Upgrading your Metal Detector! – Olly’s Journey
Buying your first metal detector? Or are you ready to upgrade your metal detecting game?
Join me as I take you through my experience of progressing from my first detector, The Minelab Vanquish 540, to the Equinox 800. I’ll talk about the differences, the similarities - both physically and in the field, as well as a bit of my story, how I got into metal detecting, and why I felt the need to upgrade, and some of my best finds so far.
The Vanquish 540 - Out of the Box
So right away, the Vanquish 540 was very simple to put together: a couple of shafts which slide together with a quick release snap lock system, the V12 coil, arm rest and display unit. It looks and feels nice and robust. I really like the way the Vanquish has the quick release system to adjust the height and also how it all slides into a compact and easy to carry unit that fits into the car. The Equinox on the other hand is not quite as compact once it’s folded down as its predecessor but is equally as simple to put together right out of the box. Both machines are very light and comfortable in your hand, with the Equinox at 1.34 Kilos being just 40g heavier than the Vanquish. The two machines look really sleek, stylish and modern, even though they are aesthetically different. The Equinox has a bigger LCD display screen and has a rechargeable battery built into the display unit, whereas the Vanquish takes rechargeable AA batteries and has a slightly smaller screen, both of which have backlight capabilities should you need them. The Vanquish 540 is a very affordable detector, currently priced at £399, with the Pro-pack option costing £499 (comes with lots of accessories for the additional £100).
Powering up the Vanquish for the first time, I notice that it automatically performs a noise cancel, which is a great little feature. With the Equinox 800 you will need to manually perform this, but it is simple to do. Both machines have preset programmes so you can get detecting straight away without having to know about the different settings etc. These different settings can be slightly daunting when you first start out, but once you have read about each one it’s easy! You can design, set up and save your own personal programs on both machines, but the Equinox has many more options and in-depth features - more on that later.
My Story
So, who am I? Where am I from? And how did I get into metal detecting?
Well, it all started Christmas morning 2020 when my son Freddy received a metal detector for Christmas from his granny and grandad. Obviously like most dads, I got excited about the kids presents and I wanted to get straight outside with my boy! We got wrapped up and out we went to the back garden, and started digging, much to the annoyance of my wife! We didn’t find a lot, just a few nails, ring pulls and rusty junk. A few nights later, I was sitting in the chair enjoying the break from work, having a few beers. I was feeling rather festive shall we say! I started browsing the internet, and reading about metal detectors, and before I knew it, my bank card was in my hand and I had thrown caution to the wind and made a drunken purchase of a Minelab Vanquish 540! Not that I’d encourage drunken internet shopping, but it turns out this was possibly one of the best things I’d ever done! I am Olly, AKA Suffolk Searcher, I’m a Suffolk boy, born and bred and as it turns out, Suffolk is one of the best counties to metal detect, owing to its rich and diverse history throughout the ages.
Using the Vanquish 540
Let’s start by talking about the machine I’ve been using for the past 18 months, the Vanquish 540. Well, what can I say? It’s an absolute beast for the money. The Vanquish honestly is a top-class machine, for entry level money. It stands up against other far more expensive metal detectors. Starting with the preset programs of which there are three - Coin, Relic and Jewellery modes. The fourth is the custom search mode. My advice would be to put it straight into jewellery mode, notch the sensitivity all the way up, then take it back down two notches. This will work almost anywhere and means you are good to go right out of the box. I generally run with, ‘all metal mode’ on so I can listen out for those low iron grunts. However, to begin with I ran without all metal modes and dug everything so that I got to know what all the tones mean! You will be surprised what those low 4-10 tones will bring up. I’ve had some lovely little Roman coins in those low tones.
The Vanquish is just the ideal starter machine if you just want to buy a detector, turn it on and go! You WILL find great things with it. They are simple enough to use and honestly, I didn’t feel like I had to learn the machine, it was more like the detector taught me and I love it for that. It’s almost like your favourite teacher from school that had a way of explaining the most complicated of things, and somehow managing to make it simple and fun. I’ve already had some awesome memorable moments with this brilliant machine. One that springs to mind was in September last year when, having been on a couple of group digs by myself, I this time took my wife and son. It was with Braintree Metal Detecting club where I found double silver. A William IV four pence or groat, then my first hammered Edward 1st silver penny. I was absolutely elated! What a rush it was finding that Eddie penny! I then let Freddy have a go with the 540 and he also found his first coin within minutes, a George II half penny. We found an old school badge too which caught the interest of the editor of Treasure Hunting Magazine, Julian Evan Hart. I ended up doing a full write up of the day which can be seen in the March 2022 issue of the magazine. My son Freddy now also has a Vanquish, the 340 model with the V10 coil which comes as standard as opposed to the V12 coil which comes with the 540.
