I’m going BACKWARD with my 800! SOS!

[fwcrawford]

Very good video Steve... those targets were deep.
I wish I could see the VID better, but still some great footage!!!

 

[IDXMonster]

Well done video Steve, I have always thought that the head mounted camera provides the best POV for a detectorist watching a detecting video! It was a bit hard to hear the machine but I’m going to give it another listen with my headphones on. I know it’s really hard to film and balance the volume against what is acceptable in the vicinity and how high you have to have it to hear it correctly! I battle this ALL the time. You did great. I see you have the huge coil on so perhaps that’s where you’re getting some more depth from also. Your settings are similar, I use 5 tones and a recovery of 5, a slower recovery seems like it really smears and distorts the signal. I’ll try 50 tone to see if that changes and will re-listen with phones now. Keep doing what you’re doing, everything about how you dig is VERY similar to what I do, and I like to watch someone who has the same methods! Thanks for help!

 

[IDXMonster]

Am I hearing the machine through your headphones?

 

[Dan(NM)]

I have never used anything but Park 1, always noise cancel, then Auto GB by accepting everything and finding a clean/clean-ish piece of ground and pumping the coil till it settles on a number...usually anywhere from 15-55. I’m always looking for deeper and older coins ONLY so I hate to limit the Sensitivity, normally keeping it between 18-22. Volume Gain is 25 in my 5 tone high bin, the lower stuff I keep low toned and low individual volumes. Main volume usually 20-22....I cannot find SH*T!! Can someone point me to a video or ten that shows successful deep coin hunting in a park, school or fairground environment? I’m talking coins that are 7”+, shallower than that does me no good anywhere I hunt. I only have the stock coil, but it is fairly rare(5-10% of targets) that the depth meter ever goes to 4 shovels deep, which is obviously 8”. EVERYTHING seems to indicate 3 shovels, but then it’s really 4-5” deep and always clad. I had a bit of success with it last fall but it’s gone straight in the tank. WHAT do I need to do to achieve depth with this thing?? If I just crank the sensitivity to the level of instability, it just lights up anything and everything, it’s completely incoherent. Its become just a bunch of high squeaks and essentially unintelligible noise, which inevitably leads to absolutely nothing productive. Please help me see what others are apparently seeing! Are ALL of my sites just that smoked?

IDX... Sometimes the stuff isn't there to be found, I've hunted places that I demolished with the CTX and then with Nox and was disappointed on one hand, but, relieved on the other that I wasn't leaving a hellava lot behind I did some testing back in NM while I was hunting a pre-civil site, I set every mode up exactly the same. I buried a 58 cal mini ball at 9" and tried every mode and found out that Park 1 was the only one in that dirt that would give me a signal that I would stop and dig. I run 2 tones and adjust my tone break at the place I'm willing to dig at each site. I always run my F2 iron bias at 0, sensitivity as hot as possible and almost always use a recovery speed of 3.
I was at an old site 3 days ago in Texas running these settings. I had my tone break at 18....time was an issue and I didn't have much to waste. If I had started to hit some old stuff, then I would diit way back

I have never used anything but Park 1, always noise cancel, then Auto GB by accepting everything and finding a clean/clean-ish piece of ground and pumping the coil till it settles on a number...usually anywhere from 15-55. I’m always looking for deeper and older coins ONLY so I hate to limit the Sensitivity, normally keeping it between 18-22. Volume Gain is 25 in my 5 tone high bin, the lower stuff I keep low toned and low individual volumes. Main volume usually 20-22....I cannot find SH*T!! Can someone point me to a video or ten that shows successful deep coin hunting in a park, school or fairground environment? I’m talking coins that are 7”+, shallower than that does me no good anywhere I hunt. I only have the stock coil, but it is fairly rare(5-10% of targets) that the depth meter ever goes to 4 shovels deep, which is obviously 8”. EVERYTHING seems to indicate 3 shovels, but then it’s really 4-5” deep and always clad. I had a bit of success with it last fall but it’s gone straight in the tank. WHAT do I need to do to achieve depth with this thing?? If I just crank the sensitivity to the level of instability, it just lights up anything and everything, it’s completely incoherent. Its become just a bunch of high squeaks and essentially unintelligible noise, which inevitably leads to absolutely nothing productive. Please help me see what others are apparently seeing! Are ALL of my sites just that smoked?
[/QUOTE


