Calmark

Gold found on land is not easy compared to on the beach.   Nice score on that ring and I hope you keep your streak going.   

Congratulations Sevastras.  Let us know how the scoop works!  

I thought I'd give some detail about the 1 issue I've had with my GPX6000.  After 3-4 outings I noticed a rattle from the control box.  I figured a mounting screw inside to attach the shaft was loose.  I didn't want to send it in for that, so I kept using it.  After about 1 dozen days out detecting for nuggets, I noticed the whole control unit was separating from the shaft.  Pondering the cause and looking for a solution, I figured out the screws would be behind the speaker cover and sure enough both were completely out of their screw holes.  

I applied some blue thread lock to the screws and replaced them.  Everything is all tight again and I doubt will loosen up.  I hope this will help diagnose and fix any "rattling" problems other users encounter.

I haven't had any other problems and overall the 6k has been great for finding the deep, smaller nuggets previously missed.  I've been happy so far.  

P.S. I replied "yes" to question #2.  And my brother is not a member of this forum, but has a GPX 6000 also.  Zero problems for his unit, though he does have the shaft twist issue.   

Great job adapting the tool to the conditions and finding that nugget.  

I have a GPX4500 and the GPX6000 and I often wish the new 6k had more adjustability.  It does work very well most of the time as is, but it sure would be nice for basic adjustments for those really harsh soil conditions.  

I remembered one thing about the Deus 2 I would suggest 9 inch coil users to try.  I mentioned it somewhere in another post on this site, but it bears repeating.

Remove your velcro arm strap and try swinging it without.  I don't remember in which video I first saw somebody using their Deus 2 without the strap, but once I got mine I didn't put the strap on it and haven't missed it.  In fact, I find it much more convenient and quick to use without the strap.  No more need to slide my arm out of the cuff and no more bunching up of my long sleeved shirts.  Time saved equals more targets dug in the long run.  

A very underrated way to use the Deus 2 and I highly recommend at least trying it.  Your experience may vary with a bigger and heavier 11 inch coil.  

Sweet jewelry finds at the beach!  That gold ring is nice, but too bad about that big stone.

I definitely need to go detect some spots where people swim.  Turf hunting for jewelry is a pain.  I had a nice, pointed SS sand scoop arrive the other day.  I just need a handle...and then spots to use it.  Unfortunately I live quite a ways from the ocean.  

Hit that spot again.  There have to be more goodies.  

The Deus 2 does have a lot of positives going for it.  Even though $1600 is a lot to spend, and I'm in the minority being fortunate I can afford to buy a second multifrequency machine I don't "need", I don't regret the purchase one bit.  I've definitely had an enjoyable time outdoors with mine, despite challenging dirt and digging mountains of aluminum and other trash.  

One other thing I appreciate about XP is the frequent updates they put out.  The Deus 2 is very good all around right now with V0.71. 

In all the ways I've used the D2 so far, I do think the weakest area of the D2 is small nugget sensitivity.  A smaller coil would help a lot in this area, but I suspect XP isn't likely to offer one.  This keeps the ORX and D1 both relevant in the XP lineup as more focused gold prospecting machines.  

I look forward to future updates and hopefully some nice improvements.  With luck we may even get some new factory programs or even some other performance surprises.  Maybe if we are all good we will even get a 10x5 coil for Christmas?  

Yesterday while park hunting, two ladies approached and asked questions about metal detecting.  One of them placed a small and thin white gold band with what looked like a small diamond in the center on the ground and asked if the Deus 2 could hear it.  Among some flashes of 9-10 ID#, the ring rand up primarily as a 15! 

I have known white gold generally will give a low ID# on most detectors, but I didn't expect a number THAT low.  I've been missing small white gold like this for sure since I dig few targets under a 40, though I do dig foils down to 32 if I'm in the mood. 

So, its looking like if we want white gold and chains/bracelets, its going to be necessary to dig numbers into the teens with the Deus 2!   

P.S.  One thought I just had is perhaps an iron object was in the ground to pull the ID# of the ring lower?  If not, 15 is really low in my mind.  Its too bad I can't do a retest, but I can see white gold responding low like this.  

