Jeff McClendon

So Loren, you appear (appear as in there is no way to really know due to social media limitations) to be a new member of this forum that likes to stir the pot, big time almost to the level of trolling. All I can say is you might want to dig deep into the history of metal detecting and current metal detecting technology. Also, the practice of dowsing is certainly not limited to the locating of water under the surface of the earth. Your statements above concerning dowsing for water, though true for some places on the earth do not apply to absolutely every place on the surface. Also, dowsing does not work when done by most people. There are some requirements that have to be met first which are definitely hard to achieve. There was a time not that long ago, when the radio frequency spectrum did not have “physical” human created content that was the result of analog and digital information being mechanically streamed into it and that entire spectrum served another purpose. I will say no more on that subject. Anyway, I like Gary’s videos. He could make a video about practically anything he chooses and I would probably watch it. His dowsing videos are some of my favorites for their matter of fact yet humble and reverent approach to this form of detecting. I hope anyone who reads this is able to have a very happy and somehow fruitful New Year.

Typical Gary B. video with plenty of knowledge and experience given along with some dead pan humor....... Speaking of Deus ll "I'm telling it not selling it" and "I'm not interested in all the handbag fights"

Hi and welcome to this forum. I have no experience using the Multi Kruzer on Canadian soil or coins. I have tested a Nokta Makro Simplex on your modern clad. The target ID characteristics of the Kruzer and Simplex are similar. I do know that most modern Canadian coins have steel in them that is mixed in with other metals. If you are looking for modern Canadian clad using a discrimination setting in the 50s that rejects any targets below 55 it may be very hard to get a good repeatable signal on the modern 10 cent, 25 cent, $1 and $2 coins. Even with discrimination on 0 and all targets accepted, those coins may sound iffy with mixed ferrous and non-ferrous responses depending on how they are oriented and what part of your DD coil is detecting them. Detecting $1 and $2 coins is always a big deal in my opinion and not something I would pass up. The Multi Kruzer can sometimes have some bouncy target IDs on deeper targets depending on your soil's level of iron mineralization. At least in my area, it had rock solid target IDs on surface to 3" coin sized targets but my area has high iron mineralization. Deeper targets had their target IDs up averaged so that for example your modern Canadian 5 cent coin's target ID would change from the 30s to the 70s fairly quickly. It would be unusual to have the opposite happen in normal soil so I would expect your pennies, dimes, quarters, $1 and $2 coins to be in the 80s to 90s when they are not also giving iron responses (except for your pennies which don't have any steel I believe). Silver and bronze coins should stay above your 55 target ID discrimination setting unless there are iron targets nearby. Also, there is this from the Kruzer manual: "Note: DISC. setting works inversely proportional to depth up to level 15 in all modes. In other words, as the DISC. is increased up to 15 stability will increase but depth will be reduced and vice versa. Above 15 though, both depth and noise will increase" So, if you are running your Kruzer at disc. setting of 55 with high sensitivity above 89 or so, your Kruzer's target IDs may be fairly unstable. Setting the DISC at 15 or better somewhat below 15 with 89 or less sensitivity may stabilize target IDs more if your soil isn't too highly iron mineralized. In my soil conditions nothing helped with target ID stability. Hopefully your soil will be nicer to your Kruzer than mine was. Like Steve said, hunting with as little discrimination as possible for the site you are on is always the best course of action even though digging plenty of trash targets will be part of the equation.

Your are welcome. I could have given you that answer, but I wanted you to figure it out. I knew you would. The Vanquish series is a big seller here in the USA and there are tons of them in all of the big box sporting goods stores so maybe that is the reason Minelab decided on that default discrimination pattern. It sure won't work very well on modern Australian coins..........

Or, spend just a little money on a Minelab Vanquish 440 or 540 if you don't need a fully waterproofed detector. If you do buy a Minelab Vanquish, take the removable batteries out of it before you put it in storage. The Vanquish models have the same outstanding detection technology that is in the Equinox but with way less controls and adjustable features. They are super easy to learn, operate and pull out of the closet for a quick hunt. They detect way better than their inexpensive price and are perfect for the once a month or vacation detector user.

Read pages 3 and 13 in the English version of the Vanquish 440/540 online users guide for a little more information about the Custom mode features. It should answer your questions. minelab-vanquish-440-540-user-guide.pdf

I'm very sorry to hear that the 1.28.1 update did not have any improvement for audio and target ID stability. I have heard that the Apex is a very capable saltwater beach detector and that its SMF technology is very helpful in that environment. My only APEX trip to a saltwater beach was a Southern California beach which had plenty of black sand. I was not impressed. I have used single frequency and other SMF detectors at the same beach with as good or better results as far as target ID, audio stability and depth. As I have said before, I was remarkably unimpressed by its performance in moderate to high iron mineralization. For those that have used many of the single frequency Ace series Garrett detectors here in the USA, the Ace APEX is definitely and improvement over those older models for sure. So, I guess we will have to keep waiting for a mid-range SMF offering by Garrett in the future which has ergonomics, SMF technology, performance and features that offer a real advantage over the AT Pro, AT Gold and AT Max.

