abenson

You can tame the chatter with multiple settings. It's just something you're going to have to get used to. Thankfully I hunt remote places most of the time. But yes it's much deeper than the D1 in my ground by a good 2 inches.

Hunted stuff just like that in Virginia. It is nice not having cables to get tangled on tree limbs and vines.

Nice first hunt. It always helps to finds some good stuff to boost the confidence with a new machine.

Headed to Southern Utah for the weekend to get out of the snow. There's an older city park near by so I decided to take the Deus 2 out for a few hours. I remember now why I don't park hunt that much. Kids circle around you like vultures waiting for dinner. It's a down right circus with them reaching in to grab your finds. Got to be quick and grab them before they do. I try to be nice but man does it get annoying sometimes. I hate to harp about the EMI. But I had major problems with it again today. Ran the Deus 2 in Park, sensitivity to 80 and even that wasn't low enough sometimes. Audio response at 2 and recovery at 2.5 was about the best I could do. Also, moved my tone break up to 80 for the 3rd tone. Really kills the depth having to run like that. But what do you do. If I wanted to fiddle with it constantly I could have run the sensitivity up in some places. But i just figured I'd leave it alone and hunt. Most stuff I dug was 4" or less in depth. I started out digging everything in the gold ring range and gave up on that after about 40 pull tabs. So then just concentrated on the nickels and higher coins. Dug a bottle cap, I was pretty sure that's what it was going to be but wanted to confirm what they sound like. Didn't dig any nickels, everything that fell in that ID range ended up being a pull tab. But overall I can't complain. Nice sunny day in the mid 50's and ended up with 3 rings. 2 are silver the other is probably a junker but it's pretty with the red heart shaped stone/glass. Found a bunch of clad, gave most of it away and an aviation token of some kind.

I don't think the score thing really matters as long as you state how you are scoring each metal detector. Whether that's 16/16 or 8/8 with half points included.

This is from Monte himself if anyone is interested in how the nail board came about. A lot of people will say the test is not relevant to actual conditions. However I disagree to some extent (except the nails not being rusty) this configuration can be found in many Western US ghost towns. I've actually hunted the ghost town of Frisco many times, which Monte references in the article. https://www.ahrps.org/_tipsAndTechniques/Nail_Board_Performance_Test.pdf

If you want to get technical, Montes official way of scoring is 8 total possible points. The detector must hit the target in both directions to be considered a point.

I'm finding the Deus 2 can be run most places as long as you don't run it hot. Some programs are more susceptible to EMI than others. If you play enough with sensitivity, audio response and reactivity, it's pretty stable. If EMI is bad I've been starting with sensitivity at 80, audio response at 4 and reactivity at 2. You can usually up sensitivity into the low 90's as long as you make adjustments to audio response (lower it) and reactivity (push it up). I read or heard somewhere else, can't remember where that the KHz for the tone can be changed as well and mitigate some of the EMI. I haven't tried that yet.

I've seen people score it 2 different ways. But first off you have to have a nail board from Monte himself if you want every test to be consistent from video/written report. Some people say it's not valid because the nails are new. But that's not the point. Consistency from user to user is the point, and granted the results can vary depending on coil height above the board. But the official way to test is complete swings across the arrows in each direction with the coil approximately 1-2" above the board. So as far as scoring it goes. You can have a possible 8/8 score meaning it hits the coin in both directions or you can do a 16/16 and count one way hits.

If you're going to make a PI it's got to be something special not just some other run of the mill PI trying to enter the market. Most people who buy it are going to be gold hunters, next would be relic and beach hunters. So right now Minelab pretty much has the market and any serious gold prospector probably already has a Minelab GPX model of some sort. So unless there is something that makes a new PI stand out, good luck trying to get someone to change over that's serious about gold hunting. Now you could target the person who wants to try a PI out. But in my personal experience with people I've tried to help get started with one. They simply don't have the desire to learn a PI. Those people will be comparing them to a VLF and you know where that's going. Just look at the Impulse AQ and it's claim to discrimination. I've personally owned a bunch of PI's including the Whites TDI, TDI SL, Garrett infinium, Whites surf master, and a bunch of GP's and GPX's. So for me personally to be interested it's got to do what I want it to and be at least on the same performance level as a GPX. It's also going to have to be weather proof, have rechargeable batteries, wireless headphones, have a good selection of coils and weight the same of less than the GPX 6000.

