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First Impressions XP Deus 9" HF Coil


Condor

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I took the Deus out for a test run with the brand new 9" round HF coil.  I've been a dedicated GPZ user so naturally anything less is bound to seem anemic.  I ran the Deus over some fairly mild ground here in Sunny Yuma for about 3 hrs this morning.  I started with the standard V4 Goldfield program in the 58 khz and the unit ran really smooth.  I went over some ground where the Z had found some shallow tiny bits of gold a few months ago.  No Joy, but I can't rule out operator error.  I took along a .3 gram test nugget that tested well in air tests at home.  Of course we all know how reliable air testing can be.  My limited testing left me slightly underwhelmed.  At 1.5 inches in the ground, the coil will not pick up the test piece on either lateral edges of the coil.  That was not unexpected with the Double D coil, but a little disappointing.   The coil will pick up the test piece as soon as it crosses the center line of the coil windings, with the loudest signal practically dead center.  The front edge of the coil didn't give a noticeable tone until about 1" into the centerline.  I detected all manner of typical goldfield trash and it accurately ID'd most of it.  Naturally, lead bullet shards were indistinguishable from gold.  

Just for grins I switched to the V4 "Hot" program in the same ground at 58 khz.  I actually preferred the "Hot" program for a little better tone ID.  I moved the Discrimination levels around and tried the -6.4 that's available in the V4.  The machine got pretty noisy in the negative Discrim.  I played around with the Reactivity levels, but didn't find anything earthshaking.  My only real experience with VLF machines was the Gold Bug II which I ran maxed out.  The Bug just seemed to have more tone "punch" over tiny gold, but that is just my recollection without any current means to compare.  I should have waited for the elliptical coil with the higher frequency like the Bug II.   I have one good place with shallow bedrock and a lot of trash that I mean to try next.  That should be a better trial for this machine.  I really want to like this machine for use in trashy areas that make the Z tiresome. 

As I was working along a rut in a washed out road I put the coil right over a young rattlesnake apparently out for a little sun.  He never buzzed until he got safely under a bush.  Just a reminder that springtime is snake season. 

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I too have the XP Deus with a 11" coil but am waiting on the other coil. I think the smaller coil will be more in line for nugget hunting. I wish I had the 9" coil but the dealer talk me out of it. He had both but in his opinion the 11" was a lots better coil. The 11" is great for coin hunting but I just don't pick up the Deus as often as I do  the MX Sport.

Chuck.

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The DD coil is doing what it is supposed to. If it was good at seeing targets under the edges then you would get target masking and lose most of what makes the Deus special, which is the ability to see between closely spaced adjacent targets. This should also help it see nuggets in between hot rocks.

Great report Steve, and the first I have seen from any genuine prospectors on the new Deus HF coils. Thanks!

xp-deus-vf-high-frequency-coils-2017.jpg

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