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XP Deus, Changing Up My Game


Condor

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I've been detecting for gold for over 20 yrs and never had much interest in the coin and relic side of detecting, but I was getting bored in sunny/hot Yuma.  I got interested in the XP Deus because of its potential for gold prospecting in heavy trash and started my online research.  Naturally, I experienced a good deal of confirmation bias, finding all good reasons to get a new Deus and ignoring all the downsides.  I'm really betting on the come with the alleged new coil with higher gold frequencies.  Nevertheless, I decided to buy one and get started learning a different side of detecting.

Many thanks to Rob Allison at Rob's Detectors for helpful advice and putting together a nice package deal with the Garret Carrot pinpointer.

It's only 87 degrees here at sunup so gold prospecting was going to have to be short and sweet.  Yesterday I took the Deus out to the PotHoles area where I met Fred this past winter.  We had detected near his camping spot and found way too much trash, but a few small nuggets.  I brought along a .5 gram and a 1gram nugget for testing.  I detected for less than an hr before it got too hot and found no gold.  I practiced with my test nuggets in some of the hotter ground and in with the trash.  The Deus detected both nuggets with relative ease, the .5 gram at about 4 inches in hot ground.  I would not say that it was any better on the .5 gram than the $499.00 Gold Bug, but there are some nifty things you can do by adding different tones to ferrous targets without adding depth killing discrimination.  I'm still learning this process, but I'm pretty sure it will have its place in some gold areas littered with iron trash. 

This morning I decided to try coin/jewelry hunting in the park.  Yikes, I was not prepared for cacophony of noises from the trash in parks.  After a dozen flip tabs and bottle caps I decided I better learn this detector elsewhere without making a mess of the grass.  I understand the whole "plug" thing and the pinpointer helps, but I was not too confident that someone might not bitch about my excavations.  

So then I noticed that there were 5 new volleyball courts with nice washed river sand footing.  I started thinking about Steve's micro-jewelry concept and decided that was the place to learn this new detector. I could dig every target and not make a big mess.  I detected the first court and found a few zinc pennies then played around with the detector settings.  Since the ground was relatively clean, I ran the stock "Fast" program, but took the discrimination down to 0 and switched the tones to "Full Tones".  You won't miss much in clean ground with that program.  The photo shows my success in less than 2 hrs of hunting.  A couple pieces of micro-jewelry.  The one piece has 2 sparkly stones, doubtful they are diamonds, but I'm on the right track.  Now, normally I doubt you would see me bend down to collect a zinc penny in plain sight, but with detecting it becomes part of the chase.  So I collected a bunch of zinc pennies, shouldn't take me more than 3 yrs to pay off the detector as this rate. 

 

 

nighthawk 003.jpg

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Guest Tnsharpshooter

Thanks for sharing your hunt story.

I am a big fan of Deus,,although I don't hunt much micro jewelry.

I didn't notice what size coil you are running.

As far as using the full tones,,,I have had some great performance running 9" coil full tones disc level 2.5.

And running the 11" coil full tones disc level 3.0-3.3

Doing the above will make the Deus run a little quieter,,,not as much iron will sound off-- also seems not to bother the separation very much.

I have found running disc say at 6,, using multi tone,,,some separation is sacrificed.

Also running with the disc Inlisted say when hunting in iron pits,,,the Deus becomes more of an isolator I call it,,,meaning any and all tones that come in,,,need to be evaluated.

Low conductors like gold mixed with iron--- tone provided won't be as textbook sounding as one might think.

Actually will sound like a cross between iron and nonferrous target.

Steady tone,,but somewhat duller sounding,,,very close to sound of iron.

Once you dig a few of these-- you won't forget.

 

 

 

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The Deus is my main machines these days,have owned one for about 3 years and it just suits my type of detecting when hunting for roman and hammered coins,only use the 9'' coil these days,full tones and 1 on discrimination,Audio Response 5 and basically thats about all the major alteration that i use.

Mine is mounted on the Golden Mask 5 carbon shaft and always run it as a audio only machine,controller is always in my pocket just incase i need to make the odd fine tweak but as a general rule its used as a switch on and go machine,as a result of wrist problems from a bike accident 30+ years ago the injury has started too haunt me when detecting,so for a everyday detecting rig they have to be light weight and the Deus with the 9'' coil certainly is light.

