HF2 Micro Gold Fail...?

[Steve Herschbach]

I found the Deus 2 to be a better gold prospecting detector than it gets credit for. The expectation seems to be it has to be the best. Well, everything can't be the best. The Deus 2 excels at what it does best, and maybe is only second tier in other regards. The same can be said of almost any detector.

That said - BETA BETA BETA BETA

[OCBeepDigger]

29 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

XP included a dedicated FMF gold prospecting mode on Deus 2. We didn’t ask for one, they just did it. By default, that says to me that FMF Goldfield was ready to go as a competitor against the other do it all SMFs that also have a gold prospecting mode.

Exactly! ⬆️ My expectation, especially with the HF2 coil, was that the D2 would be competitive, or even surpass the Nox / Legend / Manticore machines on small gold. I mean theoretically the potential should be there to do that, right? So far... that is not what we are seeing with these early tests with the beta firmware. I'm a coil junky and bought a HF2, if for no other reason than to get my "fix" on a new coil and to play around with it. As of now... admittedly with beta firmware... it looks to be unrealized potential regarding small gold and I'm just not impressed. The Manticore with the M8 looks like a much better performer right now on small gold, whether that's micro gold nuggets in natural gold producing areas, or even on the beach. I'm not canceling my HF2 preorder but I might not be updating my firmware to use it until XP pulls the "beta" tag on the software and fixes some of the issues that have come to light recently. I'm hoping Steve's inclination to think this might be an ongoing process for XP is correct and this coil can improve over time as XP invests more time working on the internal processing algorithms in hot ground and releases subsequent firmware updates. If not... the HF2 might very well be relegated to just being a great relic coil for it's iron separation abilities... time will tell!

[abenson]

I will point out that the D2 HF coil video I did was in hot alkaline ground. So don't base the results I did on the ground you may hunt. The results could be totally different in some other part of the country.

I've already got behind the scene comments that I had the Manticore setup hot and the Deus 2 dumbed down. I feel like I had both detectors setup for the ground conditions present. Personally I have no stake in the game either way, so let people think what they want. Don't base your purchase to buy based on my test, get one and test it yourself, it might be exactly what you expected.

[Jeff McClendon]

9 minutes ago, abenson said:

I will point out that the D2 HF coil video I did was in hot alkaline ground. So don't base the results I did on the ground you may hunt. The results could be totally different in some other part of the country.

I've already got behind the scene comments that I had the Manticore setup hot and the Deus 2 dumbed down. I feel like I had both detectors setup for the ground conditions present. Personally I have no stake in the game either way, so let people think what they want. Don't base your purchase to buy based on my test, get one and test it yourself, it might be exactly what you expected.

Your latest video test results mirror everything I have experienced trying to use Deus 2 with the 9” coil and FMF Goldfield. That was with V2.0 and earlier software.

Now, whether that performance is good, bad or in between, somewhere else matters for sure but for me and where I hunt I get the same as you.

Anybody making the comments you described in your second paragraph has NO CLUE. It was exactly the opposite with Deus 2 running hot and the Manticore detecting those targets using very basic, conservative and definitely not hot settings.

 

[IBMe]

Different perspective. Not really targeted for prospecting.

 

 

[raziel900]

I really don't understand why people want to search for those tiny gold nuggets with the Deus 2, a VLF machine....there are other metal detectors suitable for this purpose, XP can't go crazy to "fix" its update giving the possibility of hitting those tiny gold nuggets in ultra-mineralized soils...the Deus was not designed for this use!

[Steve Herschbach]

Anybody saying Andy is not running these machines at anything but optimum settings for the conditions, if anything favoring XP in this regard, does not know Andy. He wants the coil to be a success!! And here I am the Manticore guy defending XP? World has gone topsy-turvy  Truth is I’d be shocked if XP could match a fourth generation Minelab SMF on their speciality, small gold, out the starting gate, if at all. But I still question if that really matters to XP as much as people think it should.

 

On 6/7/2025 at 3:49 PM, raziel900 said:

I really don't understand why people want to search for those tiny gold nuggets with the Deus 2, a VLF machine

Because it has a Goldfield Mode and people used the Deus 1 with the same type coil to do it, so why would they not expect to do it with a more expensive, more capable model? With a coil that is advertised as being "more powerful" than it's older sibling?

 

[OCBeepDigger]

32 minutes ago, raziel900 said:

I really don't understand why people want to search for those tiny gold nuggets with the Deus 2, a VLF machine....there are other metal detectors suitable for this purpose, XP can't go crazy to "fix" its update giving the possibility of hitting those tiny gold nuggets in ultra-mineralized soils...the Deus was not designed for this use!

I agree that there are better machines available if you are primarily prospecting but as mentioned previously... XP chose to include a "Gold Field" mode specifically for this purpose on the D2. They also inferred in their marketing of this coil that the HF2 coil would excel at targeting very small, low conductive, targets. I think the assumption by most was that it would be better at that than the other coils already available for the D2. From what we are seeing now, it is marginally better at best! I'm sure XP marketing plays a role here but I also bet many purchased (or preordered) the HF2 based on the sales pitch from XP... that the higher frequencies would be beneficial at finding small gold.... to date, I'm not sure anyone can say it is substantially better... especially when the Manticore with the M8 coil (running 40 kHz) is looking like it is outperforming the HF2 hands down. Again though... it is beta firmware so I'm not implying that the performance we are seeing on the HF2 now will never get better. I'm trying to give XP the benefit of doubt here... but I do think there will be a lot of disappointed HF2 purchasers if the performance of this coil doesn't improve over time.

[Jeff McClendon]

2 hours ago, raziel900 said:

I really don't understand why people want to search for those tiny gold nuggets with the Deus 2, a VLF machine....there are other metal detectors suitable for this purpose, XP can't go crazy to "fix" its update giving the possibility of hitting those tiny gold nuggets in ultra-mineralized soils...the Deus was not designed for this use!

The XP ORX and its direct predecessor the Depar are two top ten in the world gold prospecting VLF detectors and up until Deus 2 HF2, they could run at the highest single frequency available at that time for any gold prospecting VLF detector using the HF elliptical coil running at 81 kHz. So, there is an established precedence for XP to include a dedicated gold prospecting mode on Deus 2.