floodplaindetector
Well-known member
Finds attached are from 2 shorter weekends (About first 25 total hours of swinging) . All finds were found with the Equinox a few hundred miles south of home (North Dakota) in fairly hard, somewhat frozen ground with still a little snow in places. Sites were public city parks and old schools that have been pounded hard.
After reading the manual a few times and the Andy's handbook and watching a lot of videos and listening to many opinions I was ready to get out and actually use it and get a feel for it.
Being an eTrac user for Thousands of hours, I thought i would start out in 50 tone but soon realized I would have a hard time isolating nickels as this detector hits so hard on the low mostly junk tones above the nickel range so I set up my own custom 5 tone program and started doing much better. I also like the fact in 5 tone I can set any silver coin like dimes to the highest tone pitch. I will continue refining my 5 tone program.
I kept a lower volume and tone in the unwanted bin ranges but still enough sound to hear the target well and give me the option to chase the signal if I wanted.
Crown caps were really kicking me in the rear on the nickel range targets and I will have to learn the tricks to avoid them. I believe there are some frequency shift and coil pumping tricks.
Right away I noticed the great separation the machine has and how it locks onto coins hard once you isolate them.
In most cases I was not fooled by Iron even with my Iron bias set on 0 and found it pretty easy to recognize the iffy coin signals.
I also tried the 12x15 inch coil briefly but I am not sure I like it yet as the length created a lot of drag on the ground and started hurting my arm and back like my eTrac days again.
I did hit an 8 inch 1929 Merc easily with the big coil. I am feeling so far like the stock coil and its separation are the strength of the machine.
With the stock coil, the deepest coin I dug was a measured 8.5 inch wheat penny. The deepest target so far was a 11 inch shotgun head stamp. Hopefully I can pull some 10-11 inch coins. That will impress me a little.
I know I have a ton to learn about this machine but I have had fun with it so far and my arm and back weren't throbbing at the end of the day.
I have Steve's custom shaft with a counter weight also, It was really enjoyable swinging a light, balanced, wireless machine for a change.
Thanks for looking!
Dave.
My Settings were:
Park 1
Sensitivity 23-25
Recovery 3-4
My Custom 5 tone program
Iron Bias F2 = 0
I always noise cancelled but left the ground balance on 0.
Coin Finds
11 silver dimes are back to 1920.
Nickels are 1930,1941,1947
Indian head pennies are 1902,1903
22 Wheat pennies are back to 1917
Non Coin Finds
1945 Kellogg's Pep Cereal Superman Pin (This was a faint 7 inch target in the nickel range)
2 sterling stamped turquoise rings
Tiny U.S. Jaycees pin
Ornate button, smaller flat button, overall button
Top of cuff link
Miniature hammer head
Old zipper pull
After reading the manual a few times and the Andy's handbook and watching a lot of videos and listening to many opinions I was ready to get out and actually use it and get a feel for it.
Being an eTrac user for Thousands of hours, I thought i would start out in 50 tone but soon realized I would have a hard time isolating nickels as this detector hits so hard on the low mostly junk tones above the nickel range so I set up my own custom 5 tone program and started doing much better. I also like the fact in 5 tone I can set any silver coin like dimes to the highest tone pitch. I will continue refining my 5 tone program.
I kept a lower volume and tone in the unwanted bin ranges but still enough sound to hear the target well and give me the option to chase the signal if I wanted.
Crown caps were really kicking me in the rear on the nickel range targets and I will have to learn the tricks to avoid them. I believe there are some frequency shift and coil pumping tricks.
Right away I noticed the great separation the machine has and how it locks onto coins hard once you isolate them.
In most cases I was not fooled by Iron even with my Iron bias set on 0 and found it pretty easy to recognize the iffy coin signals.
I also tried the 12x15 inch coil briefly but I am not sure I like it yet as the length created a lot of drag on the ground and started hurting my arm and back like my eTrac days again.
I did hit an 8 inch 1929 Merc easily with the big coil. I am feeling so far like the stock coil and its separation are the strength of the machine.
With the stock coil, the deepest coin I dug was a measured 8.5 inch wheat penny. The deepest target so far was a 11 inch shotgun head stamp. Hopefully I can pull some 10-11 inch coins. That will impress me a little.
I know I have a ton to learn about this machine but I have had fun with it so far and my arm and back weren't throbbing at the end of the day.
I have Steve's custom shaft with a counter weight also, It was really enjoyable swinging a light, balanced, wireless machine for a change.
Thanks for looking!
Dave.
My Settings were:
Park 1
Sensitivity 23-25
Recovery 3-4
My Custom 5 tone program
Iron Bias F2 = 0
I always noise cancelled but left the ground balance on 0.
Coin Finds
11 silver dimes are back to 1920.
Nickels are 1930,1941,1947
Indian head pennies are 1902,1903
22 Wheat pennies are back to 1917
Non Coin Finds
1945 Kellogg's Pep Cereal Superman Pin (This was a faint 7 inch target in the nickel range)
2 sterling stamped turquoise rings
Tiny U.S. Jaycees pin
Ornate button, smaller flat button, overall button
Top of cuff link
Miniature hammer head
Old zipper pull
