palzynski

Actually I mainly used my Equinox in Multi, this for max depth on small and big targets on low/medium iron trashed areas . Monofreq I already have a Deus HF that can run from 14 to 50khz , which is 500grams lighter than the Equinox a huge difference in terms of ergonomy. So I have no real interest using an Equinox running in monofreq for what I am doing . Yes I have tested faster recovery speeds on the Equinox , but even at 7 or 8 it is outperformed ( for me ) by a Deus/Orx running at 30or 50khz on my very high iron trashed areas ,typically European nail carpets which are very specific and cannot be found elsewhere in the world I think , not at this iron density level anyway ... Concerning the Deus/ORX and Tesoros I was thinking to the Lobo ( called Redoutable in France ) which is a very fast detector . But there are other examples , Teknetics like the T2 are G2 are also fast detectors which work very well over here . Also it is not only a matter of recovery speed but also of iron filtering . On ultra trashy areas a Deus is almost silent and only beeps on good targets , like a Tesoro Lobo or Teknetics T2 , it is really impressive... If I use a ML multifreq like the Equinox or the Vanquish at the same place it is an other story they are very chatty ... So usually I use the Deus for high iron trash areas and my Vanquish for lower ones , but I like the Vanquish and I also use it on very trashy areas , as I have years of experience with the ML multifreqs "fluted" tones . My second detector was an Explorer XS that I bought in 2001 , a few years ago ... 🙂 My Explorer XS , north east of France . Summer 2004

Small coins at less than 4" in thick bed of iron trash are a very frequent situation over here in Europe , however people here use monofreqs detectors like the Deus/Orx or Tesoros, rather than multifreqs machines like the Equinox . I think because multifreqs are slower than monofreq machines due to longer calculation time , and reactivity is the key on iron trashed areas. However these situations are very specific to Europe with very old grounds with thousands of nails , pottery, and so on ... And on these terrains the Quests with a medium or small sized coil could do a good job , again I will try to get a X10 or Q30 to do some more testing ...

Actually I could only test the Q60 during a few hours , so I had not enough time to fully experiment the differences between Park and Field but if I remember well there were no important differences between them . To summarize for me the big plus of the Q60 is its audio which is similar to the tekntics T2 or the Tesoros , very fast and reactive on targets with excellent iron filtering , for me better than the Equinox on iron trashed areas. Just they dont have the right coil at the moment with this bulky 32X25cm coil .. . On the other hand I will try to get an X5 , X10 or a Q30 for a field test . If they have the same audio than the Q60 then they could be very good machines for the price . I know that my seller has good customer feedbacks on the X5 and X10s .

I have tested the Quest Q60 for a French MD shop 3 months ago in Nov 2020. Briefly it is a very good machine with a great audio , fast and very good iron filtering . Switchable freq 4 , 14 , 20khz. And a very nice and robust design . However Quest has had the bad idea to deliver it with a very big 32X25cm and heavy coil ( 520g without coil cover ) . This coil is OK for relic hunting in clean soils , but it is too big for coin hunting in trashy areas for example, and not very funny to sweep , at least for me .... A 28X18cm coil or 22cm round would have been much more polyvalent and lighter. For my kind of detecting ( coin hunting / often trashy areas ) , the Q30 which has a smaller/lighter coil would certainly be a better choice ... Full Q60 test link below. In French . I hope that the Google English translation will be understandable ... 🙂 TEST QUEST Q60 DISQUE 32x25 (metaux-detection.fr)

- 60% Deus 22HF - 40% Vanquish 540 V10 , a few times with the V12 and the V8

I have just received from Amazon my 4 rechargeable AA Backubes that I will use for my 540 1,5V regulated , 1850mAh capacity which is less than the stock ML NimH (2500mAh) but still ok for me. Weight 18grams , much lighter than the ML Nimh ( 28grams ). Nice product , my rating 8/10 . I have just to test them on the field but I am sure that they will do the job ... 🙂

For the moment my Apex is back at Garretts because of a false signals issue ( see the corresponding thread ). So I cannot say I am happy with it ... I know I am not the only one with this issue ... So at the moment my rating is closer to 0 than 10 ... 🤨 This might change when I get back the machine , I will redo all my testing procedure at this time and let you know .

