abenson

it really depends on your conditions and what you are looking for. If you're after small gold then having the threshold at it's most stable point is more important than getting depth. If you're looking for bigger targets like rings or relics then you can stand to have some threshold noise as most bigger targets will still be heard. I've run my stabilizer as low as 2 before to get it perfectly quiet. Yea I'm probably still missing the small stuff. But it's better than trying to sort out small targets from the threshold noise IMO. I'm going to add something. When I get to a new site I'll usually select the timing I want to use. ground balance, turn the RX gain up until the threshold starts to break and then use the stabilizer to smooth out the threshold. I'll usually ground balance again just to make sure.

Hugh (Chase Goldman) will hopefully be able to at least tell us about how it performs in Culpeper soon. I do know that Matt Howell (Gone Diggin) just got one and he's in VA. He'll most likely be the first one to post a video about the Deus 2 in Culpeper. I've hunted it quite a bit in the past with both the Deus and Equinox. Most everything starts sounding like iron on a VLF at about 6" there. I'd expect the Deus 2 to have similar performance as the Equinox.

Here's a video of the Deus 2 and Equinox on the buried dimes at 6 & 7 inches. There are a number of things I forgot to do in these videos that I just didn't think about at the time. So they are just an idea of how the detectors perform. I'll have more videos coming with gold nuggets being ran over with various machines and the actual use of the Deus 2 and Equinox in the field nugget hunting. With work and trying to sort out video footage from 3 different sources it may take a few days. I'm open to any comments about what I did wrong or should have done differently. As well as being open to any of you that currently own the Deus 2 and how to set it up in different ways.

Jeff-I'll do one tonight. It will be 11" coil to 11" coil on the Deus 2 and Equinox. Obviously the 9" would be a better option but I'll have to use what I have for now.

I'll have a video up later today with the Equinox and Deus2 being compared on the same dime. they are actually pretty close in performance in that area. I've got a test bed at home which might have the snow off it a few days with the temps being in the 40'S this week. At home the mineral bar on the Deus 1 fills completely up, I would assume it will fill it on the Deus 2 as well. I know how the Equinox does on that test bed, I'm thinking it might just beat the Deus 2 in that soil.

Found lots of junk and so did everyone else I was with. Hunted 3 days with 4 people and none of us found nuggets those days. Some of the guys found them prior to me getting there though but they were both running GPX'S. We were running GPX 6000, GPX 5000, Gold monster, Equinox 800 and Deus 2. These particular claims have just been pounded in the past. Time to find a new spot. But im confident if I got over one with the Deus 2 it would find them as I was digging everything from size 8 bird shot to .22 brass. Yea kind of looks bad when don't find anything good. There are things I don't like about the Deus 2 in regards to nugget hunting I've mentioned in other threads. But it's quite capable as a nugget machine IMO.

Jeff-mineralization bar was about 85% full. So not quite as bad as my ground at home which fills it up when slowly pumping the coil. Sensitivity was at 95. I would assume and I'll confirm when I don't have snow on the ground at home that the Deus 2 will barely get the 6" dime in my coin garden.

Here's a quick depth test I did on a US dime while I was in Arizona nugget hunting this weekend. From what I know about the soil in the Western US I'm pretty happy with the results.

Hunted another 8 hours today. Used the Deus 2 for about 4 of that. This particular area was loaded with hot rocks. Parts of this area the hot rocks were literally every 6 inches. Lots of magnetite too. The Deus 2 was constantly going off and I had to watch the target ID. The Nox was doing the same when ran horseshoe on. On the Nox you can notch out the low VDI's like -6 through -9 it makes for a very choppy audio but on the Deus 2 there's nothing you can do that I can think of to get rid of them. Maybe use some IAR but unfortunately I didn't try that. If you could notch out 0 it would probably work but disc in Goldfield doesn't work like that. I've got some video I'll post next week that will show how the Deus 2 works in the area.

My experience day 2 with the Deus 2 about 6 hours of use. Really liking how it handles the ground and hot rocks. Very quiet machine compared to some. Very easy to ID hot rocks. No gold found by any of the 4 of us hunting today. But im confident I could find small bits if I got over them based on the bird shot and bullet fragments I was finding. Very impressed even with the 11" coil but it's cumbersome around all the rocks and brush. I really hope they make a 5x10 because even a 9 won't cut it.

The VDI on the Deus 2 is excellent in this mineralization I'm hunting in. Clearly better than the Deus 1, haven't determined if it's better than the Equinox yet. Yes I have 100's of hours on both machines using the gold programs. Some for gold some for relics. I plan on using the Deus 1 again tomorrow and make some more comparisons. I'll follow up with a response then.

