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Equinox 800 vs Bounty Hunter......

detectorben

Elite Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2017
Messages
1,068
Location
Nebraska
Well not your typical detector vs detector matchup but let me tell you a story. It is a bit long but I think it is an important lesson for many to learn or remember.

I did some research on a local area that has been used for just about everything since late 1800's. There was a small lake with cabins, an amphitheater, small stores, boy scout camps, and church camps all on this property. It was actually called the "largest gathering place in north america" at one time. Boasting over 5,000 people daily in the amphitheater. It was bought by the city after it was shut down and turned into a wilderness area. It is very heavily wooded now and very little signs of what was once there remains. The park entrance has a brick archway and that is about it. Now I am not naive enough to think this area had not been hit as I knew it was probably pounded over the years. But it is in a 1,400 acre park and it is very overgrown so that limits how much it can be detected and when. So right now is prime time with none of the foliage coming back to life yet. So I headed off to explore and detect it today at lunch time.

So I show up at the entrance and begin to eat my lunch while I scope out the area to get an idea of where to start. An older man strolls up next to my vehicle and strikes up a conversation. He begins to tell me how nice of a day it is and how he wishes he would have brought his detector. I did not divulge my purpose there as I was interested to hear what he had to say first. He goes on to tell me about all the nice stuff he has found over the years at this location. Pocket watches, jewelry, and loads of coins. He said he has found hundreds of silver coins including many barber dimes, liberty quarters, indian heads, wheats, and a few halves. He tells me he found all of this stuff among the loads of trash at this site with his Bounty Hunter detector and most coins where only a few inches deep. He did not know what model machine it was just that he had paid $100 for and it was a Bounty Hunter.

I decided at that time to tell him why I was there and to my surprise he was happy to meet another detectorist and begin explaining everywhere he had found all of his glorious finds. I was surprised by this because many detectorists especially older ones tend to keep this information to themselves. By the time he was done explaining the area and telling me about all of his wonderful finds I had worked myself up into a near frenzy inside ready to burst out and detect my life away. So he wishes me luck and heads off telling me he hopes to see me again there another day.

So I grab my mighty Equinox 800 fire it up and do a noise cancel and ground balance and start swinging. I proceed to comb all of the hot spots he had showed me and many areas he had not pointed out. I quickly began to realize that I had worked myself up for a very big let down. After nearly an hour of swinging non stop I had not so much as dug one clad coin or any decent sounding target for that matter. I began to dig anything that even chirped a high tone no matter how deep. Still no luck. I proceeded to try different programs and settings hitting some of the same hot areas over and over combing over every inch and still nothing.

So after all the excitement and over 4 hours of detecting I ended up with not a SINGLE coin of any kind. The only remotely interesting find I ended up with was a buckle of some kind that may or may not be old. Needless to say it was one of the most disappointing hunts I have ever had. Apparently this man and his bounty hunter had picked the area clean somehow even amongst the trash!

Obviously he is not the only one who has hunted this area over the years I am sure. But I was nearly certain that the Equinox could sniff out at least one solitary dime the others had missed among the trash. This is now my 3rd hunt in pounded trashy areas with the Equinox without a single silver coin to show for it. By this point last year I had around 10 silver coins including a barber half. Starting to really miss my Etrac at this point.

This just goes to show how little metal detecting is about the machine you run and more about when and where you hunt. Sometimes with all the new excitement that comes with hot new machines some of us forget that. I know I do.

Sorry for the long story I just had to get this off my chest. I am really just feeling sorry for myself and it has very little to do with my detector or any detector for that matter.
 
You hit it head on,location.And getting your coil over it.Granted ,some machines are better than others,but it’s really marginal in my opinion.I know guys bury targets at a foot and hit them with this machine,and do the nail test with that machine..But for the most part even midpriced machines will clean a place out.I think I dug my deepest coin the other day,8 to 9 inches..Most are 6 inches,found a lot of halves last year and all were within 6 inch’s.
But location is the key,probably 95 percent of it,in my opinion.Cant find what’s not there.
 
I have 10 old home sites I use to both hunt and test detectors.
Out of all 10 so far, 9 out of 10 have produced at least one coin, some more than one.
Sites that have been personally beat up by me personally and some other folks too. Using Etrac, CTX, White's V3i, Xp Deus, Nokta Impact, Makro Racer1 and 2, using various sized coils and even freq using Xp Deus.

