ColonelDan

Back packing my Deus II in the XP 280.  Everything plus some other items fit nicely.  I made it through TSA no problem. No questions about the detector or the MI 6 pinpointer. 
 

Check in….smooth as silk.  When your son is a  pilot for that airline and made the reservations for us, things go extra smooth with no charge for checked  or carry on bags.

I’ll do some detecting on the property this afternoon along an old wall of piled up rocks.

Updates to follow….

What you experienced is what I say in my signature...learned only from many years of beach hunting:

The Challenge:  "Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets."

Simple as that....😉

17 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I'm no relic expert, but I have been doing a lot of experimenting in that arena. My ground goes from medium to wildly mineralized, so keep that in mind for reference. Two of the setups I use for finding target areas and for working in iron infested sites are based on the Fast program.

Fast Full Tones in PWM with Sens 94, Disc -2.0, Notch 00-00, Silencer & B-Caps 0, Reactivity 1.5, Audio Response 5.

Fast Pitch Tones in PWM with Sens 94, Disc 6.8, Notch 10-30, Silencer 2, B-Caps 3, Reativity 2, Audio Response 5.

I also like F350's Relic Reaper to help verify iron falsing.

I generally start out with Fast-Full Tones to get a feel for an area and to hear differences in target conductivities. If the area has few targets, I go to Fast-Pitch Tones to find any viable targets and work my way to target rich areas and then switch to Fast-Full Tones to sift for good targets.

Trust the sounds more than the TID. The visual ID can be all over the place, specially for commingled targets, but the audio will be more accurate. I generally dig anything that sounds good. Iron falsing will usually reveal itself with a 90° turn and sweep on a target, but be prepared to dig iron. Of course some good relics are made of iron.

You have a golden opportunity, Colonel, and I wish you all the best on your new relic site. 😎

Thank you for that in-depth piece of advice!

I have every intention of taking full advantage of this opportunity.  Long range rain forecast tells me my time might be limited to Thursday and Saturday PM.  Nonetheless, I’ll be out as much as I can and report accordingly.  I may not find anything but then again……..😉

F350,  I sent my son-in-law a heavy duty Predator root shovel several weeks ago for just those reasons you mentioned....that way too I don't have to pack mine.😀

Chase,  Yep, Same with beaches none are one size fits all.  As I always say, Predetermined programs only serve to get you in the ballpark.  It's up to you to then pick the best seat! 😉

I'm ready to adjust based on mineralization.  I have no idea what that ground is like right now...haven't been there yet.  That's why I anticipate some, if not a lot of, adjusting on the fly at first.

Thanks

F350,  Thank you!  The land is mostly wooded with some cleared areas around my daughters house.  The ground is Tennessee so it's rocky.  I expect that I'm in for some hard digging in places but so be it.  I have your Reaper program loaded and ready to go.  My plan is to switch between a variety of programs and see what works best in that area.

I will definitely check our those links you provided and I have scanned some aerial shots of the area.  Since this will be my first time at her place, I look on this as a "get acquainted" visit.  I expect to learn as I go knowing that I won't be able to cover the entire 12 acres on this initial visit.

I'll send you an in progress report....the hunt will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday weather and other visiting activities permitting.

Thanks again

As most of you may already know, I’m 99.9% a Florida beach hunter but that’s about to change this week.  My daughter bought a house on 12 acres of Tennessee in an area that saw Civil War activity….no battles that we know of but definite activity.  There was also supposedly a slave quarters on that property…acreage that’s never been hunted by the way!!!
I’ll be there for several days and looking forward to detecting as much as I can.

I want to open up the D2 at first so I can maybe find areas of habitation/activity so I’ll be looking for and digging iron as well as non ferrous.  
 If some of you seasoned relic hunters have any advice for this “beach bum” regarding favorite relic programs and settings you would use on a piece of virgin ground, I’d appreciate your thoughts and advice.  Thanks. 🙂

I use the 11” exclusively on beaches and that’s just about all I hunt these days.

Great job!  We all treasure our military class rings...they're special indeed.

