tnt-hunter
Bronze Member
- Apr 20, 2018
- 1,787
- 9,113
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 9
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher CZ-21, Minelab Equinix 800, ,Garret AT Pro,
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
As I said in my last post I bit the bullet and bought an Equinox 800. I got a good deal. $899 and it came with wireless headphones and an extra coil (the 15inch). I spent some time getting it set up and watching some helpful YouTube videos so I have some clue of what I’m doing. This machine has a lot more features than the ATPro and it could take a while to get this thing fine tuned, but I decided to just use the basic set up and give it a spin to see how it does.
I went to a park swimming beach. I have covered the swimming area very throughly with the ATPro, but I have only spot checked the beach. A month ago the water was down so the swim area was totally dry. The lake is filling up and the swim area is about 3/4 full now.
There is a boat rental and boat launch just off the beach with some lake bed still dry so I decided to try there first. I have walked over it several time before with the ATPro and it has been noisy and hard to pick out good targets. At the end of the hunt I ventured over parts of the beach I have covered quickly in the past. I used the basic factory setup in beach 1, with the stock coil and bumped up the volume from 20 to 25. I did the noise canceling, but did not ground balance. I left the all metal mode off for most of the hunt. I did try a few things as I went along, but left things alone for the most part.
I spent 5 hours swingin the Equinox and found 66 coins with a face value of $2.53, 2 fishing swivels, a cheapie earring, a screw on earring back, 3 fishing spoons, a beat up nickel, a shoe grommet, 77 sinkers, a few tabs and some foil. There were some really small sinkers that were very low numbers on the display and 4 or 5 inches down.
The screw on earring back was another low number signal. When I saw it in the sand I thought it was a sequin like ones I have found before. I wasn’t sure it was any good, but when I got home I took a good look with the magnifying glass and could see writing. It says 18k CH. The older jewelry had the numbers stamped in so they were easy to see. The newer ones seem to be etched in and are harder to read and easy to miss.
In all metal mode the iron signals were present, but not loud so I was easy to pick out the non ferrous signals (I dig all non ferrous signals most of the time). This machine seems to pick up the smaller stuff a little deeper than the ATPro even when the sensitivity is at the factory number 20 setting. I will still have to test it out during the summer in the water (cover an area with one machine and then redo the area with the other to see which one performs better) but this may be my new jewelry finder for the water hunts.
I went out again with the Equinox and did another section of lake bed and tried more beach. It was cold and windy. The wind blowing off the lake was fierce and after 3 hours I had to call it quits. I did manage to find 28 coins with a face value of $1.69, 5 pieces of cheapie jewelry, a couple of pieces of miscellaneous aluminum with a bag clamp, a fishing lure, 21 more sinkers, some tabs and pieces of aluminum foil wrappers.
I don’t know much bout this machine after only 2 hunts, but it looks very promising. I still love my CZ21 and will use it for most of my land hunts, but it will replace my old Excalibur 1000. When I do a yard I will go in one direction and cover the yard with the CZ and then redone the yard at a 90 degree angle with the Excalibur to be sure I have cleaned up as well as possible. There is a possibility it will replace the ATPro as well, but I need to do more testing first. We are going to the ocean beach in a few weeks and I will be using it there for sure.
I had time for a hunt at the Civil war bullet school. The weather was cold, but less windy and it snowed on me for a while. I spent 4.5 hours swingin the CZ21 and managed to find 36 coins with a face value of $1.24, half of a kiddie ring, a modern lead seal (it looks unused), a civil war bullet, 2 keys, some can slaw, tabs, aluminum fence tie wire and the ever present pencil ends.
The bullet is a Williams Type III. I found an article about the history of the Williams cleaner bullets and it stated that the Type III was advertised as a superior bullet and great numbers were issued to the federal troops. The military did their own tests nd found that the Type III actually harmed the barrel of the guns and they issued an order NOT to use them except in emergency situations. So finding unfired Williams Type III bullets may indicate they were intentionally discarded. Thought I would pass that info long. (The article I read sited reliable references for the research or I would not be sending it out to you all.)
