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No worries for him rvpopeye. I'm past my prime. A warn blanket is all I require now.

Beach hunt # 17 is a continuation of hunting the same beach that I was getting a lot of copper cents from. Tide was high when I arrived, so dry sand hunting led to minimal good finds and more iron than usual from this spot. Once the tide receded, I was able to continue the coin line from the previous hunt. This time, Memorials beat the Wheats by a lot and that means less silver too. Zero zinc cents today - hurray! 😊 5 silvers for the day and a bonus tiny low karat ring. The ring popped out as I was digging a Memorial cent. Apparently, this beach is very acidic and that leads to thin copper cents and unfortunately for me, gold losing its copper base metal. There is no saving this ring as the only thing left is mostly gold. Never seen this kind of action on low karat material. I have seen copper leaching out of rings before, but not like this. Found a lead soldier, but can’t figure out what he is holding? Maybe a whip? IDK. It was a nice day at the beach, weather was still warm enough at 40 degrees, but snow was on the way. 7 hours of using a scoop was enough for me. 😶

Hi , Welcome , I dont have a D2 yet but I imagine that it will the same for the D2 as for all the other detectors/brands I have owned ... : 9' coil the plus : light , excellent in the iron trash , easy target centering the cons : less ground coverage than the 11" , a little less depth on medium/big coins than the 11" 11' coil the plus : the deepest on big targets ( medium/big coins ) in clean soils, the important ground coverage the cons : poor separation in the iron trash , it is often difficult to center the targets without a pinpointer , and last but not least they are usually heavy From my standpoint I detect inland and very often in the irons , and I dont like nose heavy machines , then I will go for the D2 9" ...

This Dude is up the Creek with a Paddle. Circa 78.

Typical colonial field finds.

All from one field. We call them "Big Pennies" here. lol

Tom and Cal. Found near my home except the Rey button. Research that one. Phoenix Buttons found at a Trading Post on a River near my home. Buttons are what I enjoy digging the most.

Olde Tex.

Christmas day I was climbing the walls to do a little detecting, so with little time to hunt before dinner I decided to hit my neighbors 18th century house. After two wheaties and some modern clad I got my first good target. It was an odd piece of copper/bronze doo dad. Looks familiar but I just can't put my finger on it. My last good Target was what I thought to be a key of some sort, Well not so much. After I got home I cleaned the (key) off and found it to be an odd medallion. A date of 1876 and a liberty bell and some people shaking hands emerged. After a little Google research I found it to be a 1876 Philadelphia Exposition medallion. It was the first worlds fair. It was called the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and products of the soil and mines. Kinda cool since I found it in the soil Ha Ha. 10 million people attended from 37 countries and was held in Fairmount Park. I believe only 2 buildings that were constructed are still standing today. It's a nice find for me, but I sure wish it had the rest of the pieces. It's funny how the detecting gods throw a little important history at you from time to time.

The price is the same on the only site that I can find that is advertising them in the USA $399. Brand new detector technology so I can't give any Deus 2 advice. With Deus 1 and ORX, the 9" coils felt the best for me. The HF 9" was deeper and more sensitive than the original 9". I never liked swinging the 11" on the Deus 1 and ORX.....way too nose heavy. As far as depth between FMF 9" and 11". That would depend on soil mineralization. Here in Colorado I never saw any depth difference between Deus 1 and ORX 11" and 9" due to mineralization. Horizontal ground coverage was definitely better with the 11". Target separation and sensitivity to smaller targets was definitely better with the 9"........

Brian, I've been using the 5x10 since they first became available. I was lucky and got in on the first shipment to the U.S. I haven't noticed any forward sweet spot, it pinpoints very accurately using the pinpoint feature and/or Xing the spot. Separation is better than the 11" as to be expected but lacks just a little bit of depth. I think better depth than the 6" which is excellent for that small of a coil. Mine hasn't come off since I got it. I like the lighter weigh over the 11" also. I think you'll be wishing you had gotten it sooner. Good Luck Tom

I'd personally go with the 9in since it would separate better, fit into tighter areas and be lighter weight. Definite pluses in trashy parks, in iron-infested sites and if I were to do a bit of nugget hunting in rough areas. I've really enjoyed the 10x5 on my Equinox over the 11in stock coil for these very same reasons.

