Just got going with my Equinox 800

Jdjeff said:

I just got my Nox800 and was able to get out a couple of times to 2 different locations. The first place: I found a clad mine of a sports park. There is so much clad there it's getting tiresome digging stuff up...mostly dimes. I can't believe how many dimes and the only thing I can think of is that the snack bar charged 90 cents for eveything. But there is change all over the place and happily not alot of junk. But based on the age of this place, I may get lucky on some jewelry but I highly doubt silver.

The other place is a fairly old park that is just full of foil and pop tops. This place has been through quite a few generations of picnics drinking and who knows what else. I've been there twice now and I just can't seem to come up with anything other than trash. But to me the age of this place has to have some good stuff to dig.

So my question is more about the second place. When you come across a place with such good possibilities but is so frustrating do you stay with it or just look for cleaner parks. Just curious.

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I love spots like that, if there’s good age to it. For me - the trashier, the better. All that trash is masking the oldies. Good luck!

Jdjeff said:

I just got my Nox800 and was able to get out a couple of times to 2 different locations. The first place: I found a clad mine of a sports park. There is so much clad there it's getting tiresome digging stuff up...mostly dimes. I can't believe how many dimes and the only thing I can think of is that the snack bar charged 90 cents for eveything. But there is change all over the place and happily not alot of junk. But based on the age of this place, I may get lucky on some jewelry but I highly doubt silver.

The other place is a fairly old park that is just full of foil and pop tops. This place has been through quite a few generations of picnics drinking and who knows what else. I've been there twice now and I just can't seem to come up with anything other than trash. But to me the age of this place has to have some good stuff to dig.

So my question is more about the second place. When you come across a place with such good possibilities but is so frustrating do you stay with it or just look for cleaner parks. Just curious.

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I'd stick with it, but it depends on what is acceptable to you as far as a trash to treasure ratio.
The oldest park in my town is about 110 years old. It is full of trash, foil, pull tabs, ring pulls, and deeper rusty nails. The local homeless population camps there as well and constantly replenishes the garbage. I dig and pick up ALOT of trash there. But It was our original county fairgrounds prior to 1920, and there has been a ballfield there (in a couple different locations) for at least 100 years. Lack of easy, plentiful silver tells me it has been detected in the past, but I have never seen another detectorist there in the 3 years I have been detecting there. But I KNOW it still holds good old stuff. Since I got my Equinox, i have probably spent over 100 hour there and I can't ask for a better training ground to help me learn the Equinox. As I have gotten better with it , I have learned how to unmask some of the good stuff. I found my first 100 year old coin there( a 2017 wheatie) , my first IHP (a 1900), numerous buffalo nickels and just last Saturday, I dug a 1900 V Nickel. I have found 2 Barber dimes, 6 or 7 Mercs and a couple of Rosies. There is a reasonable amount of clad but all of the good stuff I have found has been below the trash layer. I am sure there is lots more yet to be found.
The point is, if you know the dirt is old, don't give up because of the trash. Trash hides the good stuff and you have the right detector to help you sift through it. Keep at it, you will be rewarded.

Jdjeff said:

I just got my Nox800 and was able to get out a couple of times to 2 different locations. The first place: I found a clad mine of a sports park. There is so much clad there it's getting tiresome digging stuff up...mostly dimes. I can't believe how many dimes and the only thing I can think of is that the snack bar charged 90 cents for eveything. But there is change all over the place and happily not alot of junk. But based on the age of this place, I may get lucky on some jewelry but I highly doubt silver.

The other place is a fairly old park that is just full of foil and pop tops. This place has been through quite a few generations of picnics drinking and who knows what else. I've been there twice now and I just can't seem to come up with anything other than trash. But to me the age of this place has to have some good stuff to dig.

So my question is more about the second place. When you come across a place with such good possibilities but is so frustrating do you stay with it or just look for cleaner parks. Just curious.

Click to expand...

amc rulz said:

I love spots like that, if there’s good age to it. For me - the trashier, the better. All that trash is masking the oldies. Good luck!

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I'm currently detecting an area similar to your second place, but instead of a being a public park it is a private 3+ acre field that long ago was used as a trailer park but now is empty and unused.

It is very trashy, but I have managed to dig a total of 17 coins over 3 hunts so far, along with the usual share of trash

It's hard to avoid digging any trash, but in a way digging trash can help if that trash is masking good finds like the other poster mentioned.

Since the field I mentioned is not actively being used I have yet to find any fresh drops, you can tell all the coins I dug so far have been in the dirt quite a while though none of them are silver.

(as far as the first spot you mentioned and said: "so much clad there it's getting tiresome digging stuff up" be thankful, some of us are in areas where we wish we had an area like that )

But hey, my preference is trying to find very old coins over just a bunch of clad so while digging clad is fine with me, it's not a big deal to me I have not found a lot of clad so far, I'd rather find a handful of really old coins than a jar full of clad, but that is just my preference

As far as trying to find some coins in your second spot, try focusing on TIDs that are more likely to be stuff like dimes or quarters.

MTtrashdigger said:

......and I can't ask for a better training ground to help me learn the Equinox. As I have gotten better with it , I have learned how to unmask some of the good stuff.....

