Minelab Equinox 800 tips and questions

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Geez said:
Hi All,
My first post here !

Aluminium is undoubtedly the worst thing ever invented. Whether it is a ring pull disguised as a gold ring or a solid chunk pretending to be a florin, it gets the shits right up me !
The EQ800 has a gold mode that I have never used. I do not have any gold, so I can't experiment with it :-(
--G
hi Geez & welcome to PA
get yourself a GM1000 & then you can easily clean out all the Aluminium to make clean ground for the Nox :playful: :lol:
 
Best thing i ever bought for my 800 was the 6" coil as i used it when i was starting out for gold. Had far better target responses from small gold with the smaller coil.

Most of the small sub gram gold i found would show up anywhere from -2 to 3 or 4. Any numbers in between i usually took as good gold signals. Larger gold pieces 0.5g and above would show up as higher numbers up to about 8 or 9. Never swung it over a piece bigger than a gram so not sure what numbers that would give.

Happy hunting!
 
I was waiting for orhers to chime in but heres my tips.

You could notch out the unwanted target numbers, might help. The trouble with aluminium (especially canslaw) is youre going to get it overlap with good ids, gold rings, goldies, even predec coppers at times. Its a challenge we all face , you either persist and dig hoping to be rewarded, or notch it out and try and avoid the worst of it.

Alternatively you can use pinpoint made to check the size of target response. With a 50c piece vs a bit of aluminium this should give you a rough idea of the surface area of the target. In time you will get better at this. Deep flattened cans can come up like goldies or higher, but pinpoint will show you its a very broad signal.

Same applies for beaver tails, they tend to make a sweet tone/id only swung one way and the cross section of the signal is very small, when its larger cross signal thats solid its more likely a 20c.

Lastly swing 3 directions, N/S, E/W, Then across the centre of those. Most of time (you can get clipped ones, on the side, or as youve seen in a spill) you will get a solid response across the directional swings with coins, making it much more likely a coin vs junk.

My plan is based on location. If its a busy place, I cherry pick. If its somewhere close to me, I hunt it out. If its some distance from me, I start with cherry picking, then looking for the unusual ids that are solid. If its just a playground the odds of ring pulls is high and rings low, so I forget the 5c and ring pulls. If its a picnic area and people spend time in it (especially lakeside areas) the odds of jewellery is higher so worth it. If its trashy then reach for a small coil and up the recovery speed. If its deep ground turn up sensitivity.

Maximising the treasure is the aim of the game thrse days, so taking the easy wins is always first priority. Spending 2 hours sifting through junk is the same as giving up an hours travel and 1 hour picking up goldies.

That said the more you dig the more you will understand the machine and whats under the coil. No way around it you will miss good treasure if you dont hunt it well, and the fastest way to learn to dig less crap later is to dig more now. By going down the dig road you will pretty soon just by tone and id confidently and mostly accurately call it out before youve dug it.
 
OldGT said:
I was waiting for orhers to chime in but heres my tips.

You could notch out the unwanted target numbers, might help. The trouble with aluminium (especially canslaw) is youre going to get it overlap with good ids, gold rings, goldies, even predec coppers at times. Its a challenge we all face , you either persist and dig hoping to be rewarded, or notch it out and try and avoid the worst of it.

Alternatively you can use pinpoint made to check the size of target response. With a 50c piece vs a bit of aluminium this should give you a rough idea of the surface area of the target. In time you will get better at this. Deep flattened cans can come up like goldies or higher, but pinpoint will show you its a very broad signal.

Same applies for beaver tails, they tend to make a sweet tone/id only swung one way and the cross section of the signal is very small, when its larger cross signal thats solid its more likely a 20c.

Lastly swing 3 directions, N/S, E/W, Then across the centre of those. Most of time (you can get clipped ones, on the side, or as youve seen in a spill) you will get a solid response across the directional swings with coins, making it much more likely a coin vs junk.

My plan is based on location. If its a busy place, I cherry pick. If its somewhere close to me, I hunt it out. If its some distance from me, I start with cherry picking, then looking for the unusual ids that are solid. If its just a playground the odds of ring pulls is high and rings low, so I forget the 5c and ring pulls. If its a picnic area and people spend time in it (especially lakeside areas) the odds of jewellery is higher so worth it. If its trashy then reach for a small coil and up the recovery speed. If its deep ground turn up sensitivity.

Maximising the treasure is the aim of the game thrse days, so taking the easy wins is always first priority. Spending 2 hours sifting through junk is the same as giving up an hours travel and 1 hour picking up goldies.

That said the more you dig the more you will understand the machine and whats under the coil. No way around it you will miss good treasure if you dont hunt it well, and the fastest way to learn to dig less crap later is to dig more now. By going down the dig road you will pretty soon just by tone and id confidently and mostly accurately call it out before youve dug it.
Hi OldGT
Have you got some target id numbers for coins for us by any chance?.
Cheers mate
 
DD,

I know the list almost by heart on my machine using AM and 80 gain, but the Noxs are a bit harder.

