One way falsing 25-32 on large nail...VERY good sound!

[IDXMonster]

I don’t have a great grip even after 60+ hours on this thing.
EQ800
Stock coil
Park 1
Manual GB levels at 35
Recovery usually 5, perhaps 3 when in an open area with deeper possibilities
IB 0-2
Sensitivity 18-22
Even with the high bin set at max of 25 for volume and main volume at 22, once I start going to 18 Sensitivity or anywhere below, any deeper possibilities get really washed out sounding...very weak. I found 2 very deep Indians at 9” that I simply took a chance on because of repeatability and the numbers stuck around 16-19. But there wasn’t really any “pop” to the signal or sharpness in the middle of the signal that would be indicative of a coin. I need to set the Sensitivity to at LEAST 21 to get the audio to come alive on 7”+ coins. However!...when I do this, the nail falses become VERY good sounding, even as I start to rotate around the target 15-20 degrees either way.
It’s not that I can’t figure it out, it’s just a monumental time killer. Anyone got a suggestion as to how to not spend so much time with these and at the same time have the Sensitivity high enough to make an actual deeper coin sound like I think it should? I know I must be doing something wrong...the fact I haven’t found a silver coin yet speaks to that, especially when everyone else seems to be tripping over them everywhere they go.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

You’re not alone IDX... I too struggle with getting the optimum settings for the environment I’m working... my settings are usually right about where yours are..for some reason I have found recovery speed of 4 works best in the farm fields I’ve been working.. sensitivity setting of 18 was working pretty good for me,anything much higher was locking on to the tiniest pieces of rubbish... I had a lot of problems with a lot of iron coming in strong at 17-18 so much so that I gave up digging anything that rang up in that range, however I went back to the same site when the soil wasn’t so saturated and noticed very little falsing on iron... unfortunately by the time my confidence with the 800 was getting stronger the fields got planted and Im just not comfortable taking this thing out to the park yet... I only found one silver coin with it so far , fortunately it was an 1800 bust dime so all is forgiven lol.... I also noticed I seem to have a better grasp of what the machine is telling me soon after I initially set it up as my 1st few targets are always non ferrous but that fades shortly thereafter... the wide variety of settings can make it difficult to find that optimum magical settings needed to unlock those targets the other machines missed... the 800 ain’t my favorite machine to use but it has proven to me it is capable..... just a bigger learning curve due to the wide variety of settings the way I see it...

 

[IDXMonster]

You’re not alone IDX... I too struggle with getting the optimum settings for the environment I’m working... my settings are usually right about where yours are..for some reason I have found recovery speed of 4 works best in the farm fields I’ve been working.. sensitivity setting of 18 was working pretty good for me,anything much higher was locking on to the tiniest pieces of rubbish... I had a lot of problems with a lot of iron coming in strong at 17-18 so much so that I gave up digging anything that rang up in that range, however I went back to the same site when the soil wasn’t so saturated and noticed very little falsing on iron... unfortunately by the time my confidence with the 800 was getting stronger the fields got planted and Im just not comfortable taking this thing out to the park yet... I only found one silver coin with it so far , fortunately it was an 1800 bust dime so all is forgiven lol.... I also noticed I seem to have a better grasp of what the machine is telling me soon after I initially set it up as my 1st few targets are always non ferrous but that fades shortly thereafter... the wide variety of settings can make it difficult to find that optimum magical settings needed to unlock those targets the other machines missed... the 800 ain’t my favorite machine to use but it has proven to me it is capable..... just a bigger learning curve due to the wide variety of settings the way I see it...

Great observations IMHO Booty. The other machines I’ve used are quite a bit easier to tell what’s what, but maybe it’ll come to me, who knows. I AM hunting places that are already decimated, so I’m not going to condemn it yet. I’m hoping it’ll come around and be the machine it seems to be to others.

 

[BigTony]

IDX, I get fooled as well on a few deep nails with the NOX, but I did that with the EXP II as well.

