Mike Bearden
Member
I made the long trip to Virgina's Ft. Powhatan with Ron Dugger from Dixie Detectors. It was the 2nd. time I've hunted this site and for the most part the soil is pretty good for just about any detector with the ground phase being in the 60's.
I've been using a early release version that belongs to a friend who is in Iraq and the local sites I like to frequent around here had left me with a pretty negative opinion of the T2's performance in our iron ore dirt.
With that said, I still don't have near the hours (around 150) to suggest I know all of the T2's secrets but I do have a good feel for the controls and know how to make any needed adjustments pertaining to different site locations and conditions.
Here's what I'm finding in comparison to how my favorite detectors operate ( Explorer, X-Terra 70).
Well first off the T2 has been EASY to set-up and run just about everywhere I've used it. I like to hear everything so I usually hunt in all metal or very little disc (around 15-20 in disc mode) with 4 tones.
Keep in mind that the Fort has very little flat ground and most of my hunting was done under the tree's where there is at least 3-4" of mulch overgrowth accumulated . Signals were scare at best, this place has been hunted HARD 5 times with 250 plus hunters giving it their best.
My biggest gripe about the T2 is that every small twig or clump of pine needles the coil hits will cause a faint high tone false making you stop in your tracks to re-check it. With 3500 acres to cover, this becomes a big pain in A$$ real quick.
The pinpoint feature actually sucked pretty bad after digging a target and if not digging deep enough to retrieve the target on the first try ... well, the target would disappear completely! Maybe it was the soil more than the machine because my X-Terra 70 did the same thing on occassions and it doesn't do that at home.
Tiny objects like percussion caps hit good to 4" under the mulch but sounded trashy, but, the X-Terra would hit them at twice the depth and still sound good.
I noticed that when I ran the sens to almost full throttle on the T2 to equal the X-Terra 70's depth it would become very noisy and anything over 7-8 " sounded trashy or like a nail in the same hole as silver if that makes better sense. Also tried running a lot more disc in a trashy area and the T2 suffered quite a bit of depth loss although it surely quietened it down but the targets were simply out of range. It would not hunt the brackish water beach below the Fort at all in the wet stuff but I did manage to pull a few bullets from the dry sand that were 9" deep. The 70 ate it alive in this category and was much easier on the ears while doing it.
Several folks hunting with us wanted to try the T2 and I obliged them. Everyone really liked the overall appearance, weight and balance but most thought it was simply to noisy except when in disc mode.
Relic hunters are far different from park hunters and jump on signals that most coin shooters wouldn't even think about for the most part, they usually set the detector to just knock out a small nail and dig everything else.... that is if they aren't running in all metal and digging everything that beeps.
This post is NOT to compare the T2 against the X-Terra or Explorer, I had all 3 of these detectors to use and I used them all during the 4 day's I was at this site. Everyone hunts a little different from the next guy and sets up their detector to suit them at their sites so all of this means nothing really ... just my thoughts more or less, so take it with a grain of salt if you wish.
I dug a paper thin flat button made of brass at 9" with the T2 that my X-Terra 70 would not make a peep on with GB tracking OFF but would hit it with the tracking turned ON very well ... so ... I think the auto tracking has a big advantage on sites like this where the GB might change 3-4 digits and the user not notice it.
Deep iron that's been in the ground for close to 200 years will fool the T2 (keep in mind that this site dates back before the Revolutionary War) unless the iron is very shallow and large the T2 struggles with it. I'm talking about a piece of iron that has a huge golf ball size rust ball on top of the actual internal part, like a trigger mechanism. The other detectors I tried didn't have that problem, when it was iron targets as previously described they ID'ed as iron ... period !
On the brighter side, the T2 handles great and can be carried and swung all day long while walking those endless steep ridges of Virginia, has great battery life and only takes a minute to set-up and start hunting ... just wish they would have included a memory to save the last settings at turn off.
HOPEFULLY some of the revisions soon to be released will make the T2 even better, it's still a lot of bag for the bucks though. For the raw power the T2 has, I had rather carry it through the woods than the Explorer any day but the falsing and chirping the T2 makes when the coil touches anything and everything makes for a long day and the depth gauge can't be trusted as with most detectors so I mainly hunt by sound. But, on the T2 I feel I have to keep an eye on the meter or risk passing up a good find in all metal. But, that could be that I'm still fairly new to the T2 and have much more to learn about it.
I did put it up against the Tejon in a air test on a nickel and left the Tejon user in the dust. He even called me over to check several signals during the day and not once did the T2 fail to hit on what the Tejon did. Most of them turned out to be bullets in the 7-8" range where the T2 still sounded good. At Ft. Powhatan, any non ferrous target after 9" starts to sound like iron mixed in and you'll find yourself digging way more junk with the T2 than should be dug and not take the chance that you'll leave a good target in the ground for somebody else.
