Why does my EQUINOX 600 absolutely LOVE fooling my with rusted objects????

To clear up my poor communication skills, I have had the NOX 600 since April 2018. I had found enough during the first 2 weeks in April of 2018 to pay for itself.
I get caught in these “droughts” and I am getting frustrated with hitting silver, I think I have it down then it mind rapes me and I loose all confidence. Like yesterday at the Saylorsburg Lake Old old old baseball field I got raped with about old,pre1900, rusty nails. Or whatever the hell they were trying to make and call a nail back then

OH, you are talking the old SQUARE NAILS. Different story, to some degree, there. Square nails are MUCH harder to deal with. Yes, those will fool you into thinking you have a silver coin MUCH more often then regular, more modern nails. I feel your pain, LOL! But again, they fool you more often on other machines, as well.

There's a particular site I like to hunt when I'm back home in PA; it's an OLD church (dates to around 1800), and it has burned two or three times, in its history. SO, the front yard is LITTERED with square nails...but, there are enough goodies in there, as well, that it's well worth the effort. Anyway, I started hunting it with my Explorer about 8 years ago, and the square nails there are SO tough to deal with. Certain ones are nearly indistinguishable from being a silver coin. I then hunted it with the CTX, and while I pulled out several more keepers, I still struggled, digging square nails that sounded like silver. Last summer, I hit the site for the first time with the Equinox, and yes, I dug quite a few of those blasted square nails. No doubt about it. But -- I pulled out several more Indian Head pennies, as well...

SO, I guess my point is that ONE -- I feel your pain; square nails are definitely the toughest nail to deal with, and TWO -- it's not just the Equinox. My experience is that square nails sound much "better" on ANY machine, as compared to modern nails. The CTX target trace can help SOME -- but still...from my perspective, square-nail-infested sites are the most difficult to deal with, hands down.

Steve
 

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Have you tried wiggling the coil as you move it away from target? Many times if you do the target TID will become unstable and even give negative numbers as it bounces if it is iron while a good target TID will remain fairly consistent.
 

Have you tried wiggling the coil as you move it away from target? Many times if you do the target TID will become unstable and even give negative numbers as it bounces if it is iron while a good target TID will remain fairly consistent.

Yes this. Because the good signal you are getting on that nail is actually off center from the nail. Pin point that target next time find center then switch back to program. You will find on those nails(along with large iron) the signal is jumpy and will iron grunt if directly over the nail or iron. This is why I prefer all metal mode, you dont need to switch around to find out, you can hear what's going on
 

Another way or trick to help eliminate false positive on so iron target is to switch to 10 khz and check the target, on 600 you hit freq twice and your on 10 khz twice again and your back to multi-iq.
 

Let’s have a duel there mr professional. I’ll destroy anyone who dares to swing like I swing I’m very patient (unless it’s with that damn iron)[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
 

Let’s have a duel there mr professional. I’ll destroy anyone who dares to swing like I swing I’m very patient (unless it’s with that damn iron)[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


Who are you calling "mr professional"? All anyone who replied are doing is trying to help you.
 

Throw me a se pro and I’ll verify anyone’s finds with near perfect %

People have taken the time to give you constructive suggestions. No positive acknowledgements by you that you appreciate the effort and no indication you are actually taking any of the suggestions seriously here. It appears you had at least one opportunity to apply the suggestions at your recent ballfield hunt but no indication you bothered to put any of them to practice. Just nonsensical challenges to those who have posted advice in good faith coupled with random long-in-the-tooth FBS detector call outs and continuing rants. You have not taken the time to give us any useful background on the type of hunting you prefer, your typical Equinox settings used, and seem to have little knowledge about how iron affects detector response or even the significance of what the type of nail you are finding tells you about the age of the site you are at, there is little more anyone here can do to help you further. If it has been indeed a year since you first started swinging the Equinox, it is apparent you have hit some sort of learning curve wall if you are still struggling mightily with iron signals at this point. I can only suggest that if you are still interested in giving the Equinox a go, perhaps investing in Andy Sabisch's or Clive Clynick's Equinox books because forum advice is just not working for you.

