Gold not hitting much at all

[bufaloeletric]

I've read a couple comments about how well people's Nox seems to hit on gold. I've never buried any gold in a test plot, so I decided to cut my Mexican 2 peso out of it's protective sleeve and bury it,laying flat, about 5 inches down. And I must say I was rather disappointed. I would 100 percent pass that signal up thinking it was trash. It makes me wonder how much gold I may have passed up in the past.

I'm not trying to bad mouth Minelab. Out of curiosity, I broke out my Garrett AT Max, and got the same results. Wished I'd still owned my Tesoro to try, on a side note. Anyways, other than strict gold mode(which I'll never use), Field 1 seemed to hit the most semi-consistently. I also wonder how much, being in a ziploc bag while buried, it was perhaps masked. I did have some old spanish silver in a ziploc bag as well, and it rang just fine.

 

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[nuggetdog]

By not hitting much at all, do you mean low tone instead of high tone? Gold always hits in the low tones or trash tones, I found a 14k wedding band and it hit on a low solid tone of 14

 

[xr7ator]

Gold ALMOST always hits mid tone. 24K gold will hit high tone. I dug a ring and a pendant that are both .9999 and both hit high tone. The pendant hit like a penny and the ring hit like a quarter but was very deep and VDI was not stable.

On the Mexican 2 peso's protective sleeve, was the sleeve made of metal? I don't understand why you would have to remove it from a plastic sleeve holder to run it under the coil.

 

[bufaloeletric]

By not hitting much at all, do you mean low tone instead of high tone? Gold always hits in the low tones or trash tones, I found a 14k wedding band and it hit on a low solid tone of 14

VDI stays mostly -9 or slightly above with low tones mostly. Jumps to 10 now and again if I hold my mouth right with a mid-tone.

 

[bufaloeletric]

Gold ALMOST always hits mid tone. 24K gold will hit high tone. I dug a ring and a pendant that are both .9999 and both hit high tone. The pendant hit like a penny and the ring hit like a quarter but was very deep and VDI was not stable.

On the Mexican 2 peso's protective sleeve, was the sleeve made of metal? I don't understand why you would have to remove it from a plastic sleeve holder to run it under the coil.

The sleeve was one of those cardboard square types with a round plastic see thru hole. It was stapled shut all around. I didn't want the staples throwing any strange signals. Those pesos are 90 percent gold.

 

[cudamark]

A 2 peso Mexican coin is pretty small. Freshly buried at 5 inches, I would expect a slamming hit in Park 1. I found Field 2 to be the best for tiny gold except for the Gold modes. What are your other settings? Are you hunting in all metal?

 

[xr7ator]

Gotcha. I would have just left it in the holder since there is Always some type iron or black sand around and perfect or close to perfect ground conditions is just not realistic. I've seen staples laying on the ground many many many many times.
Plastic does not mask a metal item from a detector.

Notice how cudamark and I didn't give you any real VDI info? That's because to get good at detecting is all about the sounds. VDI's lie. I guarantee that if you move that coin around in different soil conditions and lay it in slightly different angles and depths, the VDI will change a lot.

So, now you know. It doesn't matter what machine. If you don't dig the trash targets and there is a gold coin among all of it, you will probably not find it.

So.....DIG MORE TRASH and see what happens! Anyone can cherry pick out the super good targets.

 

[xr7ator]

Heck. Back east, with all that history, I can only imagine what cool stuff comes up digging trash targets!

 

[vferrari]

Couple of things to consider here:

First most gold coin or ring-sized targets, regardless of purity, are going to ring up in the high single digits perhaps all the way up to 20 or so, depending on total mass of metal. The majority of coins and gold rings will ring up between 10 and 17. Gold alloy rings up as a mid-conductor just like aluminum, lead, brass, and nickels and is hard to distinguish from modern trash as a result as mid-conductive targets will ring up in the mid-teens. I will usually ring up just like can slaw or a pull tab. Nature's cruel little practical joke on detectorists.

Next, regarding TID, specifically. You mentioned -9's. I take it you were detecting without discrimination, perhaps in "horseshoe" mode with no discrimination (also inaccurately referred to as "all metal" mode - Equinox does not have a true all metal mode (where the target signal is fed directly to the detectorist without filtering or signal processing). Anyway, to get to the point, if you are seeing a lot of -9/-8/-7 numbers and iron grunts going off, that is a dead giveaway that you have not properly ground balanced the machine because those are ground feedback signals. So make sure you ground balance as part of your normal startup routine. Also, one quirky thing about Equinox is that ground balance and EMI noise cancel as well as most settings are mode specific. If you ground balance in Park 1 you will also need to ground balance separately in Park 2 because each multifrequency mode will see the ground differently.

