Would... Could... the Equinox Help Me?

SageGrouse

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2013
Messages
2,167
Location
Santa Fe NM
OK, I have a real problem, a real question.

As many of you know, I am, at best, a poor detectorist. Either that or I just cannot find the places y'all do.

Routinely, I see posts about folks finding silver coins. "Wowm, pulled two Barber Dines!" "I got a Standing Liberty!" "Four silver day!" et cetera. Some people have silver counts for lifetime totals up in the thousands, or hundreds at least.
I have found ONE Walking Liberty half dollar. In forty years of detecting.

Routinely I see posts about finding Indian Head pennies. I have never found one at all. I don't even find Wheaties! I read about folks finding Buffalo nickels. Never found one, myself. Not one.

Folks on here find silver chains. I never have. Fionding gold? Nope. Not me.

I have run several metal detectors. The first one (and most successful) was the Radio Shack Micronta. THAT is what I found the Walker with! AND a sterling silver salt shaker.

I ran a Tesoro Silver Saber and found ONE beautiful sterling silver ring. So I know it's possible. I have swung Bounty Hunter Tracker IVs and a MineLab X-Terra. So yes, I have tried out four different brands by four makers...
I have hunted parks, curb strips, yards, vacant lots, pathways, totlots, schools, wherever I could walk to. I've hunted mostly in suburbs and city/. I hunted Golden Gate Park in san Francisco.

But my question, and it's serious, is this: Is it me? I go "low and slow", I practice (as far as I know) good coil technique. I dig ALL signals, even the scratchy ones, if I can POSSIBLY locate them... I run in "all metal" mode almost all of the time.

I have watched videos, taken steps to learn the machines, and to emulate the methods used by detectorists in the videos...
so, is it me? OR is it the machines? WOULD a MineLab Equinox help me, or would it not?

I am reading such finds. Yes, I am "content" with my level of detecting IF I know it's just me... I'm visually impaired... but damn... I should THINK that since this sport DEPENDS on good hearing, that I OUGHT to be at the top of the game! Why am I not?

Sad fact is... I've NEVER had a guide. I have almost never detected WITH ANYONE... or even *seen* anyone else with a detector. almost ALL my forty years have been ALONE. So I cannot know if I am "doing it right". I did detect ONCE with someone on here, and we seemed to have identical techniques...

Reading manuals is great, and yes, I have read EVERY manual my detectors came with... meaning all of them. Because (except for the Xterra) I've never HAD a previously used machine. Even the Xterra came with a manual and I devoured it. So why are my results so poor?

Would a Nox help? If folks on here think it would... I am willing to TRY to save enough to get one. If, as I believe, it's not the machine, it's the detectorist... then I will continue as I am and just figure that, as I always say "gold is for other folks." Is there anyone on here with similar difficulties? I mean... a dry spell can be expected... but forty years? Moses was in the Wilderness that long!

Any ideas?
Sage(NOT giving up!!)Grouse
 
I sincerely doubt it is you.

In order to find thing they have to be there. You can not find something that isn't there. The guys on the east coast have 100's of years of history that the west just does not have.

My first day MD'ing I found a 1919 mercury and 3 Wheaties all with in 5 feet of each other. I thought this was "normal" and what to expect.. boy was I wrong.

Since then I have dug over a 1000 pennies and ALL have been memorials. the 2 silver Rosie's I found since have been 1952, 1958 and I lucked on a 64 Quarter the other day. Granted I have found 7 rings and other jewelry but nothing of value, since none were what I consider "great" but they are rings and I found them !!.

Anyways Hang in there when you least expect it ..things will come.


As to your question on the NOX helping you.. well Probably it will most likely get deeper but the stuff still has to be there in order to find it
 
With 40 years of hunting, even if you sucked, you would still have stumbled upon silver coins from time to time. A blind dog will find a bone on occasion. So I don't think you suck at it. I think it is your location. The NOX won't help you if where you hunt is thin on silver.

It is most likely not you but rather the places you hunt. You may need to rethink some of your hunting strategies and hunt some new places.

If you are finding clad on a regular basis, then you would have no problem finding silver. Silver coins are still just coins. It is just as easy to detect a silver dime as it is to detect a clad dime. If you are finding clad regularly and not finding silver, then you can conclude that there isn't any silver where you hunt.

As for jewelry found in areas not beach related, I find most of mine around basketball courts and football practice fields. All that jumping and running causes people to loose their rings and necklaces.

As for silver coins, research for older parks. Look for older neighborhoods with houses built from the 30' to the 60's time frame that are still occupied.
 
My experience with the Equinox (600) is that its benefit is in heavy modern trash (pop tops mainly). It finds things in the very small spaces between the other stuff that my other detectors would not have found. I have only used it a few weeks, and have not been on many old locations, mostly old ballparks (still in use) and one supposedly new park (1989), but I did manage to find a few wheaties where they should not have been (the new park) and one silver dime in the old park. Lots of clad, though. The problem in my immediate area is that there a lot of really good hunters with really good machines that were there before me. And I'm re-hunting places I hunted years ago with other machines. I did go over my own yard for the ump-teenth time, bur first time with the Equinox, and found a silver war nickel I had missed in the past. On those areas I've hunted without a whole lot of modern trash, it seems the Equinox will read old rusty deep iron bolts and nuts and bent nails as good targets. Still, it is a great machine as far as I can tell.
 
Would an equinox help? Maybe, but I certainly don't think it would hurt!:yes:

If you have the money to sink into a hobby you enjoy with no care if it's recouped. This is sage advice. Get a nice detector so you can focus on your methods & research and the "is my detector good enough to find what's there" questions go away.
 
