First Run With My Equinox

[Skate]

Well I got the chance to hit my favorite park this afternoon for the first time with my new nox. I ran it in 5 tones, park 2. To be completely transparent, I ran it in this way because this was somehow how it was when I turned it on today and pushed some buttons. I was able to pair the bluetooth headphones completely on accident as I thought I was following the instructions and it wouldn't paired and then I went to turn them off and when I did it paired. Seriously I had no idea how I did it. 

When i finally hit the ground all I could think of is man this thing is fast! The park I'm hunting is one of those "hunted out" parks. Over the past 45 years it has had MD club hunts, and a bunch of detectorists like me who have brought every machine known to man to hunt it. I personally have used a silver umax, Whites MXT, V3i, AT pro, Etrac, CTX, XP Deus on it over the years. I was out for 2 hours and it was a great hunt! 2 silver, some clad and of course the junk. 

Some observations

1. If you're a new detector and you just got a Nox, I'd use 5 tones and for the first 10-15 hours or so I'd just hunt for coins. Set your tone for coins to 25 so it rings loud and start to see how your coins sound in your soil. Learn your VDI's, the merc dime was a 26-27 and the 1940 quarter was 6-7 inches down and gave a VDI 31-35. 

2. If you're coming from a Deus the Nox will seem heavy believe it or not. I got so spoiled using my deus in terms of lightness and the nox was heavier. Obviously if you are coming from a CTX or Etrac it will be like swinging a toothpick.

3. The 11" coil is easy to sweep and scrub the grass with. It really feels like you can cover a bunch of ground.

4. Beaver tails come in at 12-13. So does nickels, so does gold. 

5. Pinpointing is a breeze but truthfully you can wiggle it just as easy and not use the pinpointer and end up over the center of the coil. The tone is easy to "see" under the coil if you know what i mean. 

6. Study Steve's VDI diagram. It's spot on. I knew with an 80% accuracy rate everything I chose to dig. I dug one zinc just to test the VDI and then avoided them the rest. Now when I go jewelry hunting I'll change my approach but for today I could notch it out just by hearing and seeing.  

7. The Equinox is a confidence machine. The hype definitely gives a placebo effect. You feel like you're going to find good stuff. 

8. I didn't think I'd sell my XP and Excal but after today I likely will and replace them with a second 800 and once the coils come out I'll just keep the 6" coil on one and the 11" on the other for beach and park hunting. 

9. Don't let the haters change your view of the Equinox. Multi-frequency is going to be better in 90% of the the situations you'll likely find yourself hunting in. The arguments surrounding FBS and BBS is irrelevant to the average hunter who is simply looking to find coins and jewelry. That's not a criticism of the CTX or Etrac but rather how good the nox is going to be. Who cares if it costs a 3rd of a CTX. Unless you're buying a CTX it's price shouldn't matter. 

There's probably a ton more I could say if I was a technical type person. I'm not, I'm strictly a treasure hunter and what I don't have in eye sight I have in hearing and the equinox is a really, really good machine. Tomorrow it's to the ranch and the iron patch. 

I can't wait, life is good. Best to all of you. 

 

[Steve Herschbach]

A mirror of my experience - great first hunt! And it actually gets better. Thanks Skate.

[tsunamiscott]

Great hunt, thanks for sharing.   

[NSC]

Awesome.

Great write up and good results for a flogged park. 

[mn90403]

Well done!  I agree on keeping the tones to 5 or lower.  Today I decided to use 1 tone and 2 tones on the beach.  

Mitchel

[Guest Tnsharpshooter]

Nice hunt, nice report.  

Look forward to hearing more from you.

Thanks for sharing.

[Metaldetectingisfun]

Well said Skate! Thanks for sharing your good advice.

[Jackpine]

6 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

A mirror of my experience - great first hunt! And it actually gets better. Thanks Skate.

Based on George's observation of them hitting at 19 I'll definitely be dropping the bottom end of T4 down to 18 so IH's come in at the higher pitch.  In the end I'll more than likely set up the tone regions to resemble a 3 tone mode which is my preference for old site hunting.  Or you could make T4 an old coins region by adjusting it to signal on say 17-24 only,

[IdahoPeg]

Great report....thanks! Can't wait to get my 600 on Friday ?

[GB_Amateur]

First thing out-of-the-box:  two hours in a "hunted out" park yields two silver coins.  That's the kind of thing I woke up this morning to read!  Thanks for the report, Skate.