60streeter
Senior Member
Feel they have mastered it? I dig almost every day, for the last two years, and I am light years away from using that term... however I have learned a few tricks.....
How many here who run the D2.....
- Thread starter 60streeter
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Fooleeze
Senior Member
I'm at about 2 years, and far from mastered it. I don't play with settings much. Have found a few programs I Like, I customized he "Deep HC" program to my liking, and mostly use that. (I will play with the reactivity as you suggested in your other post). But I'd be happy to come visit you in Massachusetts and hit some sites to learn what you know about it! 
D2 has taken me longer to get used to than any other detector. No where near a master, still consider myself a novice and I’ve been using it exclusively for a year. I am better with it now than I was 6 months ago, I dig a lot less nails and when I do I usually kinda know it is a nail before I dig it. I try others’ programs and then tweak them to fit my area. It’s a great machine in my opinion but definitely taking some getting use to.
IDXMonster
Elite Member
About 325 hours in and no, nowhere close. I’m very much a person who wants to know every detail of everything and knew the CTX VERY well. Nowhere near that yet with the D2 1.5 years in. What stunts learning is not having enough of the kind of target you’re after, you can’t build mental notes of patterns and results when they are far and few between. The “harvest” has been going on for decades, we’re working with progressively more difficult targets which makes learning a machine a longer process.
maxxkatt
Forum Supporter
The last detector that I knew pretty well was my AT Pro. That was because it was a well designed detector with not a lot of advanced settings. Then I bought the 800. Thinking it was going to be the detector that would do all the work for me. Wrong! I fiddled with the advance settings for about a year and a half without understanding really well the metal detecting theories need to really use these advanced settings properly. However the 800 forced me to learn and understand these metal detecting theories better. The experienced detectorists who did understand these MD theories were doing quite well with the 800 and those who just stayed with the stock programs did ok also. But I did not. I gave up on the 800 and bought a new CTX3030. Wow, what a great machine. By that time I had a much better knowledge of metal detecting theories. Unfortunately it was too heavy for me and I hated swing harnesses. Sold it and bought the XP2 9" coil. Love the XP2, but have certainly not mastered it. I use Rattlehead's Silver Slayer program and a few tweaked stock programs for relic hunting. Still learning and probably always will be. But that is part of the fun of this hobby. Learning your new detector and trying to get better. As most experienced detectorists say, it is permissions and locations that is very important and of course getting out there and detect as much as possible. I suspect my XP2 will be my forever detector.
Rattlehead
Forum Supporter
I've had a Deus 2 since it was first released. Had an original Deus before that. I still have a lot to learn and doubt I'll ever truly "master" the machine. There are endless target/ground scenarios which means there's always more to learn with a detector like this.
There was some discussion on this forum about how long it takes to learn a VLF detector. 100 hours was tossed around as the "standard". That totally depends on the detector, if it matches up well with the ground conditions here and whether I really want to learn it and maybe even master it. Pulse induction detectors are a whole different story.
I love metal detectors and metal detecting so when a detector simply can't handle the conditions where I detect, I know in about 5 minutes that there is no point in learning it. Detectors that have all sorts of features but all give high conductor or iron responses on every target that is 3" to 5" deep or deeper are basically worthless to me since most of the places I hunt have digging restrictions and digging it all is not allowed. I might as well be using a single tone PI if I want to hit deep targets or just use any entry level VLF detector and forget about targets deeper than 4" or so. I just can't accept those limitations. Some detectors are so cool like the Whites V3i, the Etrac and CTX3030 that I put in a lot more effort in trying to make them work here but no, there was no point. I could have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours and I would not have been satisfied with their performance. It's not their fault or mine. They just aren't suited for the ground conditions here.
Deus 2 is one of the few that actually works here and is a huge improvement over Deus 1 and the ORX because its simultaneous multi frequency technology does what it claims to do even in the ground conditions here. According to my hunt logs, I have about 400 hours using it, which has worn out one of the cam locks and I'm on my second remote mounting bracket. I have started to master high conductor target recognition like standard cherry picking especially for deep 8 to 12" coin sized high conductors. Every deep non-ferrous target has a degree of an iron "halo" here even when they are standalone targets. I am going to concentrate on the low and mid conductors this summer with Deus 2 and hopefully learn some techniques for more US nickel and gold jewelry recovery on shallower and then deeper targets in that category. I have taken it gold prospecting and it's okay for that and pretty easy to learn. I have basically mastered it for that purpose using its Goldfield mode and know its strengths and limitations. More coin/relic hunting in thick iron is another project for this summer. Some saltwater beach hunting is another thing on my Deus 2 list.
After many years with Deus 1, Deus 2 is not complicated for me as far as navigating its controls and features. It is definitely full of performance possibilities that I am only beginning to learn about.
