Time for an upgrade?

RockieBoston · Feb 25, 2021

Mostly coinshooting New England parks, some cellarholes, want to start the saltwater beaches as the only thing unfrozen during our winter.

My Teknetics doesn't work around saltwater, so beaches are out.

Please allow me to vent because I have super limited time for this hobby and it feels like forever since I found anything good. How can silver dimes, pre '82 pennies and bottle caps be the same ID#? Probably 90% of the coins I find are pre-1982 Lincoln pennies. Those low-80s tones on the Delta. How can different metals all ring up the same?

Also how can something be a solid 82-84 then you get it out of the dirt and it's a bottle cap and pass the coil over and it's 77? Driving me nuts.

If it's a coin alone in a field on a wet day sitting perfectly horizontal under the soil the Delta is accurate on it to 8". Anything less than that perfect scenario is a lot of digging for little reward. I'm kind of bummed I bought a sniper coil and it doesn't help dig better targets either.

I've come to the conclusion after a year of this that I need an upgrade, at least something I can take on the beach.

I'm this close to pulling the trigger on an upgrade to a Nox 600. The parks I hunt are trashy AF and I need a machine that will tell a bottlecap from a Barber dime.

Will a Nox help? Please tell me this is a detector issue. I do not want to throw good money after bad.

jmaclen · Feb 25, 2021

Your first big question about overlapping target IDs.........many metals have very similar induction/resistance/conductivity characteristics when their atomic structure is stimulated by a bit of external voltage.

Bottle caps.......I am guessing you mean the mostly steel crown beer/pop caps and the aluminum screw caps that go on various beverages along with the tiny aluminum screw caps that go on alcoholic beverage shot bottles. Those are three different targets and can have three different numerical target IDs on the Equinox.

Steel crown beer/pop caps that are in good condition can have several different target IDs all at the same time like 12/13 20/21 and 25/26 or even higher depending on how shallow they are, if they have aluminum foil on them or if they are Coronas. Near the surface they can sound like a multi denomination US coin spill will a little iron mixed in if you have your iron bias cranked up and have accepted part of the iron range target IDs.

If they are rusted, then you will get more iron responses with some solid 12 to 14 numbers which overlap with US nickels, some pull-tabs and some gold rings.

The large and small aluminum screw caps will hit between 19 and 24 if they haven't been crushed flat in which case they may read a little higher. Those numbers correspond with, zinc pennies, and the beginning of the (24) clad dimes, silver dimes, copper pre-1982 penny range along with the beginning of the silver jewelry range.

If you want a detector that can always differentiate between these items you might want to wait until there is a detector that not only detects via electromagnetism like the ones we have today but also has ground penetrating radar and video imaging. That will cost a lot more than your Tek Delta and at least 20 Equinox 600s when one is invented and released to the public.

Target overlap is a way of life for trash collectors like we detector users. The Equinox is really good at identifying and putting an accurate set of numbers and tones to a target, even targets at the extent of its detection depth. It will not be totally able to tell you exactly what it is without you spending a lot of hours of practice. I'm talking hundreds to thousands of hours.

I am by no means trying to discourage you from buying an Equinox 600. It is about as good as you can get for the money. Even when you learn its language you will still dig aluminum and rusted iron/steel trash just like you will with any good detector. You can avoid much of the trash if you want to notch out a ton of target IDs but that would be at the risk of walking over a multi gram gold or platinum ring or two that might also be loaded with diamonds.

RockieBoston · Mar 1, 2021

jmaclen said:
Your first big question about overlapping target IDs.........many metals have very similar induction/resistance/conductivity characteristics when their atomic structure is stimulated by a bit of external voltage.

Bottle caps.......I am guessing you mean the mostly steel crown beer/pop caps and the aluminum screw caps that go on various beverages along with the tiny aluminum screw caps that go on alcoholic beverage shot bottles. Those are three different targets and can have three different numerical target IDs on the Equinox.

