views on the Equinox 800 learning curve and my type of hunting

[pulltabfelix]

Ok, have had the Equinox 800 since March and the 6" coil since June. I came from using my AT Pro that I had for 3 years. I have switched from old home sites to lake hunting and CW relic hunting since I live in North Atlanta. It has been too hot to relic hunt will do that when the weather breaks in mid sept (I hope). Tons and tons of rain this summer literally 2-3 times each week or more. Unusual for Atlanta this time of year. Thus the relic hunting areas along the creeks are jungles. Sometimes I think I need to invest in a week eater.

But I have used this time to learn the 800 by using it in super trashy parks nearby 2-3 times per week. Reading these forums and Clive James Clynick's book on the Equinox. So I learn from the forums and youtube videos about using the 800 and then practice what I have learned. I find this the most useful way for me to learn. You will find things here on these forums not in book, manuals or even youtube videos. I created a Word document called hints and tips for the 800 and write or paste these bits of forum advice under their proper headings. thus I have for me a nice addendum to the 800 manual.

My confidence level is way up there for when I start traveling to some areas of Northwest Georgia to hunt areas around the civil war battle sites and there are plenty of them up there from Chattanooga down to Cobb county.

I have to admit coming from the AT Pro to the 800 was a shock. My first hunt in a trashy park had my Equinox speaking a foreign language to me. I could barely make heads or tales out of the many different tones. Of course I really didn't have a clue on how to properly use the machine. At first I thought the detector was defective. It was so damned chatty! I have since learned how to set up different tone breaks for the different type of areas I am hunting. For instance in my CW sites, I set the iron volume low but so I can constantly hear it and then 16-19 at a medium high tone, higher volume and everything else above that a high tone and higher volume. I don't worry about missing rings because in those CW relic areas that is not a big ring area. lake hunting in the water and on the beach I pretty much dig everything since I am looking for rings.

In the trashy park, I just play around with many different settings to see how they work in a high trash environment. We are are talking about a very small park with less than maybe 3 acres of areas along the river with picnic tables and hundreds of visitors each sat and sunday. You will see poptops, bottle caps, juice bottle seals, screw tops every 1-3 feet on the surface. But yes I can set it up so it is so quiet that it only speaks up on coins. And with the 6" coil it is almost fun hunting among all that trash!

Lots of clad and two silver rings found with the 800 in this park by just playing around and learning. Several near misses on two 1967 quarters. The park is shady, cool from the cold 60 degree river even in the summer. So perfect place for me to learn this summer. I thought I knew a lot about metal detecting but the 800 showed me I really didn't know a much as I should. The 800 force me to either learn or give up on the 800.

I would like to hear other's experiences coming from other non-minelab detectors to the Equinox. If you are a total newbie to metal detecting and have started using the Equinox I would like to hear from you also. Hint, don't give up, but it takes quite a few hours to learn all you need to learn.

 

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[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Hi Pulltab. I have 2.5 years on the Garrett Ace250 with the 11” DD coil. I had no intention on upgrading until going out with HighVDI a couple times and watch him do his magic with the 800 in parks and sport fields. I have a long way to go with my 600, but the new challenge is fun and rehitting sites is nice as well. Hang in there!

 

[nagant]

I came from using a tesoro golden µmax since the late 90's, I'm a part time hobiest, short bursts of hit it hard to skip a year or 2. The golden being a tone detector made it easier, park1 seemed almost familiar, now after a couple months i like 50 tones. I screwed around with tone breaks and think i still have a setting saved but just hitting a fresh water beach for easy digging due to an injury. If i get healthy enough to dig dirt repeatedly will dive in to advanced setting, but very happy with the EQ for now. Multi, single, frequency and the all metal at a touch of your finger is is magic to this old analog knob twister.

 

[Calabash Digger]

I have been digging buttons in the low range... from 2 and up. A lot of the older flats come in under 10. On those sites around Cobb county and Paulding county you will need to make sure and check those low numbers targets. They will be relics missed by those previous detectorist. The Nox will find the low conducter targets they missed in the iron. Some of those will be buttons! Pay attention on a civil war site to all beeps.... I got my tone breaks set up different but the volume is 25 on everything but iron and iron is set on 1.




quote....I have to admit coming from the AT Pro to the 800 was a shock. My first hunt in a trashy park had my Equinox speaking a foreign language to me. I could barely make heads or tales out of the many different tones. Of course I really didn't have a clue on how to properly use the machine. At first I thought the detector was defective. It was so damned chatty! I have since learned how to set up different tone breaks for the different type of areas I am hunting. For instance in my CW sites, I set the iron volume low but so I can constantly hear it and then 16-19 at a medium high tone, higher volume and everything else above that a high tone and higher volume. I don't worry about missing rings because in those CW relic areas that is not a big ring area. lake hunting in the water and on the beach I pretty much dig everything since I am looking for rings.

