since there isn't a specific minelab vanquish forum...I'd figure I would post here...

[Mark ( ohio )]

I really just picked up this unit a few weeks back and I took it on its maiden voyage ( so to speak ) yesterday and today( temps were in the 50's )..So I bought the vanquish 440, build quality seems to be very good. It runs very smoothly with the sens set one click from max..even tho the areas I hunt are loaded with iron... Seems like it will pick coins clean in the 6-7 inch range all day long.. I'm hoping the depth will be alittle better, just have to walk over the right target... So far so good. Will keep posting as future hunts come up.

Till then HH Mark ( ohio )

 

[jmaclen]

I can only wholeheartedly agree with your preliminary assessment of the Vanquish 440. I have taken it out with two other detectors and hunted with them in sequence over the same ground with settings that were as close as I could make them. Those other two very good detectors from the early 2010s have already been sold. The 440 and even the 340 I bought for my son are just as deep, have much better target ID on non-ferrous targets down to 10", can deal better with iron and are just more fun to use than the two FTPs I sold and really liked btw. Amazing.........

Jeff

 

[Monte]

Mark :
I really just picked up this unit a few weeks back and I took it on its maiden voyage ( so to speak ) yesterday and today( temps were in the 50's )..So I bought the vanquish 440, build quality seems to be very good. It runs very smoothly with the sens set one click from max..even tho the areas I hunt are loaded with iron... Seems like it will pick coins clean in the 6-7 inch range all day long.. I'm hoping the depth will be alittle better, just have to walk over the right target... So far so good. Will keep posting as future hunts come up.
Mark, 'Thank You' for the post. I've added some comments elsewhere in a reply about the Vanquish 540 Pro Pack I bought, and have had mostly similar results. For decades I tend to run my detectors pretty 'hot' at or very close to, the maximum Sensitivity level, then I reduce them if there is EMI. That's what I did with my 540, maximum Sens., and so far haven't found a noisy environment. I worked the one city park in the small town I live in with sparse Iron debris; a County Park located where it was once a CCC Camp and then a WW-II Japanese Internment Campo with a modest amount of Nails and other Iron debris; and then last Saturday and a ghost town just to concentrate on the more Iron Infested and challenging areas.

So far I am only using the smaller 5X8 DD that is very impressive. I agree on the build quality, and I also find it to run very smoothly in the default programs, especially considering the ferrous debris I wanted to take on. At my first two locations, where most coins are in the surface to 4" range, I had no problems. But was favorably impressed because both of those parks have had contouring several decades ago to change them up and create a few ball fields, and that activity repositions a lot of coins from the otherwise natural position. I got very good audio responses and almost spot-on visual TID from deeper Pennies and Dimes at 6" or more, and the three deepest so far have been ±9" deep.

I'm not a big 'coin depth' discussion fan because most are not located very deeply in most of the older places I hunt because they have not had much ground disturbance and very little deposition in the area from vegetation. The visual TID has been surprising, producing an almost 'lock-on' of '13' on a Buffalo Nickel less than a little-finger distance between two Iron Nails. On both desirable and trashy targets the numeric VDI has been very reliable and useful.

I really like a good 2-Tone and 3-Tone audio search mode and the 440 caught my interest on that feature initially, because seldom do I like a 4-Tone or 5-Tone or Multi-Tone .... however. The 540's 5-Tone audio is working splendidly for me so far. And after I get it back I'll work the 5X8 DD some more, but also swap to the 9X12 for the wide-open parks with a lot of open space between any metal object, coin or trash. And I said "after I get it back" and that's because I did note three things about the detector that ... to me ... are design glitches, and I sent it to Minelab on Monday in hope they can correct at least the main issue I have with it. That 'glitch' is in the design of and errant behavior of, using the Horseshoe button to accept all metals. The Coin mode and Jewelry mode behave as if it has a positive GB, and the Relic mode, which is what I used to set-up and save my Custom program, both act as if they have a negative GB in the Disc. mode. That make the use of, and concept for, the All Metal Horseshoe performance useless.

