One thing I’m not liking about the 800

CharlesUpstateNY · Jul 14, 2018

laidback4sho said:
Best I've ever done is a seated dime.View attachment 1611415 View attachment 1611416

I can dig super rare colonial coppers, Mass colonials, NJ colonials...there's a guy Mike in Missouri, he challenged me to dig a seated quarter my very first year of detecting...25 years later I have yet to dig one. (face palm)

Truth · Jul 14, 2018

Hey Charlie what mode is “prospect mode”? I heard calabash talking about it and it’s not in the manual.

smokeythecat · Jul 14, 2018

Hugh, was that seated from the farm? Looks familiar.

vferrari · Jul 14, 2018

Yeah, its the one you passed your coil over, remember? Lol. (Don't hit me). Though you can easily retaliate by listing all the items you found behind me, including the capped bust silver and all the CW minies and perhaps a plate or two. Lol.

MattPa · Jul 14, 2018

I just wish it had a broader vdi range. I also wish it had a mixed mode similar to the v3i.

vferrari · Jul 14, 2018

Regarding mixed mode, that may just be a whites patented thing and it would require use of wired stereo headphones. You can't replicate mixed mode on the Equinox, but AM is just a horseshoe button push away (love that) and threshold will blank when the coil passes over discriminated or notched targets. Yeah, its not mixed mode, but it is something to let you know when you are passing over a discriminated target.

Regarding having an expanded vdi range, the drawback to that is reduced TID stability. The smaller scale results in more stability, enabling unstable TIDs indicating probable trash to be more apparent. It was a conscious decision on MLs part. It also enables one-to-one correspondence to 50 tones. More filtering/processing is required to maintain stability on wider ranges (or manufacturers just don't bother) which also has its drawbacks. Again, since, there are obvious tradeoffs on each approach, you will see folks with preferences for each approach. Since I consider vdi secondary to audio, I don't really care either way.

I know neither of these explanations/alternatives necessarily satisfy your wish list, but just putting it out there. Every detector has shortcomings in the eyes of every detectorist.

cudamark · Jul 14, 2018

CharlesUpstateNY said:
You realize you just jinxed Kennedy's right. My nemesis jinxed coin...seated quarter. I have dug all manner of far older and more rare coins, busts, 1700's, seated dimes and half dimes, but can I dig even 1 seated quarter hell no.

I guess I've got you beat with seated quarters, but, you certainly have me beat with most of the rest of the coins you mentioned! :notworthy:

Early US coins are fairly rare here in San Diego.

CharlesUpstateNY · Jul 14, 2018

cudamark said:
I guess I've got you beat with seated quarters, but, you certainly have me beat with most of the rest of the coins you mentioned! Early US coins are fairly rare here in San Diego.

I seem to remember Ron CA digging quite a few seated quarters and halfs in California. Plus you guys have some pretty valuable key date silvers down there. You ever dig any California state minted gold before the San Francisco mint was built? Here's a couple from the east coast.

1751 Spanish 8 Real world coin, world between the pillars of Hercules. One of 40 8 reales we dug out of one giant hole on a east coast beach. Not quite as large as a silver dollar, these are pretty large coins.

1786 New Jersey colonial dug in NY, the mighty WOT coil got this one from DEEEEEP! About the size of an earlier US large cent.

Here are two 8 reales stuck together fused to the shipwreck stuff we dug out of that hole.

One of the best 1776, it still had gleaming blue silver tarnish mint luster when first dug.

cudamark · Jul 14, 2018

Nice! I've found seated dimes and quarters, but, no halves yet. No gold coins either :BangHead:

darn it! I do have one 1814 Mexican 1 real coin, 2 large cents (the earliest being 1844), and some early indians, but, no caps, draped, or flowing hair coins. The only 20th century coin I haven't found yet is a Peace dollar. I have found 3 Morgans however. I do have some older coins from other areas of the country and world though......I'm mainly talking about locally found coins. Oh, you mentioned key date/mint mark coins....I did find a 1923S Standing Liberty Quarter with XF details. One of my more valuable found coins.

CharlesUpstateNY · Jul 14, 2018

Nice, I have found all the teen SLQ's on the east coast except the 1916, you have the 2nd rarest.

cudamark · Jul 14, 2018

CharlesUpstateNY said:
Nice, I have found all the teen SLQ's on the east coast except the 1916, you have the 2nd rarest.

Wow! All the mint marks and varieties? Those 19's are kinda tough! Not to mention the 18 over 17.

CharlesUpstateNY · Jul 14, 2018

cudamark said:
Wow! All the mint marks and varieties? Those 19's are kinda tough! Not to mention the 18 over 17.

I wish no just the common ones. I did find an 1895-o Barber dime in Albany, NY on a site where President Grant once gave a speech, that's probably the most rare silver I have found.

