Sven
Well-known member
First Canadian Vista X Hunt
June 2, 2019
Today would be my first hunt with the Vista X, which was originally planed for Saturday, the day before.
Due to stormy weather and errands that had to be done, never got the chance to get out and detect.
Took advantage of getting to know the X by bench testing and worked out some trial settings to use, the
night before. Bench testing is not real world testing and came across something I posted previously in
error. On the bench, in the high rise we live the Iron Volume control was giving me 3 options depending
upon the setting. Near max—two tone volume reduction at about 3⁄4, then changing to single tone then
near min setting, silent operation. It did not change to single tone, during the actual hunt, you can still hear
2 tones but, the low iron tone is very faint until the setting is dropped to min. Then you hear silence or a
fast tic, burp or whatever you would like to call it.
Early this morning at around 5am, awoke without the alarm clock. Still looked pretty nasty out, howling
wind and 50 F degree temperature. Looked iffy, maybe another rain period. By 8am, didn’t look much
better. Took the chance it would clear up as the weatherman predicted and headed out the door, gear in
tow.
Headed for a huge schoolyard in back of a middle school, popular spot for many to still hunt for treasures.
My wife at one point found a half dime there and another club member found a huge gold chain there.
When I arrived, was hoping it would not be a swamp. Usually this place is dry and the ground is pretty
tough to dig. Scouted out the place and found that some sections were very damp and other spots with
water on the surface. Hunted the dry islands in that field.
Turned on the Vista X, then proceeded to ground balance to the soil. Piece of cake took about 30
seconds. This place is going to be a real good test ground, no doubt would encounter lots of trash.
Doesn’t matter, planned on digging just about every signal to learn the audio sounds of good and bad
targets. Was not disappointed, the trash giving off a low tone. Started off great, the first target, within the
first 5 minutes, I dug was a nickel at 6”. Then started digging, lots of canslaw of all shapes and sizes, foil,
pulltabs, parts of pulltabs, tiny wire, small nails, some small iron pieces. In between those targets, were
coins. Mostly Canadian clad coins, a few US coins that came from the 6” deep range. Remember the first
penny at 7” deep. Was getting tired digging small foil at 6-7” in hopes of finding some gold, found some
gold but, it was gold foil. After 3 hours of detecting, packed up and drove to another schoolyard, I did
pretty good at last year.
The settings I was starting off with were as follows:
Disc 1----- set at 30.3
Alt Disc----set at 25.6
Iron volume –-set at 45
Threshold---set at 45
Gain--- set at 45
I set my disc up so a good target in Disc 1 would give a high tone, Alt Disc was set lower. How this would
work is when hunting in Disc 1 mode if you got a low tone it would be at the point Canadian clad would
give hopefully a mixed tone, which is also the range of acceptance of a women's thin 10kt gold ring. Alt
Disc was set at the point where foil gives off a high tone, small nails and such gives off a low tone. This
would give a high tone on smaller gold and coins falling in that range. So when a high tone target was
found in Disc 1, time to dig. If a low tone target was found, switch to Alt Disc. If again it was a low tone,
don’t dig, it would be trash, iron. Now if the target gave off a high tone, worth investigating, it could be gold
or another desirable conductor taking home. This makes for a good alternative to thumbing a single disc
control trying to ID a target. With the two disc controls, you can pretty well customize the way you want to
use discrimination.With a DD coil there is always a concern how well you able to pinpoint. Some detector brands, that use DD coils pinpoint better than others. Deeptech with the Vista X, did a super job building the 9x11 search
coil. Pinpoints like a charm, the detectors recovery re-tune speed is just right for effortless pinpointing. For
the most part, 3” diameter plug holes are possible. Did have my electronic pinpointer handy at all times to
help locate the deeper targets in the hole or those sideways targets located closer to the sides of the
holes. Interference between the pinpointer and Vista X was zero unless it was in detection range of the
X’s search coil. Didn’t have to move the coil off to the side, when setting the X down etc.
