BlueDog
Elite Member
I've read every thread on several forums on the Equinox, and I've recently read some not too glowing reviews. I don't intend this to be argumentative response, but my experience differed greatly.
My long awaited Equinox 800 finally arrived and in the six months I've been waiting Ive been eagerly planning to take my new machine to my long played out honey hole. This spot is on the north edge of my property, it's along Main Street and at one time the house that was there held our town's telephone switchboard. The lot has been grass in all of my 40 years. This tiny sweet spot is only 5 or 6 feet wide and is 40ish feet long. Here is a pic, (honey hole shaded in green)
This spot has been INCREDIBLY good to me, I've found tons of coins, Indian heads, Barber and Mercury dimes, some junk jewelry, even a couple of Canadian large cents (oldest being my profile pic). This is my 'go to' spot, its just across the alley from my house. When I need just to get out and hunt for a few minutes after work, this is where I go. I have hunted it dozens and dozens (and maybe dozens) of times. Slowly, the coins played out and the last coin I found there was over a year ago. But I still hunt it often.
I hunted it very hard with my old ATPro, with the stock coil, the small 5X8 and even the NEL Storm. Then I absolutely pounded it to death with my trusty ETrac, with my growing collection of coils. I hit it in standing water, powder dry in the heat of the summer, I used excruciating slow swing speeds, fast swings, super tight discrimination patterns, open screens, Two Tone Ferrous, high manual sensitivity, every Auto (even the negative options), gridded it north/south, east/west and every angle in between. Honestly, I really enjoyed trying to eke out just one more coin from there.
Enter the Equinox. I did a manual ground balance (high 50's), did the obligatory noise cancel, set my mode to Park2, sensitivity at 23. I soon disc'd out everything except 12-13 and 19-35. The 50 tones were not unfamiliar coming from an ETrac. I have stated here and else where that if I found a single coin here in this little sliver of yard, I'd be impressed.
After just a few minutes I had a repeatable high tone, man did it sound good. As an ETrac user I am pretty reliant on those sweet Fe-Co numbers, but these were terrible. Numbers jumped from the low 20's up into the high 20's. I turned 90 degrees, still bad numbers, even some teens in there, but the sound was too good to pass up. I dug down not expecting much, lo' and behold a 1917 wheat penny with a rusty bit in the hole as well. I was still skeptical, maybe I just missed it. Soon another sweet high tone (still with those fluttering numbers). I'll save you the play by play, but all targets had iron in the same hole or in the side wall, except for the V nickel, and it had a pretty solid "13" number. The 1943 Washington had a 5 inch long rusty lag bolt in with it. Ok, I'll admit it, I was officially impressed at this point. At one point I caught myself saying aloud "incredible".
Will the Equinox make every old spot new? No, of course not. I took it to the school house where I found my seated dime, I found no additional coins. Will it find stuff other detectors left behind, even the ETrac? Yes. I took it to another spot (also in my huge "yard") where I've found a few coins and I hunt pretty often, the Equinox found a 1897 Indian head, 1944 wheat, and a Missouri Tax Token.
So in closing, don't think people should judge this detector's ability in direct correlation to it's MSRP. I'm not sure how it does it, but clearly there are some magic algorithms at work here. It's not perfect, I wish it had the super stable SmartFind with the double number ID! But, I don't feel inadequate using it. I can't wait to keep learning the machine and rehunting all my spots.
Just my 2 cents, and forgive my long winded-ness.
_____________________________________________
Update: 4-1-2018
I don't have a ton of hours on this machine yet, but all experience just solidifies my initial feelings posted above. I have yet to take this machine over any new ground, and all the finds below are from my old spots that I hunted with the ATPro, and the Etrac as explained above.
The Equinox's separation is far and away better for me in the trashy yards I hunt. The last hunt is in a yard that is absolutely loaded with those ring type pull tabs, I did eke out a few Indian heads there and a single Rosie back in the day, but with the Equinox, it was cutting through those trash targets and it truly was like hunting a new spot. I found my now oldest IHP (1874) and lots of other targets. In the picture below, I didn't show the clad, bullets, shell casings, etc.
These are from the first half dozen hunts, over heavily hunted ground (by me and others). I don't think I'll use my Etrac nearly as much anymore. The Equinox is meshing well with me and my hunting style, and it continues to amaze me.