 

[pulltabfelix]

thanks Calabash you are one of my favorite relic hunters. I have learned a lot from you and really enjoy your videos.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

My first Minelab machine (Explorer XS) I found nada but trash, clad, and nails for 6 weeks. The only deep target I dug were rusty nails falsing high, it was getting a bit frustrating. Then someone gave me the following advice, they told me to go back out to the same NY sites I had been hunting for 6 weeks but dig ONLY deep targets. If I was finding modern trash and clad at 5 inches go deeper until I got below the trash layer. Never mind the tone or ID if it was deep, dig.

That first hunt digging only deep targets holy crap freaking 1800's coins poured out of the ground. I dug at least a dozen IH's that first hunt. Don't think I dug any silver but I dug some cool relics, buttons, shoe taps, pieces of oil lamps and toys. The top layer of trash and clad became my threshold over the next few months. Deep round targets sounded distinctly different from shallower round targets and once that registered in my brain it was easy to wade into the park trash and dig the deeper old coins out from that.

I don't now if this tip would work for you, but it was a huge game changer for me. If you start down this path, you will dig worse and worse signals that turn out to be good deep targets. About the time I thought I had dug the absolute most pitiful barely a target signal that turned out to be a coin, just horrible, a few months or a year later I'd dig one even worse. That's important because the sites I was hunting had already been pounded to death for 20 plus years. Most of the 'easy' targets were long gone. It was about target separation in trash and iron, and depth.

 

[Jammin1]

Just got my 800 around 3 months ago and think l finally got the hang of it. After digging a couple 1000 pull tabs of course.... I find hunting Canadian coins some what like fishing. You get a faint hit, then jig it around a bit and your hooked on. Today got 1st Sterling silver 1908 dime. Was so happy. Hopefully can get out tomorrow to that same park again. Am hooked !!!!

 

[pinpointer999]

Just got my 800 around 3 months ago and think l finally got the hang of it. After digging a couple 1000 pull tabs of course.... I find hunting Canadian coins some what like fishing. You get a faint hit, then jig it around a bit and your hooked on. Today got 1st Sterling silver 1908 dime. Was so happy. Hopefully can get out tomorrow to that same park again. Am hooked !!!!

Good to hear! Have heard a lot of good things about the 800. I'm sticking with my old antique detectors for now.... the DFX with a bigfoot coil is my pick for now, but i bring the rest of the herd out one at a time too to keep in practice. one 1914 silver 5 cent king george and one silver ring so far....tons of clad and junk jewelry. HH bro.

 

[CalReg]

Are you HAPPY and having a good time with your MD? At the end of the day, that's what matters most. There are a lot of great MD out there-separated by a little here, and a little there. If you're happy with what your swingin', it really doesn't matter what it says on the label. Happy hunting!

 

[Normsel]

It's all in what you like. I took to the 800 like a duck to water and before that I had and Etrac, Whites V3i and an AT Pro.. I knew the AT Pro as well as anyone and loved it. I wanted to upgrade so I went with the Whites V3i and never liked it so I tried the Etrac and never liked it. When I bought my 800 I fell in love with it in a few days and the 1st month I found over $400 in clad.. I haven't looked back since

 

[GMG2]

I'm coming from the AT Pro as well. I actually started out with an old, old Fisher but quickly moved on to the AT Pro. And I found a lot of stuff with it, but I was watching my detecting buddy find two or three times what I did with his Etrac.

I've only been out like 4 times with the 800 but I'm liking it more each time. I'm taking a liking to field2 and I hated it at first. I was just to used to the AT Pro sounds. But one thing I'm having to teach myself is to slow down. I found two Wheaties yesterday in a very high trash area by swinging very slow over a multiple target area and I doubt I ever would have found them with AT Pro. I had the little coil on and it was able to pick the coins out in the mound of trash.

I'm very much still learning but I'm chomping at the bit to get back out there.

 

[Donut]

I came from the Minelab XTerra 70. It was an easy crossover.i think it is a takeoff better upgrade from the xterra series. The Xterra is a very good detector.

 

[Attakpilot]

Pulltab, thanks for sharing. I bet that word document would be a good read. I’m still learning the 800 I’ve been out about 5 times and it keeps getting better. Little things like hearing the iron break at the edge of the coil on a 12/13 and knowing it’s a steel bottlecap. When you first hear it you don’t know, but when it gets to the very edge of the coil you can tell. I have much to learn!