Here’s a carry over trick I used when detecting with a Tesoro with a true all metal based threshold mode. It
helps classify and Id a target. When locating a target while hunting in disc mode, I would switch to all
metal to see if the target audio volume remained the same, grew louder or quieter. Since the Vista X has
on e 3 position toggle: All Metal/ Disc 1/ Alt Disc, fell back into my old habit. Keep in mind, if I recall,
DeepTechs have similar depth while hunting in All Metal or Disc mode. Since AM mode is just a single
tone mode, might as well run in Disc mode which is two tone. AM mode came in handy to check a target
and to make pinpointing easier. AM mode uses the high tone for all targets. High tones are easy to
pinpoint. Get a mixed tone in Disc mode, pinpointing is just a tad wishy washie. Just pull back the toggle
switch to AM mode, the single tone is tight and crisp for precise pinpointing.
Made it to the second schoolyard, parked, had a snack and a drink, while deciding which portion of the
field to hunt. Decided to start on the left half, then headed off to that area. Once again ground balanced
the Vista X, kept my settings the same as before. This school is still pretty junky, not as bad as the first
one. More coins at this school along with similar junk as the last.......Silver coins at this school are pretty
well gone, found by others years ago. It does give up some silver jewelry now and then. Today was a
“then day”, a small 9.25 Sterling earring reflected sunlight off its shiney surface when it just popped out of
the hole. A small silver religious medallion was also dug, haven’t looked at it closely yet, might be just
silver plated. Overall this field was a better place today.
Now and then, experimented with different settings to see how the X would react. One change was
moving the Disc settings back a few points. This helped in keying in on those pesky Canadian clad dimes,
which I started finding with more accuracy. Played around with Gain set at 0 and Threshold at Max, could
be useful when coins and other similar sized treasure are shallow to about 5”. Ran those setting maxed
out to full, just a tad chattery, not annoying and deeper, too.
To sum it up, a great hunt, good learning experience, this detector goes deep and is easy to set up and
use. An superb detector for anyone who has been using a beep and dig type machine. Or for some one
who wants to try an alternative type detector than one of the many screened target ID machine with all the
fancy bells and whistles.
==================================================================
Some detectorists had some questions about the Vista X, that I will answer that are of my opinion.
Cosmetics, mechanically: Build quality is superb, parts fit nicely. Long middle shaft and long lower rod
than usually found, extending the search coil out for a longer reach for tall people is not a problem. I am
6’1” and the lower rod fully inserted into the middle tube extends the coil out in from of my feet at 8”.
Control layout: Easy to manipulate. The control pots have a tighter rotational feel than many detectors.
Will be very hard to knock out of adjustment settings.
Toggle switches for either left or right handed use.
Weight and balance: With the 9x11 search coil makes it just a bit coil heavy. Should balance perfect when
DeepTech produces the 7” coil for the Vista X. Or even with the 5” coil. When the detector is et down on
the ground, it does not have a tendency to fall over due to the battery compartment weight and the squared
off ends of the search coil.On/Off Switch: It’s in the back, some concern that it may be easily turned off by accident climbing, detecting thru brush areas. Maybe if you bump into something moving backwards. I accidentally turned the detector on when putting it into the cars truck, the switch bumped the side well bump.
Speaker position: It is under the battery compartment, like some other brands. Could moisture or dirt get
into the speaker grill cut outs? Always possible in that position when setting the detector down in wet,
dirty, muddy areas. Today ran into that situation. Before I left home I put a small plastic patch cover over
the speaker grill. Garrett used to supply little clear plastic covers to place over the speaker grills on their
detectors. And they were on top of the control box. DeepTech uses speakers with plastic mylar cones
unlike the paper grills that were used by other manufacturers which are somewhat water resistant.
