Has anyone used Field 2 on salt water wet sand?

[Iron Patch]

Or is everyone sticking to beach mode? I'll be out fairly soon and will probably end up doing some wet salt sand hunting, but it will be for coins and relics and not small gold. Shouldn't the Equinox being a multi freq. detector run all in all of the preset programs, as would an Explorer, E-trac, CTX etc.?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[vferrari]

I can't get anything other than Beach 1 or 2 to run stable in wet salt sand. I can run any mode in dry sand. Only the beach modes are really set up to deal with salinity based ground conditions which shifts the ground reference significantly from ferrous based (i.e. into the gold region).

 

[Iron Patch]

I can't get anything other than Beach 1 or 2 to run stable in wet salt sand. I can run any mode in dry sand. Only the beach modes are really set up to deal with salinity based ground conditions which shifts the ground reference significantly from ferrous based (i.e. into the gold region).

I have no doubt that will be the case for me too, but strange in the way I thought multi freq. was the main reason a Minelab could handle the salt. My Explorer certainly has no issues.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

I have no doubt that will be the case for me too, but strange in the way I though multi freq. was the main reason a Minelab could handle the salt. My Explorer certainly has no issues.

As I read the manual, beach 1 and 2 both use multi frequency, 1 weighted towards the lower frequencies, 2 weighted even more towards the lower frequencies. In other modes the weighting is towards the higher frequencies. The EQ to me sounds like a multi frequency Explorer where the multi frequencies are configurable and the machine can be tailored for optimal performance for a given type of site, beach, field, etc. The Explorer is really a one size fits all machine.

 

[WaterWalker]

Field 1 and 2 work OK for FRESH water beaches, but NOT SALT water.
When I learn more about the Equinox, I will try 5 tones instead of the 50 in the FIELD presets.

 

[Iron Patch]

As I read the manual, beach 1 and 2 both use multi frequency, 1 weighted towards the lower frequencies, 2 weighted even more towards the lower frequencies. In other modes the weighting is towards the higher frequencies. The EQ to me sounds like a multi frequency Explorer where the multi frequencies are configurable and the machine can be tailored for optimal performance for a given type of site, beach, field, etc. The Explorer is really a one size fits all machine.

That's definitely interesting, and I guess suggests one should stick with the Field 2 & Beach 2 for the most part. (Those being the two that seem like the ones I will prefer) There in one setting I'm curious to play with, and that's the recovery. I see on each program it's set to 3, which is the equivalent to 6 on the 800, and is super fast. One thing I've learned about the Dues, it being my main detector now, for most of my sites, ever around iron, I much prefer a reactivity setting at 2, which is nowhere close to how fast this detector can recover. In iron I find it's much better to drop in coil size and keep the setting at 2 than to do anything else. So with the Equinox I was thinking I would most likely do all my hunting with the setting of either 1 or 2 on the recovery.... but this detector seems like such a different beast maybe it will not lose as much depth with the higher recovery... and I would hope that would be the case given they have the factory preset set so high. I will be sticking to the basic programs for the first while, but the recovery will be my first tweak to the settings when I experiment.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

That's definitely interesting, and I guess suggests one should stick with the Field 2 & Beach 2 for the most part. (Those being the two that seem like the ones I will prefer) There in one setting I'm curious to play with, and that's the recovery. I see on each program it's set to 3, which is the equivalent to 6 on the 800, and is super fast. One thing I've learned about the Dues, it being my main detector now, for most of my sites, ever around iron, I much prefer a reactivity setting at 2, which is nowhere close to how fast this detector can recover. In iron I find it's much better to drop in coil size and keep the setting at 2 than to do anything else. So with the Equinox I was thinking I would most likely do all my hunting with the setting of either 1 or 2 on the recovery.... but this detector seems like such a different beast maybe it will not lose as much depth with the higher recovery... and I would hope that would be the case given they have the factory preset set so high. I will be sticking to the basic programs for the first while, but the recovery will be my first tweak to the settings when I experiment.

