Legend - First Impressions

[George Kinsey]

Central Va. is all about the Geology. My crushed basalt driveway goes right to 60 when you place the stock coil on it. Another slab, (Not basalt) reads in the low 20s but when you GB it GB at 81. When I GB the crushed driveway it reads 3. Nice. Enter the wet beach program. Seems to handle the bedrocks allot better after the initial ground balance which was zero. Oh my. My next trip I will use the stock coil and use Wet Beach. Did those tube people every here of turning down the sensitivity?

[George Kinsey]

I'm tired.  Time to go away until I learn more. Take care.

[Jeff McClendon]

I did some modern USA coin medium depth testing today just to see how accurate the Legend target ID’s were by comparing surface IDs to 7” IDs in moderate mineralization. I also did some Steve’s Bic Pen tungsten tip testing for you micro jewelry and small gold prospectors. I was able to use a small hill in my mother’s back yard to plant targets horizontally with minimal ground disturbance by taping coins to 12” long thin wood shims and I measured the depth to the tip of the shim with a 12” skewer that touched the shim at 7”. 

This ground registers 3 to 4 bars of Fe3O4 iron mineralization on an F19 and half to 2/3rds full mineralization on a Deus 1. All of these targets were taped flat to be consistent. 

I tested the Legend with 11” coil in default Park M1, M2, Field M1, M2, and the Gold Mode M with preset “Ground” discrimination pattern, sensitivity at 25 of 30, reactivity 5 and ground balanced each time I changed modes and multi setting. Ground balance readings were 61 to 63.

US nickel surface ID in each of the five different modes was 25. At 7” all five modes registered the nickel between 24 and 26.

US zinc penny surface ID in each mode was 41. At 7” all five modes registered the zinc penny between 39 and 43.

US 1957 wheat penny surface ID in each mode was 45. At 7” all five modes registered the wheat penny between 44 and 48.

US clad dime surface ID in each mode was 45. At 7” all five modes registered the clad dime between 44 and 47.

US memorial copper penny surface ID in each mode was 44. At 7” all five modes registered the memorial copper penny between 44 and 47.

US clad quarter surface ID in each mode was 50. At 7” all five modes registered the clad quarter between 50 and 53.

The results in the dirt at this site show that the Legend exhibits minimal up averaging down to 7” in its multi frequency modes. 

I have tested other single and multi frequency detectors in this dirt at the same depth with the same methods. The Equinox and Vanquish are also able to correctly ID coins at the 7” depth with minimal up averaging. I have tested other Nokta Makro detectors including the Simplex, Multi Kruzer and Racer 2 at this site along with the F19 and Deus 1. Those detectors lost target ID accuracy and severely up averaged targets at the 3 to 4” depth level. These detectors are mentioned here for reference purposes and are not meant to be a comparison or to reflect negatively on them.

Obviously, Nokta Makro have developed some very capable SMF tech in the Legend.

I also did a version of Steve’s Bic Pen test in the same dirt by burying a Bic Pen vertically with just the tip being exposed at the surface. Target IDs for the tiny 1mm Medium tungsten tip were 11 to 13 in all five modes. Detection distances with consistent 2 way hits and target IDs were: Park M1/Field M1 = .5 inches. Park M2, Field M2 = 1 inch. Gold M = 1.5”

The Legend has already found micro gold jewelry for me. 10K opened hoop earring which I haven’t had a chance to weigh yet.  

Still in Georgia with my mother who is totally amazing. Her physical therapists cannot believe the things she can do on one foot at age 91. Neither can I. She is scooting around the house in her wheelchair. Standing on one foot, doing dishes, cooking, doing laundry (with the help of a sturdy walker and some support bars I installed) and is progressing very well towards a prosthesis in about 2 months. She makes at least 30 transfers a day from wheelchair to standing or sitting on something else with ease. Never a complaint even when she is experiencing phantom pain from her amputated foot.

[GB_Amateur]

10 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

The results in the dirt at this site show that the Legend exhibits minimal up averaging down to 7” in its multi frequency modes.

Excellent study, Jeff.  3-->4 bars on the F19 is more mineralized than my typical ground and I see VDI degradation on all single frequency detectors before getting down to 7" depth.  The Fisher F75 won't do it.  Minelab Equinox in 4 kHz single frequency mode (only SF I've tested in my garden) won't either.  So far the Legend is living up to its pre-release claims, IMO.

Sounds like your mom has the right attitude.  Heck, you could take her detecting.  I think I'd wear out before she would.

