Equinox Gold Prospecting Yuma Az

[Condor]

I purchased an Equinox 800 hoping to put a little more fun into gold prospecting and try my hand a coin/relic detecting.  I've put about 5 hrs detecting time in, first in a really trashy shallow bedrock wash then in running through old drywash tailings.  5 hrs is not enough to really get to know the machine and I was not able to get that coil over undug gold,  but some initial observations can be shared. 

In the shallow bedrock, littered with bits of ancient decomposing food cans from an old mine camp,  Nox is awesome.  I ran it in the standard Gold I setting, with no discrimination.  The rotting can trash was unmistakable in the -3 to -5 VDI reading.    Modern steel items like machine fittings etc, sometimes ran up to +2, but lead and my test nuggets consistently gave VDI of 8 to 10.  A 1 gram test nugget consistently hits 9 to 10.  Hot rocks show up in the -7, -8 range.  

In the drywash tailings, I was looking for depth and the ground was a little hotter.  I ran in Gold II with the sensitivity between 19 and 21 where conditions allowed.  Again, ferrous trash was unmistakable with good logical VDI numbers.  I ran into a lot of hot rocks in the -8 VDI.

Given that I could not get the coil over undug gold, I opted to do a little testing with test nuggets.  First, a .2 gram nugget sounded off perfectly to about 3 inches, VDI at depth is iffy.  I think more depth is possible on that size with a little more tweaking.  Then, a 1 gram nugget down 6 inches in the fine drywash tailings.  Tone was unmistakable, but the VDI was all over the place.  I went down 8 inches and the tone was clear, but now the VDI starting hitting at -8, the same place as a hundred hot rocks I had been over and had quit digging.  I'm still not sure how to interpret that bit.   More practice and more testing.  Ideally, an undug target is the place for that, I just need to get over one. 

My one gripe is that the coil is very bump sensitive.  That spoke design catches on brush and the tops of rocks causing a hard chirp from machine.  A few times I was trying to work that 11 inch coil down between rocks and every bump gave me a chirp or 2.  It really breaks the concentration when you're trying to find those whisper signals. 

At this point I would not opt for the 800 as my exclusive gold prospecting machine.   Good thing I have the workhorse GPZ for that. 

Edit 3/10 - See follow up post.

[beatup]

you will get that coil  over a piece very soon i suspect steve.

[ophirboy]

It looks like the iffy numbers at depth on the equinox are no different than the Gold Monsters vague probability meter readings in mineralised ground , and it also suffers from some bump noise in the high frequency setting. So it’s probably going to suit the relic coin hunter who wants to dabble in s bit of prospecting more than someone who is concentrating on the gold. 

[Steve Herschbach]

Equinox is a terrific machine in nearly all ways but I agree it will not truly come into its own as a nugget detector until nugget specific coils are made for it. I will be persevering with mine looking for gold because of what I have seen so far. Once this crazy late winter arctic freeze is over here in Reno I will get back at it and will post more results myself.

Nearly all the nuggets I have found with Equinox so far registered a solid 1 - 3 reading and one a little higher at 6 if I recall correctly. But that is all really small stuff like a grain or less.

Thanks Steve for that great Yuma report!

[ophirboy]

Yes John the lightly mineralised locations do wonders for the discrimination features , unfortunately the areas I work in make it almost mandatory to dig the material and lay it on the surface before using the discriminator , on my first outing with the  GM I found a 2 gram piece at 5 inches that showed as ferrous until it was placed right under the large coil. I’m very envious of you guys in the milder soil.

[BeachHunter]

Great review Condor. Thank you for a well written post. Best of luck for the gold!

[MarXthespot]

58 minutes ago, kiwijw said:

That 11" open spoke/web design coil is not an ideal coil for gold......AHH..... & the dreaded bump falsing.........damn it!!!

Forgive my ignorance, but is this coil not deal for gold mostly because  (A) it is open spoke and therefore gets grabbed by impediments causing it to bump/false?  Or, is it more because of (B) its size being too big to navigate crevices?  Or, is it (C) something to do with the DD coil design vs. other configurations?  Or is it (D) mostly a combination of all of the above?  .... OR.. (E) mostly something I haven't mentioned that I don't know about?

I'm learning a lot from you guys,

Thanks

 

[Gerry in Idaho]

Condor,  It was good to read your findings and hopefully some of this will help.

Yes I truly agree with JW. 

On all "Metered Identification Detectors", and especially digital readout units, the ID is not a given.  The use of ID is mostly for easy to find clear and clean signals near the surface.  The smaller the target, the deeper it is and the more the mineralized the soil, the less accurate the ID system is and that is why so many gold detectors in past either did not have them or if they did, it was a simple Ferrous or Non Ferrous (left or right) reading.  I too know for a fact that a tiny nugget at depth will not even move the ID on some machines, but you heard a break, tick or change on a machine with threshold.

Even a 1 ounce solid nugget will not read accurately any any detector when pushed to the outer limits.  Just as a 1 ounce nugget at 6" in extremely mineralized soil will not read accurately on some machines.  Using Identification...There is no 100% Guarantee, unless you dig it.

Now for the coil making sounds.  In most gold detectors if you bump the coil to a rock or even a bush on occasion you'll get a little noise.  1st thing I would recommend is to drop the GAIN or SENSITIVITY (same thing) a couple clicks and try it again.

Keep us posted of your progress.  And good luck.

[Steve Herschbach]

13 hours ago, MarXthespot said:

Forgive my ignorance, but is this coil not deal for gold mostly because  (A) it is open spoke and therefore gets grabbed by impediments causing it to bump/false?  Or, is it more because of (B) its size being too big to navigate crevices?  Or, is it (C) something to do with the DD coil design vs. other configurations?  Or is it (D) mostly a combination of all of the above?  .... OR.. (E) mostly something I haven't mentioned that I don't know about?

I'm learning a lot from you guys,

Thanks

 

There is a reason so many VLF nugget detectors come with a solid 6” x 10” elliptical. Cover the same ground per sweep, but great for poking in nooks and crannies. The coil will not catch on rocks or brush. I have found the 11” Equinox coil in Gold Mode to be more bump resistant in theory than the 10” coil on my Gold Monster if both are cranked up to full gain, but it is all those edges catching that then evens it up a bit. It usually only takes a small drop in sensitivity on the Equinox while in Gold Mode to reduce the bump sensitivity issue. You can also go to my favorite alternative to Gold Mode which is Field 2 and the knock sensitivity generally goes away entirely. Anyone hunting gold in Field 2 needs to open up target id 1 and 2 which are blocked by default. I go farther myself usually opening up everything except -9 and -8 plus possibly -7 depending on the hot rocks.

I have an extremely good idea of what most experienced nugget hunters want in a VLF gold machine and the fact is Equinox is different. The coil alone being different would bug many people, and operationally it is a universe away from old favorites like the Gold Bug 2. So I am by no means going to get on some soapbox and tout the Equinox as something every prospector needs. On the other hand my confidence factor in Multi-IQ is pretty off the charts, and due to my faith in the technology I will be pursuing its use as a nugget detector personally. If for no other reason than to aid in further development and to try as always to push it the way I would like to see it go.

[MarXthespot]

15 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

due to my faith in the technology I will be pursuing its use as a nugget detector personally.

Do you think coilmakers like Coiltek will eventually fill this rather large niche (when lots of Equinox are out there) for small elliptical "gold" coils if Minelab doesn't?  Or even if Minelab does make such "gold" coils?

 Or, has Minelab precluded that through smartcoil tech, i.e. they would have to licence it for coilmakers to be able to get the control unit to play nice with the coil?