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Deus Or Orx For General Coin & Jewelry Hunting?


TexHunter

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50 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

My Equinox 800 with Detect Ed shaft system, Doc's armrest cover, 11" coil and coil cover weights 1245 grams.

For those of us whose brains are stuck in the 'old' system of measure, that's 2 3/4 lb or 2 lb, 12 oz.

50 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I find the Equinox 800 with this setup to be fairly easy to swing for 6 to 8 hours (I guess I am just more accustomed to it). Using the 6" coil lowers the weight to 1080 grams and I can swing that setup indefinitely.

Using my (lighter) Deus setup for gold prospecting and relic hunting, since I do not use the larger remote, most of the weight is near the HF coil, its battery and middle aluminum shaft. I actually feel more arm strain with the Deus than I do with the Equinox on longer hunts....

Is it mainly the balance (toe heaviness, relatively speaking) of the XP's that's the culprit?  I have similar experience contrasting my Fisher F75 and tiny (~4"x6" concentric) coil from my ML Eqx w/11" stock coil.  I think (even with the factory shaft) the Eqx is a bit lighter but the F75 doesn't bother my back after hours of hunting whereas the Eqx often does.  I haven't hunted enough recently with the larger coils on the F75 to make a statement there, but its reputation as possibly the best balanced detector ever made (not trying to start a brand loyalty war here...) was based upon a larger coil than the tiny one I use in heavy trash.

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Tex, with the Orx I don't hunt general coin/jewelry parks, schools or ball fields. I use it in lakes and relic/old coin hunting so I don't know how well it will work those areas. The plus with the Deus is it has notching and Orx does not. The Orx had 3 tones which could be useful in those areas.
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For me the Equinox w/ 11" coil starts feeling heavy after 3 hours hunting. I wish it had a light 8" round coil.

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On 8/17/2021 at 11:40 AM, Rick N. MI said:

For me the Equinox w/ 11" coil starts feeling heavy after 3 hours hunting. I wish it had a light 8" round coil.

A round 8", or 9", coil would be a great addition to the platform...

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Tex Hunter, your question inspired me to do a couple of soccer/baseball field hunts this past weekend before my scheduled doctors appointment and treatment (lower leg boot for at least 2 weeks) for torn ligaments in my ankle shut me down. 

I was able to very successfully hunt in sparse aluminum trash with the Deus for shallower coin and jewelry targets. With the custom settings I use and with lots of Deus practice/experience and coaching, I have a very good idea what I am about to dig if the targets aren't more than 4" deep here. I definitely do not have the luxury that the outstanding ID on the Equinox and Vanquish have on non-ferrous targets in similar hunting conditions=sparse modern trash/coins/jewelry targets in moderate mineralization. Since I only hunt by ear with the Deus I don't have to look at a display and decide if it is accurate which for me actually makes hunting with the Deus easier after I learned to trust it and what I am hearing.

For these types of hunting conditions, along with sparse to moderately trashed parks, bark or sand play structure areas and for any thick iron situations, small gold nugget prospecting and general relic hunting, the Deus is a wonderful choice. I just can't say the same for the ORX due to its extreme audio limitations in its coin/jewelry 3 tone modes..

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On 8/17/2021 at 11:57 AM, Jeff McClendon said:

Tex Hunter, your question inspired me to do a couple of soccer/baseball field hunts this past weekend before my scheduled doctors appointment and treatment (lower leg boot for at least 2 weeks) for torn ligaments in my ankle shut me down. 

Hope you heal quickly.

I was able to very successfully hunt in sparse aluminum trash with the Deus for shallower coin and jewelry targets. With the custom settings I use and with lots of Deus practice/experience and coaching, I have a very good idea what I am about to dig if the targets aren't more than 4" deep here. I definitely do not have the luxury that the outstanding ID on the Equinox and Vanquish have on non-ferrous targets in similar hunting conditions=sparse modern trash/coins/jewelry targets in moderate mineralization. Since I only hunt by ear with the Deus I don't have to look at a display and decide if it is accurate which for me actually makes hunting with the Deus easier after I learned to trust it and what I am hearing.

That's exactly the reason I'm trying to decide whether to keep the Deus, and/or ORX, or stick with the 800 as my tool of choice for this type of hunting. When I lived in Colorado, most of my hunting was out on the Eastern plains hunting frontier military sites. Unfortunately, I didn't have a Deus back then, and if I was still doing that kind of hunting, the choice would be easier. The days of spending the entire day, from first light to dusk, hunting those kinds of sites is no longer an option. Afraid age, and back issues, have caught up to me. These days now consist to 2-3 hours hunting coin sites.

For these types of hunting conditions, along with sparse to moderately trashed parks, bark or sand play structure areas and for any thick iron situations, small gold nugget prospecting and general relic hunting, the Deus is a wonderful choice. I just can't say the same for the ORX due to its extreme audio limitations in its coin/jewelry 3 tone modes..

I think that is an excellent assessment.

Thanks for taking the time to do that testing, and the explanation of your results. Very much appreciated...

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On 8/16/2021 at 2:58 PM, Rick N. MI said:

...Just bought a use Vista X w/ 3 coils.

As a sidelight (not relevent to this thread title...), I'm curious to hear your experience with those as you accumulate them.  In the 'catch-all brand detector' subforum, of course.

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12 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

... . Since I only hunt by ear with the Deus I don't have to look at a display and decide if it is accurate which for me actually makes hunting with the Deus easier after I learned to trust it and what I am hearing.

...

The same for me , I only hunt by ear with the Deus , no screen at all , just by ear. However I  know very well the Deus audio as I have been using it since 2013 , and a Goldmaxx ( the Deus father 🙂 ) between 2007 and 2013  ...  For example it is easy to recognize 1st ww casings with their medium tone and their little fuzzy sound ... Coins and relatively thin targets can be id with a clean sound but with a little reverberation  .. 

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Inland jewelry hunting ……focus on shallow/ recent drops surface to 5 inch  (easy digging ) …….  Move fast to the next target …..… hunt only  in active sports fields- Tot Lots - wide open areas of the park…….  The ORX  would work just fine  especially with the elliptical coil…….dig all ……..your going to dig aluminum Trash …….hey you just enjoyed a nice fresh outside day with exercise. 

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  • 3 months later...

Reviving this topic since I stumbled on a barely used ORX controller, WSA headphones, telescopic shaft, unused waterproof kit with antenna all at a ridiculously low price that was less than buying a new ORX remote control. I already had HF coils so now I don’t have to worry about Deus ID normalization, I get a nice big display, iron probability bar, excellent mineralization graph, easy ground grab ground balance and the WSAs turn off when the controller is turned off. Goodbye tiny screen Deus 1 Lite.  I figured I will only use it for tot lot, wide open playground, sports field shallow target hunting along with some relic hunting and for sure, gold prospecting.

I had thought about picking up another Vanquish (since my son has mine) for just a quick tot lot hunter or even an F19 or something similar, but the ORX is a much better detector especially for micro jewelry and is still a fantastic and highly adjustable gold prospecting detector.

Thanks to Steve and JP for reminding me of the principle of low volume/high sensitivity in another unrelated topic. Now the ORX audio is not nearly as nauseating for me as it once was……..or maybe I really am suffering from detector hearing loss. 

Anyway, I have taken it out a few times recently and it hasn’t failed to impress. Great detector if I don’t ask it to do something it can’t do very well in moderate to high mineralization which is identify or even hit coin and coin sized targets deeper than 4 to 6”

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  • The title was changed to Deus Or Orx For General Coin & Jewelry Hunting?

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