Disappointing Equinox beach test.

I went to the beach to do a little hunting with the nox this afternoon. Targets were few and there was a misting rain. Planning ahead, I took some small jewelry and two rings with me to test how the targets would ID. All the targets were tested laying on top of wet ocean sand. First up were a very small gold chain, a 10k diamond tennis bracelet, a link from a heavy gold bracelet and a gold bead earring. Neither beach 1 or 2 detected the small chain. The 10k bracelet came in at a 6.The heavy gold link failed to register with any meaningful depth and the gold bead earring came in at 10. Next up were a platinum solitaire mounting, a gold 3 prong earring and a med weight gold diamond anniversary ring. The anniversary ring came in at a 10. The 3 prong earring barely came in at -3/-4. the worst was the platinum solitaire that bounced from -6 to 15 with stops in between. Just for kicks I tested all the gold items in park 2 and all but the small chain came in with good depth and solid positive hits. This leads me to believe that no one will be micro jewelry hunting with the nox in beach 1 or 2. I still need to test the platinum ring in park 2. This test was a little disappointing but we'll have to see how actual beach hunting goes this summer.

Shaky,

Micro jewelry hunting for the most part is done in the dry sand or in tot lots and such. I don't think any unit will be able to pick up really small gold earrings, posts, etc in wet salt water sand with any depth or accurate ID.

In addition, I would think if running a NOX 800 and wanting to do some micro jewelry hunting in the dry sand or wherever, using the 40kHz single frequency mode may be the best option.

I'm guessing the beach modes probably have some software programming to cancel out the conductive effects of salt water which would also cancel out a lot of small gold.

I have been trying my hand at some micro jewelry hunting and its a hard road....lots and lots of bits of foil, small aluminum bits, etc. I'm thinking it's not worth it. Then again a 1/2 carat diamond in a small earring is always a nice sight. Thing is, most diamonds less than a carat don't bring much when you try to sell them unless they are top notch. I much rather find heavier chains, rings, etc.

Like OBN stated on another forum.....I like finding rings that if I throw it at you and hit you, it would knock you over. At least I think OBN said it !

The NOX 800 and 600 will not miss those clunkers, that's for sure.

Well ive got over a 100 beach hours now and 30 some IN the water....... have yet to find a SMALL piece of gold, i give it 0 chance at finding micro gold near the water. I was even having trouble running in park or field when we had a lot of moisture well beyond the towel line. Its just a lot of work looking for smaller gold...... and you do get a lot of people saying im not wasting my time any more. So now they are looking at the machine to see what it will do compared with the Xcal and CTX. Right now ive found 4 pieces of gold this month..... nothing under 5 grams and only one 18K 5.5 grams so deep that it made me wonder if the other two would have found it. I know of one earring .... which was .34 grams. Nothings changed IMO....... people who didnt hunt for smaller gold still wont be hunting for smaller gold. BUT some of us will. Ive seen some good things come out of the water that you just think how did that pick that up..... or that it wont pick it up once out of the water. Time will tell ..... give it 6 mos. when more are able to hunt the wet sand and in the water....... i wouldnt let my air test be the judge especially not knowing your settings are correct yet. Not only that but we dont know how much of the big stuff it maybe better at getting that the current machines.

Dew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2018 09:55AM by dewcon4414.

There are posts elsewhere from seasoned beach hunters that have had good success micro jewelry detecting on wet salt water beaches. Although it's not for me, it's doable but you have to get the settings dialed in, their pretty specific.

I agree with the others that it's much more of a dry sand strategy vs wet sand.

n/t



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2018 01:46PM by GreenMeanie.

Shakydigger........ good honest post. Its refreshing to see a reality post ...... no build up no defense just what it is.

Dew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2018 08:21PM by dewcon4414.

Again....What you search for.... micro or larger targets is greatly influenced by other factors as well. I live three 2.5 hrs from the beach. I'm not wasting my time micro hunting. Time is a very important factor to me. I will spend it searching for large clunkers. Small stones just are not worth it. Small chains? Yeah nice to find...They beat bobby pins that's for sure, but again you need to think value. I would love to see every bit of the competition on their knees with screens when I hit the beach. Yeah I think all of you should hunt micro from now on. I know the beaches would be cleaner for everyone as well.

Did you give prospecting modes a try? They hit very small gold nugs in mineralzed soil? Would they be a choice on the beach?

Dean

I tried prospecting modes briefly on the first gold targets but it was having a hard time with the salt mixed with black sand.

