New to the Minelab Equinox 800

[Divin]

Hello! I just got a Minelab Equinox 800, I am reading up and watching many youtube videos and trying to get out and get some time on the machine. I went ahead got ear reinforcement to prevent the detector head from breaking. I have been reading manual and the new edition Minelab Equinox 600 800 Metal Detector Hand book by Andy Sabisch. Thanks for your help!

Jim

 

[JimmyCT]

Hi Jim,
Welcome to findmall!
What kind of hunting do you primarily plan on? (Eg. Coin hunting school yards, relic hunting, beach hunting etc) The Equinox is a fine machine and will find treasures!
I look forward to seeing your finds. - Jim

 

[jayhop]

Hello! I just got a Minelab Equinox 800, I am reading up and watching many youtube videos and trying to get out and get some time on the machine. I went ahead got ear reinforcement to prevent the detector head from breaking. I have been reading manual and the new edition Minelab Equinox 600 800 Metal Detector Hand book by Andy Sabisch. Thanks for your help!

Jim

In my opinion you have the best all around machine on the market.
I'm sure you will get all kinds of advice but in my opinion the best place to start is
Park 1 if you are land hunting.
All metal with iron volume on 1
5 tones
Iron bias F2 at 6
Recovery speed 5
Sensitivity 20, move up if possible
These are my settings 75% of the time on land.
And I hate to tell you but the coil ears will still break even though you are using the stiffener.

 

[BchPatrol]

Congrats on the new Nox Jim. We are on a similar path. I've had my 800 a week and been on two outings with it. I have Andy's book as well and it's a nice supplement to the owners manual.

HH. Dan

 

[fastdraw]

We'll teach you the secret Equinox handshake after you post your first find's..

 

[Divin]

Hi Jim,
Welcome to findmall!
What kind of hunting do you primarily plan on? (Eg. Coin hunting school yards, relic hunting, beach hunting etc) The Equinox is a fine machine and will find treasures!
I look forward to seeing your finds. - Jim

I will be on school yards, beaches and working on access to private areas. I have joined some of the local clubs but Covid has been an issue with meeting.

 

[Divin]

In my opinion you have the best all around machine on the market.
I'm sure you will get all kinds of advice but in my opinion the best place to start is
Park 1 if you are land hunting.
All metal with iron volume on 1
5 tones
Iron bias F2 at 6
Recovery speed 5
Sensitivity 20, move up if possible
These are my settings 75% of the time on land.
And I hate to tell you but the coil ears will still break even though you are using the stiffener.

I will give those settings a try. Are the coil ears mostly breaking from a good hit of the coil or just swinging in general?

 

[Divin]

We'll teach you the secret Equinox handshake after you post your first find's..

Ready for the handshake...the first find was a lead tire weight. Yesterday I took my daughter with me , and on one of the last finds of the day we got a hit in the high 20s, and I have been using Park 2. We dug a fairly deep hole and the sun was hitting a silvery metal. It was stuck in good. We saw some green and red traces and then then gold metal was there too. My daughter is beside herself and she reaches in and pulls it out and begins cleaning it off. At first we thought we had a high end bracelet. All of a sudden she exclaims in disappointment, “It’s a can of alcohol!” We had discovered a spent crushed can of Miller Lite. We had a really good laugh!

 

[jayhop]

I will give those settings a try. Are the coil ears mostly breaking from a good hit of the coil or just swinging in general?

In my opinion it's not from a good hit. They just aren't designed to stand up to normal hunting conditions over time.
I say that because I was very careful with my coil and had the best coil stiffener I could find on it. After a little over 2 years the coil just fell off with the stiffener on it. As have many others.
Don't worry about the coil ears, if it happens it happens. Nothing you can really do about it. Just enjoy the technology. I apologize for even bringing it up. You will probably want a second coil of some size anyway, if one breaks you will have the other one as a backup.
I now carry my stiffener and some zip ties in case the coil breaks again.

 

[Divin]

Congrats on the new Nox Jim. We are on a similar path. I've had my 800 a week and been on two outings with it. I have Andy's book as well and it's a nice supplement to the owners manual.

HH. Dan

These videos tutorials we also suggested and are really good by Relic DirtyHands

 

[Divin]

In my opinion it's not from a good hit. They just aren't designed to stand up to normal hunting conditions over time.
I say that because I was very careful with my coil and had the best coil stiffener I could find on it. After a little over 2 years the coil just fell off with the stiffener on it. As have many others.
Don't worry about the coil ears, if it happens it happens. Nothing you can really do about it. Just enjoy the technology. I apologize for even bringing it up. You will probably want a second coil of some size anyway, if one breaks you will have the other one as a backup.
I now carry my stiffener and some zip ties in case the coil breaks again.

I appreciate the heads up on that will put some zip ties in the truck!

 

[Hddeuce03]

In my opinion it's not from a good hit. They just aren't designed to stand up to normal hunting conditions over time.
I say that because I was very careful with my coil and had the best coil stiffener I could find on it. After a little over 2 years the coil just fell off with the stiffener on it. As have many others.
Don't worry about the coil ears, if it happens it happens. Nothing you can really do about it. Just enjoy the technology. I apologize for even bringing it up. You will probably want a second coil of some size anyway, if one breaks you will have the other one as a backup.
I now carry my stiffener and some zip ties in case the coil breaks again.