IDX...I don't think it's your settings, just the lack of good targets in the ground. I run my Nox pretty close to yours....Park 1, 2 tones, recovery speed 3, my iron bias F2 at 0, manual ground balance, noise cancel after I set everything else, my sensitivity is site determined.
3 days ago I hunted an old site, had been an old play area behind a school used in the early 1900's. I had my tone break set at 18 to test the place and see if it was investing much time in as I had to drive 50 minutes one way. This place was void of targets, I was beginning to doubt the machine and was already planning to get another CTX I hit a target that was jumping from the high 20's to low 30's, I mean only a 3-4 number bounce and repeatable.
I would have bet money I was digging a copper or silver. I never ever look at the depth meter, never have, I use the pinpoint mode to help determine depth. This happened 3 times, same type of number bounce, repeatable and all 3 ended up being nails as you can see in the picture. But, what was interesting was the depth that I dug em. The smallest was over 7" and the largest was past 9"
After I dug the last one, I was convinced that if they would have been coins I would have had no problem getting a good hit on em. I just couldn't get my coil over a deep old coin that day. In NM, I dug 9 1/2" silver dimes using the same settings.

 

[IDXMonster]

Dan, that’s good to hear. I’m seeing the Recovery speed might be my issue, both you and Steve are at 3, whereas I rarely go below 5. I’ll tinker tomorrow. I just want to be confident that if the target is there, it’ll say something. I have found stuff with it, but what I’ve found have been tiny sterling rings and small stuff for the most part. This is good. But it by no means is “opening up” anything, more like finishing up the really small stuff. It has its place and Ill get more in tune with it. I recall my early Explorer days, and I see similarities!
Stay well down there...

 

[Deeper]

Kevin,
We’ve got to get together. I’ve come to know the nox pretty well. What I have found is to manually set my ground balance somewhere between 0 and 10. We here in the southern part of Wisconsin have pretty mild soil. For quite some time I pumped to manually GB and then set tracking. I would only find shallow clad. Once I manually set GB closer to zero (usually around 10) I started gaining depth. When possible I also run the sens to 23-24. Another thing I’ve learned is that the depth meter on the nox sucks. More often than not if it’s not pegged out at five shovels I don’t dig. That depends on what kind of numbers i’m getting of course. With my 15 inch coil the numbers run a little higher than with the 11, so if I’m seeing 26-28 with flashes to 30 and the depth pegged, that’s a sure silver dime between 6-10 inches deep.

This quote from Jeff Maclen, “If I get bland, short, quiet, two directional hits with jumpy high conductor numbers with higher tones that are not fractured and are free of static, I'm digging.”, is so true.

It takes time and experience, and good ground.

Jim

 

[IDXMonster]

Kevin,
We’ve got to get together. I’ve come to know the nox pretty well. What I have found is to manually set my ground balance somewhere between 0 and 10. We here in the southern part of Wisconsin have pretty mild soil. For quite some time I pumped to manually GB and then set tracking. I would only find shallow clad. Once I manually set GB closer to zero (usually around 10) I started gaining depth. When possible I also run the sens to 23-24. Another thing I’ve learned is that the depth meter on the nox sucks. More often than not if it’s not pegged out at five shovels I don’t dig. That depends on what kind of numbers i’m getting of course. With my 15 inch coil the numbers run a little higher than with the 11, so if I’m seeing 26-28 with flashes to 30 and the depth pegged, that’s a sure silver dime between 6-10 inches deep.