Target signal clarity, intensity, and width: The Vista X audio is crisp and clear. Coin and small target width
is tight, about the width of the search coils center support. Trash iron targets will give a wider report
according to the type, size of junk and composition. Target report intensity will increase, decrease
depending upon size and depth.
Squared off search coil ends: Doesn’t seem to have any unusual effects. Overall the coil acts more like a
round DD coil than an elliptical one.
Threshold audio: Not super smooth like on older VLF machines like many in the USA are used to.
Headphone jack: on the back of the of the battery box. A good spot for it, since it allows the headphone
cord to naturally come up the side of your body under your armpit. Less chance of being entangled in the
brush. Doesn’t hamper the ability to place the detector off to the side when setting in on the ground and
doesn’t stretch the headphone cord pulling the headphones off your head.
S-Handle and middle and lower rods: s-handle is still aluminum, middle and lower rods are of lightweight
carbon fiber. A set of spring clips are sent with the X. So they can be inserted in the tapered tube on the s-
handle and on the lower rod. This will now allow you to use a DeepTech aluminum middle shaft if you ever
desired that option. The camlocks sure do beat twist and lock couplers.
Battery compartment: No battery door hinges to break, snap off from weakening caused by opening and
closing. An easy to twist to open and close cover.
Detection performance: It is deep, if I need to compare it to another detector with similar size coil, the
Tesoro Tejon/ Vaquro and the Nokta Anfibio-Multi metered machine. The Vista X and the Anfibio-Multi are
my two current machines to cover my meter less knobs and switches machine and metered target ID
machine needs. Just waiting on the smaller DeepTech coils.
EMI: None encountered while detecting the two school yards.
Discrimination: Excellent range from accepting tiny iron to rejecting zincs, more in line what
USA/Canadian detectorists prefer. Good for relic hunters and for those that hunt coins and jewelry.
Canadian coins: For those detectorists in Canada wondering how it does detecting Canadian clad coins.
Not a problem finding them. The Vista X gets them just as Tesoro detectors love them.
June 2, 2019
Today would be my first hunt with the Vista X, which was originally planed for Saturday, the day before.
Due to stormy weather and errands that had to be done, never got the chance to get out and detect.
Took advantage of getting to know the X by bench testing and worked out some trial settings to use, the
night before. Bench testing is not real world testing and came across something I posted previously in
error. On the bench, in the high rise we live the Iron Volume control was giving me 3 options depending
upon the setting. Near max—two tone volume reduction at about 3⁄4, then changing to single tone then
near min setting, silent operation. It did not change to single tone, during the actual hunt, you can still hear
2 tones but, the low iron tone is very faint until the setting is dropped to min. Then you hear silence or a
fast tic, burp or whatever you would like to call it.
Early this morning at around 5am, awoke without the alarm clock. Still looked pretty nasty out, howling
wind and 50 F degree temperature. Looked iffy, maybe another rain period. By 8am, didn’t look much
better. Took the chance it would clear up as the weatherman predicted and headed out the door, gear in
tow.
Headed for a huge schoolyard in back of a middle school, popular spot for many to still hunt for treasures.
My wife at one point found a half dime there and another club member found a huge gold chain there.
When I arrived, was hoping it would not be a swamp. Usually this place is dry and the ground is pretty
tough to dig. Scouted out the place and found that some sections were very damp and other spots with
water on the surface. Hunted the dry islands in that field.
Turned on the Vista X, then proceeded to ground balance to the soil. Piece of cake took about 30
seconds. This place is going to be a real good test ground, no doubt would encounter lots of trash.
Doesn’t matter, planned on digging just about every signal to learn the audio sounds of good and bad
targets. Was not disappointed, the trash giving off a low tone. Started off great, the first target, within the
first 5 minutes, I dug was a nickel at 6”. Then started digging, lots of canslaw of all shapes and sizes, foil,
pulltabs, parts of pulltabs, tiny wire, small nails, some small iron pieces. In between those targets, were
coins. Mostly Canadian clad coins, a few US coins that came from the 6” deep range. Remember the first
penny at 7” deep. Was getting tired digging small foil at 6-7” in hopes of finding some gold, found some
gold but, it was gold foil. After 3 hours of detecting, packed up and drove to another schoolyard, I did
pretty good at last year.
