Did I make a mistake buying a T2????

[Captain Kirk]

MY BACKGROUND
I have been detecting since the late 60's using White, Garrett, Fisher and using the Minelab Explorer II for the past three years. I presently own a White XLT and Surfmaster PI in addition to the Explorer II

BEFORE PURCHASING THE T2
* I read the manual cover to cover before purchasing the T2.
* I have been following the T2 forum posts for some time and gained a great deal of useful information and tips from doing so.
* I have been trying to decide between the Xterra 70 and the T2 as a backup/complement to the Explorer II

PURCHASED THE T2
On 10/14/2006 I purchased a new T2. My objective in purchasing the T2 was to go back to the sites that have produced an abundance of silver coins for myself and 5 other Explorer users. The plan was to see how many silver coins might be left as the result of masking (lots of iron and junk in the places we hunt).

The results using the T2 were very disappointing. Granted I have only put about 6 hours on the T2 with the results of 28 coins for $2.88. Essentially all of the coins were recent drops and the deepest was a nickel at about 3.5".

AS A TEST
I did dig a clean hinged plug, placed a dime laying flat at 6" and replaced the plug. I could detect the dime, but the response was of marginal quality.

MY SETUP
* The ground balances at between 64 to 69 using Fast Grab. Tried both Fast Grab and Manual GC (including slightly positive settings)
* The Fe3O4 readings were 0.01 to 0.03.
* Tones-tried them all but generally prefer the 3 tone mode.
* Sensitivity-can run up to 90 with very little noise problems. I tried other sensitivities from 40 to 90.
* Discrimination-10 I find it easy to ignore the iron hits.

MY CONCLUSIONS
My conclusion are that the T2 is very light and easy to swing, but it does not complement the T2 as I had hoped. I am not knocking the T2.

MY REQUEST
If someone has some suggestions regarding:
* What I may have done wrong
* Why I should not trade the the T2 in for an Xterra 70
I sure would be grateful.

Glenn

 

[I a thr]

I too have detected from early 70's and have used many detectors. I sold my Sov GT to order a new T2, which should be arriving at any time. My best finds have been with a Minelab Advantage and a White's XL Pro. The GT was just too slow for me. Your experience w/T2 is really got me wondering if I did a dumb thing by ordering one. Have to wait and see I guess. I also bought it to go over areas of masking to get the hidden silver. I have read the manual 5 times waiting on arrival of the T2 and have read the entire forum several times. Please hopefully something is not correct as I might have screwed up and haven't even received my T2 yet. I have been questioning if I should have waited for the new Fisher and now this......
HH
Bill

 

[Captain Kirk]

Bill,

I also hope that I am having cockpit trouble as I really like the T2 in general. Fortunately, I bought the T2 from a local dealer and was able to run some air tests in the store, write a check and walk out with the detector. The dealer carries several brands. I should just be able to take it back, pay a penalty (how much???) for returning the T2, buy an Terra 70 and walk out the door.

Glenn

 

[jeff@middlesex]

Boys the T2 is not a pick up and hunt machine. It does take time to get your head around the sound and especially the fast recovery rate. You have to pick carefully which tone mode fits your type of hunting. Not so much what your used to but what works best for your conditions and your style of hunting. The recovery speed feeds information faster into your audio and makes it difficult to get a handle on it.

 

[Toddy from Scotland]

Doesn't sound right to me, my ground reads 85+ Sens at 60-70 and is heavily mineralized and I can get a small thin hammered coin deeper than that.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Jeff,

Thanks for your response.

I did not have trouble with the sounds of the T2. The T2 may have found everything that the Explorer II found. I did not buy it thinking that it was better than the Explorer II in depth. I was just hoping that I could find some silver, hiding next to iron, that was previously missed with the Explorer. I think that the T2 is a good detector. I just do not need both.

Glenn

 

[Captain Kirk]

Toddy,

Yours is the kind of response that I am looking for. I also expected a higher ground reading than the mid to high 60s, but I frequently checked it in several places at two different sights and found only slight variations.

I was surprised that a buried dime at 6" did not ring out more distinctly. It could be that the detector does not like disturbed ground.

With regard to the sensitivity set at 90. I also was surprised with the ability to run it in my house at near 90. It was somewhat noisy, but not too bad after going through the frequency selection process.

