Joe Beechnut OBN

The most important thing is to make sure the machine works as it should. I would see if I could find a manual and go from there. A lower rod is something that can be made, from just about anything.. except metal.

https://garrett.com/sites/default/files/pdf/2020-12/BeachHunter_ID_en_0.pdf

If it works as it should 120 is excellent. Find a few gold, have some fun....Like I said I had a friend, Lance who used one for years and liked it and did good. Really its a matter of getting the coil over the treasure before it sinks, gets covered or someone else finds it.

Had a friend in Oc Md who scored a nice gold..10 plus years ago?

http://metaldetectorreviews.net/detectors/12-1-beachhunterid.html

Several reviews on the BHID, some good some ok, some fair. I had a friend that used one for several years, in the water, no diving but submerged. He liked it and just bought the Legend. 

120 is good if it works

Sorry to see more issues, but the good is.. that 5 year warranty of the D2. And I do hope Deus is learning from all of the post.

Sad is, Minelab's has Not, I'm still seeing Excalibur cables rotting after a few years, and several of the other issues that plague them, than the Noxs..broken ears of the coils and IP rating of the control head of the Nox..  

That's a good outing! I can only imagine the fun you had as he watched. I've had kids at the beach right on top of my every swing, it was fun for a few minutes..  After about 15 minutes it gets a little annoying.

Wow! Nice work and a Beautiful smile! 

6 hours ago, Dmnz said:

Ps - am beginning to like the D2 - I am unsure about the depth, but sometimes just the ability to modify the sounds to make them easier to hear when diving is all you need.  There is a lot of noise, confusion and bubbles (and with the nemo, rattle of the compressor) so a decent ‘pitch tone’ makes me focus on targets I may have otherwise missed?

Nice chunk of gold!

Also I will have to look thru my notes but I had a site you could buy the fitting and cable needed for the head phones, may take me a few days but I will post the link. Carolina made his own phones for the D2, maybe he will chime in...

5 hours ago, Dmnz said:

D2 missing the 5gram 14 - or did the D2 not pick it up at depth?

 

I only had data on silver coins for this test on the D2.. The "air test" was done by one of CB's friends and he did Not test any gold, I was using his test as a standard for the two machines I use (Excal & AQ) ,.... on silver coins. 

I do have two friends with D2's, a 9 and 11 inch coils. It will be interesting to see the results on gold which I should have by the end of the summer, with video. If I were in the market for a water machine I would highly recommend the D2, for the machines I have take to many modifications to match the D2's performance, over all.

On 6/14/2022 at 11:00 PM, CCadrin said:

  Also I want to say, I've dug my deepest penny, dime, nickel and quarter, and silver coins in the wet sand compared to the Nox and at times nearly as deep as my AQ.

In the water, I am very skeptical. I don't have enough time to come to a conclusion. Dive mode doesn't seem as deep and Beach mode is chatty. As the water warms this summer I'll have a better feel.

From air test the AQ is weak on silver coins? Seems gold and nickels are it's stronger point, for me.

2 hours ago, Carolina said:

The list for the Deus ll as you put it is much mirrored by your favorite machine I think. The shaft on the Excal. is most always replaced for a more conventional such as hip mount, behind shoulder or your favorite, over under after market shaft. The hard wired coil ( only two choices, 8”&10” ) calls for a interchangeable coil mod. The hard wired POS headphones also call for replacement or mod for interchangeable phone mod. The ever present control knob failure of the blue inserts is a reality that must be dealt with high priced Minelab replacements or third party after market replacements. Most always a battery swap to lipo battery packs and yearly replacements of control knob sealing O rings rounds out the list keeps getting longer and longer. They both fall very close in price also, with one with cutting edge new technology and the other 25 year old technology. Yet, this is your machine of choice, sooooo, don’t be so quick to write off the Deus ll. Yes it has its failures, but I tell you, In my book the Deus ll is a whole lot of bang for your bucks. I know in the beginning CD made a lot of idiotic comments directed towards you and the Excalibur, that probably did not help your reviews on the Deus. Don’t let an idiot run your fun with this machine. Give it a chance, in the long run, I think you will like it. Nobody has stuck behind the Fisher AQ more than you and I and it’s because you have taken the time to learn the machine and know where and when to use it. The same can be said for the Deus ll I think. Get up off some of that money you got and buy one 😂. Just keep it up in MD. and don’t bring it down here !!! I have enough top caliber looters swinging one now as it is. Look forward to your visit and take care.

Thanks buddy.....  I'm just a stubborn old goat. Who has problems changing, I have a couple friends with D2's, sooner or later I'll know answers. And even then,.... if I don't see these guys producing ... I may never change.... 

