2018 - Year Of The Equinox!

[Jonathan Porter]

4 hours ago, Johnnysalami1957 said:

What I'm thinking is that everyone is going to expect the same results as Steve and be disappointed. Steve proves the machine is capable but his lifetime of experience gives him a clear advantage in its use. Hell Steve could pull more coins out of the ground with a stick with a magnet duct taped to the end than I can with my V3i which is for sale at a bargain. Anyway I'm getting one anyway for the fact that it is lighter. If it works as well as my Deus I will be very pleased. Thanks Steve for the Target envy! Wishing  you and your loved ones a healthy and Happy New Year!

I think the main thing that has been missed here is although Steve is a VERY accomplished detector operator and obviously he will be achieving very high levels of competency from any detector he chooses to use even stating that very fact, his experiences have been measured against himself. He is frequenting areas that he is extremely familiar with, areas where he has given his best shot on many previous occasions.

His testing methods are exactly the way I go about testing any new detector, constantly going back and forth from one detector to another is not good practice or the "be all and end all" in any testing regime. You need to spend time giving the detector every opportunity to show what it is capable off in an environment that is base-lined through familiarity. Once you know a target is present it takes a lot of personal honesty to say if another detector would have found the target or not, whereas just going detecting over familiar terrain gives a much more balanced insight into the detectors capabilities. Find targets in familiar ground repeatedly over many sessions is a true insight into the capabilities of any new detector. 

I can relate to the hours and hours of trouble shooting a prototype, it is nice to just go detecting sometimes without all the distractions.

JP

[Mark Gillespie]

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Thank you Wayfarer also for restating so well just how I feel about it. I can grab the Equinox and head to nearby parks and feel like I have a decent shot at coming home with silver. It really is the wheaties that are most telling. I dug about 100 coins dating 1956 and earlier from common park locations. A couple dimes is one thing but this also indicates volume.

The weather has been quite mild for a week now and I am thinking southern facing areas should be thawed out, so I am grabbing Equinox and going to give it a shot today. Report later....

You're lucky with a break in the cold, it has settled in where I live, no warmth in site for at least 8 days.  With temps in the single digits and several day not reaching 32 will delay my hunting.

Keep us posted on your outings.

 

[steveg]

Steve --

Impressive, impressive pile of finds there.  VERY nice!

As others have said, THANKS for the great write-up, here, and on other posts.  THANKS for sharing.  THANKS for taking the time to give us your thoughts, even when they are sometimes received less-than-gratefully (especially on other forums), and even though giving your thoughts invariably leads to 100 questions from the curious, who want to know more than you are able to give.

I, for one, appreciate everything you have done, and shared.  Your writing is great in that AS a detectorist, you know just how to "relate to" other detectorists; you know what to say that answers many of the questions that are on our minds.  You share just the right info, and in a way that almost "puts us there" with you, as you gain experience with the Equinox.

Thank you, and Happy New Year.

I'm looking forward to having a chance to give the Equinox a workout.  My New Year's wish for you, is that as a reward for all you've "given," here on your forum, that you "receive" that first gold coin as a reward.  And I think you'll agree that the Equinox is certainly a very capable machine of doing just that!  ;)

(P.S. in answer to "skate's" question earlier in this thread, about where a gold coin might read on the Equinox, my answer would be "which one..." in that the range of U.S. gold coins register on detectors from sub-nickel range for the $1 all the way up to near penny/dime, for the big $20 "double eagle...")

Steve

[GB_Amateur]

10 hours ago, bado1 said:

Are you able to elaborate on which modes you used during these hunts?

I've been waiting (patiently ) for this more complete report since you mentioned it a few weeks ago.  Worth the wait!  That Walking Liberty half dollar is a thing of beauty -- my favorite US coin design -- and you found one with very little wear.  I've yet to find any half dollar, even clad.  (I'll take a Standing Liberty Quarter, too!)

I also would like to read what settings you were using, especially the recovery speed setting (hope that's the right term).

One thing cherry pickers (and I might become one myself after reading this) may want to keep in mind is that there are many coins out there which haven't had comparables minted for well over a century:  I'm talking about half cent pieces, three cent pieces (silver and nickel), half dimes, nickel-copper small cents (Flying Eagles and the very early Indian Heads) plus the spectrum of gold coins, both official US releases and those from private mints.  Of course a lot of this stuff is rare and you need to be somewhere that those coins were actually being used.  Still, wouldn't be a bad idea to get the TiD's for all this stuff figured out.  The Eqx unlocking masked coins could open up some of these areas, searched out or not.  Last summer I was treasure hunting a 19th Century settlement (mining camp, I think) and there was iron of every size and shape everywhere.  Can't wait to get back there and see what the Eqx unlocks hiding between all that iron.

[Steve Herschbach]

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The weather has been quite mild for a week now and I am thinking southern facing areas should be thawed out, so I am grabbing Equinox and going to give it a shot today. Report later....