If Steve is willing to do it. He's probably the best choice. Gerry might be too busy with his business and classes. Both know there stuff with gold prospecting though and are respected by most as very knowledgeable when it comes to gold prospecting.

Yea I have to travel 5 hours minimum to get to gold. Gerry in Boise would be good. Jeff in Colorado. Honestly I would use the PI for relics and beach, more than I would gold.

Here's a good video that shows what happens when you go to extremes with settings in high mineral and high EMI sites on both the Deus 1 and Deus 2. My soil and EMI are very similar. Although I have a little more wiggle room on the settings he's talking about in my area. Specifically reactivity.

Jonathan Porter in AU

Honestly I never run my Equinox above recovery of 6 even in trash and it's on 4 most of the time. Whether that's right or wrong or you agree or disagree with that is your opinion. I do very well with it on those settings and have owned an Equinox since the day it was released.

What I’m about to share is totally my opinion of the XP Deus 2 and is based on the sites I hunt and soil conditions I have. My soil depending on the site varies from 3-5 bars on an F75. I’m going to try and leave any type of comparison to another brand out of this review. But I will make some reference to the Deus 1. Also, keep in mind I have bad ground and I hunt really trashy sites. 60% of my time is spent hunting Military sites and ghost towns. The other 40% is split between Parks, beaches, and gold nuggets. This review will mostly be about the performance of the machine, rather than the physical design of it. Over the last 3 or 4 weeks I’ve been using and testing the Deus 2 at various sites. Probably about 50 hours so far. Beach hunting is the only thing I haven’t tried yet. But from what I’ve seen the Deus 2 appears to excel (black sand may still be a question). Diving is something I rarely do so I will leave that to someone else. If you’ve ever used a Deus 1, the Deus 2 is going to be very similar in a lot of ways. I bought my first Deus in the Spring of 2016 and added an ORX in 2020 I believe. So, the platform is not new to me. I’m not going to really go into much of the ergonomics of the Deus 2 other than a few things that bug me. Most people know the ergonomics of the Deus machines are very good. One thing I will say that really bugs me is the small busy screen. To much info in too small of a space, enough said. Is the XP Deus 2 the best metal detector ever made? And is it worth $1600? That’s a question you’ll have to answer yourself. All I can say is I’m glad I have choices. Below is my take on a few site scenarios. Park Hunting-Tonally the Deus 2 is one of the best metal detectors on the market for sorting coins from trash IMO. If you are a jewelry or modern coin hunter, there probably isn’t a better unit on the market if you learn to use the Deus 2 in Full tones. It can really sort it’s way through can slaw and aluminum foil like no other and pick out coins and rings. Of course you will still have to deal with screw caps and pull tabs to some extent. Deep coin hunting is another matter though, I’m not really that fond of the machine when it comes to deep coin hunting specifically. For one I think it needs to be setup differently in my soil. I use the Park program (square audio) 5 tones and install some notches or tones to take care of stuff I don’t want to dig. I’ve been using disc at 10, first break at 58 100 hz, second break at 64 901 Hz to catch nickels, third break at 80 450 hz for most junk and everything above 80 at 901 Hz for IHP and up. Audio response 4, sensitivity 80, reactivity 1.5, silencer 2, and bottle cap reject 5. Not a bad setup and since the ID is more stable than the Deus 1 it works pretty good. In theory I should be able to ramp up the sensitivity, audio response and drop the reactivity to make those deep coins stand out. The problem is the Deus 2 in my soil starts to lose good ID at a little over 6”. Changing those settings to extremes only makes things worse with soil conditions and EMI I’m experiencing in most city sites. So I’m left with those 6” plus signals being very quiet and hard to catch unless I’m really concentrating. I’ve used the Deus 2 for about 5 hours in parks now and have yet to dig a bottle cap with the stock Park program. Relic Hunting-This IMO is one of the area the Deus 2 really shines. Most people are hunting relics in the woods, plowed fields or fields with grass (animals grazing). Usually, these sites are very littered with iron trash and can also have modern trash mixed in. Additionally, some areas can be rather void of trash but hide deep relics. This is where I have used the Deus 2 for most of my time. Areas that I have been over many times before with other machines are yielding relics I have missed. In and amongst the square nails I have been pulling buttons, bullets, percussion caps and camp lead that was all missed. My setup for relics is based off the park program. It has a good range of frequencies 4-24 Khz for the types of targets I’m hunting. I will usually dig target ID’s from the low 30’s and up. Here is why, small Navy tin backed cuff buttons 33 ID on the Deus 2, percussion caps and 3 cent nickels (not a trime) mid 40’s low 50’s, $1 gold coins depending on the type 58-61 and so forth. There’s really not anything above 33 I can not dig without losing stuff. My setup for these sites is as I said based off Park, reactivity 2, silencer 0, audio response 4, sensitivity 93, 3 tones with the disc set at 31, second break at 80 450 Hz, above 80 901 Hz so the really good stuff stands out like big buttons, bullets and coins. There are also iron targets I will dig at these sites which include picket pins, horseshoes, cannon balls, gun parts and gun tools. So, if it sounds like big iron, I’ll dig it. It lacks a little on depth in my soil compared to some of the other machines I have. But that's all I'll say about that for now. Gold Prospecting-The Deus 2 will work for gold nugget hunting about as well as other all-terrain metal detectors on the market. Because of the ground balance system, the Deus 2 is very well behaved. But if the area has a lot of hot rocks, it can be annoying. They are however pretty easy to ID. Sensitivity to small gold isn’t as good as I would like it to be. I feel a person will leave a lot of small gold behind when using the Deus 2 regardless of coil size. Which brings up another point. Coil options for gold nugget hunting aren’t the greatest, At this time the 9” round is the smallest coil available for the Deus 2. On .20 gram nuggets and up the Deus 2 does fine, smaller stuff it really can struggle on. I will set it up in Goldfield, threshold 3, audio response 4, reactivity 2, IAR 0, sensitivity as high as it will allow. I’ve used the Deus 2 for about 10 hours nugget hunting. Ghost Town Hunting-I’ve only hunted one area that I would consider ultra trashy like a ghost town for about 3 hours. But even with the 11” coil I was finding stuff that impressed me. I was pulling .22 lead and brass from some really trashy areas. For those that have used the Deus 1 in the past, know that the Deus 1 was the king of iron trash and it’s looking like the Deus 2 will be almost as good. With the addition of the bottle cap reject, it will now be easier to ID and possibly illuminate flat tin and bottle caps at these site. Looking forward to using it more when I get my 9” coil. Addition to original post: I forgot to add what my program settings were. I use Deep HC to base this program off. I set disc at 25 and everything above 25 at 901 Hz, (Pitch would probably be better but it really bugs my ears) sensitivity 85, audio response 3, reactivity 2.5, silencer 2, bottle cap reject at 5 and iron volume 4. Overall great metal detector IMO. It’s nice to know that 1 metal detector will cover about 80% of my sites and target types. I may edit some of this as things come to mind.