IMPORTANT: Beach hunting and Recovery speed - you will use Slow, Medium, and Fast recovery speeds while beach hunting, at times switching between them during a single hunt. You may hunt with a slow recovery speed for 100 yards, then have to switch to a medium recovery speed or even a high recovery speed, then 50 yards further switch back to a slow recovery speed again.

Do you want to MISS big fat gold and platinum rings? I told you recovery speed was important. Then adjust your recovery speed correctly for the section of beach you are hunting. Using medium to fast recovery speeds you can walk right past these rings pretty easily. Even if you are being careful, even if you are slowing gridding a beach. With medium to fast recovery speeds (Normal tones on an Explorer) you have to be super careful to slightly overlap your swings. Pay attention to the end of your swings also as you step forward you will miss them there more often. With a slow recovery speed your coil becomes much larger. On a salt water beach a slow recover speed (Long tones on an Explorer) an 11 inch coil grows to the size of an 18 inch coil. You can begin to detect rings several inches off to the side and front of your coil. This is how you avoid missing rings when beach hunting.

Example: Bernie and I were hunting two sections of beach, there's a lifeguard stand at both locations during the summer. There were quite a few targets, probably 1 target every 2-5 feet. I was using an Explorer with normal tones, Bernie was using a Sovereign with long tones. I spent maybe an hour or more gridding my beach section, dragging my scoop behind me so I could see where I had been, detecting up/down the beach between the water and high tide line. Bernie came walking over from his beach section to see how I was doing, just zig zagging and swinging over the beach I had already gridded. He stopped about half way and motioned for me to come over. Right there right centered on my scoop drag line, he pointed, target was a BIG FAT PLATINUM wedding band gawwd the signal was HUGE. It must have been in that little missed space between the end of two swings. Had I been using long tones no way that would have gone unnoticed.

If you have some sand piled onto the beach that buried the iron mostly out of reach of the detector, and the targets are reasonably spread out use a lower recovery speed. If you are quick walking between two lifeguard stands, that dead space with few if any targets again, use a lower recovery speed and walk fast. When you get to the lifeguard stand area do a quick zig/zag to assess. If there's not much iron and targets are spread out pretty decent continue using the lower recovery speed. If you are hunting during the summer when the ocean wave action tends to quickly burry all the targets in FEET of pushed up sand again slow recovery speed. The only targets reachable will be those recently lost, the past few days, maybe 1-3 weeks. Everything else is buried under so many feet of sand its like its not there. You won't need faster recover speeds to pick between targets masking each other.

Medium to Fast Recovery Speeds - Use these mostly during the fall/winter/spring storm season. During the summer the wave type is slow curling surfer type waves, they pick up a lot of sand and heave it up onto the beach all summer. Feet of this sand can build up. During the storm seasons the wave type changes to angry crashing fast moving waves. This wave action flies up the beach with speed, grabs sand and pulls it back down into the water. As it strips this sand off the heavier (than sand) targets lag behind and begin to pile up in heavier concentrations. The more storms the more sand gets stripped the better the detecting gets. At first it exposes all that summer's buried targets, then the past 5 years buried targets, more storms, bigger storms, it can strip sand down to where you are digging coins from the 1920's. Some sections of Ocean City, NJ beaches have eroded 10 feet of sand off the beach.

As the beach erodes exposing more targets, eventually the iron starts to show its ugly head. The heavier eroded beaches can have a lot of iron, that's when you start using faster recovery speeds, just as you would if relic hunting or park hunting a site with lots of iron.

During the storm season you will notice some sections of beaches are eroded, cut down, scoured, bowled, while other bordering sections of beach remain sanded in, heaped up, mounded with sand. Pretty common. Don't waste time on the sanded in sections, look north/south look for depressions and make tracks to those sections. In some cases get back in your vehicle and travel to the next beach if it all looks sanded it. Been many a time my local beach was sanded in, drove 10, 20 miles south its target city. Or vise versa. The coast is not a straight north/south line, the beach sections face the ocean at different angles. Some storms strip one beach off if its at the right angle, others are not effected.

