60 degrees here today and my first outing with the Nox 600.

[John in Nawth Carolina]

1. First, the not so good stuff. The Nox menu system has got to be the worst in the universe. It does not make any sense and is hard to figure out. If anyone has had an MX Sport, it has a real user friendly menu system. And yes, I read the manual.

2. Second, the bottom of the housing has somewhat sharp edges making it very uncomfortable for my hand when holding the detector. Not a good thing.

3. Despite so many first time users reporting fabulous finds from "hunted out" places, today was not one of them. There were no easy targets so I had to start digging iffy targets. The next guy detecting this area needs to pay my a finders fee for cleaning out so much trash. Not one single good target found.

After spending a couple of hours digging iffy targets, I walked next door to a house scheduled for demolition. Lots of trash, also, so I decided to only dig good clear signals. Found 2 wheaties in the same hole, 1944 and 1950, and a clad quarter.

The only good thing about today was that the tones sounded close to what I remember from having 3 Explorers.

So there it is.

 

[Donut]

Ok . First time out and you can’t run it “it’s too hard” lol it’s actually east to run and in-fact most of the time it’ll run by itself out of the box.
So so many are happy with it so I’m guessing you need to sell it because if you are starting out complaining with such an negative attitude you will never get over that hump.
So I think it’s best for you to go back to s signal frequency detector without all, the bells and whistles that give us many options to control the detector in different locations.
One time out and you didn’t have a miracle day.
Well I have been detecting for 45 years and was out today and froze my fingers off and didn’t find much so am I suppose to just quit or trash my detector.
Detecting is a hobby to have fun doing it and there are good days and poor days and we live with that.
Doug

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

Speak English.

 

[Donut]

Speak English.

Ok I had a bad day today and didn’t find much so I guess I need to blame my detector.

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

Now I understand. However, I didn't blame the detector. I just posted my realistic impressions of my first time out. Sorry I hurt your feelings.

 

[Donut]

Now I understand. However, I didn't blame the detector. I just posted my realistic impressions of my first time out. Sorry I hurt your feelings.

Na no feelings hurt. Everyone has a learning curve. And there are very few and far between that don’t like the Nox . You have much more control with the Knox . Just go slow when learning it and any time you can just do a factory and go from there again.

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

I get it. The 1944 and 1950 pennies were found in the same hole as a bent nail. Good separation.

 

[South Padre Treasure]

John,
A day at the beach is better than any day at work!
I haven't been able to hunt due to a compresses nerve in my neck, finally got that taken care of and had a 60 degree day also. My wife felt sorry for me for all the pain I was in so she bought me a Nox 600.
Im going to have to remember that trick when the new fisher manta comes out lol.
I watched every youtube video while I was recovering on the 600 and 800 models. When i hunted this weekend i found a quarter got a reading of 30. found two nickles got a reading of 13. one beaver tail pull tab reading 13. several pennies reading of about 21 area.
Hunted in the water and wet sand. all targets deep. had mostly factory settings in beach mode, tried mode one and two. tried hunting in all metal. also thought my detector wasn't working it was so quiet no falsing at all in salt water. had to turn up threshold just to prove it was on.
when i found iron it gave me a low tone that i had programed to give, had it set up for two tones good or bad tones.
The detector told me exactly what i had found before i dug it. Wasn't the detectors fault i did not find gold, just wasn't under my coil, if it had been it would have told me i do believe. I used cheap wired headphones with the waterproof 1/4 to 1/8 adaptor water proofed until i build my own headphones.
Let the detector be another tool in the tool box, find what works and use it, if it doesn't get another hammer and use it for that job and then go back and pick this one up again. Happy Hunting and Have a safe Holiday to All.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

