NCtoad
Forum Supporter
First, some background on me and detecting. I got my very first detector towards the end of last Sept. It is an F70 and I've put a ton of hours on it and found over $300 in clad, at least 4 silver rings, 2 gold rings. But, I'm still a beginner and even though I've gotten very acquainted with the F70, I wouldn't say I'm totally in a zen state with it. The only other detector I've ever used is my tesoro compadre which I bought a few months after getting the fisher.
Now, with that said, on to the Rutus which was very kindly given to me to try out by TNsharpshooter. I've put around 6 hours on the rutus thus far. My first impressions are: not much heavier and about the same to swing as my F70 and maybe even a little more balanced than the F70 with the F70 wearing a nel hunter coil and the rutus wearing the stock 11" DD. Rutus seems sturdy with very little flex. One thing I did notice is the coil plug which attaches to the detector is smaller and looks less robust than the coil plug on my F70, but it works like it should.
Next is the display which is easy to read and has a backlight which is nice for low light conditions like when I took it out early this morning.
The menu is easy to learn to navigate, but could be very confusing if you don't read the manual. If you read the manual and go through various settings it will become second nature and I'm sure this goes for just about any detector with a screen.
Now on to performance: I've been mostly using the stock programs of which there are 7 to choose from. I've mostly been using basic and coins which run at 8khz and 15khz respectively. Once you are in a program it's very easy to change any setting such as reactivity, masking, frequency, tones, etc. If you change any settings they are stored that way and you will resume with those settings on your next outing. You can always go back to the stock program, but then you will lose any changes you made to it.
I do have a test garden that I planted late last fall with a clad quarter at 8", a clad dime at 7" and a zinc penny at 6". This is in some very tough soil in my backyard. It's hard packed red clay filled with tiny bits of mica. I've only done a quick test to see if the Rutus will hit these coins and it does hit the quarter solidly in the basic program, but not as solidly on the dime. Penny is not a problem. In the coins program it hits the dime more solidly than the quarter. Just a quick test with two of the stock programs. BTW, this with the 11" dd coil.
I had a little time this evening and tried something I had done with my F70 a while back in front yard which is darker topsoil. My front yard has more than a few nails in it, so being curious I found a strong iron signal, dug a 5 or 6" deep plug with my sampson shovel and without removing the iron nail, I placed the quarter in the hole and replaced the plug. The F70 did not pick it up the quarter in amongst the iron. So this evening I did basically the same thing with the Rutus. Found a strong iron signal, dug the plug (it was about 4-5" deep this time) and this time I stuck my pinpointer in there and located the nail, but didn't remove it. I placed the quarter on top of the nail, replaced the plug and proceeded to scan the area with the rutus in basic, coins, fast and very fast modes. It did not pick up the quarter. Oh, I had the 9" concentric coil on while performing this test. I then removed the plug took out the quarter and the nail and replaced just the quarter. Now the rutus would hit the quarter, but not a really good quarter signal, the hodograph was arcing to the left and right at some points while circling the target and other at other points it would form a straight vertical line, but at all points it had a good solid signal. So, take that for what it is. If I remember correctly, all four of the programs mentioned above hit it with a strong signal, but the ID wasn't always correct (depending on which direction I was swinging from).
So, I still have over three weeks to use the Rutus. I'll try to give more updates as I become more familiar with it. Thanks again to TNSS...BTW, TNSS I'm looking forward to your test of the deeptech warrior.
Now, with that said, on to the Rutus which was very kindly given to me to try out by TNsharpshooter. I've put around 6 hours on the rutus thus far. My first impressions are: not much heavier and about the same to swing as my F70 and maybe even a little more balanced than the F70 with the F70 wearing a nel hunter coil and the rutus wearing the stock 11" DD. Rutus seems sturdy with very little flex. One thing I did notice is the coil plug which attaches to the detector is smaller and looks less robust than the coil plug on my F70, but it works like it should.
Next is the display which is easy to read and has a backlight which is nice for low light conditions like when I took it out early this morning.
The menu is easy to learn to navigate, but could be very confusing if you don't read the manual. If you read the manual and go through various settings it will become second nature and I'm sure this goes for just about any detector with a screen.
Now on to performance: I've been mostly using the stock programs of which there are 7 to choose from. I've mostly been using basic and coins which run at 8khz and 15khz respectively. Once you are in a program it's very easy to change any setting such as reactivity, masking, frequency, tones, etc. If you change any settings they are stored that way and you will resume with those settings on your next outing. You can always go back to the stock program, but then you will lose any changes you made to it.
I do have a test garden that I planted late last fall with a clad quarter at 8", a clad dime at 7" and a zinc penny at 6". This is in some very tough soil in my backyard. It's hard packed red clay filled with tiny bits of mica. I've only done a quick test to see if the Rutus will hit these coins and it does hit the quarter solidly in the basic program, but not as solidly on the dime. Penny is not a problem. In the coins program it hits the dime more solidly than the quarter. Just a quick test with two of the stock programs. BTW, this with the 11" dd coil.
I had a little time this evening and tried something I had done with my F70 a while back in front yard which is darker topsoil. My front yard has more than a few nails in it, so being curious I found a strong iron signal, dug a 5 or 6" deep plug with my sampson shovel and without removing the iron nail, I placed the quarter in the hole and replaced the plug. The F70 did not pick it up the quarter in amongst the iron. So this evening I did basically the same thing with the Rutus. Found a strong iron signal, dug the plug (it was about 4-5" deep this time) and this time I stuck my pinpointer in there and located the nail, but didn't remove it. I placed the quarter on top of the nail, replaced the plug and proceeded to scan the area with the rutus in basic, coins, fast and very fast modes. It did not pick up the quarter. Oh, I had the 9" concentric coil on while performing this test. I then removed the plug took out the quarter and the nail and replaced just the quarter. Now the rutus would hit the quarter, but not a really good quarter signal, the hodograph was arcing to the left and right at some points while circling the target and other at other points it would form a straight vertical line, but at all points it had a good solid signal. So, take that for what it is. If I remember correctly, all four of the programs mentioned above hit it with a strong signal, but the ID wasn't always correct (depending on which direction I was swinging from).
So, I still have over three weeks to use the Rutus. I'll try to give more updates as I become more familiar with it. Thanks again to TNSS...BTW, TNSS I'm looking forward to your test of the deeptech warrior.
