Equinox at Digging in Virginia??

[birdman]

Just wondering if anyone has used the equinox at this past DIV? Wondering how it handles the harsh soil in that environment.

 

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[RelicsRings]

I just got back from DIV 40 and used the Equinox 600. Mind you I am not proficient with the detector yet, I've used it about 40 hours but I still feel like there's a lot to be learned. In addition to the Equinox I took my GPX. I used the Equinox for a total of about 8 hours in the three days I was there. I did find some good stuff with the Equinox which included an Eagle coat button, minie ball and a New York coat button. For me I found that the Equinox ran quietest using the beach mode in five tones iron bias one, recovery 3 (equal to 6 on the 800) and everything notched out up to 5. You definitely need to GB in that soil. I tried tracking GB and it ran OK but auto GB worked better in my opinion. It accurately ID'd a Target to about 5 inches but had a real hard time with low conductors in that soil. With the adjustments the 800 offers you might get better results. At one point I buried a nickel at 6 inches in one of the fields and could not get it with the Equinox, the GPX easily picked it up. Overall I thought the detector performed well and was very helpful in the iron infested areas. I know there were other Equinoxes there and some good stuff was found by those using them. I know of at least 1 breast plate found with the Equinox. I wish I had a few more days to play around with it in that soil so I could get it dialed in. I saw some other reports on Facebook and some people were doing really well and said the machine ran really good. One guy claimed he found a bullet at 9 inches deep. Others were having a difficult time with the Equinox in the hot spoil. I feel like I was somewhere in between, got decent depth but felt it could be better. I can see an 800 in my future for the extra features in offers.

 

[birdman]

I just got back from DIV 40 and used the Equinox 600. Mind you I am not proficient with the detector yet, I've used it about 40 hours but I still feel like there's a lot to be learned. In addition to the Equinox I took my GPX. I used the Equinox for a total of about 8 hours in the three days I was there. I did find some good stuff with the Equinox which included an Eagle coat button, minie ball and a New York coat button. For me I found that the Equinox ran quietest using the beach mode in five tones iron bias one, recovery 3 (equal to 6 on the 800) and everything notched out up to 5. You definitely need to GB in that soil. I tried tracking GB and it ran OK but auto GB worked better in my opinion. It accurately ID'd a Target to about 5 inches but had a real hard time with low conductors in that soil. With the adjustments the 800 offers you might get better results. At one point I buried a nickel at 6 inches in one of the fields and could not get it with the Equinox, the GPX easily picked it up. Overall I thought the detector performed well and was very helpful in the iron infested areas. I know there were other Equinoxes there and some good stuff was found by those using them. I know of at least 1 breast plate found with the Equinox. I wish I had a few more days to play around with it in that soil so I could get it dialed in. I saw some other reports on Facebook and some people were doing really well and said the machine ran really good. One guy claimed he found a bullet at 9 inches deep. Others were having a difficult time with the Equinox in the hot spoil. I feel like I was somewhere in between, got decent depth but felt it could be better. I can see an 800 in my future for the extra features in offers.

Very good report! Planning on attending in the future and did not know if the equinox was worth taking,Thanks much.

 

[DiggerinVA]

For anyone who is not familiar with the DIV and its location it is near Culpeper Va and just a short distance from my home.....this ground is horrible to say the least. Any VLF machine struggles here to get any depth and have seen spots so hot that the AT pro struggles with Minnie balls at the 3-4" range. Lower conductors tend to be harder to get since they are closer in the conductivity scale to the soil your hunting in there. Anyone I know who hunts near Culpeper a lot has a GPX, TDI, ATX, etc... So do not be deterred by the Equinox's results there....I think it is still a great machine from what I have seen and cant wait to get mine.

 

[smokeythecat]

No vlf machine will go deeper than the aforementioned Pulse induction machines. With that said, and I hunt Culpeper often, I saw one guy's pic at DIV with probably two gallons of nails, and a few relics. One person I rode with had one of the GPX's, the harness, the whole nine yards. He found a lot of nails not much else. I used my Tesoro Vaquero with that DD coil it comes with and pulled 9 minies out of the place. All were fairly deep, for a vlf machine at about 6". It's a tough place to dig.

Recently I tweaked my Deus for the red horribleness. I used the HF coil at a full 74khz and tracking for ground balance, Deus fast program with no additional modifications to the program. I finally started pulling minies at 8-9" deep and the little percussion caps at 2 to maybe 4 inches, which is HUGE for that area. I had to go very slow, but it worked.

One of my digging friends has an AT Pro, he can't get much of any signals at our one spot. The soil is terrible. Last weekend at the DIV I got 3 buttons, but only had a few hours to dig on one day and had to go somewhere else.