The 340 is brilliant, it’s light and slightly simpler than the 540, so it’s perfect for 9-year-old Freddy. Being slightly simpler by no means makes it an inferior machine. Freddy has had some absolutely incredible finds with the 340, including a Henry VII half groat, a Saxon stirrup mount, a Roman Colchester brooch, a crotal bell and just recently a beautiful silver Denarius.
Why upgrade to the Equinox 800?
So, around a year to 18 months into detecting I started to think about upgrading the 540. Why? I hear you ask? You’ve just been raving about how the Vanquish 540 is! Well, it definitely wasn’t because the 540 wasn’t good enough. It was more to do with that fact I was getting more and more serious about metal detecting, and wanted a deeper understanding and control of my experience. The more detecting events I attended the more I noticed that the stand out machines being used by what I would call the, ‘Hardcore’ veterans of the hobby were more often than not Equinox 600 or 800. Everyone I spoke to had nothing but good things to say about them. So, coupled with the fact that I was already in love with Minelab machines and everyone’s enthusiasm for them, I took the plunge.
I was a bit daunted when I turned the Equinox 800 on with all the settings and buttons, but as you break it down it becomes much simpler. You can by all means just whip it out of the box, fire it up, select a pre-set program and get going right away! This is what I did until I started to get a little more familiar with the machine. The tones were already similar to the Vanquish which was great, but on the flip side this is also a machine to really geek out with. It has so many different settings you can fiddle with until your heart's content. You can adjust parameters such as sensitivity, target tones, discrimination, noise cancellation, threshold level, target volume, recovery speed, iron bias and more.
I used, ‘Field 1’ on the preset programs for the first few weeks of using the Equinox which worked fine, I had some nice finds up with it. The finds including a big lead seal matrix, livery buttons, crotal bells, Georgian coins an even an Edward III hammered silver half groat. As time went on with the Equinox I was itching to play around with the settings, this is when I stumbled across some recommendations in the Searcher Magazine, courtesy of Dan Spencer (I won’t go into the specifics of the settings here as it may be information overload). But, I will say, that the versatility this machine offers is phenomenal. Following my new settings, and experience at customising the Equinox 800, the fields just came alive. The machine really started to show just what it can do. I'm now hitting more of the small targets that I feel like I was missing, prior to my new experimentation.
It is this versatility really which is the difference between the Vanquish and the Equinox. Both are great out of the box as I said, but the Equinox allows for the later customisations I chose, and now, I’m not sure I could go back to a simpler form of detecting. I suppose it’s like listening to your favourite album in mono, then hearing it in stereo. Chances are, mono just won’t cut it after stereo, although the song and instruments are the same!
The Vanquish will always be my first love!
So, to summarise, if I was to start all over again from the beginning, I would still buy the Vanquish first. I honestly feel it’s the perfect tool to learn your craft, it’s simple yet powerful and effective. After a decent amount of experience, by which I mean going out detecting once or twice a week for a year or so, or until you’re totally confident with the Vanquish machine, then maybe start to think about the next level with the powerful Equinox 600 or 800 and I promise you, you won’t look back! I hope this blog has gone some way to help and entertain you. Best of luck whether you are just starting as a complete newcomer or you are a seasoned detectorist looking to step it up a gear.
I honestly love both machines, I’ve had some great finds and amazing moments in the fields making YouTube videos with it. If you fancy joining me on these adventures, why not head over and check out my Instagram or YouTube channel, and if you enjoy my videos then please subscribe and follow me so you don’t miss a thing.
Thank you for reading.
The Suffolk Searcher Instagram - https://instagram.com/suffolk_searcher
The Suffolk Searcher YouTube - https://youtube.com/channel/UC2AggGv9A2p2mA6BHyTmkow
The Searcher Magazines Recommended Equinox 800 settings - https://youtu.be/zND_b_ztR8I
