ColonelDan

I'm a Florida beach hunter and I've used Minelabs for years...Etrac, Safari, Excal, CTX, Equinox and Vanquish. I now use the Deus II exclusively for many of the same reasons cited above. The overall performance on the beach is better than the Minelabs in my opinion....sensitivity at depth, reactivity/separation, customizable, weight, compact, rugged, stable in a saltwater environment and this one really is waterproof! Minelab's current offering of coil choices however bests XP to date...no question. Granted, the Minelabs are excellent machines no doubt, but XP has fielded state of the art with the Deus II...in my opinion and it's just my opinion based on years of using and now comparing Minelabs to the Deus II. I also owned a Deus I years ago but sold it because it just couldn't compete with the Minelabs on saltwater beaches. It was a selectable frequency machine that just wasn't up to the challenges presented by any saltwater environment. Now that XP has fielded the Deus II, that shortcoming has been overcome....and in a superior way. But as I always say, that's just the view from my foxhole...your view may very well differ.

Absolutely wonderful!

Yes, the iron tone starts at the disc level and below and the iron tone level can be adjusted.

CPT, is right. Sandy beaches and saltwater environments are the harshest conditions on equipment. Ergo, I take great pains in cleaning all my things after each hunt. Even if you don’t submerge your coil, the salt spray still gets on everything so take care. Also, I don’t overly tighten the coil ear bolt and I put a light coating of Never Seize on the bolt assembly…a very light coat and clean that and reapply periodically. Just the life of a beach hunter! 😊

Good job!

Brad, Regarding the notch function, as I stated in the OP, I never notch any range of numbers as the variation of gold metallurgical composition spans a wide range of TID numbers in the mid conductivity scale. You could easily notch out a nice gold ring when trying to eliminate some forms of junk.

For many years, I detected our Florida beaches with various Minelab detectors set up in a custom 3 tone setting based on low, mid and high conductive targets. This combination served me very well over those years in the Minelab world so when I bought the Deus 2, I programmed Beach and Beach Sensitive the same way--3 tones. However, in my on-going effort of transitioning to the XP world, I quickly learned that the Deus 2, being the sophisticated detector it is, was apt to be more chatty on a saltwater beach if not set up properly beyond just my 3 tone solution. After experimentation with sensitivity, salt sensitivity, reactivity, silencer, bottle cap rejection and discrimination, (more options than I was used to with the Minelabs,) I was able to stabilize it to what I thought was at least a somewhat satisfactory level...again in 3 tones. But thanks to some educational exchanges, I was introduced to the Deus 2 Square Pitch option. Coupled with the right levels of discrimination and silencer settings, this set up is essentially a nuanced 2 tone program. Since I always dug both the mid and high level tones of my 3 tone set up anyway, this wasn’t all that much different in terms of dig/no dig decisions except now there was the same tone frequency for all non-ferrous targets. Although still in the early stages of learning the finer points of this Deus 2, I’m impressed with the square pitch option. These settings hit good targets hard and ID’d bottle caps and ferrous targets much better than my original 3 tone option. Additionally, it proved to be far less chatty on my Florida saltwater beaches than the 3 tone set up. Bottom Line; I’m a square pitch convert. If you’re a Deus 2 saltwater beach hunter also, I recommend you at least give this set up a try. My preferred baseline settings for saltwater beaches in Beach and Beach Sensitive are now: Discrimination 6.5 and Silencer 0 Square Pitch The remainder is a combination of situational needs determined through on-site experimentation, testing and actual use and finally, personal preference. Adjusted as conditions require: Sensitivity: 95 Salt Sensitivity: 7 Reactivity 0-1.5 Personal Preference: Notch: Off (Gold falls anywhere along the mid level spectrum so I never notch out anything.) Bottle Caps: 3 Iron Volume: 3 Audio Response: 5 or 6 Audio Out: 9 My next step is finding the best combination of settings for detecting 19th century artifacts in fresh water. I’ll start my search with square pitch in a custom Park program—but only actual use in a fresh water environment will tell the tale. Just the view from my converted beach front foxhole. Your analysis and conclusions may differ.

On any evaluation I’ve ever read of a given detector or a head to head comparison, the discussion invariably reverts to the subject of raw detectable depth—it seems the “holy grail” of evaluating a detectors worth can be answered with these two questions. “How deep is detector A? Is it deeper than detector B?” Many years ago, I convinced myself that sensitivity and reactivity were far more important to me than raw depth. I zeroed in on sensitivity and reactivity as it relates to separation and identification at various depths and under various soil/sand conditions. Given that, all the depth testing I ever did focused on sensitivity at a given depth rather than raw detectable depth under a variety of conditions we find in the field. Why? Detectable depth is affected/impacted/determined by many more external factors than just the sophistication of the detector’s internal technology alone. Such factors as soil/sand composition, moisture and mineralization levels, the target’s metallurgical composition, orientation in the soil/sand and level of degradation/condition and even the overall amount of EMI in the area. Granted, sensitivity can also be affected by these same factors and hamper any detectors ability to properly and consistently detect and identify the target. However, I’m more impressed by a detector that can accurately identify a target or separate it from junk at a given depth than one which can merely “see” the target at that same or similar depth but can’t identify or separate it from the junk. While I’m not summarily discounting detectable depth as a desirable capability in a detector, I value its degree of sensitivity more so which enables it to accurately identify and separate the target from that ever present trash. However, as I always say, that’s just me and the view from my foxhole. Your preferences may very well differ.

This might work for you. https://www.colonialmetaldetectors.com/xp-deus-remote-case.html

This is exactly why I never notch out anything. Never have; never will. Just the view from my foxhole….

Pinpointing and scooping in rough surf is a real challenge for anybody...including experienced beach hunters like me! At 74 however, I don't do rough surf anymore. Tame oceans are my friend these days!!! 😃

The higher the discrimination setting the greater number of targets will register as ferrous. If for example you set the discrim at 7, targets'TDI that range from 7 or below will be reported as "iron."

I've known some gold to ring up low like that too so I've set my iron tone break at 10. Will I dig more trash that way? Yes, but our beaches don't contain much true iron...aluminum is the culprit here. Thanks for the report!

Great review! 👍

I decided to expand the test I posted on another thread in this forum. The question was raised concerning the TID differences among the various programs. For this test, I used a silver walking liberty half dollar and a modern Kennedy half dollar separately scanned by each of the Deus 2's 12 factory programs. I conducted a frequency scan prior to each program and EMI didn't seem to be a factor. My purpose was to determine just how much of a TID variance there was among these programs on the same targets. Program Max Frequency Silver Half Modern Half 1. General: 40kHz 98 97 2. Sensitive 40kHz 98 97 3. Sens FT 40kHz 98 97 4. Fast 40kHz 98 97 5. Park 24kHz 99 98 6. Deep HC 14kHz 99 99 7. Mono 16.5kHz 97 96 8. GoldField 40kHz 98 97 9. Relic 24kHz 99 98 10. Diving 14kHz 99 99 11. Beach 24kHz 99 99 12. Beach Sens 40kHz 99 98 Note: Although the results show a fairly consistent relationship between the TIDs throughout the 12 programs, the silver half TID was solid and pretty much unwavering. The modern half however had a tendency to vary by a point or even up to 3 points as it settled in on the most common of the TID numbers reported here. Again, these 12 were all stock factory programs; no adjustments were made to any of the internal settings. I would hazard a guess that results from the adjusted settings within a custom program might generate somewhat different TID results.