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This Is For The Total Newbie ( One Who Never Metal Detected )


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Thanks for posting that, 67GTA. I recently experienced some of that when I hunted a curb strip with my Vanquish 340 with the V8 coil. I was hoping the smaller coil could cut through the iron, but no, not really. There may have also been a dearth of coins, so there's that, too.

The worst thing was using my Vanquish 540 with the V12 coil and getting upper 20s and lower 30s, only to find highly mineralized damp/wet red clay. This is was ultimately made me sell the 540 in search of a machine that could ground balance.

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Does the Vanquish false like that with smaller coils? Seems like dropping the sensitivity way down might help reduce the high pitch target wrap but don't know.

People often don't mention the Simplex for new users, I have seen it in action and it looks like an easy and very capable machine. Also the Apex which has been doing incredibly well for me in tough areas.

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No false hits with the Apex? With the Equinox dropping the sensitivity does help.

 

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I was using the V8 coil in the video. I have to turn the sensitivity down at least halfway or more to get rid of most of the falsing. A smaller coil footprint and faster recovery help reduce the problem. If I try that with the V12 in relic mode, it is pretty much unusable in the "hot spots". 

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Maybe it's because there is no ground balance on the Vanquish detectors. The Equinox sensitivity doesn't have to be turned down that much.

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That's the biggest problem. The small flakes of rust can mimic highly mineralized ground coupled with what I can only assume is an inferior iron filter when compared to higher tier machines that lets more iron wrap/halo falses through. If you stick to the parks and beaches then the Vanquish almost rivals the Equinox performance.

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13 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

No false hits with the Apex? With the Equinox dropping the sensitivity does help.

 

There is some falsing with the Apex , in the medium tones , but less than with a Vanquish .  If I had to grade the 3 machines that I currently own I would say :

1. Deus - almost silent 

2. Apex - some falsing in the mediums

3. Vanquish - a lot of falsing in the high tones

This for my European conditions with mild soil / high iron trash

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13 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

No false hits with the Apex? With the Equinox dropping the sensitivity does help.

 

Having absolutely no falsing on the Apex now. Most places I can run it full gain and if I start to pick any chirps it's usually from crap in the ground.

I do want to add that initially the Apex was a bit noisy at first and ran it 2-3 bars from full gain. Replacement coil I have no problems at all and it is not knock sensitive at all. I also forgot to take the coil cover off the old coil prior to shipping it back and don't know if that makes any difference at all. I don't mind having the machine a hair lighter and don't scrub rocks with it so probably won't worry about replacing the cover.

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11 hours ago, 67GTA said:

That's the biggest problem. The small flakes of rust can mimic highly mineralized ground coupled with what I can only assume is an inferior iron filter when compared to higher tier machines that lets more iron wrap/halo falses through. If you stick to the parks and beaches then the Vanquish almost rivals the Equinox performance.

No ground balance is a big problem in tough ground as it will kill your depth but it may have the sensitivity too high and not balanced with the gain settings. In other words sensitivity is the break point between what the machine sees as ground phase and objects. Gain is the overall power. Most machines have a sensitivity control that is actually a combination of gain and sensitivity and they balance them so that lower gain can run higher sensitivity and as gain increases the sensitivity needs to be dropped to make the machine less noisy.

Good example of machines that have sensitivity too high in high gain mode is the Kruzer and Amphibio machines in the 2 tone and deep modes but 3 tone mode is spot on.

Older machines like the AT Pro have lower sensitivity in general which can lead to iron masking with small iron. The masking is actually probably better described as the machine not reporting the target to the audio and VDI as it is read as ground. Low sensitivity machines in general are forgiving and very stable making them easy to use.

Another extreme example of a low sensitivity machine would be the Orx. Toss a piece of small flat iron down or even a squashed can and you will see that only the phase meter moves but there will be no other report. Also notice that low sensitivity machines won't ground balance on small changes and tend to stay in the 80 mark.

I think Minelab could update the Vanquish and adjust that a bit to calm it down. Big question is will they? I know XP won't fix their Orx 😞

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/16/2021 at 11:38 AM, ScoTTT2 said:

all he likes to detect is quarters. That is detecting to him, his enjoyment is in how many quarters he finds in a hunt

Right now, I’m that guy. My $70 Winbest Pro always finds at least a few coins. Mainly an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy some sunshine and fresh air.

 I must admit, however, that finding a little gold/silver ring last month has made me start contemplating something better.

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  • The title was changed to This Is For The Total Newbie ( One Who Never Metal Detected )

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