The one site that didn't produce, land owner took about 4" of dirt off of front yard with his dozer a couple years ago. Could this be the reason why Nox hasn't produced on it? Don't know.

I use these sites to judge a detector's coin hunting ability.

I have other sites I use to rate relic hunting.

Park 2 speed 7 is what was used to sniff out most coins found in my old house test sites.
My ground medium mineralized usually, at higher elevation gets a little more harsh.

Guess I need to add bounty hunter to my testing regime detector lineup.
 
Good story. Location is key. I enjoy squeeking out a good find on a spot I have hammered but is it really worth all the effort when you can be rewarded with handfuls of good finds on a virgin site. The term pounded site is often thrown around but very misleading. Pounded by who, when, with what machine and for how long? I can go to multiple previously great sites I have pounded and be lucky to find one old button. Sounds like you hunted a site that was properly pounded or that guy was a liar and that site wasnt ever any good. I never call a site pounded untill I have been as Im sure most do. Sounds like a lot of area to cover though until you can call it pounded

Research, location and swing time are what really matters. A decent detector surely helps. Im getting an Equinox 600 by the way but mainly for hunting in brackish river water which in my opinion no other machine can accomplish at this price point
 
Well not your typical detector vs detector matchup but let me tell you a story. It is a bit long but I think it is an important lesson for many to learn or remember.

I did some research on a local area that has been used for just about everything since late 1800's. There was a small lake with cabins, an amphitheater, small stores, boy scout camps, and church camps all on this property. It was actually called the "largest gathering place in north america" at one time. Boasting over 5,000 people daily in the amphitheater. It was bought by the city after it was shut down and turned into a wilderness area. It is very heavily wooded now and very little signs of what was once there remains. The park entrance has a brick archway and that is about it. Now I am not naive enough to think this area had not been hit as I knew it was probably pounded over the years. But it is in a 1,400 acre park and it is very overgrown so that limits how much it can be detected and when. So right now is prime time with none of the foliage coming back to life yet. So I headed off to explore and detect it today at lunch time.

So I show up at the entrance and begin to eat my lunch while I scope out the area to get an idea of where to start. An older man strolls up next to my vehicle and strikes up a conversation. He begins to tell me how nice of a day it is and how he wishes he would have brought his detector. I did not divulge my purpose there as I was interested to hear what he had to say first. He goes on to tell me about all the nice stuff he has found over the years at this location. Pocket watches, jewelry, and loads of coins. He said he has found hundreds of silver coins including many barber dimes, liberty quarters, indian heads, wheats, and a few halves. He tells me he found all of this stuff among the loads of trash at this site with his Bounty Hunter detector and most coins where only a few inches deep. He did not know what model machine it was just that he had paid $100 for and it was a Bounty Hunter.

I decided at that time to tell him why I was there and to my surprise he was happy to meet another detectorist and begin explaining everywhere he had found all of his glorious finds. I was surprised by this because many detectorists especially older ones tend to keep this information to themselves. By the time he was done explaining the area and telling me about all of his wonderful finds I had worked myself up into a near frenzy inside ready to burst out and detect my life away. So he wishes me luck and heads off telling me he hopes to see me again there another day.

So I grab my mighty Equinox 800 fire it up and do a noise cancel and ground balance and start swinging. I proceed to comb all of the hot spots he had showed me and many areas he had not pointed out. I quickly began to realize that I had worked myself up for a very big let down. After nearly an hour of swinging non stop I had not so much as dug one clad coin or any decent sounding target for that matter. I began to dig anything that even chirped a high tone no matter how deep. Still no luck. I proceeded to try different programs and settings hitting some of the same hot areas over and over combing over every inch and still nothing.

So after all the excitement and over 4 hours of detecting I ended up with not a SINGLE coin of any kind. The only remotely interesting find I ended up with was a buckle of some kind that may or may not be old. Needless to say it was one of the most disappointing hunts I have ever had. Apparently this man and his bounty hunter had picked the area clean somehow even amongst the trash!