Jay,

As someone that's had an Excalibur II but now has a Nox 800, in your opinion, how is the Nox IN the water compared to the Excal? I have a Nox 800 but do a lot of water hunting (saltwater). I'd love to have an Excal for dedicated water hunting, but do you feel the Nox is just as good at finding jewelry in the water? I go up to about chest-deep water usually. Thanks!

 

[JimmyCT]

You are going to hear a lot of different settings / suggestions. I am going to provide you with settings that with work best for me. These settings have found me piles of coins and neat relics along with plenty of silver.

Inland hunting at schools, parks, fields, etc:
Park1 - Multi-freq
GB - 0
iron volume - 1
non-ferrous volume - 25
"all-metal" mode
50 tones
F2-0
Recovery 4
Noise cancel frequently ( silent EMI is the biggest killer of performance. )
slow coil speed

Best of luck in the field! - Jim

I will be on school yards, beaches and working on access to private areas. I have joined some of the local clubs but Covid has been an issue with meeting.

 

[jayhop]

I appreciate the heads up on that will put some zip ties in the truck!

Jay,

As someone that's had an Excalibur II but now has a Nox 800, in your opinion, how is the Nox IN the water compared to the Excal? I have a Nox 800 but do a lot of water hunting (saltwater). I'd love to have an Excal for dedicated water hunting, but do you feel the Nox is just as good at finding jewelry in the water? I go up to about chest-deep water usually. Thanks!

The short answer, if I were beach hunting only I would probably go with the Excalibur, because you said you would be in chest deep water.
If it wasn't for the flooding problems it would be the Equinox, no question.
I've seen test where the equinox would detect gold chains better but haven't tested it myself.
The reason I quit using the Excalibur was that I hunted in pinpointer mode. I had to switch back to discrimination mode to check each target. The Excalibur has a weird discrimination mode that I didn't like. But I really did like the way that machine would sound off on a good target.
Before I sold the Excalibur I bought the CTX. I was very happy with that machine and didn't have any problems with it. It became my all around machine.
Then came the Equinox, after doing some testing against the CTX I sold the Excalibur and CTX. The equinox in my opinion could do most everything the other machines could do and I was able to put a couple thousand dollars back in my pocket.
But as we all know the equinox has its problems, but it's the best thing going for now.

 

[fwcrawford]

Welcome to the forum.... having owned and used my 800 since Oct. of 2019, I agree with jayhop in the Equinox being the most versatile detector right now.
I have several other machines and they have been gathering dust since I started using the Equinox.
Earthlypotluck’s suggested settings are the same that I use and I have done very well with them.
Good luck to you and look forward to seeing your future finds!!!

 

[Divin]

You are going to hear a lot of different settings / suggestions. I am going to provide you with settings that with work best for me. These settings have found me piles of coins and neat relics along with plenty of silver.

Inland hunting at schools, parks, fields, etc:
Park1 - Multi-freq
GB - 0
iron volume - 1
non-ferrous volume - 25
"all-metal" mode
50 tones
F2-0
Recovery 4
Noise cancel frequently ( silent EMI is the biggest killer of performance. )
slow coil speed

Best of luck in the field! - Jim

Will give that a try I appreciate it!

 

[5900_XL-1]

You are going to hear a lot of different settings / suggestions. I am going to provide you with settings that with work best for me. These settings have found me piles of coins and neat relics along with plenty of silver.

Inland hunting at schools, parks, fields, etc:
Park1 - Multi-freq
GB - 0
iron volume - 1
non-ferrous volume - 25
"all-metal" m
50 tones
F2-0
Recovery 4
Noise cancel frequently ( silent EMI is the biggest killer of performance. )
slow coil speed

Best of luck in the field! - Jim

Precisely my settings, from 2 years of my first Nox.

 

[coffeecan]

Gig Master on You tube. He's a GOOD teacher. Gotta get me some gold.

 

[Mark kus]

Welcome you bought a great all purpose detector I've owned mine since 2018 and it never ceases to amaze me at what it will find...
Oh by the way my coil is 3 years old I'm careful not to lean on it and watch Calabash digger he's also on the forums..
Mark

 

[Hddeuce03]

The short answer, if I were beach hunting only I would probably go with the Excalibur, because you said you would be in chest deep water.
If it wasn't for the flooding problems it would be the Equinox, no question.
I've seen test where the equinox would detect gold chains better but haven't tested it myself.
The reason I quit using the Excalibur was that I hunted in pinpointer mode. I had to switch back to discrimination mode to check each target. The Excalibur has a weird discrimination mode that I didn't like. But I really did like the way that machine would sound off on a good target.
Before I sold the Excalibur I bought the CTX. I was very happy with that machine and didn't have any problems with it. It became my all around machine.
Then came the Equinox, after doing some testing against the CTX I sold the Excalibur and CTX. The equinox in my opinion could do most everything the other machines could do and I was able to put a couple thousand dollars back in my pocket.
But as we all know the equinox has its problems, but it's the best thing going for now.

Thanks Jay! I've been torn...I love my Nox, but I see a "famous" water hunter in my area kill it with his Excal...he gets very deep with it...but he also uses a Fischer AQ PI to go even deeper! I did have the now infamous "water ingress" issue with my Nox last summer and had to return it for repair, but I do love it! I guess I'll just stick with my Nox and if it leaks again...I'll get it replaced again.