randy
Forum Supporter
Second hunt with the Deus II, 4 hours. P6 with little changes, only reactivity = 1 and sens = 95 (I like making small changes a few at a time). 11 inch coil.
Site is a 300 year old field with modern and old trash as you get close to the old house, and more sparse in the farther areas. Crop stubble kept the coil about an inch off the ground, give or take (not accounted for in reported depths to follow).
E-Trac w/13 inch has pulled 4 coppers (KG II to largie) and a couple of wheaties from this site. About 1 coin per three hours on average.
Today's hunt with the D II: 182x 1/2 cent, 2 wheaties, a small button, and a copper/silver?? whatchamacallit [pics at bottom of post].
The half cent rang in at TID 91-92, measured depth 12cm/5 inches
Toasted wheatie rang in at TID 77, clean one at 87. Depth about 3 inches
The whatchamacallit came in at TID 91. I have no idea, but the middle part looks like weathered silver in person, like a large coin. I see no writing on it, and don't have a test kit at present, so any help on identifying it is appreciated.
I think any reasonable machine would have found these targets. I can't help what is in the wild, tho it would have been nice if the 1/2 cent were at 10 inches to see if the machine could hit it. I just have little attention span for planted coins or test gardens; its just me, I only use wild hunting in testing, and can't help what is in the wild.
The button is probably the most impressive for D II performance. It was at 10 cm/4 inches, and was a good signal. TID bounced between 61 and 69, but it was clear a target was there. I think hitting a target this small at 4 inches isn't bad, tho I have no real comparison data with other machines. Its not an impressive result, but all the small silvers I've found (1/2 dimes, 1/2 reales, trime), have been shallower when accounting for the crop stubble.
It was a good day for the D II for me. The E-Trac with the 13 probably would have found all of these targets, but the D II was more efficient. No fatigue from swinging, better target locating, faster swing rate to cover more ground (and I covered more ground and found more coins with an 11 vs 13, tho the more coins part is just luck), awesome with iron, and decent with trash. More on the latter 2 points following --
Regarding iron, the D II continued its amazing run at identifying deep iron. I only dug one iron false; all other iron digs were just tests (i.e., I know its saying this is iron, I just want to make sure I am learning the machine correctly). So far, it is way better, IMHO, than my Minelabs at sniffing out deep iron that sounds good. That said, until I dig a deep high conductor with it, the test remains simply in progress, and no conclusion can be drawn.
Regarding conductive trash, many reviews have claimed the D II is a trash magnet. It may be, but for my part, I was able to tell conductive trash by its size and shape. The D II is really good at this; move the coil slowly, and the size and shape of the target can be estimated. I dug many of these to be sure, and was right every time. One was an 8 inch deep high conductor that sounded just a bit longer one way than the other, and true enough it was not a coin. It was about 3x as long as wide. YMMV of course, but this technique works really good on canslaw and copper pipe, for example.
Regarding bottlecaps, I dug a few. Nothing you can do about it, IMHO. Good stuff can live where they ring in at, and I've never seen a VLF machine that can tell the difference, given the varying size and metals they are made of.
Regarding pulltabs, this is a big negative. I dug 2 more that came in at TID 80. This is between the 2 wheaties I dug today (77 and 87). Counting my first hunt, one was 50s style, one 70s style, and one modern. This is a bug, IMHO. Pulltabs should not come in between where wheaties come in. No other VLF machine I know has this problem. I will work on trying to sort this out -- is it a problem with me, P6, or are others having this problem? If I can't figure this out, the D II will not be a goto machine, especially for parks and schools, but so far it replaces the E-Trac for fields if I can get the 13 inch coil, as it seems just as deep, and more efficient.
The other negative is that the headphones started to hurt at about 2 hours. Not good for someone who bought the machine for 10-12 hour hunts. Perhaps there are more comfy aftermarket phones, but at this price point, aftermarket parts should not be necessary. Of course, headphone comfort is a personal matter, and others may find them comfortable.
