First 2 hunts with 800

Dan(NM)

Bronze Member
Dec 3, 2014
1,668
3,812
Central Texas
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
5
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800
Modified Explorer 2
Raptor c-31 digger
31" Lesche Sampson
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Day 1

I took my EQ to an old high school that I've been hunting for the last few years to see what the Nox could do. I started off in park 1 and the very first target was a solid 13 within 3 minutes, turned out to be a 1912 V-nickle at close to 5", I did my happy dance and knew this was going to be a fun machine. First impressions, of course, light, very fast and the responses left no doubt when you hit a good target. I'm not 100% sold on the sound of the wireless head phones, I think I'll end up using my Killer B's when I find the adapter for the WM08 I'll say this, nickles lock on 13 solid. I ended up with a double nickle trifecta, first time for me. 2 V-nickles, 2 buffs and 2 Jefferson's came out within the first hour. I found that customizing is very easy on fly if you can remember what the advanced settings do. I love that I can adjust the tones and the breaks much like my CTX and it's very easy to do so. Overall, I feel like it was worth all the waiting and can't wait to get a better grasp of what this machine can really do after a few more outings. I did dig a 9" wheat, the numbers bounced, but, I did get a repeatable high tone, very impressive!!

Day 2

Well, I must say today was very interesting in more ways than one. I went back to the old high school again today expecting to dig more nickles. That didn't happen, but, I was able, after digging quite a few beaver tails, to call then before digging them. They rang up in my soil at 11-12 solid hits. Yesterday the nickles read a solid 13, I did get fooled a couple times by ring tabs. I was able to dig my first silver today, a 41 Merc at 4-5" read 24-26, it was a screamer. I was running 5 tones, recovery at 5, 0 iron bias, sens at 20, park mode1 manual GB. After a couple of hours of digging a dozen or so small items that read from 8-19, I decided to cherry pick. I went into Park 2, 2-tones, recovery speed at 4, tone break set to -9 -20 with the volume turned all the way down, lowest tone pitch possible, manual GB, sens 23. I was only able to hit a wheat sitting on top of the ground where a pipe had been put in and then a copper bracket about an 1" long at 9". This is where it gets interesting. I got the hit on the bracket , very intermittent high tone, very iffy hit. I knew before digging how deep it was by using my Periscope Probe, I hit it at a solid 9" I decided to run thru each mode to test how each one would sound, each mode hit the target, but, not very clean. This was the eye opener, when I came back to Park 1, the signal cleaned up considerably. The tone was cleaner and more consistent, then I remembered reading in the quick start guide that Park 1 was for general hunting and coins, while Park 2 was for fine jewelry. I'm only guessing, but, Park 2 must use a different set of frequencies than Park 1. I quickly did a master reset and modified Park 1 to 2-tones, recovery speed at 5, tone break set to -9 -20 with the volume turned all the way down, lowest tone pitch possible, manual GB, sens 23

I worked my way back to my car getting ready to leave. On my final pass I get a repeatable high tone and a bouncing 23 every other pass. When I pinpointed the number stayed at 23. Again, using my Periscope, I made contact with the target at 9" cut the plug, dug out the dirt down to the 9" mark. I located the target again with my probe, took my finger and pulled the dirt off the coin exposing a shiny looking coin :biggrin: You can see in the photo the dirt I pulled off the coin. I measured the depth and sure enough, a little over 9" That's exactly what I was hoping to see, deep silver , proper ID on top of that.

I scanned the hole again and got another hit off to the side about 6", repeatable, ID at 24-25 down 7". I'm thinking double silver baby!!! Well, it turned out to be a jack :)

I left there thinking it may be time to sell my new CTX, I don't think I'll be using it any time soon, why would I??? I had a Deus, Etrac and now the CTX in the last 3 years, I may get beat up for this, but, I see no need for having any other machine after seeing what I've witnessed in just 9 hours of hunting. I've been hunting on and off for almost 30 years, I'm very excited about this machine and the potential once someone puts in the time necessary to master it. I've gone from being a believer to being a knower after what I've seen in just 2 days!!!

BTW....In 2-tones, Iron Bias is not adjustable, the option isn't avaialble. Also, I've decided I'll need to video a few of the deeper hits before digging so that I don't get called out for exaggerating my digs.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7722.JPG
    IMG_7722.JPG
    393.8 KB · Views: 142
  • merc.jpg
    merc.jpg
    282.3 KB · Views: 124
  • rosie.jpg
    rosie.jpg
    231.2 KB · Views: 100
  • depth.jpg
    depth.jpg
    188.7 KB · Views: 120
  • hs coins.jpg
    hs coins.jpg
    115.5 KB · Views: 108
Very nice post... equinox is sounding like it might be a legit machine...

Can you elaborate on the -9 -20 tone breaks? I'm still waiting for my equinox to get here from my dealer so i haven't been able to play with one yet...
 

Very nice post... equinox is sounding like it might be a legit machine...

Can you elaborate on the -9 -20 tone breaks? I'm still waiting for my equinox to get here from my dealer so i haven't been able to play with one yet...
This video will explain it better than I can. Instead of 5 tones as in the video, I had mine set to 2 tones and did the tone break from -9 to 19 for low tones then from 21 to 40 for the high tone. Here's the link
 

Sweet... thanks for link, I will give it a watch...
 

Thank you for sharing! :icon_thumleft:
 

How would you compare the Nox to your CTX so far Dan? Are you happy you made the switch? I am an etrac user now and have the 800 on order so I am curious about the differences.
 

How would you compare the Nox to your CTX so far Dan? Are you happy you made the switch? I am an etrac user now and have the 800 on order so I am curious about the differences.

The weight, speed and selection of the different modes are very nice, I'm looking forward to the new Equinox 3030 with target trace and the 2D screen, weighing only 3.5 lbs and lightening fast recovery speed :)

I won't be selling my CTX anytime soon. I'll do some in the ground, in the field comparison as soon as I get more time to hunt. But, so far, I really like the 800
 

Interesting you got a silver dime at 23. When I tested with a silver Roosevelt it ran 26/27 in Park 1. It may have been you saw 23 because of the Jack, but the sound was high pitch for the silver? The Park 1 mode does weigh towards the lower freqs vs Park 2 which goes towards the higher freqs.

Cheers
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top