Obviously he is not the only one who has hunted this area over the years I am sure. But I was nearly certain that the Equinox could sniff out at least one solitary dime the others had missed among the trash. This is now my 3rd hunt in pounded trashy areas with the Equinox without a single silver coin to show for it. By this point last year I had around 10 silver coins including a barber half. Starting to really miss my Etrac at this point.

This just goes to show how little metal detecting is about the machine you run and more about when and where you hunt. Sometimes with all the new excitement that comes with hot new machines some of us forget that. I know I do.

Sorry for the long story I just had to get this off my chest. I am really just feeling sorry for myself and it has very little to do with my detector or any detector for that matter.

Tell you what im going to do. I have a very nice etrac with extra coils that i will trade you for your nox 800. I will even throw in a rnb battery! Don't get down let me put some pep back in your step!
 
Tell you what im going to do. I have a very nice etrac with extra coils that i will trade you for your nox 800. I will even throw in a rnb battery! Don't get down let me put some pep back in your step!
Haha thanks. Don't worry I have a CTX on the way to fill the void my Etrac left so I will be ok. I traded in my AT Pro basically for this 800 so no buyers remorse from me. The Nox 800 does everything my AT did and much much more!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
great story,i had a kind of a similar story, i was working a beach from the north watching a guy work it from the south,he was hitting wet sand and dry sand .i was thinking wow this guy is cool not afraid of a little wet sand with his ace .when we met up in the middle i realise he was swinging one of those chinese ace copies . we got to talking and he showed me pictures on his phone of the 19 gold rings he got last year.its about location with time being the fourth dimension
 
Good story. Location is key. I enjoy squeeking out a good find on a spot I have hammered but is it really worth all the effort when you can be rewarded with handfuls of good finds on a virgin site. The term pounded site is often thrown around but very misleading. Pounded by who, when, with what machine and for how long? I can go to multiple previously great sites I have pounded and be lucky to find one old button. Sounds like you hunted a site that was properly pounded or that guy was a liar and that site wasnt ever any good. I never call a site pounded untill I have been as Im sure most do. Sounds like a lot of area to cover though until you can call it pounded

Research, location and swing time are what really matters. A decent detector surely helps. Im getting an Equinox 600 by the way but mainly for hunting in brackish river water which in my opinion no other machine can accomplish at this price point
Yeah I asked some other guys in my local club about this area and a very seasoned XP Deus user has been hitting that area for years as well as many others so it really is pounded. I am sure there is some silver left its just a matter of finding it in all that area. It is like a jungle in the summer as well. It is nearly impossible to hunt due to thick thorns, vines, and undergrowth. So I may hit it some more in the fall. I will have to hit it with the CTX some before I give up on it completely.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Haha thanks. Don't worry I have a CTX on the way to fill the void my Etrac left so I will be ok. I traded in my AT Pro basically for this 800 so no buyers remorse from me. The Nox 800 does everything my AT did and much much more!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

You could have Etrac and ctx!
 
great story,i had a kind of a similar story, i was working a beach from the north watching a guy work it from the south,he was hitting wet sand and dry sand .i was thinking wow this guy is cool not afraid of a little wet sand with his ace .when we met up in the middle i realise he was swinging one of those chinese ace copies . we got to talking and he showed me pictures on his phone of the 19 gold rings he got last year.its about location with time being the fourth dimension

Thanks. Yeah I have run into a few of these guys over the years. My father in law actually swings an ACE 300 and loves it. He has done pretty well with it over the years and is not afraid to hunt with me and my "fancy" detectors lol.
 
Maybe I should share this here.
When I get a detector, I want to know what are its strongest suits.
And what its mediocre suits are.
And where is the detector weaker in performance.

I take all this information and store it in my noggin.
And use accordingly.

If someone puts me on a site that has been productive in the past and the word on the street is, it has been pounded. If I know which detectors models previously used, it may help me in my decision process.

So when I go to this supposed hard busted previously providing finds site.
I go in and try to locate the areas where ' my detector' I am using at the time will up the odds of making a find or 2.

Over the last 6 plus years I have seen trends that indicate this does work.
Saves time too.

Does this mean you could miss a good find?
Yep.
But there are always pluses and minuses to detecting.
It is a game of probability when hunting pounded sites IMO.
Folks reading about what I have said about Nox, it should be obvious what the detector's strengths are.

