Big Boys Hobbies

Minelab Equinox 800 - Lost in river. Does it float?

OK now that just stinks on so many levels for sure. No idea on its buoyancy characteristics, but I do hope you find it and it works. :good:
 
Thanks everyone. Knowing that it sinks I will look more towards the bottom. Hopefully it got caught on some trees that fell into the water last month when we had high winds.

Will be wearing protective clothing and a diving mask. Also will have an underwater light.

Fortunately I am in California and its been in the low 60's, so the water is tolerable for several minutes at a time. The water is waist high in most places.

Will report back here if I find it. ....
 
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Equinox sinks. Deus ll also sinks. Good thing about an equinox is you can get it back in one piece. Deus ll you'd never find the controls.
 
Unless that river is shallow and not very wide chances of it coming back are likely not super high. Under what circumstance did this happen, if you’re in the mood to say? Just don’t put yourself or someone else at risk to recover it, you‘ve already mentioned the downed trees that could easily collect a person as well…
 
Wow! Good Luck!

If the water is fairly clear... I would see if anyone with a drone can help. much safer.
 
My wife and I went to the stream today and I was in the water searching for about 1 1/2 hours. Unfortunately I did not find my Equinox 800. But I did find a children's bicycle a few feet underwater, a small flashlight, an industrial grade power supply, and lots of trash.

The biggest problem I had was that the water was so murky I could not see the bottom where the water was deep. So I probed the bottom of the stream with a stick - my new metal detector detector! 🙂

I ended my search after covering about 200 yards from the point last seen and downstream from there. After 1 1/2 hours I had to get out of the water because my feet and lower legs were getting numb from the cold.

I plan to go out again tomorrow with the strongest underwater flashlight I can afford.

The water level today was lower than yesterday. We have several more days of dry weather in the forecast, so hopefully the water level will drop some more.

First photo attached is the children's bicycle after I got it to shore. The bike is still in good shape but is missing the seat. My guess is that someone probably stole it and when they were done they tossed it into the stream to hide it. Not sure if I should report it to the police?

Anyway, I am fairly confident that I will eventually find my metal detector. The water level should continue to drop and next time I will have a better light. The only question is whether the Equinox 800 head unit will still be OK.

Bike.jpg


MaskInWater.jpg


MondayFinds.jpg
 
Remember just where in the stream width you dropped it. The current had to pushed it a line, for the most part. That is unless you had big rains. It really should not be as far as 200 yards? Focus on the close downed trees and eddy currents swirls. Hope this helps. If the thing did actually float at all, good luck. I hope for the best for ya.
 
N6BY said:
My wife and I went to the stream today and I was in the water searching for about 1 1/2 hours. Unfortunately I did not find my Equinox 800. But I did find a children's bicycle a few feet underwater, a small flashlight, an industrial grade power supply, and lots of trash.

The biggest problem I had was that the water was so murky I could not see the bottom where the water was deep. So I probed the bottom of the stream with a stick - my new metal detector detector! 🙂

I ended my search after covering about 200 yards from the point last seen and downstream from there. After 1 1/2 hours I had to get out of the water because my feet and lower legs were getting numb from the cold.

I plan to go out again tomorrow with the strongest underwater flashlight I can afford.

The water level today was lower than yesterday. We have several more days of dry weather in the forecast, so hopefully the water level will drop some more.

First photo attached is the children's bicycle after I got it to shore. The bike is still in good shape but is missing the seat. My guess is that someone probably stole it and when they were done they tossed it into the stream to hide it. Not sure if I should report it to the police?

Anyway, I am fairly confident that I will eventually find my metal detector. The water level should continue to drop and next time I will have a better light. The only question is whether the Equinox 800 head unit will still be OK.