The settings I was starting off with were as follows:
Disc 1----- set at 30.3
Alt Disc----set at 25.6
Iron volume –-set at 45
Threshold---set at 45
Gain--- set at 45
I set my disc up so a good target in Disc 1 would give a high tone, Alt Disc was set lower. How this would
work is when hunting in Disc 1 mode if you got a low tone it would be at the point Canadian clad would
give hopefully a mixed tone, which is also the range of acceptance of a women's thin 10kt gold ring. Alt
Disc was set at the point where foil gives off a high tone, small nails and such gives off a low tone. This
would give a high tone on smaller gold and coins falling in that range. So when a high tone target was
found in Disc 1, time to dig. If a low tone target was found, switch to Alt Disc. If again it was a low tone,
don’t dig, it would be trash, iron. Now if the target gave off a high tone, worth investigating, it could be gold
or another desirable conductor taking home. This makes for a good alternative to thumbing a single disc
control trying to ID a target. With the two disc controls, you can pretty well customize the way you want to
use discrimination.With a DD coil there is always a concern how well you able to pinpoint. Some detector brands, that use DD coils pinpoint better than others. Deeptech with the Vista X, did a super job building the 9x11 search
coil. Pinpoints like a charm, the detectors recovery re-tune speed is just right for effortless pinpointing. For
the most part, 3” diameter plug holes are possible. Did have my electronic pinpointer handy at all times to
help locate the deeper targets in the hole or those sideways targets located closer to the sides of the
holes. Interference between the pinpointer and Vista X was zero unless it was in detection range of the
X’s search coil. Didn’t have to move the coil off to the side, when setting the X down etc.
Here’s a carry over trick I used when detecting with a Tesoro with a true all metal based threshold mode. It
helps classify and Id a target. When locating a target while hunting in disc mode, I would switch to all
metal to see if the target audio volume remained the same, grew louder or quieter. Since the Vista X has
on e 3 position toggle: All Metal/ Disc 1/ Alt Disc, fell back into my old habit. Keep in mind, if I recall,
DeepTechs have similar depth while hunting in All Metal or Disc mode. Since AM mode is just a single
tone mode, might as well run in Disc mode which is two tone. AM mode came in handy to check a target
and to make pinpointing easier. AM mode uses the high tone for all targets. High tones are easy to
pinpoint. Get a mixed tone in Disc mode, pinpointing is just a tad wishy washie. Just pull back the toggle
switch to AM mode, the single tone is tight and crisp for precise pinpointing.
Made it to the second schoolyard, parked, had a snack and a drink, while deciding which portion of the
field to hunt. Decided to start on the left half, then headed off to that area. Once again ground balanced
the Vista X, kept my settings the same as before. This school is still pretty junky, not as bad as the first
one. More coins at this school along with similar junk as the last.......Silver coins at this school are pretty
well gone, found by others years ago. It does give up some silver jewelry now and then. Today was a
“then day”, a small 9.25 Sterling earring reflected sunlight off its shiney surface when it just popped out of
the hole. A small silver religious medallion was also dug, haven’t looked at it closely yet, might be just
silver plated. Overall this field was a better place today.
Now and then, experimented with different settings to see how the X would react. One change was
moving the Disc settings back a few points. This helped in keying in on those pesky Canadian clad dimes,
which I started finding with more accuracy. Played around with Gain set at 0 and Threshold at Max, could
be useful when coins and other similar sized treasure are shallow to about 5”. Ran those setting maxed
out to full, just a tad chattery, not annoying and deeper, too.