[Jeff McClendon]

10 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Excellent study, Jeff.  3-->4 bars on the F19 is more mineralized than my typical ground and I see VDI degradation on all single frequency detectors before getting down to 7" depth.  The Fisher F75 won't do it.  Minelab Equinox in 4 kHz single frequency mode (only SF I've tested in my garden) won't either.  So far the Legend is living up to its pre-release claims, IMO.

Sounds like your mom has the right attitude.  Heck, you could take her detecting.  I think I'd wear out before she would.

Thanks Chuck,

I am trying to just report what I find in the limited hunting conditions and targets in the area I am in. I am headed back to Colorado this weekend and then on to Montana to meet my first grandson. I will take the Legend with me for sure. So far it has proven to be as advertised for coins and jewelry by my testing and hunts which means it is a direct and viable competitor of the Equinox in moderate mineralization.

My mother is pretty fearless but at the same time she rarely gets too upset by any challenge. However, rolling a wheelchair on wet, uneven ground is already something that she has declined to do. Maybe in a few weeks she will be able to get outside more.

[Ridge Runner]

Bless your mother and you for being there for her. My mother will be a hundred come November. Theses girls came up in hard times and takes a lot to put one of them down for long  

 The best to you.

 Chuck 

[cjc]

Glad your Mum is managing.  I like your test kit--this is the way to learn a machine and see what it does. 

cjc

[Jeff McClendon]

I am back in Denver and had a chance to run the Legend through my test garden. I only tried the Legend in Park M1 since I didn't have much time. Headed to northern Montana tomorrow to meet my 1 month old first grandchild.

The Equinox 600 and 800 can not only hit all of the targets in my test garden in Park 1, they can also correctly ID all of the targets which are a modern US nickel, zinc penny, copper penny, clad dime, clad quarter and lead bag seal all of which were buried at 6" depth 3 years ago. The Vanquish models do very well on these targets too. However, since they cannot ground balance on the high iron mineralized dirt in my area, all of the targets also have iron responses.

The Legend also not only hit those targets but it also correctly identified them........so compared to the 35 or so other detectors that have been over those targets and failed, I am very impressed with the Legend. 

The Legend in GoldField has easily hit .05 gram gold nugget test targets also with the 11" coil.

I was able to go for a very short hunt today in a park that has very bad EMI and noisy iron mineralized dirt. By bad EMI I mean, an F75, T2, F70 and Omega 8000 could not function at this park.....I tried them and EMI was overwhelming.

The Legend ran quietly at sensitivity of 25 out of 30 and did very well during this 1 hour hunt giving more outstanding results on deeper low to mid conductor non-ferrous targets and even hitting an 8" silver Roosevelt dime with a faint but very repeatable proper high tone in 6 tone Park M1 along with correct target IDs. It was a dig me all day target.

So, in less than 6 hours of hunting with the Legend in moderate and high iron mineralization, the Legend has detected a .2 gram 10K gold opened hoop earring, a bling ring, 4 other bling earrings, a 1942 wheat penny, a 1962 silver Rosie and over $10 in modern US clad coins........... I will happily take those results and I haven't even moved out of 6 tone Park M1 yet!!!

[JCR]

I am also similarly impressed so far with my Legend. After logging 8 hrs. testing & playing with settings in my test garden I finally had a chance to take it on a real hunt. It did very well on my hard hunted race track site. This is low mineral sandy ground with lots of nails & bad EMI. The last few hunts here have only produced 4-6 small low conductor targets for 2-3 hour efforts and no real keepers. The Legend ran stable & quiet @ 22-25 Sens, TH @ 8 in Field M2  4 tone, first TB @ 7, Recovery speed mostly 4. The audio has a lot of intelligence and the TID is very confident & accurate. I had very few targets that were iffy or surprised me. Big Iron is easy to tell. Co located targets also. I only dug 2 deep small nails & 2 small pieces of very rusty tin can that fooled me. The preset Iron Bias did a good job. More time on the machine will help. I ended up after 4 hours with 18 Non Ferrous targets, including several keepers, most co located with 3D iron. Some of them were very small, like one brass boot eyelet @ 2".  The 11" stock coil is very sensitive but still works efficiently/effectively thru the nails very well. I did notice it is a little knock sensitive above 20 sensitivity.  I did not hunt with the 6" yet but in the test garden it will hit 8" targets just fine. I am still running V1.04. I'm still testing on high minerals but it seems to do quite well.