Two rules for success...

1. Eliminate as many things in life as can be eliminated that interfere with your detecting time. Any other outdoor hobbies? Ditch them. Spending too much time on yardwork? Get a smaller lawn. Etc.

2. Never, ever, under any circumstances let your wife think she might be subject to rule #1. If she suggests you go see a movie, then have a bite to eat, then walk the pups when you get home, do it. In my case that is easy since that's my preference anyway, but just saying! 

So no silver but if you want to see some great acting go see Gary Oldman portraying Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. An amazing performance - I hope he gets an Oscar.

[steveg]

23 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Two rules for success...

1. Eliminate as many things in life as can be eliminated that interfere with your detecting time. Any other outdoor hobbies? Ditch them. Spending too much time on yardwork? Get a smaller lawn. Etc.

2. Never, ever, under any circumstances let your wife think she might be subject to rule #1. If she suggests you go see a movie, then have a bite to eat, then walk the pups when you get home, do it. In my case that is easy since that's my preference anyway, but just saying! 

So no silver but if you want to see some great acting go see Gary Oldman portraying Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. An amazing performance - I hope he gets an Oscar.

You are a wise man, sir!  ;)

Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!  LOL!

Seriously, though, it's good when your wife is more of a "treasure" than anything you might find with your machine!

Steve

[steveg]

24 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

I've been waiting (patiently ) for this more complete report since you mentioned it a few weeks ago.  Worth the wait!  That Walking Liberty half dollar is a thing of beauty -- my favorite US coin design -- and you found one with very little wear.  I've yet to find any half dollar, even clad.  (I'll take a Standing Liberty Quarter, too!)

I also would like to read what settings you were using, especially the recovery speed setting (hope that's the right term).

One thing cherry pickers (and I might become one myself after reading this) may want to keep in mind is that there are many coins out there which haven't had comparables minted for well over a century:  I'm talking about half cent pieces, three cent pieces (silver and nickel), half dimes, nickel-copper small cents (Flying Eagles and the very early Indian Heads) plus the spectrum of gold coins, both official US releases and those from private mints.  Of course a lot of this stuff is rare and you need to be somewhere that those coins were actually being used.  Still, wouldn't be a bad idea to get the TiD's for all this stuff figured out.  The Eqx unlocking masked coins could open up some of these areas, searched out or not.  Last summer I was treasure hunting a 19th Century settlement (mining camp, I think) and there was iron of every size and shape everywhere.  Can't wait to get back there and see what the Eqx unlocks hiding between all that iron.

Yep, we all need to collaborate, and air-test whatever coins we have in our "collections," so that together, we might compile a list of most, if not all, "air test ID numbers" of most all U.S. coins...

Steve

[Steve Herschbach]

11 hours ago, bado1 said:

Are you able to elaborate on which modes you used during these hunts? Thanks!

Nothing special. Park Mode 1 Multifrequency, Sensitivity between 18 and 25 (the max) and mostly 50 tones but some 5 tone also. I usually hunt with no items rejected and full tones. Silly really when cherry picking but old habit. I did also play around with massive blocking or everything but the silver and nickel range, and Equinox seems to suffer minimally from blocking large chunks of the target id range. Most targets do produce multiple target id results and so lots of notching tends to attenuate some target signals by eliminating part of the potential audio return. That can hurt with getting the full audio picture on "good" targets, so when hunting with any notching employed I tend to hit the "All Metal" horseshoe button (remove all notches) to double check before digging. That can reveal those ferrous targets that are throwing off both ferrous signals along with an occasional high coin false signal. For people who do not know what I am talking about I will elaborate much more later in a detailed article.

Like I said I normally hunt without any items rejected, but here is what I was doing when I did give it a go. In the picture below we are set for Park Mode 1. The target id arc has segments open where targets are to be ignored, and segments filled in (in black) for targets that you want to accept. Here I have 15 - 16 - 17 set to accept. Nickels hit hard at 16 but some will show up at 15 or 17 so this offers a little leeway. Then for copper / silver 28 and up are magic, but here I have 24 and higher set to accept. 24 is where zinc pennies read. I was skipping them in general and focusing on 28 and higher but wanted to also offer myself some leeway here.

Some ferrous "wraps around" to read very high, pretty much banging in consistently at 39. A person could just block 39 and 40 to eliminate that but for me too block as much out as I have was fighting old habits already!

More target mapping info (where coins read target id wise) will be laid out soon. I am going to have to get my hands on a $5 gold piece to get a target id on that for sure.

[Cabo Chris]

Steve-  Looks like the NOX will be a great coin machine!  I'm especially glad to hear the NOX is a good Cherry Picking machine.  That's my hunting style in the Sea with an Excalibur... Zero DISC, Cherry Pick gold range tones.  (Obviously a wide range potential)  You were after silver.  If you have tested average 14K gold rings and 22K gold coins, what are their approximate numbers?  Any different than an average pull tab?