Excal II and Equinox on deep silver and gold..

Testing the two machines...deep silver and gold..

Sov/CZ/Excal…… are gold-dead...… especially when compared to EQX. I'd venture to say...… if your Type-1 1853 U.S. $1.00 gold coin was 2-inches shallower..... the Excal would still not detect it.
Test-Garden: Teaches

Good video. Sovereign/Excalibur hunters when they hit a deep target use what is called 'the wiggle'. Wiggle the coil over the target and you will get better signal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2019 01:41AM by Rick, N. MI.

I have to agree, stock machine vs stock machine I think the Nox is a much better machine. Specially in Iron. but give yourself some time and learn both. The excalibur set up a little different is hard to beat..

Good Luck with both and keep those cables silicon sprayed and a knob guard might be in line for the excalibur for the first mod.

[www.youtube.com]

Blood Member of RingKeepers
2020......Gold Rings....73....Misc Gold 1 .......Silvers ...110

New knobs and guard will be here tomorrow … Thanks everyone for the tips..

All that is old is new again.

Funny how each generation must discover for themselves that which has been found to be true through earlier experience.

The huge advantage forums have for the increase of collective knowledge over FaceBook and YouTube is the threaded and searchable archives of the forums. Instead of a steady river of “what’s new”, a forum offers an archive which can be searched and examined to uncover the collective wisdom/opinion of users over a span of years.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2019 02:10AM by lytle78.

I am in my diaper stages of this water hunting business. Give me a little while and I will be potty trained before you know it. Not really a whole lot on youtube about the Excal...a lot of videos but not many tutorials in what I am interested the Excal for. Thank God for the forums..

lytle78 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All that is old is new again.
>
> Funny how each generation must discover for themse
> lves that which has been found to be true through
> earlier experience.
>
> The huge advantage forums have for the increase of
> collective knowledge over FaceBook and YouTube is
> the threaded and searchable archives of the forums
> . Instead of a steady river of “what’s new”, a for
> um offers an archive which can be searched and exa
> mined to uncover the collective wisdom/opinion of
> users over a span of years.

Facebook is more of a show, Youtube can be the same but some video's do help but................. I love reading the old post on findmall. Where I learned the Wiggle Wiggle of the BBS 10 years ago.. ....(Rick, N. MI) .....Then nothing can replace first hand experience........ Come on "AQ"

Blood Member of RingKeepers
2020......Gold Rings....73....Misc Gold 1 .......Silvers ...110

Calabash is busy increasing our collective understanding of the universe - a good thing.

There are many good things - some discovered, described and/or documented long ago or the day before yesterday - long live online forums - a wonderful and relatively new addition to the tools to increase and preserve human knowledge.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

I think we might need a chart for that Rick....

The charts are there, some easy, like the search function on the forums - a few key strokes and anyone can see everything you or I have ever posted - some are hard like unpublished journals or early explorers or - less dramatic but equally valuable - defunct websites.

For the dead websites,there is always [web.archive.org] - they don’t have everything. But they hav billions and billions of pages...

Experiment, document, comment, dispute, reconsider, agree or agree to disagree - I’m sure the chimpanzees have a similar process, but ours is much superior!!!

Forums online seem to sort themselves out into two categories - some become a free-for-all with the loudest and most aggressive in control - others are highly moderated and become either benignly or otherwise controlled - and then there is this one - which seems to progress in a wobbly sort of way - veering off occasionally into the muck, then somehow, like an old fashioned top, righting itself and spinning on.

The continued usefulness of this rather minor metal detecting forum is a testament to the good grace and good sense of its owner and the patient and long suffering moderator and to the general good sense of the vast majority of the members, Let’s drink a toast to ourselves - Skol!

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

ok thanks for the lesson... then there is always that guy who wants to be the smartest in the room.

BTW I am looking at after market dive shafts for the Excal. I think I will go with a travel shaft . It can double as a dive shaft.. Anderson ??



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2019 04:19AM by calabash digger.

Tom is definately right when it comes to fresh water......there are several machines better for use in fresh water for smaller gold and working in a lot of trash. Recovery time is the pits. BUT..... things change in the salt water..... never under estimate the Xcal there. The Xcal will find a piece of gold approximately .3 grams. Thats pretty small. Being able to turn off the salt balance and change freqs sure helps. The Xcal still seems to be the GAUGE other water machines are compared to..... maybe thats changing. Ill tell you right now thou........ in the salt water i MUCH PREFER a TRUE AM like the Xcal uses in PP. The Xcal has been around a long time now ..... so has the CZ..... but maybe now the companies are starting to realize there are people who seriously beach hunt. These machine are still about the only choices for diving...... they seem to be concentrating on wader machines with limited depth rating. The deeper you go the worse the salt..... i think even the pricy Fisher dive PI is set at 24uS. How good is that for tiny gold?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2019 10:47AM by dewcon4414.

I am in brackish water a lot of times here .The creeks a re tidal here. The Equinox runs quiet as a church mouse in that environment. I probably will get into deeper diving at some point in the near future so the Excal will probably hang around. If the Equinox was good to 30 feet the Excal would be on the first thing smoking. WHY???? because the Nox can handle the iron I am in .

