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First time on the beach so it was a new experience for me. The Vanquish ran very quiet over the dry and wet sand. I was able to run the sensitivity maxed 99% of the time. No great finds but did get some deep and some small targets. I ran in the jewelry mode with 1 notched out. Couple opals found about 15ft. apart I'm sure they came from the same piece of jewelry. A sterling earring back along with another small silver(?) piece off something and a fake coin that I at least said hmmm when I first dug it Lol . Plenty of clad coins. I almost (almost) quite digging those 10 plus inch zinc signals but it was a good experience. Thanks for looking! Tom

I was playing around with the Vanquish 440 in the parking strip yesterday afternoon, when I got a very strong consistent signal in the 4 -6 range. I haven't been digging many signals in this range, as I don't get many, and all I have dug, have been trash. This one was strong and not choppy at all, so I proceeded to dig. Glad I did! I pulled out a James M. Cox presidential campaign stud from the 1920 presidential election. His running mate was Franklin D. Roosevelt! They lost to the Harding - Coolidge ticket. This is pretty degraded, but cool to find just the same. Gonna have to go back and dig those lower signals! I've included a picture of one in good condition.

Anyone interested in a report on the 440 can find it here: https://www.kellycodetectors.com/pages/field-test-minelab-vanquish-440-metal-detector/ My hunting buddy Gary and I collaborated on the report for Kellyco and they published it on their website. We found this a very impressive machine for $279 but you can read the report and judge for yourself. Note: Gary and I are not employees of Kellyco nor do we have any financial interest in or relationship with Kellyco.

A look at the Minelab Vanquish 540 and Garrett Ace Apex displays and controls compared. Note the target id ranges.

After getting an equinox at the end of January and hearing good reports on the Vanquish i had to pick one up. I live in downtown Reno so i have been hitting some urban areas like alleys and city strips, the area between the street and the sidewalk. Also my own property has been quiet good to me regarding targets. I found all of these in my front and back yard, pretty sure i found where the old cloths line used to be. The V-8 really helped me find these, i had been over the same area with my nox, but emi i think caused me to miss them, and the fact the little V-8 could get in some tight spots.

I've had my 540 for a little while and I'm getting a little more comfortable with it. It seems a very capable machine for my hunting needs. Learning a new machine I tend to dig a lot a targets to see what its saying. About a million rusty nails later I'm getting a feel for it..lol. It seems to me there's a smaller gray area with the Vanquish verses the Equinox. Not everything sounds perfect and with my Equinox a lot of sounds weren't the best but there weren't enough bad sounds in them to say don't dig. I've started to find that cut off on the Equinox as to what you can get away with digging and still have a chance of finding a good target. But that area seems smaller so far with the Vanquish more cut and dry. It doesn't take much of that raspy sound (what I call it) at all for me to say don't dig it (I'm kinda getting tired of digging nails) and honestly how many do you have to dig to learn that sound is a rusty target. Just some of my thoughts so far. I've yet to take them both out at once and compare signals but I'm sure I will at some time in the future. Having fun right now just playing with the Vanquish. HH, Tom

Did a quick stint at the park this morning and found a Battle of Verdun coin/medallion dated 1916. As you can see from the pics I nicked it with the digging tool. 🤮 I'd like some advice on how to avoid this in the future. I know part of it is just experience, but there must be some techniques or mechanics that will help to mitigate this. I've included an image of a better conditioned coin too. Found a bunch of clad coins along with this. The Vanquish is a sweet little detector. Won't replace my Nox 800, but it is really fun to use! I think I will get the bigger coil for it...

Went out to the horse ranch in Helena with my dear friend today, to do a little horse maintenance, and some detecting in the pastures. She was using the newly arrived Vanquish 440, and I was using the Nox 800. First time I have detected with someone else, and it was her first time detecting ever. It was super fun! We didn’t find anything truly noteworthy, but did unearth a piece of flattened irrigation pipe that had been buried for some time. And my friend found her first relic; and old padlock. Not super old, but she was excited and that made me smile! Afterwards, I hit a new parking strip in the neighborhood with the Vanquish, and found several coins in short order. Lincoln memorial pennies, and three clad dimes. I really like the ease of use of the Vanquish. Pretty much a turn on and go machine. Good times!

I'll be taking this to the park in the morning! If it wasn't blowing like 30mph out there, I'd go now!

