Experienced Beach Hunters Only - My Equinox 800 sucks, What should I replace it with?

[Cutaplug]

Before all the EQ800 owners mob me please hear me out. I am a lot more mature than my title. I think... Anyway I have been silver hunting for many years and would consider myself one of the best. My primary silver seekers are the ctx and etrac. My last push to find a lot of silver netted me 136 silvers in less than 3 months using the CTX. I believe the key to being productive while metal detecting is detecting efficiently. By hunting efficiently what I mean is:

1. Ability to distinguish ferrous from non ferrous targets easily at any depth. This is accomplished using the FE numbers on CTX and Etrac. (detector and user)
2. Ability to define desired target and discriminate out unwanted targets with minimal loss of performance (depth, signal consistency, etc...). (detector)
3. Ability to identify targets using audio and visual information to “skip” unwanted targets. (detector provides info, user deciphers info)
4. Quickly determining if a site is productive or not and moving on quickly if it’s not. (user)

Using the above info I have had a lot of success and I’m content with my abilities to hunt on land. Now that my horn is tooted I could really use some help with beach hunting. I recently moved to Florida and would like to find gold. If life was simple I would be able to take my CTX and kill it on gold but life is never simple. The CTX is a great machine on silver but to say it kindly it sucks on gold. I understand why but no need to go into details on that.

Now I am on a mission to find the CTX equivalent for lower conductivity targets such as gold. When the Minelab EQ 800 was released I was super excited and optimistic. Now that I’ve used it for a while I am in search of a new machine. The main issue with the eq800 is that is cannot distinguish ferrous targets from non ferrous targets (ie rusty bottle caps). I know I know someone will chime in and say the following:
- You can change the hunting frequency and the numbers will jump. Yes this is true for a mode such as park 2 which works great on dry sand. Even using Park 2 I do not want to check every target by changing the frequency. That is extremely inefficient. Park 2 is also too unstable to get any real depth on wet sand. On wet salty sand running beach 1 you can’t change the frequency since it is stuck in multi. New and Deteriorated bottle caps will give a solid signal.
- You can pump the coil up and down and see the numbers jump. I’ve seen the Youtube video, try doing that on a 12 inch target. Any 12 inch target will be all over the place you say? My response - the CTX and Etrac can easily distinguish ferrous from non ferrous targets at maximum depth capability. It is possible.
- The signal is different. I have seen solid tones on bottle caps, soft tones, scratchy tones, short tones, long tones so they have no consistency. A steel bottle cap can read #3 all the way up to the high teens on the eq800. There is no discriminating them out.

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?

 

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[Doc Arey]

i have a wonderful Whites VX3 with wireless headphones and sunray probe and three coils that i would swap even. Hunts in three frequencys.

 

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[Doc Arey]

I have a wonderful VX3 that I would make a even trade on. Hunts in three Frequency's.

 

[SweetCorn]

I picked up an Equinox 600 a little over a year ago and am reverting back to my Excal II. I am shocked how many damn' bottle caps I dig with the equinox, so I can sympathize.
I fall into the Excal II fanboy camp for salt water beaches. Get one moded out and they are a good machine. Even without the mods I was finding a lot of stuff.

-1.2' LT at 0530, so I gotta get to bed...glhh

 

[Bodkin]

I picked up an Equinox 600 a little over a year ago and am reverting back to my Excal II. I am shocked how many damn' bottle caps I dig with the equinox, so I can sympathize.
I fall into the Excal II fanboy camp for salt water beaches. Get one moded out and they are a good machine. Even without the mods I was finding a lot of stuff.

-1.2' LT at 0530, so I gotta get to bed...glhh

Yeah, lots of bottle caps. Lots of other stuff too though. Love my Excal but I'm a one girl guy and she doesn't do what I need her to do on dry land. She has to go. (We're still talking about metal detectors, right?)

 

[smokeythecat]

From what all my digging buddies tell me, the Excal is a better salt water machine.