Normally folks post that Indians hit at 19 to 20 or 21 , depending on your site, but deep 16 or 17 in my area might be junk.

Have you tried five tone and park 2? Many folks on here love those settings.

Go slow use the minelab wiggle in trash areas.


Tony n.j.

 

[markinswpa]

Kevin, maybe Team Wisconsin has cleaned out all the deep silver with those 17in. coils. lol. Seriously the Equinox, while it does have some great abilities cannot out hunt FBS machines. Particularly on depth and Id. Here in W Pa. a deep coin is anything over 7-8 in. I have hunted with the 800 since they came out in Feb.18, I hunt with a guy who uses an Etrac and he consistently finds deeper targets with better id than my 800. We cross check signals and on more than one occasion I couldn't get more than a quick chirp on a signal he nailed. I have an Etrac but hunt with the 800 because its lighter and faster. And it will let you know you have a coin, as far as what coin, that's a crap shoot, IMO it maybe ids 2 out of every 10 coins accurately. In Minelabs Treasure Talk, they talk about how stable Ids are, it been my experience its anything but. Last week, in 3 different yards, soil conditions were dry, in front, around back almost perfect amount of moisture for plug healing, then further back torwards the hill it got marshy. Ground balance numbers never got above 15. I used Park 1 and 2. I dug 81 Memorials and 20 Wheaties, Depth wise anywhere from in the roots to 7 in. down, While some Id correctly 24-25-26 most came in high, and with solid two way numbers 28-29--31-32. I did have one 47 Rosie show up at a jumpy 26 about three in down. Honestly I would have been surprised if a silver showed up although the tones and numbers were telling me that's what I had under my coil. But how do you not dig those numbers ? One more thing, you're told to hunt the tones, not so much the numbers, but if you set your breaks and volume by the numbers and the numbers aren't accurate, what good is it? And I'm just using the last 3 hunts as an example, this behavior seems to be the rule not the exception. I bought a second 800 thinking maybe it was me or the machine, no they both are all over the place on Ids. And this was after I sent my first 800 back for that very same reason. By the way, anybody reading this, if I'm missing something here please point it out, I'm far from an expert when it comes to Mding. So It is a clad hammer, great on shallow coins, but now without its drawbacks. So now to comment on your post, sorry for the rant, got carried away. I have read some of your posts and see you guys only dig deep signals, IMO, most silver coins being found are not that deep, but masked by iron or other trash. This is one place the Equinox shines. I have found Park 1 recov. 6 ib 0 will pick out a coin real quick, then I do a few checks to verify, I do dig more iron, it seems ya can't help it. However, in 60 hunts this year, I have 40 silver, over 200 wheats and almost a hundred in clad so with attrition I am doing better with the 800 than ever before in my 4 short years of mding. By the way I enjoy your videos, keep up the good work. HH Mark

 

[Ted S]

Hi,Mark! A very interesting reply! I was out for 2 and a half hours this morning. I hunted a park that was a town square back in 1875. forty years ago,I found my first CC dime in there among others! I used the Equinox 600 this morning,Park 2 sensitivity 21. I tried to up it a bit but it was too chatty. I did find a Jefferson nickle and an unknown date Buffalo along with a few clad dimes and some memorial cents. Bear in mind that there a few hitters in the area running the e-trac. So I think you may be onto something. I don't have a lot of time on the Equinox but it likes nickles and loves crown caps. I am going back to the area that I was hitting all of the crown caps last week with my Explorer SE and run it in ferrous and see if it sniffs out a silver coin.Good luck guys and HH!