I have owned my 800 since March 2018 and Vanquish 2 weeks. I had heard the TID’s were the same so I got out my extensive collection of junk and some CW bullets and silver coins to do some comparative air tests. I was in the relic mode on the Vanquish 540 and the Field 2 mode on the Nox 800. Nickels came in at 13 on both. Beaver tail only came in at 9-12 on 540 and 9-11 on 800. Small flat button came in at 11-11 on both. Small square tab horizontal came in 13 on both. Small square tab vertical came in at 14 on both. Horizontal means hitting it from the broad side. Vertical means hitting it from the narrow end. Pull tab that is complete but with the beaver tail folded back over the ring came in at 16 on both. Large square tab off a big monster drink can came in at 17 on both. Zinc penny came in at 21 on both. Flattened aluminum screw cap came in at 22 on both. Wheat penny was 25 on both. 1980’s copper penny was 25 on both. Clad dime 25 on both Rosie dime 27 on both Standing Liberty Quarter 30-31 on 540 and 29-31 on 800. Silver qtr 1964 32 on 540 and 31-32 on 800. People have indicated that the Vanquish locks on to single digits better than the 800 with some targets. I believe that is because the Vanquish is not seeing as much small metal under the coil as the Equnox. But these are air tests so I don’t know what causes the difference in this case and a few other cases. Silver half dollar was 35 on the 540 and 34 on the 800. Morgan was 38 on the 540 and 37 on the 800. This is where I came in with a problem setting my Civil War relic hunting Discrim pattern on the 800: Pull tab that is complete but with the beaver tail folded back over the ring came in at 16 on both. Pull tab ring only came in at 13-16 on both. .59 cal 3 ringer was 18 on the 540 and 16-17 on the 800. .69 cal 3 ringer was 19 on the 540 and 16-17 on the 800. The .58 and .69 3 ringers caused me grief in setting up Discrim because to get rid of the nasty pull tab with folded over and pull tab ring only I would have to Discrim out 16 but that would take out the 3 ringers. Ran extensive test on the above problem and could not get a good Discrim pattern to solve that problem. But on the Vanquish 54 it worked like a champ because the 3 ringers came in at 18 and 19 so there was not pull tab ring only conflict. Funny I thought it would be just the opposite problem with the 540 have 2 tid’s per Discrim block. But the fact is in terms of a useful Discrim pattern for my Civil War relic hunting, the 540 has an edge over the 800.

Does anyone know the target ID number for a Krugerrand gold coin on a Minelab Vanquish 540 ? Any other advice on my question would be appreciated as I am a V540 newbie 🤔

TESTING THE VANQUISH V8 COIL I went today to the prev wood were I found the very small coin with the Vanquish 540 and the V12 coil ( see above ). This time I wanted to change and try the small V8 coil. I spent around one hour at this place . Actually the V8 coil did very well , it is much quieter than the V12 because of its low iron masking level. It is very accurate and it is very easy to center a target compared to the V12 coil , no pinpointer is needed. And in addition the V8 is very light ( 310 grams instead of 440 for the V12). Finally I found an other hammered copper coin from the 15 or 14th century, not in a very good state however , but happy with this because it is very difficult to find new targets on this area as it is one on my favorite test sites... Definitely the V8 is an excellent coil for iron trashed areas , I found it even better than the Equinox 6in coil because it has a better ground coverage ( 8inches for the V8 instead of 6inches for the Nox 6 coil ) The weather was a little wet today , I had some concern about the behaviour of the 540 in wet conditions , because the Vanquish has no IP protection. But no pb today everything went well , good news ... The 2nd picture shows the Lithium AA batteries that I am using with the Vanquish since I have it . I have been using the 540 for about 13/14 hours now , and the Vanquish screen still shows full charge . So again very happy with my Vanquish 540 Pro pack . Both V12 and V8 coils are excellent , the ML80 headphones works very well , the 540 is very reliable up to now ... I really like this machine ...

I kind of wanted to go with the 540 because of the Bluetooth capability, but really liked the price point of the 440. It's going to be a detector for friends to use and a backup for me. 👍👍

Anybody know if the Equinox 800 Bluetooth headphones will work with the Vanquish 540 Bluetooth? Wouldn't mind saving the $$ if they do. 😀

There had been talk of the Vanquish USB port being for online updates. I just assumed since Minelab didn't showcase this as a Vanquish feature that it was just for flashing firmware, and it wasn't updateable like the Equinox. Aside from a couple of Russians spreading the rumor, it had died down. I just ran across this website which claims the author has personally spoken to Minelab USA. They have reportedly confirmed the online update capability. Didn't know there was a Minelab USA. As far as I can tell there is only a US service center? I still call bovine scatology on this one. As I said earlier, Minelab would have shouted that feature from the rooftops if it was a planned feature. Anybody know the author and his credentials? https://detectingquest.com/2020/03/13/minelab-vanquish-firmware-updatable-confirmed/

I have a Simplex+ and am thinking seriously of thinking selling the Simplex and buying the Vanquish 440.I have nothing really negative to say about the Simplex. I have the Nox 800 and think that the TID on the Vanquish will be similar to the Nox 800 for the same targets? Am I right?With the Simplex and the Nox 800 I have two sets of numbers to remember. Don't need that.Plus I like the tones on the 800 better than the Simplex. How do the tones on the V 440 compare to the 800?Plus I like the Multi-frequency aspect of the Vanquish.Thanks for any help you can give me.