I managed to find 2 dimes and 2 pennies on our evening walks and a dollar bill at the mall. All the coin star machines I have checked lately have been empty. Still keeping my eyes open for goodies wherever they may appear.
The old man is still out there swingin and lookin. Doctors and family for the rest of the week so that’s all for now. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
I went to a park swimming beach. I have covered the swimming area very throughly with the ATPro, but I have only spot checked the beach. A month ago the water was down so the swim area was totally dry. The lake is filling up and the swim area is about 3/4 full now.
There is a boat rental and boat launch just off the beach with some lake bed still dry so I decided to try there first. I have walked over it several time before with the ATPro and it has been noisy and hard to pick out good targets. At the end of the hunt I ventured over parts of the beach I have covered quickly in the past. I used the basic factory setup in beach 1, with the stock coil and bumped up the volume from 20 to 25. I did the noise canceling, but did not ground balance. I left the all metal mode off for most of the hunt. I did try a few things as I went along, but left things alone for the most part.
I spent 5 hours swingin the Equinox and found 66 coins with a face value of $2.53, 2 fishing swivels, a cheapie earring, a screw on earring back, 3 fishing spoons, a beat up nickel, a shoe grommet, 77 sinkers, a few tabs and some foil. There were some really small sinkers that were very low numbers on the display and 4 or 5 inches down.
The screw on earring back was another low number signal. When I saw it in the sand I thought it was a sequin like ones I have found before. I wasn’t sure it was any good, but when I got home I took a good look with the magnifying glass and could see writing. It says 18k CH. The older jewelry had the numbers stamped in so they were easy to see. The newer ones seem to be etched in and are harder to read and easy to miss.
In all metal mode the iron signals were present, but not loud so I was easy to pick out the non ferrous signals (I dig all non ferrous signals most of the time). This machine seems to pick up the smaller stuff a little deeper than the ATPro even when the sensitivity is at the factory number 20 setting. I will still have to test it out during the summer in the water (cover an area with one machine and then redo the area with the other to see which one performs better) but this may be my new jewelry finder for the water hunts.
I went out again with the Equinox and did another section of lake bed and tried more beach. It was cold and windy. The wind blowing off the lake was fierce and after 3 hours I had to call it quits. I did manage to find 28 coins with a face value of $1.69, 5 pieces of cheapie jewelry, a couple of pieces of miscellaneous aluminum with a bag clamp, a fishing lure, 21 more sinkers, some tabs and pieces of aluminum foil wrappers.
I don’t know much bout this machine after only 2 hunts, but it looks very promising. I still love my CZ21 and will use it for most of my land hunts, but it will replace my old Excalibur 1000. When I do a yard I will go in one direction and cover the yard with the CZ and then redone the yard at a 90 degree angle with the Excalibur to be sure I have cleaned up as well as possible. There is a possibility it will replace the ATPro as well, but I need to do more testing first. We are going to the ocean beach in a few weeks and I will be using it there for sure.
I had time for a hunt at the Civil war bullet school. The weather was cold, but less windy and it snowed on me for a while. I spent 4.5 hours swingin the CZ21 and managed to find 36 coins with a face value of $1.24, half of a kiddie ring, a modern lead seal (it looks unused), a civil war bullet, 2 keys, some can slaw, tabs, aluminum fence tie wire and the ever present pencil ends.
The bullet is a Williams Type III. I found an article about the history of the Williams cleaner bullets and it stated that the Type III was advertised as a superior bullet and great numbers were issued to the federal troops. The military did their own tests nd found that the Type III actually harmed the barrel of the guns and they issued an order NOT to use them except in emergency situations. So finding unfired Williams Type III bullets may indicate they were intentionally discarded. Thought I would pass that info long. (The article I read sited reliable references for the research or I would not be sending it out to you all.)
I managed to find 2 dimes and 2 pennies on our evening walks and a dollar bill at the mall. All the coin star machines I have checked lately have been empty. Still keeping my eyes open for goodies wherever they may appear.
The old man is still out there swingin and lookin. Doctors and family for the rest of the week so that’s all for now. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
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