Giving the V3i Another Go

[steve herschbach]

I have a DFX and had a new Vision in my hands as soon as they came out. Man, I really loved that detector, except for one thing. I was living in Anchorage, Alaska at the time, and all the parks and schools have buried power lines. The Vision went nuts everywhere I wanted to hunt. So I sold it. Then I got a V3i hoping it would be better. No go. Even tried a third just before I left Alaska, and still too many EMI issues.

Now I am in Reno, still have my DFX. I have another V3i on the way now, hoping I will have better luck with it around Reno. The features and programability really appeal to me, but so far my old reliable DFX has worked out better for me. Which is funny as the DFX was not exactly noted for doing well around EMI but compared to my past V units it is way better in that regard.

Anyway, here is hoping the fourth unit and a change of locations does the trick!

 

[triplehooked]

I look forward to your unbiased review of the V3i. Especially in the field/style of detecting that you do! Any info regarding recovery speed and iron masking would be great. Good huntin'

 

[steve herschbach]

I got a good deal on eBay on a V3i with 20 months remaining warranty, not a scratch on it. I called Whites and got registration in my name and reset everything to factory defaults. Gave it a spin in my local park and no EMI issues to speak of. Fantastic, Reno and the V3i get along. I have always wanted a V3i that would play nice with me and it finally looks like I have one. I just ran stock coins program and dug a few coins. Only thing I noted is severe VDI up shifting due to extremely mineralized ground here. I am generally a dig all non-ferrous kind of guy so that presents no real issues for me, just more to play with setting wise going forward to see if I can clean that up at all. Can't wait to put my Bigfoot on for a spin. Looks like I may have a DFX for sale soon.

 

[liondogs]

Good luck. Looking forward to your reports and if you can clean up the upshifting of the VDI numbers.

 

[SC Dirt Fisher]

I never read anything on that. Is it basically the same as the salt mineralization you have at the beach except uncompensated?

 

[steve herschbach]

I rarely experience VDI numbers getting pulled higher. Possible causes are ground mineralization, flakes of rust in the ground, or both. More common are VDI number getting pulled lower, all the way into ferrous for the deepest targets in mineralized ground. All brands do it. Metal detector discrimination systems are only accurate in low mineral ground or shallow depths. It is near impossible to get accurate numbers deeper than five or six inches in my ground. These days I am leaning more and more to just digging all non-ferrous indications, but even that gets problematic when deep items get improperly identified as ferrous.

 

[chigger]

Looking forward to you posts on the Bigfoot coil and V3i. As I have a Bigfoot coil that stays on my old XLT. Snagging quarters and dimes is good exercise and fun.