Got out for a few today...video added

Was supposed to meet up with Chris this morning to run his MDT 8000 in my bullet site, but he had to cancel. Since it was a pretty day and not raining for a change of pace, I decided to go play with my two machines and see what I could come up with. I recently got a 15" Spiral DD coil for my GPX and hadn't got the chance to use it yet. I also wanted to give the 12x15 Equinox coil a go to see what it could do in the wild too.

First thing first...my Civil War bullet site is fixing to be gone. I knew it was coming but did not expect it to be this fast. They surveyed it a couple years ago and it sat in wait, but now that the housing market has exploded, they are moving forward with it now. They had the property marked and getting ready to start moving dirt to put in two culdesacs for a 30 acre subdivision. So, I originally was just going to go play for about an hour and dig a few bullets with each machine and coil...but upon hearing that from the landowner, it put a new spin on the situation. Now it was a full pledged relic rescue mission for another site fixin' to be lost to progress.

I did a bunch of video today. Back and forth between machines. Of course in red dirt, you aren't going to beat a pulse machine. The GPX showed its muscle today in a site that was getting hard to find 4 or 5 bullets in. I think it was just the coil itself...because a few minutes after I got there, another local hunter showed up that also uses a GPX but with the stock coil. When our paths finally crossed and we talked for a minute, he had only dug 5 bullets while I had 20 something in my pouch at that time, and I was bouncing back and forth between machines....locating a bullet signal with one machine, videoing it, then getting the other machine...videoing it, and then live digging all by myself. Time consuming for sure.

What I learned...as much as I like the Equinox, it too falls victim to the iron transition that all VLF machines do in high mineral. The catch here is...it just does it at a deeper depth for me. The non ferrous signal still tries to bleed thru the iron audio but the deeper the target, the more the iron audio takes over the signal, until it is eventually all iron. I got some deep ones with it today though...well what I call deep and ya'll call deep are probably two different things. But I did dig some with the Nox that were 12-13 inches. Now the catch here is...if they weren't already marked by the GPX, some of those deep ones I would have probably missed in actual hunt speed. But since I knew where they were, I could hear them. There were some of them that the GPX pegged at 14-15 inches that the Nox said was all iron. The other thing is...like some other machines...the Nox does NOT like disturbed ground. Some of these bullets I could get to give a non ferrous signal BEFORE I dug, but once I broke the ground matrix up, the signal either completely disappears or goes to iron audio. This has been talked about a lot with beach hunters too, so it's not just a mineralized soil thing. In most every case, I could stick the probe in the bottom of the hole and locate the bullet. Some times it was just in loose soil at the bottom.

So long story ends here. I did a video wrap up and took this picture with the bullets on my pouch. I had no idea exactly how many I had but I knew it was a decent number. When I counted after the pic, there were 34 of them. I told myself, that I might as well make it 35. Once I put 35 in my pouch, I was getting ready to turn the detector off and moved the coil in the process and located another bullet just feet from that one. Hmmm. 36 it is. Oops there's another one. Needless to say I ended up with 41 of them by the time I got back to my truck, and in the process, left several more in the ground. May take my niece and nephew there early next week and let them dig their first bullets. Will try to put the video clips together and post the video over the next few days...since it's suppose to rain rain rain.

gpx by Daniel Teague, on Flickr



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2018 02:01AM by Daniel Tn.

Nice report and info on new coil for GPX.

What battery setup are you using on your GPX?

Daniel Tn Wrote:
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> The other thing is...like some other machines...the Nox does NOT like disturbed ground. Some of these bullets I could get to give a non ferrous signal BEFORE I dug, but once I broke the ground matrix up, the signal either completely disappears or goes to iron audio.

Thanks for your interesting impressions. This is the opposite of what the Deus is doing (in my soil with my setting). I would prefer a detector that gives me the accurate readout over undisturbed soil. I mean if you know it, you can probably deal with it. I have to run a crazy low disc value to get a questionable audio from tiny silver coins (at relatively shallow depths).
I'm looking forward to see your videos. Take care.

Thanks for sharing this Daniel .

No telling how deep that GPX would be here in my soil. Nice report.

Nice, Daniel!
I swung that 15" Detech for a time or two out in the gold fields. Found a couple of nugs with it and then traded it off. Excellent coil...but heavy ( like all DD coils). I'm glad that we can swing mono coils in the gold fields ....much lighter! Nice to see you out swinging! Thanks for the vids!!

Dean

I was out playing with Equinox in the dirt yesterday. Vacation between the Holidays. I don't dirt hunt anymore, but I just wanted to keep my mind fresh on the settings and menu. I did notice the same thing about disturbed dirt. Quite a few targets disappeared in the bottom of the hole. Thank goodness for the TRX. Being a beach hunter I have had plenty of targets disappear in the hole. It is just second nature to take another scoop full so I really never noticed the frquency in which it happens. Lesson.....Don't forget the pinpointers. I was at my worn out site not expecting to find any coins. I managed 1 silver nickel, 1 Buff, and an Indian. The way that the Equinox continues to hit the Nickels just amazes me. Those lower conductors really sing out. Great stuff for beach gold.

By the way....watching my fields and old hunting grounds being paved over is what turned me from dirt hunting. A truly gut wrenching thing to witness. My wife actually liked the one development. She was thinking of maybe living there. I flat out told her I would live in a tent first.