 

[cudamark]

Or is everyone sticking to beach mode? I'll be out fairly soon and will probably end up doing some wet salt sand hunting, but it will be for coins and relics and not small gold. Shouldn't the Equinox being a multi freq. detector run all in all of the preset programs, as would an Explorer, E-trac, CTX etc.?

For wet sand (and dry for that matter) I like Beach 1. If there isn't much iron or tons of trash, I usually turn down the recovery speed to 4 or even lower if the beach is real clean. You get a bit more depth that way. I also run the sensitivity up as high as I can, but, still keeping it stable so you can hear those faint deep sounds. Other than that, I don't make any changes. Now in the water, I'll use Beach 2 just so it's more stable with waves hitting the coil. Same thoughts on recovery speed and sensitivity. I've been experimenting lately with the gold programs on the dry sand. I find it very interesting! Never found so many stud earrings.........and tiny foil/gum wrappers!

 

[Tedyoh]

I have no doubt that will be the case for me too, but strange in the way I thought multi freq. was the main reason a Minelab could handle the salt. My Explorer certainly has no issues.

28 multi frequencies (FBS) vs 5 multi frequencies

 

[vferrari]

Actually, I think there is more to it than that. Yes, FBS is 28 frequencies, but how many FBS profiles are there, actually, on the Explorer? I think one, correct me if I am wrong. The rest of the adjustments are USER settings associated with that single FBS profile. It is kind of like having one MultiIQ profile set up to enable beach hunting stability and deep silver. Sure it will hit mid-conductors but it is really optimized to be a deep silver (high conductor) detector. Also, it appears that ML figured out how to do more with less in terms of numbers of frequencies by combining those 5 base frequencies in different ways and through sophisticated post signal processing to create optimal search profiles for different target types and conditions rather than having to transmit 28 frequencies into the ground at once.

On the Equinox, ML took multifrequency to a new level by setting up 8 different MultiIQ search profiles optimized for different detecting situations each with their own user adjustable settings. So the Beach profiles (which also have the greatest sensitivity to high conductors) can also handle the variable salinity ground conditions and are highly stable. Are they good for mid-conductors - well you will find gold with the Beach modes but not as small or as deep as some of the other modes (Gold and Park 2 and Field 2). So these "hotter" modes are less stable on wet salt sand because the Multi IQ is optimized for different conditions not because Multi IQ is not as stable as FBS. The FBS machines are basically sophisticated one-trick ponies (and somewhat slow ones at that). Will an Explorer, Etrac, or CTX do things the Equinox can't, of course. But there are a LOT of things that the Equinox can do that those machines would struggle with (thick iron, small gold) and for a lot less cost. I think you will not see ML release high end FBS machine in the future. I reckon ML will release higher end machiens than the Equinox in the future, but they will be Multi IQ based vs. FBS based.

 

[Tedyoh]

Sounds good to me except I change the "somewhat slow" to "unusable slow" for relics in iron anyway...as far as I know FBS handles salt very well for some reason(s), (not sure about the tough soils) and is great for giving those dig no dig F/NF numbers.....so I think there will always be a market for the cherry pickers who want to know, as best they can, what exactly they are digging.....sorta like the difference in the picture of a CAT scan vs an X-Ray

 

[cudamark]

I find that the FBS machines (Etrac and CTX anyway) do quite well in iron infested sites if you put them in 2 tone ferrous and go slow. The Nox makes it much easier though with it's fast processor. The Nox 800 is a great machine for "cherry picking" with all the adjustments that you can make to eliminate other targets you don't want to hear. I do like the ferrous/conductive numbers of the FBS machines however. Mostly because I'm used to them I think. I'm getting more comfortable with the Nox the more I use it, so, maybe after a while it will be no big deal.

