Vferrari and I finally got together today to do the promised side by side test of the Equinox 800 and the XP Deus. Since I had my Tesoro Vaquero with me, we also included it.
Here are the history, parameters and the ground rules we set: We were hunting in the horrible extremely highly mineralized Culpeper County, Virginia red dirt. This dirt is so mineralized, most people who attend the paid hunts there use PI machines. A lot of the locals have also given up with anything but a PI machine. The place has been hunted since the 1960's at least. The Army of the Potomac spent a lot of time there. BFO machines have been used, PI machines, VLF machines and multi frequency machines. Just about everything. The dirt itself is a hard red mineralized conglomeration with numerous minerals in it and an amazing amount of iron. The iron is so bad in some of the fields, the little magnetite crystals form rivulets in the gulleys when it rains. There are also some copper minerals and gold minerals in these fields. However, iron is king. Most of the rocks, which are numerous will make a machine "sound off". Hot rock city it is!
We got to the site about 10 and got our machines set up. We decided the fairest method of comparison was to use factory settings to dig today. So Hugh set up the Equinox 800 the 11" coil, with Field 2 and multifrequency mode. After ground balancing, no further refinements were made. I set up the Deus with the 9" HF elliptical coil, Deus Fast mode, tracking for ground balance and 74 khz. NO further tweaking was done. The Tesoro Vaquero was ground balanced, and I had the discrimination set on "3", which will ignore most small nails. The Vaquero has no meter, FYI.
Even though the site has been pounded for more than 50 years, there are still relics there. We did three tests. Our first test was as follows: I knew where I had dug eagle buttons and three or so minie balls from, so we proceeded to this test plot, about 8' x 8'. Hugh went first and the Equinox found 3 possible targets. We noted where each was. He said they were not exactly screamers on the machine. I first took the Deus and it easily found all 3 targets, and the same here, they were not especially good targets. I fired up the Vaquero and it also found all 3 targets. Hugh had the honor of digging them. (I let him do the work.) All there were mid sized nails.
The second test involved moving to a spot I had just found this year which was possibly overlooked by previous diggers. This time I went first with the Deus. In a 10' x 10' area, LOADED with hot rocks, which was really annoying, I found 5 repeatable targets, and at this site if you get a repeatable target, you dig it. I marked each with a little stick. Hugh came behind me and found 4 of the 5. The fifth, the 800 would not pick up. I then followed with the Vaquero. The Vaquero found 4 of the 5, but not the same four.
I let Hugh dig again. Aren't I gracious? The first target all the machines found easily was a minie ball about 8" deep! In that ground that is DEEP, considering the soil. The second target was a 1/4" piece of camp lead. This is the target the Vaquero did not see. It was about 4" deep. The third target was a bigger piece of camp lead. It was also about 4-5" deep, all three machines found it. The fourth target was ANOTHER piece of camp lead, which was about 6" deep and all 3 machines found. The fifth target was a percussion cap just under the surface of the ground. The Deus nailed it easily, the Vaquero chirped on it, which is a "dig me" sign, and the 800 did not see it at all. We were sort of perplexed at that, but a percussion cap in this dirt is a miracle anyway.
So after the "native target" test, we did the "planted" test. I had brought three objects. A minie ball, a percussion cap and an eagle coat button. This is NOT a park or coin shoot comparison, but a comparison for relics in iron infested and iron rich soil.
All three machines easily found the minie, it was down about 8", now for some of you folks, that's not deep, but for this crudola dirt, it IS DEEP. The eagle button I put on edge and all three found it, but it took awhile! It was also 6" down and was NOT easy for either of the machines.
The last item was the little percussion cap. I put it only 1" down. All three relics were in small plastic bags so we wouldn't lose them. The Deus found it, the Vaquero chirped on it, the 800 could not hear it at all. THEN we went detecting!
We moved over to a fence where I had found some cuff eagle buttons. All I found there was one iron underwear button. We did find quite a few tiny nails today. I then moved over to a fallen tree my kepi hat letter "A" had been found. Hugh came over and we started moving dirt and each of us found some camp lead, Hugh got a percussion cap and an iron underwear button. I moved over to where I found the 1858 flying eagle cent. Over the last few weeks, I had been playing around the tree and the stump, and today what was left of the roots of the stump finally gave up the ghost and came free. I had a half sort of signal with the Deus in the middle of the hole where the stump had been. After digging halfway to China, I could no longer find the target in the hole. I moved the loop over the dirt taken out of it (we were using full sized shovels), and had a screamer of a signal in the pile. I called Hugh over for the unveiling of something I hoped would be cool and it was an eagle breastplate.
We didn't find much else near the tree, so moved to a trash area for a couple hours - which produced nothing but some lead scraps.
We then moved back up the little incline and moved some big rocks, hot rocks at that, and under the rocks pulled a couple eagle cuff buttons, a brass suspender clip, more camp lead and little nails.
Hugh got a few other items, and I'm sure he'll add to this when he gets home. He had more traveling than me tonight.
I had a great time, it's always nice to go with someone else.
We also found out something very, very interesting. At the end of the day I totally disassembled the Vaquero. Hugh took the 800 apart. The S handle for the Vaquero nearly perfectly fits on the 800! There may be some science projects in the future.