 

[Cutaplug]

Cutaplug, you're buying into the hype that science and facts doesn't support. "If there is zero consistency in gold jewelry items then there can only be zero consistency in the ability to consistently and/or accurately I.D. those items." As for faster recovery speeds, faster processors? Here again that processor, since it can't function on consistent aspects in regards to gold jewelry it has to operate on "consistencies within returns." So in essence, you are allowing a machine to filter out returns that it determines to be of no value like returns that are too weak to be analyzed, etc., etc. These are returns that the end user will never even know to exist because they will never hear them, so instead of the user getting more data, he's actually getting far less data. As one poster already stated, these are great machines for recent drop hunters who want to cover a lot of ground fast, however, the trade-off is that they these users have been fooled into believing that they are hunting more efficiently, when in reality and based on 100% facts concerning gold jewelry items, it is not efficient hunting and these users WILL miss a lot of potential gold jewelry returns. Science doesn't even allow for argument of these facts.

Please stop putting words into my mouth. I never said anything about being able to cherry pick gold and I have a complete understanding of how discrimination works for lower conductivity targets. Saying that I'm buying into some hype because I expect a modern machine to discriminate out rusty bottle caps is an insult. Many other machines can do it so yes I expect that from an $800 machine. That might have been hype 20 years ago but not today. Here is the fact; any time wasted on investigating or digging ferrous items takes away from time you could be digging non ferrous items (gold potential). So yes you can hunt more efficiently even though gold has a very wide range.

Should of bought an AT Pro. Bottle caps will quack on the AT. I can tell every time if it’s a cap.

I've owned an AT Pro from first shipment and definitely agree with you. Actually I got so fed up with the equinox and bottle caps on one beach I put it up and broke out the AT Pro.

 

[cudamark]

In the dry sand using Park 1, I find that if I momentarily change from multi to 5 Mhz, bottle caps will jump up almost to quarter readings, where gold, nickels, and pull tabs won't. Won't help much in the Beach modes, but, in the dry sand, I don't need to use Beach 1 or 2.

 

[bigscoop]

Please stop putting words into my mouth. I never said anything about being able to cherry pick gold and I have a complete understanding of how discrimination works for lower conductivity targets. Saying that I'm buying into some hype because I expect a modern machine to discriminate out rusty bottle caps is an insult. Many other machines can do it so yes I expect that from an $800 machine. That might have been hype 20 years ago but not today. Here is the fact; any time wasted on investigating or digging ferrous items takes away from time you could be digging non ferrous items (gold potential). So yes you can hunt more efficiently even though gold has a very wide range.




I've owned an AT Pro from first shipment and definitely agree with you. Actually I got so fed up with the equinox and bottle caps on one beach I put it up and broke out the AT Pro.

A friend of mine uses an AT-Pro.....he now digs "assumed" bottle caps after multiple recoveries of various gold items that reacted as bottle caps for various reason. Do we like digging them....HELL NO.....are we glad we do......HELL YES!

 

[Attakpilot]

Cutaplug, try this with your nox, when you have a signal you think is an iron bottlecap sweep working your way back from the target and see if you get an iron grunt right as the target is under the edge of the coil. Works for me most every time. It only happens at the outer edge of the coil.

 

[Terry Soloman]

I've hunted Atlantic beaches for several years, in and out of the water. I've used Whites, Tesoro, Minelab, Garrett, Headhunter, Makro, and several others. My favorite machine is the Minelab Equinox 600, which has paid for itself four-times since early last year. Unless you are a gold nugget hunter, there is no reason to own the 800. If you are a gold nugget hunter, you should be using a different Minelab, like the Gold Monster 1000.

It's not the machine. Just my opinion.

 

[cladpirate]

Cutaplug, all my machines have paid for themselves, equinox included. If you want more gold, dig more!

 

[Talon]

Hey Cutaplug! I subscribed to your newsletter. I was sorry to see you end it. Good luck on your future endeavours.