 

[vferrari]

Sounds good to me except I change the "somewhat slow" to "unusable slow" for relics in iron anyway...as far as I know FBS handles salt very well for some reason(s), (not sure about the tough soils) and is great for giving those dig no dig F/NF numbers.....so I think there will always be a market for the cherry pickers who want to know, as best they can, what exactly they are digging.....sorta like the difference in the picture of a CAT scan vs an X-Ray

Yep, FBS handles salt but obviously so does Multi IQ (Beach Profile). You are right on regarding the precise target ID and visuals of the FBS detectors. No doubt when you are swinging over bottle caps and you can more easily precisely cherry pick under certain situations (looking for shallow clad drops while avoiding bottlecaps and pull tabs). But that's not how I detect anyway.

 

[Tedyoh]

I find that the FBS machines (Etrac and CTX anyway) do quite well in iron infested sites if you put them in 2 tone ferrous and go slow. The Nox makes it much easier though with it's fast processor. The Nox 800 is a great machine for "cherry picking" with all the adjustments that you can make to eliminate other targets you don't want to hear. I do like the ferrous/conductive numbers of the FBS machines however. Mostly because I'm used to them I think. I'm getting more comfortable with the Nox the more I use it, so, maybe after a while it will be no big deal.

TTF was definitely the best mode possible in the iron for me as well but in my opinion still just wasn't good (fast) enough....falsed too much as well

 

[smokeythecat]

I reckon ML will release higher end machiens than the Equinox in the future, but they will be Multi IQ based vs. FBS based.

Just insert cash. I like it. Of course something else is coming, it always does. The next year will be fun to watch.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

28 multi frequencies (FBS) vs 5 multi frequencies

FBS only transmits 2 frequencies vs Equinox 5 frequencies. In simple terms FBS transmits 2 frequencies and processes 28. Equinox transmits 5 frequencies and its unknown how many total frequencies it processes. But logically its more than 28.

FBS transmits a square wave at 2 frequencies, these produce an infinite number of harmonic frequencies. So transmit a 5 kHz square wave, get back an infinite number of harmonic frequencies, 5 kHz, 5.5 kHz, 6 kHz and so on. But there's a catch, each odd order harmonic frequency is weaker than the next. So the 2nd order harmonic of 5 kHz is weaker than the transmitted 5 kHz, the 3rd order harmonic is weaker than the 2nd, the 4th weaker than the 3rd and so on. So while an infinite number of harmonic frequencies are produced, only a few are strong enough to be useful to the detector.

Now FBS 2 transmitted frequencies vs Equinox 5 transmitted frequencies, lets say FBS is using a 6th order harmonic at 20 kHz while Equinox is transmitting a primary frequency at 20 kHz which is stronger, yep the Equinox by some magnitude. That's why 5 is better than 2.

Here you see the harmonics growing weaker...

 

[Iron Patch]

IMPORTANT: Beach hunting and Recovery speed - you will use Slow, Medium, and Fast recovery speeds while beach hunting, at times switching between them during a single hunt. You may hunt with a slow recovery speed for 100 yards, then have to switch to a medium recovery speed or even a high recovery speed, then 50 yards further switch back to a slow recovery speed again.

Do you want to MISS big fat gold and platinum rings? I told you recovery speed was important. Then adjust your recovery speed correctly for the section of beach you are hunting. Using medium to fast recovery speeds you can walk right past these rings pretty easily. Even if you are being careful, even if you are slowing gridding a beach. With medium to fast recovery speeds (Normal tones on an Explorer) you have to be super careful to slightly overlap your swings. Pay attention to the end of your swings also as you step forward you will miss them there more often. With a slow recovery speed your coil becomes much larger. On a salt water beach a slow recover speed (Long tones on an Explorer) an 11 inch coil grows to the size of an 18 inch coil. You can begin to detect rings several inches off to the side and front of your coil. This is how you avoid missing rings when beach hunting.

