Eqx 06 Coil Review For Gold Prospecting

[Lunk]

I finally got my hands on the long-awaited new 6-inch coil for my Minelab Equinox 800 (thank you Gerry); definitely a sight for sore eyes!

I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon, so I took it to an old nugget patch where I had found a few bits with the Gold Monster last year. The Nox is ultra-lightweight with this small coil, making the detector nearly effortless to swing. Set to all-metal in Gold 1 with Sensitivity at 24, the EQX was zipping pretty hard on the hot rocks, but notch-discriminating them out helped tremendously whenever they started to get thick. Straight away I got a hot rock signal reading -7,-8,-9 on the EQX display, but in the mix were some jumpy positive numbers of anywhere from 1 to 5...hmmm, definitely worth investigating. After removing the first inch of soil with the pick, the small hot rock was out. Moving the coil back over the target zone now displayed a solid 2, with an occasional jump from 1 to 5. After another 3 inches of depth, the target was in the scoop:

The small, heart-shaped nugget was undoubtedly apropos, since I was already quite enamored with this little 6-inch sharpshooter.?

Just 2 feet away I hit a persistent signal of 1; this time, the gold was only an inch deep...easy money.

Swinging down slope only a few more feet and I had a repeatable 2 on the display; a screamer at 2 inches, this bit had some thickness compared to the first two, and was in a small clay-filled crevice in the bedrock.

The fourth target was a ripper from the get-go, but as I was removing soil from the hole, I noticed a much fainter signal as I waved the scoop over the coil. A quick sifting revealed a tiny little speck of yellow:

No doubt about it, the 6-inch coil is super hot. With the main target still screaming in the hole, I finally had it in the scoop after removing 3 inches of soil: a mini arrowhead-shaped golden beauty.

I couldn’t be more pleased with this new coil, a solid performer on the gold fields. Well done Minelab.

[vanursepaul]

Link, 

Good job with Eke...

i tried my luck with the 11” coil yesterday on an old scraped very trashy push and had to turn the sensitivity way down to 12 just to operate it here in WA.

im going to have to read up on how to set one up for gold....

i don’t know if the 11 will cut the mustard for nugget hunting....unless they were at least solid half half framers. I liked the detector a lot for the beach last fall. 

I would love to be able to use it in these trashy areas where no one will detect.

 

cheers

 

[Lunk]

Good afternoon, Paul,

Although they’re still hard to come by, it sounds like you’d have a better go with the 6-inch coil, as it sees less ground than the 11-inch. Good  luck out there!

[IdahoPeg]

Great review AND great gold, Lunk! I only have the Nox 600....wonder how Park 2 or Field 2 with 6” coil would do on gold? Any thoughts? Thx!

[Lunk]

Thanks Peg. Steve already posted what you’re looking for a couple of months ago here:

Further on down in his post, he has  an excellent bit about how to set up the EQX 600 for gold nugget detecting.

[fredmason]

Nice gold, Lunk…

do you think this was gold you missed with the Monster? just curious....

fred

[strick]

Thanks for the report Lunk. Just got mine in the other day. I'll be trying it soon in the parks and relic areas. 

strick

[Steve Herschbach]

The 6" coil is a winner for sure. Thanks for the report Lunk!

Paul, the 11" works fine. There is nothing wrong using a sensitivity setting of 12. An Equinox with the sensitivity set so that the machine is stable will outperform some other units that run stable at full sensitivity levels. Just because a sensitivity setting is at 50% of max does not mean the machine is getting half the performance of other machines running full out. It just means they have a lower gain level to start with.

Personally even with the small coil I prefer stable settings. The last location where I worked the Equinox I was able to scrub the ground just like running a Gold Bug 2 while in Gold Mode and sensitivity set at 18. Once on the gold I may go higher, but don't be surprised if hot rocks pop and coil knock sensitivity increases at higher sensitivity levels.

[ECris]

Nice report and excellent finds. I am buyer now!

[Gerry in Idaho]

Oh Lunk.....you broke my heart with that 1st nugget photo, so cool.  Fabulous report and sharing of the Hot Rocks too.  Seeing the tiny pickers pulled from the same site as you used your other machines certainly attests to the NOX capabilities.  Now if I can get some more coils in, I'll be able to put a few more smiles on customers faces.

Keep it up my friend.