My 1st time experience was very much like yours with exception to the sharp edges thing.... this machine for me is very tricky to get the optimum set up which is required to pull the few good finds that are left in places that we have pounded to death with other quality machines.. I dug so much iron and junk my 1st couples times out it was ridiculous... however I did make some very cool finds at this spot such as ; an Indian head penny,KG III ( both in great shape) and my oldest US silver an 1800 dime.. for me this machine has a major learning curve but what do we really expect when we take it out to places that only have mostly ferrous and little bit of odd shaped non ferrous targets left... a few things I’ve noticed is I don’t like 50 tone in multiple frequency seems to make every target sound good no matter what it is.. I prefer 5 tone,I’ve also had best results in recovery speed 4 or 5.. park 1 or field 2 seem to cut down the junk targets... sensitivity set too high will also frustrate you until you get the feel of how the machine responds..this machine can get real frustrating to the new user as it’s easy to get lost in the menu and not remember where you are.. that all comes with time and gets a little easier every time out... the versatility of this machine is a double edged sword in that it has so many ways to be set it up that it’s easy to get lost in the menu but does have the ability the be adjusted so many that other machines don’t...I would suggest watching lots of utube videos relating to settings,especially those related live digs in a realistic environment such as a homestead... good luck...it will all come with time and experience..

 

[IDXMonster]

John, I actually felt like you feel right now for the first 75 hours of using the 800....NO silver coins, didn’t seem like I was finding anything worth finding (because I wasn’t) and it just SUCKED. This performance wasn’t anywhere NEAR what I was used to with the Explorer2 and CTX....”so why use it?” I asked myself.
Where this tool really shines for ME is in those old sites as you describe that are just a pile of nails and nonsense...DEPTH isn’t necessarily paramount but unmasking IS. Try running Park 1, your Recovery at “3” (fastest setting on the 600), run “5 tones” and adjust your highest bin so that it accepts 18-40. You should pick up only highly conductive coins that way, you can just disc out the rest if you want. That’s what I would do with the 600, but it’s just based on similar settings that work for ME using the 800 version. As said already, the setup CAN be a bit finicky, you want this thing STABLE. A Sensitivity setting of 16-20 is perfectly normal. I never go above 22 because it just lights up nails, and that’s where I use this thing...nail and junk filled areas.
Most importantly....if you’re serious about seeing what it IS good for, use the HELL out of it. I had to power through that stage of frustration to start dialing it in because like you, I have an Explorer, AND a CTX. Those machines make it VERY difficult to go back and find anything else, they’re just that good. People claiming to have found 5 silvers the first day they got the EQX...there’s something else going on there, but that’s not what’s going on with you or me. We are at a disadvantage because our places are thinned out to begin with. I had to trust that Minelab made something that could excel in some seriously crappy sites, and it can. Just trust that thought.
In the meantime, have a great Xmas today and get back after it when you can!

Kevin

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

Actually, Kevin, my issues are with the ergonomics, not the performance.

I've got some better sites to detect which I hope to get to while the weather is cooperating.

 

[BigTony]

John, my 800 doesn’t have sharp edges on the bottom of the control housing. Even if I hold the detector up high on the handle it’s rounded.
I also always use gloves because the handle is thin for my hand. So it feels better with a glove.

In the beginning I was like you with the menu. I took pages to the field with me and used that to learn the machine.

Now finding fabulous stuff the first time out - I was just happy I found a pull tab and some coins - not much at all.
Nowadays I do much better - the machine can separate out well in parks that I hunted hundreds of times.
Go a little slower and listen to sounds then check TDIs - if they bounce around - listen for a good sound then dig. Helps me plenty.

Tony NJ

 

[D&P-OR]

Big Tony---you must have some big hands!-----My hands are about average size & the grip is fine for me.-----There was one guy stating awhile back that he thought the grip was too large.-------To the OP---As to the sharp edges on the bottom of the control housing----nah, I'm not seeing that.------Even if they were sharp---why would a person be having their hand that high up on the grip anyway?

 

[BigTony]

DP, my hands are long and thin - so when I grip the handle I feel it needs more girth to it.

I probably will purchase some type of wrap or tape like for sports handles

Tony NJ