Example: Bernie and I were hunting two sections of beach, there's a lifeguard stand at both locations during the summer. There were quite a few targets, probably 1 target every 2-5 feet. I was using an Explorer with normal tones, Bernie was using a Sovereign with long tones. I spent maybe an hour or more gridding my beach section, dragging my scoop behind me so I could see where I had been, detecting up/down the beach between the water and high tide line. Bernie came walking over from his beach section to see how I was doing, just zig zagging and swinging over the beach I had already gridded. He stopped about half way and motioned for me to come over. Right there right centered on my scoop drag line, he pointed, target was a BIG FAT PLATINUM wedding band gawwd the signal was HUGE. It must have been in that little missed space between the end of two swings. Had I been using long tones no way that would have gone unnoticed.

If you have some sand piled onto the beach that buried the iron mostly out of reach of the detector, and the targets are reasonably spread out use a lower recovery speed. If you are quick walking between two lifeguard stands, that dead space with few if any targets again, use a lower recovery speed and walk fast. When you get to the lifeguard stand area do a quick zig/zag to assess. If there's not much iron and targets are spread out pretty decent continue using the lower recovery speed. If you are hunting during the summer when the ocean wave action tends to quickly burry all the targets in FEET of pushed up sand again slow recovery speed. The only targets reachable will be those recently lost, the past few days, maybe 1-3 weeks. Everything else is buried under so many feet of sand its like its not there. You won't need faster recover speeds to pick between targets masking each other.

Medium to Fast Recovery Speeds - Use these mostly during the fall/winter/spring storm season. During the summer the wave type is slow curling surfer type waves, they pick up a lot of sand and heave it up onto the beach all summer. Feet of this sand can build up. During the storm seasons the wave type changes to angry crashing fast moving waves. This wave action flies up the beach with speed, grabs sand and pulls it back down into the water. As it strips this sand off the heavier (than sand) targets lag behind and begin to pile up in heavier concentrations. The more storms the more sand gets stripped the better the detecting gets. At first it exposes all that summer's buried targets, then the past 5 years buried targets, more storms, bigger storms, it can strip sand down to where you are digging coins from the 1920's. Some sections of Ocean City, NJ beaches have eroded 10 feet of sand off the beach.

As the beach erodes exposing more targets, eventually the iron starts to show its ugly head. The heavier eroded beaches can have a lot of iron, that's when you start using faster recovery speeds, just as you would if relic hunting or park hunting a site with lots of iron.

During the storm season you will notice some sections of beaches are eroded, cut down, scoured, bowled, while other bordering sections of beach remain sanded in, heaped up, mounded with sand. Pretty common. Don't waste time on the sanded in sections, look north/south look for depressions and make tracks to those sections. In some cases get back in your vehicle and travel to the next beach if it all looks sanded it. Been many a time my local beach was sanded in, drove 10, 20 miles south its target city. Or vise versa. The coast is not a straight north/south line, the beach sections face the ocean at different angles. Some storms strip one beach off if its at the right angle, others are not effected.

Great post, but more beneficial to others as I'm not a beach hunter. I did however spend a few minutes on the wet salt recently and the Equinox definitely runs quiet.

 

[vferrari]

Great post, but more beneficial to others as I'm not a beach hunter. I did however spend a few minutes on the wet salt recently and the Equinox definitely runs quiet.

Did you stick to Beach modes or try out any of the others?

 

[Iron Patch]

Did you stick to Beach modes or try out any of the others?

It was just a 10 minute walk down and back. I was more interested in thinking about what field I could hit, and it didn't really cross my mind to play around. Funny, I only dug one target and it was this button. I also have a feeling the detector would sound off on everything I want to find in beach mode, so would be no use in listening to extra noise.

 

[vferrari]

It was just a 10 minute walk down and back. I was more interested in thinking about what field I could hit, and it didn't really cross my mind to play around. Funny, I only dug one target and it was this button. I also have a feeling the detector would sound off on everything I want to find in beach mode, so would be no use in listening to extra noise.

I was asking mainly because you never actually mentioned which mode you were in, just that it ran stable. Nice button.