The equinox could help , but the sites you hunt have more to do with what you find than anything else. If you are very limited on sites then a different detector only offers more potential , not necessarily more or better finds. Unfortunately you just cant know for sure unless you try , but thats not easy on a limited income. And you could end up buying an equinox only to find the sites you hunt just dont offer what you are looking for. So it is a bit of a gamble , there really is no good or all inclusive answer to the questions you ask here.

An upgrade offers increased potential , but potential and results are not the same thing. What you are looking for has to be there in order for you to find it. If silver is there the equinox will find it but if its not.........
 
Sounds like you have good detectors , the gold or silver just has to be under the coil.
An Equinox might help if your around high minerals and or iron. I don't know how much dirt and grass is in New Mexico. If its mostly rock then goodies may just be almost nonexistent?
 
Metal Detecting is like real estate. Location, Location, Location. You can not dig what is not in the dirt. Your X-Terra is a good machine and if the goodies were there i think you would be finding them. Maybe a better location might improve things for you.
 
I am like you. I have been at this since the mid 80's. I started with a Tesoro Silver Saber in San Diego.

Now I have found a couple Indian heads, last one was last spring. Several wheats, a couple silver dimes but nothing in the 1800's.

But i have never found a sterling silver salt shaker or a silver half:lol:

I have been on ground that dates to the mid 1800's up to today's time frame. Some ground just does not have the targets.

The first thing is you start questioning is the detector, am I getting the depth, is it fast enough (ect.). Then you read about some kid using el cheapo detector hits the big time. They were just at the right place at the right time.

Do you have a club in your area? I have enjoyed the clubs I have been in the past. They allow you to talk to others about different equipment and techniques. If they have club hunts, then you can get exposed to more locations that may just have that silver quarter.

We just keep at it.

Ray
 
As already mentioned, spend more time improving your research/historical techniques. Site history will trump detector brand ANY day.
 
My only advice is move to the east coast.:p But seriously, I'm gonna go ahead and say location is 80 percent of the battle. Do some research, Look not just for articles, but historic photos or post cards. In the photos concentrate on things like large groups of people, or businesses and areas that would have had heavy traffic(stores, grain mills, fair/harvest celebration grounds, picnic groves and orchards(not mass ones old small private ones), hotels, stagecoach stops and so on. Also study the industry in the area and find out where the money was being made. Then look at old census maps and try to relate family names to areas. In short research, research, research. You are against the odds out west, making the research that much more important. It's not like here out east where you can pretty much spit and find old stuff.
 
What the others said about location....but a 3khz coil for that X-terra would be a nice change up too.
 
I share your pain. I'll admit I've only been hunting coins/jewelry for a little over three years. I've pulled over 30, 000 clad coins, but only half a dozen silver coins. I have had some luck with silver jewelry (about 80 pieces) and even gold jewelry (9 pieces), but the silver coins elude me. It's frustrating!!! Especially when I see another detectorist from my area listing silver finds on this forum. I agree...what the he-- am I doing wrong?

So, I bought the NOX 800, (paid for with clad found by the last detector) one of the first in my neighborhood. And I'm still not finding anymore silver coins! I think the guys talking about Location! Location! Location! are probably right. But you live in one of the oldest cities in America, there should be some silver left in public areas. You just gotta find a spot that hasn't been hit by every detector made since the 1960's.The NOX may not be the answer, but I sure like the way it works. And get the 800. Even if you don't gold hunt, the wireless options make the difference in price between the 600 and the 800 insignificant.

Good Luck
J
 
I have dug thousands of clad coins. A heck of a lot of them are quarters, Would you believe, not one silver quarter !!! It's not me and it's not you, it's the site and how old the site is. Most on my sites are only 30-40 years old so I will find mostly clads. I do find and occasional silver dime and have found some IH's and some wheats on some older sites. Just keep going and try to find some new ground to hunt. I am sure you have a good bit of competition too. I am lucky here as I have little to no competition. I have some new sites to hunt so hopefully they will produce. HH and good luck.
Bubbaron NOX 600, AT PRO, AT CARROT PIN POINTER
 

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Grouse,my man! YOU sir,are a trooper! What you need to do is get ahold of Dan who is somewhere around you and let him take you a few places. You could be swinging the thing upside down,you could have left the battery at home,shoot man! I dunno! Never an Indian in HOW many years??? That’s a sign that something is seriously wrong,no matter WHERE you’re hunting! Things will appear in various volumes,but they will appear! We don’t know,you’re there,we’re here. Get with Dan the Man(yeah he’s in the local directory under that very name!) and perhaps you will then know WHY this has been happening!
Best of luck,it sounds like you certainly deserve it!:grin:
 
It sounds to me like it is your locations. if the treasure is not there it doesn't matter what machine you swing. The biggest and most important part of detecting is the location. Good luck out the Sage.
 
Grouse,

Like a few have said several things come to mind.

1) Internet research on old homesteads, or lost playgrounds. Where is everything. Find an history book of Santa Fe (think thats where you are) at the public library

(before I moved to the beach, thats 60% of what I did before I went out to dig)

2) Slow even swings, slow your walk to a crawl, make sure your coil is close to the ground. I today, walk a grid of 50ft by 50ft, with a 6" overlap.. (helped me)

3) a good pinpointer- hard ground is tough

As for will a EQ 800 help, It is the hot toy..... with Multi-freqency ID
and is very light!

Last thing..... Have a positive attitude going on your hunt

I know you will find what you looking for soon:cool:

Mike in Myrtle Beach
 
Better yet, if you're confident with your assessment of your site, invite someone with a nox to come hunt it.

Stand back and behold the wizardry.....


:lol:
 
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