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With the last of the cool weather, Chris and I managed to get out for a fun relic hunt. He was armed with his CTX and me with the Equinox 800. This 1800s ghost town is way up in the hills but worth the trip as the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. It was our first detecting trip to this out- of- the- way place (ATV required) and we did manage a few goodies. Nothing valuable or earth shattering, but now that we have a feel for the place, I believe we will do even better on future trips. We also spied some pretty promising looking nugget country that deserves a closer look with the GPX's in hand come next fall/winter. Getting there. My highlight finds were a General Service Eagle button, a cameo broach (the center crumbled), metallic 10 gauge shell, fired three ringer, .44 rim fire case. Chris found a cool silver plated spoon with the initials of a steam ship company engraved on it and a bunch of various buckles. Thanks for a fun hunt, Chris! Dean

Got out yesterday and did a little old house and curb strip hunting. Really fun hunt as the owners were a great group of young guys doing some garage band practice. They gave me the run of the place and an invitation to go back. Found a little silver and some other neat old relics... Holy cow! The pics turned out huge with the new website format. Gonna have to resize differently. Dean

It is. I believe Chris Porter (Nevada Chris) is the guy you need to talk to. He is the Hip Stick guy. Dean

Great job, Chris! Must have been a blast. That CTX is just the right size for that young lady...and to think some grown men complain about it's weight! Dean

WOW! That's a bucket lister for me. Nice! Dean

Thanks Terry! You nailed it. The Equinox is an awesome machine for this type of work. It's so fast it has little trouble sifting through the trash. We had a great weekend and wound up with some cool finds. Thank you, Chris! Dean

I can't wait to read your review! Wow...is right! Dean

Thanks, Terry! How's your Equinox experience going? Dean

I took the Equinox to an old rail road yard and ran it in Field 2 mode. Tried a couple of different Iron Bias settings and settled on 2. Speed setting 6... the iron trash is thick. The Equinox is incredibly fast and separates very, very well even wearing the 11" coil. I was able to pick some cool relics out of the iron including my first Indian Head Penny and a really odd shell casing... a .38-55. Early reports on the Equinox have been excellent on all fronts. Dean

I took the Equinox to an Indian Wars era Calvary Camp that has been hunted very hard by multiple machines and operators. I haven't been back there for a while because finds were becoming very scarce. I also went back to the old CCC camp ground in the afternoon. I hunted again in Park 2. Same settings as my last hunt. The three ringers and shell casings came from the Calvary Camp and everything else from the CCC camp. The .56 Spencer case shouldn't have been there. We have hunted this particular patch of ground until the last few hunts have produced nothing. The Equinox hit it solidly. I know for certain other coils have been over it. It came in at a steady 24-25. The two three ringers that are in good shape came out of an area of heavy iron infestation and stood out from the trash nicely. The deformed three ringer appears to have been purposely re-shaped so that it is square on the bottom so that it could be stood up. Then it was shot. The other case of interest is a .25-.35. Obviously, it was produced well after the Indian Wars but not seen too much anymore. The Equinox is a coin magnet! I stopped digging zinc pennies. They come in at a steady 20-21. Copper pennies come in like a dime at 24-25...so it's easy to tell the difference. 50 tones hits the high conductors with a pleasing high "silver warble" like the E-Trac and CTX. I hope to report again soon. HH. Dean P.S.- The big three ringers come in at 17-18-19. The .56 Spencer and the .50-.70 shells came in like a copper penny... 24-25.

The 4500 is mind blowing as is. No need to mod it. Get a good coil or two and you are all set. Good luck! Dean

I received my Equinox from Chris yesterday (Thanks, Chris!), put it together and charged it and the wireless head phones up to full. I used a six port USB quick charger and was able to charge everything at the same time. The charger cost something like $20 at Walmart. I was able to get out to an old camp ground that I've hit with a few different machines. I pulled a Merc dime from there last week with my E-Trac. The camp ground is horribly trashy with melted aluminum chunks, pull tabs and old steel crown caps being the biggest offenders and literally everywhere. The only way to hunt this place with the E-Trac (or any other machine) is slowly with a small coil. So, I figured it would be a good place to take the equinox for it's maiden run. I used the stock 11" coil, hunted in Park 2, Multi freq, 50 tones, Iron bias set to 2, reactivity set to 4, barely audible threshold and started swinging. I pretty much ignored any target that came in under 20 TID except 13 which is nickels. I knew that I was going to miss gold jewelry but with so much aluminum trash to deal with there wasn't much of a choice. The first thing I noticed about this machine is how FAST it is! It is a relic/coin hunters dream come true! It can separate like no other machine I've ever used. The camp ground came alive with higher conductors that the other machines just couldn't "see" due to masking from the heavy trash. I hunted for about 2.5 hours. My familiarity with the E-trac and multi tones made it an easy transition to the Equinox and 50 tones selection. The 50 tones of the Equinox is much less "busy" sounding than full multi tones of the E-trac and will be easy to learn for somebody not familiar with multi-tone modes. Anyway, here is a pic of my finds from today's hunt. Unfortunately, the spoon is silver- plated over copper. I am amazed that all these higher conductors came from this super trashy ground that has been hit pretty hard by various machines. I hope to get out again soon with the Equinox and will post my findings here, in this thread, just to keep it all in one place. HH. Dean

If you are serious about gold then the GPX is the way to go. Like Jen said...you won't regret it. I just got my Equinox from Chris yesterday and swung it for the first time today...WOW! I'll post up a pic in the coin/relic section. Dean

Another fun and productive trip! Thank you, Chris!! The wind was a bit cold and harsh... I learned that it isn't a good idea to set up your camp chair directly up-wind of the camp fire ! Another one of life's lessons learned the hard way. I also learned that the 15" EVO is my new go to coil. I am shocked at the small sized targets this coil will hit for it's size. I feel that I didn't sacrifice any smaller pieces of gold by using this larger coil. Nice and light too. The 14"X 9" Evo hasn't come off of my machine since I got it over a year ago. It will now be relegated to my "tight and brushy" area duty coil while the 15" round will now be my general duty coil. Jen, Welcome back to the "lighter side". You are no stranger to the GPX/Evo combo. I believe you will really like the 15" spoked round Evo. Chris and I swung it all day with no bungee or harness aide. I hope you find a machine soon and get some swing time in before it gets too hot. Good times! Thanks again ,Chris! Dean

Nice, Terry! Thank you for the write up. Can't wait for mine!! Dean