H.H.
Mike
I've been using a early release version that belongs to a friend who is in Iraq and the local sites I like to frequent around here had left me with a pretty negative opinion of the T2's performance in our iron ore dirt.
With that said, I still don't have near the hours (around 150) to suggest I know all of the T2's secrets but I do have a good feel for the controls and know how to make any needed adjustments pertaining to different site locations and conditions.
Here's what I'm finding in comparison to how my favorite detectors operate ( Explorer, X-Terra 70).
Well first off the T2 has been EASY to set-up and run just about everywhere I've used it. I like to hear everything so I usually hunt in all metal or very little disc (around 15-20 in disc mode) with 4 tones.
Keep in mind that the Fort has very little flat ground and most of my hunting was done under the tree's where there is at least 3-4" of mulch overgrowth accumulated . Signals were scare at best, this place has been hunted HARD 5 times with 250 plus hunters giving it their best.
My biggest gripe about the T2 is that every small twig or clump of pine needles the coil hits will cause a faint high tone false making you stop in your tracks to re-check it. With 3500 acres to cover, this becomes a big pain in A$$ real quick.
The pinpoint feature actually sucked pretty bad after digging a target and if not digging deep enough to retrieve the target on the first try ... well, the target would disappear completely! Maybe it was the soil more than the machine because my X-Terra 70 did the same thing on occassions and it doesn't do that at home.
Tiny objects like percussion caps hit good to 4" under the mulch but sounded trashy, but, the X-Terra would hit them at twice the depth and still sound good.
I noticed that when I ran the sens to almost full throttle on the T2 to equal the X-Terra 70's depth it would become very noisy and anything over 7-8 " sounded trashy or like a nail in the same hole as silver if that makes better sense. Also tried running a lot more disc in a trashy area and the T2 suffered quite a bit of depth loss although it surely quietened it down but the targets were simply out of range. It would not hunt the brackish water beach below the Fort at all in the wet stuff but I did manage to pull a few bullets from the dry sand that were 9" deep. The 70 ate it alive in this category and was much easier on the ears while doing it.
Several folks hunting with us wanted to try the T2 and I obliged them. Everyone really liked the overall appearance, weight and balance but most thought it was simply to noisy except when in disc mode.
Relic hunters are far different from park hunters and jump on signals that most coin shooters wouldn't even think about for the most part, they usually set the detector to just knock out a small nail and dig everything else.... that is if they aren't running in all metal and digging everything that beeps.
This post is NOT to compare the T2 against the X-Terra or Explorer, I had all 3 of these detectors to use and I used them all during the 4 day's I was at this site. Everyone hunts a little different from the next guy and sets up their detector to suit them at their sites so all of this means nothing really ... just my thoughts more or less, so take it with a grain of salt if you wish.
I dug a paper thin flat button made of brass at 9" with the T2 that my X-Terra 70 would not make a peep on with GB tracking OFF but would hit it with the tracking turned ON very well ... so ... I think the auto tracking has a big advantage on sites like this where the GB might change 3-4 digits and the user not notice it.
Deep iron that's been in the ground for close to 200 years will fool the T2 (keep in mind that this site dates back before the Revolutionary War) unless the iron is very shallow and large the T2 struggles with it. I'm talking about a piece of iron that has a huge golf ball size rust ball on top of the actual internal part, like a trigger mechanism. The other detectors I tried didn't have that problem, when it was iron targets as previously described they ID'ed as iron ... period !
On the brighter side, the T2 handles great and can be carried and swung all day long while walking those endless steep ridges of Virginia, has great battery life and only takes a minute to set-up and start hunting ... just wish they would have included a memory to save the last settings at turn off.
HOPEFULLY some of the revisions soon to be released will make the T2 even better, it's still a lot of bag for the bucks though. For the raw power the T2 has, I had rather carry it through the woods than the Explorer any day but the falsing and chirping the T2 makes when the coil touches anything and everything makes for a long day and the depth gauge can't be trusted as with most detectors so I mainly hunt by sound. But, on the T2 I feel I have to keep an eye on the meter or risk passing up a good find in all metal. But, that could be that I'm still fairly new to the T2 and have much more to learn about it.
I did put it up against the Tejon in a air test on a nickel and left the Tejon user in the dust. He even called me over to check several signals during the day and not once did the T2 fail to hit on what the Tejon did. Most of them turned out to be bullets in the 7-8" range where the T2 still sounded good. At Ft. Powhatan, any non ferrous target after 9" starts to sound like iron mixed in and you'll find yourself digging way more junk with the T2 than should be dug and not take the chance that you'll leave a good target in the ground for somebody else.
H.H.
Mike