Here is the video. I didn't use all the video I had of the hunt; it was kinda redundant so I just did some of the highlights. Has half GPX and half Equinox in it.

On the Nox footage, you should be able to hear and see what I was talking about with the undisturbed ground, where the signal comes through but when I dig, the signal turns to iron and or disappears.

[youtu.be]

That’s a really good video, can’t believe how deep those bullets were and how good the signal was.

Aaron

Excellent video---nothing like hearing that GPX on those deeeep bullets.

Great video showing the difference between the two machines. Nox did a good job overall considering.

Daniel what is the history of thefield that so many bullets have been and are still being found there??

Thanks everybody! That's why we like the pulse machines in dirt like that. A GPX with 11 inch stock coil goes deeper than the VLFs for sure, but when equipped with the larger coils, goes crazy deep. Those signals kept throwing me off because they would sound like a typical bullet at shallower depths, but then actually be much deeper than I thought. The 15" Spiral coil is a keeper for sure but is REALLY heavy.

The bullet site itself is just a winter camp rifle discharge area or a firing range. Loaded guns were not allowed in camp. So any time the troops went out of camp they would load up...then prior to going into camp they'd empty the rifles by firing them. In this case though, it is not near the camps that I know of...all of those have smaller discharge areas that I've found just outside the camps. So I am kinda leaning towards it being a practice range due to the sheer number of them that have been found there. They were issued new rifles prior to the Atlanta campaign and I think they were getting the troops familiar with them.

Great write up Thanks.

Hello Daniel,
thanks for the video. I just watched it and I'm a little bit surprised with the behavior of your detector. At around 9:33s you are sweeping the Equinox over a dug out bullet (on the surface), but it seem to have problems recognizing it as a good target. Instead it calls it iron during some of the coil sweeps. Why? It's a relatively big target on the surface. Unless there is something else in the soil shouldn't the Nox recognize a bullet of this size with a clear "good" audio after every sweep?

P.s. I don't have this detector and never used it. I'm just curious, because something like this would worry me.

x2000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello Daniel,
> thanks for the video. I just watched it and I'm a
> little bit surprised with the behavior of your det
> ector. At around 9:33s you are sweeping the Equino
> x over a dug out bullet (on the surface), but it s
> eem to have problems recognizing it as a good targ
> et. Instead it calls it iron during some of the co
> il sweeps. Why? It's a relatively big target on th
> e surface. Unless there is something else in the s
> oil shouldn't the Nox recognize a bullet of this s
> ize with a clear "good" audio after every sweep?
>
> P.s. I don't have this detector and never used it.
> I'm just curious, because something like this woul
> d worry me.

That is actually a common phenomenon for VLF machines in bad red dirt. I am no expert, so I could be totally wrong but my theory is that the lead in the bullets and the dirt's ground balance point are close to one another. In that case, the detector is seeing the bullet and the ground much in the same way and is set to reject it. It's either that or the natural iron content in the soil is masking the target just like a bed of nails will. Maybe even both. All I know for sure is that it is something I am just use to, and a big reason why we prefer pulse machines in this kind of dirt. This is why there are so many targets like those bullets left in the ground...most of them we have walked over with our VLF machines and had no idea they were there. This includes things as big as belt plates.

Thanks for video. I appreciate you taking the time to compare signals on both machines.

Small world, but I actually run the same setup: 4800 w/ 15dd, Nox 600 and F-pulse. You are not kidding about the gpx not liking the fpulse, I usually just end up taking off my headphones.

One tip on the 15" spiral is to make sure you are properly ground balanced. First time I went to use it I dug a few deep holes to nothing there (verified by buddies with 11" GPX). Also had to force myself to take breaks even with a bungee setup.

Btw, just curious what type of shovel are you using? Predator?

It is an older shovel; have had it for 10 years or more. I think it was made by Lesche before the Predator tool company came onto the scene and was marketed as a hut digging shovel. All metal and welded. My buddies bought the newer version of it and the blade/shaft angle are different on them...they don't like it and have went back to their other tools.

Thanks for info on shovel. Didn't want to divert from original post but just always looking for the perfect shovel. I've got a Root Slayer that works pretty good now but it really needs the angle on the blade to push out the plug.

Nice haul Daniel!

Did you try the EQ in Goldfield.? In my soil the prospecting mode all metal threshold based mode with added disc like a dual mode has alot less filtering Vs the Disc modes and when the disc comes in to alert for iron its less iron biased in the report of iron tone..More BLEEDY on disc report channel.This also works well for unmasking in iron if you have the patience as its a bleedy filter mode and allows break through of more iffy maked targets.

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Keith - The Nox 600 doesn't have the gold modes.

When I first got the Nox, I did have the 800 and tested it at this same site. I kinda done the same thing as in the video...marked bullet signals and then checked with the Nox. At that time I was still brand new to the Nox and trying to see if it would work at all in that soil, and if so, which mode worked best. I personally didn't see any gain in the gold modes with it there and I'm also not a VCO audio fan either. That was actually what prompted me to sell the 800 and keep the 600, since the 800s were in such high demand. I got my money back out of the 800 and have since paid for the 600 in finds. Can't beat that.