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+1 I was thinking the same thing about my newest permission I just mentioned, besides simply having fun detecting - I feel kinda like I am in an outdoor classroom learning my Equinox better

Everything at the snack bar was 80 cents. The usual change was 2 dimes.



Trashy location? Higher recovery speed; slower but moderate sweep speed. Find the right sensitivity setting too. Maybe around 14 to 19. GL & HH!

Foragist said:

Everything at the snack bar was 80 cents. The usual change was 2 dimes.



Trashy location? Higher recovery speed; slower but moderate sweep speed. Find the right sensitivity setting too. Maybe around 14 to 19. GL & HH!

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So far over all my hunts I have found more dimes than quarters or nickels, I'm thinking maybe dimes, being smaller, are easier to drop unnoticed when pulling stuff out of your pocket.

(and more pennies than dimes, but with pennies, many of them might be because many people might not bother to pick one back up even if they know they dropped it )

Foragist said:

Everything at the snack bar was 80 cents. The usual change was 2 dimes.



Trashy location? Higher recovery speed; slower but moderate sweep speed. Find the right sensitivity setting too. Maybe around 14 to 19. GL & HH!

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The paper menu that's hanging there now has everything priced at $1. I'm assuming that there has been an increase since this money was dropped. But the amount of money laying right below the window is incredible....almost like whoever was working there just threw it out the window. I mean there is so much change laying around that snack bar that it really sends my mind wandering. This sports complex is primarily for mighty mite level sports...like real small kids. And I can only think that when they go to get a drink or snack they too just toss the change on the ground maybe not even understanding what change is in this day and age. I mean we don't give kids a quarter anymore to go down to the candy store. Does it even have any value to these little kids? I'm not complaining but it's just funny to think about what is the common denominator with all this change laying on the ground.

Yeah...I was wondering if I should do something with the settings at the trashy park. If I didn't say it, I'm using the default Park 1 setting which has sensitivity set at 20. So maybe I'll back the sensitivity down like you said. I had to leave within 30 minutes yesterday as it got so frustrating. That and I forgot my shovel and only had my blade. But thanks for all the input. I do get the gist of what you guys are saying about trashy locations. This park like many others has gone through some "cultural" changes. It started out as wholesome and turned into somehole. I know it's an early 1900's park. The good news is at least the beer tabs I was finding were the old "beaver tail" type so I at least know the trash has some history...lol But my understanding is that is a good sign.

Jdjeff said:

I just got my Nox800 and was able to get out a couple of times to 2 different locations. The first place: I found a clad mine of a sports park. There is so much clad there it's getting tiresome digging stuff up...mostly dimes. I can't believe how many dimes and the only thing I can think of is that the snack bar charged 90 cents for eveything. But there is change all over the place and happily not alot of junk. But based on the age of this place, I may get lucky on some jewelry but I highly doubt silver.

The other place is a fairly old park that is just full of foil and pop tops. This place has been through quite a few generations of picnics drinking and who knows what else. I've been there twice now and I just can't seem to come up with anything other than trash. But to me the age of this place has to have some good stuff to dig.

So my question is more about the second place. When you come across a place with such good possibilities but is so frustrating do you stay with it or just look for cleaner parks. Just curious.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a great place to learn the Nox! Hang in there!!

Welcome to the forum Jeff. It looks like you have an incredible place to search. Good luck!

Yeah, if your research shows that a park is old, then that's a good spot to go. I hunt Chicago parks and believe me, trashy can't even describe what I go through. LOL. But as long as you know it's old, you will find a lot of random goodies buried underneath.

I decided to get the 6" coil for the trashy parks since it's really good at separating trash from good signals. The only downside is that, you get to only cover a smaller area compared to the stock coil. It's fine though since you can always go back anytime and hunt that place again and again. I've found several silver coins and jewelry at around 8-9 inches with the 6" coil. Really perfect for trashy areas.

BlueHuntsCoins said:

Yeah, if your research shows that a park is old, then that's a good spot to go. I hunt Chicago parks and believe me, trashy can't even describe what I go through. LOL. But as long as you know it's old, you will find a lot of random goodies buried underneath.

I decided to get the 6" coil for the trashy parks since it's really good at separating trash from good signals. The only downside is that, you get to only cover a smaller area compared to the stock coil. It's fine though since you can always go back anytime and hunt that place again and again. I've found several silver coins and jewelry at around 8-9 inches with the 6" coil. Really perfect for trashy areas.

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I got the bundle from BigBoyHobbies and it included the 6" coil. It's worth a try.

I can think of a park where we used to pull barbers, Vs, etc.... from, back in the late 1970s/early 1980s. But today, if you were to hunt these zones, they'd be zinc and wino and foil-ridden zones. So to suggest "dig foil till your arms fall off" is a recipe for insanity.

Instead the recipe is: Location location, location.

I have the same type of clad-rich sports park that no one else really has access to and multiple trashy public places. I used the sports park to learn basics and hear tones on the clad and dug very small amounts of trash to prove what I was hearing was correct. Now I am learning more things in the trash filled spots that have apparently been hit by detectorists through the years. I am still getting clad and such out of those, but the biggest and obvious targets are not there. What is nice though, is that I am finding some tougher pieces and that is forcing the learning to happen. The best feelings are coming from finding the nickels through the 2 different types of pull tabs. Sometimes I dig a tab just to prove the machine right.