 

[IDXMonster]

Mark....thanks a lot for the thoughts, pretty much mirrors mine. Except for the finding silver part, which in all reality, I’m not surprised about. One of the reasons I bought into the Equinox was the comments from many people who I respect as hunters saying they IMMEDIATELY went to the places they’ve hunted heavily with FBS and found silver right out of the gate. I guess this is where things start to go astray. I have a friend who is pretty well known, he uses the CTX pretty much exclusively. If you let him hunt a regulation sized ball field for 3 hunts of 4 hours apiece(12 hours total) you will NOT find a silver coin in that field after that. Period. I don’t care WHAT you are using. I’m willing to put this to the test and put money on it at any time. HE is that good with that machine. When I have gone to other ball fields and have had instant results, that means that obviously coins have been left behind. I will hunt them until 2-4 hunts doesn’t produce anything anymore. These are the “test fields” for the Equinox, which have still produced nothing further. This is in very stark contrast to what other people have reported, which only means one of two things. Either these people aren’t that good with whatever they were using before the Equinox, or I’m not that good with the Equinox. After 65+ hours, I would’ve expected to have found ONE silver coin just by sheer accident! Nope. The funny thing is...I still think it’s an incredibly capable machine, I am simply hunting places that literally have nothing left. I went curbstripping for a bit yesterday and it found modern coins with no issue at 6-7”...clean signals.
This brings me back to when I got my Explorer. I had success right away, but then when the site got really cleaned out, I started trying to make things into coins which were NOT coins. Because of all the “hoopla” I’ve actually started to doubt my own abilities...the masses say it’ll find anything anywhere and everywhere...even places you’ve run to death with the CTX,eTrac,Explorers....it’s pure fantasy. The fact that it’s a nickel hog is no surprise either as I stated before...if people hunt for old coins, they are generally hunting for silver, at least in my area. I’m not even going to be digging nickels. FBS will find all sorts of nickels all day, but not if you’re not targeting them!
I do enjoy the speed/response of the EQ even at recovery 5, which is what I tend to use to have a decent chance of separation in conjunction with depth. I always use 5 tone and haven’t made it past Park 1. From what I understand, Park 2 is even more sensitive to small stuff, which isn’t what I need IMO. This thing in Park 1 will already find a jean rivet at 8”, I hardly need something that’s going to do THAT better.
The short story is...I’ve pretty much run myself out of targets. If anyone wants to pop on by and prove me wrong, I’d love the lesson. Again,I do like the machine overall, but I already had what was necessary to do the job I needed to do. I’m sure when I get onto a fresher site that hasn’t been FBS-ized, it’ll do just fine.

 

[IDXMonster]

IDX, I get fooled as well on a few deep nails with the NOX, but I did that with the EXP II as well.

Normally folks post that Indians hit at 19 to 20 or 21 , depending on your site, but deep 16 or 17 in my area might be junk.

Have you tried five tone and park 2? Many folks on here love those settings.

Go slow use the minelab wiggle in trash areas.


Tony n.j.

Thanks Tony, I’ll keep working at it and trying different things to see if I have any better results!

 

[IDXMonster]

Hi,Mark! A very interesting reply! I was out for 2 and a half hours this morning. I hunted a park that was a town square back in 1875. forty years ago,I found my first CC dime in there among others! I used the Equinox 600 this morning,Park 2 sensitivity 21. I tried to up it a bit but it was too chatty. I did find a Jefferson nickle and an unknown date Buffalo along with a few clad dimes and some memorial cents. Bear in mind that there a few hitters in the area running the e-trac. So I think you may be onto something. I don't have a lot of time on the Equinox but it likes nickles and loves crown caps. I am going back to the area that I was hitting all of the crown caps last week with my Explorer SE and run it in ferrous and see if it sniffs out a silver coin.Good luck guys and HH!

Ted...I am surprised that you are finding a lot of crown caps. When I run in anything BUT multi freq, them yes, I hit a lot of them. But in multi, it should perform like the FBS predecessors and assign those to be very NON Conductive and discriminate them.(They would hit way bottom right on an Explorer for example...) Keep us posted how your progress goes and let me know if you have time to get out in the next couple weekends. We could go scare some great finds out of PDC....

