First of all Monte, it's good to see you well enough to be posting!

I hunt with the Equinox 800. The main reasons I like it?

1. Lightweight.
2. Very fast processor.
3. Customizable audio.
4. Frequency clusters (modes) that work well for me in the areas I prefer to hunt. I use Field 2 for it's ability to hit smaller, high conductors.
5. The mere mention of the word Equinox is all it takes to spur OregonGregg out of his bunker and into a fun banter.

I like to hunt the ghost towns and old building tear downs that are plagued with iron and tin. Wandering for hours in the desert and uneven ground with my Etrac could be quite a chore with it's weight. The Xterra I used before that was light enough but like the Etrac, demanded a pretty disciplined sweep speed. The NOX with its fast processor seems to accommodate whatever "sweep mood" I'm in.

I rarely use anything but the 6" DD coil. It's easy to maneuver under sagebrush and in/around debris piles. The little bugger hits respectable depths and the TID is generally accurate to 8" or so inches.

I really enjoy all of the audio options. Variety of tone and threshold sounds, customizable TID/tone brackets, adjustable volume within tone brackets, etc. I just wish I could figure out how to download the Minelab sounds onto Gregg's phone as ringtones for me and Rich.

There's valid arguments to be had on both sides of the Single/Multi frequency debate. I've personally done better with SMF. A nice option on the NOX is I can choose to run 5/10/15/20 or 40KHz in single frequency if I wanted to. I don't but, if I did, I'd probably run at 15KHz.

I like the options out there with the newer SMF's. Lisa runs a Legend and it pretty much has all the benefits described above.

All that being said, there are plenty of metal detectors old and new that can be lethal treasure finding animals. As has been rightfully mentioned in recent threads, the best choice is the machine a detectorist likes, knows well, and understands what it is telling them.

If you don't like your machine, chances are it won't like you either. If someone else doesn't like your machine...that's someone else's problem.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2023 03:06AM by Utmike. (view changes)