Finally, it appears you need to better familiarize yourself with the various modes and what types of targets they are optimized for. Briefly, Park 1 is set up for general hunting but is skewed towards high conductive coin targets by the nature of its lower frequency weighted multifrequency spectrum and 5 tone ID default. Park 2 is skewed towards small targets and mid-conductive gold jewelry as it is weighted to a higher frequency profile and is 50 tones. The field modes are geared more towards relic hunting. Similar to Park 1, Field 1 is skewed towards high conductors (lower frequency weighting) but is a simple two-tone (ferrous/non-ferrous) setup. Field 2 is geared towards lead, brass, and gold mid-conductive relics and is 50 tones (like Park 2). The beach modes are set up to run stable on a Salt Beach environment and though they are low-frequency weighted, can hit high-conductive and mid-conductive coins as well as gold jewelry at moderate depths. The Gold modes are high frequency weighted and set up optimally for gold prospecting but can also be used for mid-conductive relic hunting. The pitch-based VCO like tone does not provide tone ID but target ID is provided on the display.

So if you want to that gold coin to hit hardest, ground balance your machine in whatever mode you are going to use and lean towards Park 2, Field 2, or Gold modes if you want to focus on gold coins.

HTH. HH. GL.

 

[bufaloeletric]

A 2 peso Mexican coin is pretty small. Freshly buried at 5 inches, I would expect a slamming hit in Park 1. I found Field 2 to be the best for tiny gold except for the Gold modes. What are your other settings? Are you hunting in all metal?

I was switching back and forth between horshoe and discriminate, through all modes, just to see what the machine was doing.. In the short time I've had it(probably have put about 30 hrs at this point) I've occasionally used "all-metal" on targets just to see the difference.

 

[ripvanb]

I found a small 14k ring recently that gave a 8/9 reading. I was in 2 tones.

 

[ColonelDan]

Couple of things to consider here:

First most gold coin or ring-sized targets, regardless of purity, are going to ring up in the high single digits perhaps all the way up to 20 or so, depending on total mass of metal. The majority of coins and gold rings will ring up between 10 and 17. Gold alloy rings up as a mid-conductor just like aluminum, lead, brass, and nickels and is hard to distinguish from modern trash as a result as mid-conductive targets will ring up in the mid-teens. I will usually ring up just like can slaw or a pull tab. Nature's cruel little practical joke on detectorists.

Next, regarding TID, specifically. You mentioned -9's. I take it you were detecting without discrimination, perhaps in "horseshoe" mode with no discrimination (also inaccurately referred to as "all metal" mode - Equinox does not have a true all metal mode (where the target signal is fed directly to the detectorist without filtering or signal processing). Anyway, to get to the point, if you are seeing a lot of -9/-8/-7 numbers and iron grunts going off, that is a dead giveaway that you have not properly ground balanced the machine because those are ground feedback signals. So make sure you ground balance as part of your normal startup routine. Also, one quirky thing about Equinox is that ground balance and EMI noise cancel as well as most settings are mode specific. If you ground balance in Park 1 you will also need to ground balance separately in Park 2 because each multifrequency mode will see the ground differently.

Finally, it appears you need to better familiarize yourself with the various modes and what types of targets they are optimized for. Briefly, Park 1 is set up for general hunting but is skewed towards high conductive coin targets by the nature of its lower frequency weighted multifrequency spectrum and 5 tone ID default. Park 2 is skewed towards small targets and mid-conductive gold jewelry as it is weighted to a higher frequency profile and is 50 tones. The field modes are geared more towards relic hunting. Similar to Park 1, Field 1 is skewed towards high conductors (lower frequency weighting) but is a simple two-tone (ferrous/non-ferrous) setup. Field 2 is geared towards lead, brass, and gold mid-conductive relics and is 50 tones (like Park 2). The beach modes are set up to run stable on a Salt Beach environment and though they are low-frequency weighted, can hit high-conductive and mid-conductive coins as well as gold jewelry at moderate depths. The Gold modes are high frequency weighted and set up optimally for gold prospecting but can also be used for mid-conductive relic hunting. The pitch-based VCO like tone does not provide tone ID but target ID is provided on the display.

So if you want to that gold coin to hit hardest, ground balance your machine in whatever mode you are going to use and lean towards Park 2, Field 2, or Gold modes if you want to focus on gold coins.

HTH. HH. GL.

I agree with V. Check your settings, ground balance and adjust for the type of soil.

Just a thought from my foxhole...

 

[MackDog]

found this 14 k ring. It was a solid 16 just like hundreds of pull tabs. Sometimes I just dig it all

 

[Donut]

I have a tiny piece of circuit board with gold plating on it the size of a pin head and at 2” it Sings like crazy. I would not hesitate gold hunting with mine.
when I found my 18k gold ring it sang loud at 10 VDI.
But you have to be over gold to find gold.
Doug

 

[MackDog]

You have to dig the whole gold range all the time to find gold

 

[Richard Guy]

Good morning V,
I'm using a Simplex and have a question. Can you please tell me what your VDI number(s) were on the Simplex regarding US small denomination gold coins. I find quarters all day long at 91 VDI, dimes at 80, Nickles at 25. Thank You for any help.

 

[vferrari]

Good morning V,
I'm using a Simplex and have a question. Can you please tell me what your VDI number(s) were on the Simplex regarding US small denomination gold coins. I find quarters all day long at 91 VDI, dimes at 80, Nickles at 25. Thank You for any help.

Hate to hijack an Equinox thread. I'll let you know as soon as I find a small denomination gold coin with the Simplex. I reckon it would ring up similar to a nickel or slightly less.

 

[Richard Guy]

Thanks V