How I Hunt Jewelry Like A Deus

[Deft Tones]

I’ll try to keep this pithy, yet informative. I’m sure I’ll fail at one of the two.

In my opinion the Deus has superb audio capabilities. Combined with its light weight, blistering fast recovery speeds, and a forgiving swing speed, the Deus makes a superb land jewelry hunter. The following is an attempt to describe these audio capabilities and the application to treasure hunting for jewelry and coins. Take this information and verify for yourself, don’t trust me. Think and work it out for yourself.

A few points first.

New owners and those new to full tones should start in clean ground. You probably would not learn any language very fast if someone is speed talking to you at a busy cafeteria. The Deus will speed talk. Also very important for language acquisition is frequent and repetitive practice, practice, practice! Even only 5 minute a day! Finally, if you want the gold and silver, acquire junk gold and silver jewelry similar to the type you seek for practice until you get a good selection of valuable ones to use.

Jewelry hunting theory:

1. You’ll always find jewelry wherever it was lost, nowhere else. 
2. At a minimum a moderately used public park in a city with population of fifty-thousand or more will see one gold item lost every five years.
3. At a minimum a moderately used public park in a city with a population of fifty-thousand or more will see two silver items lost every 3 years.
4. At a minimum a moderately used public park in a city with a population of fifty-thousand or more will see one imitation item lost every year.
5. Generally speaking, in undisturbed soils the majority of jewelry lost within the last 100 years resides in the top six inches of soil.
6. Maximize your odds.

Detector setting theory:

1. The detectors true discriminator is your brain.
2. You must open it up to learn the language.
3. Your machine has a discriminator but you are not allowed to use it because…
4. You must open it up to learn the language.
5. See number one.

Can you identify a pattern?

Great, because when jewelry hunting pattern recognition plays a huge part in maximizing your odds. I’ll get to that a bit more short
For simplicity and purposes of this conversation I’m going to assign the Deus full tone audio characteristics to six basic descriptive categories. With experience you’ll hear them. They are as follows:

1. Bright tones
2. Dull tones
3. Scratchy tones
4. Grunts/Buzz
5. Squeaks
6. Whines

About programs:

I started with Gary’s Hot program as I got acquainted with the Deus. It’s a very good program. As I began feel comfortable with it I opened it up all the way because I realized that the very subtle information the detector was sending me sounded more clear and concise when it was allowed to speak unimpeded. Either way still works very good. Your call.

Opened up Deus looks something like this:

18Khz
Disc 0
Full Tones
Sens 90
TX 2
Iron Vol 0
Reactivity 2
Silencer -1
Audio Response 3
Overload 1
Notch 0
Ground Balance Manual 90

This is always the starting point nothing gets changed unless it has to.

Whew, that’s a lot of typing for me. Soon I’ll touch on preparing for the actual hunt, assaying the site, and then I’ll get more into tones and strategy.

 

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[CZconnoisseur]

That's a good, solid post....

I agree that the audio quality with Full Tones is hard to beat once you learn the little pips and squeaks - something that takes TIME to learn! Lately I've been hunting on the other end of the spectrum, in 4kHz which gives the best amount of VDI spread for most targets. However, I know that I'm missing deeper, smaller low conductors (the nickel count has been LOW lately) but I plan on hitting the same exact area with 12 and/or 18 kHz once I'm satisfied that 4kHz has runs its course.

Have had some success running different frequencies finding other things that 4kHz just couldn't quite get - and the area I'm hunting has great potential for some period jewelry. A few days ago 4khz nabbed a 14K white gold ring at about 5" - I got a solid hit at 28-30 while running that program. It sounded like another beavertail, but if it repeats (crackly, buzzy, or clear) in the 4kHz program I'm digging it regardless!

I'm glad to see I'm not the only windbag that posts here!

 

[CoilToTheSoil]

Aaaaand subscribe. I'm slowly working my way to the world of full tones and have been looking for some good writeups on them. Can't even find any youtube videos that go into any depth with the topic of tones and differences amongst them once the detector is opened up.