Your experience in the video matches mine pretty closely.  I've been going for the gold in parks near me the past month or two and have dug tons of pull tabs.  I get some that I describe as "solid square tabs" that ring up from 78-81.  They are larger than moden tabs and the rear is solid with no second hole.  I also get corroded zinc cents in this range.  I dig them since they sound really good and could be a solid gold ring with that high of an ID#.  

I also get modern pull tabs hit by lawn mowers that can read into the high 40's if cut or if squished into a smaller shape.  So, there are for me at least 30 TID numbers than can be a pull tab.  The only way to find out is to dig it up!  

In the past 7-8 weeks I've owned the Deus 2, I've been out with it a lot.  That's about to end as California is in a drought.  Summer is nearly here, and the ground is now already quite dry and becoming hard to dig in, so I won't be out much until the rains return.  I've primarily used it to search for coins and jewelry in parks and fields, but also looked for gold nuggets here in California for 7-8 hours (and unfortunately didn't find any).  I started with the January V0.6 version and switched to the V0.7 in late April.  I updated to V0.71 as soon as it was out to correct the only issue I've ever had which was with the pinpoint mode in V0.7. 

Overall, I've been very happy with the machine and its performance.  I've especially enjoyed the light weight and super ergonomics and have never felt tired from swinging this unit.  Its been a pleasure to use since the beginning and I really enjoy the various audio options.  The sounds of the pitch tones and full tones just sound so good to my ears!  Coming from the Equinox 800, I didn't find the transition to another mulitfrequency machine difficult, it was just a matter of learning the new menu system on the XP. I mostly used the stock programs and over time learned to tweak settings a bit to work best in my conditions. I think somebody new to the Deus platform would be able to use stock programs to start and get great performance right away and then gradually learn what the various settings do to further optimize.

One of the most unique and useful features of the Deus 2 for me has been is its mineralization level graph. I've known all along I hunt in very difficult soil conditions, but the Deus 2 confirmed this with hard data.  Where I hunt, the mineralization graph is generally 3/4 to full bars, so high to severely mineralized.  I've used this information to help me set my reactivity level in the different programs I've used.  The higher the mineralization, the higher I set the reactivity level.  The factory preset levels of 2.5 to 3 generally work ok in 3/4 bar soil, and I had to use reactivity 4 in one site with full bars while looking for coins.  I generally get a max of 4-5 inches of solid ID numbers on a coin in my soil and less as the mineralization bar increases to near full.  Signal clarity and strength start to really get lost past 2 inches.  One helpful setting has been audio response.  I have had good success raising this up to a "6" to hear faint deeper or smaller targets better and was glad to see signals didn't seem to become more distorted like I at first feared.  This is something for those of you in difficult soil to consider trying, despite the drawback of losing potential audio information about how deep and weak a coin signal might be.  This setting for me has been a "mini game-changer" as it allows me to hear things I'd otherwise miss.

I've been happy with the 9 inch coil on the Deus 2.  I think its a great all-around coil size. Nice depth, but still small enough to limit targets under the coil at one time.  I hunt in thick trash often and the size works well for pinpointing targets without the need to engage pinpoint mode very often. This is one of the top pluses of the Deus 2 for me.  I know where targets are located with a simple "X" sweep and this saves lots of time.  This is a big deal when the goal is to retrieve more targets in the time spent hunting.

The machine itself also separates and IDs items very well.  I can often tell where 2 targets are when right next to each other by carefully swinging around and mentally taking note of each target location based on the sounds or ID#.   The separation abilities of the Deus 2 are quite good and from what I see, XP deserves the reputation it has for making machines that excel in trash or iron-infested sites.  Non-ferrous signals really stand out on this machine.  This saves a lot of time locating things precisely and also helps find desirable targets from among the trash.  Like all machines though, you still have to put in your time digging junk to get the good stuff!

I probably won't use this machine for nugget hunting in the future since I have a Minelab GPX6000 which is much better suited for the job.  It cuts through severely mineralized soil far better, but I do intend to keep using the Deus 2 as my primary coin and jewelry hunting machine. I hope to someday take it to the beach and do some diamond ring  and other jewelry hunting, though I do live quite far from any beaches with a lot of activity.  While I don't often search specifically for relics, I also hope to use the Deus 2 in the future at some old ghost towns or mining locations and am confident its a great machine for a place like that. 