For when i use a heavy hitting rig when on say a possible hoard site using the TDI Pro with a larger coil then i use a full GPX harness and the superb Hipstick which certainly takes all the weight and can swing a large coil with easy,the Hipstick i might add is the vital part of the equation.

Have the WS5 full headphones and also the WS4 for summer/winter use,but in recent months both of these are not used much as i have been using the superb Sennheiser OMX 185 headphones in ear ones but have loops that go over the ear to stop them falling out,the clarity and the improvement in the audio quality is outstanding,when used with the AR5 the deep normal feint targets ring out lounder.

Of course we all detect differently and for different targets,so basically i can only say what works for me on the fine tuning and overall setting up of the Deus,for really trashy sites i use the 'Sifter' settings,infact i will plan on using those settings for almost all my sites.

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41 minutes ago, fredmason said:

Stay out of my patch, Dude!!! just teasing!  you will do well with your new toy, I am sure!

I thought you would head to the high country to practice?

Did you work under or near the powerlines?

fred

Hey Fred,

I worked right under the power lines, some interference but not bad.  I'm studying the Sabisch book to get a better handle on tone discrimination rather than conventional discrim.   I wasn't that impressed with the stock GoldField Program.  The Deus will never replace my Zed, but I'd like to open up the possibilities some.  I may head north next week and spend the worst of Yuma weather in the CA high country or N. NV.

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Welcome to the DEUS club! The Goldfield program is not bad, but I am one of those that does not believe the DEUS in its current form offers anything to prospectors that can't be had with a Fisher Gold Bug or Gold Bug Pro for far less money, and really not enough weight saved to matter either. The real promise in the DEUS is for people who want a detector for multiple uses with a focus on pulling non-ferrous out of ferrous, which it excels at. Still not quite enough for me but the V4 update did promise to push it over the edge for me at least, so like you I popped for a DEUS in anticipation of the smaller coil and higher frequencies.

A DEUS with a smaller coil and at 40 khz might just be hot enough for me and enough of an all arounder that I could let the Gold Racer and Racer 2 go. I sill have too many VLF detectors and am seeing a selectable frequency model as being my eventual way out of that situation. The key is how high is the highest frequency?

White's DFX - 3 kHz and 15 Khz selectable
XP DEUS 3.2 - 4 kHz, 8 kHz, 12 Khz, and 18 kHz selectable
Minelab X-Terras 3 kHz, 7.5 kHz, and 18.75 kHz selectable (via coil change)
Nokta Impact (not yet released, preliminary info) -  4 kHz, 14 kHz, and 21 kHz selectable
White's V3i - 2.5 kHz, 7.5 khz, and 22.5 khz selectable
XP DEUS V4 (not yet released, preliminary info) - 10 kHz, 20 khz, 30 kHz, and 40 kHz selectable

I am not counting the Minelab Eureka Gold and predecessors as they are not really a multi purpose detectors but dedicated gold prospecting machines.

At 40 khz the DEUS V4 would be significantly upping the game to double the approximately 20 kHz range that currently sets the limit in multipurpose selectable frequency detectors. While it would not be as hot as the GMT, Gold Racer, or Gold Bug 2, it may very well be "hot enough". My DFX I only own because it runs my Bigfoot coil otherwise it also would be on the chopping block.

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Hey Steve,

An excellent  summary of VLF detectors that have the cross over potential for us gold prospectors.  Last year while in Baja I encountered a couple areas the old timers had drywashed and scattered a ton of rusted cans and nails.  There were literally hundreds of dig holes by more modern prospectors with some element of discrimination because there were still thousands of undug targets.  The Zed was useless in that environment although I tried to cherry pick a few sweet rounded tones to dig.  I didn't find anything, but one of the guys I was with dug about 50 targets and got a couple nice 1 gram nuggets.  If I could cut that ratio of junk to gold by half it might be worth it.  I'm not looking to get rich, just get a little more enjoyment out of the hobby and maybe make expenses. 

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I also have had some sucess with the Deus using the godfield program, but I still prefer my GB2 for small pieces. Am waiting for V4 too, if it dosen't turn out to be what l want i'll probably get a Gold Racer, but l plan to keep my Deus. lMO its the best all around detector available. lf l could have only one vlf  detector it would bethe Deus.

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