Overall, after 6 hours and today's hunt, leaning positive on the D II, but much to figure out, including the pulltab > wheatie thing.
Site is a 300 year old field with modern and old trash as you get close to the old house, and more sparse in the farther areas. Crop stubble kept the coil about an inch off the ground, give or take (not accounted for in reported depths to follow).
E-Trac w/13 inch has pulled 4 coppers (KG II to largie) and a couple of wheaties from this site. About 1 coin per three hours on average.
Today's hunt with the D II: 182x 1/2 cent, 2 wheaties, a small button, and a copper/silver?? whatchamacallit [pics at bottom of post].
The half cent rang in at TID 91-92, measured depth 12cm/5 inches
Toasted wheatie rang in at TID 77, clean one at 87. Depth about 3 inches
The whatchamacallit came in at TID 91. I have no idea, but the middle part looks like weathered silver in person, like a large coin. I see no writing on it, and don't have a test kit at present, so any help on identifying it is appreciated.
I think any reasonable machine would have found these targets. I can't help what is in the wild, tho it would have been nice if the 1/2 cent were at 10 inches to see if the machine could hit it. I just have little attention span for planted coins or test gardens; its just me, I only use wild hunting in testing, and can't help what is in the wild.
The button is probably the most impressive for D II performance. It was at 10 cm/4 inches, and was a good signal. TID bounced between 61 and 69, but it was clear a target was there. I think hitting a target this small at 4 inches isn't bad, tho I have no real comparison data with other machines. Its not an impressive result, but all the small silvers I've found (1/2 dimes, 1/2 reales, trime), have been shallower when accounting for the crop stubble.
It was a good day for the D II for me. The E-Trac with the 13 probably would have found all of these targets, but the D II was more efficient. No fatigue from swinging, better target locating, faster swing rate to cover more ground (and I covered more ground and found more coins with an 11 vs 13, tho the more coins part is just luck), awesome with iron, and decent with trash. More on the latter 2 points following --
Regarding iron, the D II continued its amazing run at identifying deep iron. I only dug one iron false; all other iron digs were just tests (i.e., I know its saying this is iron, I just want to make sure I am learning the machine correctly). So far, it is way better, IMHO, than my Minelabs at sniffing out deep iron that sounds good. That said, until I dig a deep high conductor with it, the test remains simply in progress, and no conclusion can be drawn.
Regarding conductive trash, many reviews have claimed the D II is a trash magnet. It may be, but for my part, I was able to tell conductive trash by its size and shape. The D II is really good at this; move the coil slowly, and the size and shape of the target can be estimated. I dug many of these to be sure, and was right every time. One was an 8 inch deep high conductor that sounded just a bit longer one way than the other, and true enough it was not a coin. It was about 3x as long as wide. YMMV of course, but this technique works really good on canslaw and copper pipe, for example.
Regarding bottlecaps, I dug a few. Nothing you can do about it, IMHO. Good stuff can live where they ring in at, and I've never seen a VLF machine that can tell the difference, given the varying size and metals they are made of.
Regarding pulltabs, this is a big negative. I dug 2 more that came in at TID 80. This is between the 2 wheaties I dug today (77 and 87). Counting my first hunt, one was 50s style, one 70s style, and one modern. This is a bug, IMHO. Pulltabs should not come in between where wheaties come in. No other VLF machine I know has this problem. I will work on trying to sort this out -- is it a problem with me, P6, or are others having this problem? If I can't figure this out, the D II will not be a goto machine, especially for parks and schools, but so far it replaces the E-Trac for fields if I can get the 13 inch coil, as it seems just as deep, and more efficient.
The other negative is that the headphones started to hurt at about 2 hours. Not good for someone who bought the machine for 10-12 hour hunts. Perhaps there are more comfy aftermarket phones, but at this price point, aftermarket parts should not be necessary. Of course, headphone comfort is a personal matter, and others may find them comfortable.
Overall, after 6 hours and today's hunt, leaning positive on the D II, but much to figure out, including the pulltab > wheatie thing.