I love metal detectors and metal detecting so when a detector simply can't handle the conditions where I detect, I know in about 5 minutes that there is no point in learning it. Detectors that have all sorts of features but all give high conductor or iron responses on every target that is 3" to 5" deep or deeper are basically worthless to me since most of the places I hunt have digging restrictions and digging it all is not allowed. I might as well be using a single tone PI if I want to hit deep targets or just use any entry level VLF detector and forget about targets deeper than 4" or so. I just can't accept those limitations. Some detectors are so cool like the Whites V3i, the Etrac and CTX3030 that I put in a lot more effort in trying to make them work here but no, there was no point. I could have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours and I would not have been satisfied with their performance. It's not their fault or mine. They just aren't suited for the ground conditions here.
Deus 2 is one of the few that actually works here and is a huge improvement over Deus 1 and the ORX because its simultaneous multi frequency technology does what it claims to do even in the ground conditions here. According to my hunt logs, I have about 400 hours using it, which has worn out one of the cam locks and I'm on my second remote mounting bracket. I have started to master high conductor target recognition like standard cherry picking especially for deep 8 to 12" coin sized high conductors. Every deep non-ferrous target has a degree of an iron "halo" here even when they are standalone targets. I am going to concentrate on the low and mid conductors this summer with Deus 2 and hopefully learn some techniques for more US nickel and gold jewelry recovery on shallower and then deeper targets in that category. I have taken it gold prospecting and it's okay for that and pretty easy to learn. I have basically mastered it for that purpose using its Goldfield mode and know its strengths and limitations. More coin/relic hunting in thick iron is another project for this summer. Some saltwater beach hunting is another thing on my Deus 2 list.
After many years with Deus 1, Deus 2 is not complicated for me as far as navigating its controls and features. It is definitely full of performance possibilities that I am only beginning to learn about.
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cellrdwellr
Elite Member
Personally, the introduction of SMF made learning a detector a much longer process. There are so many variables to todays detectors, a press or two of a button and you can have a completely different detector. I felt like I learned my AT Gold pretty much top to bottom in only a couple years. I've had the equinox for much longer, and it teaches me new tricks all the time. IMO, if most spent more time with what they are currently using instead of chasing the next best thing, their results would be much better. Took me a couple detectors and a few thousand dollars to realize this. That said, the XPD2 looks like a great machine, especially how light and compact it is. I told myself I would not buy one unless it was about half price (not interested in WS6), and waited about a year for any bugs or quality issues to be sorted out. Now we are seeing used ones show up for around half price, and it looks like XP has put out a few updates since the release. I'm looking to see what Garrett is up to, if that is a dud, I just might check out a D2. Not that I have time to use it, but still... 
hearing alot of good stuff about the D2. Good luck out there 60, spring is just about here!
hearing alot of good stuff about the D2. Good luck out there 60, spring is just about here!Unlike you pure mortals I had the deus 2 swing down in the first day in and out between trees keeping it level I can say I am a master . Like Will Sonnet said no brag just fact 
As far as the other minor details that may take some time .
There's a big difference of hunting everyday compared to once a week or 5 days in a row 8 hours a day .
You can make it hard to learn or easier stay in one mode one audio .
A guy that relic hunts gold hunts water hunts old coin hunts will have a much longer learning curve than a guy like me that hunts just old coins .
Sure John says HC is pulling him some deep stuff can I use it where I hunt using the present mode and frequencies I use . Now I can change from 4 to 24 to 4 to 14 and still use the same mode and not go to HC yea I might not get that 1/2 inch more depth but would of I got it anyway where I am hunting . Then the IDS are going to change we can see this but the sound will change to .
To make the job easier stay in the mode you find best for your conditions and refine them a little at a time not going to a new mode every hour you will never learn anything but say this thing is just to complicated time for a different detector . sube
Like Will Sonnet said no brag just fact As far as the other minor details that may take some time .
There's a big difference of hunting everyday compared to once a week or 5 days in a row 8 hours a day .
You can make it hard to learn or easier stay in one mode one audio .
A guy that relic hunts gold hunts water hunts old coin hunts will have a much longer learning curve than a guy like me that hunts just old coins .
Sure John says HC is pulling him some deep stuff can I use it where I hunt using the present mode and frequencies I use . Now I can change from 4 to 24 to 4 to 14 and still use the same mode and not go to HC yea I might not get that 1/2 inch more depth but would of I got it anyway where I am hunting . Then the IDS are going to change we can see this but the sound will change to .
To make the job easier stay in the mode you find best for your conditions and refine them a little at a time not going to a new mode every hour you will never learn anything but say this thing is just to complicated time for a different detector . sube
