chicago beach hunter
New member
First impression with the Minelab Equinox.
Spent about 20 hours hunting the beaches in Vero Florida.
As far as I'm concerned the Equinox is living up to it's hype.
I did not find many valuables, as the beaches were really sanded in pretty good and the vast amount of beach to hunt is mind boggling, just swinging for hours with not hitting any targets at all.
Found about couple bucks in change and some trash items.
Even tho my finds were scarce I did not fault the Equinox.
It is very hard to nit pick the Equinox I found very little I did not like.
My intention was to bring the Equinox as a backup detector and giving me a little time to get to know it.
My main detector was the CTX 3030.
I found myself not wanting to let go of the Equinox and go back to the 3030.
Now that does in no way mean to imply I think the Equinox will outgun the 3030 but for my needs and style of hunting I became conformable with the Equinox really quick.
The Equinox does in no way compare to the CTX in features and performance still remains to be seen.
What I Ioved about the Equinox.
Weight, very light, swinging for 5 to 6 hours at a crack with no weight issue at all.
Battery life is excellent, hunted for 2 days about 14hrs lost only one bar.
Also nice feature is if your battery goes out you can run the detector off a emergency phone charger.
Very easy to set up and use.
Wireless headphones worked flawlessly.
I wear hearing aids and normally I have a hard time getting headphones to work good with them without getting feedback but these headphones are very light and nicely padded, one of the best headphone I have seen from Minelab.
Also nice feature is if your battery runs out you can connect a cord (furnished) from headset to control box and you now have wired headphones, nice feature if needed.
One thing I did not like is you can not go in the water and submerge the control box unless you but the waterproof headphones or seal the headphone connection.
As long as they furnished a cord I wish one end would complete a waterproof seal so you can use the furnished headphones in the water.
Very stable on wet sand and salt water, I was very surprised how easy it was to settle it down in this type of environment
Ran it on Beach mode #1 and on occasion had to go to #2 to run smoother but only a few times.
Depth in Beach mode #1 was shocking, digging 12 to 14in in wet sand on a quarter and 5 to 6 in on a very tiny piece of a fishing hook.
Hit a couple targets midway up the beach that I had to give up on due to hitting water that just kept filling the holes, that happened twice, I was down al least 2ft in both cases, I know there will be skeptics out there on the depth, but I have no reason to BS, that is what it was and I only wish I took a photo if my scoop in hole which was half way in.
Did not get a chance to test it yet on dry land but if it does half the job it did on wet sand this will be a killer machine.
There are many more features which I will cover at a later date, this is just intended to give you my quick first impression.
Overall I was extremely impressed and can't wait to try it in my hometown beaches.
.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me at rshore6435@yahoo.com and I would be happy to answer any and all questions if I can.
Ron Shore
Spent about 20 hours hunting the beaches in Vero Florida.
As far as I'm concerned the Equinox is living up to it's hype.
I did not find many valuables, as the beaches were really sanded in pretty good and the vast amount of beach to hunt is mind boggling, just swinging for hours with not hitting any targets at all.
Found about couple bucks in change and some trash items.
Even tho my finds were scarce I did not fault the Equinox.
It is very hard to nit pick the Equinox I found very little I did not like.
My intention was to bring the Equinox as a backup detector and giving me a little time to get to know it.
My main detector was the CTX 3030.
I found myself not wanting to let go of the Equinox and go back to the 3030.
Now that does in no way mean to imply I think the Equinox will outgun the 3030 but for my needs and style of hunting I became conformable with the Equinox really quick.
The Equinox does in no way compare to the CTX in features and performance still remains to be seen.
What I Ioved about the Equinox.
Weight, very light, swinging for 5 to 6 hours at a crack with no weight issue at all.
Battery life is excellent, hunted for 2 days about 14hrs lost only one bar.
Also nice feature is if your battery goes out you can run the detector off a emergency phone charger.
Very easy to set up and use.
Wireless headphones worked flawlessly.
I wear hearing aids and normally I have a hard time getting headphones to work good with them without getting feedback but these headphones are very light and nicely padded, one of the best headphone I have seen from Minelab.
Also nice feature is if your battery runs out you can connect a cord (furnished) from headset to control box and you now have wired headphones, nice feature if needed.
One thing I did not like is you can not go in the water and submerge the control box unless you but the waterproof headphones or seal the headphone connection.
As long as they furnished a cord I wish one end would complete a waterproof seal so you can use the furnished headphones in the water.
Very stable on wet sand and salt water, I was very surprised how easy it was to settle it down in this type of environment
Ran it on Beach mode #1 and on occasion had to go to #2 to run smoother but only a few times.
Depth in Beach mode #1 was shocking, digging 12 to 14in in wet sand on a quarter and 5 to 6 in on a very tiny piece of a fishing hook.
Hit a couple targets midway up the beach that I had to give up on due to hitting water that just kept filling the holes, that happened twice, I was down al least 2ft in both cases, I know there will be skeptics out there on the depth, but I have no reason to BS, that is what it was and I only wish I took a photo if my scoop in hole which was half way in.
Did not get a chance to test it yet on dry land but if it does half the job it did on wet sand this will be a killer machine.
There are many more features which I will cover at a later date, this is just intended to give you my quick first impression.
Overall I was extremely impressed and can't wait to try it in my hometown beaches.
.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me at rshore6435@yahoo.com and I would be happy to answer any and all questions if I can.
Ron Shore
