SwiftSword

Thanks! That sounds very likely, and would explain why the thing reminded me of a ratchet strap right at the beginning. I'm trying to find a picture online with this info. No luck so far!

Valens, I think you might be right! It would explain the countersunk hole, and the flared shape of the "channel" to guide the hook. I also now realize that the "bridge" is thicker than other parts of the rim, which would also make sense. Strange only that something this massive would be secured by a single pin. Where would this have been used? Is it horse tack?

Then again... why is the hole for the pin countersunk? And why would the pin move at all, or be made from a different material? I'm open to suggestions.

The pin is steel or iron. The item itself is brass, as evidenced by a small spot where I kissed it with my shovel. Taking the whole shape and the wear pattern into account, this would fit a circular leather collar well. What did the collars look like that cow bells hung from? Better view of the peg/pin Side view, showing curved back: Underside of broad edge shows wear: Not really the right shape or wear pattern for a bottle opener:

I had a similar thought. However, the pin is not a screw. It's a peg with thickened ends. I used to have a belt with a peg like that. The back is also curved. It would be very awkward to fix it to anything.

Found today in an old pasture in eastern Massachusetts. It looks oddly familiar, but I can't place it at all. I appreciate any help! Front: Back:

Regarding the many "test" videos, I didn't put too much stock into any of them, especially the head-to-head comparisons. I took a chance, and for me personally it paid off. There is no telling if I would have been as delighted with the Equinox 800. As far as more/better/deeper finds are concerned: Yes, I do find more and deeper targets. But I'm conscious that there may be factors that have more to do with me: was I swinging my old detector too fast, and it just so happens that the Deus II can keep up better? Was I skipping too many good targets, because the Vanquish 540 uses a compressed VID scale, and made everything look like a penny? Am I just digging more doubtful signals because I'm "learning the numbers" again? What I have realized is that my tendency to cherry-pick is starting to take over again. I'm severely limited in my detecting time and tend to focus on the high conductors. I need to put some effort into the mid-tones as well. No detector is going to do that for me.

I've recently come from an entry level machine (Vanquish 540) to the Deus 2. I fully expected there to be a very steep learning curve, and didn't expect to have every optimization served up on a platter. I sought out relevant tutorials and write-ups, and I feel the concepts you're talking about were adequately covered. I do agree with you on EMI being a major issue. I detect in a suburban setting, so I'm never very far away from a powerline or a wifi router. At times the EMI makes the machine unusable. Even using the mono frequency modes doesn't help much. Curiously, the Park mode isn't affected at all. But I feel that mode is so heavily filtered, I might be walking over good finds. It would be great if XP could provide strategies to mitigate EMI that don't reduce performance too much.

Right. I might have to go back with my Vanquish 540. But even so - what does the Park program do that eliminates the EMI? I'll want to do the same thing in my other/custom programs.

I detected an old house in a thickly settled are in Eastern Mass. yesterday and experienced an unbelievable amount of EMI (9" coil). The Deep HC program was unusable, as were pretty much all the other programs (even mono). I did automatic and manual frequency adjustments, turned down the sensitivity, ground balanced. Nothing made a difference. Curiously, the Park program worked mostly fine. The houses are very packed together, 30-50 feet apart. Power lines ran on the far side of the street, and there was a drop line running above the front yard. I noticed similar behavior on the green strip in front of my house. Do power lines across the street have that much of an effect on the Deus II? That would cut out a whole bunch of my usual sites. Else, does anyone have any suggestions?

Like night and day! It's astounding! Right now I'm learning to use the XY screen, another marvel!

I should have been more specific 😄 I do have a year of experience using a Vanquish 540 in a variety of terrains, and I'm familiar with many of the concepts (though certainly not all) I got the D2 as something to "grow into". But growing is tough when the textbook is lacking.

Oh yes, I'm all for learning by doing! It just goes so much better when there is some guidance or reference material that explains why I'm doing something. Otherwise you only learn what you have discovered, and nothing else. That may not be the best, or intended, way to do things, and it's a great way to miss out on features. I'd like to understand what I'm doing, so that I can get the most out of the machine.

Got mine a couple of days ago and my disappointment is immeasurable 😄 I had my first proper hunt yesterday and was extremely impressed. I had hunted that permission three times already with next to no success. Yesterday I found 20 coins (all modern, sadly) and a whole bunch of other stuff that my Vanquish 540 failed to pick up. The Deus is so fast, and the response so detailed, I felt like I was x-raying the ground. I did dig a bunch of nails until I figured out the horseshoe display. After that, the only nails I found were masking coins. To be fair, I've never used an Equinox 800, so I can't compare, but I feel my needs are thoroughly met.

Your case may be different, but the same thing happened to me yesterday because I chose Option > Audio > Audio Type. That screen offers only PWM and Square tones. Later I figured out that instead I needed to do Menu > Discri > Expert Button > Tones and then use + to scroll to Full Tones.

Yeah, if anything, XP is doing their part to keep me away from organized religion. Update is Windows only. Had to get a copy of Windows running on my Mac, which is a time-consuming PITA. The manual says full instructions are available on the XP website. If so, they have hidden them well. The update page only contains the update file itself. I found instructions here in the forum, but I have no idea where I would have gotten these otherwise. In actually running the update program, I realized that the arrow keys take me through the steps I have to do, and the process was easy once I had cottoned on, but it would have been nice to have more details before I do something that might brick my machine. None of the buttons in the app are labeled either, or have tooltips. I realize they save money by not having to localize their software, but I'm not playing "MYST" here. Even French labels would have been more useful than none at all. A particular twist is that you can't update the headphones with the three-prong cable you use to update the remote. You have to use the separately provided single USB cables. Again, without the instructions I linked above, I would have been completely up the creek, as there are no warnings or error messages that would let you know about this. The updater just reaches screen 10 of 10 and sits there. I find the manual woefully thin for the machine's complexity. I personally could do with a lot more narrative around the different display modes, for instance. I also find the font choice, organization and layout very hard to digest. I'm a relative beginner (1 year experience on a Vanquish 540) using an advanced machine, and am well aware that I have a steep learning curve to climb. My gripe is that XP doesn't seem to offer a lot of guidance on where to acquire this knowledge. Is it worth buying a book on the original Deus? Edit: Update is done. Had to re-pair my headphones. Settings timestamp is now 3/11/22. I'll do a depth test later today. Hopefully all is well.

Thanks! I use VMWare, same thing really. I just got a windows 11 machine running, I'll try the update tomorrow morning.

I just got my Deus II yesterday and am trying to do the latest update. Unbelievable that not only don't they offer a version for Mac users, they don't even mention operating systems at all anywhere, as though nothing other than Windows existed!

Incidentally, I just got my machine yesterday and am trying to install the (now apparently fixed?) update. It appears it only works for Windows? So if I have a Mac, I'm screwed? How can that be a thing?

Is there a depth reduction if you're an atheist? 😄