Exploring The D2 Learning Curve

[CPT_GhostLight]

I made a post a few weeks ago in the "Metal Detecting for Jewelry" section of the DP forum that included a short discussion about not finding gold with the D2. I had read a few posts about the Deus II not hitting tiny gold and maybe that got in my head, but since getting my D2 in April of this year, I haven't found any gold. Of course I started wondering if my detector had a problem or if I have a problem using it correctly, however I've had no problems hitting silver and copper coins and jewelry. In that thread, @F350Platinum and @dogodog suggested going back to basics and running with less filters and stock programs and dig it all to be confident that I'm finding it all and also note what I'm finding.

I decided to take this sage advice and went out to an older school in my area to see what I could find. There was a small chance of silver coins there because of the age of the school, but I also know the whole town has been hammered with detectors since the 70s.

When I got the D2, and being new to XP detectors, I started out with the General program to get somewhat familiar as suggested by many here and it did help quite a bit to get acclimated to a completely different machine than I was use to. I then slowly began to explore the other programs and really clicked with the Relic and Fast programs for my in land hunting. I have updated to the current version 0.71 and it seems to be working well for me overall. I've only made minor tweaks to my Relic and Fast programs and saved them. In the Relic program, I have only changed the IAR for 0 to 3 and the Sensitivity from 95 to 96. The Fast program I have changed the Discrimination from 6.8 to 9 to deal with my pesky round head nails, set the Sensitivity from 90 to 96, BCaps at 3, the Reactivity from 3 to 2.5, and the Audio Response from 4 to 5.

For this experiment, I ran the stock General, Relic, Fast, and a Fast OP (Open) program which is stock but with Notch set to Off, Sensitivity 96, BCaps Off, and Silencer Off. I hit the school on the weekend for two 4 hour hunts, starting off in the Open Fast program, which was remarkably stable, and I could hear eveything in the ground including ant farts. When I hit good sounding and even not so good sounding targets, I would double check with stock General, Relic, and Fast programs and also my custom saved Fast program. I dug everything and on all 5 programs the responses were the same, however some targets sounded better to me on the Relic and Fast programs than they did in the General program. I also checked some targets with Sensitive and Sensi FT programs, but liked the sound of the Pitch Tones of Relic and Fast better. I gridded two sections of the school and still have two more to do.

I did not find any gold or silver at this location so far, but after digging everything and experimenting with all the programs listed above, I do feel like I didn't miss a thing. I will continue the experiment at this location again, but so far I'm feeling confident that if I had swung the D2 coil over gold I would have hit it. So thanks to F350 and Dogo for your suggestions, I think it helped a lot.

Here's a look at what I did find:

Hunt #1:

Hunt #2: ... and yes Bob there was another finger nail and this one was metal! 😱

This is less than half of the foil and can slaw dug, but I tossed a lot of it in the trash can during the hunts. 

[palzynski]

I have only found 4 gold artefacts during 24 years detecting  : one coin , two rings and a pendant. Which means an average of one gold every 5 or 6 years . Then I dont expect to find a gold with my new D2 before at least one or two years ... But sometimes silver is better than gold ...

[dogodog]

Nice job CPT, Now do that a few more times and log your numbers and target depth for that set up. It can be a big pain in the arse to do so but it will give you a lot of valuable info. Also air test on your driveway and run different programs. This will show you what will give you the best depth on certain targets. Test, test and more tests are the way to go. Most guys are surprised at what gold rings up as. Try all gold from thin to thick if you can, 10k to 24k. You will be amazed by the numbers that show up. Also you will find most pull tabs will not be in the gold range and you wont have to  dig a lot of those. FOIL is the bastard child, if your after gold you will be drowning in foil. But you will eventually find the gold.  Once you find a program you like, try it and compare dirt depths to the air test heights. Every machine has it own differences even another of the exact same model. Once you gain the confidence you will know exactly whats under your coil (kinda)

[Skate]

I'm not sure it's a learning curve but more of a tone curve. The D2 is unique in the way it sounds off on a target. I have learned with mine to identify the "end" sounds of targets at least that's how I describe it. To me a coin or a ring has the same sound to the left and the right on my swing. It's like a word that is spelled the same backwards and forwards (palindrome). Identifying targets via tone has helped me limit the amount of junk I dig and I will always dig a couple with awkward tones just to get my mind to connect with the detector at the beginning of every hunt. 