 

[metaljunkie]

So far so good!
I am very much interested in the rest of your conclusions. I also run my deus with those exact same settings for gold jewelry. With lower frequency for coins. I totally agree, full tones and no disc is amazing! It will be cool to see, how you describe the subtleties of all the sounds. Not an easy task. So here's and early THANK YOU!
For your effort.

 

[metaljunkie]

Aaaaand subscribe. I'm slowly working my way to the world of full tones and have been looking for some good writeups on them. Can't even find any youtube videos that go into any depth with the topic of tones and differences amongst them once the detector is opened up.

Your rite! There is so little info on full tones.
I wish Andy had more info in his book on this.
Although it would probably be a book in itself....

 

[vferrari]

This thread is as rich as the silver and gold the authors are finding. Good read. Especially what each end of the frequency spectrum gives you on the Deus. The key is indeed the tonality and the only way to learn it is to pound the ground and dig. I'm finding that the disc programs (regardless of disc setting, because, I don't mind hearing the iron grunt anymore even when coin shooting), combined with 18k Gold Field is a winning combo for me. I think I may just give full tones a workout this weekend.

 

[Deft Tones]

OK, we’ve arrived at our site. Detector on. Ready, let’s go!

NO! Wait, not so fast. We need to warm up first. Want the gold?

Fact: Nobody wins it regularly without warming up first.

Preparation to hunt.

Here is where we will separate the winners from the merely lucky.

Get out your practice targets and line them up. It’s best to keep them in small baggies because you’ll be carrying them with you during the hunt (you did bring them didn’t you?). Go home and get them or take your chances flying blind. Your call.

Clear your mind, bring yourself into the present and try to remain there. Nothing, no-thing should be on your mind, but if you’re new, we do allow rings and things, motion, and beeps. Now, eyes closed, sweep each target 50 times. Starting very fast and working down to slooow and working back to fast again. Vary coil height high, low, and everything in between. Count them at first if you have to…50 repetitions each. You want gold? Then suck it up and do your repetitions. If it’s been a while since you’ve hunted - double the count. Familiarize your ears with the fresh sound again. Allow your brain to retain the tones. Allowing the brain to retain the sound is not like trying to remember the sound. This is a very important distinction that needs pointed out. Remember that!

Assaying the site.

Now that we’ve spent 5 minutes or more with that warm-up exercise, let’s get to digging?

No! Gold makes people impatient. Calm down and slow down. That gold is going nowhere but home with us. If not today, then the next. First let’s see what we’re working with. This is a new site to us and we’re unfamiliar with its history and usage.

This is not really mandatory on familiar sites with known history and usage, but it’s in your best interest as a jewelry hunter to take a few minutes to see what you’re working with when you’re on strange turf. Take some time to walk around sweeping the site for a few minutes. You should be walking around one pace per second. There is no intent to dig yet, just listen to what the Deus says is down there. Within a few minutes, and with experience, you’ll have a good idea what the area under your feet contains and in what quantities. You’ll be able to hear and notice changes in trash density and ground mineralization changes, if any. When this becomes second nature you should then begin to note wear patterns in the turf simultaneously. Try to let the land speak to you.

All I want to know at this point is do I need to change reactivity?

Let’s say the trash is moderate - two to three ferrous and/or non-ferrous targets within a given coil’s footprint. With our settings you should be able to hear and discern this on the Deus with no problem. Reactivity can remain at two. More trash -more reactivity. Less trash - less reactivity. Very simple.

Now let’s do one final test. This is not critical, and you can skip it if you want, but this is a good indicator of what operating frequency is best used in your area.
Find a target that is likely to be foil about 4-6 inches deep. Alternatively, and better yet, bring a balled up aluminum foil candy wrapper (about the size of a large stud earring) and bury it six inches. It makes little difference to the Deus if the soil is disturbed or not but try to leave the plug/flap intact anyway.

With our initial settings sweep the foil while observing tone characteristics. Make sure to wiggle off a few times. Hit from all angles. Now change frequencies shifting down and repeat through all frequencies. You’ll be able to tell which one hits most cleanly by audio. This is now your operating frequency for this site at this time!
Now we can unleash the Deus!

