XP Deus 2 Review

[abenson]

What I’m about to share is totally my opinion of the XP Deus 2 and is based on the sites I hunt and soil conditions I have. My soil depending on the site varies from 3-5 bars on an F75. I’m going to try and leave any type of comparison to another brand out of this review. But I will make some reference to the Deus 1. Also, keep in mind I have bad ground and I hunt really trashy sites. 60% of my time is spent hunting Military sites and ghost towns. The other 40% is split between Parks, beaches, and gold nuggets. This review will mostly be about the performance of the machine, rather than the physical design of it.

Over the last 3 or 4 weeks I’ve been using and testing the Deus 2 at various sites. Probably about 50 hours so far. Beach hunting is the only thing I haven’t tried yet. But from what I’ve seen the Deus 2 appears to excel (black sand may still be a question). Diving is something I rarely do so I will leave that to someone else.

If you’ve ever used a Deus 1, the Deus 2 is going to be very similar in a lot of ways. I bought my first Deus in the Spring of 2016 and added an ORX in 2020 I believe. So, the platform is not new to me. I’m not going to really go into much of the ergonomics of the Deus 2 other than a few things that bug me. Most people know the ergonomics of the Deus machines are very good. One thing I will say that really bugs me is the small busy screen. To much info in too small of a space, enough said.

Is the XP Deus 2 the best metal detector ever made? And is it worth $1600? That’s a question you’ll have to answer yourself. All I can say is I’m glad I have choices. Below is my take on a few site scenarios.

Park Hunting-Tonally the Deus 2 is one of the best metal detectors on the market for sorting coins from trash IMO. If you are a jewelry or modern coin hunter, there probably isn’t a better unit on the market if you learn to use the Deus 2 in Full tones. It can really sort it’s way through can slaw and aluminum foil like no other and pick out coins and rings. Of course you will still have to deal with screw caps and pull tabs to some extent.

Deep coin hunting is another matter though, I’m not really that fond of the machine when it comes to deep coin hunting specifically. For one I think it needs to be setup differently in my soil. I use the Park program (square audio) 5 tones and install some notches or tones to take care of stuff I don’t want to dig. I’ve been using disc at 10, first break at 58 100 hz, second break at 64 901 Hz to catch nickels, third break at 80 450 hz for most junk and everything above 80 at 901 Hz for IHP and up. Audio response 4, sensitivity 80, reactivity 1.5, silencer 2, and bottle cap reject 5. Not a bad setup and since the ID is more stable than the Deus 1 it works pretty good. In theory I should be able to ramp up the sensitivity, audio response and drop the reactivity to make those deep coins stand out. The problem is the Deus 2 in my soil starts to lose good ID at a little over 6”. Changing those settings to extremes only makes things worse with soil conditions and EMI I’m experiencing in most city sites. So I’m left with those 6” plus signals being very quiet and hard to catch unless I’m really concentrating. I’ve used the Deus 2 for about 5 hours in parks now and have yet to dig a bottle cap with the stock Park program.

Relic Hunting-This IMO is one of the area the Deus 2 really shines. Most people are hunting relics in the woods, plowed fields or fields with grass (animals grazing). Usually, these sites are very littered with iron trash and can also have modern trash mixed in. Additionally, some areas can be rather void of trash but hide deep relics. This is where I have used the Deus 2 for most of my time. Areas that I have been over many times before with other machines are yielding relics I have missed. In and amongst the square nails I have been pulling buttons, bullets, percussion caps and camp lead that was all missed. My setup for relics is based off the park program. It has a good range of frequencies 4-24 Khz for the types of targets I’m hunting. I will usually dig target ID’s from the low 30’s and up. Here is why, small Navy tin backed cuff buttons 33 ID on the Deus 2, percussion caps and 3 cent nickels (not a trime) mid 40’s low 50’s, $1 gold coins depending on the type 58-61 and so forth. There’s really not anything above 33 I can not dig without losing stuff. My setup for these sites is as I said based off Park, reactivity 2, silencer 0, audio response 4, sensitivity 93, 3 tones with the disc set at 31, second break at 80 450 Hz, above 80 901 Hz so the really good stuff stands out like big buttons, bullets and coins. There are also iron targets I will dig at these sites which include picket pins, horseshoes, cannon balls, gun parts and gun tools. So, if it sounds like big iron, I’ll dig it. It lacks a little on depth in my soil compared to some of the other machines I have. But that's all I'll say about that for now.

Gold Prospecting-The Deus 2 will work for gold nugget hunting about as well as other all-terrain metal detectors on the market. Because of the ground balance system, the Deus 2 is very well behaved. But if the area has a lot of hot rocks, it can be annoying. They are however pretty easy to ID. Sensitivity to small gold isn’t as good as I would like it to be. I feel a person will leave a lot of small gold behind when using the Deus 2 regardless of coil size. Which brings up another point. Coil options for gold nugget hunting aren’t the greatest, At this time the 9” round is the smallest coil available for the Deus 2. On .20 gram nuggets and up the Deus 2 does fine, smaller stuff it really can struggle on. I will set it up in Goldfield, threshold 3, audio response 4, reactivity 2, IAR 0, sensitivity as high as it will allow. I’ve used the Deus 2 for about 10 hours nugget hunting.

Ghost Town Hunting-I’ve only hunted one area that I would consider ultra trashy like a ghost town for about 3 hours. But even with the 11” coil I was finding stuff that impressed me. I was pulling .22 lead and brass from some really trashy areas. For those that have used the Deus 1 in the past, know that the Deus 1 was the king of iron trash and it’s looking like the Deus 2 will be almost as good. With the addition of the bottle cap reject, it will now be easier to ID and possibly illuminate flat tin and bottle caps at these site. Looking forward to using it more when I get my 9” coil.

Addition to original post: I forgot to add what my program settings were. I use Deep HC to base this program off. I set disc at 25 and everything above 25 at 901 Hz, (Pitch would probably be better but it really bugs my ears) sensitivity 85, audio response 3, reactivity 2.5, silencer 2, bottle cap reject at 5 and iron volume 4.

Overall great metal detector IMO. It’s nice to know that 1 metal detector will cover about 80% of my sites and target types. I may edit some of this as things come to mind.

 

[CPT_GhostLight]

Thank you for your straight forward, no nonsense evaluation of the D2 in your environments. This is very useful information for me because your soil is similar to mine. This is what I was waiting to hear. I apprecaite your input, well done!

[Calmark]

I appreciate the time you put in to give a review of your experiences in the areas and conditions you hunt in out west.  Living out west myself in an area with mineralized soil, I would face similar conditions to what you experience.  Your info is very helpful to people in similar areas.

It sounds like the Deus 2 for you has been a pretty good all-around machine for the variety of sites and conditions you hunt in. Being multi-frequency and based on the successful Deus 1 platform, its no surprise to hear it is very versatile.  Despite some drawbacks and slight weaknesses in certain areas like in high EMI or bad soils, overall the D2 seems very solid and even seems to excel in places like for heavy iron hunting and likely in the water. 

Best of luck on your coming hunts and please keep sharing your experiences.     

[mudwhale]

Great review Sir!! 👍

I feel the same here. Once we get over the learning curve on what settings work best for our soil and style, the machine will really start to rock. Thanks for the review! HH