Culpeper red soil

[reconj]

What would be the best setting for the Deus in the Hot soil of Culpeper ?

 

[squirrel1]

I would think reactivty 3 or 4, ensure silencer remains at -1. That's using disc of course. The 9" coil may give better results than the 11" coil too.

 

[stumpr]

Reconj,

You must have been reading my mind! I bought a Deus last October. A little too late to try hunting with this machine in the Digging in VA relic hunt in the Culpeper area. I hunt that red dirt twice a year and it is a tough nut to crack with a VLF machine. Almost everyone who participates in these hunts uses a pulse machine like the Minelab GPX series, Whites TDI machines, or the new Garrett ATX machines. Still the GPX series are far and away the most numerous machines present. I use a Garrett ATX that has minimal discrimination capabilities (IMO) while still maintaining good depth and stability. Like the Whites TDI, the ATX rarely finds a nail it doesn't like. Not normally a problem unless you are digging dug in winter camps that are prevalent throughout the area and contain THOUSANDS of nails at all depths and configurations to go long with 151+ years of farm related iron. You spend a great deal of time on your knees digging iron and also some nice relics along the way. Sometimes that iron has gotten me digging in some nice trash pits so I guess you can't have it both ways (complaining about the hundreds of nails you dig over a three day period but not complaining about those said nails that result in you finding a nice hut/trash pit!).

Now if you can get the Deus to correctly be able to discriminate ferrous verses non-ferrous targets to say 5"- 6", that would be huge. I sure know the VDI numbers probably won't be worth watching unless a pattern emerges. I know the Gold Field program may allow the Deus to run somewhat stable in that red ground but it is an all metal program that won't give you any indication whether your target is ferrous or non-ferrous. Not all red dirt in Culpeper is created equal. The open ground that is in pasture will probably be very hot. The woods on the other hand will be a little milder. I plan to give it a shot in March but will have my ATX pulse with me for sure. Here is a program I created and will be my starting point. Since I live several hours from Culpeper, I probably won't have the opportunity to test these setting before the event. I plan to bury a few targets and see what happens. Certainly not the real thing but better than nothing.

Frequency: 17.6Khz or 11.7Khz depending on how much depth/stability I am getting.
Discrimination: 5.0
Sensitivity: 80
Ground notch:85-100 for hot rocks if they crop up.
Reactivity: +3
Silencer: -1 to 1
Iron volume: 3
Audio:4
GB: Manual
TX: 1