Is a Deus 1 that much better than an ORX. Absolutely. I would go $500 or more better for the coin, jewelry, relic hunter. Like Abenson said, if you want a fairly simple to operate but very limited feature coin, jewelry and relic detector, that would be the ORX. The ORX coin modes have many, many drawbacks compared to the Deus 1. Some of the biggest for me are the lack of tone options including just 3 tones, only 1 adjustable tone break, no tone pitch adjustments, no full tones, no notching, and the biggest for me in mineralized ground.....the ORX Coin mode's iron range stops at zero. The Deus 1 iron range stops at -6.4. Trust me, there are a lot of iron targets and in iron mineralization there are a lot of non-ferrous targets that have their IDs skewed into that negative iron range, that the ORX in its Coin modes will not hit, period. If you mostly want an ORX for gold prospecting with the occasional coin, jewelry and relic hunt.....the ORX Gold modes actually have more features than the Deus 1 Gold Field program and the ORX Gold mode's iron range goes all the way down to -6.4 just like Deus 1. So for me, ORX versus Deus all depends on what you will mostly be using it for. Gold prospecting get the ORX. Anything else, get the Deus 1 or if you have the money definitely get the Deus 2 and skip Deus 1 and ORX.

9” is what I have on preorder. I don’t need the extra 2” of coverage for where I hunt. If I do, I’ll still have my nox. However if this new deus is as good as it looks in all the videos so far, I can see me selling off the nox and getting the 11” coil for the deus.

I assume that's a Black bear. Or an East Texas hog that wandered further than usual.

Don't fall too far out of your chair, George started finding Colonial Silver when it was still being replenished by the local populace. When you do the math that's not actually all that impressive. JK - George. I'm just jealous. 😉

Thanks dogodog. My dad was Marine Recon and served 4 tours in nam from 1963-1972. His experiences with AC130's saving his life many times are a large part of why I chose to be a part of the Spectre team. Thanks for the welcome, I look forward to more conversation.

It's become a tradition of mine to write up a year-end summary of my detecting experience, and since most of my detecting is for coins and relics I keep it in this subforum. My plan for this past year was to experience some new detecting types (via longish trips) and find some new local sites to coin hunt. Thanks to Monte and Oregon Gregg I was welcomed to their June Ghost Town hunt in NE Nevada where I met about 20 like-minded, ambitious, and friendly detectorists. Besides co-organizer Gregg (unfortunately Monte was unable to attend), Utah Rich and Tom Slick were among the attendees who are members and posters here. My 6 days produced minimal coin finds but some decent relics. Next to the camaraderie I most enjoyed learning about a new kind of detecting in a site, soil, and intended target combination I had never previously experienced. In addition to that part of the trip I also spent some time in the Denver area, getting to hunt with the local Eureka club and particularly valuable -- meeting Jeff McClendon and picking his brain on the operation of the QED. Also on this trip I spent a couple days on a National Forest GPAA claim 8-9000 ft. up in NW Colorado. Unfortunately I came up empty handed (as far as gold) but learned quite a bit about site reading *and* how to deal with remote, rugged mountain roads and terrain. In August I headed East to NW Massachusetts on a 'blind date' (not literally, but was generously well taken care of by the land owners who I had never met) detect of an 18th Century homestead. Even dealing with hurricane Henri I was still able to get in several hours of detecting, finding my first USA Large Cent -- oldest coin to date -- 1803. I'll be writing up more on that in a couple days. On the way home I accepted an invitation by member dogodog to detect one of his old coin sites. Even though the heat and humidity was up there we still got in four productive hours with silver finds (mine a Merc and he did even better -- two silvers and a gold ring) along with lots of converstation/discussion. Just another perk of belonging here with such friendly, generous, and accomodating members. The other 10 1/2 months of detecting were done locally. (No photos in this post as I've shown many of those finds previously.) I did accomplish one of my 2021 New Years Resolutions of finding new sites. Eight of the 16 local sites I detected this year were ones I had never hunted. Another writeup I'll be posting shortly focuses in on one of those (muni park) and why I think it might have been previously unsearched. Now for some what I consider *key* statistics of these local hunts: 266 hrs of swinging at local sites, 104 Wheat pennies -- new record for one calendar year, 36 'other old coins' (silver content coins, Buffalo and earlier nickels, Indian Head Pennies) -- second to last year's record of 43, One interesting contrast between last year (where most of my detecting was done in a single, large park) and this year in regards to specifically silver coin finds -- 22 in 2021 vs. 27 in 2022, and more disparate are silver dimes -- 11 vs. 20. Magnifying the silver dime arena, I found 11 Roosies this year compared to 3 last year and 4 in all previous years. (OK, for those of you who stuck around, here's your eye-candy fix -- my 27 silver finds of the year: ) My goals this year include another trip West (ghost-towning and gold prospecting), another trip to that Massachusetts Colonial site, and locally getting enough guts to ask for permissions to private properties. I know of one that (if undetected) is going to be a real 'silver mine' but I need to 'practice' my people skills first so that one may have to wait for 2023.