My long awaited Equinox 800 finally arrived and in the six months I've been waiting Ive been eagerly planning to take my new machine to my long played out honey hole. This spot is on the north edge of my property, it's along Main Street and at one time the house that was there held our town's telephone switchboard. The lot has been grass in all of my 40 years. This tiny sweet spot is only 5 or 6 feet wide and is 40ish feet long. Here is a pic, (honey hole shaded in green)
This spot has been INCREDIBLY good to me, I've found tons of coins, Indian heads, Barber and Mercury dimes, some junk jewelry, even a couple of Canadian large cents (oldest being my profile pic). This is my 'go to' spot, its just across the alley from my house. When I need just to get out and hunt for a few minutes after work, this is where I go. I have hunted it dozens and dozens (and maybe dozens) of times. Slowly, the coins played out and the last coin I found there was over a year ago. But I still hunt it often.
I hunted it very hard with my old ATPro, with the stock coil, the small 5X8 and even the NEL Storm. Then I absolutely pounded it to death with my trusty ETrac, with my growing collection of coils. I hit it in standing water, powder dry in the heat of the summer, I used excruciating slow swing speeds, fast swings, super tight discrimination patterns, open screens, Two Tone Ferrous, high manual sensitivity, every Auto (even the negative options), gridded it north/south, east/west and every angle in between. Honestly, I really enjoyed trying to eke out just one more coin from there.
Enter the Equinox. I did a manual ground balance (high 50's), did the obligatory noise cancel, set my mode to Park2, sensitivity at 23. I soon disc'd out everything except 12-13 and 19-35. The 50 tones were not unfamiliar coming from an ETrac. I have stated here and else where that if I found a single coin here in this little sliver of yard, I'd be impressed.
After just a few minutes I had a repeatable high tone, man did it sound good. As an ETrac user I am pretty reliant on those sweet Fe-Co numbers, but these were terrible. Numbers jumped from the low 20's up into the high 20's. I turned 90 degrees, still bad numbers, even some teens in there, but the sound was too good to pass up. I dug down not expecting much, lo' and behold a 1917 wheat penny with a rusty bit in the hole as well. I was still skeptical, maybe I just missed it. Soon another sweet high tone (still with those fluttering numbers). I'll save you the play by play, but all targets had iron in the same hole or in the side wall, except for the V nickel, and it had a pretty solid "13" number. The 1943 Washington had a 5 inch long rusty lag bolt in with it. Ok, I'll admit it, I was officially impressed at this point. At one point I caught myself saying aloud "incredible".
Will the Equinox make every old spot new? No, of course not. I took it to the school house where I found my seated dime, I found no additional coins. Will it find stuff other detectors left behind, even the ETrac? Yes. I took it to another spot (also in my huge "yard") where I've found a few coins and I hunt pretty often, the Equinox found a 1897 Indian head, 1944 wheat, and a Missouri Tax Token.
So in closing, don't think people should judge this detector's ability in direct correlation to it's MSRP. I'm not sure how it does it, but clearly there are some magic algorithms at work here. It's not perfect, I wish it had the super stable SmartFind with the double number ID! But, I don't feel inadequate using it. I can't wait to keep learning the machine and rehunting all my spots.
Just my 2 cents, and forgive my long winded-ness.
_____________________________________________
Update: 4-1-2018
I don't have a ton of hours on this machine yet, but all experience just solidifies my initial feelings posted above. I have yet to take this machine over any new ground, and all the finds below are from my old spots that I hunted with the ATPro, and the Etrac as explained above.
The Equinox's separation is far and away better for me in the trashy yards I hunt. The last hunt is in a yard that is absolutely loaded with those ring type pull tabs, I did eke out a few Indian heads there and a single Rosie back in the day, but with the Equinox, it was cutting through those trash targets and it truly was like hunting a new spot. I found my now oldest IHP (1874) and lots of other targets. In the picture below, I didn't show the clad, bullets, shell casings, etc.
These are from the first half dozen hunts, over heavily hunted ground (by me and others). I don't think I'll use my Etrac nearly as much anymore. The Equinox is meshing well with me and my hunting style, and it continues to amaze me.
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