Let me start by saying that I am stationed in Mainland Japan and the mineralization, consisting largely of volcanic black soil/sand, is absolutely horrible....and that's saying something since I recently left Virginia where I thought the red clay there was challenging. As a matter for context, I also have a Minelab CTX 3030 and a Garrett ATX. The CTX here - in most places - is essentially rendered ineffective. The highest sensitivity level I can run without significant chatter is about 10 and max detection depth is 3-4 inches at best; regardless of coil size. The ATX cuts through the mineralized ground better - 6 to 8 inches - but it is a heavy beast to swing for long and being a PI detector I find myself digging a TON of trash. Both of these factors contributed to my most recent purchase - ordered and received an XP Deus V3.2 about three months ago. That said, yesterday was the first time I decided to take it for a spin. Spent a fair amount of time reading the forum, reading Andy's book, watching YouTube videos and playing with the control unit. None of this is normal for me. In the 20 years I have been detecting, this is the first detector that I didn't have in the yard or out on the beach within 24 hours of arrival. Bottom line, I wasn't too motivated to get out there given the extremely challenging soil conditions and my recent history of less than successful hunts here in Japan with other top of the line units.
Seeing the Deus sitting in its carrying case in the closet week after week was finally too much. Yesterday I took it to a park on base...not an old park by any means...late 70's era...but a place where I previously tried hunting with the CTX and the AXT. Turned it on to the BASIC 2 setting, adjusted the sensitivity up to 85 and the reactivity up to 3 and gave it a shot. Played with a number of the other factory settings as well with a few test coins that I brought with me, but BASIC 2 setting with my minor adjustments appeared stable, ran silent and hit fairly hard. Didn't walk 5 feet and "bang," first solid double tone, one low and one high about four inches apart. Dug both, ended up with a US nickel and a US dime found at maybe 4 inches deep. I was amazed....like I said, I had been all over this area before with other detectors; trying to ID a good target among the constant ground chatter.
Long story short, the Deus was AWESOME! Easy to understand, easy to change between programs, easy to swing, just plain enjoyable! I credit a lot of the success to its stability and the speed of recovery, which was fast....fast....fast; as compared to other detectors I have. It made me excited to get out again. Spent about another 1.5 hours there and pulled a total of $9.17 out of the ground in both yen and US coins - 27 in all. The deepest coin find was actually a pocket spill of four 10 Yen pieces that were recovered at about 6 inches - nothing deeper than that so far. Also found a few tokens, an old mood ring with a broken finger loop and an old Cub Scout Wolf Neckerchief. Target ID was usually spot on. Found my share of trash too, but comparatively the trash to coin ratio wasn't bad; as I was also digging some iffy targets just to see what they were.
Next big test for the Deus will be a trip to a beach that's about a 1 hour train ride from my base. That public beach literally has 10's of thousands of patrons everyday during the summer and I have never seen another detectorist anywhere in this country. In fact, when the Japanese saw me with my CTX on that same beach last summer, a number of them thought I was collecting scientific data from the Fukishima nuclear meltdown in 2012. Needless to say, the CTX did not have a chance on that beach....way too noisy....way to much metal trash just below the surface and no depth to talk about. Same for the ATX...too much trash for a 13" PI coil and I don't have a 6" ATX coil. I think the Deus, with the 9" coil and a reactivity level of 3ish should do the job, particularly using the wet beach basic settings. I can't get out to detect as often as I would like, but when/if I do, I'll be sure to provide updates on the Deus' performance in the highly mineralized soils of Japan!
Seeing the Deus sitting in its carrying case in the closet week after week was finally too much. Yesterday I took it to a park on base...not an old park by any means...late 70's era...but a place where I previously tried hunting with the CTX and the AXT. Turned it on to the BASIC 2 setting, adjusted the sensitivity up to 85 and the reactivity up to 3 and gave it a shot. Played with a number of the other factory settings as well with a few test coins that I brought with me, but BASIC 2 setting with my minor adjustments appeared stable, ran silent and hit fairly hard. Didn't walk 5 feet and "bang," first solid double tone, one low and one high about four inches apart. Dug both, ended up with a US nickel and a US dime found at maybe 4 inches deep. I was amazed....like I said, I had been all over this area before with other detectors; trying to ID a good target among the constant ground chatter.
Long story short, the Deus was AWESOME! Easy to understand, easy to change between programs, easy to swing, just plain enjoyable! I credit a lot of the success to its stability and the speed of recovery, which was fast....fast....fast; as compared to other detectors I have. It made me excited to get out again. Spent about another 1.5 hours there and pulled a total of $9.17 out of the ground in both yen and US coins - 27 in all. The deepest coin find was actually a pocket spill of four 10 Yen pieces that were recovered at about 6 inches - nothing deeper than that so far. Also found a few tokens, an old mood ring with a broken finger loop and an old Cub Scout Wolf Neckerchief. Target ID was usually spot on. Found my share of trash too, but comparatively the trash to coin ratio wasn't bad; as I was also digging some iffy targets just to see what they were.
Next big test for the Deus will be a trip to a beach that's about a 1 hour train ride from my base. That public beach literally has 10's of thousands of patrons everyday during the summer and I have never seen another detectorist anywhere in this country. In fact, when the Japanese saw me with my CTX on that same beach last summer, a number of them thought I was collecting scientific data from the Fukishima nuclear meltdown in 2012. Needless to say, the CTX did not have a chance on that beach....way too noisy....way to much metal trash just below the surface and no depth to talk about. Same for the ATX...too much trash for a 13" PI coil and I don't have a 6" ATX coil. I think the Deus, with the 9" coil and a reactivity level of 3ish should do the job, particularly using the wet beach basic settings. I can't get out to detect as often as I would like, but when/if I do, I'll be sure to provide updates on the Deus' performance in the highly mineralized soils of Japan!
