Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

DeepTech

Picked Up a Vista Mini

kittlitz

kittlitz

Active member
I've been considering getting a DeepTech for awhile, especially after reading that they pick up where Tesoro left off. I recently had an opportunity to get a Vista Mini at a good price and decided to take the plunge. Really looking forward to getting my grubby little hands on it, though the ground here is going to be too frozen for any actual detecting for awhile.

The simplicity of the Mini appeals to me... moving to Tesoros from more "modern" machines made me (re)discover that less is more when deciding whether to dig that target or not. I've generally been setting my discrimination just above iron, so the Mini's built-in discrimination level should suit me just fine.

I'm curious to know what accessory coils folks like for their DeepTechs. The stock 11" coil is a little larger than I'd like for hunting iron-infested sites, but maybe it'll surprise me :)

-Ken
 
Hello Ken..

The Mini is a great machine for doing its job of simplicity, it’s got some nice punch and it’s less edgy over iron than the other Vistas, what I love about the Mini is it’s stability and the way it locks on to decent sized targets at good depth, being single tone it encourages you to work the iffy signals well, also it’s easy to flick into all metal to check big iron.

But simplicity it the key with this machine and it also found me my first and only Gold hammered coin :thumbup:

The super six coil is a very good coil for the Mini, still gives good depth and with the increased stability and smaller size it makes for a good option for dealing in and amongst the nails.
 
Thanks, Ziggy I watched the video where you found the gold coin; that must have felt awesome!

Good to know the Mini can work with the SuperSix coil, since I usually prefer the smaller coils.

-Ken
 
The ground is still frozen, but I couldn't resist doing some tests with the Mini inside the house despite the horrible EMI. Overall, I'm quite impressed. It was able to hit on small gold despite its relatively low operating frequency. Even more surprising, it could hit on a silver dime between two nails arranged in various configurations. Sometimes the hit would only be one-way, but probably enough to get me to dig. Very impressive, since I was using the 11" coil and had heard that the Mini wasn't the best Vista machine for working in iron.

Like a Tesoro with a DD coil, it sees Canadian steel clad as iron, and so isn't a great clad hunter. But that's not a big issue because I bought it primarily to try on old sites. I think it would do better on the clad if it had a concentric coil.

Looking forward to using it in the field!

-Ken
 
Set disc so it just cracks on a Canadian clad dime or nickel. Just like a Tesoro. Coins should be a tight signal vs. iron signal.
Then see what you think.
 
Sven said:
Set disc so it just cracks on a Canadian clad dime or nickel. Just like a Tesoro. Coins should be a tight signal vs. iron signal.
Then see what you think.
Click to expand...

Unlike the other Vista models, the Mini has just one setting for discriminate mode, and it seems pretty aggressive on knocking out iron. Not a problem though; the price on this unit was right, so it's a low-risk way for me to try out a DeepTech. And I still have my Tesoros for clad-hunting. :)

-Ken
 
I took the Mini for its first real hunt this past weekend. The site was a base of hill where houses were in the early 20th century; they were later moved or demolished because of a major mud slide. It's now unmanicured park area, which I figured was good a place as any to get used to the Mini.

The first number of targets were all foil, and I was getting pretty discouraged. Then I found one of our $2 coins, and my mood suddenly improved :). Nearing the end of the two hour hunt, I found that I was more comfortable with the machine. I still couldn't really tell junk from non-junk from the audio response, but I was enjoying the machine more and had found a couple of other coins and items worth keeping. I decided to dig one last good signal, and the cap pistol in the picture was the prize. It's a 1950s-era Hubley "Smokey" pistol, in pieces but mostly complete. That was a nice finale to the hunt.

Overall, I'm feeling much better about the Mini now then when I started. It sure does keep me from cherry-picking, which is one of my downfalls. I found the stock 11" coil a bit hard to size targets with, so don't know if I'll use it in manicured areas. But the Mini will definitely be in the arsenal for older areas where I have latitude to do a lot of digging.

-Ken
 
That is cool, nice find indeed
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top