Deus finds everything..but..

[liamnolan]

Janner, one thing I have learned from my time with the Deus is that because its got a reputation for fast recovery, users tend to race around and they will miss good targets, The machine may work fast but the brain cannot keep pace. I was lucky enough to find a hoard of hammies some time back. I found one coin, then began to slowly work around the same area and there were coins there, about 8 ins apart! I had walked over that spot all morning but never listened properly, the machine was doing its job but I had to slow down the sweep to hear the signals, all around 56 - 62, not a high tone at all, it was a lesson learnt and it has proved a valuable one to me. For instance how many of us say that they find a good coin right at the start of a session and then nothing much afterwards? Happened to me a fair few times and now I know its because the pace is slow to start off with as we tweak the settings etc and also the brain is alert and eager to decipher the sounds.
The hammies and other good finds are there for us all to detect,having a hammy in a plastic wallet and throwing it down now and then to check the signal off that is assuring that the machine is indeed working for you, Liam (Liam The Snail )

[Bellboy]

I'm a year in on my deus having never detected before apart from once with my son's 30 quid maplin detector when we found a vintage silver Navajo & turquoise pendant....got the bug right there!!
Since having the deus I've realised what's been already said here,
You have to walk over it but also the machine must be correctly set up.
I bought Andy sabisch's manual on the deus which is very helpfull & includes many tips you don't get in the owners manual.
As I'm close to the beach that is where I go mostly & its bit of a black art, it does however give you a greater understanding of mineralistation, & after a while I started
to get some good finds especially after the big storms we had, Lots of pre-decimal coins & ww2 artifacts but no gold as yet.
Inland I have found musket balls & Victorian coins & that's about it, but I am amazed at the tiny slivers that come up from depths of 6-8 inches or so proving to me the machine is doing its job.
I dig everything trying to gain an understanding of the deus lingo & will continue to do so with the hope it will (soon hopefully) all make sense.

Best of luck with yours

[janner53]

Janner, one thing I have learned from my time with the Deus is that because its got a reputation for fast recovery, users tend to race around and they will miss good targets,

I have to admit Liam I'm so guilty of that. Because of a lack of permissions myself and mostly relying on Club Digs, I'm the one at the front of the club briefing bopping up and down excitingly waiting for the off. Soon as that gate opens and detecting begins I'm off like a rocket knowing I only have 6-8 hours to fill my boots.

Great thread with loads of great advice .

[hihosilver]

I guess by now all of you lot are on version 3.2, I'm still on v2.0 so perhaps this may be 'out of date' advice but somehow I think it's still relevant.

If you have practised with your machine, and have your headphones set up so you can hear the sounds clearly and know the sounds very well and you are swinging fairly fast, then if you get the 'blip' of a good tone, you just go back and double check. You may miss a few things so it is a trade-off of course. If you don't know the machine very well, then your ears may not pick up on the subtle sounds, so going slow would be better for you. Don't be guided by the numbers on the screen, make your mind up when to dig by using your ears. Only use the numbers on the screen as a rough guide.

Anyone who says they never dig iron, is either lying, or missing a lot of other targets too. The deus loves iron rings and usually gives a nice sound for those, and you may be fooled by deep iron targets too. The deep iron seems to be a common issue for every machine.

If your reactivity level is set too low you may miss targets if you are wishing to scan the ground faster. Also if your audio response setting has it so that targets are quieter when deeper you will also miss targets, as you may not notice the more subtle sounds.

As usual it will always depend on the type of site you are on, every site is different to the next, even areas in the same field can require changing settings to get the most out of the machine.

Using the default settings is fine for generic searching, but you will miss a lot of stuff. I've always said to people to ignore other peoples settings (you can use them as a rough guide). I know many of you swear by 'Rogers' settings but what may work in one field may be useless in another, so you're better off learning how to change your settings on the fly from the start. If you only use someone else's program you will never unlock the potential of the settings you have never touched, and then having a powerful deus machine is being under-used, you may as well have bought a cheap switch on & go machine.

In my opinion you're better off letting the machine autoamatically do the ground tracking setting rather than manually overiding it. The ground conditions (mineralisation) can change in a flash and you're not going to be studying the screen all the time and noticing that the phase adjustment level is out by several points too many and needs manually changing again.

Even by doing this you will still miss some good targets, but less good targets, unless you have the machine set to beep on every little target, but this way you will find every nail under the sun and get so fed up with digging rubbish you'll throw in the towel.

A test pit in your garden, and visits to a beach if possible, in my opinion are the best way to practise with your Deus. The benefits of a test pit are that you know exactly what you buried so testing out different settings is very easy.
The benefits of a beach are that you can bury and recover targets easily, while practising in relative peace and quiet with the various settings on the machine. As it is quick to retrieve items you will soon learn the target ID numbers of the machine, and get a good feel for what metals give what response.

There are no perfect settings anyone can give you, but practise, patience, and learning those sounds, will increase your confidence and also good finds rate.

The last thing I have to mention is above all.... read that manual!!! It is really good (for a manual) and an invaluable source of information about your machine. I cannot stress this enough if you want to learn to use the deus to it's potential.

Good luck.

[Danzigman]

I guess by now all of you lot are on version 3.2, I'm still on v2.0 so perhaps this may be 'out of date' advice but somehow I think it's still relevant.

Good luck.

V2...
Only came to 3.1 and then back..

[clint]

Great post H! All machines seem fooled by some iron, usually round, spikey, deep or large. Descrim a minimal amount and dig everything that gives a positive two way signal. As for number watching I feel that is a dodgy game to follow, it's like saying foil is ALWAYS 12:01 and everything starting with 01 is iron on the Etrac..it isn't, particularly if you listen to the tones!

Regards

Clint

[hihosilver]

Cow tubes, shotgun shells and green waste foil... the bane of the deus's land searching existance.
Bottle tops and foil/aluminium on the beach!