This quote from Jeff Maclen, “If I get bland, short, quiet, two directional hits with jumpy high conductor numbers with higher tones that are not fractured and are free of static, I'm digging.”, is so true.

It takes time and experience, and good ground.

Jim

There are the factors again...you have the huge coil and you’re running Sensitivity higher. I don’t know what Milwaukee is made of but if you try running that high in Monroe you’ll go home babbling to yourself. Trust me, I have. I just need some dirt with coins in it that doesn’t balance at 50. If I Auto Balance(pump the coil, let it settle on a number with NO targets under the coil) I’ll inevitably be between 15-50. If I set it at zero there is SO much ground noise you can’t hunt. That’s with the STOCK coil! What I think is the main issue remains that I have horribly junky places with terrible dirt and no “easy pickin’s”. If I DID, well....Id Be hunting! Wanna take a trip to Monroe?

 

[sgoss66]

fwcrawford -- I know! I need to get better at that; I wish the tones were more audible as well. I'll figure it out eventually!

Steve

Very good video Steve... those targets were deep.
I wish I could see the VID better, but still some great footage!!!

 

[sgoss66]

Kevin,

Just FYI, that was the 11" coil, not the 12" x 15". I usually stick with the stock coil...I've kind of gravitated in that direction unless I'm trying to cover ground...

Yep, that was audio through the headphones; that's why it's hard to hear. I need to figure out a better way to do it. I wish there was an easy "toggle switch" between the machine's speakers, and the headphones -- instead of having to turn off, and then "re-pair", the Bluetooth phones in order to send audio to the speaker (unless I'm missing something).

Steve

Am I hearing the machine through your headphones?

 

[JimmyCT]

perfect settings Steve. This combo ( but I mainly use recovery of 4) has worked wonders for me.

Doug -- sure! Park 1, Recovery 3, F2 =0, 50 tones, NO disc (horseshoe button engaged), and sensitivity was I think 23 or 24 that day; I always run it as hot as EMI will permit...

Steve

 

[bootyhoundpa]

as Deeper mentioned,I too find that manually setting the ground balance somewhere around 15 or 1/3 of what auto ground balance would be helps a lot..I mostly hunt an old farm homestead 200 + years old that has centuries of everything,coke,foil,hot rocks and a whole lotta whatnot.. I’m no expert by any means,I too struggled and dug way too much iron and trash before finding coins at this site which I’ve pounded with a Whites 5990 to a Sov GT before I ever found a coin..ironically multi frequency at this site isn’t as productive as 10 or. 15 kHz... i suggest that as you get closer to the “magical” settings that starts hitting deeper targets that you only make very slight adjustments .... the equinox excels at target separation especially in iron..if the site you are hunting lacks a lot of close targets the equinox would not likely have an advantage over the CTX... I eventually found more coins at my pounded site,several were very old ,most were newer ,some weren’t even very deep but were heavily masked which is why I hadn’t found them prior...good luck..

 

[IDXMonster]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions guys, I appreciate that alot! I went out today and used Recovery 3, it’s apparent that a slower speed does indeed improve depth in this site. Soil conditions are going to be critical to Recovery speed used, 6 or 7 gets me nowhere. I dug an 8” Merc and was able to get it to go both ways with the stock coil so that’s an improvement, especially in this fairground. I’ll keep at it and try some other modes and report back....til then, everyone stay safe!

 

[fwcrawford]

A mercury dime at 8”??
Now you are off to a great start... slow down as you have now figured out and those goodies will show up for you.
As my buddy stated to me... use it like you would a Sovereign as far as sweep speed.
Lowering that recover speed has probably also helped you out.
I’m still new to my machine, but am very impressed with it so far with the amount of silver coins I have found so far.

 

[IDXMonster]

A mercury dime at 8”??
Now you are off to a great start... slow down as you have now figured out and those goodies will show up for you.
As my buddy stated to me... use it like you would a Sovereign as far as sweep speed.
Lowering that recover speed has probably also helped you out.
I’m still new to my machine, but am very impressed with it so far with the amount of silver coins I have found so far.