Still, I like the 540 Pro pack for what it is, how it generally works in default programs, and for the 2-Coil package. I plan to get a 2nd 540 Pro Pack just to keep the larger-size coil also mounted full-time and then just grab the outfit I want at a site. I just hope that design glitch is 'fixable' so I'll have better user-control of the features. Naturally we have to remember that from Minelab's viewpoint, the Vanquish offerings are all "Entry-Level" detectors so that leaves us with more things in the "I wish" category. For me, 'I wish it had a selectable frequency option like the EQ-800.' Also, 'I wish it had manual GB control.' Of course 'I wish' Minelab would come clean and tell consumers exactly what frequencies are actually being used in the Vanquish series design.

Aside from all that, I feel that overall, Minelab has provided consumers with a terrific "entry level" series to select from, at very reasonable prices. I have been, and still am, trimming a lot of excess and duplicate models from my Detector Outfit and feel quite pleased by adding the 540 into what I rely on. I have four models in my relic hunting Team and four in my Coin & Jewelry Hunting Team. The Vanquish 540, for me, makes an excellent 'cross-over' unit that travels with either set of detectors I load up for a detecting jaunt, and will also be grabbed as my 'Scouting Unit' when checking out any potential site.

I enjoy my Vanquish, plan to add another for my oldest (4 and youngest (3 sons to use when they join me for some detecting fun, and can easily recommend it to most consumers looking for a value investment with very good performance ... in a very comfortable package design, too. Feels much better than a friend's Equinox with 6" DD coil.

Monte

 

[Monte]

jmaclen:
I can only wholeheartedly agree with your preliminary assessment of the Vanquish 440. I have taken it out with two other detectors and hunted with them in sequence over the same ground with settings that were as close as I could make them. Those other two very good detectors from the early 2010s have already been sold. The 440 and even the 340 I bought for my son are just as deep, have much better target ID on non-ferrous targets down to 10", can deal better with iron and are just more fun to use than the two FTPs I sold and really liked btw. Amazing.........
Have to agree with you, Jeff, on performance afield and thinning out some detectors. I still have five on the 'For Sale' block, and two have less than 1½ Hr. use that I got new. One a N/M unit and the other from FTP ... and I'm not talking low-end, either. Both models I really like, but just excess in my Detector Outfit, and the 540, in side-by-side comparisons, was the better unit when it came to VDI read-out on coins beyond 5"-6". And definitely down to an 8"-10" range. Better still, as you mentioned, the Vanquish is just 'fun' to use. I'll sell or trade the several I'm parting with an use some of the $$$ to buy a 2nd 540 Pro Pack. More 'fun'.

Monte

 

[Mark ( ohio )]

Mark :
I really just picked up this unit a few weeks back and I took it on its maiden voyage ( so to speak ) yesterday and today( temps were in the 50's )..So I bought the vanquish 440, build quality seems to be very good. It runs very smoothly with the sens set one click from max..even tho the areas I hunt are loaded with iron... Seems like it will pick coins clean in the 6-7 inch range all day long.. I'm hoping the depth will be alittle better, just have to walk over the right target... So far so good. Will keep posting as future hunts come up.
Mark, 'Thank You' for the post. I've added some comments elsewhere in a reply about the Vanquish 540 Pro Pack I bought, and have had mostly similar results. For decades I tend to run my detectors pretty 'hot' at or very close to, the maximum Sensitivity level, then I reduce them if there is EMI. That's what I did with my 540, maximum Sens., and so far haven't found a noisy environment. I worked the one city park in the small town I live in with sparse Iron debris; a County Park located where it was once a CCC Camp and then a WW-II Japanese Internment Campo with a modest amount of Nails and other Iron debris; and then last Saturday and a ghost town just to concentrate on the more Iron Infested and challenging areas.