 

[Daniel Tn]

I suggest trying different modes. What I have found after using the Nox for over a year now, is that the mode suggestions are not set in concrete. You don't have to just be in Park 1 for silver, and Field modes for relics. I've found some areas to REALLY favor Park 2 for deep coins AND relics, and some areas, not so much. It's always worth exploring.

The other thing is, unlike the FBS machines, I've found that the Nox doesn't require you to wiggle or massage a good tone to get deeper goodies. In fact, that's usually one of the indications of a bad/trash target for me. I noticed I was doing it early on when I got the machine because that's what was engrained in my head. Then once I started hearing some of those good targets, I realized this was just a different machine than what I was used to. I like listening to signals with the horseshoe button wide open...and 50 tones. There's a lot of details in the audio. You lose a lot of that when you suppress it down to 2 or 5 tone, and even more so with horseshoe button ON.

 

[Mark kus]

I have owned the Etrac and Deus both gone now I hunt only with the equinox I know one thing the equinox will surprise me with a deep coin be it silver or clad.
I also go mainly by sound and dig a lot of iffy signals but my finds include lots of silver every week and I latterly just dug a 11 gram 14k gold ring that rang up kind of a high tone but was over 8" down easily but I had no idea I was digging gold!
Then on a old beach that I believe had never been hunted I had a great 24-26 solid signal about 4' down I figured silver dime or clad dime but most of the coins on this beach were silver boy was I surprised to see a 2 reale!
15-17 In my soil tent to be pull tabs and I always hunt no discrimination but I do dig some rusty iron nails in areas they can sound very good one way..

 

[Ted S]

I tried different settings. Also switched from MF to single frequency. Kevin..We may get to PDC this fall. I will keep you posted.

 

[RichW]

Those were my thoughts when I bought the machine. I found out all multi frequency are not the same. I have to deal with hundreds of crown caps in some of my favorite beach hunting spots. It sure eats up a lot of time when you have to stop and analyze the majority of them. In some spots it's near useless for me. I would love to have a light weight CTX.

 

[5900_XL-1]

Mark....thanks a lot for the thoughts, pretty much mirrors mine. Except for the finding silver part, which in all reality, I’m not surprised about. One of the reasons I bought into the Equinox was the comments from many people who I respect as hunters saying they IMMEDIATELY went to the places they’ve hunted heavily with FBS and found silver right out of the gate. I guess this is where things start to go astray. I have a friend who is pretty well known, he uses the CTX pretty much exclusively. If you let him hunt a regulation sized ball field for 3 hunts of 4 hours apiece(12 hours total) you will NOT find a silver coin in that field after that. Period. I don’t care WHAT you are using. I’m willing to put this to the test and put money on it at any time. HE is that good with that machine. When I have gone to other ball fields and have had instant results, that means that obviously coins have been left behind. I will hunt them until 2-4 hunts doesn’t produce anything anymore. These are the “test fields” for the Equinox, which have still produced nothing further. This is in very stark contrast to what other people have reported, which only means one of two things. Either these people aren’t that good with whatever they were using before the Equinox, or I’m not that good with the Equinox. After 65+ hours, I would’ve expected to have found ONE silver coin just by sheer accident! Nope. The funny thing is...I still think it’s an incredibly capable machine, I am simply hunting places that literally have nothing left. I went curbstripping for a bit yesterday and it found modern coins with no issue at 6-7”...clean signals.
This brings me back to when I got my Explorer. I had success right away, but then when the site got really cleaned out, I started trying to make things into coins which were NOT coins. Because of all the “hoopla” I’ve actually started to doubt my own abilities...the masses say it’ll find anything anywhere and everywhere...even places you’ve run to death with the CTX,eTrac,Explorers....it’s pure fantasy. The fact that it’s a nickel hog is no surprise either as I stated before...if people hunt for old coins, they are generally hunting for silver, at least in my area. I’m not even going to be digging nickels. FBS will find all sorts of nickels all day, but not if you’re not targeting them!
I do enjoy the speed/response of the EQ even at recovery 5, which is what I tend to use to have a decent chance of separation in conjunction with depth. I always use 5 tone and haven’t made it past Park 1. From what I understand, Park 2 is even more sensitive to small stuff, which isn’t what I need IMO. This thing in Park 1 will already find a jean rivet at 8”, I hardly need something that’s going to do THAT better.
The short story is...I’ve pretty much run myself out of targets. If anyone wants to pop on by and prove me wrong, I’d love the lesson. Again,I do like the machine overall, but I already had what was necessary to do the job I needed to do. I’m sure when I get onto a fresher site that hasn’t been FBS-ized, it’ll do just fine.

