1st Weekend With The Deus II

[NCtoad]

*EDIT:  I forgot to mention that my deus2 has the 9” coil.*

Well my deus2 arrived last monday, but I didn’t get a chance to actually use it on the ground until Saturday.  I’ve never used or even held an XP machine before so the deus2 is completely new to me.  I’ve been using my nox almost exclusively for the past nearly four years so I’m very familiar with it. 
 

For my first outings with the deus2 I decided I would hit places that I’ve been over with my nox.  The first sight was the old ballpark that I’ve been to three times with the nox.  I mostly concentrated on a smaller area that gave up the majority of silvers hoping maybe the deus would unmask another…or find one that I had possibly missed with the nox.  I was running #1 General program.  I did change the tones around a little, but kept everything else stock.  I’m mostly a silver coin hunter, but I do dig nickel signals.  Out of this small section (10x60’) of turf I managed to get a clad dime and a copper memorial.  Also probably because I was subconsciously wanting to pull a silver with my new deus, I dug some iffy high signals knowing that it would probably have to be an iffy signal if I had missed it with the nox.  Those iffy signals turned out to be nails.  I also dug a lot of aluminum screwcaps, but I knew they would be either a screwcap or a zinc penny which I got a few of those too. This place probably isn’t old enough for indian cents so I wasn’t concerned about that I just wanted to see what those mid to high 80s tid numbers were.  
 

After giving up at the ballfield I went to another site close by that had some long gone mill houses on it.  There’s a smallish area that I have hit hard with my nox with both the 11” and 6” coils.  Where as the ballpark has moderate trash and lots of clad, this site has basically no clad and lots of iron, coal pieces, and other metallic plumbing and electrical pieces.  On this site I decided to run program 3 Sensitive FT.  I have to say I like full tones.  When you hit a non-ferrous it really stands out.  I did manage to hit a ‘50s wheatie and a 61 memorial.  The wheatie came in at 90/91 and before I dug it I tried program 6 Deep High Conductor.  It definitely gave a stronger signal and hit higher above the ground as I raised my coil compared to the Sensitive FT program. These didn’t seem to be masked and were in the 6” range and gave a good signal.  I probably just missed these in previous hunts with the nox.  
 

Saturday afternoon I hit a small area in the woods by an old spring that’s very near my house.  This is my go to place when I don’t feel like driving anywhere.  I’ve hit this place many, many times with the nox with both coils, and all of my tesoros.  Although I’ve found five or six silvers and maybe 13 or 14 wheaties here I’m lucky now to even pull a non-ferrous.  This place is LOADED with nails, old steel can remnants, rusty old crown bottlecaps and any other kind of metal you can think of.  I’m pretty sure from the trash here it was a dump at one point.  I even unearthed an old rototiller blade before.  So there’s big pieces of ferrous too.  I again used the deus in program 3.   I even bumped the reactivity up to 4 because of the density of the iron.  About all I got was an old .22 shell that looked unfired, but was very corroded. Again this is a pretty small area. I also dug some iffy signals that were bent, rusty nails.  
*Edit #2*
While detecting at this old spring site I dug two very old and very rusty bottle caps that rang in in the high 50s.  When I encountered another high 50s signal I put the bottle cap rejection at 5 and sure enough it knocked out that 50s signal and when I dug it, it was a bottle cap!  

On Sunday I decided to hit a site that had an old 1890s house on it that’s in the process of being torn down.  This is a much larger place of three acres, but some of it is undetectable because the guy that bought it is clearing trees and there’s lots of brush piles, etc.  Again I concentrated on the areas that I had previously hit with the nox (both coils).  Didn’t get anything worth mentioning running program 3 and program 1.  Very, very trashy around the house and outbuildings.  On the way back to the car I hit the field areas that I hadn’t hit before with the nox.  This area was relatively clean with little trash. Running program 3 and dropped the reactivity down to 2.5 and even 2, I hit a couple of shotshell headstamps.  Then I got nice 58 signal  and thinking another headstamp I pull an old very corroded nickel from about six inches.  Then checking the immediate area I got a solid 76 a couple of feet away.  Four or five inches down is another coin!   This time an indian head penny. By this time it was time to go, but I’ll definitely hit the field areas again.  
 

Initial thoughts:  I really like the lightweight and ergonomics of the deus2.   My nox feels like a tank in comparison (11” coil).  As far as performance goes, and me being a silver coin hunter, I feel the silver range on the deus is more compressed than the nox.  Silver range on deus2 is about 90-96.  The silver range on the nox is 26/27-35/36.  Both of these ranges are for dime to half dollar. As Steve said in another post the deus seems to be made more for beach hunting with an expanded low to mid conductor range that would work well on gold rings.  I’m not selling my nox, but I realize I have a lot to learn on the deus2 and just need to get more time on it.  

[martygene]

nice write up. thanks for taking us along. mine comes wednesday.. can't wait to do what you did..

[abenson]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with your new Deus 2. I've got to agree with you/Steve about the beach thing. I really think that is the market XP wanted to enter and they went all out in that regard.

[strick]

Yea thanks like the others have said..sounds like a nice machine...I have a deus 1 and use it once in a while but still have not pulled the trigger on a Deus 2 so your feedback is important for guys like me...seems the Nox did not miss much in your hunted areas.

strick

[GB_Amateur]

Well thought out and written report.  Not only don't I have one in my hands nor on order, but I've never even held a Deus 1 let alone detected with one.  (I've only seen a couple from a distance.)  So it will/would take me a lot of learning to figure a Deus 2 out, not that I wouldn't be willing to do that.  It took me a long time (over 2 years) to really get comfortable with the Equinox, even though it was certainly producing for me.  I expect if I get a Deus 2 the learning phase will be comparable.

I have some sites similar to yours and I also use those, as you do, to give a new detector a workout.  The trashy sites are obviously the most demanding so that's where I'm most interested in reading and watching reports.  Thanks for yours.

Bottom line is that if I had a Deus 2 in my hands I would have tried it out just like you did.  I'm sure you are only going to get more proficient with it while simultaneously making more good finds, as you've already done.

[palzynski]

On 2/21/2022 at 3:01 PM, NCtoad said:

....
Initial thoughts:  I really like the lightweight and ergonomics of the deus2.   My nox feels like a tank in comparison (11” coil). ...   

 

Very good test thx . I agree with you , the D2 is not a "miracle" detector , it has probably similar detecting  performances to the others but just outperforms them with its ergonomy/lightness with its 9" coil ( 350g ). 

I have a cousin who had serious shoulder issues after sweeping an heavy detector during several years ( a ML Advantage with a very heavy 11" coil ).   He was almost going to stop detecting . Now he uses a Deus(1) and his shoulder pbs have disappeared .  Then eventually yes the Deus can be a miracle machine for a few ones ... 🙂  🙂