I would choose the Vanquish 340 because you get a detector instead of a single coil , So you have a backup machine or you can lend it to friends etc . And the 340 is an excellent detector btw ..

I use F2 , I did not see much difference between f2 and Fe ... Is there a difference btw ? 🙂

I only use the ML80 wireless headphones. I dont use the WM80 wireless module because it frequently drops out ( loss of signal ) then it is not reliable ( for me ) .

I have ordered the Blackubes on amazon , I will receive them in a few days . Mine are 2775mWH --> 1850mAh . Expected run time on my Vanquish : 7 hours . 7 hours is enough for me , I will recharge them after each outing

Last news .... Summary of the situation , I have sent back my Apex to my seller in Paris a the beginning of December because of false signals. My seller called me today saying that some of his customers ( in France ) have the same pb as mine ( false signals ) . Concerning my machine he said that I should have an answer very soon from the Garrett Europe support. As I have been waiting for 2 months now the delay is quite long , but with the covid everything goes slowly and I can understand that . Hope that the issue will soon be solved ...

13rd century medieval Flemish "maille" ,0.5g silver , found a few months ago with my Deus HF in the north of France

For me the V10 is the best coil of the Vanquish coil set . Far lighter , better in iron trash than the V12 . Also far easier to center/pinpoint . There is just a little loss of depth on big targets like big coins . From my tests , my Vanquish 540 hits a 10grams copper coin at 11 inches depth with the V10 , instead of 12inches with the V12 ... For smaller targets the V10 goes as deep as the V12 and even a little deeper. Not to say that the V12 is a bad coil , it is an excellent coil but for a specific use, I use it when I look for big coins at depth in low mineralized and clean ( low iron trash ) areas .. All this for inland hunting , I am not a beach hunter ...

Hi , What is your blackube battery weight ? I plan to use them for my Vanquish. For info I currently use non rechargeable lithium 3000mAh batteries ( 15grams ) , instead of the stock 2500 mAh nimh batteries ( 28grams ) thanks ...

Hi , Most of the metal targets , perhaps 99,9% of them , are small/medium sized targets , this is the reason why experienced users do not bother with the 0,1% big sized targets , because the probability to find one is very low. Considering the depth , do not expect more than 20inches for a 20x20 cm or 40x30cm ammunition box when using a single coil vlf detector like an Equinox , Vanquish , Garrett , Deus etc ... With a PI like a Minelab GPX you will go deeper but you loose the iron discrimination , and apart from the GPX price , you might find not very funny to dig on a tin can at 30inches deep ... 🙂 HH

Hi , Concerning the balance, the Vanquish is front heavy with the V12 coil ( the V12 coil weights 440grams without coil cover ) . I found a solution to this issue using the V10 which is an excellent coil , much lighter ( 360grams ) and almost as deep as the V12. Also I never use coil covers , this saves 60grams this can help a little also ... Front carbon shafts would also improve the balance Concerning the noisy audio, perhaps you could try your 540 inland in mild soil . Normally it should be quiet except on trashy sites, if it is not the case may be there could be pb with the machine .. This would help to diag your pb anyway ... Hope that helps ... HH ...

Even at 200 I would not jump for a CTX , I do not like boat anchors ... 🙂 Wish everyone a nice Christmas ...

