Kevin B. said:
In my style of hunting, namely: Anywhere I have permission, be it old homesites where the old home is still standing, or out in the woods where all that is left is a pile of chimney bricks, or out in the fields where skirmishes was occured, my Deus has shown some impressive depths. In situations where the ground is fairly clean, or where square nails are sparsly scattered, I run program Two. 12 khz, 6.7 points od DISC, 97 to 99 sens, and I have dug bullets and round balls deeper than my predator shovel blade. Sorry, can't give ya that in inches. But to me, it's deep. I have dug 22 casings as deep as my garret ProPointer. I don't carry a tol that will measure, I just use my digging tool and Pro pointer as a guage of sorts.
I DID air test my Deus using the standard clad dime and it air tested at 12.5 inches, going on 13 inches witha repeatable hi tone. I realize that air tests mean nothing when it comes to measuring the depth capabilities of that unit in certain soils. But still, it gave me confidence.
There is something that I MUST say and it has EVERYTHING to do with depth. When I first got my Deus, and read the manual, and then ran out to my test garden where I have various targets, I turned it on, placed it on Program One, Program Two and so on, and I could NOT hit none of my stuff but the shallowest!!! My heart just hurt for a minute or two. BUT!!!!!! I had forgot to Ground Balance. So....the Ground Balance was on the defaulted 90. But then, I set my ground balance by pumping the coil over a clean peice of ground. It Ground blanced at 71 to 72. (depending on the frequency) But when I was properly ground balanced, I hit those targets with a repeatable hi tone. Many of my targets are deep enough to where the VDI numbering ID didn't show a number, or simply showed 98. If the target is deep enough to where just a very small sliver of black can be seen on the non-ferrous side of the horseshoe.....it would give NO VDI number, yet, it will give a repeatable hi tone PLUS that small sliver of black on the upper right tip of the horseshoe. I dug a target the other day that registered no VDI, but was giving a repeatable Hi tone. It was also showing a small sliver of black on that non-ferrous side of the horse shoe. It was a VERY deep harmonica reed, or rather, half of one, that had turned green.
Didn't mean to get so involved with this answer, but I wanted to inform that proper ground balance WILL give better depth. Poor ground balance STUNTS depth.