midalake

4 hours ago, Skate said:

Learn to hear the rough edges at the end of your sweep indicating a bad target. Learn to walk around a target while sweeping it to determine whether to dig or not. A bad signal can become a good signal by moving 90 degrees. 

Yes and YES!!!!  Sometimes 360 degree look! 

2 hours ago, DirtyBoatGuy said:

was wondering if there is a list of items and what the numbers are for such items.

If you are talking about Beach Hunting? Dig EVERYTHING +1 and higher. No need to dig Iron. 

9 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I was running my sensitivity from 95 to 96 and started out with Audio Response at 5 but reduced it to 4 because there was way too much falsing on iron and tiny bits of trash.

Therein lies the possibilities. All of my testing tells me you will not miss deep targets when running sensitivity in 90 as compared to 96. In fact, on fringe testing, it was not until the D2 had a sensitivity of 88 did I lose depth capability. 
We ran that test Mutiple times with different targets in different locations. 

On 8/5/2023 at 12:28 PM, CPT_GhostLight said:

states that the Audio Reponse is an audio amplifier which makes tiny and deep target easier to hear so it shouldn't affect the depth the detector is hitting,

23 hours ago, TJ Jeepguy said:

AR doesn’t technically reduce the depth of  the detector,

I have been thinking about all of the testing I have done. It makes me lean to running your Audio Response high 6-7 and controlling the detector with sensitivity.  Even in my black sand conditions I find Audio response is not the lone culprit when looking at stability.  Depth was affected by both sensitivity and Audio Response. 

It would be nice to see a good test garden example of a lower audio response beating a high audio response in ANY condition.

6 hours ago, Compass said:

This chain was one of seven that we found on the day - very unusual.

Now you are in my wheelhouse!  Good work. You need to go back soon! 

2 hours ago, stateguy said:

Maybe they take apart a deus and see how they built there’s 

have not heard anything about there leaking

The build of the two is very different. The Deus 2 is just a stand-alone pod, attached by a mount. The Equinox and Manticore is an integral mount including handgrip. 

Much more inches of seam to fail in the Equinox/Manticore design! 

41 minutes ago, Compass said:

got to carry it in my pouch for a couple of hours thinking that I had found gold. 

Been doing this a long time and never found a silver chain that was gold colored.  Just make sure you acid test it before sending it down the road.
I just got done acid testing about 35 unmarked pieces I suspected might be gold. Over half were, but this is common for Mexico. 

7 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I've been experimenting

93 Sensitivity is still high for a mineral environment, MHO. Would have liked to hear it at 89-90. I don't like how he swings. 
Everyone MUST do their own depth testing to see how the audio response reduces depth in their location. Depth loss WILL happen. 
Did I say I don't like how he swings. 

2 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

Dankowski says set your ground balance to zero when hunting dry silica sand since it's basically glass. When you move to wet you have a more conductive material with the salt added so you have to ground balance the wet sand or while hunting in the water.

While I really think Dankowski is a master on a detector. One has to always watch their own settings. Where I hunt, there are black sand concentrations on dry sand that are higher than at the wet sand or water contact.  I am not sure Dankowski has ever set foot on a black sand beach from how he speaks.  

On 7/27/2023 at 8:50 AM, F350Platinum said:

I condensed this all to one post because quite honestly it wasn't a spectacular week despite finding a ring for a woman, and getting out as much as I did. By 10am the beach was packed, and I found I was pretty much the only detectorist on the beach every day, but don't know if anyone was nighthawking.

I think you did ok and you put in your time. I have gone several weeks without any gold or good finds, hang in their trooper! 

On 7/24/2023 at 5:01 PM, SeaScene said:

the response was high chirp and then iron "grunt" on all three rings.  Previously another poster here mentioned the same thing so he notched out the high tone and the grunt tone.  Replies from others to this poster were both yay and nay.  So, what I learn from my test is that if I do not dig everything I would miss gold and silver rings.  So ... that was the reason for my post.  If you have to dig everything anyway because discrim on the D2 fails at 10 inches in beach with good degree of black sand

Many know, but I only hunt beaches. I have found very few hunters that have black sand. I call my conditions moderate, so our hunting conditions may be close. For others who have followed my talking points, I have stated in the past that the D2 may not be the best MF machine in Black Sand. I know for a fact, that east coast hunters have different results than what I see. Couple that with a Deus 2 machine that has many settings that can affect performance and there is a large space for a learning curve and mistakes. 

One thing I would NEVER do is notch high tones. This is a major mistake since the D2 can throw gold all over the TID map. In the picture below is a 18g white gold chunk [stamped 14k] and acid tested. It rang a solid 98 TID on the D2. I have had several other high value gold items over 70 TID too. 

I do set my discrimination high at 22 and will be experimenting more with notching at 22 when I get back on my machine and that does help with Black Sand some.
There is NO reason to dig every fringe target. As stated in the past, watch those numbers, do a 360 look at the target and bring your sensitivity up 2-3 points. It is not 100% fool proof, but if that D2 does not throw you a good gold number on a fringe target say 32 to 68. It is a pretty good chance that target is iron. 
 

