goldbrick

I always wondered how to spell Deusses. Thanks for the education Klunker! Strick- have you been nugget hunting with your XP's and if so care to share any pearls of wisdom ?

Only one to go ! Almost time to put the 705 on the market

Once again..................we have been Klunkered As always Klunker, I value your astute advice and the smile it provides.

Glad to see you pulled the trigger on a F-19, always exciting to un-box a new machine. It should be a lot of fun around old sites and workings, of course they are a joy to swing.

I find it interesting that the F-19 passed Keith Southerns' 10" dime test while the Fors Core did not even though they are 19 khz versus 15khz.

Thanks for sharing. Wish I was swingin my XP.

Sometimes I will read threads like this one multiple times and glean more info every time read. Steve spent some time crafting his replies and I thank him. One tidbit I took away from this thread was the knowledge of how different detectors work vis-a-vis factory preset tone breaks and how to set them up to hear the tones I want. The most important thing I learned though was buried in all the other info. Both Steve and Ray mentioned it. That is when working with iffy signals don't hesitate to use my pick to develop them! I know I am guilty of repeated swings over targets trying to mentally evaluate them when the truth be told a couple quick swings of the pick is probably going to gain me way more usable info. Develop the target then dig it or move along.

Steve, my guess the answer to your question is profit margins. Bummer.

I remember when I purchased my 1st metal detector, a GP 3500. My family and friends thought I was insane to pay over $3000 for a metal detector LOL. It was instant love for me when I held her in my arms. Yet just like when the shine is wearing off your most recent girl friend and some habit of hers is starting to bore a hole in your brain..........it did not take long for me to tire of packing that lead acid battery around. What did that thing weigh? 9 lbs? Before you could say Pocket Rocket, I had one hanging off the side of my Baby. Now it is almost 2015 and battery tech has advanced by leaps and bounds. I know next to nothing about how the engineers have done this but I know the batteries in my XP Deus must be something special to weigh so little but pack so much punch. Will it be battery technology that will finally allow a new PI to offer performance close to what Minelab PI's are famous for yet weigh under 4 pounds? Is this a realistic goal to ask of metal detector manufacturers? We may soon see some interesting PI machines marketed. Fisher is working on one as is Nokta/Makro promising PI and hybrid machines. Nokta/Makro is shaking up the VLF world through their customer service and quality manufacturing and would it not be wonderful if they provide some real competition to Minelab? Personally, I believe if a manufacturer can develop a lightweight PI with improved discrimination it does not have to obtain the impressive depths Minelabs are capable of. If I can ignore most iron and dig more non-ferrous targets even though I occasionally miss deeper nuggets I am going to have more gold in my poke at the end of the day on a consistent basis. Some desert gold hunters might disagree and maybe rightfully so but if you hunt in areas where logging has occurred I surmise you may concur. Just as the Minelab 2300 has taken the prospecting community by storm by finding more small and/or spongy gold while giving up some capability on big, deep nuggets, a PI with improved discrimination is going to allow you to dig more gold and less nails, wire, and degraded cans. You would effectively view more dirt in a day by not spending so many of your precious prospecting hours digging ferrous targets. JMHO Merton

What is a Hybrid VLF? Same as a VLF/PI? Quote from Nokta "Our goal for the next few years is to dominate the detector sector with new products developed with unique technologies that will differentiate us and make us known not as a regular detector manufacturer but an exceptional company that exists with its technology. With the new products we are planning to launch between 2015-2017 (Pulse Induction detectors, new technology VLF and pulse imaging systems, hybrid VLF detectors, entry-level detectors, walk-thru security detectors, mine detectors etc.) and with your support, we wish to share the pride and happiness of achieving this goal all together." These guys are really looking to shake things up!

If they follow the business model Detector Electronics uses for XP Detectors there will be local dealers.

I wrote this before I viewed your other replies so I apologize for any duplication of opinions. Merry Christmas to you and your family Steve. I agree that both the Gold Bug Pro and Deus are fine machines but in this world of detecting there does not seem to be any perfect machines. It is all about compromise yet achieving the desired end result. Because I like to nugget hunt and do coin and relic I prefer VLF machines that can do all three well. The GB Pro I don't like to use in areas where there is too much modern trash for coin and relic as it has no notch option and limited tone options. Maybe I should switch to the F-19?. The Deus is so programmable it does most coin and relic jobs well but the jury is still out when it comes to nugget hunting in my mind. To me the Gold Field All Metal program is too noisy in bad ground. The ground grab does not set the GB close enough to the actual ground phase when in hot soil necessitating using the manual ground balance. In rapidly changing mineralization I find myself becoming annoyed with the Deus in this mode. I liken it to using a GBII under those conditions, too much time spent GBing and not enough time spent swinging. Dial in some discrimination and everything settles down considerably. Recently I had just a few minutes time to detect at an old cabin site over serpentine bedrock and was impressed by how quiet it ran using some discrimination and a higher reactivity setting. Given more time on the Deus I may very well come to understand how to tame it in all modes over any ground but I am not holding my breath. If I could prove to myself where a Fors Core or any other machine in 2 tone mode for that matter would smoothly provide me 1 additional inch of depth in the ground I run in I would buy one. I would forsake the adjustable tone break and super light weight of the GB pro and the Deus figuring the extra gold from that 1 inch was worth it. This is not at all out of the realm of possibility as neither the GBP or Deus are touted as depth demons. Disclaimer- I am a mere rank neophyte compared to many on this and other forums. If you take issue with anything I have posted please feel free to correct me. I merely seek knowledge and have no brand loyalty.

