Tom_in_CA
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2013
- Messages
- 20,739
Hey guys, I'm gonna geek out on this debriefing report 
A couple of friends were down in my area of CA @ early November to do some beach hunting. At the conclusion of their stay, one was kind enough to loan me his Deus for a few weeks. Which I will ship back to him when done.
Over the years I've heard how this is supposed to be the "cat's meow" in nail/iron-riddled sites. But never had my hands on one personally. I've always just reached for my Tesoro Bandito in such situations. Which, as you know, is wimpy on depth, has no TID, etc.
Then a fellow I know gave me an hour's tutorial over the phone from Virginia a few days ago. Walked me through all the settings, pros/cons, etc....
Last night I was able to take it on a maiden test voyage to a certain adobe site. An "adobe site" in CA, is our version of what the east coast guys would probably call a "cellar hole" site. This site was the adobe home of a Mexican land grant recipient. Granted in the early 1830s. Although the dude might already have homesteaded the place earlier. This is just his formal grant date. And since this was on the road between 2 mission era towns, it was a stopping spot in those days. Ie.: hospitality to travelers, did trading, etc....
Today is nothing but a faint rectangle outline of adobe melt in a hilly cow pasture area. After the gold rush and statehood, this was one of a myriad of the 800-ish land grants in CA, that just got taken over by the incoming settlers. Either via bought out, or legal maneuvers , etc.... And apparently by the 1860s, was abandoned. The *newest* coin we ever found there, was an 1860s IH.
When we first researched it in about 1995, it was SO thick with targets, that we literally went into park mindset. Eg.: going high disc, avoiding iron-ridden patches, and not bothering to dig anything that didn't ring the bells of Notre Dame. Just so many targets to choose from. I filled a box with 10 or 20 lbs with green copper, endless cool doohickeys (mankiller balls, gun parts, endless henry shells, lantern parts, buttons, etc....). All told we've pulled about 20 to 25 period coins from here. Many reales, many early seateds, etc.... And perhaps 15 phoenix buttons.
By the early 2000s, all the "easy gimmees" were picked off. Leaving only the thicker iron zones to get more stuff. Because go figure, when we started in 1995-ish, it was machines like XLT, 6000 Di pro, Whites Eagle, and Fisher CZ6. None of which are known for ability in heavy iron.
Then eventually using creative arsenals to see through the iron, we got to where even the iron zone was getting stingy.
So today, the site is nothing more than a test zone. For testing machines for their iron-see-through ability. Such that .... even if you only got some more camp lead or copper snippets you KNOW that your machine or method you're testing is competitive. Ie.: a sport-unto-itself JUST to eek some more conductors from there (even if they're not turning out to be coins ).
Thus this was the perfect test site for the Deus . Started with the "basic" (#1) pre-set program, and modified from there. Assume the basic pre-sets, unless listed here :
1) Disc : negative 1
2) Full tones
3) sens : 90
4) Frequency : 17.6
5) Iron volume : 1
6) Reactivity : 4
7) Target volume 5
8) Audio overload : 0
9) GB (ground balance): 85
10) contrast : 10
The results were astounding : 16 conductive targets. See the pix. And as you can see, several of them *could* have been coins. I especially like the lock-dust cover. That was deep !
Of course , since I'm just learning, I got fooled by cast-iron. There is a different sound, but nagging doubts sent me to dig a few "just to be sure". More than I would have been fooled by the explorer, yet more conductive targets that the Explorer would have found last night. And the ratio actually wasn't that punishing. Like if I got 16 conductors, I don't think I got more than 5 or 6 iron . And for several of those conductors, there was utterly no doubt. So theoretically I could have been more picky, and dug zero iron. But it's a trade off , since some targets could be fighting masking.
Hope y'all enjoyed the report. Looks like I'll be looking to buy one of these, as soon as this loaner period is over
A couple of friends were down in my area of CA @ early November to do some beach hunting. At the conclusion of their stay, one was kind enough to loan me his Deus for a few weeks. Which I will ship back to him when done.