Based on your repeated call outs of FBS machines, I can only conclude that you are primarily a coin shooter and modern jewelry hunter who doesn't really care if your machine can unmask in iron (which is one of the strong suits of the Equinox and something the Explorer and CTX struggle with because of their recovery speed limitations). To the Equinox user, depth is not the end-all and be-all and we don't need to trade speed and separation for precise 4 digit CO-FE target ID's or target track displays to avoid iron or to be able to call a target before it is recovered. Equinox is about the audio, about versatility, about recovery speed. I agree with you that Equinox iron bias is not all that. It is a crutch and another filter I don't need masking potential non-ferrous targets. IB=0 is my default setting. The thing is, as you are finding out, the silvers are not just hanging out there in the open. There actually is not that much difference in depth performance in VLF detectors anymore. So the out in the open and even deep silver is few and far between. The silver out there is hiding in the trash and iron. It may not actually be all that deep because of that, but was probably missed by the slower machines who were overwhelmed by the iron or non-ferrous trash density. So speed and separation are the name of the game. And if a site is devoid of silver altogether, that is not the detector's fault. What you need may not be a new detector but decent permissions. A pinpointer on a stick can do wonders at the right site and a great permission is more valuable than 10 CTX's.

Bottom line, it is clear the Equinox is not your cup of tea and not set up well for your detecting priorities and there is no shame in that and frankly makes no difference to those who do find the Equinox to be a good machine - so no need to challenge folks to detector target ID duels - lol. As others have suggested, it makes sense for you to just move on, cash in the 600 and put the money back towards one of the "real" FBS machines you regret giving up. No need to bang your head against the wall further and continue to be frustrated with the Nox. Life is too short and there is a lot of great stuff in the ground that needs to be recovered. Good luck and happy hunting - hope you kill it with your new (or used) CTX, eTrac, or Explorer.
 

vferrari, that was a well thought out post and thank you for posting it. I hope the OP will be able to get a takeaway or two from it, I sure did. I've been killing it with my EQ 800 since I got mine in Feb 19, at a park I have hit hard with several different machines. Iron is sometimes troubling, but it hasn't hindered me much at all. As you said, speed and separation have made the difference for me, even at depth with the 800.
 

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1559786783.986579.jpg

Assuming and concluding too soon as this is my best find ever. Found with none other than my 1st metal detector, SE PRO, in an enormous cornfield about 14-16” deep. A native copper, native Americans Celt/adze
 

No detector on the market will help you find gratitude or good manners. Why even post if you don't want the advice?

Chub
 

The adze is a great find. My first detector would have beeped on that too but it was basically a toy compared to your SE pro. I am not longing to go back, though. But perhaps you should get that SE Pro back and relive the glory day/days as Equinox is just not cutting the mustard. Saves on venting at your fellow forum members too.

If you really enjoy meteorite hunting, an 800 with gold mode and the higher single frequencies would probably have been your best bet if you were going the Equinox route. High frequency gold machines do best with metallic iron-nickel meteorites. You can still be effective on the 600 using the non-beach "2" modes (Park 2, Field 2) which are weighted to the higher frequencies and therefore are more sensitive to the mid-conductive metals in meteorites. Ironically, since metallic meteorites are comprised primarily of iron...well it sounds like your Equinox iron magnet is your perfect choice. :laughing7:
 

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I think Mr Screamer is partially sarcastic with his remarks and most likely a good detectorist that knows what’s up with iron sites. My best finds were with my A250, but went back to these sites and found more with the Nox. Then tried to pull even more from these sites with the Nox, started digging super iffy signals (sometimes with a hightone) and popped mostly iron. Best to mix in new sites, get lucky on an occasional virgin hot spot and pound the old sites.
 

It might be helpful if ones age could be posted near the avatar.
 

Vferrari,
Outstanding post #30. Like a Dad trying to be honest with a recalcitrant child so that child may grow.
 

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