First Hunt with 9" Deus - Suggestions Appreciated

[flysar]

2.8 hrs in the park and some trails behind the park; 1910-20's shotshell headstamp was found just off the trail. Used fast, knocked the freq to 8 & 12, played with reactivity a little and ran 5 tones with some adjustments.
What I liked:
- lightweight, I've had neck and shoulder surgeries and always use a harness... definitely not needed with this rig.
- easy to carry going from point A to B if you cant swing
- size is very compact
- both copper pennies high toned around a dime (my 5 tone setup), may be able to avoid zincs?
What I still need work on (can't say dislikes since this was my first hunt with it)
- dug more bottle caps, they sure sound good, than with previous machines but I may have them figured out.
- no matter what freq or swing speed I couldn't get the nickels to stabilize, 50-72 ID and blended tones, almost didn't dig 2 of them but the Deus is new for me. If they wouldn't have hit 63 solid a few times I would have passed for sure. Never had this much trouble with nickels, regardless of machine before. Nothing else detected in the hole after pulling them. Any suggestions?
- foil and lead numbers and tones were all over the place as well.
- battery level indication, both coil & remote showed full (assumed previous owner charged) when leaving the house but the coil was down to one bar and the remote was at three when I was done. I'll top everything off and see how the next trip goes.
I've got another 6+ hours planned over the next few days with no plans to take my other machines to fall back on so I'll know more then.
I'll keep reading, watching videos and swinging!
HH

 

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[smokeythecat]

Good choice and good job. Get the battery charge accessory and charge it while going from site to site. Solves a lot of problems.

 

[Indiana Mark]

If you avoid zincolns, you will miss Indian head cents. Both come up nearly identical on the vdi. At least in 12kHz..

 

[vferrari]

Surprised Nickels were reading in the 60's to 70's Do you have ID Norm set to on? It's a personal preference thing but I have it set to off because it is referenced to 18khz and compresses all the high conductor readings into the 90's. Also I use changing frequency between 8 and 12 on the fly as a trick to get an additional read on potential bottlecaps. TID will not consistently rise when you shift from 8khz to 12khz on a crown cap with corrosion. You can't use that trick with ID norm on.

Also, recommend ultimately going to full tones. Once you get the hang of it, full tones gives your brain a much better clue as to what is sounding off beneath your coil. Also, with full tones you don't have to mess with setting/programming multi-tone tone breaks.

What ground balance approach are you using (fixed or tracking)? Finally, it would be helpful to know whether you are using v 3.2 or v 4.0 software as there are some subtle differences. For example, ground tracking mode is improved in v 4 and there is more resolution when setting iron discrimination including setting disc < 0.

 

[Stretch Da Truth]

About a month into my Deus and I have converted to full tones on all programs as I like the different sounds everything makes.
Have some saves from the Deus program section on my unit. Good work and to those who contributed!

One thing that was not changed or looked at until recently was the ID Norm. I didn't see it or understand it... not sure. Prob just over looked as the Deus has so many settings that you can get lost in it when you first start. I read a ton of the threads here the other day and vferrari brought this up a couple of times as well as changing from 8kHz - 12kHz to check for caps. This is great info as the 18kHz settings it can be really tough to tell a quarter both reg and silver, from a half dollar both reg and silver, to a dollar coin to a Corona cap to some other items. It was a lil frustrating at one of the parks we were at as all we dug was 2 pennies and 15 caps. We left there and went to another park and had fun and dug $1.98 in clad.

So I turned off ID Norm in all my saves, changed a few from 8kHz - 12kHz - 18kHz and back and forth, threw down a bag full of targets, started swinging and looking and listening and started to see and hear the differences. This change makes a HUGE difference!!! I am going to re-do all my saves and have them setup up with ID Norm off and an 8kHz setup right next to a 12kHz.

 

[flysar]

Surprised Nickels were reading in the 60's to 70's Do you have ID Norm set to on? It's a personal preference thing but I have it set to off because it is referenced to 18khz and compresses all the high conductor readings into the 90's. Also I use changing frequency between 8 and 12 on the fly as a trick to get an additional read on potential bottlecaps. TID will not consistently rise when you shift from 8khz to 12khz on a crown cap with corrosion. You can't use that trick with ID norm on.

Norm was "ON" so I just now turned it off. Did some air tests and was very surprised at the difference in numbers on different freqs. Heading to a different park and see how that works for me, I'll also try the 8/12 tip on bottle caps, thank you

Also, recommend ultimately going to full tones. Once you get the hang of it, full tones gives your brain a much better clue as to what is sounding off beneath your coil. Also, with full tones you don't have to mess with setting/programming multi-tone tone breaks.

When I used my friends etrac a few years back I couldn't wrap my head around the 50 tone "warble" on targets. I was use to a nice "round/smooth" single tone and the warble seemed like a broken target. When the CTX came out and I was able to run combined 5-tone I bought and that's been my primary mode for the past 3+ yrs. I tried full tones for a little while and for now I'll stick with 5t with adjusted threshold per freq... may try full tones again.

What ground balance approach are you using (fixed or tracking)? Finally, it would be helpful to know whether you are using v 3.2 or v 4.0 software as there are some subtle differences. For example, ground tracking mode is improved in v 4 and there is more resolution when setting iron discrimination including setting disc < 0.

Former owner did an upgrade to 4.0 so I guess I'm set. Because my mineralization scale was 6+ I used pumping and adjusted accordingly. Later in the hunt I tried tracking and it seemed to follow the suggested GB.[/

I took the Fast program tip from you as a good starter program, thank you, and I'm glad you saw and replied to my post.

I'll post a follow up from my second hunt when done!