Goodmore...... bottom line on those chains...... if those who say you can find them is true, then you will..... big plus right? Maybe its our beaches here in Fl, but ive not seen a lot of small gold yet..... i think and earring .34 grams has been the smallest so far. Im lucky GM..... im about 4 min. to the beach and retired. Nothing but time. Cal..... send me a PM with a couple of those micro gold posts id like to see what they are getting.

Shaky,

Did you Ground Balance the machine? Instruction Manual appears to advise 'not to' as it is 'Pre Set @ 0' to handle most situations UNLESS excessive ground noises cause it to be 'noisy'
An British magazine article on the E800 and a few videos are suggesting the same thing (both Gordon Heritage)

Des D

dewcon4414 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Goodmore...... bottom line on those chains...... i
> f those who say you can find them is true, then yo
> u will..... big plus right? Maybe its our beache
> s here in Fl, but ive not seen a lot of small gold
> yet..... i think and earring .34 grams has been th
> e smallest so far. Im lucky GM..... im about 4 m
> in. to the beach and retired. Nothing but time.
> Cal..... send me a PM with a couple of those micro
> gold posts id like to see what they are getting.


There on Steve's forum....been hanging out there a lot more lately

Ive been trying to follow his site to see what beach guys are finding...... i saw a lot of tiny RAW gold. Smallest piece of gold jewelry i saw was the earring at .34 grams. Anything to me that the Xcal or CTX would have hit on..... is just small gold to me. My idea of micro gold jewelry is anything the current multi freq machines might not hit on... tiny chains, earrings, earring back. for the most part.... .3 grams. On a salt water beach..... man let me tell you tiny gold is work to find..... or at least here it is. Im just not sure how much of the small stuff we are going to find in beach mode anywhere near the water...... like i said give us the summer i think we will know once the recent drops start coming. I sure do hope im wrong....

I’ve mentioned it a few times but things need to click I would say :-)

When micro beach hunting, don’t waist your time with a sifter or screen.
Narrow the scoop down to a tablespoon full of sand and dump in your finds bag.

At home pan the entire contents of your finds bag.

My scoop for the job at hand is a plastic prospecting scoop with a section of carbon tube to extend the handle.
I injected some foam in the tube to add a little more strength and a nylon bolt secures everything together.

Leave the deep targets well enough alone,... another battle for another day :-)

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Again....What you search for.... micro or larger t
> argets is greatly influenced by other factors as w
> ell. I live three 2.5 hrs from the beach. I'm not
> wasting my time micro hunting. Time is a very impo
> rtant factor to me. I will spend it searching for
> large clunkers. Small stones just are not worth it
> . Small chains? Yeah nice to find...They beat bobb
> y pins that's for sure, but again you need to thin
> k value. I would love to see every bit of the comp
> etition on their knees with screens when I hit the
> beach. Yeah I think all of you should hunt micro f
> rom now on. I know the beaches would be cleaner fo
> r everyone as well.

HH
Johnb

Des, I did not grind balance for beach modes. Beach mode is set up to auto ground tracking.

GB is still something YOU have to do there is no auto to it..... otherwise its stays on the default 0. Beach modes are both default MANUAL GB if im correct..... only the Gold modes is recommended tracking .... unless you have really bad sand. take a look at page 63 of the manual.

This may be somewhat relevant . When I tested the Xterra with a similar TID, many good non-ferrous targets to include small pewter colonial buttons reported as a negative TID. I'm sure the hot ground condition contributed to this.

Going To try it Again this weekend if weather permits. I may also try my first video. The settings i used in the above test had no problems hitting deep pulltabs and clad coins so I don't expect things to change.

woodchiphustler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This may be somewhat relevant . When I tested the
> Xterra with a similar TID, many good non-ferrous t
> argets to include small pewter colonial buttons re
> ported as a negative TID. I'm sure the hot ground
> condition contributed to this.


"Yes, this did happen with the Terra's for several reasons:
a) Depth - out of range just enough that it couldn't establish a Positive TID
b) GB off - but not too important in the overall scheme of producing accurate TID's
c) Over- sensitivity of the Gain control
d) Mineral levels in different soils etc
e) Proximity of other targets especially Discriminated ones that could 'corrupt' a decent detection (coil receives up/down/sideways all around so something discriminated could be right in front of the next coil sweep area)"

Getting back to the GB issue discussed here and pertaining to poor beach operation: I for one would certainly not stand rooted to the spot at '0' GB Default if I was experiencing instability: I'd manually GB to at least + 34 or towards the Default -9 and find a setting that didn't cause falsing: I'd also reduce Sens by a smidgin and might consider 'notching out' a few TID's such as 39, 40 and such, or operate in Beach 2 which has 'lower transmit power' than Beach 1 so less noise?"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2018 02:50PM by Des D.