View attachment 574501

View attachment 574504

View attachment 574505
Click to expand...
First, a brighter light won't help if the water is murky, it'll be like driving in fog with your high beams on. Second, there's a time limit at play and your detector has exceeded that now. IP68 means submerged 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. And third, if it's been bouncing along the bottom of the river in even a moderate current it's possibly going to be damaged. I'm sorry you lost it but you really shouldn't risk injury or death to attempt a recovery.
 
wow that sucks, I would say that if this were me I would start my search as far downstream as I would think the detector could have possibly drifted, I would get into the water with mask and snorkel and swim or drag pull myself upstream, that way any sediment kicked up by disturbing the bed should be drawn behind you giving better visibility also as mentioned above pay close attention to current flow eddies and swirls and corners where debris is naturally trapped
good luck with your search I hope you find your machine
 
I drove to a beaver dam about 1.3 miles downstream from where I lost my Equinox. I figured there would be no way my Equinox 800 could get through it. I walked upstream through the water and along the shore in places. After a little over 4 hours of searching I FOUND IT!!!!!!

It was on the bottom of the stream 5 feet under -- about 50 yards downstream from where I lost it. Today the water was about 1 foot lower than when I lost it on Sunday. That extra foot of water is why I didn't see it until today.

I came home soaking wet and very cold, but happy.

It looks to be in good shape, but I am not going to try turning it on until I can check to see if there is water inside the head unit. If its wet, powering it on could fry some circuits. Tonight I will do some research to find out how to take apart the head unit to get any water out.

I found a lot of stuff during the search. A small portion of what I found is shown in the attached photo. Also a photo of me, my recovered Equinox 800 and the pole I used for balance when walking over the wet and rocky stream bottom. On one end of the pole I had a powerful light in a watertight Ziploc bag taped onto the end of the pole.

I was amazed (and disgusted) by the amount of trash people toss into the stream. There was far too much for me to carry back to the truck. But I took it out of the stream and placed it along the shore. In the coming days I plan to bring a backpack and haul out as much as I can. (I will not need to go back in the water).

Below is a photo of me, my Equinox 800, and my balance pole after I got home. And the second photo is some of the stuff I found today and yesterday during my search. I will go back in the coming days to recover more of the finds. One is a large US Flag. I got it out of the stream and placed it on a large boulder to dry. I also found some large propane tanks, probably used by homeless people camped along the stream.


Success.jpg



TuesdayAndWednesdayFinds.jpg
 
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N6BY said:
I drove to a beaver dam about 1.3 miles downstream from where I lost my Equinox. I figured there would be no way my Equinox 800 could get through it. I walked upstream through the water and along the shore in places. After a little over 4 hours of searching I FOUND IT!!!!!!

It was on the bottom of the stream 5 feet under -- about 50 yards downstream from where I lost it. Today the water was about 1 foot lower than when I lost it on Sunday. That extra foot of water is why I didn't see it until today.

I came home soaking wet and very cold, but happy.

It looks to be in good shape, but I am not going to try turning it on until I can check to see if there is water inside the head unit. If its wet it, powering it on could fry some circuits. Tonight I will do some research to find out how to take apart the head unit to get any water out.

I found a lot of stuff during the search. A small portion of what I found is shown in the attached photo. Also a photo of me and the pole I used for balance when walking over the wet and rocky stream bottom. On one end of the pole I had a powerful light in a watertight Ziploc bag taped onto the end of the pole.

I was amazed (and disgusted) by the amount of trash people toss into the stream. There was far too much for me to carry back to the truck. But I took it out of the stream and placed it along the shore. In the coming days I plan to bring a backpack and haul out as much as I can. (I will not need to go back in the water).

Below is a photo of me, my Equinox 800, and my balance pole after I got home. And the second photo is some of the stuff I found today and yesterday during my search. I will go back in the coming days to recover more of the finds. One is a large US Flag. I got it out of the stream and placed it on a large boulder to dry. I also found some large propane tanks, probably used by homeless people camped along the stream.


View attachment 574616


View attachment 574617
Click to expand...
Mite stick the head in some bags of rice,it would help drawing out moisture
 
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