 

[flysar]

If you avoid zincolns, you will miss Indian head cents. Both come up nearly identical on the vdi. At least in 12kHz..

I noticed that when doing some air tests. I opened up my high tone threshold to accomndate the zincs/Indians and I'll go by audio response for depth.

 

[flysar]

Good choice and good job. Get the battery charge accessory and charge it while going from site to site. Solves a lot of problems.

Thank you for the idea. I'll probably just top it off after every hunt.

 

[flysar]

So I turned off ID Norm in all my saves, changed a few from 8kHz - 12kHz - 18kHz and back and forth, threw down a bag full of targets, started swinging and looking and listening and started to see and hear the differences. This change makes a HUGE difference!!! I am going to re-do all my saves and have them setup up with ID Norm off and an 8kHz setup right next to a 12kHz.

I should probably give Full Tones another shot since I turned ID Norm OFF and see if it sounds any cleaner to me.

 

[Stretch Da Truth]

I should probably give Full Tones another shot since I turned ID Norm OFF and see if it sounds any cleaner to me.

I would try it again. I started with 2 or 3 or whatever the basic progs had and after a bunch of reading and videos I decided to give it a try. It really can be like music to your ears. I use it for all my saved slots. I like hearing everything, from Iron to Gold and everything in between!

 

[vferrari]

I'll post a follow up from my second hunt when done!

Good job. Have a great hunt and looking forward to hearing back.

 

[flysar]

2nd hunt in the books, 2.9hrs, and I'm still struggling with the Deus or something is not quite right with the machine?
Park hunt, $1.73 in clad (nothing deeper than 4") and my share of trash (fewer bottle caps but plenty of aluminum).
Coins, surface to 2", solid tone and mostly solid ID. Anthing deeper and ID was jumpy and tones were mostly solid. Wasn't sure if I was digging a penny, dime or quarter with hi tone. I ran in 8/12kHz and about 50% 5-tones and Full Tones.
My machine/soil combo struggled on the 2 nickels again with wide ID, 50s-70s, and it loves aluminum, mostly 90s with a sprinkling of 70s thrown in, tough to know what it was before I put the Lesche in the ground.
I'm hoping most will say there's something not right with my unit.
I'm headed out again this morning for a couple hrs, maybe a couple more during the week, and then doing a club hunt next Saturday. Supposedly there are 4 other Deus users so I can hopefully get some on site comparisons.
I'm leaving my other units behind so I'm forced to use my Deus.
HH

 

[vferrari]

First of all based on what you are describing in terms of finds, your machine sounds like it is working fine.

Remember, the Deus shines primarily as a tone machine. Most veteran Deus users are looking at TIDs as a BACKUP (if they are even looking at them at all) to what the tones are telling them.
In fact, deep keeper targets will often not even display a TID. Besides pitch, the quality of the tone tells you a lot about the nature of your target. Is it tight and bright (coin) or broken up, scratchy, whiny, does it have a strange trailing sound (bent metal piece, bent pull tab - i.e. not a coin). You don't pick up these audio nuances after 6 hours. Also, ground soil conditions, other junk in the hole, multiple dissimilar metal keepers in the same hole, large but deep objects (deeper aluminum cans will sound like coins) will all wreak havoc with TID numbers and even tones.

Regarding multi vs. full tones, full tones gives you more audible differentiation between high conductivity targets with 32+ vice just 5 tones spread across the detection range. You will def hear the diff between a dime and a quarter. That being said, what are your 2 highest tone TID ranges set at for each freq?

Other words of advice: Location, location, location. A modern clad park is not necessarily going to give up silver or even deep clad. Jewelry perhaps. Have you gridded the entire park 2 ways at 2 diff frequencies and are still only finding clad? I have been pounding the same modern ball field for about six months for about an 1/2 to an hour at a time (maybe 10 - 15 trips total for about 15 -25 hours of total detecting). Not griddng it. Pulling mostly shallow clad ($10 to $15 worth; it produces a few clad coins every trip). No old coins (as expected). But have also pulled three rings (one silver), bullet casings (kinda weird considering where the field is located), flashlight parts, lapel pins, and a brass religious chain. Plus a Target bag full of trash and chain link fence pieces lol). None of the keeper finds happened in the first 6 hours of detecting. So your experience mirrors mine.

Second Point: No matter how proficient you get with the deus or any other machine you will still dig trash, just comes with the territory.

Bottom line, don't expect to become an instant Deus prodigy. Just like ANY other machine, you are going to have to swing it for 100's of hours to form the brain muscle memory to get proficient. One day soon it will just kind of click, provided you stick with a few key programs you have confidence in and use them. Don't constantly tweak and shift or you will be continuously starting from scratch. Stick with 5 tones or go full tones but don't switch back and forth.

Be patient and it will click. And don't forget to breathe.

Hope this helps.

 

[flysar]

Went to a 40s school today for 2hrs, parks and schools are what's available since I'm out of town visiting so quick outings are it.
Most of the same until I hit the chips, wish I had this kind of soil to hunt in... 2 bars of mineralization vs 6-8 bars. Deus ran quiet (no chatter) and only sounded off on targets. Nice clean tones and ID. I envy those who hunt dirt in those conditions.
Next step, consult with the other Deus users who hunt similar bad dirt, in my area, at the club hunt next Saturday.

I sure do appreciate everyone's input... keeps me going fwd and in the right direction.
HH

 

[vferrari]

Keep doing what you are doing. The best thing you can do is maximuze swing time and the types of potential targets and conditions you will encounter. Oh and don't forget to have fun while doing it. Good luck on the club hunt. The quick recovery time of the Deus makes it a great competition machine because you can swing fast at Rx set at 2.5 to 3 and with the shallow planted targets if, of course, you are not hunting natural finds. HH.