There are no consumer model Legends available for sale anywhere. There are a few pre-production beta test versions in the hands of the final round of field testers. Just guessing but I don’t see the Legend actually arriving in the USA for sale before February. Texhoma does not have them in stock yet in spite of what their website says. No one does.

Other than maybe a screen protector, why would you need any kind of cover for it?????? Dust proof, water proof pressure proof and shock (drop proof) to a very high level.

All I can say is that you sold a great metal detector...... I have owned five of them and can tell you that they are not cheaply made. They have some design flaws for sure just like practically every detector. Anfibio is selectable single frequency so it will run in one frequency at a time. The Legend like the Equinox has the choice of running in multiple frequencies simultaneously or can run in a selectable single frequency like the Anfibio. So the obvious question is: for the same money as the Anfibio, a person can buy the Legend (when they are available) or even spend less on an Equinox 600 and have both a very good single frequency detector and a great simultaneous multi frequency detector in one machine. Nokta Makro know this too. I don't see the Anfibio being updated or even manufactured for very much longer.

I have used the XP Mi-6 wirelessly paired with Deus 1 and the ORX. Works great. No doubt it will work great with Deus ll also.

Finally someone posted a video with a comparison between Deus ll General and Relic modes. Me being a gold prospector and deep relic hunter, I was hoping someone would make a live dig video like this. PWM audio is used for both modes.......would have loved to hear Square Wave audio too, but its a good start. Turning on the threshold tone would have also been interesting. It sounds like Deus 1 Gold Field and ORX Gold modes using PWM audio. Relic mode one tone VCO audio using the horseshoe screen works great for ferrous/non ferrous and signal strength/depth and gives accurate target ID numbers which are compared to General mode in this video.

Dave, we have been over this before. So as far as I know there is absolutely no difference between being in default Beach 1 (-9 to 0 rejected) and pressing the horseshoe button to accept -9 to 0, or just doing what I do, accept all targets in Beach 1 manually from -9 to 0. Pressing the horseshoe button does not change the “mode” to something special, magical or anything else. It is just a shortcut for what I do manually. Beach 1 with the horseshoe button engaged is still Beach 1 with all metal targets accepted. Whether pressing the horseshoe button to accept all targets in Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, Field 2, Beach 1, Beach 2, Gold 1 or Gold 2 adds depth to the Equinox…….I have no clue. Will it make it possible to hit iffy, borderline non-ferrous targets that are responding as mixed non/ferrous and ferrous….definitely. Obviously it is the only way to detect really deep non ferrous targets that are totally responding as ferrous unless one runs a threshold tone with -9 to +0 rejected and listens for interruptions in the threshold. At a noisy beach that method might not work real well.

East coast USA with medium to low iron sand, I would be in Beach 1, 2 tones, nothing rejected, running as hot as possible with ground balance tracking, F2 as low as possible, and recovery speed where the targets sound best to my ears but not above 5. Beach 2, similar settings when Beach 1 is unstable. Nothing rejected means nothing rejected. I don’t use the horseshoe button when I am planning to run a mode with nothing rejected. That way if I accidentally hit the horseshoe button my settings won’t change. So I manually accept all iron range targets with the accept/reject feature so Beach 1 and Beach 2 are preset for -9 to +40.

East coast USA with medium to low iron sand, I would be in Beach 1, 2 tones, nothing rejected, running as hot as possible with ground balance tracking, F2 as low as possible, and recovery speed where the targets sound best to my ears but not above 5. Beach 2, similar settings when Beach 1 is unstable.

I’m still waiting along with you. Using Deus 1 or ORX Goldfield the progression for smaller nuggets (1 gram and smaller) in iron mineralization and increasing depth is roughly: legitimate 25 to 60 or so numerical target ID, intermittent legitimate non ferrous target ID mixed with iron target ID, iron target ID, 98-99 target ID, — — and then finally faint audio responses with no change in the detect screen at the edge of detection. Larger gold nuggets, depending on depth=same as above except that much larger gold can read higher on the target ID scale and skip the iron target ID phase and go straight to 99/ — — at extreme depth. I believe the Deus 2 will have at least the same features in the hybrid threshold Goldfield and to some degree the similar hybrid threshold Relic mode, that exist on post version 3 software Deus 1 and the ORX. Having no numerical target ID on Deus 2 Goldfield and Relic would be a huge step in the wrong direction.

I much prefer the same. Let the detector do the "talking" and just show me its features and how to basically use it. He has also answered every question I have ever posed to him in the Comment section of his Youtube videos and usually within 24 hours. Gary can do those things without boring me and my dog likes his voice too.

that is probably true but.......those are not the Equinox settings I would have used in high EMI on a 12" deep gold target in sand. In that heavy of an EMI environment I may have given the Nox a pass and just tested the Deus 2 without the comparison.

New video by Iffy Signals with less Legend screen glare showing target ID stability on his iron polluted test bed target garden and a US nickel comparison depth test of 4", 6" and 8" showing Legend's non ferrous low conductor target ID stability. I really appreciate his calm, no nonsense delivery without any exaggerations or unintended possible bias.

