Erik Oostra

I've worked out that relic hunting requires much more digging than beach hunting.. So I've brought in some bigger/better tools.. 🤨 This way I'll be a able to dig deeper into history..

I've circled my house just in case you're coming over for a hunt.. Should be easy to find.. All very welcome.. 😁

Unfortunately not, although I've lived here for 12 years.. I moved here from Egypt (Sinai) when I got custody of my son, it seemed like a great place for a kid to grow up.. I still find some of his toys, and of the various kids who've lived here before.. Just over the ridge in my backyard (the bright sunlight in the videos) lays Alma Bay.. This is my home bay.. Behind the houses across the street from my house is all National Park, as is the bush surrounding Arcadia village.. The bay and sea areas on the picture are either Marine Park or Green Zones.. All in all there's not much wriggle room to wave a detector about.. Still, I can go wild in my own backyard!

Took the Deus II for an outing in my backyard to see if it could find anything that the Equinox left behind.. This is yesterday's haul.. I ended up running the thing in Park Mode as Relic Mode just about drove me nuts.. seems like every inch of backyard has some sort of metal in it.. Park worked well and the Deus sniffed out a few 'treasures'.. My house is circled..

I did find a 'Bertie' a while ago at Geoffrey Bay.. I forgot all about it until you mentioned yours.. It's a 1903 'Bertie'.. It's not in as good a condition as yours but that's the big disadvantage of hunting along the coast.. Although I'm surprised at how great mine looks considering the amount of high tides it's been through before I found it.. For some reason it appears silvery looking on the photo, in real life it's copper..

It's a "Georgie".. I've just finished polishing the backyard pennies.. they came up nicely, as did the 'silver' heart..

That was indeed written with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek.. I just couldn't resist.. I had a feeling it would probably get lost in translation.. people often don't get my sense of humour (sarcasm).. Of course I'll be using the Deus II to hunt my own backyard and you're spot on, now the yard is cleared it's time to unleash the Relic Monster..

It's the lid of a little metal box.. can't find the bottom part..

Keeping with the theme of having a looksee at spots that I never seem to get around to hunting, I thought I’d hit my own backyard.. I’ve always had a feeling that it would be a good spot as I’ve found a few pennies and old bottles in the little creek which runs through it.. My backyard has an old house slab which is made of beer bottles with concrete over the top.. The house that stood there was built at the end of the 1940s and blew down during cyclone Althea in 1971.. Needless to say there’s a whole load of junk everywhere and I ended up with a small coil on the Equinox to cherry pick amongst it all.. Because I’d found some pennies here before I ignored the more obvious junk on the first sweep around and just honed in on old copper and silver coins.. This strategy worked and within an hour I’d picked up 2 pennies (one is dated 1912), 3 silver three-pence (all before 1946), 3 two cents, 4 one cents and some modern coins.. The picture below shows the best of the old junk.. I’d normally toss this stuff aside but since it was a relic hunt I thought I'd better keep it.. Maybe diehard relic hunters can pick a keeper.. For me the find of the day was a tiny little pendant.. It’s a touristy trinket which has ‘Magnetic Island’ written on one side and ‘Made in Czechoslovakia’ on the other.. I had a good chuckle when I figured out what it said.. Although I didn’t find a hoard of gold sovereigns, this hunt was another great reminder of this island’s diverse history.. I really would’ve liked to use the Deus II for this hunt but unfortunately the manual tells me not to use the detector in my own backyard.. This is a bit of a shame because its Relic Program would’ve excelled in this spot.. But since I’m a ‘manual man’ I’m gonna stick by the book and heed its wise advice.. 😁

Beats me why none of the Australian XP dealers sell this adaptor.. you'd think it would be a sure-fire seller.. there must be other Deus users in the country who'd like the option of plugging in their favourite headphones..

Maybe not.. For a $12.90 adapter the shipping costs from the US to Australia are unbelievable! This is through metaldetector.com.. I can't find this adapter in Australia.. Maybe a DIY project?

Seems my little drama was solved months ago.. If only I'd read this before..

