A Summary Of My First Season With The Deus 2

[Brad Plohman]

My season in Canada is over now and here’s a look at the good stuff. I finished with 13 gold rings, all with the Deus 2. I hunt fresh water usually waist to neck deep and thus rely almost solely on the audio of the D2. Until this year I’ve only ever hunted with Excaliburs.

I have to say, all the programs, modes and settings on this thing were a little overwhelming to me at first and I wasn’t having fun the first few times out. All the discussion on this forum has helped a lot.

Being in fresh water I tried several of the inland programs and settled quickly on the General (1) program due to stability and quiet operation. I see General is the only inland program that uses Conductive Soil Subtraction like the Beach/Dive programs.

I prefer Pitch Mode for its indication of target depth by pitch, especially on the beaches that classify well. The quiet operation of General (1) combined with pitch mode and a higher Audio Response (5) really lets me hear those deeper targets. Surprisingly when I get a lower pitch audio response indicating a deep target; it actually turns out to be a legitimate size deep target and not a smaller scrap sitting near the surface. The low notch I’m using may be helping in that regard.

I run a notch from the point of discrimination (7) to 28. I tried running with and without it and found that using the notch greatly helps me avoid wasting time digging micro crap, especially given most of the time I can’t see the remote. I could possibly be missing fine chains or very small gold but it certainly looks like I’m doing ok in the small ring department. I don’t know the vdi’s for all the rings but the one to the left of the penny was 34. 

In a quest for depth I started using very low Reactivity but found that combined with my lower underwater sweep speed, I was getting weaker target responses. After some testing I found bumping the Reactivity up to 2.0 greatly improved the target response.

There’s definitely seems to be some great descriptive audio. I don’t have a good understanding of it yet so I’ll be digging lots for a while. I asked a friend with a Deus 1 what audio quality he looks for in a good target and his answer was “Smooth”. I think that’s a good word to describe it. I’m using the GGA phones and love them. They have tons of volume, but they do use the Bone Phone output you’re limited to square. At this point I do still feel like I can size and shape a target better with an Excal in All Metal. I don’t expect to learn the Deus 2 audio overnight.

Looking at the results of this first season, what really stands to me is the high ratio of small rings I found. 7 out of 13 (54%) were smaller, penny size rings. Typically for me only 10-15% would be small rings like that. It could certainly be just blind luck however my gut feeling is the Deus 2 had a strong hand in it.

I’m sold; this thing is a serious water machine! Did I mention its bloody deep? Very happy with the D2 and can’t wait for spring to come. Any feedback from Deus veterans greatly appreciated. Good luck all.

[Rick N. MI]

Nice. The rings look all new. 

[Brad Plohman]

8 minutes ago, Rick N. MI said:

Nice. The rings look all new. 

That's all polished up for the class photo

[strick]

Nice haul there Brad...great to see your jiving with the Deus 2..I hate the stupid antenna and have only used it a few times submerged but found a couple gold with it and you are giving me  inspiration to continue with it's underwater capabilities...I've found it is a deep machine as well. I love using it for dirt relic hunting which is why i bought it in the first place...Thanks for posting and how do you get your rings so shiny if you don't mind sharing lol. 

strick

[Brad Plohman]

2 minutes ago, strick said:

Thanks for posting and how do you get your rings so shiny if you don't mind sharing lol.

Thanks. I us a small ultrasonic cleaner and my Dremel with a 1/2" felt polishing pad and Mothers Mag Polish. I think it was OBN that put me on to that.

[palzynski]

Very nice finds , and your pics are splendid . I am curious did you use a camera or a smartphone to take them ?

[Brad Plohman]

5 hours ago, palzynski said:

I am curious did you use a camera or a smartphone to take them ?

Thanks, there's nothing professional going on with the pictures I just use my Samsung S8. I find natural light washes out the gold color so I just use the LED lighting in my kitchen. I put the rings on a piece of printer paper and use about a 25% zoom which seems to focus better on all the rings.

[CPT_GhostLight]

Great first season with your D2, Brad, congrats on all the lovely gold! I can't wait to see what your second season looks like, well done!

 

[relicmeister]

Hi Brad,   I’m really impressed with your grasp on the Deus 2 used in a water setting. ( I’m impressed with your ring count also). But to me it really seems you have it dialed-in for how you hunt. 

[Unipin]

On 11/28/2022 at 12:03 AM, Brad Plohman said:

My season in Canada is over now and here’s a look at the good stuff. I finished with 13 gold rings, all with the Deus 2. I hunt fresh water usually waist to neck deep and thus rely almost solely on the audio of the D2. Until this year I’ve only ever hunted with Excaliburs.

I have to say, all the programs, modes and settings on this thing were a little overwhelming to me at first and I wasn’t having fun the first few times out. All the discussion on this forum has helped a lot.

Being in fresh water I tried several of the inland programs and settled quickly on the General (1) program due to stability and quiet operation. I see General is the only inland program that uses Conductive Soil Subtraction like the Beach/Dive programs.

I prefer Pitch Mode for its indication of target depth by pitch, especially on the beaches that classify well. The quiet operation of General (1) combined with pitch mode and a higher Audio Response (5) really lets me hear those deeper targets. Surprisingly when I get a lower pitch audio response indicating a deep target; it actually turns out to be a legitimate size deep target and not a smaller scrap sitting near the surface. The low notch I’m using may be helping in that regard.

I run a notch from the point of discrimination (7) to 28. I tried running with and without it and found that using the notch greatly helps me avoid wasting time digging micro crap, especially given most of the time I can’t see the remote. I could possibly be missing fine chains or very small gold but it certainly looks like I’m doing ok in the small ring department. I don’t know the vdi’s for all the rings but the one to the left of the penny was 34. 

In a quest for depth I started using very low Reactivity but found that combined with my lower underwater sweep speed, I was getting weaker target responses. After some testing I found bumping the Reactivity up to 2.0 greatly improved the target response.

There’s definitely seems to be some great descriptive audio. I don’t have a good understanding of it yet so I’ll be digging lots for a while. I asked a friend with a Deus 1 what audio quality he looks for in a good target and his answer was “Smooth”. I think that’s a good word to describe it. I’m using the GGA phones and love them. They have tons of volume, but they do use the Bone Phone output you’re limited to square. At this point I do still feel like I can size and shape a target better with an Excal in All Metal. I don’t expect to learn the Deus 2 audio overnight.

Looking at the results of this first season, what really stands to me is the high ratio of small rings I found. 7 out of 13 (54%) were smaller, penny size rings. Typically for me only 10-15% would be small rings like that. It could certainly be just blind luck however my gut feeling is the Deus 2 had a strong hand in it.

I’m sold; this thing is a serious water machine! Did I mention its bloody deep? Very happy with the D2 and can’t wait for spring to come. Any feedback from Deus veterans greatly appreciated. Good luck all.

Fist of all Congrats for your finds! As i look at this beautiful picture with those gold rings something went through my mind. Did you find all those rings in same area or just part of it on the same spot? Those big rings with black enamel or stone look very similar as i can notice, and also those two with an inscription at the bottom of the picture. 

If they are found at the same spot, the "black" ones espacially, or the other two i mentioned they might be from a crime scene, just saying, or somebody lost all of his rings while swimming, you never know. Maybe is a good idea to check with the local police, looks like somebody lost an arm not a ring.