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Hey fellas...new to this forum, but frequent some of the others. Thought I'd check this one out. I have the Orx headed my way.  Maybe get some ideas on some good settings for Civil War hunting? I hunt mostly in Central Va...soil conditions where I hunt is usually not so bad. Plenty of time to learn the detector for now until the fall of the year...my time to hunt. Thanks for any ideas and good luck hunting.

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I have found the ORX gold modes actually do the best in the mineralized Virginia dirt.  Not a fan of the limited 3 tone option on the ORX in the coin modes for Virginia hot dirt relic hunting (vs. the multiple tone and pitch options of Deus) but they can be used. However, the ORX and Deus gold modes will give you more depth and sensitivity in hot dirt.  Problem is in really hot ground, the VDI becomes unreliable on both ORX and Deus at around 4 to 6 inches of depth but you will hear the target, you'll just have to dig it to find out if it's ferrous or a keeper.  Use some test targets like previously recovered minie balls and buttons and experiment with recovery speed settings (reactivity) and coil frequency to see what combos work best at your sites.  Gold mode uses a pitch based tone rather than tone ID and it has a threshold tone and iron rejection vice discrimination.  Iron rejection breaks up the audio if the detector thinks you are swinging over a ferrous target.  Problem is, in hot mineraluzed dirt the reject signal keys off the magnetite in the soil so most all targets ferrous or not break up so it is kind of useless.  I personally like reactivity at 2.5 or 3 and 28 khz frequency as the sweet spot for relic hunting using the round 9" HF coil.  I am partial to pitch tone mode on the Deus vs. the ORX, but you can snag some great relics with the ORX too.  Good luck.

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19 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

I have found the ORX gold modes actually do the best in the mineralized Virginia dirt.  Not a fan of the limited 3 tone option on the ORX in the coin modes for Virginia hot dirt relic hunting (vs. the multiple tone and pitch options of Deus) but they can be used. However, the ORX and Deus gold modes will give you more depth and sensitivity in hot dirt.  Problem is in really hot ground, the VDI becomes unreliable on both ORX and Deus at around 4 to 6 inches of depth but you will hear the target, you'll just have to dig it to find out if it's ferrous or a keeper.  Use some test targets like previously recovered minie balls and buttons and experiment with recovery speed settings (reactivity) and coil frequency to see what combos work best at your sites.  Gold mode uses a pitch based tone rather than tone ID and it has a threshold tone and iron rejection vice discrimination.  Iron rejection breaks up the audio if the detector thinks you are swinging over a ferrous target.  Problem is, in hot mineraluzed dirt the reject signal keys off the magnetite in the soil so most all targets ferrous or not break up so it is kind of useless.  I personally like reactivity at 2.5 or 3 and 28 khz frequency as the sweet spot for relic hunting using the round 9" HF coil.  I am partial to pitch tone mode on the Deus vs. the ORX, but you can snag some great relics with the ORX too.  Good luck.

Thanks for the information. I appreciate that! My former detectors ground balanced 70- 80 around here. If I ever get up towards Culpeper, I'll be sure to run the gold modes. I've been watching that fellow on you tube that has the Skill School channel.

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I have an XP ORX with the 9" round coil also. It's a very good machine. You can't beat the performance to weight ratio with anything else in that price range. Was in a car accident back in April that left me with whiplash and neck/shoulder pain as a result. This ORX is all I can use for any amount of time and is the only one I can use for a while. At best , I can only stand about 2 hrs detecting now before the neck pain and shoulder pain kicks in hard. I'm doing better though, because a couple weeks ago it was good to be able and get 30 minutes worth before it was unbearable.

The ORX punches deep and will fish out the good stuff if you spend enough time learning it. The only bad things I can say about mine are 1) The included wireless headphones are horrible. They bite into the tops of my ear and cause quite a bit of pain after 45 minutes. Sound is excellent but they are really not comfortable at all. They are however light and work well in this heat. 2) Underneath my coil cover the epoxy feels "sticky". It has also taken on a staining. I always clean my coil after hunts. I used water and dawn dish detergent to try and clean the sticky off. It simply won't come off 100% and the staining is permanent. Almost smells mildewy. So don't know what is up with that. I read on another forum someone else had a similar issue and the response was that "it will not hurt anything". May eventually contact XP about it.

Other than those couple things the ORX is an amazing machine. Very sensitive and is very good on small things also. When you hear a lot of iron in the ground just bear through it, and a lot of times the ORX will give you a good target in all that junk. Dig that good signal, you will be surprised how well it can punch through to pick goodies out. It's quite easy to "wiggle" the coil over a good spot and isolate it to read the target ID. The TID on the ORX is different. I've yet to find anything worth digging that registers less than 60 on the TID. Hunt mostly in the 13.8-15.2khz range. The higher frequencies really amplify the aluminum junk in the places I hunt making it less desirable for me to use. I've also noticed that if you see something very high on the ID (95+) it's usually a buried piece of soda can. Nickels are particularly difficult with the ORX because they ID near can pull tab range. 62-63 is nickel on mine.  Don't want to spoil it for you. Learning is the fun part.

 

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