Hunting Suggestions for EQ800

[USMC Reaper]

Good Morning All,
I usually hunt with my CTX but have started to seriously use my EQ800 instead of having it collect dust in my closet.

I have been hunting a 1900 school/church that appears to never have been detected before. I’ve pulled one merc dime and modern clad with the CTX. The auto sensitivity on the CTX runs from 14 to 16 at this site and there is a lot of iron on the site.

In my limited time on the Nox I’ve been using Park 1, sensitivity 22, recovery speed 7, Fe 3, Fe2 6, and I have the zones and tones set up for coins only so that I’ll only hear 12 & 13 and 20 to 50.

I would really appreciate any, and all, input to help me find the silver at this site that I know has to be there. Thanks for any advice!

Semper Fi,
EJD

 

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[smokeythecat]

First, don't totally rely on the VDI. IF there is silver there, it can easily hide. I dug silver on the Equinox reading as low as "7". Basically, until you know the machine just dig it all. There is also a benefit of getting the iron out of the way. Also, my wheats to silver (or buffalos) ratio is about 50 cents to 1 silver.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Good Morning All,
I usually hunt with my CTX but have started to seriously use my EQ800 instead of having it collect dust in my closet.

I have been hunting a 1900 school/church that appears to never have been detected before. I’ve pulled one merc dime and modern clad with the CTX. The auto sensitivity on the CTX runs from 14 to 16 at this site and there is a lot of iron on the site.

In my limited time on the Nox I’ve been using Park 1, sensitivity 22, recovery speed 7, Fe 3, Fe2 6, and I have the zones and tones set up for coins only so that I’ll only hear 12 & 13 and 20 to 50.

I would really appreciate any, and all, input to help me find the silver at this site that I know has to be there. Thanks for any advice!

Semper Fi,
EJD

First, I disagree with blanking out the majority of the conductive scale. Just learn to listen to it, and through it. I get that you are cherry picking, but you are cutting out a lot of information.
Second, you need to make sure those setting match the location! Recovery of 7 is great if you are hunting a can-slaw and nail infest city park. You lose a lot of depth at that rate of recovery though. If the trash level isnt bad lower it to a 3. slower recovery = more depth. If you cant hear the trash, you cant know how to adjust the recovery.

 

[Happa54]

First, I disagree with blanking out the majority of the conductive scale. Just learn to listen to it, and through it. I get that you are cherry picking, but you are cutting out a lot of information.
Second, you need to make sure those setting match the location! Recovery of 7 is great if you are hunting a can-slaw and nail infest city park. You lose a lot of depth at that rate of recovery though. If the trash level isnt bad lower it to a 3. slower recovery = more depth. If you cant hear the trash, you cant know how to adjust the recovery.

Agreed 100% - My recovery & sensitivity settings will change in various areas of a site.

 

[CoinHunterAZ]

Shortly after I first got my EQ800, I experimented with some cherry picking settings. I hunt a 220 acre pounded park full of trash, but still holds some silvers. I went out in Park 2 (stock settings) and blanked out everything below 13, and from 14-21. The machine was still able to sniff out several silvers and a nickel or two. It ran extremely quiet! But yeah, I agree with the others that it's not really a good thing to blank everything else out. Not only will you miss some good targets, but you won't be able to learn the nuances of the machine. I love 50 tones!

 

[MikeRo]

I’m not an expert, but will share what I have learned over the past 6 weeks with the nox. Put in as many hours as you can using 1or 2 modes. I’ve been going out for an hour or 2 almost every day since buying the nox. Hunt the same few properties & experiment with different settings in those 1-2 modes....you will be amazed at what you find & learn about the machine. Also, hunt all metal....it’s annoying, but you get used to it & it’s good to know where the iron is....good stuff is typically there or close by also. Be careful discriminating out signals.....most of my indianheads & some wheats have hit consistently 18-20+ as do many coins on edge & deeper goodies. A lot of times rings will bounce from 16-mid 20s....I probably wouldn’t have even dug them without the advice from a friend that has mastered the Nox. Listen for the difference between the “same” tones between targets....the good stuff is usually a soft, pleasant tone. In trashy or iron infested areas dig any good signal that you get in 3+ directions (even just 2 if it’s consistent). Dig everything you until you can’t physically or mentally dig any more....you can always mentally mark targets to come back & dig later. I started just digging high tones, then added good mid tones + high tones, then added some lower tones. I feel this kept me fresh & wondering between hunts, avoids information “overload”, & allows me to learn the tones & vdis in steps or stages instead of trying to absorb it all at once. Plus, i think it keeps a site somewhat fresh over a longer time period. The more you dig the more you learn! Hope this helps & have fun!

