Equinox vs CZ-21 test

flgliderpilot

Bronze Member
Apr 28, 2015
1,504
1,427
Saint Augustine, FL
Detector(s) used
CZ-21, Minelab Equinox, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I was given a bag of around 75 pieces of jewelry to sort thru to test for a friend.

I decided to first hit them with the metal detectors to see how they rang up.

I removed any items that would stick to a magnet before testing.

What I found was the following:

MID TONE items on the CZ-21 rang up 6-20 on the equinox, 31 items
HIGH TONE items on the CZ-21 came up 10, 13-16, and 19-30 on the equinox, 24 items

When I acid tested:

8 of the mid tone items were real, ranging from 6 - 20 on the equinox
0 of the high tone items were real

The CZ could not pick up thin chains at all, and the equinox could sometimes pick them up under 1".
 

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OBN

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2008
6,528
7,009
Maryland Waters
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1
Detector(s) used
"Excalibur"..
"AQ" Impulse
Primary Interest:
Other
That Nox is Hot on the small targets and chains. .. I just tested a CZ21 big coil against the Fisher AQ impulse Limited "8" inch coil, Nether could get a signal on a small gold chain. Links are just to small. Little coil on the "AQ" is very impressive as far as depth. All metal ...Eight inch coil on a buried Nickel in the wetsand..16 inch's with room to spare. Crazy deep for a small coil. CZ hit at 14 with the big coil and these were signals you would stop for...
 

bigscoop

Gold Member
Jun 4, 2010
13,373
8,689
Wherever there be treasure!
Detector(s) used
Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Every serious hunter should dedicate "a lot of time" on the beach just experimenting with multiple machines and coil sizes, it's crazy, but also a real eye opener. Offers "a lot" of insight into the various technologies used, their strengths and weaknesses. When I lived on the east coast of Florida I spent months doing this and I discovered a lot of revelations. There is no perfect machine, the Excal offering the most overall performance and flexibility once all of the mods have been added.

PS: But when in disc mod it's certainly not a speed hunting machine.....lol
 

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OBN

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2008
6,528
7,009
Maryland Waters
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
"Excalibur"..
"AQ" Impulse
Primary Interest:
Other
I full agree BigScoop. I had the Fisher AQ in Late May, way before anyone else. I was able to get in countless hours just playing with it because of Convid. Air testing and at the beach on different buried targets, was time well spent. I was able to advance beyond beginner skills playing. Still so much to learn but having that jump start has scored me many gold I would have missed just picking it up and going hunting.
 

bigscoop

Gold Member
Jun 4, 2010
13,373
8,689
Wherever there be treasure!
Detector(s) used
Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I full agree BigScoop. I had the Fisher AQ in Late May, way before anyone else. I was able to get in countless hours just playing with it because of Convid. Air testing and at the beach on different buried targets, was time well spent. I was able to advance beyond beginner skills playing. Still so much to learn but having that jump start has scored me many gold I would have missed just picking it up and going hunting.

So how do you like that AQ?
 

bigscoop

Gold Member
Jun 4, 2010
13,373
8,689
Wherever there be treasure!
Detector(s) used
Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I would say, because of all that experimenting and playing, that 50% of all the gold rings I've recovered in recent years were not returns that the average beach hunter is going to bother chasing, either very-very faint or broken or just breaks or chirps, etc. Prior to all of that playing around and experimenting on the beach I would have also passed these many "common" returns up. I can't tell you how many nickels I lost on that long stretch of beach while learning but it was money and time well spent...lol
 

OBN

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2008
6,528
7,009
Maryland Waters
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
"Excalibur"..
"AQ" Impulse
Primary Interest:
Other
So how do you like that AQ?

Just what I was looking for...Deep. For me it works at beaches that have been hammered by every "in the water machine" made (Over and Over) ... or places you can't buy a target.

It's not the perfect machine but in combo with a good discriminating machine, then add a experienced hunter. Nothing stronger.
 

LawrencetheMDer

Hero Member
Feb 22, 2014
982
2,392
Ohio and Florida
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Minelab Manticore, Minelab CTX3030 w 11" and 17" DD coils,
Minelab Excalibur II w 10" coil, Equinox 800 (4) w 11" and 15" coils,
Troy Shadow x2 w 7" coil, Pointers; Garrett Carrot, Pro Find 35,
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Great experiment and observations. Your data on the Equinox dovetails well with my data on the equinox 800 regarding gold - the vast majority of gold falls in the 7-21 range on the NOX and, further, there is a positive relation between gold item weight and NOX display number; the heavier the gold the higher the display number. Personally, I have found gold from 3 - 23 or so on the NOX and some others have found small gold in the 1 - 2 range. My general hunt strategy for hunting gold when time is limited (eg low tide) is to concentrate on the below 23 numbers (ignoring cents in the 17-21 range unless it sounds really good or different) on the NOX and ignore the mostly coins and some silver which register usually at higher numbers.

2020
Gold - 21
Silver - 33
 

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flgliderpilot

Bronze Member
Apr 28, 2015
1,504
1,427
Saint Augustine, FL
Detector(s) used
CZ-21, Minelab Equinox, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Great experiment and observations. Your data on the Equinox dovetails well with my data on the equinox 800 regarding gold - the vast majority of gold falls in the 7-21 range on the NOX and, further, there is a positive relation between gold item weight and NOX display number; the heavier the gold the higher the display number. Personally, I have found gold from 3 - 23 or so on the NOX and some others have found small gold in the 1 - 2 range. My general hunt strategy for hunting gold when time is limited (eg low tide) is to concentrate on the below 23 numbers (ignoring cents in the 17-21 range unless it sounds really good or different) on the NOX and ignore the mostly coins and some silver which register usually at higher numbers.

2020
Gold - 21
Silver - 33

I skip pennies, dig quarters and nickels. Anything lower than a penny or >= quarter gets dug.

For the CZ, if you are coin hunting dig high tones. If you are looking for gold, dig only mid tones or very broken low tones in case they turn into a mid tone.
 

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