Now hunting sites with little previous or no hunting pressure. Then let your detector all hang out. Hunt that baby.
 
I got a place across from my house where a colonial and civil war home stes where. Its been hit over the years hard. Well they are bulldozing the dirt to put houses in. I thought the flood gates would open well they didn't a few buttons and a my buddy tagged a 1801 silver dime and toe tap ...wasn't a mother load to start with. Location is important BUT a good detector is key too. Ive hunted GOOD locations that were mother loads back in the day behind folks and have cleaned up more than once and the detector was key in doing so. I dont want to go to a mother load site with a Chinese detector. I want to go with a state of the art detector and clean the place out so when other detectorist come by and hunt it they just stand there looking crazy wondering where all the finds went..:lol::shock: you got one of the best machines ever made get back out there.
 
Good Story, Thanks for sharing. But dude, I have to tell you, you fell for the oldest ruse in metal detecting. This guy was telling you all the bad spots. lol, just kiddin ya.
I recently had a similar experience. I have been driving by a place for a long time WISHING I could hunt it. HUGE YARD probably an acre and adjoining properties I had found multible silvers on.
I had been to the house at least 6-7 times to get permission. Friends of mine, just couldnt ever catch them. FINALLY, found Mrs at home, she says YES and man I'm ready. Next day Im at it early, just knowing Im going to have a great day. I hunted 5 hours straight for one merc and one Indian. You just never know. Good Luck, Im sure you will find a spot in 1400 acres.
 
I see this statement mentioned here too.

You learn your detector you can really match anyone no matter which detector they are using.

Like a model detector has no limits.
Wrong.

It is true learning your detector will help you make more and more finds, but a brick wall will always be there.

Wonder if we did a freeze frame say 1988. Before the fbs types were introduced.
How much silver would be still left in parks today?

Wonder if we did a freeze frame say in 2013. Before the Deus was introduced.
How many more CW relics would exist today?

You can't make this stuff up.

Detector models have strengths and the way they communicate things to users.
And the users can take advantage of these and be more productive over time detecting.

If this were not the case, then metal detector manufacturers might as well shut down. And we should all be using vintage made detectors, even maybe bounty hunters.

Now personal preference means some thing. If you don't like your detector you will suffer in the long run. Detecting should be fun, enjoyable and you have to have confidence in whatever you are using.

There are finds out there a $150 rig can find, nice ones too.
Any gold ring I consider a sweet find.
Any silver coin, or old nickel.
Any token.
Any CW relic

The detector your bud uses may not be for you.
And your detector may not suit your bud.

I read all kinds of threads here and elsewhere. I love looking at finds and reading where folks tell there stories.
Beginner detectorist, there reads I find extremely interesting.
I like to see folks grow with their equipment.
I like to see folks admit they learned some thing.
I like to see folks where they admit error in their judgment, but have since learned from their experiences.

There will be other detector models after the Nox, after the Makro Kruzer, after the At Max.
And when we finally get to see them and they are available, some of us will try.

Whatever detector model a person chooses to use, they have my respect. I learned a long time ago. Don't ever pass judgment. Why? It can come back and bite you.

We all here have at least one thing in common.
And we all have the same goal really.
Find something worthy.
It don't always happen, unfortunately.
There is always tomorrow though.
 
You might be surprised at the large number of hunters that can relate to your post.

You're singing to a large choir with a truthful report that so many of us have also experienced pursuing this great hobby. Refreshing and well written!!
 
A great post there Sharpshooter, nice to see common sense in action!!!!!

Agreed! Running the best machine you can afford, being satisfied with it and enjoying the experience instead of worrying about the "big" find is what it's all about
 
Yeah I asked some other guys in my local club about this area and a very seasoned XP Deus user has been hitting that area for years as well as many others so it really is pounded. I am sure there is some silver left its just a matter of finding it in all that area. It is like a jungle in the summer as well. It is nearly impossible to hunt due to thick thorns, vines, and undergrowth. So I may hit it some more in the fall. I will have to hit it with the CTX some before I give up on it completely.
In Michigan, I noticed coins tended to float up and down with the seasons.
In Florida, there are no seasons, lol.
 
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