil like the 11 or 13X11”. Tom D. never got that nuanced technique from reading his Deus 2 blog. 

I have never liked the tracking ground balance much on Deus 2.

Equinox 800 running tracking ground balance seems to work well for you Dave on the wet sand to surf transition.

[Bill (S. CA)]

I think what this discussion proves is that settings are subject to a number of factors that include not only the specific environment but also the user's preferences.  I remember years ago when we were all using Explorers at the beach and as usual my buddy Frank was beating us all.  He preferred what I think was referred to back than as "ferrous tones."  One day he let me try his detector with his setup and I couldn't find a darn thing.  I wasn't the detector, it was me.  My ear just wasn't set up to hear what he was hearing.  It literally made me nuts to listen to those tones.

That's why these settings discussions, while interesting, really never end up going anywhere for me.  There are just too may variables.  Even here in S. CA, black sand varies a great deal. The guy Jim, who has a YouTube Channel "Fun with Jim," was given a Deus II by XP to try out at his beaches.  He has really struggled with it and keeps returning to his Equinox 900.  Is it the detector? The beaches themselves?  Who knows?  Ultimately at the beach it comes down to what works best for you.  I'll be honest, and you guys will laugh at me for this, in the last year, I have found more gold with my Apex at the beach than my 800 or my Legend.  I have no idea why.  I will admit, I don't test much at all  Simply don't have time or interest.  But if I want gold, I will reach for my Apex first   At least until I can scratch up the $$ to get a Deus II...