Over the years I've heard how this is supposed to be the "cat's meow" in nail/iron-riddled sites. But never had my hands on one personally. I've always just reached for my Tesoro Bandito in such situations. Which, as you know, is wimpy on depth, has no TID, etc.
Then a fellow I know gave me an hour's tutorial over the phone from Virginia a few days ago. Walked me through all the settings, pros/cons, etc....
Last night I was able to take it on a maiden test voyage to a certain adobe site. An "adobe site" in CA, is our version of what the east coast guys would probably call a "cellar hole" site. This site was the adobe home of a Mexican land grant recipient. Granted in the early 1830s. Although the dude might already have homesteaded the place earlier. This is just his formal grant date. And since this was on the road between 2 mission era towns, it was a stopping spot in those days. Ie.: hospitality to travelers, did trading, etc....
Today is nothing but a faint rectangle outline of adobe melt in a hilly cow pasture area. After the gold rush and statehood, this was one of a myriad of the 800-ish land grants in CA, that just got taken over by the incoming settlers. Either via bought out, or legal maneuvers , etc.... And apparently by the 1860s, was abandoned. The *newest* coin we ever found there, was an 1860s IH.
When we first researched it in about 1995, it was SO thick with targets, that we literally went into park mindset. Eg.: going high disc, avoiding iron-ridden patches, and not bothering to dig anything that didn't ring the bells of Notre Dame. Just so many targets to choose from. I filled a box with 10 or 20 lbs with green copper, endless cool doohickeys (mankiller balls, gun parts, endless henry shells, lantern parts, buttons, etc....). All told we've pulled about 20 to 25 period coins from here. Many reales, many early seateds, etc.... And perhaps 15 phoenix buttons.
By the early 2000s, all the "easy gimmees" were picked off. Leaving only the thicker iron zones to get more stuff. Because go figure, when we started in 1995-ish, it was machines like XLT, 6000 Di pro, Whites Eagle, and Fisher CZ6. None of which are known for ability in heavy iron.
Then eventually using creative arsenals to see through the iron, we got to where even the iron zone was getting stingy.
So today, the site is nothing more than a test zone. For testing machines for their iron-see-through ability. Such that .... even if you only got some more camp lead or copper snippets you KNOW that your machine or method you're testing is competitive. Ie.: a sport-unto-itself JUST to eek some more conductors from there (even if they're not turning out to be coins ).
Thus this was the perfect test site for the Deus . Started with the "basic" (#1) pre-set program, and modified from there. Assume the basic pre-sets, unless listed here :
1) Disc : negative 1
2) Full tones
3) sens : 90
4) Frequency : 17.6
5) Iron volume : 1
6) Reactivity : 4
7) Target volume 5
8) Audio overload : 0
9) GB (ground balance): 85
10) contrast : 10
The results were astounding : 16 conductive targets. See the pix. And as you can see, several of them *could* have been coins. I especially like the lock-dust cover. That was deep !
Of course , since I'm just learning, I got fooled by cast-iron. There is a different sound, but nagging doubts sent me to dig a few "just to be sure". More than I would have been fooled by the explorer, yet more conductive targets that the Explorer would have found last night. And the ratio actually wasn't that punishing. Like if I got 16 conductors, I don't think I got more than 5 or 6 iron . And for several of those conductors, there was utterly no doubt. So theoretically I could have been more picky, and dug zero iron. But it's a trade off , since some targets could be fighting masking.
Hope y'all enjoyed the report. Looks like I'll be looking to buy one of these, as soon as this loaner period is over
Loved the overview and background provided in the post. Think you might be buying a new machine any time soon?
Actually, I have a fairly good idea of what the problem was. I was looking for the “edge”....how BAD can the signal be and still be a coin? I was just too far over the edge, trying to make a bad signal into a coin. Most of us are guilty of this, most of it driven by sheer desperation. But in the same breath...it didn’t just all of the sudden “light sites up” either. It just didn’t happen.
