Anyone using their 15" in the water and not the shoreline?

[Hookka]

I've been having some issues with the 15" coil at the beach, in the wet sand it is a monster and I love not having to dig so many damn nails and bobby pins like with my sand shark. In the water however I'm starting to feel like the I need to use the 11" to keep it stable enough to use. I bring the sensitivity down to 13-14 and it's still very noisy. I'm wondering if most that talk about using the equinox at the beach are talking about the wet and dry sand and not really the waist to neck deep that is my usual hunting grounds.

I guess I'm looking to hear if anyone's made it work in those conditions, or if I should stick with the 11" or my PI machine to get down to the goodies. The equinox discs out most of our steel coins here so when I'm out sometimes it can be very very quiet compared to what I'm used to and I'm starting to get a little worried that I'm loosing depth and was hoping the 15 would make up for that.

It's a great machine, and I'm very happy with it overall, but maybe I should be using the pi machine in the water to get down deeper where the gold seems to be. Maybe I've been hitting the beaches too hard and cleaning them out but I highly doubt it, there are plenty of tourists this time of the year in the water here. It seems far fetched that it's just a coincidence that my gold finds have slowed down so drastically since I've swapped to the equinox. I've been out several times now and have around 40-50 hours on the machine so I haven't mastered it, but I've learned quite a bit.

 

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[vferrari]

I have not put the 15" in salt water yet. Since it is a 12x15 elliptical, the max depth advantage is perhaps 1 to 1.5 inches over the stock 11" coil. The 15" is really built for increased swing coverage compared to the 11" with a minimal weight penalty vs. increasing depth over the 11". You lose a hell of a lot of depth in sand if you have to crank sensitivity down so low just to keep the 15" quiet. Not worth the tradeoff IMO, stick with the 11" then (plus less coil drag) if you can keep sensitivity up near 20 or higher. Is Equinox deeper than a PI? Doubtful. You will have to decide if you want to trade off digging Bobby pins for depth, but that's what detecting is all about - managing tradeoffs, no free lunches.

 

[Hookka]

It is pretty chattery I've learned to love it in the wet sand though. It really is a beast with the quick responses and large coil on a light configuration. I wish it would perform the way I want it to in the water but I've come to realize I'll probably always feel more confident with a PI in the water. I was hoping the equinox would be my new water machine but oh well, it is my favorite on the shore no doubt.