I know, that’s not what I’ve been seeing before with this machine. The signal went two ways, but not clear by any means. I had the Sensitivity at 23 also. A lot of the appeal about the EQX has always been SPEED SPEED SPEED....SEPARATION SEPARATION SEPARATION. In MY soil conditions, it’s tough, and I am very spoiled by how FBS has handled the great bulk of it. I don’t even think it’s the soil itself, it’s all of the tiny iron and chopped up garbage which forms this impervious “trash blanket” which is difficult to get any depth in. I will keep adjusting the sweep and see what happens....

 

[Elmy]

wow...idxmonster...why not run it for awhile like an etrac or better yet a dfx...use a 1 recovery speed and go that 10+ inches....that will mean less separation as you said.... but max out your depth....
My old dfx acted that way....if you wanted deep , old coins...recovery 1 was the ticket for them. After all isn't a good, clean, solid signal at 10+ inches 1800's coin better than an 8 inch 1940's one ?
There goes the coins next to iron that everyone gets but in cleaner ground......DEPTH !....SOLID SIGNALS>>>>>give it a try if you can get out and let us all know.
I am sure there is a happy medium where you hit the best depth plus best separation of coins and trash...

 

[JimmyCT]

I will admit that was a thought I had at one time too. Don't get me wrong, I was running recovery of 8 (fastest setting on the 800) and was still plucking out coins cruising across the landscape at a pretty good clip. BUT.....I wasn't getting the deep targets. I was obtaining 6-7 inches in depth with these hyper settings / coil speed. Then, I listened to one of the engineers that assisted in the development of the Equinox. Once I took their recommendation, I started hearing deeper whispers, more iffy signals / masked targets that turned out to be many beautiful old coins. These targets have been walked over for 40 years by hundreds of detectorists. I slowed way down (think BBS / FBS speeds and the Sovereign wiggle once you get over a target) I know many like to rush and find the goods but it is not gonna happen with the Equinox unless they slow down. Only then will you see the power of Multi-IQ technology and its abilities. IDX, I can understand your hunting conditions as what you describe is exactly what I am dealing very heavily with at one of my hunting spots. Keep that coil speed slow and use 3-4 for recovery, keep the sensitivity up right around 23 like you have it. I mainly use 50 tones, F2-0, GB - 0 and Park1. Despite these conditions we both face, if there are targets there, you will find them. Also, alter your angles at which you hit the area. You will then be spoiled by the Equinox. Good luck and keep us posted!!

I know, that’s not what I’ve been seeing before with this machine. The signal went two ways, but not clear by any means. I had the Sensitivity at 23 also. A lot of the appeal about the EQX has always been SPEED SPEED SPEED....SEPARATION SEPARATION SEPARATION. In MY soil conditions, it’s tough, and I am very spoiled by how FBS has handled the great bulk of it. I don’t even think it’s the soil itself, it’s all of the tiny iron and chopped up garbage which forms this impervious “trash blanket” which is difficult to get any depth in. I will keep adjusting the sweep and see what happens....

 

[sube]

I know, that’s not what I’ve been seeing before with this machine. The signal went two ways, but not clear by any means. I had the Sensitivity at 23 also. A lot of the appeal about the EQX has always been SPEED SPEED SPEED....SEPARATION SEPARATION SEPARATION. In MY soil conditions, it’s tough, and I am very spoiled by how FBS has handled the great bulk of it. I don’t even think it’s the soil itself, it’s all of the tiny iron and chopped up garbage which forms this impervious “trash blanket” which is difficult to get any depth in. I will keep adjusting the sweep and see what happens....