Jeff I tried these modes today on a nugget less than .10 gram buried at about 1 inch. I may have to do it again tomorrow to confirm because I neglected to remove the notch on these programs. However might not make any difference as the nugget I used was IDing at 38. I also would like to test again tomorrow and play with the ground stabilizer in those modes as well. So initial thought are Goldfield clearly has the 4 modes you mentioned beat. Fast seemed to be the best though. I will report more tomorrow evening. Correct that last statement, not Fast but Sensitive was the best.

I tried that today. Goldfield is much better on small gold.

Yes there is a ground level bar at the bottom left of the screen. On the Deus 1 I can fill that bar by slowly pumping the coil over the ground. The Deus 2 appears to handle the minerals better than the Deus 1 because when I pump it over the ground I can't get it above about 5 bars. Maybe that's not really an indication of better handling. But I will tell you the Deus 2 it much quieter than the Deus 1 and that an 11" coil on the Deus 2. The Deus 1 I'm running a 5x10.

Steve if this needs to be moved to the comparisons section, please do. Thanks This will be the only forum I post anything about the Deus 2 on. I've seen the cat fights on the other forums and I'm just not into it. I know there are a few on here that want to know if the Deus 2 will handle mineralized ground. Keep in mind these are my initial thoughts and they may change as I spend more time with the Deus 2. I will have videos I'll post after I get home to show the Deus 2 in action. I got the Deus 2 yesterday and have spent about 10 hours with it testing stuff, going through the manual, going through the menus and using it in the field. Currently I'm in Arizona on a nugget hunt. I was hoping I would have the Deus 2 for this trip and it made it just in time. Mine came with the 11" coil and I have a 9" on order. The 11" obviously isn't the best coil for nugget hunting so keep that in mind with what I have to say. Before I get into the actual field use results I wanted to say a few things about what others have mentioned with their initial thoughts. Calabash has said a few times that if you have a Deus 1 the Deus 2 is very much the same and I will totally agree with that. The transition will be pretty easy for those who are experienced Deus users. The dive and beach features are obviously new to all of us but if you used the Deus 1 for anything else it will be an easy transition. Loren had mentioned that he doesn't like the screen changing between the target ID and the program name. That doesn't really bug me but I'll tell you what does. When using the goldfield program the lower left screen changes between ground level and the battery level too often. Now for the regular programs that's probably not going to be an issue. But for me the ground level bar is real good for IDing hot rocks (I'll elaborate on that later or show it in a video). On this trip I brought the Deus 1 with 5x10 coil, Deus 2 with 11" coil, Equinox 800 with the 11, 8 and 5x10 coils and the Minelab GPX 5000 with a few mono coils. I used all the VLF's on day one, not really looking for gold but just to run over the ground and compare a few buried gold nuggets and see how they handle the mineralization and hot rocks. My first impression is the Deus 2 is slightly better in mineralized dirt that the Equinox coil size to coil size on coin sized targets (I will have a video to show this later). just for reference a dime buried at approximately 6" is pretty much consumed by the ground minerals. The Deus 2 11" coil easily beats out the Deus 1 5x10 30 KHz coil on small gold nuggets, I haven't tried 75 Khz yet but I would assume it will light up the ground. I would assume that would also be the case with 11" coils on both units as the 11" coil should be more blind to the small gold nuggets. The one I tested was less than a 10th of a gram. On bigger gold nuggets the Deus 2 also beats out the Deus 1 but that could change if the Deus 1 had an 11" coil on it. But I doubt it. The nugget used was about .3 grams. Now on to the Equinox. I ran it with both the 11" and 5x10 against the Deus 2 11" coil. It's tough but my initial thought is the Equinox is better at all sizes of gold. But the Deus 2 is much tamer and easier to use. Let me tell you why. When you run the Equinox horseshoe on (which I recommend when hunting small gold) you have to constantly watch the target ID or you could block out -9 thru -7 to get rid of the ground noise you can't GB out. This could just be me but I have a much harder time telling hot rock and ground nose on the Equinox that I ever did on the Deus, even the Deus 1. In this particular area I'm constantly fighting noise on the Equinox with just about any setting I use. The Deus 2 on the other hand is much quieter and hot rocks are really easy for me to ID. They sound different and any that are questionable you simply have to look and the ground level bar and if it's high you know it's a hot rock. More to come on this but either one you use you have trade offs as far as I can tell. So at this point don't get rid of your Equinox, it runs smaller coils and might have the edge nugget hunting hard to say without me having a 9" coil for the Deus 2.

Ok thanks guys got it.

I don't even see an update available on XP site for the Deus 2. Where did you find it?

Only time will tell. Hopefully they can make their changes and get it rolled out.

