Goldinox

[Lunk]

After being tied up last weekend, I was finally able to get out into the hills with the Equinox today, and decided to spend some time fine-tuning the settings on the Gold Search Mode. I also decided to give max sensitivity a go on the mildly mineralized areas and, while it made the Nox quite sparky, I had no problem sorting out the various noises and homing in on the gold. While gridding a small area that has been hit hard with various VLFs, the Equinox hit a solid, repeatable target that read 1-2 on the display - right in the small nugget range. Upon recovering the target, I found that it was indeed a small nugglet. ? 

I checked the dig hole before backfilling it and still heard a nice, crisp 1-2; a little more  digging and BOOYAH: another golden goodie! This process went on 3 more times, for a total of 5 pieces of gold out of the one hole...I like it when that happens! And just inches away, the EQX snagged 2 more nugglets. Needless to say, I’m astounded by the performance of this machine at locating some pretty tiny gold.

Total weight 0.38 of a gram:

[flakmagnet]

Lunk how do you reckon it will do on larger pieces?

[Lunk]

For a VLF, I would imagine that the EQX would shoot surprisingly deep on the larger bits. 

[mn90403]

Lunk always makes a plate and sticks it on the bottom of his coils!  He doesn't have time to wait for others to make one for him.

[Lunk]

Tis indeed a homemade solid skid plate, Simon, and quite simple to make. $5 plastic tote, trace coil pattern onto it, cut it out, apply sticky-back velcro to it and bottom of coil, slap them together and voilà - job done.?

[steveg]

VERY nice job -- excellent digs!

Steve

[SittingElf]

Wow...a "Gold Spill"!  LOL!

[Steve Herschbach]

I have been mostly keeping my mouth shut about Multi-IQ and gold because I am operating more from a gut feeling than any direct comparative testing. Yet my use of the Equinox for nugget hunting and the tests I have done so far has me thinking that Multi-IQ is going to prove markedly superior to most VLF gold detectors currently on the market, and that it might possibly prove out to be the next best thing to a PI for larger gold at depth. It certainly has the hots for smaller gold. The old rule about single frequency packing more punch on gold than multifrequency may be something that Minelab really has made obsolete.

Gold prospectors however have been inundated the last few years with quite a few machines all promising new edges in technology, etc. That being the case I decided to specifically lay low on that particular aspect of Equinox since it is clearly being marketed primarily to coin, relic, and jewelry hunters. It’s certainly not because I don’t think the capability is not there however - just the opposite. I think we will be seeing lots more posts like yours and Mitchels fairly soon Lunk. Thanks for posting!

[Cal_Cobra]

Nice job!!

I can't wait to take the EQ800 nugget shooting.....patience grasshopper....

[Lunk]

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The old rule about single frequency packing more punch on gold than multifrequency may be something that Minelab really has made obsolete.

My thoughts exactly, Steve. And since, at the Minelab Americas Annual Partners Conference  this past winter, Minelab CEO and President Peter Charlesworth announced that they now consider single frequency VLF technology to be obsolete and will only be designing multi-frequency VLF machines from now on, I fully expect Minelabs’ next dedicated VLF gold machine to be multi frequency. And seeing how the Equinox performs on gold, I can’t wait for that one!