Modern clean high gain front end designs coupled with advances in ground handling and Target ID allow higher frequencies to be used with less tradeoff on high conductive metals. In LOW MINERALIZED GROUND, using high sensitivity settings on high conductive coins about the same as that of the better low-frequency machines. The tradeoff is undesirable (tiny trash targets)cause a lot of ‘noise and chatter.’ The 6-9 kHz frequency range is still best for general use most of the time. (this range might have to be adjusted up or down depending on the metal being targeted and the soil conditions.)

Looking at what it says above would mean a dime is a high conductor but when on edge or is very deep is a low conductor there by if in park 2 would give better depth only in low mineralized ground if this coin were in mineralized ground you would not hit it high frequency does not penetrate as deep as low frequency .+ goes to park 2 in low mineralization
.
Now looking at the impervious trash blanket which has iron small rotten iron there are halos of rust encircling each piece making it more mineralized soil in a low mineral soil all that orange leached from the iron is now in the ground so park 1 will be less reactive to this where as park2 will be lighting up all small targets foil aluminum pieces and so forth a non ferrous blanket of trash mixed in with a blanket of orange ferrous oxide add to that all the larger pieces of non ferrous trash .

Another point to make is if i have the detector as hot and stable as i can get it then we get what's called high beams in the fog the signals not going to go as deep as running lower sensitivity. Now by running higher sensitivity those targets that are close together nail next to dime are going to be bigger the dime and nail well appear bigger this makes them blend together as 1 if we run lower sensitivity they well separate because the signals are smaller and don't blend together .

By lowering sensitivity we well see more and clearer targets (but that defeats depth) where the good coins are .I run as hot as i can i know there's trade offs but there are holes in that blanket of trash that let's me see down every now and then .i only run the 6 inch coil because of where i hunt settings are Fe2 0 recovery 5 or 6 5 tone sensitivity 25 iron volume at 1 gb 0 you can go lower on recovery say 1 to 4 but your going to run into more blended signals because of the elongated signal so keep a eye out for those 15 and up they may be blended coin and nail signals . Now I know these settings can go deep I have dug one dime at 11 1/2 inch dime and 2 wheats at 9 plus inches so recovery 6 with the 6 inch coil can go deep.

One other point i don't run all metal and don't check in all metal the reason being from observing when using all metal is it try's to talk you out of good targets say you get a good one way hit now going 90 degrees to it or slight angle (nail coin hit) it well throw negative #s every time but if you sweep this in your search mode it well throw a 4 or 15 maybe a 20 but only every 3 or 4 sweeps the reason being is the coil is changing position and every now and then it gets a piece of the coin throwing a + number (THESE I DIG)

Now i have come up with my settings from in field targets i look at each target with several differant recovery speeds first target may like 6 second target 5 feet away may like 3 and so on but as long as the sweep speed is slow all targets at recovery 6 show some sound great some sound raspy but repeat changing recovery speed improves these raspy signals (BUT THEY HAVE TO REP{EAT) if not on to the next .I run a slow sweep speed with any recovery speed gives the detector a better chance of compensating for changing ground and it is very bad ground with a blanket of trash.

I hunt the same ground IDX does trashy fairgrounds you have to get your setting from where your looking not from someone else just understand what's going on as above .So thank all those garbage throwing fair ground goers they are the ones that are extending your metal detector years other wise the coins would be long gone .It's a two sided sword that you have to figure out . sube

 

[Trailduster]

Both of my 1700's Reales were less than 4", not at the same site.

My deepest coins have been at a plowed farm. a few 10"'ers but most were 8" or less.

I have a 3 coils for my 600 and use the 11x15 the most.

Just some perspective.

don't be afraid to run single 5hz in smoked area's. It's a little more sensitive to rusty or square nails, but I've been able to sniff out a few extra coins in areas I've picked before that went silent because I went all in picking junk too in multi.

 

[IDXMonster]

Thanks for all the insight guys, it’ll take some time to get the right mix of settings but I just want to make sure I’m not being stupid! Will continue to report...

 

[Elmy]

Go get "em buddy !......KEEP ME UP TO DATE!