When and What Tweaks to Make

ColonelDan

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Jan 19, 2014
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Central Florida
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Deus II
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Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
I've been on a crash course learning my new Deus. I'm falling in love with that machine. Very simple and yet very flexible. My question is for experienced Deus users.

I've read the posts on this thread, you tube videos, Andy Sabisch's book on how folks tweak the various settings to get the most out of the Deus. Question: When on unfamiliar ground, how do you determine when and what tweaks you'll make in your settings to maximize or at least improve the Deus' performance. It's easy to understand when on trashy ground that some specific tweaks make sense but how about on other areas. Is it just a process of trial and error?
 

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Either get a custom program for unknown ground/area or better yet, choose one of the stock ones, many use either Deus Fast, Basic 1 or Basic 2.....

Maybe try those 3 stock ones in your area and see which is stable and works good and use that one....

Jim
 

The best process is learn a certain setup inside and out. Then once you make a change you can hear it and "feel" it. Make no more than one change at a time as it can effect other things.

Only way to learn it it to swing it. There is no easy way to beat experience.
 

Bart, sounds like very good advice... Thanks
 

First you need a plan when you get to you site. What are you looking for primarily? coins, jewelry, relics etc. If you are wanting to maybe do a look see with no particular targets in mind go to 12 khz freq 2 reactivity silencer -1,1, or 0 with say disc of 10 start sweeping. Now if you are unfamiliar with site I recommend turning iron volumne on to a level you're comfortable with. While your sweeping and you starting hearing a lot of iron, this is a good indication of habitation and this is where the goodies will be especially if site has been detected previously even by a pro with a "not as good detector in iron as the mighty deus". As long as you can tolerate the extra noise the lower the disc the better, I would recommend staying at or above 9 till you get more accustomed to your fine detector. Tone breaks are supposed to aid in your detection. The KISS principle is better meaning fewer is better IMO. I never use more than 3 tones. I usually run my disc around 6.2. I have my first break set at 30, the next at 70. In a new site I try and key only on the higher tones at first to see what maybe the site has to offer and maybe try and draw some conclusions as "has it been hunted? You will find running the deus in 18khz it will sound off a bunch at a homestead site i.e. 12 khz not as much, 8 even less. For a beginner I would recommend a silencer of 1 to start.
Sensitivity level of 85-87 is a good place for a beginner. I recommend using a tracking ground balance. This way you can forget about GB and concentrate on other things. Big iron is where you will have your problems. You can notch 98/99 and this will help in not hearing it. But if you plan to hunt with deus I recommend not notching 98/99. This way you won't miss say a silver dollar and you can start learning what iron sounds like under your deus. Sweep your deus slow. A lot of people read the deus is fast and it is, but for a beginner your old noggin needs to stay caught up with what the deus is telling you. Don't be afraid to resweep even the foggiest of sounds. You will find too this will help you start identifying big iron. Lots of times for me the first sweep over big iron the deus will sound off with high tone. If you will resweep the area with say 4 sweeps with the coils center over the supposed high tone area the deus a lot of times will start crackling or have a broken tone- it's rejecting the iron. To conclude, I would go into basic 1 program go to sensitivity level of 87, disc level of 9, 3 tone with breaks at 40 and 70, 8 khz, reactivity 2, silencer 1, tracking GB and leave the rest of basic 1 settings alone. Good luck.
ps No one, I repeat no one, can hunt a site out one time with one set of deus settings. It would take many hunts with many combinations of settings to do so.
 

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First you need a plan when you get to you site. What are you looking for primarily? coins, jewelry, relics etc. If you are wanting to maybe do a look see with no particular targets in mind go to 12 khz freq 2 reactivity silencer -1,1, or 0 with say disc of 10 start sweeping. Now if you are unfamiliar with site I recommend turning iron volumne on to a level you're comfortable with. While your sweeping and you starting hearing a lot of iron, this is a good indication of habitation and this is where the goodies will be especially if site has been detected previously even by a pro with a "not as good detector in iron as the mighty deus". As long as you can tolerate the extra noise the lower the disc the better, I would recommend staying at or above 9 till you get more accustomed to your fine detector. Tone breaks are supposed to aid in your detection. The KISS principle is better meaning fewer is better IMO. I never use more than 3 tones. I usually run my disc around 6.2. I have my first break set at 30, the next at 70. In a new site I try and key only on the higher tones at first to see what maybe the site has to offer and maybe try and draw some conclusions as "has it been hunted? You will find running the deus in 18khz it will sound off a bunch at a homestead site i.e. 12 khz not as much, 8 even less. For a beginner I would recommend a silencer of 1 to start.
Sensitivity level of 85-87 is a good place for a beginner. I recommend using a tracking ground balance. This way you can forget about GB and concentrate on other things. Big iron is where you will have your problems. You can notch 98/99 and this will help in not hearing it. But if you plan to hunt with deus I recommend not notching 98/99. This way you won't miss say a silver dollar and you can start learning what iron sounds like under your deus. Sweep your deus slow. A lot of people read the deus is fast and it is, but for a beginner your old noggin needs to stay caught up with what the deus is telling you. Don't be afraid to resweep even the foggiest of sounds. You will find too this will help you start identifying big iron. Lots of times for me the first sweep over big iron the deus will sound off with high tone. If you will resweep the area with say 4 sweeps with the coils center over the supposed high tone area the deus a lot of times will start crackling or have a broken tone- it's rejecting the iron. To conclude, I would go into basic 1 program go to sensitivity level of 87, disc level of 9, 3 tone with breaks at 40 and 70, 8 khz, reactivity 2, silencer 1, tracking GB and leave the rest of basic 1 settings alone. Good luck.
ps No one, I repeat no one, can hunt a site out one time with one set of deus settings. It would take many hunts with many combinations of settings to do so.

WOW! Thank you very much. I'm going to print this out and keep it with my Sabisch book...great advice for this new Deus user indeed. I very much appreciate your detailed post. It's been and will be extremely helpful.
 

TNshrapshooter layed it out well.I goto a site,determine what im Hunting.Then determine is the site real trashy,or are the targets spaced out well.Are the targets real deep?Then when you have that info decide on how you want to run your detector.My 1st time on a site I tend to do a bit of cherry picking to determine the depth and density of the items.I usually hunt my sites over and over.So i will use a different approach each time,or when the results arent where I want them.With the deus its like having a few detectors in one.You can try a different setup with the deus(Where non Deus users may need a completly different machine) each time your there until you get the results you like. Depth and trash are the biggest factors when setting up your program/detector in my opinion.Good Luck.HH Jim T
 

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