XP Deus For Beach Hunting?

[MontAmmie]

  

Any of you Deus owners tried it out on wet salt sand?  I need something lightweight for trashy beaches (yeah, I'm a wimp-ette).  I love my Infinium for the water and wet sand, but the bottle caps drive me nuts on the upper beach.  I've done tests and bottle caps and gold rings sound identical (of course they do, it's a PI machine!).  If the bottle caps drive me crazy at the ocean beach, I have a feeling the Infinium is going to be almost useless when we go to fresh water beaches next summer.  My old DFX is great on the dry and will tell me instantly if it's a bottle cap.  But at 5 lbs, it wears me out quick.  And it really doesn't get much depth once I start wandering toward the surf line.  I need a light VLF that will do a good job on any beach. Maybe the new AT Max? CTX 3030 (it's kinda heavy too)?

PS.  The Infinium has already paid for itself!  

[Steve Herschbach]

The Deus headphones and controller are not waterproof so they need protection from the water. Don't drop them! The wireless coil loses communication with the headphones or controller if it is submerged. XP has a little kit that gives you everything needed to be waterproof to 15'

[1515Art]

I've seen online where the gold plated coil charging pins on the Deus will corrode around the edges from exposure to salt water making charging the coil difficult or impossible. the recommendation to protect the pins is to cover the charging area with a strip of electric tape before going into the salt and removing the tape and rinse the coil in fresh water when you are done detecting at the beach.

[strick]

Never tried mine in the wet but it works great in the dry. One thing to note if you are looking for "Lightweight"  The Deus with the 11" coil is nose heavy and I would rather swing my CTX with it's 11" coil even though it's twice as heavy as the Deus....it's very well balanced. Another thing I will say is that bottle caps sound off great with the Deus (somewhere in the 80's if I remember right) Experienced Deus park hunters probably know how to notch these out or know how they sound but I never got the hang of it. My Deus's sole purpose is to sniff out relics in nail infested areas. I had originally bought two of them....one 11" and one  9" Deus. My intention was to use the 11" myself and the 9" was a gift for my wife. Well my wife hated the Deus because of the bottle cap thing so I ended up trading in my 11" model for a new Excalibur with 8" coil which I now use in trashy beaches here in the Delta. Bottle caps usually make a distinctive scratchy low tone with the Excal so I can ignore them if I start getting picky. My Excal is on a carbon fiber shaft so it's fairly light weight and well balanced. My wife's favorite beach detector was her AT Gold. With iron audio on she could disc out the rusted out bottle caps...Then one day I let her use my CTX and that was the end of the AT Gold for her. 

strick

[1515Art]

The bottle caps can be found running from the low 80s to the high 90s...the other day in the park I hit a 1/2 chunk of dog choke chain with the rusted chain sitting in the center of the remaining loop, came in at 94 at 14khz with the round hf. Was a little scratchy sounding, but deeper coins anywhere near iron trash also sound scratchy depending on how things sit. I love the Deus for what it is, light and compact hits targets hard in iron trash a great hit and run handy to have on hand detector Im pretty sure will hit gold ok with the hf coil when used in its place. In any area with heavy aluminum slaw, wadded up foil wrapper, pull tabs and other small bits be ready to dig tons of trash if hunting for anything other than coins (round). so far I haven't found the secret to sorting out the lower reading vid targets except to dig them all. I'm thinking at some point a CTX type detector will be a good addition, just waiting to see what the new release has to offer from ML.

[Swampstomper Al]

On 8/23/2017 at 10:27 AM, MontAmmie said:

...Maybe the new AT Max?
PS.  The Infinium has already paid for itself!  

I think you just name-checked your answer / solution..

I have absolutely no complaints about my AT Pro on the beach; it works great everywhere from the cross-overs to knee-deep surf & beyond (along with working well in parks etc. too..) Based on its proven performance to me, if I didn't already have it I'd get a Max.. Still may, some day..

If I know I'm going to be working wet only I'll use the Infinium.. Ditto everywhere following a major storm thrashing, especially down along the Treasure Coast.. For general beach wanderings these days though, except for add'l depth hits I doubt I've missed very much if anything with the AT at half the weight of the Infinium.. Even when wearing the control box that bad boy gets heavy after a couple hours..

Swamp
 

[rehupuntti]

I have euro coin program my deus.8khz...disk 40 notch 69.no pultabb or folio...good iron separation.

[MontAmmie]

On 8/24/2017 at 8:14 AM, strick said:

 Another thing I will say is that bottle caps sound off great with the Deus (somewhere in the 80's if I remember right).

strick

Thanks, Strick, no Deus for me!  Our main form of beach trash here is bottle caps.  Lordy, I hate those things.  I think the pull-tabs all get cleaned out since I don't know of a detector made that can tell one from a gold ring.  That's why I drag out the DFX for the dry sand.  You get a high squeak and the VDI numbers are all over the place.  No question it's a bottle cap!

On 8/24/2017 at 4:08 PM, Swampstomper Al said:

 

I have absolutely no complaints about my AT Pro on the beach; it works great everywhere from the cross-overs to knee-deep surf & beyond (along with working well in parks etc. too..) Based on its proven performance to me, if I didn't already have it I'd get a Max.. Still may, some day..

Swamp
 

I was looking at an AT Pro for dry sand, but I've heard lots of people say it doesn't like salt water.  One guy that hunts a beach here nearly every day won't even go near the wet sand with his.  Maybe he got a "bad" one?  I've heard rumors that the AT Max does better with salt water?  I think we're starting to see some sand movement.  Day before yesterday I found 11 big lead sinkers all in one area about the size of a dinner table.  No gold after I cleaned them all out though. 

 

The more I read about other detectors the more I appreciate my well-used, geriatric DFX!   I think I'm going to do a test this week on a section of "my" beach.  Go over it with the DFX, then the Infinium and see what the DFX misses.  I'll report my results.

Thanks ya'll and happy hunting!

[MontAmmie]

On 8/24/2017 at 3:17 PM, 1515Art said:

I'm thinking at some point a CTX type detector will be a good addition, just waiting to see what the new release has to offer from ML.

 

Yeah, I'm waiting for Sept 16 too.  Should be interesting.  At the very least, maybe it'll make the used CTX's get a little more reasonable!

[Steve Herschbach]

34 minutes ago, MontAmmie said:

I think I'm going to do a test this week on a section of "my" beach.  Go over it with the DFX, then the Infinium and see what the DFX misses.  I'll report my results.

I do that sort of stuff all the time and sure would enjoy hearing your report. 

All single frequency detectors struggle with salt water. Little known fact is salinity levels vary at different beaches around the country. I get the impression the AT Pro is borderline, and works ok at some beaches but not well at others. One goal in the AT Max was attempting to address this issue.

Were it not for the Minelab announcement I would lean AT Max myself. However, with the AT Max now delayed until sometime in September it would be nuts to not wait and have Minelab show their hand before making any decisions.