1 hour ago, Carolina said:

I guess Kenny is Guru. Hahahahaha yes gigmaster is one of them lol. That man is rough on everything. I think he broke 4 or 5 NOX coils and three or four Nox’s. The other is mumbles man, another one of Max’s old hunting buddies. For those who don’t know, the Deus uses only one rubber washer on one side of the coil. What they call a spacer on the other. I think that will be a problem for salt water beach hunters. After all, the machine has three beach programs. You would think this would have shown up in testing.  I run a aftermarket CF shaft that the clevis uses two rubber washers, one on each side. So does my friend John who like me has seen no wear. I’m not sure that one sided rubber washer will hold up on the beach. We shall see. Keep in mind these guys have years and years of water hunting so regular cleaning is not the problem. Good luck everybody and thanks. You water hunters check those ears.

You know I seen that single side rubber bushing on the D2 a few weeks ago. Looked strange but I never put it together. Good Luck and keep us informed.

Have you been deep with the D2 yet? Just wondering, one of the guys up here had a 11 inch D2 and he said it was chatty. But he did just get the machine.

And I agree with Mid-Lake, movement is grinding. Maybe some kind of shaft stabilizer on the D2, the list just keeps getting longer and longer. 

I would check with the Gigmaster or he maybe he's the one? 

Several years ago, Max's hunting buddy Kenny sent me his Excalibur ll that was having issues. And this was a machine just out of warranty, I guess he used it several times a week and never really took the time to check the coil and shaft's rubber bushing. Both sides were wore out and the shaft clevis had cut into the coil ears, bad. I checked the knob shaft o-rings on it and they were dryrotted..

Like said above, I think it is a matter of maintaining the detector around saltwater and sand.

I know Carter Pennington had a issue diving with it in Saltwater a month ago and has not used it since.  I was out with a couple D2 hunters a few weeks ago, we were going to try and get some testing/comparing in but being the first hunt of the year everyone took off into the (brackish) water, not to be seen till the end of the hunt, which was about 2 hours. The one D2 hunter did say he ran the beach sens mode, and he hunted chest deep, said the machine was chatty. Also said the shaft with the 11 inch was kind of flimsy The other hunter (D2 9 inch) stayed shallow and was fine.. knee deep and wetsand.

I'm on the fence about getting one, seeing to many little issues, than the batteries. So I'm on hold and waiting to see a good compare between me and my friends on targets. I know for sure they can smoke me the trashy areas.. out deeper where depth is important. Time will tell for me.

Right now it hard times finding any cables. I can post a few links but not sure if they have.

https://www.mouser.com/c/?marcom=198111626

https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-CAT-C73765-M1.html

https://www.newark.com/c/connectors/sensor-connectors-components/sensor-cable-assemblies

https://www.onlinecomponents.com/en/productsearch/connectors/i-o-connectors/connector-circular/

https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/shopping/catalog/cables/sensors_-z-_switches/pico_(m8)_harsh_duty_-z-_food_-a-_bev._q-z-d_cables#sort=undefined desc&start=0

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/circular-cable-assemblies/448

39 minutes ago, Rick N. MI said:

That's impressive for the Excalibur.

I know the the Equinox 800 w/11" coil and Xp Orx w/9" hf coil will hit hard on a 3.77 gram 14k gold ring at 14" easily in a mild sandy beach at a lake. I haven't tried deeper.

Unfortunately I don't get a lot of gold jewelry in the northern MI lakes like you do on the ocean.

14 inches is very good. I'm not sure if my excalibur could hit one that small, that deep. Seems the smaller the gold the more it struggles.

Yes, I can only imagine the water really never gets warm there but for a few months. Short season .

Beach and water only here...Since all of us have different needs at the beach, your going to see many different opinions of what is important to find treasures.

For me... my hunting depends on knowing what my machines are capable of (And the competitions) ..... which raw depth is the most important. One reason I bought the Fisher AQ (PI) and I modify a few things my Excaliburs to squeeze every last inch of depth I can get from it in all metal. Got to keep up with the D2's..😊

I talked to Carter, owner of Detector Pro.. he said they should have the D2 GGA's in Mid-June. 

Thats a great recon job with treasure!!Some real nice golds!!

A few years ago I posted a picture of a spot I had said I found gold at..  I got a few emails and PM's,  a couple telling me thanks and a few other nicer one saying they found the spot and I should take the picture down. I figure best not to say a word for the picture I posted was not the same place.

49 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

First let me say I love my Equinox 800. In the 2+ years that I've had it, it has helped me grow as a detectorist immensely and I'm very comfortable with it. It's like a comfortable pair of shoes, I just throw them on and go without having to think about it. The Deus II on the other hand is like a new pair of shoes, tight and not broken in yet, and will take some time to get comfortable.