 

[smokeythecat]

Jason in Enid is correct. You're going to miss almost ALL of any gold jewelry or coins out there the way you have it set up. Gold is sneaky.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Jason in Enid is correct. You're going to miss almost ALL of any gold jewelry or coins out there the way you have it set up. Gold is sneaky.

Just for clarity, I wasnt even thinking about gold targets in my response. You are correct, those settings would knock out 99.9% of gold. I was more refering to the fact that all the non-perfect coin responses would just start sounding like clipped, iron falses. When coins get close to the max depth of detection, or are deep and on edge, or mixed with other items, they lose the smooth, "round" response we always look for. They can start warbling up and down, they may even begin jumping up and down in numbers (and tones). If you keep your conductive targets open, you can hear that change, but key factor is that you will get the tone consistently over the exact same spot. If the target location is jumping around several inches on every pass, THAT is one you can walk past. If its consistent, look closer. Do some very tight passes over the spot and look at the depth meter. Is it showing deep? thats a good sign! Use the pinpoint mode and listen. Is it loud? is it screaming at you? Is it covering a big area? Or is it soft, and small? When you get DEEP, SOFT and SMALL pinpoint with any consistent target, DIG BABY, DIG!

 

[cudamark]

I also hunt in all metal (and 50 tone).....even the trashy sites. If I'm going for old silver, I like to use the depth meter more than the actual target I.D. number if the targets seem to be at a consistent depth. Lately I've also been using the new F2 iron bias feature and running the number all the way up to 9. Along with doing that, I increased the recovery speed to 7 or 8 depending on the site, and swing a bit slower to help avoid masking. I'm not seeing any down side to using the F2 @9 so far. I'm digging stuff well over a foot deep.

 

[vferrari]

Good Morning All,
I usually hunt with my CTX but have started to seriously use my EQ800 instead of having it collect dust in my closet.

I have been hunting a 1900 school/church that appears to never have been detected before. I’ve pulled one merc dime and modern clad with the CTX. The auto sensitivity on the CTX runs from 14 to 16 at this site and there is a lot of iron on the site.

In my limited time on the Nox I’ve been using Park 1, sensitivity 22, recovery speed 7, Fe 3, Fe2 6, and I have the zones and tones set up for coins only so that I’ll only hear 12 & 13 and 20 to 50.

I would really appreciate any, and all, input to help me find the silver at this site that I know has to be there. Thanks for any advice!

Semper Fi,
EJD

Agree with everything else the others have said, just wanted to point out on the iron bias setting, only one is active at any one time, either Fe or F2 but not both as determined by whichever one you last selected in settings for that particular mode.

The other suggestion I have is after you've scoured the site with Park 1, try out some of the other modes just at their default settings (Park 2, Field 2, Field 1) and see what pops up. You can change the tones setting to your liking (2, 5, or 50), but don't bother masking out huge sections of the TID range. Also give single frequency a shot. 5 or 10 khz is good for silver if the EMI cooperates but see what 15, 20 or 40 khz reveal. Remember that each mode needs to be noise cancelled and ground balanced separately. Good luck.

 

[USMC Reaper]

I want to thank you all very much for your responses and recommendations. I will utilize every piece of advice given. My lack of success, to date, is definitely due to operator error. This is obviously a great machine, I just need to settle down and learn it.

Thank You All,
Ed

 

[captbo]

Just for clarity, I wasnt even thinking about gold targets in my response. You are correct, those settings would knock out 99.9% of gold. I was more refering to the fact that all the non-perfect coin responses would just start sounding like clipped, iron falses. When coins get close to the max depth of detection, or are deep and on edge, or mixed with other items, they lose the smooth, "round" response we always look for. They can start warbling up and down, they may even begin jumping up and down in numbers (and tones). If you keep your conductive targets open, you can hear that change, but key factor is that you will get the tone consistently over the exact same spot. If the target location is jumping around several inches on every pass, THAT is one you can walk past. If its consistent, look closer. Do some very tight passes over the spot and look at the depth meter. Is it showing deep? thats a good sign! Use the pinpoint mode and listen. Is it loud? is it screaming at you? Is it covering a big area? Or is it soft, and small? When you get DEEP, SOFT and SMALL pinpoint with any consistent target, DIG BABY, DIG!

is it the recovery speed that makes the machine not look deep? . I have a property from 1910 and Its a sand area near the Atlantic but it should have some silver,, Just have not found any

 

[Goldiver]

If strictly cherry picking coins you may want to consider lowering your 20-50 segment to 18-50 or even 17-50. I have noticed some Indian Head cents can register in the 18-20 range in my soil anyway. You may have slightly different results in your soil. The old school ring pull tabs seem to come in at 15-16 but the square tabs can hit higher on the scale like in the Indian Head cent range. You may dig some square tabs but I would rather do that than leave the Indian cents behind. You just never know, the next one could be a nice 1877.

Good luck out there!
Steve