So far I am only using the smaller 5X8 DD that is very impressive. I agree on the build quality, and I also find it to run very smoothly in the default programs, especially considering the ferrous debris I wanted to take on. At my first two locations, where most coins are in the surface to 4" range, I had no problems. But was favorably impressed because both of those parks have had contouring several decades ago to change them up and create a few ball fields, and that activity repositions a lot of coins from the otherwise natural position. I got very good audio responses and almost spot-on visual TID from deeper Pennies and Dimes at 6" or more, and the three deepest so far have been ±9" deep.

I'm not a big 'coin depth' discussion fan because most are not located very deeply in most of the older places I hunt because they have not had much ground disturbance and very little deposition in the area from vegetation. The visual TID has been surprising, producing an almost 'lock-on' of '13' on a Buffalo Nickel less than a little-finger distance between two Iron Nails. On both desirable and trashy targets the numeric VDI has been very reliable and useful.

I really like a good 2-Tone and 3-Tone audio search mode and the 440 caught my interest on that feature initially, because seldom do I like a 4-Tone or 5-Tone or Multi-Tone .... however. The 540's 5-Tone audio is working splendidly for me so far. And after I get it back I'll work the 5X8 DD some more, but also swap to the 9X12 for the wide-open parks with a lot of open space between any metal object, coin or trash. And I said "after I get it back" and that's because I did note three things about the detector that ... to me ... are design glitches, and I sent it to Minelab on Monday in hope they can correct at least the main issue I have with it. That 'glitch' is in the design of and errant behavior of, using the Horseshoe button to accept all metals. The Coin mode and Jewelry mode behave as if it has a positive GB, and the Relic mode, which is what I used to set-up and save my Custom program, both act as if they have a negative GB in the Disc. mode. That make the use of, and concept for, the All Metal Horseshoe performance useless.

Still, I like the 540 Pro pack for what it is, how it generally works in default programs, and for the 2-Coil package. I plan to get a 2nd 540 Pro Pack just to keep the larger-size coil also mounted full-time and then just grab the outfit I want at a site. I just hope that design glitch is 'fixable' so I'll have better user-control of the features. Naturally we have to remember that from Minelab's viewpoint, the Vanquish offerings are all "Entry-Level" detectors so that leaves us with more things in the "I wish" category. For me, 'I wish it had a selectable frequency option like the EQ-800.' Also, 'I wish it had manual GB control.' Of course 'I wish' Minelab would come clean and tell consumers exactly what frequencies are actually being used in the Vanquish series design.

Aside from all that, I feel that overall, Minelab has provided consumers with a terrific "entry level" series to select from, at very reasonable prices. I have been, and still am, trimming a lot of excess and duplicate models from my Detector Outfit and feel quite pleased by adding the 540 into what I rely on. I have four models in my relic hunting Team and four in my Coin & Jewelry Hunting Team. The Vanquish 540, for me, makes an excellent 'cross-over' unit that travels with either set of detectors I load up for a detecting jaunt, and will also be grabbed as my 'Scouting Unit' when checking out any potential site.

I enjoy my Vanquish, plan to add another for my oldest (4 and youngest (3 sons to use when they join me for some detecting fun, and can easily recommend it to most consumers looking for a value investment with very good performance ... in a very comfortable package design, too. Feels much better than a friend's Equinox with 6" DD coil.

Monte

I'm really glad to hear that your having very good results with your 540 Monte.. I was torn between a simplex+ and the vanquish models and decided on the minilab because of past very favorable hunts with the explorer models... Yes it is an entry model per say, but it seems most if not all manufacturers these days are producing entry units that would have rivaled mid to upper end units just 7-10 yrs ago !! I'm more than happy with my decision and now that my health seems to be on the upswing I'm hoping to participate in the hobby a lot more this yr.. So I will update from time to time as more hunts are done on this detector..

Cheers . Mark ( ohio )

 

[stateguyt]

How come there no forum for this machine

 

[GeorgeinSC]

How come there no forum for this machine

Since this forum is funded by sponsors and minelab may have dropped sponsorship. No sponsorship no new minelab forums.