With the GoPro I'm using, NO. Cell phone doesn't appear to cause any issues either. Other cameras I have no idea. I know the majority of the EMI I'm experiencing is from both overhead and under ground power lines. Which unfortunately are all over in our cities.

Yes right at the power lines to no avail. One problem with the video is the camera being mounted right there by the speak. EMI sounds much worse than if the camera was further away. That being said if you watch a lot of the Deus 2 videos you'll hear EMI issues that people don't address. I feel it's more common than people think in the US. How much silent EMI is affecting the Deus 2 we don't even hear?

Nokta Makro's loss if they don't use him. Dumbest thing a company can do is get rid of someone that's going to tell it like it is. Did iffy jump to conclusions, maybe. We've all done it. But I for one would rather have control over iron bias. I think I'm smart enough to know when and how to use it.

Sounds to me like they don't know how to do it. But I could be wrong. I've been wrong before.

Won't work in my ground. Too much mineralization. I agree, some of the stuff can be turned off. But some things like reactivity and audio response only make things worse with the wrong settings. I say start with the stock programs and adjust as needed. A new user is going to get their self in trouble making adjustments to stock programs and not understanding what results to expect.

Damage control IMO. Unless you're not happy with the Equinox build quality. I see no reason to get a Legend and dump my Equinox.

Interesting video. But you give the settings that will work in optimal ground conditions. Which are no trash and no mineralization. Some people will need to use some if these filters to make the Deus 2 work for their sites. Best to adjust settings individually based on site conditions.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with your new Deus 2. I've got to agree with you/Steve about the beach thing. I really think that is the market XP wanted to enter and they went all out in that regard.

I'm finding deep HC to be the most manageable for EMI. Any program with the higher KHz spread is the worst, which unfortunately is most of the programs. Some of the EMI I'm encountering had no rhyme or reason to it. Comes and goes. Sensitivity down to 80 one minute and then gone. Turn up Sensitivity and a few minutes later it's super bad again.