abenson

When you can't see small gold with a detector, you are definitely passing up nice specimen gold too. Just a few weeks back I personally would have walked right over a 14 gram specimen running my Axiom which we tried the 6000 on as well and they too would have probably missed it. Good thing someone was running a Manticore in the bunch, otherwise it would still be sitting there.

Same problem in my ground. I pump the coil 8-10 times and the D2 still making noise as it approaches the ground. The Manticore on the other hand is completely quiet and ground balanced after about 4 pumps of the coil.

That's not good. I guess I won't be water hunting with mine.

Don't bet on it. I personally have gone over ground with the 6000 multiple times to the point I thought there was nothing left. Then when the Manticore came out, I took it back to the same spot and pulled easily over 30 bits out of the very same patch. From the sounds of it the GM 2000 will easily find gold the 6000 misses all day long.

The ground at Rye patch isn't nearly as bad as the ground Jeff & I have been testing on. High magnetite kills the HF coil and it will not ground balance right. Like I said in another post, the HF coil might work great in your area, so don't go on my testing to determine if it is or isn't going to work for your sites. At this point I'm just waiting for XP to roll out another software version to see if it gets any better on my sites.

I just wonder how much better it is than a Manticore, I'm pretty happy with the Manticores ability to handle tough ground and find small gold. If it really does have PI handling ground capabilities, then obviously it will be heads above the Manticore in performance. For the bigger nuggets I see no reason to use the Gold Monster 2000 as a PI will easily handle the ground and nuggets down to the .15 range with decent depth.

Good write up Jeff. With your comments about GB at least I don't feel like I'm crazy. Ever since 3.04 I feel like every time I GB the D2 is doing something different in respect to the small gold I've been testing. One time I get great audio the next time I get weak audio. It's always 00 ID but it's almost like the ground is swallowing the signal one time and then not the next I agree, I think the software has the HF coil handcuffed to some extent.

No offense taken Hugh just adding information to the pot so hopefully XP will take it all into consideration.

I'm sure the small gold guys are a small population of the overall users who will be using the HF coil for that purpose. I personally know a dozen or so who were hoping for small gold performance that would at least be on par with the other multi use SMF metal detectors on the market. Like Jeff, the gold fields aren't in my backyard and I end up traveling a minimum of 4.5 hours one way to get to the sites. I always take a PI and VLF, so the VLF has got to perform on the small gold and specimens the PI usually will miss. I also like to have a multi purpose VLF because most of these sites have either old towns or camps associated with them and it can end up being a relic hunt in addition to a gold prospecting trip. For example on this last outing I found a Chinese coin with the Deus 2. When I recognized I was in an area the miners had probably camped in I switched programs on the fly to hunt for relics. For those that already have a Deus 2 it would be nice to be able to buy a coil for the gold prospecting they do rather than have to foot the bill for a different metal detector altogether. There are plenty of people out there that prefer the Deus 2 as their primary metal detector. So it would be nice if XP could at least match what else is available. IMO the issue lies in the GB of the Deus 2. Proper GB is eliminating small targets. I can see this because all small gold, small non-ferrous as well as ferrous targets are basically giving no response or if it is it's a 00 which isn't good because like I said before hot rocks fall in the 00 range. The larger targets that give a response are usually clear ferrous or non ferrous strong 02-06 response for nails, 25 and up for .22 brass/lead, etc. What we should be seeing is some weak target ID's under 10 all the way into the mid 30's for small gold/small iron shards. This is only happening if the target is close enough to the coil or large enough for the Deus to positively ID the target. I know from experience the Deus 2 is setup to give an accurate ID to it's full depth capabilities as I've dug plenty of deep coins that ID the same in the ground at 8" as they do on the surface. I'm sure this same programing is in use in goldfield, and it doesn't work for small gold IMO. Like I've said before if XP has no intension of the Deus 2 being capable of finding the small stuff that's fine, I'll use something different. But if they do, it has work that needs to be done. On a 3 day trip last spring using a different multi purpose VLF I was able to find 15 bits that added up to just over 1.5 grams. Not a lot of gold but it sure was fun. If you're not finding gold, those kind of trips can be real discouraging, especially if everyone else around you is finding gold. Just saying.

Good report Jeff. Sounds like 29 KHz is the way to go. I normally use 24 Khz when I relic hunt with the 9" coil and it doesn't sound like coin ID's are off much from what I'm used to in that 29 KHz setting. The only time in the past I would use the higher KHz settings on the ORX/Deus HF coils were in really trashy nail sites, so I'll probably just stick to those higher KHz settings in the same type of scenario.

I'm pretty disappointed in the coil & software so far overall. I bought it to relic hunt, use in ghost towns and gold prospect and right now I don't have faith in using it for any of that. It just seems weak overall on small targets and I tend to think that's a software issue. When I used it relic hunting I was digging p caps and 22 brass 3 inches deep that I could have sworn by the response I was getting they would be much deeper. 9" coil running version 2, 22 brass and p caps are usually no problem at 6 inches in the fairly mild soil at that location. Coin size targets don't appear to be an issue as far as depth goes, but the target ID is so far off that it's basically a dig it all machine when using the higher KHz settings. I think I'm going back to 2.0 and the 9" coil until they get it figured out. I think you're right about this one.

