Nox 800 for gold nuggets

[Caravan Happy]

Hi All
Just wondering if anyone has experience with the Equinox 800 for gold nugget prospecting? Any success? We are at Clermont in QLD at the moment. Any hints or tips for settings would be greatly appreciated. We are new to prospecting.
Thanks
Jo

 

[user 12139]

I had one and never did find gold with it, I sold it then bought a 2300, that was a different story and over the same ground too.

The NOX has their uses, on coins and IDing finds they excel

 

[Dave79]

Get a 6" coil and find some mild ground. Think I put the settings I use in another thread a while ago.

 

[Geehi]

Just Google "Equinox 800 nugget prospecting".

You will get pages of videos, forum threads, and reviews, tips and tricks........an American forum called "detectorprospector" has loads of real-world feedback.

All accounts are that the 800 is a quite capable gold finder, although not as good as the more upmarket stuff......but then, you don't have to fork out $8 - 10k.

Regards coils....I agree with Dave79 about the 6" coil but, if you're on a limited budget (i.e. you can only afford one extra coil) then I'd recommend that you go for the Coiltek 10" X 5" Nox (if you can get one at the moment).....the 6" is great for going over ground with a fine tooth comb, but the 10x5 will do just as well (some say better) and enables you to cover a lot more ground....trying to cover ground with the 6" is like cutting the lawn with a pair of nail scissors

If you buy one of the smaller coils (6 or 10x5) but still want to be able to use the 11" that comes with the 800 to cover ground quicker, you can buy a spare lower shaft and mount your smaller coil on it......this facilitates very quick changeover between coils.

When I'm out using the 11", I carry the 6" on the spare lower shaft, strapped to my back pack.....if some interesting ground is found, it's then quick and easy to change over to the smaller coil for some more forensic searching.

I have both the 6" and the 10 x 5" coils but, thanks to lockdowns and crap weather, have been unable to try out the 10x5 yet.....you'll see some pretty good feedback about it on that american site.

If you're in it for the fun of it, the 800 is a great little machine.....reasonably priced and loaded with good technology....and it will find gold.

If you're in it for the money.....probably best to aim a little higher.

 

[Caravan Happy]

Sorry for the late reply but I have had no internet signal for weeks. Thanks for the information.
It was suggested to find mild ground. What and where would that be? We are on our way to the Dubbo area. Any advice about the use of the Nox 800 there for gold would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Jo

 

[Smoky bandit]

Get a 6inch coil and work shallow bedrock checking shallow crevices in dry creeks ect will be your best chance with the nox.
IMO.
Good luck mate.

 

[Dave79]

Not sure about western NSW but I avoid areas with dark red soil, ironstone, black slate and pyrites. If you can find gold diggings in white quartz, white clay or light colored sandy soil the nox will perform way better, and if the gold is prickly and close to the reef it will find bits that PI machines miss.

 

[justoverthehill]

I have a Equinox 600 that I tested out on a few small nuggets the last trip I did. Basically used a setting that someone had posted up in the forum and then tweaked it a bit from there. The red dirt here in WA is pretty hot at times but it handled it fine with the settings. I haven't managed to do proper depth test with it but it defiantly picks up the nuggets. If I can find the post again ill link it for you.

 

[justoverthehill]

My starting point (initial settings) for either Gold Mode are:

Frequency: Multi
Ground Balance: Auto (pump method) with manual tweaking
Sensitivity: 20
Recovery Speed: 6
Iron Bias: 0
Accept/Reject: -9 through 40 accepted (either through the settings or by hitting the Horseshoe button)

The main thing I am going to try and do is operate the EQUINOX in Gold Mode without blocking out or rejecting any target id numbers. The goal is to find settings that reduce and smooth out ground responses while reducing the signal from gold as little as possible. These two things fight each other and there are no perfect settings, but simply the best compromise possible. For some people that will mean making the machine very stable, while others may prefer hotter settings that require more audio interpretation from the operator.

The first step is to find an area clear of trash, and walk a bit waving the coil over the ground. Chances are you will get lots of ground noise. Go into the settings and adjust the ground balance. This normally means pumping the coil over the ground while holding the accept/reject button (see the manual) until the ground response evens out. If the ground is highly variable with mixed hot rocks, waving the coil from side to side may work better than pumping the coil.

With any luck the machine will settle right down. However, in bad ground it will not, and the solution normally will be to lower the sensitivity setting. Basically this just takes some experimentation, lowering the sensitivity and adjusting the ground balance until the detector reacts very little or not at all to being waved over the ground. If you can get the EQUINOX set to where no target id numbers are popping up at all as the coil passes over the ground but where you can still hear faint variations in the ground, you are there.

Then it is simply a matter of going detecting, and digging every target that stands out above the faint ground variations present in the threshold tone. Gold can read anywhere from negative numbers all the way up into the 30s so typical nugget detecting involves digging everything. However, most nuggets weighing under 1/10th gram will give a target id number of 1 or 2, nuggets under a gram in the single digits, and several gram nuggets reading in the teens and higher. The smallest or the deepest large nuggets will produce no target id number at all, just a variation in the threshold.

In real bad ground you may have to not only reduce the sensitivity setting, but possibly even increase the recovery speed setting to 7 or 8. In ground that refuses to behave, switching to first 40 kHz and then 20 kHz will progressively detune the EQUINOX , making it easier to get a stable ground balance. Engaging ground tracking may also help smooth out the worst ground you have to experiment.

In severe ground all this may not work, with ground signals still coming in around the low negative numbers and possibly higher. Some hot rocks may read as positive numbers. This is where the EQUINOX can go to the next level. Go into the settings and reject or notch out the worst offending target id numbers. This will usually be -9, -8, and -7 but may include even higher numbers, including positive numbers.

Block as few numbers as you can. Simply rejecting the bottom three negative numbers will usually settle the machine down a lot, especially if there is any residual electrical interference being encountered. Rejecting target id numbers does come at a cost in reduced signal strength on desired targets, but you may find now that the sensitivity level can be increased from one to several points, reclaiming that lost sensitivity.

In theory if you can get the EQUINOX running stable with no target id numbers rejected you have the ideal situation. However, EQUINOX allowing some offending signals to be rejected with an attendant increase in the sensitivity setting may be the better way to go. It just depends on the situation.

So far we have been trying to deal with bad ground by using various detuning methods. In low mineral ground you can go the other direction. If the detector ground balances immediately with a sensitivity setting of 20, then try higher settings. You can also try reducing the recovery speed setting from 6 to 5 or 4 or even lower. Each reduction of the recovery speed setting is fairly dramatic and you will find it suddenly very hard to get and hold a decent ground balance if you go too low with the setting. In mild ground however it can add substantially to the signal strength of the weakest targets.