I have an Excal II and do not dig rusty bottlecaps often. The machine does not seem to react to them. I don't know why all these Excal users are being so coy about it. Unless things are different with salt water bottlecaps and freshwater bottlecaps (where I dig) I do not find bottlecaps. I run a minimal amount of descrimination around 2 or 3 and they don't show up. I haven't found a ton of gold with the rather heavily hit swimming holes, but it bangs on nickels and pulltabs and small aluminum which should all match gold.

Now, a lot of guys (from what I read) hunt the beaches using pinpoint mode and treat the Excal almost like a PI machine where they dig everything that beeps. So they might still be digging bottlecaps in that method.

Everyone else that is enjoying talking down to him, maybe provide some actual input to his very clear question. Is there a machine you use on the beach that doesn't pick up rusty bottlecaps as much?

 

[Xraywolf]

Doubt if I could add much to what some of the pros have said here, have found a fair share of gold rings and I'll say this - If you are going to go zipping along on a mission to find gold and gold only, you are going to be sorely disappointed no matter what machine you are using.

You can't quantify "efficiency" if you have no idea what you are passing up, I bet I could follow in your footsteps and find keepers that you whizzed by on. Everyone would like to find only gold [and coins from the early 1800's], just doesn't work that way. I'm not being patronizing, everyone has their own style, but I really think you need to adjust your mindset and expectations more than anything.
If you are finding loads of bottlecaps, switch locations, I hate trashy areas and avoid them like the plague. The beaches I hunt and clean, bottlecaps are rare, one beach I hunt they are non existent. Keep in mind, gold on a beach itself is fairly rare, if a detector was made that consistently found only gold, not only would it be boring but everyone and their grandmothers would be out there hunting.

 

[Truth]

It’s not for everyone

 

[flgliderpilot]

The only way to identify a good target with the equinox is repeatability. If the number doesn't change much dig it. If the number changes a lot, dig it, because it could be a broach, necklace, etc. Bottle caps are actually easy to identify unless they are aluminum. If it's a hint of iron, dig it, it could be crusted from age. Basically you are digging everything that doesn't sound like repeatable iron.

The problem I have with the equinox is not it's target ID... it's the fact that it hits on the tiniest little bit of foil... something to can't even SEE when it's in my hand.

That is a real time waster imo. This is the only thing I do NOT like about my equinox.

 

[Jason in Enid]

The only way to identify a good target with the equinox is repeatability. If the number doesn't change much dig it. If the number changes a lot, dig it, because it could be a broach, necklace, etc. Bottle caps are actually easy to identify unless they are aluminum. If it's a hint of iron, dig it, it could be crusted from age. Basically you are digging everything that doesn't sound like repeatable iron.

The problem I have with the equinox is not it's target ID... it's the fact that it hits on the tiniest little bit of foil... something to can't even SEE when it's in my hand.

That is a real time waster imo. This is the only thing I do NOT like about my equinox.

You have to realize that the very fact it can respond to those tiny foil bits, means it can hit gold that is too faint for other detectors. Hunters have to read the beach. If you are digging foil, you need to move on to another spot until the sand shifts and carries that light trash back out.

 

[cudamark]

You have to realize that the very fact it can respond to those tiny foil bits, means it can hit gold that is too faint for other detectors. Hunters have to read the beach. If you are digging foil, you need to move on to another spot until the sand shifts and carries that light trash back out.

That might work at the beach, but, last time I was at a park, High tide didn't come up far enough to wash out the foil!

 

[Jason in Enid]

That might work at the beach, but, last time I was at a park, High tide didn't come up far enough to wash out the foil!

Yes, of course. Location dedicates methodology. But if you look at the title of this thread, its called "experienced BEACH hunters only"

 

[ARC]

Yes, of course. Location dedicates methodology. But if you look at the title of this thread, its called "experienced BEACH hunters only"

Whats a beach ? ? ?

:P

 

[Jason in Enid]

Whats a beach ? ? ?

:P

Life my friend, life is a beach!