On the Equinox 800 pulltab numbers equal gold?

SurgTech57

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Location
South Bend
Detector(s) used
ML Equinox 800, and Excalibur II
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Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
So I've been in the water now three times since having gotten my 800 and when I hit the teen numbers without fail I've dug them just to verify and it has always been pull tabs. Then I read at another site where gold rings have been dug up on those. Has anyone here on T N gotten gold on the Nox 800 while digging pull tab numbers?

2 white gold bands found so far have read 15-16 on the 800 so yeah, gotta dig the tabs (all kinds).
 

tabs, nickels, gold... Same as the Deus. It's a cruel practical joke on detectorists that someone decided to put gold conductivity so close to aluminum and nickel. Audio clues it in a little (gold jewelry audio seems to ping harder than aluminum, just as nickels do), but there are no guarantees. The gold I have found with the Equinox seems to ring up in the lower teens, typically around 10, but that is just a function of the type of gold items I found. Round aluminum freshness seals have become more prolific at the beach and sound off pretty good at about 7 vdi. I can pretty much call them but dig them anyway just like tabs, because you never know.
 

So it's back to dig it all then?
 

tabs, nickels, gold... Same as the Deus. It's a cruel practical joke on detectorists that someone decided to put gold conductivity so close to aluminum and nickel. Audio clues it in a little (gold jewelry audio seems to ping harder than aluminum, just as nickels do), but there are no guarantees. The gold I have found with the Equinox seems to ring up in the lower teens, typically around 10, but that is just a function of the type of gold items I found. Round aluminum freshness seals have become more prolific at the beach and sound off pretty good at about 7 vdi. I can pretty much call them but dig them anyway just like tabs, because you never know.

Square tabs hit solid 14 but have a bit of that prolonged audio compared to rings etc still have to dig them. Those foil seals just sound too darned good to ignore. Digging some huge craters for deep beaver tail tabs and small aluminum nuggets in my lakes in areas that I have pounded for years.

Field 1, 2 tone, tracking on, recovery 6, IB 0-1 and sens 24 if little iron present.
 

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Not yet on the EQ, but I have on other machines.
 

Yes, dig it all. On my Deus the gold rings start at 45 and go to about 55, pulltabs maybe 70, so all my guesses have been right so far, but it is better to dig them all. One of my low numbers I thought for sure was aluminum FOIL was a gold ring. No machine has been invented that will 100% give you the correct ID. If you ignore low numbers, you can miss Rev War buttons which are very expensive items!
 

Pull tabs are a 14 in my area. I have yet to find any ring which is a solid 14, most are higher or lower, but it could certainly happen.
 

Learned the other day with my Deus in Ultimate mode that I will get a different high tone on pop tops. Took me a little while to figure out what the machine is telling me. When the high was a sharper sound it was usually a coin. The numbers we're usually in the 87 to 90 range.after I caught on to dig or not this sound it made the day tons better. Just used the stock Ultimate program with a few adjustments. I'm still learning this great machine. Good luck.
 

So it's back to dig it all then?

Dig it all between 5 and 15 (stable) for gold jewelry, just like any machine, if you want to be 100% sure because the gold composition varies and rings up in the aluminum trash range. Not a machine thing, that's a gold thing and if you want to try to game the system, learn the audio. I don't dig unstable numbers in the single digits. Crown caps are totally obvious to me now without any special tricks (look for unstable numbers, flutey tones, or in the absence of that, telltale iron buzz off the coil edge). Pennies are 20/21 unless really corroded then they can dip down to 18/19 (either way, easy to ignore and move on) and dimes/quarters/silver jewelry are pretty obvious from tone and VDI. I do get "fooled" by multi type coin spills which cause variable VDI's but strong audio says dig anyway, and that is always a pleasant surprise.
 

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The first use of my 800 was testing on targets I'd found previously, basically bench testing. I just placed the targets on clean ground.

Mon Dec 18 18-12-33.webp
1.42g 10K
Target ID 16

Mon Jun 04 14k Full Setting.webp
1.56g 14K
Target ID 7

Sun Jan 21 15-32-01.webp
2.32g 10K
Target ID 14

I also have a hoop earring I spied in a parking lot which consistently acid tests as from 10K all the way up to 22K - I'm still not sold on it being gold. It TID tests at a solid 1.

I am really impressed by the NOX over the CTX - where sometimes the CTX FE/CO numbers jump around, the NOX tends to nail the number and stick with it.
 

I've found 8 gold items now with my Nox800. They ranged from 8 on a small, thin, nugget ring, to 22 on a BIG man's gold band. I've also found lots of tiny jewelry (not gold) in the 4- 10 range.....earrings, charms, chains, etc. I have some test gold jewelry I've played with in air tests that have given me readings all the way down to 1, although I have yet to find one reading that in a "real" hunt. At the beach, if you don't want to miss anything good, you have to dig it all in the non-ferrous range.
 

I also have a hoop earring I spied in a parking lot which consistently acid tests as from 10K all the way up to 22K - I'm still not sold on it being gold. It TID tests at a solid 1.

This thread inspired me to test that loop earring again. I scratched it hard on that stone. Again it passed the 18k gold test with no degradation, didn't try the 22k acid this time, seemed to know it would pass that as well, doesn't matter.

Loop Ear Ring.webp
1.13g

So, it's not a lot, but for a parking lot find looking down with my eyeballs, it's now in my PM box.

Again, it TID'd a 1 (one) on the 800.
 

So it's back to dig it all then?

Your going to find gold and pull tabs in the same TID range many times, if you want to dig gold your going to have to dig the pull tabs.
 

So yes I guess I'll be digging them all again.
 

The only way to dig gold while avoiding pull tabs is to let the ocean sort the targets out for you by weight during the fall/winter/spring storm seasons. During the calm seas of summer pull tabs are impossible to avoid.

One summer I dug 880 pull tabs, but one of those pull tab signals was a diamond ring I sold it for $3,400. That's like $3.86 per pull tab, not bad.
 

Yes, dig it all. On my Deus the gold rings start at 45 and go to about 55, pulltabs maybe 70, so all my guesses have been right so far, but it is better to dig them all. One of my low numbers I thought for sure was aluminum FOIL was a gold ring. No machine has been invented that will 100% give you the correct ID. If you ignore low numbers, you can miss Rev War buttons which are very expensive items!

what frequency are you using here Smoky?
 

The first use of my 800 was testing on targets I'd found previously, basically bench testing. I just placed the targets on clean ground.

View attachment 1617830
1.42g 10K
Target ID 16

View attachment 1617831
1.56g 14K
Target ID 7

View attachment 1617832
2.32g 10K
Target ID 14

I also have a hoop earring I spied in a parking lot which consistently acid tests as from 10K all the way up to 22K - I'm still not sold on it being gold. It TID tests at a solid 1.

I am really impressed by the NOX over the CTX - where sometimes the CTX FE/CO numbers jump around, the NOX tends to nail the number and stick with it.

What happens when you place 14K acid directly on the hoop earring? I've had some gold filled items which passed the acid test on an emery board, but once I put a drop of 14k acid on them, instant green foam.

That 10K ring showing a TID of 14 caught my attention. Is that a solid repeatable 14 or does it bounce to 15?
 

One summer I dug 880 pull tabs, but one of those pull tab signals was a diamond ring I sold it for $3,400. That's like $3.86 per pull tab, not bad.

Great story. This is basically what I need to hear to convince myself that digging 800 pull tabs is not so bad.
 

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