Experienced Beach Hunters Only - EQ800 sucks, what should I replace it with?

[pasttom]

Since I am pushing 70, detector weight has become a greater issue. I had trouble seeing the CTX's screen in sunny conditions (and some dang small text too). I was an early fan of the 'Nox and after a year or so sold my CTX and bought Deus/ORX as a backup unit. I also was one of the first Tarsacci users (beta tester) and kept my MDT 8000 so I am pretty well fixed with newest and lightest units.

 

[u2robert]

Cutaplug Love your YouTube E-Trac videos learned a lot from them. Thanks

 

[Mike K (Ohio)]

Now that I’m done ranting I’d love to get input from experienced beach hunters about what machine is the most efficient for low conductivity targets such as gold on the beach. What I’m looking for:
1. Ability to distinguish non ferrous from ferrous easily.
2. Detector is higher frequency so good on lower conductivity targets. Not looking for too high or I will be digging tiny aluminum pieces. Would like to find a sweet spot where it will pick up small earrings but not pieces so tiny my pinpointer won't even find them.
3. Excellent depth capabilities. If it can reach the same depths of eq800 I would be happy with it.
4. Ability to set discrimination to eliminate zinc pennies and up. I’m not interested in digging silver or coins. Just looking for gold.

The CTX and Etrac are the best of the best for land hunting silver. Is there a detector that is equivalent for beach gold detecting?

I think some of what you ask for could be done with a major software update. I don't have allot of time with the NOX but I've had the E-Trac and Still Own a CTX and do well with it when it comes to silver.
1. I would also like to see the ability to store a few different setups in the NOX 800 much like the CTX + Being able to create them on computer like you can do for the CTX. I can store one setup which isn't really enough.

 

[Donut]

I haven’t tried it yet but I was told from Minelab that in each setting park 1 , park 2 and all the others you can store changes in each one separately as long as you don’t do a factory reset. That would be in profile.

 

[CCadrin]

There is only one user profile that can be stored for the machine, not one for each mode.

 

[Mike K (Ohio)]

There is only one user profile that can be stored for the machine, not one for each mode.

Right but thats where it would be nice if Minelab did a software upgrade and added the ability to add more than just 1....

 

[sunraysux]

Rusty...Rusty...Rusty (an ironic name given all those rusty bottlecaps....wouldn't you say?)
you are going to rue the day you put that initial rant out for public dissection...lol
the Noxxx is the SH*T....you just need to get more intimate with her for goodness sakes
and when you do....DISCO!

 

[Cutaplug]

Great job Minelab for listening to your product users complaints and making a great unit!

Well if they were listening to the thousands of people that owned a CTX that paid $2500 for their detectors and those people figured that software upgrades were possible from the advertising but hardly ever came!!!! Who really won??????? Not the people that shelled out big $$$$ for what some call Minelabs Flag ship! So they are suppose to feel good about having to shell out another $800 for something that might have been a software upgrade to there machine!

Oh hell no if the Vanquish discriminates out rusty bottle caps that my 800 won’t I’ll be so pissed!

So do you think the Equinox is a piece of junk and can’t find gold? In all seriousness it probably is better than their $2500.00 CTX at finding gold my friend has thousands of hours on a CTX and his gold finds are way better and more with his nox it made me a believer
Time spent with this machine should convince you and a whole lot of other new users that it finds well.
HH
Mark

Never said anything about its ability to find gold. Actually I think it’s amazing at finding gold and it will smoke the CTX and etrac any day at finding gold. My problem is with the discrimination and it hitting hard on ferrous targets like a cheap $200 machine.

Cutaplug Love your YouTube E-Trac videos learned a lot from them. Thanks

Thanks!

I haven’t tried it yet but I was told from Minelab that in each setting park 1 , park 2 and all the others you can store changes in each one separately as long as you don’t do a factory reset. That would be in profile.

Yes any changes you do will save to the mode. You still have to understand that every mode has its own separate algorithm in the background for handling signals. For example if you set Park 1 and Park 2 at the EXACT same settings on the front end they will still act completely different when you detect. The reason is because of the programming and what is happening in the background for each mode. You have to understand each mode and how the programming in the background interacts with the user settings in given environment to push the machine to full potential.

 

[doberman]

Have been able to go out 3 hunts since this original post and have done some testing. The beach I was previously going to and spent a solid 2 weeks at had a very high concentration of bottle caps. I have visited 3 beaches since then and there are far fewer bottle caps on average. I have learned how to distinguish bottle caps nearly all the time using the following methods:

Dry Sand or Land:
1. Run Park 2 and multi frequency for best gold capabilities.
2. Set discrimination on whatever you want. Bottle caps can read from 4-18 so it doesn't matter what your descrim is.
3. Once you get park 2 set up how you want it set the custom user setting (button on right side of machine) to the exact same thing except set the frequency to 40k. This way you can switch from multi freq to 40k quickly.
4. When you get a good signal that may be a bottle cap switch it over to custom user (which is essentially just bumping it to 40k frequency) and see if the number jumps around. The number won't jump on multi but will increase in 40k if it's a bottle cap. If it isn't a bottle cap (non ferrous) then it will stay the same number when you switch to 40k.

Still need to investigate this more but those are my initial observations. Was able to get 3 golds in the last 3 hunts at a beach that I was told was not very good. I guess it's all in the machine =)

Just got a NOX 800....experienced detectorist that hasnt used my NOX much at all but have seen it does love bottlecaps. Wouldn't the same dry sand/land technique work with canslaw? I also have an E-trac and use it to find silver but bought the 800 to hunt for gold jewelry on land.

 

[Digger 45]

Love those bottle caps, just pulled a nice 22k gold band that came up as a 15 on the Nox, i have pulled up a lot of caps that were VDI of 15. So don't blame the Nox the more i use it the better this machine is. Quickly becoming my favorite.

 

[Donut]

Nice find , and good info.