price for the 9" and the 11" is the same 399 euro,here in belgium.

This is exactly what I'm thinking. The main issue I have is that most other detectors have a considerable difference between coil sizes (Nox 6" vs 11" for example). The D2 only has a 2 inch overall difference between the 2 coils offered- is there really that much of a weight difference or ability to seperate/work tight spots with that small of a size difference? It just seems to me that if a guy/gal had to choose between the two, everything equal (and even near equal on the size- 2 inch difference) that a person would choose the coil that has a bit of an advantage on ground coverage. So, to those who have tested both coils, are they really drastically different? I have an 11" on order, but can change if I'm convinced that the 9" is the best way to go. Thanks everybody for chiming in, this is what makes this forum great.

For coins I use the 15x12 on the Nox and 17x13 on my Ctx, the bigger the coil the better for me in my mild relatively junk free soils with deep old coins, even the 11 inch seems to small for my needs, I rarely use my Nox 11 inch for coins.

I'd love to see some comparisons in depth between the D2 w/9" and D2 w/11" coils. I would say that 90% of the time I use the stock 11" coil on my EQX800 and am happy with it, but I do on occasion also use the 6" coil with good success and on rare occasion I use the 15" coil. It's a shame you have to base your decision on do I want more depth or better iron separation. Why can't I have my cake and eat it too? haha If the depth differentiation between the 9" and 11" is significant, I would be leaning towards the 11" simply because that's what I've been using 90% of the time on the EQX800 with good success even in iron infested sites. Given the DNA of the D2, I suspect the Deus2 w/11" coil will outperform the EQX800 w/11" coil in iron. I see what GnshpCSO was asking, assume he wants both coils. Being that both the 9" and 11" packages are the same price, what about the cost of buying a separate coil, are the coils the same price? In other words say the 11" coil à la carte was $100 more than then 9" coil. He'd buy the 11" coil package now, and then buy the 9" coil al la carte to have both coils and it would be $100 savings versus buying the 9" package and then adding the 11" coil à la carte. Hope that makes sense.

All the Hipstick’s we manufacture here now are actually printed around the D rings, with the original 3D printed versions developed by Chris Porter the ring was first split then forced through the printed head part after printing. In hot weather or in hilly terrain where sideway’s forces occur the D ring could be forced open and come away from the head. I not only use a Hipstick to control the weight of the detector (including the 6000) but also use them to help control and maintain smooth movement of the coil. It takes a while to learn how to swing when first using them but once learned they are invaluable for coil control. I can swing a 7000 without a bungee for about an hour but then all the connective tissue and ligaments around the elbow area and shoulders start to burn and ache, it’s nothing to do with strength but more to do with the need for those parts of your body to finely control the coil without hitting the ground, the better the control the better the gold find outcomes. Life without a Hipstick is just a recipe for a lot of unnecessary pain and potential long term injury. At The Outback Prospector we supply a free Hipstick with every GPZ 7000 we sell, including used ones. Buyers should also be wary of cheap counterfeit copies being flogged off on eBay and unscrupulous dealers etc. 😡 JP

To further complicate your questions... I have the 11" and Coiltek 10x5" (actually 9.5x5") coils for the Nox and rarely use the 11" anymore even in large fields because of the hot dirt and trash in our lovely Colorado grounds. But if XP does develop a 9.5x5" FMF coil at some point, the 9" coil would be not needed IMHO. So to live in the now vs later, I'm thinking the 9" coil is still the way to go to get the superior separation and lighter swing. If the 9.5x5" coil comes out, I could sell the 9" and buy an 11". That's my way of thinking right now anyway.

