Iron Buzz
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2016
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- 1,749
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- Location
- South St Paul, MN
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- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus, Minelab Equinox 800
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
- #1
Thread Owner
Andy Sabisch
Dec 11, 8:36pmInitial Impressions of the XP Deus II . . . .
As anyone that follows metal detecting via social media has known for some time now, there are multiple detectors coming soon to “your corner detector shop” that introduce new features or refine some that have been in use already. One of those new detectors is the Deus II from XP Metal Detectors.
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to spend some time with the new Deus II and begin to form an impression on how it performs on actual, in-ground targets. I make this distinction because as usual, there are videos being posted that start with 20 minutes of unboxing (yes, there is a detector in the box but beyond that what does that show that the XP website doesn’t?), showing how fast it responds to a row of coins on top of the ground as the coil is whipped across them (not representative of how anyone hunts) or air tests (which also are not indicative of real life conditions where actual targets are buried and co-mingled with trash). Many of these tests or demonstrations appear whenever a new detector is introduced and often, the results are identical which confirms they might be entertaining to watch but do not represent the conditions detectorists will face in an older site littered with good and bad targets alike.
My first run with the Deus II was in a test area alongside our shop where we have targets that have been the ground for a while at varying depths. Some are not detectable by some detectors and others are with some tweaking but I found the Deus II was able to 1) detect them all, 2) detect them all with a solid, repeatable audio and 3) detect them with a consistent target ID value in all but one case (deep dime buried partially on edge but the audio was consistent). Having used the original Deus since 2012, I am pretty skilled at getting it dialed in and in comparing detector to detector, I found that the Deus II did produce a cleaner, more consistent audio and more consistent target ID values on the deepest targets in the test area.
The way I have always tested a new detector (especially higher-end models) is to take them to sites that are challenging such as those that have been hunted for years or are littered with trash. This gives a better assessment of how a machine operates rather than taking to a virgin site where targets abound yet virtually any detector could have found them. Showing off a handful of keepers that came from a clean unhunted site at 6 inches or less is hardly a testament to how a machine performs. The first natural hunt for the Deus II was on the grounds of an old plantation that dated back to the early 1800’s. No structures remained but with 900+ acres to search, it has kept several of us busy for more than a year. One area is littered with iron of all sizes with much dating back to the 1800’s along with non-ferrous trash from workers in the pecan groves which have been growing on the grounds for 100+ years. My friend Jay and I met and headed into the site to do some testing and more importantly, comparisons. We took a handful of surveyor flags to mark targets and then compare signals from multiple detectors BEFORE any ground was disturbed to the responses. Seeing if one detector can find something the other can’t or gives a better signal that would ensure a keeper was not missed can only be determined by comparing detectors on marked, undisturbed signals. To say Detector X found 5 old coins in a worked-out park does not tell anything in regards to would any other detector have found it and was the operator simply lucky enough to get their coil across a good target in a 20 acre+ plot or would other detectors have missed it due to any number of factors.
I started in an area that was a literal junk yard filled with iron of all sizes and where we had tended to avoid in the past. I had loaded two programs which were very similar to what I use on the Deus I for relics and the one that Todd Yerks (CTTodd) uses on his Deus I and is detailed in The XP Deus Handbook since most of the settings are easily mapped over from the original Deus to the new Deus II although the target IDs did require some rethinking of breakpoints due to how the FMF shifted them. After flagging 10 targets, I called Jay over who checked them with his non-XP detector. NOTE: Before you question his capabilities on his detector, he has mastered it for the type of hunting we were doing and does not leave much after gridding an area. So what were the results?
1) The Deus II was very stable over targets in amongst the iron. A slight side-to-side wiggle made it easy to separate targets and when you did, the TID and audio response were crisp and very stable.
2) Setting the Iron Volume to “1” allowed you to hear the iron all over the area and help to know when to use the wiggle to pull the keepers from the trash.
3) Of the 10 flagged targets, all were non-ferrous . . . no odd-shaped rusted iron came through like a non-ferrous target
4) Three of the 10 were not diggable signals on Jay’s detector when he came and checked them before we recovered them. One was not detectable and two were jumpy due to the iron and the audio was not something he would have dug unless signals were few and far between. But again, he knows his detector and I have seen him make some very impressive finds in some tough areas before. One of those signals that would have been left for another day turned out to be a small 1800’s buckle that had been about 8 inches down on an angle still embedded in the deep plug we removed (see the photo below).
5) Of the remaining seven, the Deus II was sure they were good based on the repeatable nature and the audio response. The other detector picked them up but the response (TID and audio) on the Deus II was notably more confirmatory in nature.
6) The iron created fewer falses and chatter than on the other detector which if you are hunting for hours in this type of site would tend to wear less on your nerves allowing you to focus on good signals rather than noise.
We are taking the Deus II and a few other detectors out to another site that has some age to it tomorrow (December 12th) to see how it performs in both cleaner areas where the targets tend to be deep and in another area where ferrous targets tend to mask the keepers. As one of the UK testers posted, I do not do YouTube videos but am available to answers questions if I have the answer (or can get it) and will share what I find out using the new Deus II in a range of sites I have lined up over the next few weeks. 2022 will be a year of a number of products that detectorists will benefit from and the Deus II is setting the bar when it comes to uncovering targets in areas that have challenged other detectors. It will be interesting to see what the Deus II turns up with users from around the world.
