Jeff McClendon

So, I have been keeping mostly in the background and reading your responses to my first post in this topic. No one has addressed the elephant in the room which very simply is..........why was Deus 2 Fast completely missing those tiny foil targets 2 inches closer to the coil than that dime? I used the word "missing" on purpose. They were clearly present. The Equinox hit them easily. Unfortunately, after using a Deus 2 for over a week, I believe it has very little to do with target separation or some kind of "super detector which can see through aluminum foil" advanced behavior.

Longbow62, take into consideration that NASA Tom tests and hunts in some of the mildest, most inert dirt in the world. Recovery speeds faster than Equinox 800 setting 3 have their uses especially in higher mineralization/noisy ground.

If the area you are in has even mild to moderate EMI, you will need the 14" DD coil for the GPX 6000. If you have to resort to using the 14" DD you may still need a harness/hipstick especially in rocky, uneven, mountainous terrain. If you don't have EMI issues and can use the 11" mono with no harness, the GPX 6000 is easy to use, easy to swing and super easy to master. I have no experience with the GPZ 7000 other than swinging one for an hour a couple of years ago and deciding to move on/wait for something lighter. I am a longtime GPX 5000/4800 owner. The GPX 6000 with the 11" coil is extremely sensitive compared to the 5000. Currently, I still think the 5000 is deeper on larger gold simply because it can be used with much bigger coils.

Here is one of dozens of Deus 2/Nox comparisons done by this YouTube content creator. As he says it is a very interesting test. I am absolutely not trying to stir up trouble here. These videos are out there for anyone to see and you interpret them anyway you want. As an often daily modern aluminum trash/steel alloy coin and jewelry hunter AND a gold prospector using both the Equinox, Deus 1 and ORX (so no bias here) I see this test from a very different angle than the conclusions drawn by the video maker. I am a subscriber to this person's channel so I am not taking a shot at anyone here. This is just a good example of a well (I think) intentioned test that can be looked at more than one way. I see it like this: 1. I don't think I have ever used Field 2 on purpose for a coin and jewelry hunt in a modern aluminum/steel trashed park. I have used Park 2 but that is only after using Park 1 extensively at the same site beforehand. 2. This video shows very clearly why Field 2 would be (and is even on the Equinox 600) an excellent small gold prospecting mode. 3. It appears that Deus 2 Fast would not be such a good gold prospecting mode. 4. Deus 2 in Fast hits that dime really well and should do very well in modern aluminum/steel trashed areas if the trash is really small........ 5. Equinox in Field 2 multi (ignore what the video maker says and look carefully at all of the target IDs not just the ones he points out) is actually hitting ALL of the targets (at least 4 different ones including the dime). 6. Park 1 and Field 1 multi have a very different result in this test…….….by the way. Just my take on this very short video. You may see it very differently

I hope you will consider using the GPX 6000 with the 14" DD coil for EMI mitigation too along with your GPZ...... That would be an interesting comparison during live digs.

First, I don't think there is any "pure" lead shot around since the late 1800s. Most of it is alloyed with something and in the wild can be heavily oxidized........... I have been using what is said to be #9 lead shot from an older Winchester AA 12 gauge shotgun shell. I measured and weighed 20 different pellets. All were shiny and not heavily oxidized. None were magnetic so definitely mostly lead with some alloys mixed in. All of these pellets fit inside my electronic calipers that were set to 2.03 mm. All weighed in the .85 to .75 grain range. I also have clean, shiny unoxidized #8 and #7 lead shot for testing. I just retested with my GPX 6000, just using the 14" DD coil set on manual 6, Cancel/Difficult with correct sized #7, #8 and #9 lead alloy shot. My results were very similar to those listed above. I do use the stock headphones for this test. the #7 shot was easily detected at 1.25 inches from the upper left quarter of the coil so from 9 to 12 o'clock on the DD coil with the most sensitivity being near 12 o'clock. The #8 shot was clearly detected at .75". The #9 could be faintly detected with the pellet touching the front or back of the coil near the 12 o'clock position. When I say clearly detected to faintly detected, I mean there is a clearly audible to slightly audible repeatable change in the threshold meaning I would at least give that target a boot scrape. As far as using solid copper wire for a target, instead of lead......no clue. I also find copper coated steel shot to be much easier to detect than lead alloy shot. I would not freak out if my GPX 6000 can't faintly detect #9 shot due to the environmental factors involved like oxidation, atmospherics and audible/silent EMI. If a GPX 6000 can"t detect #7 shot (1.5 grain/2.54 mm in an air test, there is definitely a problem. Again, this topic should be in the Minelab or gold prospecting section, not the Metal Detector Advice and Comparison section. Just ask Steve or Chase to move it.

