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Legend - First Impressions


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Just now, GB_Amateur said:

Excellent, detailed report, Jeff.  I highlighted a couple things which I would like more explanation.  Specifically, did the Legend dTID's also spread out and/or up-average for the deepest coins, similar to the Equinox's performance characteristics?

Yes.

For me, the target IDs were a bit more unstable on the Legend. However, somewhat like the Equinox, when the Legend's 11" coil's sweet spot is centered over the target the numbers are very stable, even on deeper 7" to 9" targets. On my 11" coil, that spot is directly under the coil nut area.

I have not used my Legend since installing software update 1.05 which was supposed to improve M1 in some way that was not described by N/M.  Maybe this slight instability of M1 noticed on deeper targets was addressed.

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Jeff, 

   Thanks for the updates! Your results are right in line with ours. 
  My son and I are both very happy with the Legend.  Tom

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Two 1.5 hour hunts at local Denver parks with the Legend.

Found 332 zinc pennies in one 2'X2' area about 4" deep. Took me almost an hour to recover them and I needed to change my Tek-Point pinpointer batteries afterwards. I just thought there might be a huge piece of aluminum or a buried 6-pack in the ground..........or maybe a casket?

 

Today I would have been happy with just the clad coins and a wheat penny, but I will take a sterling, 10k, 14k and copper ring anytime. The Legend did really well still in Park M1 with the 1.05 software. The 10K .85 gram ring had a 15 for target ID. The 14K 2.3 gram was 19. These small women’s rings were all in the same hole. I found the sterling one first at 4” depth. The 10K and 14K were just a few inches left and right of the sterling one at the same depth.

 

 

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I'm wore out just reading about that much time retrieving targets. Great results.

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I have been using my Legend WHP for a month now with 14 less than 2 hour hunts. I have found two gold rings, one gold earring, two silver rings, a dozen pieces of bling jewelry, a Mercury dime, Roosevelt silver dime, five wheat pennies, and $103.45 in US clad. So almost $150 in melt value gold and silver plus the US clad, my Legend is approaching half paid for in one month of fairly short hunts since I am still nursing a bad ankle.

The only “issue” I have had with the Legend is 4 hours of unsuccessful attempts to update the 1.06 software. Looks like that was actually a good thing considering that 1.06 was pulled, aside from the loss of 4 hours that I could have been hunting.

The Legend has been a pleasant surprise to say the least.

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A few "relics"  (not really) from a ranch house site that was torn down in the early 1960s. 1968 Zippo lighter and some other pre-1960s targets. Very mineralized ground and lots of more modern and square nails. The wind was blowing a steady 25-30 mph. I could barely hear the Legend (not its fault!) even with headphones on.

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Now for a few less positive aspects of my impressions of the Legend. Most of these are my own personal issues and not a fault of the Legend.

My main issue is the onboard pinpoint feature. The Legend running 1.05 in heavily iron and/or aluminum trashed sites or in higher mineralization needs to have the coil really centered over the target both for the best IDs and for pinpointing with the onboard pinpointer. This may be related to the iron bias fixed setting.............The Legend seems to have outstanding target separation otherwise (the amount of coin spills me and the Legend have located in a month is staggering) so...........I have had some difficulty locating targets in trashy areas after pinpointing them. I mean, I get a good stable target ID on a deeper 4 to 6" coin sized target, pinpoint it with the Legend's onboard pinpointer and then struggle to find the target in areas where I have to use screwdriver/coin popping recovery techniques due to digging restrictions. Often the Legend will pinpoint the target as under the coil nut but the actual target is 2 to 3" away from that spot laterally. So, this may just be me. I do have a little trouble seeing the pinpointing meter when it is totally full indicating the coil nut is over the target. Also, this whole issue maybe Bluetooth related since I have yet to detect with the Legend using the external speaker or with other forms of headphone connection in the field.

I guess I need a pair of prescription bifocal sunglasses. I have trouble seeing many things on the Legend display. That goes for several other higher end detectors too so again, not the Legend's fault.

My next most pressing "issue" is trusting the user profile function. The Legend's 16 user profile slots (four for each of the four search modes) are very generous in number but they are fairly hard for me to navigate. I need a magnifier to make sure that I have done everything correctly. Nokta Makro, don't change anything just because I have a hard time seeing something. That is not what I am asking. I am just saying I can't see the vast majority of the smaller details on the screen very well. I have set up saved user profile 1s for Park, Field and Goldfield successfully and they work well. I am just afraid I will press the wrong button and lose the profile since I can barely see the checkmark on the user profile file icon in the settings menu........