OK, I’m done for today. My wrists feel like I dug 300 pull tabs.

To be continued…

 

[vferrari]

What is typically in your baggies? I know its stuff you want to find and perhaps some sample junk, but not being familiar with full tones, how many test targets do you carry?

 

[Deft Tones]

What is typically in your baggies? I know its stuff you want to find and perhaps some sample junk, but not being familiar with full tones, how many test targets do you carry?

Excellent question.

You fish?

Match the hatch.

No junk samples.

Every site has different junk, and that's something I'll be addressing when tones and pattern recognition are up.

I'll conclude with some tips and as a bonus for allvdi's to never pass on as a bonus

Not being very pithy am I?

 

[Deft Tones]

While I was considering how to approach this very post I began to also more broadly consider the possible audience. The primary difficulty was how to tackle this difficult and subjective topic, Deus full tones, in a way that most people can understand easier by having the tools to attempt a similar sound themselves, with either widely known familiar items, or, their own voice as an approximation. It’s therefore my intent to at least give a suggestion of a familiar sound which may be called similar.

Then it occurred to me -the Deus is the French horn of detectors!

Next up - Full Tones

Full Tones were broken into six types a few posts back. We’ll go over them in a bit more detail now.

1. Bright –Generally sharp, crisp, clear, clean. Sounds similar to a well played single note from a French horn.
2. Dull – Sounds hollow, washed-out. As if something is missing from a full tone. Sounds similar to this: say “brown” representing bright, say “bwowm” representing dull. Similarly, “Green”/”Gweem”.
3. Scratchy – Sounds similar to a zipper quickly being unzipped then zipped, but not so sharp. Sounds similar to this: say “vip”, or “viip”, or “vvvip”.
4. Grunts/Buzz –Grunts are similar to a deep human guttural grunt vocalized as “er” or “ert”, and/or “ur” or “urt”.
5. Squeaks – Sounds similar to mice. Squeaky hinges operated quickly can sound similar. A caster wheel needing lubrication can sound similar. Sounds similar to this: say “eeek”, but don’t emphasize the “K”. Or, say “eeet” and let the “T” be soft off the tongue.
6. Whines – Sounds similar to certain vocalizations cats produce. Similar to a meow, but say it fast like this: “Yeow” and let the “w” be soft. Also, say it fast like this: “yeeeeeeeow” letting the “w” be soft.


Full Tones -The Blender

If you’re unaccustomed to a detector running this open and in full tones, then the Deus is going to give you feedback so fast and varied it’s going to sound like a preschool orchestra on amphetamines. This is what makes the Deus shine!

It’s in your interest to stick with it and persevere until it clicks. Persevere and you might find it’s the best thing since, well… ever!

How so?

Example: Rusty bottle caps (notorious “problem” for Deus owners)

Often sounds like this : Bright->click->Buzz.

So initial detection tone may be Bright and you are thinking dig, but sweeping while rotating 360 degrees will very often produce something like: Bright->Bright->Bright->Bright->Bright->click->Buzz.

The “click” is subtle and it happens very fast, until you turn up the volume. I suspect it is the audio slamming to a halt in order to transition to the buzz ferrous indicator tone.

Example: Ring Pull Tabs (seems everyone hates these fakers!)

These often sound perfect until you hit the tab with the tip of the coil: Bright->Bright->Bright->Bright/Squeak combination.

Really want to impress? Just sweep the tab Squeek>Squeek>Squeek. Then rotate and hit the ring only Bright>Bright>Bright. Then dig it up and show your buddy. No, don’t be a show-off!

Example: Can Slaw – thin gauge machine shredded aluminum. (problems for everyone)

Many irregular pieces will sound Dull, or Dull/Squeaky. Dull when swept, then much too Squeeky wiggling off target.

Some square-ish pieces will sound Bright when swept and Squeaky when wiggling off target.

Unfortunately, some will also sound Bright no matter what. What to do? Dig it of course!

As one can see there are many combinations of tones possible, and to list them would take far too much time for my slow keyboard pecking, but it's really not that difficult, it just takes practice, practice, and more practice. Observe with an open mind and keep at it.