Hope this helps.
Here are the history, parameters and the ground rules we set: We were hunting in the horrible extremely highly mineralized Culpeper County, Virginia red dirt. This dirt is so mineralized, most people who attend the paid hunts there use PI machines. A lot of the locals have also given up with anything but a PI machine. The place has been hunted since the 1960's at least. The Army of the Potomac spent a lot of time there. BFO machines have been used, PI machines, VLF machines and multi frequency machines. Just about everything. The dirt itself is a hard red mineralized conglomeration with numerous minerals in it and an amazing amount of iron. The iron is so bad in some of the fields, the little magnetite crystals form rivulets in the gulleys when it rains. There are also some copper minerals and gold minerals in these fields. However, iron is king. Most of the rocks, which are numerous will make a machine "sound off". Hot rock city it is!
We got to the site about 10 and got our machines set up. We decided the fairest method of comparison was to use factory settings to dig today. So Hugh set up the Equinox 800 the 11" coil, with Field 2 and multifrequency mode. After ground balancing, no further refinements were made. I set up the Deus with the 9" HF elliptical coil, Deus Fast mode, tracking for ground balance and 74 khz. NO further tweaking was done. The Tesoro Vaquero was ground balanced, and I had the discrimination set on "3", which will ignore most small nails. The Vaquero has no meter, FYI.
Even though the site has been pounded for more than 50 years, there are still relics there. We did three tests. Our first test was as follows: I knew where I had dug eagle buttons and three or so minie balls from, so we proceeded to this test plot, about 8' x 8'. Hugh went first and the Equinox found 3 possible targets. We noted where each was. He said they were not exactly screamers on the machine. I first took the Deus and it easily found all 3 targets, and the same here, they were not especially good targets. I fired up the Vaquero and it also found all 3 targets. Hugh had the honor of digging them. (I let him do the work.) All there were mid sized nails.
The second test involved moving to a spot I had just found this year which was possibly overlooked by previous diggers. This time I went first with the Deus. In a 10' x 10' area, LOADED with hot rocks, which was really annoying, I found 5 repeatable targets, and at this site if you get a repeatable target, you dig it. I marked each with a little stick. Hugh came behind me and found 4 of the 5. The fifth, the 800 would not pick up. I then followed with the Vaquero. The Vaquero found 4 of the 5, but not the same four.
I let Hugh dig again. Aren't I gracious? The first target all the machines found easily was a minie ball about 8" deep! In that ground that is DEEP, considering the soil. The second target was a 1/4" piece of camp lead. This is the target the Vaquero did not see. It was about 4" deep. The third target was a bigger piece of camp lead. It was also about 4-5" deep, all three machines found it. The fourth target was ANOTHER piece of camp lead, which was about 6" deep and all 3 machines found. The fifth target was a percussion cap just under the surface of the ground. The Deus nailed it easily, the Vaquero chirped on it, which is a "dig me" sign, and the 800 did not see it at all. We were sort of perplexed at that, but a percussion cap in this dirt is a miracle anyway.
So after the "native target" test, we did the "planted" test. I had brought three objects. A minie ball, a percussion cap and an eagle coat button. This is NOT a park or coin shoot comparison, but a comparison for relics in iron infested and iron rich soil.
All three machines easily found the minie, it was down about 8", now for some of you folks, that's not deep, but for this crudola dirt, it IS DEEP. The eagle button I put on edge and all three found it, but it took awhile! It was also 6" down and was NOT easy for either of the machines.
The last item was the little percussion cap. I put it only 1" down. All three relics were in small plastic bags so we wouldn't lose them. The Deus found it, the Vaquero chirped on it, the 800 could not hear it at all. THEN we went detecting!
We moved over to a fence where I had found some cuff eagle buttons. All I found there was one iron underwear button. We did find quite a few tiny nails today. I then moved over to a fallen tree my kepi hat letter "A" had been found. Hugh came over and we started moving dirt and each of us found some camp lead, Hugh got a percussion cap and an iron underwear button. I moved over to where I found the 1858 flying eagle cent. Over the last few weeks, I had been playing around the tree and the stump, and today what was left of the roots of the stump finally gave up the ghost and came free. I had a half sort of signal with the Deus in the middle of the hole where the stump had been. After digging halfway to China, I could no longer find the target in the hole. I moved the loop over the dirt taken out of it (we were using full sized shovels), and had a screamer of a signal in the pile. I called Hugh over for the unveiling of something I hoped would be cool and it was an eagle breastplate.
We didn't find much else near the tree, so moved to a trash area for a couple hours - which produced nothing but some lead scraps.
We then moved back up the little incline and moved some big rocks, hot rocks at that, and under the rocks pulled a couple eagle cuff buttons, a brass suspender clip, more camp lead and little nails.
Hugh got a few other items, and I'm sure he'll add to this when he gets home. He had more traveling than me tonight.
I had a great time, it's always nice to go with someone else.
We also found out something very, very interesting. At the end of the day I totally disassembled the Vaquero. Hugh took the 800 apart. The S handle for the Vaquero nearly perfectly fits on the 800! There may be some science projects in the future.
Hope this helps.
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