The Equinox, some good, some bad.

Over the last month I have used my Equinox on civil war / colonial sites as well as 1920's era house sites and schools. All of these sites had lots of iron and or trash. The civil war / colonial sites had been hunted in the past but the nox handled the iron and pulled several three ringers, rivets, and flat buttons along with a sliver of spanish silver out of the ground. In other words, it excels as a relic machine and comes highly recommended by me for this type of hunting. As far as school and yard hunting goes, the story is different. When I hunt a school, park, or yard, I want to dig as few holes as possible while still being able to walk away with silver. I use proper recovery techniques and try to do as little damage to the lawn as possible, thus I want to dig as few holes as possible. The problem I'm having is that the nox cannot accurately tell a copper penny from a clad/silver dime. This means that I cannot cherry pick silver.To me this is a problem, to others it may not be. Just my experience with the machine. I would like to hear others experience in similar situations.

Copper pennies and silver dimes share the same conductive range..
I don’t do of any detector that can identify one from the other 100% of the time..

Bryan

That's what is nice about Etrac as it has adjustable Modulated Audio. So You can set it to where the deeper coins are softer to Your hearing. That way dig only softer deeper coins. That and numbers with the warble can help to cherry pic silver. Good to hear someone taking care in a Park as a lot of People don't give a Damn nowadays like their YouTube Hero's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 05:20PM by Harold,ILL..

So here is what I am thinking:

19,20 zinc penny
24,25 copper
25,26 clad dime
26,27 silver dime
29,30 quarter
30,31,32 silver quarter

The number will bounce and the higher number that reflects usually what it is.

The problem with cherry picking silver is that there are too many variables to affect the ID numbers and tones..
Worn, tilted, or deep silvers routinely read below what we think they should on the ID scale..
Those who think they are cherry picking with the CTX and E-Trac are passing silver coins if they are only digging the
warble or fluty signals with the 46 or higher conductive number..

The best you can do is use depth to eliminate the surface clad in areas where you know the old coins are mostly deep..
This is easier to do with the CTX and E-Trac but can be done with the Equinox too..
Use the Pinpoint VCO to help gauge depth if you are having trouble with the Equinox modulation..

Bryan

The silver dimes I've dug ranged from 25 to 27 on the ID. Clad dimes have the same range and copper pennies have bounced to 27 occasionally. Maybe the iron has an effect on the ID as these sites were loaded with it. It may be I just need more time on the machine to be able to tell the difference between copper and silver.

Shakydigger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The silver dimes I've dug ranged from 25 to 27 on
> the ID. Clad dimes have the same range and copper
> pennies have bounced to 27 occasionally. Maybe the
> iron has an effect on the ID as these sites were l
> oaded with it. It may be I just need more time on
> the machine to be able to tell the difference betw
> een copper and silver.

You will NEVER be able to tell the difference 100% of the time..
Copper pennies, especially Memorials from the 60s 70s read very high in my area..
They can be a pain in the ass with the Equinox, CTX and E-Trac..

Most of my silver found with the Equinox has had a 29 or higher bounce to it but about 1/4 of them have come in at the mid 20s
Usually the Barbers.. Park 1..

Bryan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 06:07PM by Cabin Fever.

Corroded/chopped zincs read all over the place.

If these hunt sites are old enough for seated coins there are a lot of dimes that will read lower than a copper penny. Then we go to the half dimes and thats a whole nother story.

Tommy C.
(southernexplorer)
Deus - Etrac - GPX 5000

Well take a larger silver and turn it on edge..... tell me what you get.

Here's the risk of modulated audio and digging only the deep targets while leaving the shallow ones, assuming they are modern: I have been hunting an old house down the road from me this week that I had pounded with the eTrac, CTX, F75, AT Pro, Impact, VS, etc. I dug 3 several silver dimes there the other day; first time multiple coins have came up in several years there, and even longer since any were silver. The catch...none of them were over 4 inches deep. In fact, two of them might have been 2.5 to 3 inches at most but in a whirlwind of trash. Easter Sunday I went to a small park and pulled another shallow silver dime out of trash, with a wheat penny in the same hole. A few feet away from it, I get a low 20s signal on the Nox. Thinking it was probably a penny but hey I'm digging it. Out comes a large gold mans signet ring. I thought it was a class ring at first but it wasnt...its a big ole thing. That's prob my best gold find to date and if I would have been leaving pennies or shallow stuff, it would still be there, along with several silver dimes.