The lead soldier looks like a WWI "Hun", so he could be eating a giant soft pretzel. 😄 I'm German, btw, so I'm allowed by the Geneva Convention to make Hun jokes. 🤣

Black Bear weighs about 600 lbs. Loves to bend down my Bird Feeders for a taste snack. He is a good ole boy.

If it were me, and I have had both. I would opt to go straight to the Deus 2 unless you're on a budget. But it's going to depend on what you're using it for. The ORX is a very capable machine and simple to use. If you need adjustability for tough sites I would opt for the Deus. The ORX has a lot less things you can adjust on it vs the Deus. I would take the Deus just for the multiple tone options alone because I personally don't use 3 tones and I'm constantly changing my tone breaks based on the sites I hunt. Some people only use factory programs and never want to change anything and that's fine. So if you want simple get the ORX if you like to tinker with adjustments, you'll be happier with the Deus.

Calabash might be able to answer that. Other than that The nine incher will be a little lighter and easier to swing.

My pet "Hippo" Love my Pets.

A well-meaning suggestion: keep the HipStick for when your shoulder and back begin to suffer, it will help you. This is not being sarcastic at all. Even JP, who, compared to us, is huge, even he has suffered damage from swinging detectors. We may not do it full-time the way he is able to do at times, but the cumulative wear and tear will eventually appear. When it does, you will quickly get over feeling hemmed in by bungie's etc. if it means you aren't able to detect because of intense physical discomfort.

Watch out Chase , he might come start another collection in your neighborhood !😳

I was backpacking with a friend last spring to some hidden dunes in Death Valley NP and stumbled across some odd things there. Obviously not metal detecting, but there were interesting things to be found lying on the surface of the sands! It began with finding what I romantically named, Dune Glass, which was probably just flintknap chippings from natives way back in the day. That was the biggest piece. From there I spotted something really interesting which I thought would be a huge piece of Dune Glass. But it turned out to be something even more odd! A .50 cal slug, resting contentedly on the sand! But aside from these interesting finds, I take you to this strange piece that I picked up and brought home in order to clean up what seemed like trash. Found in the area of 37.14981, -117.84051. But I can’t figure out what it might be. Reminds me of an ant trap, but the hole seems way to small, and what a weird place to find it. Also it looks to be sealed in the mesh by hand with staples. I think I should open it up, but I just wanted to see if anyone here might have a clue as to what it is. I’m optimistic that it contains at least a gram of gold 😂 I know they’re not metal detecting finds, but since I’m a detector prospector, I figured I could share here! And if you haven’t visited Eureka Dunes, it’s amazing and worthwhile.

I lived in DV for 7 months the winter of 06-07 with my then GF while she workamped at the grille/bar at the golf course Furnace Creek. The rangers give info talks at the visitor center there. I think I remember seeing one about DV rocks and minerals,,,,No gold even if 'Ol Scotty said so......🤨 I saw some of those at the gift shop at Stovepipe , forget what the label said though. We didn't take any rocks home with us but sure did take sand ! It was everywhere no matter how much we cleaned it out. The tops of my leaf springs , engine compartment , inside the roof vents .....LOL

Thank you all for the input and advice. The level of knowledge and willingness to share on this site is unrivaled. A virtual brotherhood! While working the practice grid yesterday I played with all of my machines settings and different controls and I found at least in my yard what worked and what doesn't work. The big eye opener for me was the simplest and most important fuction of getting my ground balance adjusted for the terrain. It changed everything. Being able to eliminate hot rocks and nails is a game changer. At Rye Patch where I park on the claim it looks like someone designed a dancefloor hardpack with every rock imaginable. When I get out of the truck and set up I start detecting right at the truck hoping the find of the day is right there. It's hotrock city. No longer will that issue prevent me from enjoying the day. I might still run into them but at a much lesser rate. So my rant is all about the obvious.Start with the most important function and that is mastering ground balancing. Get more in tune and learn the machines language and different dialects, and try different settings to match the specific site and soil conditions. The folks on this site and incredible....thank you all for respectfully sharing. I hope to post some findings soon....as long as Reno and the outlying areas remain hospitable in the near future. SNOW GO AWAY

Yes the test bed was made for testing the nox with 11" coil when It first came out....the test bed has changed some now that it is several years old (I got a zillion gophers plus a dog that loves to dig for them) but originally the nox with 11 inch coil would hit most of the targets with 11" coil...we were testing only the nox using the different programs...I will try and run the 11" over it again if i get time this week and compare to the 10x5. strick

Have you run the Eqx 11" stock coil over that same testbed? I'm curious how it compares to the 5"x10" Coiltek NOX under these challenging conditions.