Well some bad news and I'm not sure what's going on with this Deus 2. I turned off the Deus 2 and went to the store, when I got back I did some more testing and now it's back to the same old BS. Maybe something is wrong with the GB, I'm not sure. I haven't tried pairing up the 9" and going back to the HF again, but why would that matter. It's gone from strong 00 ID and audio to fuzzy weak audio like the first video I did. Changing the audio type from square to PWM to high square didn't change it.

I played around some more with the new 3.04 version on my gold nuggets in AZ dirt. After Jeff's post I decided to use the audio high square option and adjust a few more settings. Additiionally i pared the 9 " coil with the remote and then went back to the HF coil as Jeff had done. With sensitivity decreased to 95, reactivity at 3, audio response 4, max frequency 88, silencer 0, audio filter 0. The Deus 2 is now giving a 00 ID in addition to an occasional correct ID for the nuggets. So something has changed with the pairing of the 9" coil. Now 00 ID isn't the greatest improvement because all the hot rocks in the area in was hunting were also 00 but at least the Deus is now giving some sort of response on the nuggets. I think there's hope with a few more adjustments to the beta software.

I just got back from a 2 and a half day gold prospecting trip with the Deus 2 HF coil. I also had along the Garrett Axiom and Manticore. I would say I used the Deus 2 a good portion of the first day and half of the second day trying to see what it's capabilities are in terms of small gold. The HF coil had no problem ground balancing to the area I was in and the mineral meter was about half full. My settings were Goldfield, Max frequency 88, Reactivity 2, Audio response 4, sensitivity 98, PWM audio, Notch OFF. The Deus with those settings was very usable with minimal ground feedback. Hot rocks were plentiful but for the most part easy to identify with a 00 target ID. Technically I could have turned notch ON and cut those out but it made the audio very choppy. Using those settings I dug plenty of .22 lead/brass, larger lead bullets, larger bullet fragments, a few pieces of surface bird shot, some copper wire, button, and Chinese coin. Nails and other small non-ferrous junk was easy to identify with solid low numbers. Large tin cans and flat tin were a problem, but that's to be expected when using Goldfield. On the morning of day 2 I started out using the Deus 2 HF coil in an area with lots of old workings. In an hour or 2 I hadn't dug more than a few .22 slugs and a small copper rivet. So I decided to switch to the Manticore M8 and go back over basically the same area I had covered with the Deus 2. The first thing I noticed is the Manticore is much more lively with negative target ID's, so I investigate a few finding they are small steel shards and pieces of fine steel wire. I also dug 3-4 small bullet fragments and 2 #8 bird shot the Deus 2 passed right over. Now did I miss all that with the Deus 2 just by not swinging my coil right over the area? Maybe. But the more logical conclusion is the Deus 2 is simply not as sensitive or doesn't have the capability of separating those smaller target from the ground minerals. I'm not saying that the way the Deus 2 works is necessarily a bad thing. If a person wants to go into an area and eliminate all the small trash targets and small slivers of iron digging only the bigger targets and gold .30 grams and larger, then it's the perfect tool. But if you're after all the gold including the really small stuff, the Deus 2 HF coil is not the best option. Consequently after that experience I switched to using the Manticore and Axiom the rest of the trip. I only managed 1 nugget and it was big enough the Deus 2 would have easily found it, but because of my lack of faith in the Deus 2, the Manticore ended up with the prize. I heard version 3.04 was released so when I got home Sunday evening I downloaded it and did a few tests in some Arizona dirt I have sitting in a gold pan at home. The dirt almost fills the mineral meter on the Deus, so it's pretty hot. The settings were Max frequency 88, sensitivity 97, Reactivity 2.5, audio response 4, PWM audio. The HF coil had no issue GB to the dirt. I tested 2 nuggets .08 at about 3/4 inch down and .24 on the bottom of the pan, I'm guessing 3 inches deep. The Manticore ID's them both as iron with great audio, but at least it gives an option to investigate. The Deus 2 HF on the .08 gives an occasional soft audio 25 ID. like 2 out of 8 sweeps, you could easily pass right over it on a normal sweep. The .24 is the same way with an occasional 33 ID. So in retrospect the Deus 2 does ID the nuggets correctly, but would you stop for it? After all the testing I've done and use in the field, my thoughts are XP has the Deus 2 setup so it's eliminating really small ferrous and in the process also eliminating small gold. I would think on those small gold targets as well as small shards of steel, I would see some iron ID numbers like 6, 7, 8 giving me the option to investigate the target in the high mineral dirt. Like Steve said in an earlier post, Minelab has years of experience when it comes to signal processing SMF technology and maybe that's the difference between the Manticore and the Deus 2. Or maybe XP has decided to configure the Deus 2 so it's either a clear dig or no dig setup. It's a beta software, so maybe things will change with the final version.

Looks like what the ORX was to the XP Deus. Not as adjustable but basically the same performance as a Deus. Be interesting to know if there's a gold program in that unit.