2108silver1: said:
From my research for a great coin machine the impact still seems to hold its ground. Any users any thoughts. I have been swinging a nox 600 for several years. Coins are few and far between here. I am considering an impact or anfibio. Need a real good deep coin only unit
My hunting buddy or two uses an equinox also . I know no one using of the 2 I know that uses a nokta. I feel going behind or ahead of them with this different machine may help me as we know they always produce different results
Admittedly, I am quite fond of several Nokta and Makro devices, and have been sine the FORS CoRe hit my hands in early January of 2015. Very solid build quality, excellent adjustment functions and in-the-field performance, time after time after time. Use the best settings, munt the best coil for the task-at-hand, then hunt in a slow and methodical manner to cover the area and the results can be impressive. So impressive that within 24 hours after I got my CoRe I started thinning out most of my many other detectors. By late June to July, only a few of my all-time favorite detectors remined, along with my FORS CoRe and the Makro Racer.
Most of my hunting takes place in really challenging, dense-debris locations that abound with Iron Nails and other ferrous debris and unmasking in a must. Needed? A very good smaller-size coil to best handle working in and amongst very close Iron Nails, and my CoRe and Racer with the smeller coils easily out-hunted other top-end models I had at he time. T2 & F75 w/5" coils, MXT Pro w/6½" coil, F19's w/5" coils, etc., etc. They didn't keep up.
January of 2016 I was honored to get a prototype that eventually was named the FORS Relic, and at the same time the Makro Racer 2. The Relic became my #1 old-site hunting tool, closely followed by the CoRe. The Racer 2 bumped the original Racer and could be used in those sites, but I made it more of my urban Coin & Jewelry Hunting device .... until
January of 2017 I got ther 'test' Impact device and liked what it ofered. The new small elliptical coil worked OK or many urban Coin Hunting places, but fell sort in several old ghost towns we hunted, and didn't match the performance of the other Nokta & Makro devices with h 4.7X5.2 or 5" DD coils. Quickly after they realized that tough test I did with a good detecting buddy, hey went to work on accessory coils and the first and needed was a 5' DD. But they also made a 7' Concentric that worked on the Racer series and the Impact.
I knew I wanted the 5" on a spare rod should I need it for the really challenging sites, but the Impact w/7" Concentric coil became my main-use urban Coin & Jewelry Hunting device and was a support unit for my CoRe ad Relic.
Like a lot of us in this great sport, and as I have done through the 56+ years I've been detecting, I have acquired other makes and models since I had a lot of detectors stolen from my vehicle in October of '17, one of which was my Impact and all of the coils I had for it.
So I have tried a lot of detectors, and some have remained in my regular-use Detector Team. I had the Multi-Kruzer, Anfibio 19, Anfibio Multi, a few XP ORX, and Equinox 800, and many more. One that I have held onto because I like the weight and what it can do is the Garrett Apex. It works quite well and is mainly a 'cross-over' detector for me, mainly for Coins & Jewelry but workable for most of my Relic Hunting sites.
Fast forward to today, your inquiry, and my current and now up-dated Detector Team. Gone are all the models I have mentioned above, with the exception of the CoRe w/
'OOR' DD, Relic w/5" DD, a 2nd Relic w/5X9½ DD, an Apex w/5X8 DD and another with the 8½X11 DD and a Bandido II µMAX and Silver Sabre µMAX that each sport a 6" Concentric.
All the rest are gone or listed for sale or trade. But I just added three more detectors this week.
Why? Because I'm old and falling apart. My health limitations have really cut in on my ability to get out and hunt more than a very short while. Been using a cane since March of '93 to get around, and just in the last 9 months things have made it even tougher.
But I sat down about a week or two ago, pondering all the many decades I've been detecting, what detectors I have and am hanging onto, and though about those I have had, really enjoyed THE MOST and that I missed and wanted to add back into my Detector Group. I'm not interested in anything that might be coming out other than the Nokta / Makro SMF, so I don't plan on any new future shopping.
There were only three detectors that I really enjoyed and wished to have back in my hands. One was a Tesoro Inca because that unit, that came out in July of '83, made pronounced difference in my serious Relic Hunting and found me a lot. The second detector I enjoyed using a lot, even though it had a weakness or two, was the White's MX-5. It was my last serous Coin & Jewelry Hunting and 'fun' 'USA' detector to use before I made more changes.
The 3rd? A
Nokta Impact, and I just received my brand new Impact and desired coils and accessories yesterday!
I was up late last night, after it's 7PM arrival, getting it all together, checking out the coils I ordered and mounting my favorite, then slowly walking through all the adjustment settings that I can best recall using.
I have mounted my favorite main-use coil, the 7" Concentric, as the Impart is going to be my primary-use Urban Coin Hunting detector, and that coil worked very well on it before. The Impact has modes i don't use, but it does have four modes that I DO rely on for most of my detecting.
Search coils: With the decades I have enjoyed this great sport, I have found,
and continue to find, the vast majority of my old coins and trade tokens in the surface to 4" depth range, and a 'deep' coin for me in down to 5", 6" and on a rare occasion maybe an honest 7" to 8". Very, very seldom any deeper. Why? because I hunt trashier sites than mask the ability to get any deeper, and in all honesty, most of the locations I search targets just have not ended up being covered by a lot of dirt, rocks, leaves, bush or whatever. My chosen locations, and that is the key to our success, call for smaller-size coils and the ability of the detector and coil to unmask those partially, hidden targets.
One thing I have found through the years is it is best to be a 'follower' more than a 'leader'. Yes, you might luck upon a nice site with a detecting buddy or two an want to 'lead-the-way' and let them follow the path you've travelled, and maybe, just maybe, you'll luck upon a nice old find before they do. However, I much prefer to be a 'follower' and go behind others. Let them take on some of the trash but also hunt too quickly or inefficiently such that they miss some keepers. Then, as a 'follower', I can sure feel a lot more satisfaction if I am the one who can boast about a nice find back where they have been. Better than being the one who finds out they didn't do such a great job of searching a site.
There is no need, either, to part with your EQ-600 just to get any other detector. Instead, just add one that you feel might 'complement' the other, and for me, and having a lot of time on the Impact in the past, I feel it is one of the more capable detectors on the market, providing a good selection of search modes and adjustment features. I obviously like it better than the Equinox and Anfibio I have used. And if I wanted a larger-size coil, I'd look for something like the round-shaped 11" which I prefer than the standard 7X11 that's been popular with may makes and models for a lot time.
Sorry to ramble, but I have to support the Impact as a very good decision. It proved itself to me well enough that I just invested in a brand new unit and desired coils.
Monte
Often the "other guy, or gal," is using a more expensive detector, or a bigger-size search coil, and they also do not overlap, or actually do not even come close as they advance their coil too far on reverse-direction sweeps and miss a lot of ground.
, and passing through his grid I got a good hit. Unplugged my headphones so he could hear the 'beep' and he pivoted around and exclaimed 'What!' While from about 2" or so I recovered an 1880' Indian Head Cent. He changed his mind and kept hunting.