I don't know any detector that can 100% id a copper penny / dime

I think its safe to say no one expects 100% ID. Some machines are better of getting the ID close and consistent. I've used BBS and FBS and now Multi IQ. On coins in parks I find it can tell the difference between the 2 pennies pretty consistently. I see a lot of great finds with the EQ. I'm just not sold they wouldn't be found by another MD. It reminds me of the CZ and how it will hit a nail and give a high tone. I expect this new form of discrimination to be better than it is. It loves iron and you spend to much time trying to id it. Bottle caps on the beach are mostly 12 to 13 along with other common items on the beach and can go into the mid 20 area where a dime shows. Some times if you go to all metal and work it you can hear a grunt but not always. Depends on rust stage. Minelab wiggle works sometimes on 50 tones. If you like a dig all MD this is for you. As far as I'm concern its no better than a Tesoro Deleon on the ID. It needs at least 50 points of decimation to really make it shine. While the weight of the ET is killing me I think it balances out as I don't dig so many targets that are trash. I just don't trust any part of the ID of the EQ.

The struggle is real. Deep wheats and silver sound and read almost identical. I love digging wheats so it doesn’t bother me.... but I understand.

Only my trusty Etrac is accurate in low iron content down to 10 inches where I can call a penny from silver.

XP Deus
Minelab Etrac
Minelab Equinox 800
Garrett Carrot
22 silvers, 2 silver rings, 1 Gold Ring -YTD 2018


Some of my random digs: [www.youtube.com]

Cabin Fever Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The problem with cherry picking silver is that the
> re are too many variables to affect the ID numbers
> and tones..
> Worn, tilted, or deep silvers routinely read below
> what we think they should on the ID scale..
> Those who think they are cherry picking with the C
> TX and E-Trac are passing silver coins if they are
> only digging the
> warble or fluty signals with the 46 or higher cond
> uctive number..
>
> The best you can do is use depth to eliminate the
> surface clad in areas where you know the old coins


> are mostly deep..
> This is easier to do with the CTX and E-Trac but c
> an be done with the Equinox too..
> Use the Pinpoint VCO to help gauge depth if you ar
> e having trouble with the Equinox modulation..
>
> Bryan

Cabin Fever,

You are right about the possibilities of missing SOME silver and other items as well. The thing about Cherry Picking is that you know you are skipping some of the harder stuff looking for the easier stuff. You accept that fact. Easier means that you can move through a site faster looking for the 'low hanging fruit'. Somebody may come through later and GLEAN what they can of what's left. And somebody again after that. And so on.

There are times to be slow and methodical and times to be fast. Sometimes it just depends on your mood.

Rich -

------------------------------------------------------------------

Just one more good target before I go.

Shakeydigger I didn't really have a problem poaching deep coins, deepest coins I've ever dug at a particular "worked out" site:

[www.detectorprospector.com]

I don't think you can expect it to be an Explorer, Etrac or CTX, because it's simply not, it's an entirely different animal, with a new language to learn and a fair amount of new knobs and levers to tune.

Cal, this is my first Minelab detector so I really didn't have expectations, only hopes. I think the nox is a nice machine that works great in high iron environments and seems to hit the deep targets too. The thing is I was hoping that it would allow me to only dig silver and clad quarters and dimes. Digging so many pennies is bad for the lawns, my back and my knees. I'm going to give my nox a year to prove itself to be a keeper or not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2018 03:39AM by Shakydigger.

> Cabin Fever,
>
> You are right about the possibilities of missing S
> OME silver and other items as well. The thing abo
> ut Cherry Picking is that you know you are skippin
> g some of the harder stuff looking for the easier
> stuff. You accept that fact. Easier means that you
> can move through a site faster looking for the 'lo
> w hanging fruit'. Somebody may come through later
> and GLEAN what they can of what's left. And somebo
> dy again after that. And so on.
>
> There are times to be slow and methodical and time
> s to be fast. Sometimes it just depends on your mo
> od.
>
> Rich -

I agree Rich, and I have my own form of cherry picking that I do when it fits the situation or mood..
My point was more that there is nothing wrong with his detector and it’s ability discriminate between pennies and silver dimes..
The Equinox seems to be on par with the CTX and E-Trac as far as me knowing the probability that silver is under my coil..