BBS has its place in my opinion. I admit that the Equinox can see targets that a BBS unit can not see. But for years even decades that is all salt water hunters had. Far from perfect. But I recently picked up a Sovereign for off season hunting. Plowing through the dry sand and dipping into the tide lines I love BBS. No bottle cap riddles. No micro foil. Just looking for exposed gold. Come on AQ. Where did I hear that before?

Also.... I’d say there is no other machine that hates iron like the Xcal. The tones once learned are BETTER than the Nox IMO. Truly a KISS machine..... threshold and maybe sensitivity...as close to a turn on and as you can get.

Here on West Coast, BBS is the last detector I’d use on fresh water black sand. Hands down Equniox will be the better detector under these conditions, Sovereign or Excalibur can’t handle fresh water black sand.

Try running test comparisons under these type of conditions, fresh water black sand conditions. Park turf BBS do well, but in tough Black sand conditions Equniox is much better especially using prospecting mode.

Good luck,
Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2019 09:20PM by Apolonio (CA).

One camp says to run the Xcal in AM only ......... The other camp says Disc only ..... It's been a long long Debate.

I am new to the camp but I will say this there is no way in Hade's you can run that thing in AM on my sites. Hundreds of nails....

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BBS has its place in my opinion. I admit that the
> Equinox can see targets that a BBS unit can not se
> e. But for years even decades that is all salt wat
> er hunters had. Far from perfect. But I recently p
> icked up a Sovereign for off season hunting. Plowi
> ng through the dry sand and dipping into the tide
> lines I love BBS. No bottle cap riddles. No micro
> foil. Just looking for exposed gold. Come on AQ. W
> here did I hear that before? Not me...

Blood Member of RingKeepers
2020......Gold Rings....73....Misc Gold 1 .......Silvers ...110

calabash digger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am new to the camp but I will say this there is
> no way in Hade's you can run that thing in AM on m
> y sites. Hundreds of nails....


I don't think anyone runs in AM all of the time, least no one I know. And I know about 95% of them. Me, I would recommend the Nox for it does all the work for you and fast.
Were as the Excalibur requires a very skilled person to match or better the Nox's performance.

Blood Member of RingKeepers
2020......Gold Rings....73....Misc Gold 1 .......Silvers ...110

No matter how SKILLED a person is ….if his detector will not hit it he can't dig it.

Thats where having a lot of the targets you are looking for like GOLD come into play. This is where air testing can come in. Tom made a light bulb come on when we were talking tests between the Nox and other water machines i use like the Xcal. He said remember the targets you are using were all found with the other machine..... you need to air test even smaller targets NOT found. I dont think any of us know for sure what we missed or why. From hunting with the MDT with its salt water testing i can tell you things really change in salt water. Once adjustments are made for the Nox...... its not that much better. BUT if everyone is hunting with a Nox or Xcal...... then those 10% of the people will get 90% of the gold comes into play. If you are willing to accept you are ring hunting out there the Xcal is a good choice...... if you are digging it all use a Nox and set a pattern. There are really a lot of trade offs.... even in the way we hunt beaches. Some dry sand hunt, other wet, others just in the water... some pattern hunt .... some AM.... some like the tiny stuff ... other want depth and big gold. I think every time i go out i have to make that decision....... how am i going to hunt today.... thats where knowing your machine comes into play and choosing the right one. Should conditions be wrong when you get there.... your back up plan will be based on what you know your machine can do...... or cant.

calabash digger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am in my diaper stages of this water hunting bus
> iness. Give me a little while and I will be potty
> trained before you know it. Not really a whole lot
> on youtube about the Excal...a lot of videos but n
> ot many tutorials in what I am interested the Exca
> l for. Thank God for the forums..

Don't worry Ole' Cal as in a couple weeks you will be telling the veteran water hunters how to do it. Ha!

Beach hunting is not dirt hunting.

There are factors that do not apply to dirt hunting that very much apply to beach hunting.

The beach changes conditions daily.
The target are renewed for beach hunters.
While digging in dirt can be work and exhausting beach hunting is flat out just plain hard on the body.
Crowd sizes have an effect on hunting strategies especially when factoring in tide schedules.


Having different detectors in the tool box for changing factors is essential in my book. Especially when a person like me who currently lives some distance from the beach decides to make the trip.

I'm after gold. The most valuable gold is a woman's ring with stones. That is the ultimate goal. Trying to line a trip with all the factors in my favor to reach that goal is what I strive for. But if one of those factors change (most of the time the weather) I need to switch priorities. Getting pushed out the water happens all the time in the Mid Atlantic. God forbid I end up in the dry sand, but it happens. Even getting through Philly traffic has a profound effect on hunting times and tactics.

So in the end I will just wrap it up with this...sometimes in my beach hunting concessions are made in the ultimate goal. I need detector variety to help with those concessions.