HH,
Glenn

 

[Keith Southern]

I see that the sensitivity is at 90 which is good these latest release machines can run alot higher the people who puthem down on electrical interference I belive have the older models. mines always stable or maybe i dont mind alittle noise actually I like a machine that will go nuts at top end.lets you know your not leaving anyting on the table so to speak in the sensitivity department.

What can of depths do you get in airtest at 90 sensitivity.should be around 10-12 inches? if not might be a problem.

You've got the right machine for pulling targets out of the iron belive me theres nothing better on the planet.T-2 is not a difficult detector to learn to use actually its pretty straight forward.awesome depth and unreal ability to pull targets out of the iron.I got a wedding band out of a civil war site the other day right up against a pice of stove iron I at first thought it was falsing off the stove iron to the side but low and behold it was the ring after digging it up the signal was gone no falsing. iron still read iron dug it up also to confirm.quite a feat.Most powerful detedctor ive ever seen that dosent false on the sides of iron like a ton of them do.

You may want to run the 2+ tone id to see if the machines runs more favorable.thats where I run mine with discrimination set at 10 and sensitivity as high as I can get it for the site.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Keith,

I have seen where people make the statement that sensitivity at 90 is too hot, but I did not find that to be the case. Today I have the following air test results indoors for various sensitivities:
Discrimination set to 40.
Testing a clad dime.
60 6"
70 7"
80 8"
90 9"

This seems somewhat lower than my testing a couple days ago.

Glenn

 

[Keith Southern]

Its the first detectors without the shielding inside that cant seem to run at real high sensitivity yours sounds about like mine probably get another couple of inches of depth in air if you went outside so you seem all right in the sensitivity area I would say.I dug a .58 caliber minnie ball yesterday at a good 13 inches at 85 sensitivity so the machines like the ground matrix for the deepies.I belive if you try the machine for a week or so and get a little confidence you'll enjoy using it.I loved it from the first swing but others seem to take awhile to come on board especially if your trying to compare it to another type of machine so hang in there a week or so and let us know how your doing.Its a hard detector to put down once you adjust to it.

Keep us posted

Keith

 

[snh]

Heck i had one of the first T2's and I got several more inches on a dime than that...both in ground and in air tests.
However I would try your air test again with disc set to 10.....just do that and post what any difference is.
Also from about sens of 70 to 99....if you pay attention...there is not a depth loss. The target volume will drop....beleive me...I used one for months and tested this over and over. If you have good headphones and find a deep target...drop the sens from say 90 to say 75. Usually it will still be audible...but much softer.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Bill,

Things "came to a head". I had decided to take the T2 back to the dealer and trade it in on something else. Before doing that I took out my new set of AA cells and put back the ones that the dealer put in the detector. After doing that the detector would not come up properly or work at all.

I had a very pleasant conversation with Dave Johnson (the T2 designer) at First Texas. I described my symptoms. Dave said it sounds like a bad microprocessor and that I would need to seen it in for repairs.

Just perhaps, this might explain some of the issues that I was having with the T2 during my testing. SO, PERHAPS YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE SCARED ABOUT THE T2 YOU HAVE ON ORDER.

Glenn

 

[KCK]

lately.....I decided to sell it way early on in my test stages.....That GTI 2500 had me spoiled. But I had some second thoughts and with the depth, sensitivity, and speed, the T2 is a handful to get used to. I remembered it took me almost a year to learn the GTI 2500 and several times I wanted to destroy the machine.
So I decided to give the T2 more time and the more I use it...The more she talks to me!

Time....It just takes time!

Have a great time out there!

KCK

 

[Captain Kirk]

Thanks KCK.

It appears as though my detector has a problem with it and will be going back to First Texas for repairs. I had a good conversation with Dave Johnson at First Texas and that is what he advised. I am looking forward to having my impression reversed.

Glenn

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

I have had a hard time learing the T2 I don't like to use it for turf hunting just relic hunting. I use the two tone and have had my share of digging loads of trash. But for the guys that really like the machine it seems they are true relic hunters and that is a different breed then a turf hunter.

I am going to give this machine a lot of time trying to learn it before I give up. And now the new fisher is coming out and it is hard to say what it can do.

I think you have to have another detector when testing the T2 like your explorer and see what it sounds like on a good target or in trash and then test the T2 and hear what it sounds like. I am about to try that with the T2 and the MXT and a small coil the DD 4x6.