Iffy always does a good job and I enjoy his videos.  Keep in mind however that these unmasking tests are “air tests” and the results you might expect with targets buried in a variety of soils may be/ most likely will be somewhat different.  Soil characteristics have a definite impact on any detectors ability to “see” and “distinguish” between targets.  What I can detect and how it is represented on my Florida beaches can be expected to be somewhat different in Virginia even if the same detector is used.

Ive always gone by the same philosophy as we used in my Army life…” train as you fight”

In other words, test under the same conditions and in the same environment as you actually hunt.

Having said all that, I sincerely salute Iffy for his informative contributions to our hobby!!!

just the view from my foxhole….

Good Job CPT!

33 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks Colonel, were it that I was in the shape I was in my Army days. 😵 Recovery is much slower of late 🤔

That's certainly true for all of us. As I frequently say, "Something happens everyday that reminds me I'm no longer a young captain.  I'm not even an old colonel....just old."  # 75 coming up on 27 March!   🤣

Great job soldier!  😀

Making excellent progress….that’s plain to see!!

Good job soldier…..

I use a stealth 720i with carbon fiber handle in a lake whose bottom is thick clay.  Works fine and has done so for years.  

Good job Soldier!

I’ve been monitoring reports, videos and structured tests of the Manticore.  A very nice  detector but honestly, I’ve seen nothing yet that would convince me that it out performs my Deus II…..and this coming from a long time Minelab user.  Maybe I’m missing something but being a beach hunter,  the Deus II is my preferred detector.

Just the view from my foxhole….

I really like the Tony Eisenhower headphones.  Quality in every respect.  Sound is excellent; build quality is as well.

Its truly amazing how clay and muck preserves certain artifacts.  I dug this breast plate from an area of Second Seminole War activity (1837). It was buried in lake bottom muck for about 185 years.  It was 12-14 inches down in that muck and came out looking just as you see in the photo.

I too used ML detectors for years but made the switch to the Deus II and never looked back.  You made a great choice and the advice you've gotten here is spot on.  It won't take you long to feel comfortable with the menu system and the "personality" of the Deus.  The on line videos are a treasure chest of knowledge and Gary Blackwell's are a good place to start.

https://www.youtube.com/user/xpmetaldetector/videos

and

https://www.youtube.com/c/garysdetecting/videos

One other caution I would add, when doing a noise cancel, let it completely finish before hitting any other button as that too caused the remote to lock up.  XP may have corrected this but just be careful.  A lock up happened to me one time and all you need do is keep the remote powered on until it runs down and turns itself off.  Once it does, you can start charging it up, turn it on and things will be fine.

Again, great choice. 

My hunting buddy, Gary, took a member of his family, who was visiting from Alabama and who just recently bought his first detector...an Equinox 800... to the Treasure Coast this past week. “What a bust!” as Gary told me.

They saw a number of huge dump trucks waiting in line along A1A for their turn to drive onto the beach. Gary stopped and talked with one of those many truck drivers. The driver told him they were under contract to re-nourish the beaches from Vero south. The contract called for a re-nourishment effort of dumping 5 feet of new sand on those Treasure Coast beaches!   😪

Bottom Line: This contract will certainly redefine the term “buried treasure” as Gary said.

Parkgt has a super idea there!  I never understood why XP provided such a long antenna in the first place.  Parkgt's design should have been close to the initial factory design.

To their credit, XP is coming out with a shortened antenna that I intend to snatch up as soon as they're available.  Such a shortened antenna should be perfect and much more convenient for internal use with Steve Goss' CF shaft.

Good job Parkgt.  I love to see such ingenuity like this!!!👏

I'm a full time beach hunter and use the 11" coil exclusively.    In my view, and my view only, I look at the 11x13 as having the advantage over the 11" only in its ability to cover a little more area per swing.  The "east-west" dimension of the double D 11x13 i.e. 11" is the more important dimension in terms of determining depth capability.  So, the 11" is fine for me as it nicely covers enough ground over the time I can physically spend on the beach these days and goes just as deep as I want to dig!  😅

Additionally, my experience with larger coils, on the CTX for example, is that they may not be as precise when pinpointing than smaller coils and they're just a mite heavier....which I don't need.

So, the conclusion from my foxhole....I'm happy with the 11"  😉

I agree with the Gigmaster and that's why I use Steve's new Deus II shafts. Solid as a rock.