12 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

What I didn't count on was constant chatter and EMI issues and very unstable TIDs which appear to be partially attributed to the expanded TID range.

Humm, a few experienced users with issues.  Maybe a good thing I have 3 800's tucked away now?  When you say unstable TID's, is this for looking at one target or say a TID range for all Pulltabs. 

12 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Therefore, by definition, it is a non-discrimination mode. Discriminating is then done by your brain and your shovel.

Not entirely true. Did we get the short Chase version. 😁 

On 7/25/2023 at 7:01 AM, annamariaslim said:

Can I leave it turned on all the time, or use it to discriminate?

Yes, it can be left on all the time.  Yes, you can use it to discriminate. You will hear ALL targets with the horseshoe mode on.  Deciding on what to dig can be done by the TID of the machine or by sound. 

The Equinox does a fantastic job of separating the ferrous and non-ferrous bins with the horseshoe mode ON.  Many targets that give iron-wraparound sounds will go completely iron when the horseshoe mode is turned on. 

A couple advantages of horseshoe mode> You can figure out the target center with the horseshoe mode on, you can also recover the target without going to pinpoint mode. This is a huge time saver! 

4 hours ago, steveg said:

Sunday, I dug two deep, old coins -- a very nice 1876 Seated dime,

Awesome dime!!! 

4 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

The day before yesterday, I received the Rutus VERSA...,, the detector is really solidly processed... and ergonomically very well made

Awesome. Let us know how testing goes! 

14 hours ago, SeaScene said:

I have a D2.  I detect black sand beaches British Columbia ... similar to Washington coast I would think.  Beach mode Sens 92, Reactivity 2

Your reactivity is too high. 

14 hours ago, SeaScene said:

On the ground gold IDs at 62, silver at 90.  Buried 10 inches down wet sand the D2 gives a high pitched response plus iron grunt for all three..  In other words dig everything it seems. 

Now you know what some of us experienced beach hunters have been talking about. Tracking GB and a lower reactivity might help in the D2 throwing you a number on deep targets. Pay close attention if the machine throws you a number even if it is only once in 5 or 6 swings. Also do not be afraid to put the D2 up two or three points of sensitivity just to look at one target. 

14 hours ago, SeaScene said:

I tried out all the factory settings and Beach was "quietest"

In the wet sand you should be able to run Beach Sens. but in the water, you will be lucky to get away with beach. Beach is not very good on gold chains. Try to hunt Beach Sens on the wet sand and water contact go to Beach Mode. 

56 minutes ago, Dan(NM) said:

I'm going underwater, that might be a problem 🙂

I do not think the king of the pack has changed. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5yrrG_bZ1E

13 hours ago, ColonelDan said:

Regarding Audio Response, I keep mine at 7.  Why?  I want to hear every good target really sing out and I personally don’t care about an auditory depth indicator.

I run an Audio Response of 6 at the beach. I found with all of the depth testing we did the odds of missing deep targets increases greatly if the Audio Response is lowered. In fact, this is one setting that allows the Deus 2 to be better than the Equinox on depth. 
If it was not for the black sand at my location, I am confident the Audio Response would be 7.  

27 minutes ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

With that being said, I really do like The Legend in the wet.  It has no water wash/falsing issues as far as I have seen.

What is your black sand content there????   Where I hunt, we are really going to test the Legends ability in black sand. 

48 minutes ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

The bottlecap reject on The Legend has me a bit befuddled.  On shallow caps, even at 0, the caps read wacky and have a different sound.  However, at depth, even at a max of 8, they still read and sound good.  The Equinox and the Apex (with its iron audio) are vastly superior to The Legend at id'ing bottlecaps at depth.  I have to play more with this but as of now I'm digging way too many bottle caps.

If that Legend gets to the beach, I will consult to you Bill on some initial settings. Bottle caps is one item I never worry about.  It will be all about gold testing in the wet sand [especially chains] and how the detector handles the transition from wet sand to water. If it all works out, we should have the Nox 800 and 900. Deus2, Manticore and Legend!  Buckle>UP! 

2 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Tighter does not make it better but can provide an additional stress point for breakage near the coil itself.  It is for this reason I think that Minelab should have made longer more flexible ears that can withstand some user overtightening.

For me personally in regard to beach hunting. I like my coil ears locked down TIGHT! 

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

I've decided I'll get one the next time a second hand one pops up in the price I think is good,

There is a good possibility a friend is bringing the Legend to the beach in August. If so, we will put it through many tests to see how it fairs and I will do a little write-up.  

12 minutes ago, bklein said:

Yes I’ve been reading such content with google.  I don’t understand what protection there really is and haven’t come across anyone using it.  
 

I guess no one takes a chance with it - and sellers can get scammed too.

Your protection would be your credit card too. 

20 minutes ago, bklein said:

Sure but I want to know if the ads are legit or not - if OfferUp is legit or not. I have other interests besides detecting and buy stuff like camera lenses and music instruments from people.such ads if bogus do not exist on eBay long. They stay on OfferUp for months.

From google:

OfferUp is a legitimate platform, but all sellers on it are third-party providers, which means the platform is not responsible for any transaction that happens off-site after connecting to the app. Consider buying from (and selling to) verified OfferUp profiles to reduce scams.