The Simplex is a whole lot of detector for the money and is far from "simple". You didn't mention what software version and what mode you are using. For instance, the default setting All Metal Mode has a threshold tone that is continuous (unless you lower its volume level). The threshold tone will react to the ground also if one doesn't do a ground balance especially if your coil sweeps are not level. All Metal Mode instructions are on page 9 and the Threshold feature is on page 13 in case you haven't studied the manual. Otherwise..........??????

Carolyn, I'm glad you found this forum and also got the help you needed especially from Nokta Makro. I also received a replacement Legend system control box from Nokta Makro. Thank You Nokta Makro!!! I was easily able to perform a software update with this new system box on the same computers and with the same person (me) doing the update procedure. This replacement system control box updated on the first try with all four computers using Mac and Windows platform software, even an ancient Thinkpad running Windows 7. So, the problem was an internal issue with my original system control box and not some other issue, like not being able to follow instructions. I am fairly old, slow and stupid but I can still read.......

Zinc penny is 41/42 if they are in decent shape so they are not included in the Legend VDI photo. I have found two gold rings using the Equinox that were 22s so I would be careful notching at 20 and above. Don’t know about the Deus 2 yet. I never could get anyone to tell me if it up averages, down averages or just does a double zero on borderline targets so I can’t say if notching out the high end of the target ID scale would be a safe bet or not You and I both know what the Equinox tends to do in black sand/iron mineralization. So far, discounting what has been coming from a certain source…… the Legend behaves very much like the Equinox 800, including very stable target IDs. The biggest differences between them for coin/jewelry is the Legend expanded low/mid range target IDs which actually make the trash/gold overlapping issue LESS of a problem on the Legend and the extra tone (6 tones) which make it easy to set tone breaks to match US coins and most gold jewelry.

It is also very hot on the entire 15 to 25 target ID range which covers almost all women's jewelry. Those target IDs so far are just shared with foil, can slaw, the occasional rusty bottle cap and the older rectangular pull tabs as far as regularly occurring targets in most trashy parks. The two gold rings I found were in that range and were unmistakable dig me now responses.

The original Deus horseshoe and XY graphs and the ORX iron probability bar were not as accurate as the those on Deus 2 or FerroCheck on the Legend.

Hi Simon, that is a real bummer. Like JP said, you are the last person that I would want to sell a defective product to. That is not a shot at you. Just the opposite. I know you will get to the bottom of whatever is wrong and make sure it is fixed and you will also not hold back. Listening to your present GPX 6000, the threshold was fairly steady compared to what mine sounds like with the 11” coil at times when it is anywhere near power lines or other EMI sources. The anaemic performance of the 11” coil on that .03 bit was definitely not what I would expect with settings of Mono/Normal using manual 10 and auto+. My GPX 6000 in my house with plenty of EMI using the 14” DD with settings of DD Cancel/Normal on manual 6 will hit chunkier .03, .04 and .05 bits out to 1” easily. The response isn’t loud but it is clear and consistent. Looks to me that there is more than just a loose connection going on inside your GPX 6000. good luck, Jeff

Buy a nice production and finishing gold pan set like the one from Garrett and save $2450 for the moment. Learn how to pan and test those gravel bars. If there is any flood gold you won’t have to dig very deep to find it. Small flood gold flakes in the right places might indicate deeper larger gold. I said might however. A $2500 budget might get you a used SDC 2300. However, any good VLF with high enough frequency operation and waterproof coils will do just about as well if it can ground balance effectively on those gravel bars, but that is another substantial IF as pointed out earlier by Steve even if the VLF has simultaneous multi frequency tech.

Being a long time Deus owner, I have absolutely everything I need to make a Deus 2 Lite except for a standalone 9" coil.............. When using the WS6 in a stem mount I will use the Detech headphones with 2.4 gHz wireless transmitter (the Detech headphones look just like the ones for the Deus without the horseshoe audio adapter) of a pair of Garret Z-Lynk headphones with transmitter. Most of the time I will use a Deus/Deus 2 Lite for gold prospecting/relic hunting and keep the WS4/WS6 with horseshoe adapter in my front pocket with wired earbuds or headphones plugged in especially in rugged terrain.