And if I ever get to hunt after a storm again with the targets just presenting themselves I'll take a Sovereign with a meter over any other detector. The perfect tool in my opinion.

lytle78 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> The huge advantage forums have for the increase of
> collective knowledge over FaceBook and YouTube is
> the threaded and searchable archives of the forums
> . Instead of a steady river of “what’s new”, a for
> um offers an archive which can be searched and exa
> mined to uncover the collective wisdom/opinion of
> users over a span of years.


Ditto that. Couldn't agree more...

Steve

Hey Calabash,

Another of my customers has asked if I can make a Sovereign shaft for him, and I am busy in the design stage...but the Sov and Excal both use the same "head" or "yoke" on the end of the lower rod (the part where the coil attaches), which means they use the same inside diameter lower rod, and thus likely the same outside diameter as well. And if the outside diameter of the lower rod is the same, then both can share the same upper rod. SO, bottom line, if I can get the Sov prototype shaft to become a reality, then I can very, very likely do you a dive shaft for your Excal, similar to the one I made you for your Equinox.

Finally, I ALSO have just completed a working design for a three-piece travel shaft for the Equinox, which could also be done in a Sov. design (once I get the Sov. two-piece prototype done). So if you wanted to go that route, and have it double as a dive shaft, I could likely to that as well...

Just wanted to toss that out there, FWIW...

Steve

calabash digger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ok thanks for the lesson... then there is always t
> hat guy who wants to be the smartest in the room.
>
> BTW I am looking at after market dive shafts for t
> he Excal. I think I will go with a travel shaft .
> It can double as a dive shaft.. Anderson ??



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2019 03:07PM by steveg.

goodmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Beach hunting is not dirt hunting.
>
> There are factors that do not apply to dirt huntin
> g that very much apply to beach hunting.
>
> The beach changes conditions daily.
> The target are renewed for beach hunters.
> While digging in dirt can be work and exhausting b
> each hunting is flat out just plain hard on the bo
> dy.
> Crowd sizes have an effect on hunting strategies e
> specially when factoring in tide schedules.
>
>
> Having different detectors in the tool box for cha
> nging factors is essential in my book. Especially
> when a person like me who currently lives some dis
> tance from the beach decides to make the trip.
>
> I'm after gold. The most valuable gold is a woman'
> s ring with stones. That is the ultimate goal. Try
> ing to line a trip with all the factors in my favo
> r to reach that goal is what I strive for. But if
> one of those factors change (most of the time the
> weather) I need to switch priorities. Getting push
> ed out the water happens all the time in the Mid A
> tlantic. God forbid I end up in the dry sand, but
> it happens. Even getting through Philly traffic ha
> s a profound effect on hunting times and tactics.
>
> So in the end I will just wrap it up with this...s
> ometimes in my beach hunting concessions are made
> in the ultimate goal. I need detector variety to h
> elp with those concessions.
>
> And if I ever get to hunt after a storm again with
> the targets just presenting themselves I'll take a
> Sovereign with a meter over any other detector. Th
> e perfect tool in my opinion.


LOL, Goodmore...Philly traffic. sigh. amazing how messed up it gets all the time.

Harold,ILL. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> calabash digger Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I am in my diaper stages of this water hunting b
> us
> > iness. Give me a little while and I will be pott
> y
> > trained before you know it. Not really a whole l
> ot
> > on youtube about the Excal...a lot of videos but
> n
> > ot many tutorials in what I am interested the Ex
> ca
> > l for. Thank God for the forums..
>
> Don't worry Ole' Cal as in a couple weeks you will
> be telling the veteran water hunters how to do it.
> Ha!

Yeah Ole Harold....I dont think many of the ones posting on this thread are on the type of sites I hunt. AM mode for instance , I would take someone to a water site if they would hunt like that all day. Their knob will be wore out by the end of the day.....I am not chasing gold rings at the beach I am on iron loaded 1700s sites . Has anyone on here used the Excal is that context?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2019 10:29PM by calabash digger.

That's all I do hunt...Old sites and old beach's. And I am not a relic person, I'm after the gold. Do you remember I posted to you on findmall how to hunt these areas loaded with ferrous metals

And I would be Honored to meet up and hunt a water spot like that...

Re: Need help with Excal..
Posted by: OldBeechnut [ Send a Message ]
Date: August 17, 2019 10:35AM
Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 3,722
What are you looking for, Silver, gold....relics, other? Not the best machine for heavy iron infested area's. If I get into a area I know that could be good I go in thinking dig all. But you have to have time to to keep it going. Most of the time I'll work a circle, digging all. Or long ways 10 foot area, and this is in the water only. No more or you will get discouraged. Amazing results can be had if the area is good, so many things hidden. You have the Nox, I would suggest it before the excalibur. Your going to need a good nonmetallic sifter also..

And with the excalibur there is a modification that can be done that allows you to go from AM to Disc in a split second and back, with this you can separate each close target out and decide if you want to dig...so the potentiometers don't wear out.

But I still recommend the Nox..

Blood Member of RingKeepers
2020......Gold Rings....73....Misc Gold 1 .......Silvers ...110



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2019 03:04AM by OBN.