Thing Minelab Equinox 800 or XP Deus

[Waterdog]

I am thing about adding a Minelab Equinox 800 or a XP Deus to my lineup of metal detectors but on the fence. I do mainly Coinshooting in the parks of Northern California or the beaches of the coast. Any Ideas ?

 

[Mark kus]

Well I had both machines and really liked my Deus but it’s nowhere near as good to hunt with around water I hunt a lot of beaches and hands down
The nox spanks the Deus I’ve been making some unbelievable finds with my Equinox so I sold my Deus and now only hunt with my Equinox.
if your a water hunter or saltwater beach hunter it being waterproof to helped me to decide to sell my Deus..
Mark

 

[RichW]

The Deus can keep up with the 800 in the dry sand but not the wet sand.

 

[Mark kus]

The Deus can keep up with the 800 in the dry sand but not the wet sand.

This is true yes but if I was to pick one I’d pick the equinox because it’s better overall
For wet and it’s waterproof Deus is not..
I’ve got a ton of hours with both machines around water salt and fresh and if I had to choose 1
Of these two it would be the equinox..
JMHO
Mark

 

[Ron from Michigan]

The limited use I have with both detectors the Equinox is much better for coin shooting for my MI parks. The Equinox is deep and ID bottle caps much better for me. I sold my Deus and use a Equinox 600.

 

[Waterdog]

Wow I don't know how I did Thing
Thanks for the replies

 

[Daniel Tn]

I think the two kinda compliment one another. One will handle certain tasks/hunting situations better than the other one can...they kinda prop one another up, so to speak. Where one is weak, the other is strong. Given what you say you are going to be using it for (coin and beach hunting) I believe the Equinox can handle those particular tasks far better than the Deus.

The greatest strength of the Deus IMO, is hunting in heavy iron. The Nox is far better in iron than its FBS brethren, and here again, IMO, I think the Deus handles those type sites a little better. Most of the people that I know that are really good on the Deus, do not rely on target ID at all. They go by tonal clarity and nuances. Most will only use the remote to adjust settings with, stick it in their pocket, and never look at it while hunting. They kinda use it as a "beep/dig" style detector. I had both and done quite a bit of testing on them. I never was good at setting a Deus up for sites, and I also never ventured far from the settings in Andy's book on the Deus. To me, I felt I could do better with the Nox for the kind of hunting I do most of (when I get to go) so I kept it and sold the Deus. Not saying it's not capable for those that learn it though.

 

[Mark kus]

I think the two kinda compliment one another. One will handle certain tasks/hunting situations better than the other one can...they kinda prop one another up, so to speak. Where one is weak, the other is strong. Given what you say you are going to be using it for (coin and beach hunting) I believe the Equinox can handle those particular tasks far better than the Deus.

The greatest strength of the Deus IMO, is hunting in heavy iron. The Nox is far better in iron than its FBS brethren, and here again, IMO, I think the Deus handles those type sites a little better. Most of the people that I know that are really good on the Deus, do not rely on target ID at all. They go by tonal clarity and nuances. Most will only use the remote to adjust settings with, stick it in their pocket, and never look at it while hunting. They kinda use it as a "beep/dig" style detector. I had both and done quite a bit of testing on them. I never was good at setting a Deus up for sites, and I also never ventured far from the settings in Andy's book on the Deus. To me, I felt I could do better with the Nox for the kind of hunting I do most of (when I get to go) so I kept it and sold the Deus. Not saying it's not capable for those that learn it though.

Ditto it’s why I owned both but because I beach hunt a lot I just decided to keep one machine I may own a Deus down the road I loved mine with the LF 9” coil made some killer finds with it!

 

[CT Todd]

Given your description of hunting locations the Equinox is the better choice.

 

[Kieth-Tx]

If you are hitting salt water beaches....then like RichW said...Equinox. I have had my Deus and will be keeping it because like DanielTN and others mentioned...it shines in iron and also has a better ID than the Equinox. That being said my Deus is my backup unit to my Equinox. I hunt mainly in or around salt water. The Equinox handles this area perfectly.....but the Single freq Deus fails miserably chattering, with no depth and if you get out in the water...the Deus is wireless so you HAVE to buy the accessory kit that will ONLY work in fresh water. Single frequency units will not work consistently in salt water. So given the criteria you require....Equinox.

 

[88junior]

One fair warning the Nox will scream on bottle caps they ID at 15 most times. Trust me I dug a ton of them I'd wear a pretty good size treasure pouch while hunting the beach you'll need the extra space for them. Other than the bottle caps it's a awesome machine on the beach.

 

[Mega]

For most of my detecting i still use and prefer the Deus and works great on all most all my roman/saxon sites as these can be very trashy and the recovery speed on this machine is lightning fast,what i mainly bought the Equinox was for predominately a Roman trading villa site which was active for about 400 years,but the biggest issue with this site is that the soil conditions are just like black sand and that is the problem that very few normal VLF machine will work on this very productive site.But multi freq and Pulse machines rain supreme as these are the preferred machine.

I feel that both machines compliment one another hence both are kept in my arsenal.

 

[88junior]

I second that Mega they both have a lot of good things about them and what one can do the other may not and vice versa.

 

[88junior]

They both are great machines and it's a tough decision. Good luck with whichever one you choose.

 

[Waterdog]

xp deus on the way