Testing The Vanquish 540

[palzynski]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Bury a dime at a few inches and put various trash targets nearby and on the surface and try to detect the dime. The amount of stuff in the ground that is masked depends on how much shallower trash exists. In an old park the best coins are deep, but the most trash, especially aluminum, is near surface. It is likely in some locations more coins remain in the ground than are detected. As long as people use discrimination that is the way it is.

The solution is actually very simple. Use all metal and dig everything. People think this is impossible. “Too much trash” they say. Really? All it really takes is time and patience targeting the best areas.

A PI can be a good tool for the job. Beneath The Mask

 

Depends where you are … Around here there are areas where there are several thousands of nails coming from very old collapsed houses roofs. Ferrous beep all the time in all metal mode … PI are unusable over here . I have tried a GPX4500 in the 2000s , you become crazy with a PI over here ...?  … Quickly sent back the GPX to the shop ….  

Just to clarify this , I will do measurements this summer on an high iron trashed area that I know very well  , however not yet available because cultivated at the moment . It is a large field , around 500 yards X 200 yards , will nails and remaining good targets almost evrywhere in the field ..

I will pick up a cubic foot of ground , then will extract the ferrous from the ground and count them one by one. A good way to have a good idea of the ferrous density in the soil  . It has been a long time I wanted to do this very simple test ...

[Steve Herschbach]

It just depends on what the targets are worth. If the field was full of gold coins I'll dig nails all day. I have done exactly that metal detecting for gold nuggets. I fully agree there are places where there is too much trash and the targets are not worth the effort. It's up for each of us to decide what is worth our time and effort. But as long as anything remains that goes beep in the ground, good targets can still remain, masked by that very last trash target.

 

[palzynski]

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It just depends on what the targets are worth. If the field was full of gold coins I'll dig nails all day. I have done exactly that metal detecting for gold nuggets. I fully agree there are places where there is too much trash and the targets are not worth the effort. It's up for each of us to decide what is worth our time and effort. But as long as anything remains that goes beep in the ground, good targets can still remain, masked by that very last trash target.

 

No unfortunately this field is not full of gold coins …?   Mainly small little and often corroded bronze coins so not worth the effort digging everything including the ferrous …  Never found a gold coin here but probably there are a few remaining , it is just a matter of chance...

[palzynski]

And the results of today's outing with my Vanquish 540 fitted with the V12 coil : 3 coins , one 50 centimes 1922 , the other 10 centimes of the 1920s , and an older liard de France copper coin from the 16th century. All the 3 corroded the soil is acid here, only silver coins are in a good state in this area.  The area is a forest close to a little town were I go for testing new machines , the testing area is around 300 X 200 yards , and it is difficult to find new targets here...  The soil is sandy , low mineralized , low to medium iron trash.

The Vanquish 540 audio is almost the same as the Equinox 800 , so very accurate with an excellent iron disc.  The All Metal button helps a lot in case of doubtful signals , the more often it tells you that there is a ferrous under the coil.  I very often used my pinpointer today with this big coil , it is of great help to center the targets .

Comparing the Vanquish and the Equinox , I would say they obtain very similar results in this area, so a very good result for the Vanquish .

I just found the Vanquish V12 coil a little heavy after 2 hours detecting , so I will probably order the V10 coil to lighten the machine while keeping good depth performances.

  

[palzynski]

COMPARING THE VANQUISH 540 V12 WITH THE VANQUISH 340 V10:

I had the occasion to borrow a Vanquish 340 from a friend who bought it just a month ago . I had the time to do my usual depth tests on my test boxes , and measure the detector/coil weights. 

DEPTH TESTS :

( the ground is moderately mineralized ) :

- 10grams copper coin at 11inches :

The 340 V10 detects it with a slight high pitched signal , so very good news because this coin is deep.
The 540 V12 is a little deeper which is normal because of the bigger size of the V12 coil.

- 2grams bronze coin at 6inches:

The 340 V10 detects it with a sharp medium signal, the same result as the 540 V12 actually. An excellent result for a 240e entry level machine  ...   ?

