First impressions of T2

[LilloEsquilo]

I just got my machine yesterday and have put a few hours on it in the field, and want to share my initial impressions. Just keep in mind they are just that - initial impressions I'm not claiming to be the guy who invented it with 50 years of usage and my word is the word of God and you are either with me or evil incarnate (don't care to start a detector war).

First of all, I'm from the Minelab world. Minelab makes fine machines but the ones I used (Explorer, Sovereign and Advantage) were all HEAVY. It's a real treat to use a detector you can swing all day long without your arm feeling like it's going to fall off. This is a LIGHT weight machine. But the build quality seems good, with the exception that I'd like to see a different system for the batteries. The current system doesn't have quite enough spring pressure. The first thing I did was to gently pry the springs up a bit.

Operation is about as easy as it gets. You've got an on/off/volumn switch, a mode button, and an adjustment knob. That's it. You access whatever you want to play with (sensitivity, discrimination, etc) via the mode button and make your adjustment with the knob. You don't have multi-level menus to wade through like you are programming a computer. In the areas I was in, I didn't have to do much adjusting at all. Your milage may vary however. I should add it also has a trigger switch, which you use for ground balancing and pinpointing.

It's got an automatic ground adjustment mode or you can do it manually if you have an area this might help. It's simple in its basic form and you can take full control. I like that.

There is no notch discrimination - you can't just knock out a pulltab range or bottle cap range for example. Could this be improved? Probably, although the simplicity might suffer that way. And as far as bottle caps, yes rusty bottle caps can give problems. I dug a couple of them and they sounded good in the modes I was in (4 tone - they recommend different modes to help eliminate these since I dug only 2 it didn't bother me that much). You can have a single tone, or multiple tones - your choice.

Depth-wise in our mineralized soil this thing is every bit as good as the minelabs I was using. It's great in the iron too, as advertised. That is PERFECT for my soil here which is mineralized (was getting a reading of 75 which is pretty high) and LOADED with iron nails and the like at the sites I tend to hunt (parks, schools and churches).

Pinpointing is a breeze despite the coil size and type - depth is right on, and the hot spot is the center of the coil, there is a little dot there on mine in the plastic of the coil to mark it.

I found a couple of buttons near iron trash in areas I've beaten to death with other machines that can go deep. At the old church site I ran no discrimination but with all the cut up aluminum cans in the old park site, I upped the discrimination to knock that out.

This is a very lightweight, powerful, deep seeking and flexible machine. It has the potential to make your well hunted sites worth returning to. I love the way it works in our heavily mineralized ground so well, and works around the endless iron nails here. This is the only detector I plan to buy and all I need for what I do. I am by no means an expert at the machine, but I'm extremely impressed.

Again, I'd like to see the battery configuration a bit different, and it does get reasonably good hits on rusty bottle caps. There are modes to knock those out which I haven't needed to try as I haven't dug too many yet.
Also some may not like that your settings are not saved when you turn off the machine. I don't mind as I like to set it up for every area and it's so easy to do that it's not a big deal to me, but some might not care for that. There is no backlight, which I think would be a nice touch, but it's not necessary really unless you are a night hunter. The display is clear and easy to read in light and not cluttered.

I really like the design and potential of this thing. I think that it's the best machine I've ever used and one I'm sure I'll get a lot of use from.

Just for what it's worth for those considering it. I saw a post how it was "just another Bounty Hunter". Well, I've owned a Bounty Hunter and the one I had was not that bad of a machine, but if the intention was to say it's a cheapo junker not worthy of being used, it's fine with me if anyone wants to feel that way, because I have a feeling I'll soon be making some great finds with it.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Hi Lillo,

Though, by your own admission, you don't have much time on the T2, you've managed to hit on most all the salient points of the machine, both good and bad.

Sounds like you would be a good candidate for the newly-released R6 software upgrade. If your machine does not have a "dP" tone mode, yours is an earlier version.

The reason I suggest it is you mention bottlecaps. I think the new revision deals with these much better and upgrades other features as well. Look for posts about the R6 upgrade for more info. I've seen no loss in performance caused by any of the new mods to the software, only far greater flexibility.

It's a fine performer as it is in R5 clothing, but in my opinion, more people will find the upgrade is well worth it.

I guess this begs the question, "will there be an R7 in another month or two?" My personal guess is no, we are probably stable at the R6 level for the foreseeable future. I can at present see no advantage to polishing it further. Expect to see a "T3" first. Just glancing into my crystal ball, but I am so much more pleased with R6 that you'd really have to prove to me that any future upgrade would be worth it.

-Ed

 

[Eddie Currents]

[quote LilloEsquilo]
But the build quality seems good, with the exception that I'd like to see a different system for the batteries. The current system doesn't have quite enough spring pressure. The first thing I did was to gently pry the springs up a bit.[/quote]

Yes, quite right! Loose batteries cause the T2 to turn off and on, losing its settings and increasing battery drain.

[quote LilloEsquilo]
There is no notch discrimination - you can't just knock out a pulltab range or bottle cap range for example. Could this be improved?

[/quote]

I think not. Trash targets often bounce around across a wide ID range on the T2 so I don't think notch would do much good.

[quote LilloEsquilo]
This is a very lightweight, powerful, deep seeking and flexible machine. It has the potential to make your well hunted sites worth returning to. I love the way it works in our heavily mineralized ground so well, and works around the endless iron nails here. This is the only detector I plan to buy and all I need for what I do. I am by no means an expert at the machine, but I'm extremely impressed.
[/quote]

Yes, it's a honey.

EC

 

[LilloEsquilo]

Hi Ed,

I checked my tone modes and I do indeed have the dP tone mode available. I haven't tried it, as the bottle caps weren't a big deal to me (dug only 2 so far). If I were in a place littered with them, I'd definately wanna give that a try.

This is maybe the best kept secret in the detecting world. Not many people seem to know about the T2, although word is getting out there, and how well it performs in the real world. To me the Minelabs are very hard machines to beat as far as real world performance in heavily mineralized soil, but the T2 is simply an outstanding machine. I can say that with only a few hours under my belt with it. After a few hours with the Explorer I wanted to wrap it around a tree, I had actually considered giving up detecting, as the learning curve can be steep, but with the T2 there isn't much of a learning curve if you can turn it on you can detect with it. Obviously the more time you spend with it and the more you play with it the more you'll learn but it's not a hard machine to get a handle on at all.

It's simple to use, lightweight, got lots of flexibility, great performance works great around iron trash, I mean what more could you want. It's hard for me to envision a machine that is closer to the "ideal" for what I use them for than the T2. Again just my opinion, but I coinshoot old parks, schools, and churches and the like, enjoy finding jewelry as well, and this is a great machine for those applications, as well as relic hunting if you're into that. Should be fine for using in competition hunts too as it's lightweight with a big coil that pinpoints like a dream. Those are all I do, and the T2 should be able to do all of that very well.

All I can say is to me the negatives aren't many and are far outweighed by the positives. I think it was a very well designed and developed detector and I don't see getting anything else for a while.