If this has already been posted.....SORRY. This test shows a couple of things that I can see and hear. The Deus 2 handles EMI fairly well. The Equinox does not handle high EMI nearly as well and that is coming from someone who likes the Equinox way more than the original Deus 1. The Deus 2 Beach modes with factory default turn on and go settings are setup much better for the serious user than the Equinox Beach modes. Many Equinox Beach mode users that are after deeper targets use only 1 or 2 tones with every target accepted. I like two tones best too and am looking for any possible ferrous/non ferrous identification insights from the target responses. On deeper targets the responses may be half and half (or worse towards iron) ferrous/non ferrous. So rejecting the iron range by factory default kills many of the deep target responses on gold and even silver jewelry. However, opening up the full target ID range on the Equinox just makes EMI handling worse and actual in the ground target responses harder to hear. This has happened to me too often at beach sites. No choice but to turn the sensitivity down and there goes at least 3" of overall depth. Opening up the target ID range also brings all of the shallower beach iron targets into play. Can't have that if one is a beginner or casual detector user. This also shows how much more effective version 3 and later Deus 1 and now Deus 2's iron response handling capabilities really are and how much tweaking is needed to get the Equinox to handle iron responses more effectively. The Deus 2 default programs (and the Deus 1 programs that I often use) have been well thought out as far as settings chosen and perform extremely well even on tough targets just using turn on and go. As shown in Calabash's recent comparison videos the Equinox almost seems to be handicapped by many of its default settings as if Minelab was trying to satisfy hobby or more casual users and "keep them out of trouble' with the default settings. Those default settings are too safe and don't let the Equinox really "show off" in my opinion. The Deus 2 is one amazing detector and is geared towards the serious hobbyist, expert or professional for sure as was Deus 1.

Another great comparison from Calabash Digger. Deus 2 with 11" coil vs Equinox with 11" coil in default beach modes.

WS6 Module Menus explained by Gary Blackwell. Goes through all of the menus and settings for the turf discrimination modes. No information on the Beach, Dive, Gold Field or Relic modes.........???????

Sensitivity being too high is one thing to consider. So is swing speed. In real world, bed of nails situations there is absolutely no way that I would ever swing my coil in such a fast and haphazard way as the tester in the video you referenced. The same goes for many other testers that I have seen lately who think that swinging a coil really fast over nails and coins is a true representation of what these detectors can actually achieve in real world situations or that the one that can be swung fastest is the best for all ferrous/non-ferrous situations. I certainly will swing fairly quickly in tiny 1 to 3" swings when I have isolated a non-ferrous target in a high iron or high aluminum trashed site to zero in and center the target under the coil. I would never do that while walking a site to try and find a quality non-ferrous target in a densely trashed area which Monte's Nail Board test recreates.

Unfortunately for me and many turf hunters, dependence on numerical target IDs are not an obsession. Instead, their importance is imposed on me by the restrictions set by municipalities and land owners in the arid conditions (more like drought) that I often hunt in. Digging with a shovel or anything close to a shovel will leave turf damage here and is not allowed in most cities. Making sure that I at least know the conductivity of the potential target is super important along with knowing how to "dig" with a probe or long shafted screwdriver. Accurate numerical target IDs are really important to me. So are accurate tones that can tell me the target's conductivity and possibly its shape, surface (smooth or uneven) and its condition/orientation. The Deus 1 full tones and the Equinox full tones can do those things to some degree when I am able to ignore their "quality". Not being an engineer, do I have this next statement right? Are the tones produced by these detectors less "filtered" than the target ID numbers as in, are the tones generated first and then the target ID numbers? Being a professionally trained European/North American classical music musician means that I actually listen to the tones that a detector produces from the standpoint of a musician and not just a detector user. The Deus 1 PWM full "tones" actually sound more like static filled noise to me. There are discernible pitch changes but the amount of distortion of the pitches is just too much for me. The Deus 2 Square Wave tones sound quite a bit cleaner and more defined so far but the cleanliness may detract from actual target characteristic identification. The Equinox full tones are certainly much cleaner and defined than Deus PWM generated full tones. However, I too find it hard to exactly match the 50 individual pitches to clear numerical equivalents even on well known targets like US nickels. The full tones used on the Equinox have to fit into a frequency range and that has compressed the intervals between some of the tones so close together that a differentiation is hard to hear even for me. Very few of the tones are a full half step apart (like on a piano keyboard) and most are quarter tones or micro tone intervals. Very interesting topic. I for one, am delighted to see the Deus 2, Legend, Equinox and Vanquish having stable numerical target IDs.

Not trying to pour cold water on this topic but, Detect History is not a site that I depend on for, as they stated, "Unbiased" information. I am not doubting for one moment that the Vanquish pictured has suffered catastrophic damage. How/Why that happened would be nice to know since Detect History states that they do not know the circumstances or details or even the provenance of the photos. Detect History goes on to speculate about a possible chronic problem with no evidence to back that up. Detect History has often given wrong specification and feature information about detectors they have reviewed including the Vanquish. I rate their accuracy and journalistic/review quality as barely above MD Hunter due to their tendency to sensationalize and exaggerate the "facts" as they see them.