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D&P-OR
Rich----I've been using the E800 in ghost town sites, old mining camps and some town parks.----(IMO), it doesn't do as well in iron as the Fors Relic---but---it does better in that lousy busted tin in those old sites than either the Relic--or CTX/Etrac for that matter (I'm talking busted tin here, not iron).----I don't like the balance of it (Equinox) swith the 11" stock coil--the weight/balance with the 6" is great.---My friend Steve is working on a shaft that helpfully will alleviated this situation.-----As to performance--in the last few months it has found me one Seated Liberty half & various other silver coins---whereas---the CTX going over basically the same areas & in the same time frame has found me two Seated Liberty halves, one Seated quarter & a couple of Seated dimes (one a 1850-0).-----They were found with the CTX & 6" coil.-----So you can take that for what it's worth---but so far I haven't gotten the performance out of the equinox I hoped for (yet).------But to be fair, I have thousands of hours behind the FBS detectors and the Equinox is a different "animal".------I'm not insinuating the FBS units are good in iron because they aren't--the Equinox does better in that regard---but---I have yet to find a detector that does better in iron than the Fors Relic.----I said iron, not tin---the Equinox does much better than the Relic in that regard.----------Del

Del,

I have limited use of my 800 in Monte's favorite locations. The vast majority of my time has been hunting parks (old and new) and the yards of old homes. I have a good feel for what the 800 can do with the way I am setting it up and have accumulated some confidence in it. These are places that I normally hunt with my Etrac. However, there seems to be a lot of competition in my area and many locations, even private yards, have already been hunted multiple times. I've been doing this long enough that I don't typically leave with an empty keepers pouch, but I believe having a detector that does things a little different helps me in 'gleaning' what was missed by previous hunters. So far, my 800 has been doing well for me in these types of places.

I had my 800 at the first WTHO last year up at Lone Tree and such but the 6" coils were not yet available so I dabbled a bit with the 11" coil but predominantly used my nokta/makro detector with the small 5" coil. My first opportunity to use the 800 with the 6" was at the Wells get together. I turned up a barber dime, some buttons and the usual stuff. Most of my time was spent out in the sage "fringe" hunting. I did spend a couple hours right in the middle of the trash. It is my impression that with the way I've set up and have been using my 800 so far, that Monte type places are not the forte' of the 800.

That said, I took note of some recent comments made by MKUS on the findmall Equinox forum that he's been having excellent results in some heavily iron trashed locations simply by pressing the Horseshoe button (U - All Metal) for his main hunting mode and allowing all targets to signal rather than discriminating out the iron. Many of us set up our other detectors this way and use an IRON AUDIO feature to let the iron signals through. Not sure why I didn't think of doing that myself other than I don't have a lot of experience in Monte type places.

Being that you're currently in the Southern realms and out of the freezer of the North, if you get opportunity, you might check this out and see if the Horseshoe (U Button) feature has some value in these types of places. I'm interested to know if setting up this way might be key for the 800 to hunting Monte type places.

Enjoy the Sunshine.

Rich -

Minelab EQ800
Garrett ProPointer AT