In terms of visual ID in parks I only really get excited when I get a good tone and a number below 50. I've recovered many rings on the D2 and if it's a females ring it's always in the 40's with the best number being 44. 68-72 is the range where most of the mens rings have been that I have recovered. I've yet to pull one in the 80's but I dig every tone 80-86 when searching for gold. 

65 is almost always a pop top. 74-76 is almost always a bottle cap although a really rusty one will hit in the 40's but that's where you can hear it bleed on the end of the swing. 

If you keep digging everything you will eventually get gold and lots of it because most won't dig it. My father in law brags he's been detecting for 40 years but has found only one gold ring and it's because he won't dig anything that might be trash. 

One other thing to do when searching a park is to turn down your sensitivity if it's a newer park. Most targets will be 1/2 to 2 inches deep. Locate with detector, use pinpointer to narrow it down then use a screwdriver to pop out. Also if the grass is bermuda then all objects will likely be shallow as it's root structure goes horizontal and things won't get deep there as it's like a mesh. Fescue grasses the roots grow vertically and that's why things are deeper in those grasses/parks. There's room to sink.

Hope this wasn't too winded and obvious.

[Lodge Scent]

I like your approach CPT. You are on the right path to become proficient and confident with the D2.

Ant farts ARE the worst. Notch out -6 to -1 to block them. 😉

[CPT_GhostLight]

2 hours ago, Skate said:

I'm not sure it's a learning curve but more of a tone curve. The D2 is unique in the way it sounds off on a target. I have learned with mine to identify the "end" sounds of targets at least that's how I describe it. To me a coin or a ring has the same sound to the left and the right on my swing.

65 is almost always a pop top. 74-76 is almost always a bottle cap although a really rusty one will hit in the 40's but that's where you can hear it bleed on the end of the swing. 

Thank you Skate! I normally use Square tones but don't really notice the "end" sounds, but when I used a couple of programs that use PWM as stock tones, I noticed more pronounced differences at the ends of targets. So, do you use PWM or Square tones to hear the end sounds?

[F350Platinum]

Way to go, Cap'n! 👍 I swear @dogodog could hit gold with a pinpointer on a stick. 😀 I'm glad he came back. VA Beach was one of the most fun and rewarding experiences I've had detecting, and all we did was talk and walk and walk the talk. He got gold anyway. 😀

I'm finding it useful myself to take a step back, haven't been getting gold either but the bling is showing up amongst the pull tabs and foil, as an upcoming post will show. I know I'm not missing anything.

I've been "lifting" on pull tab signals and if they disappear a few inches up, I dig. Campgrounds have lots of pull tabs.

I'm happy you enjoyed the experience. 🙂 Great hunts!

Soon I'll be back out in the fields... 🤔

[Skate]

3 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Thank you Skate! I normally use Square tones but don't really notice the "end" sounds, but when I used a couple of programs that use PWM as stock tones, I noticed more pronounced differences at the ends of targets. So, do you use PWM or Square tones to hear the end sounds?

I'm going to sound uneducated here in that all I use are the stock programs. I don't change the out of the box tones. I use PARK almost exclusively and it's defaulted to two tones, I believe one for iron and one for everything else. This allows me to focus on matching the tone to an ID over and over again and match the beginning and end of each target response to the ID. It's muscle memory for the brain is the way I look at it. 

The only saved program I have used or created is Silver Slayers silver program where you're just cherry picking high tones. It's excellent and I've had a ton of success with it. 

The only other thing I do is decide ahead of time what I'm hunting for, gold or silver and then stick with the plan. If it's gold I only dig good gold tones in gold ranges. Doing this has upped my gold count which is kind of "duh" thing but so many people dig two bottle caps and then quit because it's a waste of time and then they start hunting clad. 

[dogodog]

1 hour ago, Skate said:

The only other thing I do is decide ahead of time what I'm hunting for, gold or silver and then stick with the plan. If it's gold I only dig good gold tones in gold ranges. Doing this has upped my gold count which is kind of "duh" thing but so many people dig two bottle caps and then quit because it's a waste of time and then they start hunting clad. 

This paragraph sums it up really well. Stick to a plan when digging and you'll see your gold count increase. The key that Skate has stated is knowing your tones and RANGES. That's where testing comes in. Sometimes it's about retraining yourself than learning a new machine.

[CPT_GhostLight]

Thank you all for the great ideas and suggestions and for sharing your wisdom. This is all helping me to refocus and some of the missing pieces are starting to fall into place. This is one of the reasons I love his forum, so thank you all again!