Would you say that the FBS/Explorer/Etrac machines will find silver where the Nox has hunted hard? I ask because, I was able to find a few more slivers in spots within 2 weeks of getting the Equinox, spots where I and a darned good Explorer user, has beat to near death. It could be that I just took more iffy signals than I did with the Explorer and Etrac. These finds were in moderate to heavy trash, shallow. The Equinox simply stopped me to dig, and it payed off for me.

In sweet ground conditions, and in low trash, nothing beats FBS ID-ing of silvers. The Equinox did open my old spots up for those missed silver coins. That is the exact reason I bought it for. There were some great detectorists using FBS, most of whom entirely quit hunting those spots long back. Jm2c

 

[chuck ky]

What do you mean by sound. I use a T -2 and get some really good sounding signals but when I check the meter it's iron. When I used a sovereign I got some really bad sounding signals that the meter said silver. All were silver halves.

 

[IDXMonster]

What do you mean by sound. I use a T -2 and get some really good sounding signals but when I check the meter it's iron. When I used a sovereign I got some really bad sounding signals that the meter said silver. All were silver halves.

Clean repeating non-broken high tone...

 

[chuck ky]

The halves I found gave a high tone but very broken.

 

[IDXMonster]

The halves I found gave a high tone but very broken.

Very interesting! Perhaps the orientation of a coin has a lot more to do with how clean a signal is than previously thought by myself and others. I’ll just have to dive in there and check some of those out to see where the good/bad line is....

 

[markinswpa]

Kevin, broken signals-Huh? My main gripe has been with false Iding .So I told you I have 2 800s. Today I hit a target of opportunity, a vacant house just one street over from mine, I finally saw some work going on and ask permission A 1930s or so house with a postage stamp front yard. Back was filled with tearout and new const. material. First machine, Park 1 rec. 5 ib 1 I hit some clad, a wheat and a 61 Rosie, it was maybe 3in. down. Very little trash. Let me mention here I only hit the yard one direction and sens was about as high as I could go and not throw my headphones off every time I would dig. So second machine Old software 1.50 Park 2 5tone. Both directions- eye opener, broken, scratchy signals but no doubt a good signal and tones in the clutter and a yes on dig it. I found at least another 20 coins including a 53 Rosie laying flat about 5in. down with a wheatie on top of it. Most of the broken scratchy tones were clad quarters in the roots or an inch or two down. In a yard that small, how did I miss those. In all, about 60 holes, just about 50 coins. And also the Ids were although scratchy, more accurate and stable. I'm not sure what to make of it, I know the old software had trouble with big coins on edge in Park 1 but back in the day when the Equinox first came out is when a lot of deeper and more accurate Id targets were found. Perhaps with the upgrade came some trade offs. I'm adrift here in a sea of B.S. I plan to keep one on1.50 and go over some of my old stompin grounds. Might I suggest you try the same. Good luck Mark. Ps tried to load a shot of the yard, it was no more that 15x20

 

[Mark kus]

The halves I found gave a high tone but very broken.

I have found 3 silver halves this year and all have been a solid 35 all directions..