WEIGHTS :

Vanquish 340 V10 : 1160grams  ( without coil cover )
Vanquish 540 V12 : 1250grams  ( without cc ) 

- V12 coil : 440 grams without cc , 500 grams incl cc
- V10 coil : 360 grams without cc , 400 grams incl cc
- V8  coil : 310 grams without cc ,  340 grams incl cc

Then the V10 coil is 80 grams lighter than the V12 ! This makes a big difference knowing that the V10 is close
to the V12 in terms of depth perfos . Actually I found the V12 a little heavy after 2 or hours detecting ..
And the V10 should do better than the V12 on iron trashed areas because of a lower iron masking ...

Following this test I have ordered the V10 coil for my Vanquish 540 , I am waiting forward to use it on the field ...

 

[Chase Goldman]

Nice but seem to be splitting hairs at this point.  Yes, the V10 is going to spit the difference between the V8 and V12 in terms of weight and performance - logical.  Not sure it makes economical sense to pay additional for that type of resolution, but it's your money...good to have choices, I suppose.

[palzynski]

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Nice but seem to be splitting hairs at this point.  Yes, the V10 is going to spit the difference between the V8 and V12 in terms of weight and performance - logical.  Not sure it makes economical sense to pay additional for that type of resolution, but it's your money...good to have choices, I suppose.

 80 grams makes an important "sweeping  ergonomy"  difference when this weight is located at the end of the shaft ( for me anyway … ? ) . Actually  I am trying to find the best Vanquish detector/coil combination for general detecting for me and perhaps this could be the 540 +the V10 coil ( to be confirmed on the field ).  Concerning the money, as I sold my Equinox with 2 coils I can afford to test all the Vanquish coils … ?  

But I would have preferred that the 540 at 440e was proposed with a V10 coil as stock coil rather than the V12 which is the bigger one . Or that ML offers the choice between the coils , as XP does with the Deus or the Orx .. I dont know why ML did this V12 choice with the 540 , this while the 340 and the 440 are proposed with the V10 coil ...weird ...

But probably the most interesting thing I learnt from this test is that a"low cost" V340 at 240e seems to perform as well as much more expensive machines, ( for coin hunting on mild soils I mean)  , so at this price it is clearly a bargain …  And even the 440 at 340e will be a very good choice , except for those who need wireless headphones who will go for the 540 ..

[Dances With Doves]

14 minutes ago, palzynski said:

 80 grams makes an important "sweeping  ergonomy"  difference when this weight is located at the end of the shaft ( for me anyway … ? ) . Actually  I am trying to find the best Vanquish detector/coil combination for general detecting for me and perhaps this could be the 540 +the V10 coil ( to be confirmed on the field ).  Concerning the money, as I sold my Equinox with 2 coils I can afford to test all the Vanquish coils … ?  

But I would have preferred that the 540 at 440e was proposed with a V10 coil as stock coil rather than the V12 which is the bigger one . Or that ML offers the choice between the coils , as XP does with the Deus or the Orx .. I dont know why ML did this V12 choice with the 540 , this while the 340 and the 440 are proposed with the V10 coil ...weird ...

But probably the most interesting thing I learnt from this test is that a"low cost" V340 at 240e seems to perform as well as much more expensive machines, ( for coin hunting on mild soils I mean)  , so at this price it is clearly a bargain …  And even the 440 at 340e will be a very good choice , except for those who need wireless headphones who will go for the 540 ..

I think the 7by10 coil is a great all around coil that would be    easy    to  swing.Put that on a 600  and 25$ less then 11" coil would be a nice  combo . I would like it  for fresh water hunting.

[Tometusns]

phrunt, I bought the 10" coil to complete the set for my 540. I like these coils better than my Equinox coils too. I'm coming from a Fisher f19 with a 5" and 9x11 but the stock 5x10 was my favorite coil of all. I absolutely love the coil selection for the Vanquish so I'm not worried about any aftermarket coils. For me these are all I'll need. I'm with you 100% on the vanquish coils..wish they would fit on my nox 800.?

On 5/24/2020 at 2:57 PM, phrunt said:

Minelab need to get their act together and make the Equinox coils for the Vanquish and the Vanquish coils for the Equinox, it makes perfect sense and I'm sure very little needs done to make the coils for the other detector..... the detectors are so similar all it probably takes is the correct plug end.  I prefer the Vanquish coils over the Equinox coils, I'd like them for my Nox.  It'd be nice to make an adapter and see if they work but I can't for the life of me find the Equinox plug ends.