Possum · Jul 16, 2018

vferrari said:
Problem with iron bias is that it can keep keepers masked is thick iron. Falsing nails typically will have a ferrous grunt associated with them if you switch to all metal and/or will only hit one way if you turn on them. Also the TID will typically change if you hit them with two different modes (e.g., if you are searching in Field 2, try Park 1 or Field 1 to see if the TID changes). I typically have the "opposite" search profie in the User Profile slot to make it easy to switch between a "1" and "2" mode. Audio quality is alsi a giveaway if you can pick up on it especially in 50 tones, it will sound "off" or distorted vs. the solid ping of a coin. HTH.

VF, I've tried the methods you explained and it works great, Especially rotating and using the all metal. I haven't switched to different modes, but I'll try it as well... Thanks for the info... "D"

Normsel · Jul 17, 2018

The all metal button is awesome. The other day I hit a signal and almost knew for sure there was iron down there so I hit all metal and the tone was still soft but clear. I dug and I pulled up a nickel and a dime. It was bouncing between 13 and 25 and I had a gut feeling I was getting iron falsing but it wasn't. I was using beach 1 with no discrimination.

I ran into a guy using an AT Max and he had a pocket full of tabs and bottle caps and he asked me how many I found and I told him I dug one bottle cap and about $2 in clad. He said how can that be I have probably 20 bottle caps and 50 tabs. I said the Equinox difference. I told him to take a loss on his AT Max and buy and Equinox 600. He said his AT was only a month old and I said sell it you won't be sorry.

I pulled my E-600 out of the back of my truck and told him to try it for a few minutes. I said it's wide open with no discrimination and if he hit an iffy signal to hit the all metal button. I sat on a bench and watched him for about 20 minutes and he came back and said where do I get one. I told him most Minelab dealers have the 600 in stock.

I may be wrong but I been using 50 tones and digging less false targets. It seems if the target is diggable when using 50 tones it is clearer but I may be trying to convince myself of that.

vferrari · Jul 17, 2018

Normsel said:
The all metal button is awesome. The other day I hit a signal and almost knew for sure there was iron down there so I hit all metal and the tone was still soft but clear. I dug and I pulled up a nickel and a dime. It was bouncing between 13 and 25 and I had a gut feeling I was getting iron falsing but it wasn't. I was using beach 1 with no discrimination.

I ran into a guy using an AT Max and he had a pocket full of tabs and bottle caps and he asked me how many I found and I told him I dug one bottle cap and about $2 in clad. He said how can that be I have probably 20 bottle caps and 50 tabs. I said the Equinox difference. I told him to take a loss on his AT Max and buy and Equinox 600. He said his AT was only a month old and I said sell it you won't be sorry.

I pulled my E-600 out of the back of my truck and told him to try it for a few minutes. I said it's wide open with no discrimination and if he hit an iffy signal to hit the all metal button. I sat on a bench and watched him for about 20 minutes and he came back and said where do I get one. I told him most Minelab dealers have the 600 in stock.

I may be wrong but I been using 50 tones and digging less false targets. It seems if the target is diggable when using 50 tones it is clearer but I may be trying to convince myself of that.

Norm, one thing you said has me scratching my head. When you let that guy swing the 600 you said it was "wide open with no discrimination." If that was the case then punching the All Metal button shouldn't change a thing because all it does is remove all disc and notch. So, huh, what am I missing? Thanks.

Tedyoh · Jul 18, 2018

vferrari said:
Norm, one thing you said has me scratching my head. When you let that guy swing the 600 you said it was "wide open with no discrimination." If that was the case then punching the All Metal button shouldn't change a thing because all it does is remove all disc and notch. So, huh, what am I missing? Thanks.

Maybe he's running the machine somewhat "backwards" from what most of us would do....maybe he's running / starting in all metal mode, getting an iffy signal and turning all metal mode off and rechecking the signal? If so may be an interesting approach, although I would see this as cherry picking and being an unnecessary step / tactic.

Wild Colonial Boy · Aug 10, 2018

Normsel said:
The all metal button is awesome. The other day I hit a signal and almost knew for sure there was iron down there so I hit all metal and the tone was still soft but clear. I dug and I pulled up a nickel and a dime. It was bouncing between 13 and 25 and I had a gut feeling I was getting iron falsing but it wasn't. I was using beach 1 with no discrimination.

I ran into a guy using an AT Max and he had a pocket full of tabs and bottle caps and he asked me how many I found and I told him I dug one bottle cap and about $2 in clad. He said how can that be I have probably 20 bottle caps and 50 tabs. I said the Equinox difference. I told him to take a loss on his AT Max and buy and Equinox 600. He said his AT was only a month old and I said sell it you won't be sorry.

I pulled my E-600 out of the back of my truck and told him to try it for a few minutes. I said it's wide open with no discrimination and if he hit an iffy signal to hit the all metal button. I sat on a bench and watched him for about 20 minutes and he came back and said where do I get one. I told him most Minelab dealers have the 600 in stock.

I may be wrong but I been using 50 tones and digging less false targets. It seems if the target is diggable when using 50 tones it is clearer but I may be trying to convince myself of that.