I agree with JCR, you may have to really do some creative tone break/pitch adjustments and testing to set the Legend up for modern Canadian steel core clad. Also, with the tone-pitch feature and adjustable iron bias that are being added soon, you may have even more alternatives. When I get my new system control box, I will do some modern Canadian coin testing too.

If you are a full time water hunter........absolutely would not try that. However, otherwise it is a good "fix". Now XP need to fix this issue on their end.

Simon, I can’t think I of a single reason why you need a Legend other than you just want one. It is not going to significantly outperform your Equinox 800 at this time or at least until its iron bias settings are added. It is not going to hit deeper silver coins than your CTX 3030 in your hunting conditions either with the Legend’s 11” coil.

Yep. Legend has a lot more other features than the Equinox 600. It has been easy for me to switch from Legend to Equinox and back. They are really similar in so many ways. These are just my opinions. I am not recommending anyone else make the same choice I did.

I have almost 100 hours using the Legend mostly on coin and jewelry turf sites. All I can say is I am very impressed with the Legend as far as its ability to detect at a high level, its outstanding features, its SMF technology and its ergonomics/build quality. That doesn't mean my experience has been all positive and blissful. Definitely not. I have been using my Equinox 800 for the past three days since my Legend control unit is over the Atlantic Ocean right about now headed to Istanbul and a replacement is on its way to me. More on that in the future. So, I have not used my Equinox 800 since I got the Legend except for two hunts where I ran them side by side. All I can say is: the Equinox 800 is an amazing detector. Putting the Legend in the same sentence as the Equinox 800 is paying both of them a big compliment. I bought a Legend because I was a bit "detector bored", it was my birthday, I was helping my mother recover from surgery and I thought I might get a couple of hours of testing/hunting in dirt that is not nearly as nasty as where I often detect. The main reason however was that I wanted a freshwater detector that could run at high enough frequencies to gold prospect in streams, that I could trust for submerged coin/jewelry/relic detecting, that wouldn't need an antenna (I would be using it in fast moving boulder strewn water), it has a vibration feature that eliminates the need for headphones when submerged or near noisy water, no need for extra elaborate waterproofing of components and it very likely wouldn't leak and since both of my Equinox 800s were out of warranty. For my budget ($600) that meant a choice between the Legend and the Equinox 600. The choice on paper and from the Equinox leak history and lack of a vibration feature for target alerting was obvious. So after almost 100 hours, I believe I made the right choice between the Legend and the Equinox 600.

I saw your other post too. Thanks for providing your settings. All I can say is this, I often hunt areas that have been sodded and they have also had steel sod staples installed in the nylon mesh under the sod. Those staples when they start to rust sound like a bed of nails and chirp with mid and high tones. Sometimes those tones are accompanied by target IDs that flash up for a second and sometimes no ID but still a high tone chirp or false. I can turn up F2 all the way to maximum and I will still get some falsing chirping on those rotting staples. I can usually turn 90 degrees and get iron responses or very fractured audio. Setting the recovery speed too high just makes every target sound like a iron falsing chirps unless there is a non-ferrous target on or near the surface. Just my two cents. In no way am I diagnosing your hunting scenario's characteristics.

Certainly nothing wrong with doing that strategy especially if the area you are hunting is likely to have gold jewelry. For me, the two gold rings I found with the Legend made an unmistakeable round sound which caught my ear. Nickels have sounded really strong too. I have not done any notching yet. I will soon.

I didn't think for one second that you did anything wrong with the update procedure especially use a computer with USB 1.0 ports. My apologies if you thought I did... I hope you get it straightened out. I only have the WS6 since I don't really need the bigger remote. I was going to update my WS6 to .71 so I could use the live threshold in Relic and Gold Field. I think I better wait........

Yes, at least for the US nickel, there is not as much trash target overlapping competition for it using the Legend with its 10 extra target IDs in that conductivity range. I am not trying to mislead anyone here. I just used common re-occurring aluminum trash items. Bits of foil and aluminum can slaw can appear absolutely anywhere in the range shown in the photos.

I am old, and I have some old computers sitting in a closet that still have parallel serial ports and may have a USB 1.0 port…….. Is anyone really trying to do a Deus 2 update on a Windows based computer using USB 1.0 ports made before 2004?????? The XP Deus 2 update instructions clearly say to not use USB 1.0 Ports for these updates.

Dirt Fish Mish tries out the Deus 2 in the Aussie gold fields along with Detect-ED friends using the Legend and Gold Kruzer. She finds her first nuggie........