If I had to guess that would roughly be about 75% of the time with all the detectors mentioned above..

Bryan

Shakydigger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cal, this is my first Minelab detector so I really didn't have expectations, only hopes. I think the nox is a nice machine that works great in high iron environments and seems to hit the deep targets too. The thing is I was hoping that it would allow
> me to only dig silver and clad quarters and dimes. Digging so many pennies is bad for the lawns, my back and my knees. I'm going to give my nox a year to prove itself to be a keeper or not.

I hear you, my knees aren't getting any better either, but that's a tall order to only dig silver.

I'd consider my hunt buddy to be one of the best Explorer users I've ever encountered, and I don't think he can tell between a deep wheatie and a deep silver dime.

I never could tell get that "unmistakably silver" sound out of my Etrac that some users swear by, much as I've tweaked the settings. Probably just my ears. Or maybe I still haven't found enough silvers to hear those nuances of warble. But, really, in tests, I can't hear it either, so if the machine is putting out that "silver sound" my ears just can't hear it.

Unfortunately, the Nox is not an Etrac or CTX when it comes to ID and depth info. The good news is that if it were, it would cost a lot more. And the Nox has some advantages of its own. Users will have to decide for themselves whether the Nox is a keeper.

Actually the Explorer,Explorer II, Had the best Silver warble of the Minelab series with SE third. Etrac is more of a toss up as Deep wheats can still sound like Deep Silver but numbers a little lower. A long time Explorer guy can tell Silver from copper or clad. I never got that good with the older Explorer models, But seen guys who could. Bryce from ILL. could tell so good He would send them out still in a clod of Dirt as a prize saying it was a Silver dime. He was always rite.

Cal,
Great report on the Equinox 800!




[www.detectorprospector.com]

southernexplorer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If these hunt sites are old enough for seated coin
> s there are a lot of dimes that will read lower th
> an a copper penny. Then we go to the half dimes an
> d thats a whole nother story.


Bingo.
Half dimes on Nox, you try to dodge zincolns, you'll walk right by.

Cal, I agree with EPL That nox report on detectorprospector was well done.

It seems the 800 is a mixed back of tricks and I hear a lot about the lower shaft having problems. No I'm a bit taken back when mine comes

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

[www.youtube.com]

If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

One of the very best detectors at id'ing and separating copper pennies and dimes is the old Teknetics Mark 1, and it also has a different tone for zinc, copper penny and dime.
TH

I can call out penny vs dime I'd say close to 90% of the time with my lowly Ace 400, but its strong point is not depth and as with any detector, ID reliability decreases with depth.

I think a large part of the problem is this machine was marketed as a magic bullet, a game changer, the greatest innovation since electricity itself, the untouchable, incomparable standard against which all others would be judged.
People bought into the hype, lined up in droves to preorder with $$ gleaming in their eyes and now people are apparently coming face to face with the same limitations and frustrations that are common with any other detector.

As with any detector it takes time to learn a Machine. A lot of these guys get a new Detector once Month so they don't truly learn it like You should.

Cherry pciking is a rough game, rarely do it myself but can see the reasons why some do.
Add in the myriad of variables depth, soil, freqs, coils, EMI and a whole lot more, I doubt if there will ever be a detector with reliable ID at depth, but you are right Harold, experience is everything in this business and more of a factor than any gizmo or gadget.

In a perverse way, high tech machines with lots of options might even be counter productive as guys take time to endlessly tinker with settings instead of just swinging and dinging.
But to each their own, thats part of the beauty of this hobby, what works great for me might be the pits for someone else and vise versa. Very few hard, set rules no matter where you swing and with what. At the end, only the results of retrieved targets counts as anything, the rest is fluff.

Xray, the real appeal of the Equinox is it can be aa basic as a turn on and hunt machine or it can be adjusted to suit your style of hunting or the conditions you hunt in.