 

[CarsonChris]

I’ve had my equinox for 18 months roughly. I’ve been detecting all of 20months. I spent the first two months using an ATPro. In the beginning I hunted mostly parks. I killed the clad. Then I started venturing into curb strips and vacant lots. Now I try to find older sites. It’s shocking the difference the time using the Nox makes. I look at last years good finds and this years good finds and it’s 10-1. I’ve found 8 seated coins this year, an 1847 gold Ten D, a large cent, a peace dollar. Today I started playing with the Nox in 4KHZ. I found things I missed previously. A pocket watch and 2 tins that were down at 8-10 inches. They were jumpy signals, sounded like trash in multi IQ but cleaned up in 4 KHZ.

 

[Xraywolf]

I have had a nox 800 for almost a year and barely have 5 minutes on it, I am worried I may not give it a chance, I have a history of doing that with at least 5 other detectors that I can think of. Am more than capable of a learning curve if my interest is sparked but have to say, do not like them. I have limited time to detect and to me, time spent fiddling around and learning is time wasted. Was planning on taking it out in the water but with all the reports of water failures, think I'll pass on that. I spent my first decade detecting with an Ace 250 and nothing else, so that'll yell you how much I like simplicity. What land hunting I do I have been using the simplex, and that to me seems like a good mix of features without being submerged in a settings loop.

 

[jmc24]

Take your Nox, put it in default Park 1 multi frequency, auto noise cancel, 5 tones, lower sensitivity to about 18, use the horseshoe button to check for iron around targets, and go hunt the exact same places you hunted with the Simplex and see what happens. Or take them both to a new place and hunt them on the same ground. Maybe nothing good. Maybe something else good will come out of the ground. At least you will know for sure.

 

[Xraywolf]

I'll try, I have multiple areas that are ripe for rehunts

 

[malenkai]

I tried a Nox for the first time yesterday and hated it. The iron rang in as perfectly clean targets, the depth meter always said max depth even for surface clad, and while I didn't find any silver, I don't believe I will be able to tell clad from silver.

The E-Trac has none of these problems, and yes there are workarounds; but I don't want workarounds. I watched one video of where the guy shows you all the hoops he goes thru to tell if a solid target is iron or not. Change frequencies, scan this way, that way, and so forth. In all honesty, it would have been faster to just dig than do all that. E-Trac you just look at the FE# and you have an idea, and you are almost always right on the probability of a given target being iron or deep silver. And there is some other workaround for the fact that the depth meter doesn't work; I don't remember it, tho.

I should not be commenting having used the machine only once. I'll figure the iron thing out, but the depth meter problem is a show stopper for me unless it is fixed. It just comes down to whether or not it gives me an advantage on the E-Trac. I'll come back with more comments after 100 hours on the machine, and side to side comparisons with the E-Trac.

 

[Calabash Digger]

Thats not the correct way IMO (workarounds).....your ears will tell you after you put the time in on it. Put it in 50 tones and raise the tone pitch to 25 and low tone range to 1. Put the iron volume at 1 and the non ferrous at 25 in advanced settings. Put a hundred hours on that setup...your ears will start to click...Use your ears...and meter secondary....

ETRAC users have passed so much stuff up trusting that vdi ...OF course I am a relic hunter and dont chase deep silver in parks....learned a lot about messed up VDI s because I dig it all pretty much of good relics sites. I have Seen silver be junky signals quite a few times...from iron or other junk being close to it.
Is the Equinox gonna give you a advantage on deep silver over a Etrac in CLEAN ground...doubt it...

I have no need for a depth meter but I get it park hunters might....Let us know how it goes...

 

[Xraywolf]

With any detector VDI and depth are nothing more than electronic best guesses, they can be surprisingly accurate for near surface coins but notoriously unreliable after that.
I personally have stopped paying attention to depth long ago and go more by sound, I am mostly a coin shooter so its easy enough to tell by sound if you have a screamer close to the surface or a deeper coin, I combine the sound with pinpointing to gauge the size of the target. I agree that very often it would be quicker to simply dig the target than to go through the routines that some guys go through, but most of these guys want to be wizards and never dig a bottlecap. We all know that if you never dig a bottlecap then sooner or later you'll be passing on some good stuff, I guess you'll never know for sure if you don't dig it.

I have heard it said many times before, the guys detecting in the 70's before target/depth id found alot more stuff, and partially because there was alot more stuff to be found but also because they were forced to dig it all, therefore they didn't pass on anything like we do. Same logic as to why the greatest homerun hitters also had the most strikeouts, because they tried more.
No matter what style, method or machine used, I think enjoyment of the hobby is most important, and a very large factor in success or failure. It is true, the best machine anyone will ever use without any regards to price, features or brand is the one you use the most.