The reason is multi vs single freq will change them sometimes, only by a number but it will be different. Is there a specific coin type youre after or a complete list? I possibly have a couple screen shots but the lists came from here.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25188
 
These will vary depending on depth and other factors and is only a rough guide
Florin sterling silver 33-34
Florin 50% silver 25-26
Shilling sterling silver 30-31
Shilling 50% silver 22-23
6D sterling 26-27
6D 50% 18-20
3D sterling 22-23
3D 50% 16-17
Penny 22+-
Half penny 20 +-
18 carat gold ring 18-20
14 carat silver ring 16-22
Heavy silver ring 30-34
 
Minelab does list some coins in the user manual .

I think your speed of recovering an item is also important . I have seen guys take 5 mins. to recover an item on the beach . I'm sure I could have dug 3 in that time .
 
Mike678 said:
Minelab does list some coins in the user manual .

I think your speed of recovering an item is also important . I have seen guys take 5 mins. to recover an item on the beach . I'm sure I could have dug 3 in that time .

Hi Mike, I am getting fairly good at that.

When I get a target, I bang it into pin pointer mode to get a location, then I step around 90 degrees and pinpoint it again, then I step back to confirm.

I get it in a 6" plug about 4 out of 5 times.

--G
 
Hi all,

This is my first detector and I really need some help.

I went hunting around an old ruin that I know hasnt been hit before.

I went through the settings and this is what I did.

Park 1 - Multi, ground balanced, recovery 5

I was picking up old iron straps, a swing arm, pipe capping, bucket handle, battery terminal.

I did however find a nice button and buckle.

Its hard because Ive never used a detector,

Any hints, tips etc would be greatly appreciated.
 
Theres just so many posts its not funny. I got it going well, went to a local football club and couldnt discriminate between ring pulls and coins. Pretty frustrating
 
Keep swinging you will find a lot of ring pulls You could try it over $1 and $2 coins at home and learn what they sound and read like but it will take a time behind the detector to learn it
 
roy cobb said:
Keep swinging you will find a lot of ring pulls You could try it over $1 and $2 coins at home and learn what they sound and read like but it will take a time behind the detector to learn it

Its super frustrating hey. Ring pulls tone at around 14. 20c at 15 and $2 at 20-21 (on top of the ground). It just takes so much time digging them and pinpointing them to get a ring pull.
 
^Thats good advice from Roy. Hit up the playground chip bark for a while as you get a feel for the target id your looking for.

Factory default settings are pretty good on the Nox, practice your grass recovery technique somewhere where it wont matter and use a pin pointer to zero in on the target.

Footy ovals can be pretty junky, try either end of the oval near the goals (assuming youre in Vic) and get a few hours under your belt doing the playgrounds and parks before attempting too close to the clubrooms boundary and opposite the canteen area.

Its just about practice and time on the machine unless you notch out the junk. Aluminium is the bane for all coin shooters mate.

50c, $1, $2, should all come in higher than ring pulls, only smaller silver decimals overlap with the ring pulls old and new.

Good luck mate, stay positive, it will come.
 
Mickjinx said:
roy cobb said:
Keep swinging you will find a lot of ring pulls You could try it over $1 and $2 coins at home and learn what they sound and read like but it will take a time behind the detector to learn it

Its super frustrating hey. Ring pulls tone at around 14. 20c at 15 and $2 at 20-21 (on top of the ground). It just takes so much time digging them and pinpointing them to get a ring pull.

Welcome to coin hunting! Coins are known targets and can be predicted (most of the time).
Ring pulls, pull tabs, aluminium foil, chopped aluminium (slaw) and gold jewellery come in so many different shapes and sizes, flat, crumpled broken etc, that almost any ID is possible.

So regardless of detector, generally they can all deal with iron pretty well. Then if you want to focus on high conductive coins, say 50c and higher, this will knock out "most" of the pull tabs, and aluminium junk, but at the same time 20c and below, and a lot of jewellery. So it really comes down to the site and how much time/patience you have.

It's going to take you many many trips to work out how you like to hunt, i.e. start with high discrimination then back it off, or go all out then reject the crap in that particular area, etc etc. There are many ways to tackle it. If you are finding ring pulls really annoying, then just block them out. Just keep in mind you many also be blocking out some good stuff in amongst the junk, but you will have a more enjoyable time. As you get more time/experience you can hit those sites again and again with less discrimination and when the odd ring starts to come up, digging pull tabs won't be so bad any more :cool:
 
Hi , I am looking to buy a detector that is equally affective in the gold fields as on tbe beach. The agents say the Equinox 800 but this has depth limitations with nugget hunting. Anyone with an Equinox 800 that can comment please ?
 
Hi mate the nox is suited to tailing piles and very shallow ground. Around my neck of the woods the nuggets are small .1 - .4 g and ill pick them up at about 50 mm. On a 1 g you may get 100 mm but you may walk over it. The hardest thing is picking the nuggets from hot rocks and there are lots of hot rocks.on the beach and park its a very good machine.
 

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