Like many nugget hunters I cut my teeth in this hobby on PI machines. If it beeps you dig it. As time goes on we may not have the physical attributes we once had. I know if I dig 6 DEEP nails I am about done for awhile with the PI. I am likely to start using a VLF if one is handy (or take a nap LOL). The Question is- which VLF to grab? Every detector has certain attributes that make it more or less attractive for nugget hunting. I had been pondering this subject because I was contemplating buying another detector, specifically a Notka Fors Core. I need another detector like I need a hole in my head but I just like detectors and find them interesting. Recently I sold my MXT to my Brother-in-law so he could start coin and relic detecting, so I have room in the RV for a new detector. I hardly used my MXT as I would grab either my Deus, GBII, or GB Pro along with my GPX depending on what I had in mind for the day. Frankly, the MXT is just too heavy when there are light weight alternatives available. So let's talk about my possible purchase. I had a laundry list of features I hoped to get. Light weight, dependable, VID in All-Metal Mode, fast target separation in trash, and adjustable low tone break. I would love to have accurate VID in hot ground but that's just wishful thinking. I have been closely following the informative discussions on this forum started by Steve H. and on the Nasa Tom forum posted by some smart coin and relic detectorists about tone breaks, target separation, target masking and mineral degradation of targets. What is sticking in my mind is the adjustable low tone break. Just how important of a feature is it for nugget hunters? Obviously not very important if you only hunt in All Metal when using your VLF. Myself, I love to hunt around the old habitation sites and mines in gold country. A lot of times these are the only areas that have not been beat to death due to the extreme amount of trash. Plus I enjoy finding old coins and relics right along with the gold, it's all treasure to me. Due to the amount of trash around most of these sites All Metal Mode even with a VID on the screen is not my preferred option. I just do not enjoy detecting with eyes glued to a screen so a mode with two tones is my choice. But we know that gold co-located with ferrous or small gold in hot dirt can read down in to the ferrous TID range. So we need to adjust our low tone break somewhere into the upper ferrous range to ensure we don't miss co-located or deep gold. If the detector you have purchased does not have an adjustable break point and is factory set at ferrous/non-ferrous how much gold will you miss because it gave a low tone on those nuggets in the midst of trash? Or the DEEP nuggets at the fringe of detection in hot dirt? I do not think we can answer that question in a quantifiable manner but we should be aware that it is occurring. How high should we put this feature of adjustable tone break on our laundry list of detector attributes? How much will it drive up the price of the detector to get it? By thinking about the tone break and weight issues I believe I talked myself out of buying a detector and saved a grand. LOL The Notka is kind of heavy and does not have adjustable tone break to my understanding from reading the manual. If I am mistaken please correct me. I may have to wait for Notka's promised PI before purchasing from them. Obviously I put the Tone Break Issue near the fore front of my desirable attributes I would like to see a VLF have. I may just have to stick with the GB Pro and the Deus as my VLF nugget machines for now as they both have that feature. There must be other mid-frequency detectors with adjustable Tone Break, is the CTX one? Merton

Thanks for posting Mike. I am not always in gold nugget country so anything you can teach me about finding processed gold, I find interesting and appreciate the advice. Merton

Dear Santa (Notka), All I want for Christmas in 2015 is a powerful, lightweight PI with full depth ferrous discrimination.

Steve, thanks for taking the time to write such an in-depth reply. I must admit I was a little taken aback by Daniels statement that he could not achieve a high tone on a quarter at a depth greater than 4". That must be some bad dirt.

If I did not already have a Deus and Gold Bug Pro I would seriously be considering purchasing a Notka. I just find them interesting even though I probably won't buy one any time soon. Therefore when "Daniel TN" posted the following comments on the Nasa Tom forum they made me sit up and take notice. "Be aware that it does "downgrade" the ID numbers and tones in mineralized ground. It will start reading coins and such other non ferrous items as iron. In my soil it didn't take much depth for it to start doing this either. I could hit all items in my test garden in GEN mode which is all metal. In the two disc modes, the deepest target I got to register without an iron grunt was a 4 inch quarter. Which means...In disc mode it is very easy to ignore the iron grunts and concentrate only on the higher tones. But the iron grunts could very well be non ferrous items that are being IDed incorrect. It is soil depending. I can't remember where it GBed at in my soil...I want to say it was at 70 something but can't recall 100%. It's a great machine though. Built very well. Probably handles neutral to moderate mineralization very well. A lot like the T2 except for better in iron. Much faster recovery." The OTP does not mention how that compares to other machines but it does not seem like he would bother posting if all machines struggled equally in his ground.

I like your idea Fred.

I have had my Deus for a while now but as so often happens when it comes to our hobbies, life intrudes, so I have not been metal detecting near as much as I would like to. I do have some experience with it though, mainly using it to search for coin and relics. I hope to do more prospecting with it in the future as it seems it may handle mineralization better/differently than some other VLFs. Did you have the opportunity to take the Deus to areas where you could use/test the ground notch feature to good effect? Thanks for the in-depth review of the Deus, Steve.

LMAO!

Clay, thanks for taking the time to explain some of the limitations of LIDAR in easily understood language.

That is a great evening nugget hunting. I always enjoy watching your videos. Thanks for sharing, Merton

I agree that the mining claim maps showing the actual boundaries is a great feature. It can save a lot of diesel and time by eliminating trips to the county offices. We need more FootPrints of N. California!

Absolutely beautiful coin. Congratulations Ray!

If you don't feel the need for communication with loved ones and only want an emergency beacon for rescuers to find you a 406 EPIRB is a good bet. Cost +- $250 and NO subscription fee. This is a good one- ACR PLB-375 ResQ Link Personal Locating Beacon . Better reception than the "Spot" in deep canyons or under trees. I have carried a 406 EPIRB for the last four years. Rescuers will receive the signal and they will come get you. Your life is worth the price of a small coil. Merton