Brian your going to loose some depth for sure. I've been using one for a while now...it's a nice coil the main advantage is the shape and feather weight of the coil. I've been using it in heavy iron/trash for better separation. You will find it useful in heavy brush as well but that not why I bought one. Mount it on an extra shaft and put it in your backpack thats what I do if I'm walking in somewhere. The tip of the coil is sensitive but I dont know if I'd call it the "G" spot on the coil. One thing I noticed the other day that was interesting...I have some deep targets buried with nails that I set up for testing the characteristics of programs on the Equinox when I first got it. I have 6 stations.... all are seven inches or deeper. with nails in close proximity. The CTX was mainly nulling on these targets. The Nox with the 10x5 surprised me and was able to hit some of the targets thus outperforming the CTX with the larger coil. strick

…ah crap…. I’ve even been carrying it around like a good luck charm to all my nugget patches 😒

I'm not sure how I rated this, I don't have a Youtube channel and don't make videos, in fact I'm a relative noob with less than 2 years on the Nox, but Steve was nice enough to send me a protoype of his new S-Shaft for the Equinox to beta test. I must say it's pretty nice. It weighs in 1 ounce lighter than the bare stock shaft without coil, cuff, and control pod installed. So far I've tested it with the 6" and 10x5" coils and it feels really nice and responsive, but I'm not doing a full review until testing is done. I still have to run the 11" and 12x15" coils. He said I could post a photo so here ya go. I was doing a 5 hour test today when some college-age youngsters were sledding nearby and one of them came up to me and told me her friend had lost his ring in the snow and asked me if I could help find it. So the field test turned into a rescue mission.

You will do fine with current 2.78. Myself and others like 2.77, because we like working the detecting into the noisy chattery zone. It's the fringe target depth area. basically your running the detector very hot, not suitable for many. Read more here

No you are not splitting hairs there s defintely a big difference between a 11" and a 9". The iron separation is MUCH better with a 9" coil than a 11" coil. And a 9" coil is usually siginificantly lighter than a 11". If you look at all the detectors from other brands you will see that they mostly propose a 9" or eliiptical equivalent ( 11X7 for the T2/G2 for example ) as stock coil . There are some exceptions to this with ML and the Equinox for example , not sure that it was a good idea from them 🙂 ...

Mine was the first one also and the screw wore through the nylon strapping. I guess now I could have fixed it by getting some new nylon strapping but when I ordered a new one I got the solid fitting like you see in version 2.

Hmmm obsidian. Well if I held it in the hand I would know lol. The picture really does look like chert but if there’s an obsidian source pretty close by it’s probably it.

lol, no worries! information transfer is always good...and it is a relevant topic, to boot.

For some reason some Indians and 2 cent pieces can take on that beautiful dark emerald green patina. Nothing better than pulling a coin from 1865 and seeing that nice green.

Hi Rob, fire us a contact form via our web site (just use the detector hire link). You’ll get a closed for Christmas break email back but we can then get onto this once we are back in the office. My wife manages all the business emails etc so this is the best way to streamline things, I get yelled at if I verbal anything to her 😂 https://outbackprospector.com.au/contact-us/ JP

The results

My gut says the most we'll see from Minelab in 2022 in response to the Legend and Deus II is a software update and price increase. Maybe we'll get a teaser announcement in late 2022? I'm expecting MInelab to produce a new product that's better than the Equinox 800 (Equinox 1000, a next gen CTX, etc.), but I'm not expecting it to be released until 2023.

Perhaps it's because the Deus, despite it's age, is still considered a high-end machine. When N/M is mentioned on message boards, it's likely most often with respect to the Simplex. The Simplex's greatest strength isn't its technology, but the value of what you get for each unit of currency you spend. So no, you're not the only one who assumes the Deus II will outperform the N/M SMF offering.