Which brings me to my next thing. Right now, I would be afraid to have a full system reset function unless it required more than one button to activate it. I am constantly pressing the wrong buttons even after using the Legend for a month. That is not Nokta Makro's fault. I need to learn the detector. Having a one button push reset.........I know I would press it accidentally.

Otherwise, I really like how the Legend detects, its other ergonomics and the build quality. 

 

Please feel free to comment in this thread. I am not going to nit pick your posts or comments other than to support you while we learn this detector together.

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V 1.07 seems to be a solid performing update. I hunted 2 hours on my high mineral relic site. Stock 11" coil, Field M2, 2tone, TB@6, Recovery@4. Was able to run the sensitivity @28. The detector ran very stable over the ground with just a little chatter when laid down to dig. There are no clean signals left here. I am digging 1&2 way hits that are not overwhelmingly iron. Mostly a soft buzz & 1 or 2 bars Fe on the FerroCheck scale but a high tone that does not move. The FerroCheck works well enough if you take the audio response into account. Higher mineralization Will often add a bar or two to a deeper/weaker target as will nearby nails that are co-located. I view it as another form of TDI, to be used as Extra information. I still dig by Audio response. These iffy hits are coming out as small-very small low conductors. Camp lead, brass bits & such. Most all have nail pieces in the hole too. Several had a fairly big nail that once removed, let the non ferrous really come thru clear. Most targets are @4-6". Dug a few larger & deeper targets that weren't so obviously compromised by co-located iron that I had missed with other machines in this red clay. I used Ground tracking for most of the hunt & it seems to work very well, ranged from high 40's to low60's. I double checked it several times & it was always within a point or two of dead on. I'm looking forward to NM getting the Threshold lined out thru the BTHPs. That feature may add some fringe depth capability. I am also looking forward to having an adjustable Iron Bias to play with, though the current fixed setting is Very near ideal for my sites so far. I'm impressed more with The Legend each time I use it so far.

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If you switch to  wired headphones, you will hear the Threshold at 1 or 2 nicely.

Up the volume to max on the control box and adjust volume on the headphones if they have   volume control.

Using the cheap wired Calrads, detector audio is really nice.

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I hunted a Denver Public School site last Sunday after struggling with loading the 1.06 software and failing (that was a blessing!). So I was a bit frustrated and the hunt with my Legend in Park M1 with ground discrimination setting at the 1923 school site didn't go much better with 25 mph winds and a measly .81 cents (all post 1982 US coins) and some old disconnected brass sprinkler system parts after 1.5 hours. Nothing deep and pretty disappointing.

When I got home I tried to load the update again and it failed again and then I noticed my Legend sounded weird. I looked carefully and noticed I had been hunting in 4kHz instead of M1 at the old school site. The wind had been blowing so hard that I just didn't notice I was in the wrong frequency. That got me wondering.

So I went back to the same site today, (Easter Sunday) and hunted the exact same ground and I mean the exact same ground for 1.5 hours and came back with all of this stuff. I really was hunting in Park M1 this time for sure. I am still using 1.05 too by the way. The two wheat pennies and the copper decorative whatever it is (part of a door knob assembly?) were deep= 9 to 10 " and sounded very good. Most of the rest of the targets were in the 3 to 6" range.

I consider every find on this plate to be a quality target. All of them had excellent, repeatable target IDs and were no brainer, dig me targets. How I missed them in 4 kHz................. 

Look very carefully at that plate of targets. 38 mid to high conductor targets that could have easily been silver coins that 4kHz should have absolutely screamed on IN THEORY. High iron mineralization throws that theory out the window and into the 25mph wind. Hunting in simultaneous multi frequency Park M1 mode with ground discrimination setting changed everything and let me also find 11 low conductor non-ferrous targets (nickels and aluminum) that could have easily been gold jewelry. The only ferrous target on that plate and the only one I dug is what the key is attached to. There were hundreds of iron targets under my coil by the way judging from the audio responses. Also, this being Denver, I was digging with a screwdriver so I left lots of deep, potential high conductor targets in the ground for a later trip.

So, I hear from some people how there is no difference between single frequency and simultaneous multi frequency on this and other forums quite often. In my dirt there is a huge difference.

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