Thank you all for the brilliant suggestions, but unfortunately the WS6 (puck) has stopped working.. I'm after headphones that'll work without it.. I'm not sure I want to go further down the wireless road even if there were headphones that worked without the WS6 contraption.. I'm even willing to settle for wired headphones that'll plug into the control box.. Being wired to the Deus II won't be a new experience.. For me the Deus II is a fully wired detector anyway, with its tangly antenna wire and its stiff plastic lead for the bone-phones it's a wired mess compared to the Equinox and its cute little audio thingy with its dedicated headphones which can be used wired or unwired.. Unlike my 'wireless' Deus II this way of doing things has never failed me.. I rarely use headphones of any kind but they do occasionally come in handy on windy days or against loud background surf, especially when I'm using the speakers on the Deus II control box which for me are hard to hear on the best of days (even with hearing aids).. Can anyone recommend plug-in headphones?

I did wonder why one of the dollar coins looked so familiar, I'm pretty sure it had the Queen on one side.. 😁

I've spend the morning having a looksee under the Picnic Bay jetty.. There was crap everywhere and I ended up cherry picking for dollar coins and 50 cents.. I ended up with a grand total of $23.. I was surprised to find 2 old pennies and 1 half penny.. Most of the coins were at the beginning of the jetty, a favourite spot for tourists to have sex on the beach.. I must admit that I've also made good use of this spot as a young dive instructor with one of my students many moons ago.. 😁 I've been wanting to have a better looksee since cyclone Yasi tore down the jetty.. A mate and I got the diving job to recover the posts and decking to rebuild it.. Many fond memories and new experiences today..

Sorry Carolina, I misread that those head phones could be used with the WS6, which would be no good to me as it's stopped working..

That's what mine did.. first it refused to power up with the detector and I'd have to start it manually.. Now it won't start manually anymore.. I'm using the bone-phones on the beach for now but does anyone other than XP make wireless headphones for the Deus II? Or even wired head phones that'll plug into the control box?..

It's a shame as the Deus II was just getting into gear.. lately it's made some quirky finds including a tiny gold earing and an old coin made into a pin.. Underwater I'd just started a bromance with the huge new target ID and ferrous/non-ferrous display.. I know the target ID on the control box has nothing to do with the WS6, but it breaking down has left a sour taste in my mouth and hasn't made the Deus II any more endearing.. I'm gonna have to break off the bromance if this keeps up..

I've reached a new low with the Deus II.. Today the WS6 headphones stopped working.. I hardly ever use the things as they're bloody uncomfortable but I find the speakers on the control box hard to hear, especially on a windy beach (even with my hearing aids).. But all this is besides the point, that's now two bits of the Deus II setup which have failed.. In comparison, nothing of the Equinox setup has ever failed me - and it gets a much rougher treatment as I tend to treat the Deus II with kit gloves for fear of things breaking or falling off.. As I've said before there's nothing sturdy or tough about the thing.. I know the headphone issue has nothing to do with the physical build of this detector but I put any disaster (mechanical or electronics) in the same basket: they tell a tale about its overall reliability and trustworthiness.. I can't rely on it to do its job without worrying about what's gonna fail next.. I know that XP Australia will replace the WS6 as soon as possible.. Good for them, soon we'll get to know each other on a first name basis.. One day we'll have a great laugh about all the bone-phones, headphones, coils, shafts, control boxes and antenna wires I've needed to replace over the years.. Until the warrantee runs out, then I'll be off their friends list..

A bit of a weird one this morning.. a 1949 3-pence made into a pin.. maybe a hat pin or earing.. it's my first find with the Deus II at a place I call the 'silver mine'.. this spot continues to surprise me with not just its old silver coins but also gold jewellery.. I like this little pin, someone did a good job soldering the post to it..

How's it working out? Was thinking about doing the same and just saw your post.. Once that antenna wire is out of sight, the D2 would almost be back to being a true wireless detector.. Out of sight out of mind..

Great new dive rig Ridge Runner, that's a really good setup.. I bet it works really well.. no regulator in the mouth to worry about, just a trickle of air.. Wonder why the big scuba gear manufacturers haven't cottoned on to this by now.. If you can resist the temptation to take it really deep (below 60 metres) that tank could last for hours.. Hats off to good old USA scuba technology..

Dive program and factory settings.. I've stopped mucking about with the salt settings, I used to turn it as high as possible but the factory salt setting in the dive program works good under most circumstances.. volume cranked right up..

Sorry Knomad, I should've mentioned I was using it as a scuba detector.. I was about 3 metres deep when I found it.. It was buried about an inch deep..