To sum it up, a great hunt, good learning experience, this detector goes deep and is easy to set up and
use. An superb detector for anyone who has been using a beep and dig type machine. Or for some one
who wants to try an alternative type detector than one of the many screened target ID machine with all the
fancy bells and whistles.
==================================================================
Some detectorists had some questions about the Vista X, that I will answer that are of my opinion.
Cosmetics, mechanically: Build quality is superb, parts fit nicely. Long middle shaft and long lower rod
than usually found, extending the search coil out for a longer reach for tall people is not a problem. I am
6’1” and the lower rod fully inserted into the middle tube extends the coil out in from of my feet at 8”.
Control layout: Easy to manipulate. The control pots have a tighter rotational feel than many detectors.
Will be very hard to knock out of adjustment settings.
Toggle switches for either left or right handed use.
Weight and balance: With the 9x11 search coil makes it just a bit coil heavy. Should balance perfect when
DeepTech produces the 7” coil for the Vista X. Or even with the 5” coil. When the detector is et down on
the ground, it does not have a tendency to fall over due to the battery compartment weight and the squared
off ends of the search coil.On/Off Switch: It’s in the back, some concern that it may be easily turned off by accident climbing, detecting thru brush areas. Maybe if you bump into something moving backwards. I accidentally turned the detector on when putting it into the cars truck, the switch bumped the side well bump.
Speaker position: It is under the battery compartment, like some other brands. Could moisture or dirt get
into the speaker grill cut outs? Always possible in that position when setting the detector down in wet,
dirty, muddy areas. Today ran into that situation. Before I left home I put a small plastic patch cover over
the speaker grill. Garrett used to supply little clear plastic covers to place over the speaker grills on their
detectors. And they were on top of the control box. DeepTech uses speakers with plastic mylar cones
unlike the paper grills that were used by other manufacturers which are somewhat water resistant.
Target signal clarity, intensity, and width: The Vista X audio is crisp and clear. Coin and small target width
is tight, about the width of the search coils center support. Trash iron targets will give a wider report
according to the type, size of junk and composition. Target report intensity will increase, decrease
depending upon size and depth.
Squared off search coil ends: Doesn’t seem to have any unusual effects. Overall the coil acts more like a
round DD coil than an elliptical one.
Threshold audio: Not super smooth like on older VLF machines like many in the USA are used to.
Headphone jack: on the back of the of the battery box. A good spot for it, since it allows the headphone
cord to naturally come up the side of your body under your armpit. Less chance of being entangled in the
brush. Doesn’t hamper the ability to place the detector off to the side when setting in on the ground and
doesn’t stretch the headphone cord pulling the headphones off your head.
S-Handle and middle and lower rods: s-handle is still aluminum, middle and lower rods are of lightweight
carbon fiber. A set of spring clips are sent with the X. So they can be inserted in the tapered tube on the s-
handle and on the lower rod. This will now allow you to use a DeepTech aluminum middle shaft if you ever
desired that option. The camlocks sure do beat twist and lock couplers.
Battery compartment: No battery door hinges to break, snap off from weakening caused by opening and
closing. An easy to twist to open and close cover.
Detection performance: It is deep, if I need to compare it to another detector with similar size coil, the
Tesoro Tejon/ Vaquro and the Nokta Anfibio-Multi metered machine. The Vista X and the Anfibio-Multi are
my two current machines to cover my meter less knobs and switches machine and metered target ID
machine needs. Just waiting on the smaller DeepTech coils.
EMI: None encountered while detecting the two school yards.
Discrimination: Excellent range from accepting tiny iron to rejecting zincs, more in line what
USA/Canadian detectorists prefer. Good for relic hunters and for those that hunt coins and jewelry.
Canadian coins: For those detectorists in Canada wondering how it does detecting Canadian clad coins.
Not a problem finding them. The Vista X gets them just as Tesoro detectors love them.