Yes I confirm the Vanquish is an excellent detector . I received my Vanquish 540 pro pack 10 days ago. For info I am an official tester for 2 shops in France and I have a very stict testing procedure, combining static tests and field tests. I have spent around 4 hours on the field with it up to now . I will give more details and pics in another post later but I already have a good idea of the machine and you will find below a comparison between the Vanquish 540 V12 coil and the Equinox 800 11inches coil. Important I on only detect inland , I am not a beachcomber , this test only applies for inland detecting . 1 ) The Vanquish plus : - Static depth test on a big copper coin 10g , 3cm diameter at 12inches depth in moderated mineralized ground: The Vanquish 540 V12 is better than the Equinox 800 11coil. The sound is definitely sharper . There is not an enormous difference, say 1inch depth difference , but there is definitely a difference. I use the Jewellery mode. - the Vanquish telescopic shaft is far better than the Nox shaft , you can adjust it very accurately on the field. It is much more compact in a rucksack. Also the S Vanquis shape is more ergonomic and it feels lighter than the Nox on the field, although the weight of the machines are similar. - The Vanquish is much easier to use than the Nox , just a few buttons thats all. I find the Nox too complex and I do not like the side buttons of the nox which tend to auto activate when the Nox is in a rucksak. On the Vanquish I simply swich on the Jewellry mode , sensiitivity to max , thats all. Also the noise cancel is automatic. On the nox you must go in the menu for noise cancel too complex …. - The Vanquish V12 elliptical coil is much easier to pinpoint than the 11equinox coil , I very rarely use a pinpointer with it. 2 ) The vanquish cons : - a fear I have with the Vanquish is that the electronic card is not protected against humidity , no IP protection , this could be a pb during wet atmospheric conditions . I will test this as soon as I can . - no lithium battery , just basic AAs batteries for power. A lithium battery would have been lighter and more reliable then the AAs. 3 ) Conclusion : An entry level machines better than their top level ones , only Minelab can do that … :-) More seriously I think that Minelab has learnt a lot with the Nox and they improved a lot of things that can now be found on the Vanquish. I understand now why Simon ( Phrunt ) is so happy with his Vanquish in NZ… :-) Again I will send an other post with pics and a more details as soon as possible Apart from this everybody is at home over here in France with the corona , so I have to stop the tests for the moment , I hope it will go better in a few weeks ...

If the Vanquish was waterproof I would get one just to have the smaller coil.

I had my first real hunt for the season today. I still have frozen ground 2” down in some of my spots. The small public boat landing in my town has a grass “infield” area. I first hunted it last season. Several quick 30 minute hunts. Very full of trash! Lots of people like to park and look across at the town. Also great view of the fireworks when the Bay festival shoots them off every year. I don’t know how I missed so many coins. I still have only concentrated on the fringe areas beside the pavement. I literally hit the same spots as last fall. Probably a dozen coins in 20 minutes. Very easy to pinpoint with the small coil. Targets were a solid lock on everything I dug. The few pieces of canslaw I dug were solid at 17. I got a 17-18 number very shallow. Of course I needed to get the trash out, so I dug it up. Very damaged zippo lighter. My second ever. It will get sent in to be repaired. I am not sure I will use my other machines this season. This thing is very fun and light. Very much worth the under 200 I spent on it. btw, I didn’t plan on my gloves matching the machine....just a happy coincidence.

coin spader - Some wind noise at the beginning of the video, sorry 😞 but was a decent hunt. Coin pics at the end of the video.

Starting to see some different results from the relic mode on the 540 than I would expect according to the manual and suggested use of the mode. Maybe some other 540 users can confirm or deny what I'm seeing. First off in my soil it's not the deepest mode because of the mineralization, it's actually quite choppy on deep targets. However, what I'm starting to see, and I've tested this a few times and even confirmed it on Monte's nail board. Relic mode appears to have better separation in iron than either the coin or jewelry modes. This is contrary to what the manual says but I'm seeing this more every time I take it out. I'd say it performs about 20% better and I'm taking about surface trash not deep stuff with the V8 coil. Anybody else seeing this same thing?