Now get out there and get down and dirty with Deus full tones.


OK, whew! I’m taking a break for a few days and will resume with Pattern Recognition around mid to end week.

Good luck and good hunting.

 

[Deft Tones]

Schedule change. Maybe I'll finish some day. But not to leave you hanging....

This guy sums up the next part pretty well. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/general-discussion/88182-vdi-readings-gold-rings.html#post923490

Learn to ID the junk (pull tabs) dig all other targets that don't fall in that range. Be sure to make your "no dig" range very tight. Maybe two or three numbers on your detectors numeric scale. Remember to sweep from all points of the compass and various heights off the ground. Listen for the inconsistent hits they are more likely to be the junk. Joe

And my top 7 stable vdi #'s for gold rings @ 18khz
55, 56, 50, 47, 46, 44, 43.

Learn those tones, and the indicators. Identify the common junk. Apply your brain to maximize your odds.

Me, I'm going hunting. C Ya.

Good luck, good hunting.

 

[scotty544]

Apply yourself to learning a keyboard as much as you do full tones and you will no longer have to hunt and peck at keys....less keys than tones....good luck. .... me, I can type well, full tonal understanding of the Deus. ..not so much.

 

[Deft Tones]

Apply yourself to learning a keyboard as much as you do full tones and you will no longer have to hunt and peck at keys....less keys than tones....good luck. .... me, I can type well, full tonal understanding of the Deus. ..not so much.

I used to type 128 words per minute...that was on a mechanical typewriter though. They didn't have a stupid qwerty layout then either....and I didn't have carpel tunnel.

But thanks for your concern. I know the makers dumbed it down for the newer generations, but I'll try to learn not to peck on a 10" samsung galaxy note and just go back to read only...and finding jewelry by myself.

Good luck with yourself.

 

[vferrari]

Your rite! There is so little info on full tones.
I wish Andy had more info in his book on this.
Although it would probably be a book in itself....

The reason you are not seeing a lot on full tones in Andy's book is that he just doesn't see the point. He recommends 4 tone programs and associated breakpoints with custom notches. I have attended one of his "Bootcamp" sessions and that is what he emphasizes. I think it is his personal preference but I also understand that even if he was a proponent of full tones, why he would have the beginner to intermediate user stay away until they have had some time to get used to two, three, or four tone use. Crawl, walk, run. I am just now starting to experiment with full tones a year after getting the machine, and for me, that is about the right time frame as I have progressed in phases from the time I first got it. First using the basic programs, sand fishing, then learning what Deus fast brings to the table, then really understanding what Andy's book was saying and attending his class to really learn how to navigate the box to develop custom programs, notches, tweaking settings, target id tricks, ground notch and how to deal with mineralized soil. Then finally recently giving the machine (and myself) the ultimate test by forcing myself to use it vs. a PI machine to find relics in highly mineralized VA soil. Each phase resulted in a plateau then a breakthrough as I learned a new capability and achieved each Deus personal target milestone (first silver, first minie ball, first button, first plate (ha, still waiting), etc...). The biggest key though is swing hours and getting out there to cement that audio muscle memory needed to understand what the slight inflections in the tones (the tonality) are telling you about the target.

 

[scotty544]

I used to type 128 words per minute...that was on a mechanical typewriter though. They didn't have a stupid qwerty layout then either....and I didn't have carpel tunnel.

But thanks for your concern. I know the makers dumbed it down for the newer generations, but I'll try to learn not to peck on a 10" samsung galaxy note and just go back to read only...and finding jewelry by myself.

Good luck with yourself.

Thanks! I always have good luck with my self. They make awesome apps (programs) these days that will help you type and text..I being old myself, learned to type on a manual typewriter, but I can text with the best of them now..I think I will start out with a three tone program, or would you suggest just going full tones from the beginning? It seems as though most people here use the audio wiggle off, to make the dig/no dig call. Also I will mainly be coinshooting, jewelry doesn't really intrest me since I am not trying to turn a profit with my hobby.