Rich I have also been a long time user of SMF. I too bought the Fisher CZ 6a but quickly changed to the Sovereign because at the time I was primarily a beach hunter and it performed better for me in that environment. I kept the CZ 6a for park and relic hunting but it drove me crazy with it's love of deep nails. So my take of how SMF performs in my area which as you know is the same as yours. Detectors such as the Fisher CZ series, Whites DFX and Garrett Apex will work on Salt Water Beaches with low mineralization better than single frequency detectors. They are quiet and ID targets pretty good. The Minelab Sovereign, Explorer, eTrac, CTX in my experience are deeper than the above mentioned detectors but once you add black sand, performance drops off quickly. Enter the Equinox and Vanquish now you have 2 detectors that are capable of handling black sand and salt. Target ID on those 2 machines stays stable almost to their full depth capabilities. For relic and coin hunting the Fisher CZ series, Whites DFX and Garrett Apex are very poor performers in iron mineralization. The The Minelab Sovereign, Explorer, eTrac, CTX also suffer but not as bad as the above mentioned machines. Equinox and Vanquish are 2 detectors that are capable of handling iron mineralization and alkaline soils in our area. Target ID on those 2 machines stays stable almost to their full depth capabilities. This last Fall I took a trip to a park that has given up some nice old coins in the past. I used the eTrac and the Equinox 800 to locate and compare signals. My goal was to see if I should keep or sell off the eTrac. I most cases coins that were less than 6" deep both detectors ID'd correctly. Coins that were more than 6" deep the Equinox had the clear advantage. In fact if I didn't open up the screen more on the eTrac, deep targets would get pulled into the rejected target range. Before I ever bought an Equinox I usually hunted with the eTarc using an open screen except maybe the the bottom 4-5 lines blacked out and the top left corner blacked out. anything that bounced above the bottom blacked out area in the 37 and above range I would still dig thinking it would be silver, a wheat or an IHP. But it was usually a crap shoot, sometimes a nail sometimes something good. So back to the comparision, deep targets the Equinox were much easier to ID as a good target. ID was more stable and I was able to tell whether or not it was iron. The eTrac on the other hand was just like Iike the above, hard to tell if I was going to dig iron or a good target. Now we have 2 more SMF machines coming to market. From the looks of it they will both perform as good or better than the Equinox.

Nice haul! reminds me of the days I used to beach hunt more. over 100 gold rings a year were common now I'm lucky to find 5 a year with as little as I beach hunt.

Iron Blanks out on the GPX when iron rejection is used and yes it works. But you're not going to want to wade into a sea of iron with a GPX or it will be one long blank. Where it reins Supreme is areas with high mineralization and deep targets. I can work an area with 2 pieces of iron per swing but it's slow going. If you need the depth and a VLF won't cut it a PI will. The thing that's neat about a PI is that once you learn what timings to use, you can actually make some iron disappear. Take for instance rust flakes. With the right timing I can see right through them where VLF is blinded by them.

Agree strongly with Hugh about iron rejection. Something I would also like to see is a waterproof or at least rainproof. Also light weight, under 4 lbs for sure and under 3 if possible. Even though the GPX's are pretty adjustable I would like a new PI even more so. I don't want it going the direction of the GPX 6000 where it does all the thinking for you. That might be fine for a gold specific version but I also want to use a PI for beach and relic hunting and be able to set it up for those conditions. Wireless headphones and rechargeable batteries. I know tall order but hey why not ask for it all.

I gave the Tarsacci 2 chances about a year apart from each other. Used it at the beach maybe 10 hours, no complaints there. But most of my hours (200 or so) spent with the Tarsacci was relic hunting bad dirt. I compared it to the Deus, Equinox and GPX quite a bit. It absolutely spanked the Deus for depth in my dirt and had the Equinox beat by maybe an inch. But the GPX with a 14" coil left the Tarsacci in the dust for depth. So in the end if I need depth I grab the GPX. Why screw around with a machine that is maybe an inch deeper than the Equinox and is like Steve said a nightmare to get it tuned right. I too could never mesh with the tones and the constant high tone chirp of falsing on mineralization. I ran it in Culpeper 10 hours one day in the rain and fought it the whole time adjusting the ground and salt balance to keep it quiet. I did find stuff down to about 9 inches and struggled to tell if it was ferrous or nonferrous at that depth. The GPX will push 14 plus inches in that dirt no problem and IMO is easier to ID iron. So for me that's why the Tarsacci was quietly sold.

I get down that way a few times a year. But I would say a good place to start would be to join a few or all of the gold clubs down there. GPAA, MPA Mohave Prospects Association and GSSN Gold Searches of Southern Nevada all have claims there. GSSN actually has an outing planned this next weekend Jan 22nd. I was going to try and make it but not looking like it's going to happen. Would be a good way for you to get introduced to the area if you join their club this week.

Yea doesn't leave much.