I got to wondering what a small coil for the Vanquish sold for. And found no dealers selling any Vanquish coils at all. A couple have placeholders as if they are anticipating coils, but that would just be forward thinking at work. I notice the spec sheets and manual do not mention accessory coils. Coils are not listed as an item with a part number on the Minelab Parts website. They do show on the main Minelab website but it's pretty vague as to if you can actually expect to buy one. We all know Minelab has been limiting accessory coils as part of a "compartmentalizing" strategy that keeps it's units in distinct "boxes" so that one Minelab model undermines another as little as possible. I wonder if this has been taken to the final end game of such a strategy, where the coils are part of why you buy a certain model. Each Vanquish model has a successively larger coil, which inherently adds a little depth between models that would otherwise have identical performance. And what if the only way to get a small coil for a Vanquish was to buy the Pro Pack? I am not saying this is the official strategy but if it is I can see how a marketing person might love it. So here is my scavenger hunt assignment for you all. Can anyone find a Vanquish coil for sale with a Minelab part number and price? Or any reference on Minelabs site or in their literature that says one might expect to buy accessory coils? Minelab Vanquish 540 Pro Pack

I’ve had the Vanquish 540 out on 4 ghost town hunts now and I wanted to give my thoughts on it’s performance in these challenging sites. 3 of the 4 hunts were at places where the items are on or near the surface. At those places the 5 x 8 coil was used. At the other site the items can be anywhere from surface to 12 inches deep because the town was located in a now plowed field. At that place, the 9 x 12 coil was used. In some cases other metal detectors were used to find some of the targets and compare signals with the Vanquish The Vanquish set at high iron bias does a great job at discriminating out surface bottle caps and other flat tin where single frequency metal detectors struggle. First site I went to I only used the Vanquish with the 5 x 8 coil, coin mode, high iron bias, horse off, sensitivity at 2 below max. The site is loaded with bottle caps and tin cans, I could see them on the surface in many areas. I hunted for 3 hours and only found a zinc mason jar lid, a large brass ring about the size of a pocket watch, two deep soda cans, the type with aluminum top and tin sides and a few other modern things like a pull tab and modern penny found on the surface. Made me wonder how much I walked over because everything was either on the surface or big. At the other 2 sites, even with the small coil on, the Vanquish really struggles on targets in carpet of nails. This shouldn’t be a surprise. With the other metal detectors (I had along with small coils) targets could be detected from multiple directions. The Vanquish on a good amount of the targets could only see the target in one direction and in some cases couldn’t see the target at all. I had several targets I could see on the ground surrounded by nails but couldn’t get the Vanquish to lock onto them. I fell like if you only worked an area from one direction you would probably walk over about 50% of the good targets with the Vanquish. Not saying the Vanquish is bad, it just isn’t the right choice for a trashy ghost town. However, on a positive note. I did have one signal that the other metal detectors ID'd in the coin range and I thought for sure I had a dime or quarter. The Vanquish gave a broken tone and wouldn’t lock on, I thought crap, too much iron around for the Vanquish to pick out this good signal. Surprise, it was a flat piece of tin about the size of a half dollar. No coins found at either of these sites. Found suspender clips, watch parts, buttons, scraps of brass, etc. At the site with deeper targets is where the gap between the Equinox and Vanquish become more apparent, and rightfully so. Vanquish settings-Coin mode (relic mode is worthless in my mineralized soil), horseshoe on, max sensitivity, low iron bias. Equinox settings-Park 1, sensitivity 22, iron bias 0, recovery 4, horseshoe on, 50 tones. The amount of iron junk at this site is moderate with good targets mixed in at various depths. I found 12-15 targets at this site with the Equinox and went over them with the Vanquish. All the targets that were co-located next to iron and less than 7 inches deep, both the Equinox and Vanquish saw (a least from one direction) and gave a good ID. I got several like 5 or 6 that were too deep for the Vanquish to ID and one gave absolutely no tone at all on the Vanquish, it was a small button at 7 inches. Other items found were large buttons, small buttons suspender clips, scrap brass and lead, shotgun brass, etc Without going into a bunch of detail, I’m starting to see some trends regarding the Vanquish. First, the Vanquish struggles with small low conductors that are deep or mixed with iron trash. Second, the Vanquish just seems to cut off at a certain depth. No glimpse of any numbers, very little up averaging, just straight out slashes across the screen with iron grunt or simply no sound at all. Most other metal detectors I use at least chirp and flash a number on deep targets. Now these could be related to my mineralized soil. But I feel like it’s related to iron bias, I wish it could just be turned off. In any case the Vanquish IMO is a good park and beach machine, comes up a little short as a relic and ghost town machine. Could also be used to scout areas out and cherry pick the good signals then follow up with a better detector later. Still better than most other metal detectors in it’s price range though. I’m headed to another ghost town with it and some other metal detectors tomorrow. This time I’ll try and shoot some video and show what I’m talking about.

I have the equinox 600 and I was wondering if it is worth buying the Vanquish 440 as a backup. The use I would give would be exclusively for the beach. If anyone has it, I would appreciate it if they told me how it goes on the beach. Thank you