I probably would not have purchased the D2 on my own because I didn't think I really needed it, but I've always been facinated by the Deus platform and reputation in high iron polluted sites. When my birthday rolled around in April, my whole family pitched in and got the D2 for me, so I have used it exclusively since then to try to learn it.

I know I still have alot to learn about the D2 and detecting in general, but I must say, I'm getting use to the Deus 2 fairly quickly. At this point I'm finding my way around in the settings, and while I'm still learning what they all do, I feel like I'm finding what I could find with the Nox for the most part. I am able to find the tiniest things too like bird shot, earring backs, shotgun primers, and tiny little bedazzler metal doodads from clothing, all of which the Nox smacks in Park 2, so I like that.

The thing that has impressed me most, other than how light it is, is how the D2 performs in iron. Recent trips to a ghost town and an old military training field have opened my eyes to it's real capability. It is also super quiet. Personally I like to hear the iron so I don't notch it out, but when it is over a non-ferrous target it will let you know it, and I've had no problem picking out good targets among dense clusters of nails and iron debris. I will say I dig a lot more trash at this point because I'm still trying to learn the "tonal nuances" that everyone talks about, but I am beginning to hear some differences between good and bad targets. I still dig them all to verify, but hope to be able to get to a point where I can identify different types of targets with the same confidence I have with my Nox.  

I plan to keep on using the D2 so I can get to the level of comfort I have with the Nox, but I keep the Nox ready to go for when I just want to go cherry picking.

I have no experience in gold fields or on the beaches with the D2 yet, so I can't speak to that, but I'm absolutely happy with both my Nox and D2 detectors.

That's a great combo..  I think.

Just my opinion but from what I see, the D2 is a killer land machine, as far as the beach, it has a lot to do with where you hunt. If I were a open beach hunter, wet and dry sand I would own one. As far as a in the water machine where I hunt, to fragile of a machine.

From what I am seeing, the hunters who were finding gold before with the Nox's / CTX / other machines, and bought the D2...are still finding the gold. As far as the others 90%, nothing has changed, no matter which machine.....

58 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Nobody has a corner on metal detecting knowledge

Amen to that! 

One of the things that pushed me into the water, spiders, ground hornets and ticks.

And the dag ticks are so small now...

I got some cheap brushes, and two part epoxy, slow dry 24 hours. Scuffed up the bottom of the coil, wiped it down good. Mixed up a small amount of the epoxy. Brushed it on, let it set about 3 hours, then brushed more on.. let that dry a while then loaded it up, pouring it on... if it gets stiff you can heat it up with a heat gun. Flowed out real nice. I do the same with my Excalibur coils. See if I can find a few pictures.

Little test I do to check the excalibur DD coils, (Using a audiosears 2463 element/speaker to hear the send field)  as one can see the send field is stronger near the rear of the coil instead of the tip. I'm not sure if this means the rear of the coil can pick up deeper signals but I've always felt I was getting better depth using this area once I had a faint signal. 

In the real world the after burner adds about 4 inches to the depth,  Unfortunately to Hot for some saltwater areas.

On 4/12/2022 at 8:05 PM, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

I'll see if I can do a short video on the wacko mod.. I found any place there is a large piece of metal, or another machine is near that is on.....  it does it, over loaded... My first one I got from Rick does it also. I would take it to the beach, and turn it on while it was next to my car.. wacko.. Best to hold it in the air away from everything and turn it on.. works fine then.. I'll do that video Thursday, should be easy to recreate. 

Here is the video promised. Not the best but gives a idea of what not to do........... First....Overload, motorboating audio, when in the garage (And will not detect anything). Than once outside near the back of my SUV ..lots of EMI...(will detect but very noisy)......than I lay it in the yard, (away from all) and it does take a second to calm down but works fine. And detects metal. So the surrounding are a major factor when you first fire up the beast.

Turn your volume up so to hear the AQ

On 5/1/2022 at 8:39 PM, bklein said:

I vaguely recall the original AQ videos that seemed to show iron reject and detect a gold ring right on top of iron. I don’t have any black sand but should I be able to get a discriminating tone from a nail or tent stake? I only get tone differentiation in the Reject 9-10 range - and it’s pretty useless. What is the real world scenario where this works. How do I test this?  Oh yeah, just for kicks I tried to see if it could detect a 5g nugget….nope.

Got many video's of this, fine tuning is the secret with the AQ...just a 1/20 of a inch adjustment can affect how well it works. Best to set yourself up a test rig and see what affects what...See if I can find a video without giving to much away..