If I were to only have 1 metal detector(a crazy idea, I know!)  , I think the Deus 2 would be in the running for my only choice. It can do a lot very, very well such as hunt for jewelry and coins in parks, be used at the beach or when diving, and even if somebody wanted to take it nugget hunting.  It can do all of those things quite well, even though other machines may be better in certain areas or situations.  But, since I primarily detect natural gold nuggets, in this case I'd pick a Minelab GPX pulse-induction model.  If I could also have a vlf companion, I'd get the Deus 2.  I know newer and possibly better models to compete with the Deus 2 will be out in the next year or two, but I'd still be happy with the Deus 2 once they are out, since I think it will be very tough to beat the light weight and ergonomics of it, and it should stay very competitive in separating and ID abilities for quite a few years to come.       

I also am interested to know what the cut-off line between ferrous and small gold jewelry is.  Based on scanning a few small nuggets, I suspect the break is around ID# 25. 

I don't have any gold chains or bracelets to test, so if anybody has any info on where those read on the Deus 2, it would be helpful.  I currently ignore most signals below 34 or so when detecting for jewelry in parks.  I bet I'm passing over chains and bracelets, but unlike other detectors where ID# "0" and below are iron, I don't know where the cut-off is on the Deus 2. 

I've found a tiny 14k ladies ring at an ID# of 39.  Weight was .62 grams. 

I have observed the same in my severely mineralized soils while searching for coins and jewelry. 

Generally, the greater the number of tones I use, the weaker and more distorted the signals are unless targets are nearly on top of the ground.  I find I favor pitch tones to make signals "better", meaning louder and overall a bit less clipped or scratchy than when using other audio.   This makes the audio ID of the machine less useful in difficult soils, so I find I rely a lot on hearing a beep and using the visual ID to determine if I dig or not.  This definitely makes recognizing good targets a slower process than just using your ears like with full tones or 5-tones to sort the good from the bad targets. 

Perseverance paid off for you today.  Congrats on getting a sub-1900 coin! 
Also, nice haul of silver rings and the gold too.  Not easy to find stuff of quality like that among the junk unless you do a lot of digging.  

I bet your next sub-1900 coin comes again soon.  You have over half the year left to hit your goal again! 

I'm very sorry to hear your new GPX 6000 has given you such a headache right out of the box!  What a disappointment in what is supposed to be an exciting moment.  But, just remember that this moment will pass and soon you will have a replacement that will hopefully help you (mostly) forget about this bad experience.

Also, keep in mind that while in the short term things aren't looking too good, in the long term you will likely be very happy with the 6000 for several reasons.  First, we 40-something-year-olds won't stay in perfect physical shape forever, just look at your poor foot as an example.  The lighter weight 6000 (I know the GPZ7000 with 8in coil is pretty light too) we will be swinging the next few years should help us keep our shoulders and backs in the game for longer as we put lots of hours in the field out nugget-hunting. 

Also, in the next year, the GPX 6000 will get even lighter, and possibly even more sensitive to small nuggets when Nugget Finder and Coiltek release some awesome smaller-sized coils for the machine.  I know I can't wait to try those out. 

I wish you the best of luck with your 2nd unit and look forward to hearing your reports on those small NZ nuggets found with it! 

I had v0.7, but downloaded the new v0.71 this morning and had no issues getting it onto the WS6 headphones or the remote.

After the update, I went out and detected a couple of parks for about 6 hours total.  I'm happy to report the pinpoint feature is now working well for me, so worth the update just for that.   

I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with the new software and the custom program I had saved was still there, so looking good for v0.71 so far!  

I updated to V0.7 yesterday and got about 6 hours of use with it in 2 different parks.  I had the January V0.6 previously.

I briefly gave the new notch feature in Relic Program a try with a notch up to 30, but quickly went to other programs.  I'll have to try it again later, but my sense was perhaps not an ideal program in this spot with a lot of modern trash.

Everything else seemed roughly the same as before.  I generally don't run bottle cap "on", so I can't comment on that.  Quick use of Program 3, "full tones" didn't seem to make targets pop out any better in my severely-mineralized soil, so I went back to my standard Fast program after a brief test.