Yes I agree with PimentoUK , the air gap must be small( 1 or 2cms max )when testing a detector depth , . This means that if you test different targets , they must be buried at different depths so that they are at almost their max detection depth , with almost no air gap between the coil and the ground surface. I use 2 test targets when I test a new detector/coil , a small 2g bronze coin and a bigger 10g copper coin. I use 2 plastic boxes filled with moderated mineralized ground with no iron , one for each target . The 2g coin is buried at 16cm and the 10g coin is buried at 28cm . It took me a little time to adjust the soil thicknesses to find the optimum target depth but now this works quite well and it is realistic for VLF detectors with medium/big sized coils. Picture below / the first test box ( 10g copper coin ) + the 2 targets in my hand : Testing the garrett apex on the 10g coin test :

Nice test , curious to see what would would have been the results of the deus or orx , which are really excellent in iron trash masking conditions ... I do not know either the kruzer , gold kruzer or at pro btw ...

Hi , I am not a jewelry hunting specialist but I have tested an Orx 2 years ago and it is very similar to the Deus which is my primary machine. So the Orx settings for jewelry I would say : COIN FAST factory mode, just change to 30khz frequency. 14khz freq is good for medium / big targets in clean areas ( low iron trashed ) but too low for tiny objects like jewelry , and with 50khz there is an important loss of depth.. 30khz is much more reactive than 14khz and more sensible on tiny targets . I would recommend you to test the different settings at home before going in the field , this is very helpful to understand the detector behaviour and find the best settings ...

From 13.5 to 14.5 this means 7% depth improvement between the Detech 13round vs the stock 7X11 on the 5cents . On the other hand the coil weight rises from 420g for the stock 7X11 to 540g for the Detech 13 , which means 28% increasement . So to summarize only 7% depth improvement for 28% weight/balance loss with the 13 ultimate... If you add to this the important iron masking of a big coil like the Detech 13,, it looks like from this teststhat the 7X11 T2 stock coil is a very good compromise .... For info I have tested a 13ultimate on a Detech Chaser 3 or 4 years ago and it had good results for big coins at depth in very clean/sandy areas ( low iron trashed ) . Now I have a cheaper and lighter solution with the Vanquish plus the V12 coil which goes as deep as the 13 ultimate.

glasswalker : the only reason you say the V10 is better is because it's nearly as good as V12 but lighter? ---> Here a more detailed comparison between the Vanquish coils from the tests I did with my 540 ( inland only , no salt beach hunting ) : V8 ( 8iX6i ) , V10 ( 10iX8i ) ,V12 ( 12iX10i ) : - Depth perfo on big/medium coins ( low iron trashed areas ) : V8 ** V10 **** V12 ***** - Efficiency in high iron trashed soils ( old nails etc ) : V8 ***** V10 **** V12 *** - Coil weight / detector balance : V8 ***** ( weight 330 grams ) V10 **** ( weight 360 grams ) V12 ** ( weight 440 grams ) - Target pinpointing/centering : V8 ***** V10 **** V12 ** ( a pinpointer is almost mandatory ) Note : this applies for inland only ( beach hunting not tested )

I forgot to say that if you are 195cm tall , probably the Vanquish stock shaft will be too short for you . Then you will have to make at least one "do it yourself" accessory , a longer lower shaft ... 🙂 BTW the Vanquish is a very good machine , but it takes a little time to get used to its audio because this detector is a bit chatty , especially in iron trashed areas. Usually people get used to it after say minimum 10/12hours detecting. Start to use it in a clean area , avoid gardens , parks etc during the first hours ... HH

- I prefer a S configuration vs a straight shaft. This for 2 reasons : First I find easier to sweep a S shaft because with a straight shaft the detector center of gravity is lower than with a straight shaft . This means that with a straight shaft you have a pendulum effect that does not exist on a S shaft . Second when you put your machine on the ground a detector with a straight shaft often rotates to one side due to the high position of the control box , and the control box side hits the ground at each time , which is not really good for the electronics .... - I think that Phrunt prefers the V12 because he uses it in low iron trash areas . However in most of my areas ( in France ) there are quite a lot of ferrous and the V12 has too much iron masking for me , I need a smaller coil that will perform better amoung the ferrous , so the V10 is a better choice for me , apart from the weight criteria. The coil choice depends on your soil contents and also on the type of targets you are looking for , small coins , big coins , etc