Steel crown beer/pop caps that are in good condition can have several different target IDs all at the same time like 12/13 20/21 and 25/26 or even higher depending on how shallow they are, if they have aluminum foil on them or if they are Coronas. Near the surface they can sound like a multi denomination US coin spill will a little iron mixed in if you have your iron bias cranked up and have accepted part of the iron range target IDs.

If they are rusted, then you will get more iron responses with some solid 12 to 14 numbers which overlap with US nickels, some pull-tabs and some gold rings.

The large and small aluminum screw caps will hit between 19 and 24 if they haven't been crushed flat in which case they may read a little higher. Those numbers correspond with, zinc pennies, and the beginning of the (24) clad dimes, silver dimes, copper pre-1982 penny range along with the beginning of the silver jewelry range.

If you want a detector that can always differentiate between these items you might want to wait until there is a detector that not only detects via electromagnetism like the ones we have today but also has ground penetrating radar and video imaging. That will cost a lot more than your Tek Delta and at least 20 Equinox 600s when one is invented and released to the public.

Target overlap is a way of life for trash collectors like we detector users. The Equinox is really good at identifying and putting an accurate set of numbers and tones to a target, even targets at the extent of its detection depth. It will not be totally able to tell you exactly what it is without you spending a lot of hours of practice. I'm talking hundreds to thousands of hours.

I am by no means trying to discourage you from buying an Equinox 600. It is about as good as you can get for the money. Even when you learn its language you will still dig aluminum and rusted iron/steel trash just like you will with any good detector. You can avoid much of the trash if you want to notch out a ton of target IDs but that would be at the risk of walking over a multi gram gold or platinum ring or two that might also be loaded with diamonds.

Thank you for the helpful response. I'm going to discriminate less and see how that changes my finds. Prob will go with an upgrade soon though so I can hunt beaches and near power lines (the interference is a real problem, can't hunt half my yard because of that making the signals jump all over the place).

jmaryt · Mar 4, 2021

you could go with a vanquish 540,and just notch out the first two segments of iron, and see what that does! ..vanquish has multi-iq,same as the 600/800,just fewer adjustments and for a lot less money! I have the 540,and it is outrageously good on coins! better off to get the pro-pack.this gives you the very nice 8" coil as well as the 12" coil.

(h.h.!)
j.t.

The Lama · Mar 4, 2021

Try throwing down a steel bottle cap with nothing disced out see if your first hard sweep sounds like iron the return swing should be a little slower see if that sounds mid tone then your next few swings sounds high tone its a bottle cap,that technique works perfect on the at pro and might work on your delta it's worth a try

RockieBoston · Mar 10, 2021

jmaryt said:
you could go with a vanquish 540,and just notch out the first two segments of iron, and see what that does! ..vanquish has multi-iq,same as the 600/800,just fewer adjustments and for a lot less money! I have the 540,and it is outrageously good on coins! better off to get the pro-pack.this gives you the very nice 8" coil as well as the 12" coil.

(h.h.!)
j.t.

How is the vanquish with interference?

Monte · Mar 10, 2021

RockieBoston: said:
How is the vanquish with interference?

For me, using the V-540 in urban locations with power lines and other common EMI sources, I usually run my Sensitivity as high as I can, on the V-540, Simplex + and Apex models, and I have bvery little bothersome EMI. The V-540 is usually the quietest when I do get into some challenges. That's one of the better things I noticed early on.

Monte

cmason122 · Mar 10, 2021

RockieBoston said:
How is the vanquish with interference?

I get very little EMI with my Vanquish 540 even around power lines. I usually run full sensitivity or 1 notch down

jmaryt · Mar 13, 2021

RockieBoston said:
How is the vanquish with interference?

I echo monte's sentiments with the vanquish 540 as well! I have found it runs very quiet in urban parks, and school yards.i was hunting one park where I got some e.m.i. but I reduced gain, and she smoothed right out.generally,i run gain at max every where I hunt.

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Time for an upgrade?

RockieBoston

Full Member

jmaclen

Elite Member

RockieBoston

Full Member

jmaryt

Elite Member

The Lama

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RockieBoston

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Monte

"In Memory of"

cmason122

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jmaryt

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