One problem was definitely the pinpointing feature like I've seen others report.  Sometimes it was way too loud, though many times it wasn't loud enough and I'd even not hear a target with it located while swinging.  

I actually went right back to the original screen from the "large numbers" option.  I guess my eyes are good enough for now to see the ID# at the original size, so that's good news.  

Overall, V0.7 seemed fine to me.  I really do hope the pinpoint function of V0.6 is restored soon.  I use it to check for deeper iron frequently and missed having it work correctly yesterday during my hunts. 

Nice find!  It definitely can pay off eventually to keep digging those "zinc pennies".  That heavy, high-carat gold one is a sweet payday!

On 4/20/2022 at 9:50 AM, midalake said:

Excellent work! 

It would be nice to see some deep targets found with your Equinox, then compared to the Deus 2. Seems like you are getting proficient with both.  

Midlake,

Since I live in an area with severely mineralized soil, I have never gotten great depth with any previous metal detector I've owned, and neither the Equinox nor Deus 2 identify coins much past 4-5 inches in depth.  I don't see any real performance differences between the two machines.  I do find I'm starting to prefer the Deus 2, partly from being the newest to me, and also since I really enjoy the audio options.  I also find I can locate targets slightly faster with the Deus 2, so I end up digging more targets in a session.   I know the Equinox would have found both of these rings, though I don't think I'd have likely dug the gold one.

For those of you who swing an Equinox, the gold ring read ID# 4 and the silver one as an ID# of 21.  In general on the Nox, I tended to not dig signals below a "10", so I'd have missed the gold ring more than likely, partly I feel to the psychology of "10" being the cut-off for "good" targets in my mind, even though I know gold can read much lower, as it did in this case.  I think I do prefer the expanded ID# of the Deus2 since I can more easily see patterns in what ID# corresponds to the variety of targets I dig. 

Your first impressions match up with mine nearly perfectly.  I too researched the Deus 2 through watching videos and reading forums posts, so I knew what to expect and felt adept at using it after just a short time.  I also came from using the Equinox 800 and that machine helped prepare me a lot for the Deus 2.  

Performance-wise, I don't yet see a lot of difference in my severely mineralized soil between the Nox and Deus 2, since all machines I've used here don't ID coins well past 4-5 inches.  But, I really do enjoy the Deus audio and feel like I can very easily locate targets and get them out of the ground more quickly due to that.  Also, I never put the elbow velco strap on the Deus and find I have zero need for it.  To me, this makes up for the slight unpleasantness of the WS6 headphones since I don't have an arm cuff to contend with my long sleeve shirts when constantly setting down the machine to dig. 

Even after 3-4 weeks with my Deus 2 +9in. coil, I'm still having a lot of fun which motivates me to get out there and keep at it for extended time periods.  The larger VDI range over that of the Nox also makes things more interesting, as its possible to see patterns in what #'s pertain to certain trash items.  I dig more trash, but since its faster retrieval and I can focus on ranges within the aluminum band of numbers, I can also be very selective on the fly, depending on how my trash tolerance is at the time.  This has resulted in some great recent finds.  Digging trash eventually gets the treasure.

Good luck on finding something epic in the near future!  

I looked up ebay listings for this coin. It appears $1500-$3000US is the range sellers have listed coins in this condition.

I think its pretty safe to say this one find paid off my Deus 2.  This wasn't something I needed to do, or I expected to happen so quickly, but is certainly a welcome surprise. 😁

Well, I finally did it, persistence paid off and I found not only my first silver ring with the XP Deus 2 yesterday in a park, but also a gold ring, my first in 24 years!  

I've had the Deus 2 with 9in. coil now for nearly 4 weeks and I've put in around 40 hours time using it primarily in park settings.  I've been digging a lot of trash since its been my goal since last fall hunting with my ML Equinox 800 and 10x5 Coiltek coil to score some turf gold.  I find plenty of nuggets detecting in the California Sierra Nevada mountains, so a "turf gold" goal was to give myself a real gold challenge.

Since location matters, I targeted a place yesterday where people picnic and sunbathe, knowing chances for lost jewelry would be higher.  I tried program 3, full tones briefly, but the audio is just to "weak" and muffled in my super hot soil, at least using software v0.6 right now.  Back to my preferred P4, or "fast" program with its square, pitch audio.  The only change was sensitivity 90 since I was focusing on quickly digging more shallow signals.   I find P4, fast really helps to liven up mid conductor targets and make them stand out and say: "dig me!". 

After about 2.5 hours I had a "86" ID# and since I dig most all zinc cents, I didn't hesitate and dug up this one, or so I thought.  It turned out to be a tiny, thin ladies .925 silver ring, the first with the Deus 2.  I really slowed down and started to dig carefully and about 20 minutes later, I broke my 24-year-long turf gold drought and popped out an absolutely tiny 14kt ladies gold ring!  It read as "36-38" ID#, so directly in the foil range.  I'd been digging a lot more foil with the Deus.  I have started to notice when the generally "wimpy" sounding foil gives a louder signal when balled up for example and have been digging more signals like that.  Turned out this "foil" was gold this time.  Eureka, I'd done it!  This tiny gold band (.61 grams) rings up at "39" ID# above ground, so if you are after micro gold with the Deus 2, it is probably a good idea to dig targets that register in the 30's.

Best of luck to you fellow turf warriors going for the gold.  Battling turf trash isn't easy!

16 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Just awesome.  Nothing like seeing that first glint of a gold coin partially sticking out of your plug.  I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing that first hand for myself and also watched as a buddy pop one out as I was standing there (after I verified for them it was a bona fide “dig me” target signal).  You will never forget it and the hope that lightning will strike again will keep you going for another 25 more years.

Its really funny you mention seeing "that first glint of a gold coin" once you pop out the plug, and the excitement it brings.  Just the week before I dug this gold coin, I had a heart-stopper moment where this very thing happened.  I was about 50 feet away from the location of the $2.50 gold coin when after popping a plug, I saw a golden, reeded edge of a coin sticking out of the bottom of the hole.  I had been digging pull tabs and aluminum range signals like crazy since the past fall with my ML Equinox, knowing gold coins could be a "15" and this location could have them.  I thought I had done it, my first gold coin, but alas, this is what I found, pictured below.    Really crazy what you find out detecting.  I never imagined I'd get this coin, and wonder how it made its way to the spot I found it. 

The nickel in the picture is to show the size of this other "gold" coin I found. 

On 4/18/2022 at 9:55 PM, Joe D. said:

Wow🤯,

   Looks to be in incredible condition!🍀 Can't wait to see what our forum coin experts comments are on it!! I'm guessing a professional cleaning and grading are in order! Keep it safe!!

Congratulations!🍻👍👍

 

I'm not sure this coin will quite make it to uncirculated grade, but its a very solid about uncirculated at least, based on what I saw (as an amateur "coin grader") looking at the coin at 8x power with a magnifier.  I only saw very slight wear on a few high points of the lady liberty's hair and the tip of the top arrow on the reverse.  Must have been dropped after a very short time in circulation, so likely well before 1870.

 I don't want to further clean the coin since I also saw some new faint scratches the coin obtained from the gravelly dirt when I pried up the plug.  Crazy to think the act of levering the coin while in the plug may have caused enough "damage" to knock off a lot of real value!  I think I need to look into getting some sort of ultra sonic cleaning done to gently remove the remaining dirt and stains.  This coin is worth patience cleaning since I read under 40,000 were made and under 200 examples thought to remain.  I don't know if I'd actually send it off for a professional grading, but this is the only coin I've ever found that would make sense to have that done.

I still can't believe what a rare and lucky find this was.  The curse is now I'm really thinking about other places with the right history where I can search to find more gold coins, haha!!   

Wow, what a nice find, in a park of all places.  I TRY to find nuggets like that frequently out on my hikes here in CA, and here you do it without even trying!  Time to find yourself a nice gold chain to wear that nugget on with pride!  Good luck.

By the way, this $2.50 quarter eagle reads as "15" ID# on my Equinox 800.  The coin is 18mm in diameter and is roughly the size of a US dime.  Very easy to miss, so hunt carefully!