Newbie with a Vanquish 440 with questions

[Rstynl]

Just started detecting at the end of July and love it. Already on my third upgrade in three weeks.

Got a Vanquish 440 today. It's nice but has been frustrating me. Pretty sure it's operator error. My Discovery 1100 and 2200 seem easier to use and less finicky.

Today testing it out with Canadian coins on grass and asphalt, it wasn't giving the results I expected. Was not picking some up unless in all metal, mixed TID numbers all over the place. Recovery speed while in coin mode was terrible, not even beeping on most passes. If I test it on a copper tube it hits like I would expect. But this thing seems to hate coins.

Is this due to the mixed metals in our coins? Kind of frustrating that coin mode doesn't pick up coins. I just tried again, it seems better on asphalt, if I set the coin in the grass, it will sometimes give tiny chirp, but no TID number. Really doesn't like dimes apparently.

I guess I'm used to my Bounty Hunters and the "dig everything" way I've been doing things. Was really hoping for more from the Vanquish, but I'm sure it's operator error.

 

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[Rstynl]

Did more searching last night after I finally put the Vanquish down. Found a link to a thread on this site from 2013.

After all the research I did on detectors, how did I miss the part about Canadian coins and Mine Labs
machines? I know it's not just ML, but someone in the thread mentioned them specifically. I guess I'll just continue in All Metal. I guess that's what I was used to as I learned on my Discovery detectors. I guess digging everything is worth it with our $1 & $2 coins.

I feel really dumb now, I returned a machine yesterday after it "not working on coins". After watching all the videos of people in their test garden, I thought I'd be hitting coins more.

Can anyone recommend a good detector for Canadian coins? I'm looking for a second decent machine that's waterproof. I go on canoe trips, would like a machine that can get wet if I bail or drop it in water, but not necessarily do underwater detecting.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Discrimination Pattern EditYou can create your own Discrimination Patterns to detector ignore specific target types, so you can dig more treasureand less trash.The preset Discrimination Patterns for each Search Mode canbe edited. Note that changes to the Coin, Relic, and JewelleryModes will return to their preset Discrimination Patterns eachtime the detector is powered on.To avoid losing your changes, use the Store function to saveyour settings to the Custom Mode. Read "Store a CustomSearch Mode" for more information.1. In any Search Mode, press the Accept/Reject buttonwhilst not detecting a target (i.e. no Target ID Number isdisplayed).The Accept/Reject button2. ‘Ed’ will appear on the Target ID Number field to indicatethat the Discrimination Pattern is being edited.'Ed' on the Target ID Number field.3. Use the Discrimination Pattern Edit arrow buttons tonavigate to the segment you wish to adjust. Selectedsegments flash.
4. Press the Accept/Reject button to toggle the selectedsegment on or off.5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have created yourDiscrimination Pattern.6. The Edit screen will time out after 3 seconds of inactivity.Store a Custom Search ModeAny Search Mode (Coin, Relic, or Jewelry), can be stored inthe Custom Search Mode slot. The current detector settingsand discrimination pattern will be saved for quick-access.The unique target separation and depth characteristics ofthe Search Modes are also saved when the Custom SearchMode is stored (see "Search Modes" on page 3 for theattributes of each Search Mode).1. Select and Edit the Search Mode you wish to save.2. Long-press the Search Mode button (5 seconds). ‘St’ willappear on the Target ID Number display, and there will bea confirmation tone.
https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/414493/4901-0305-2 Inst. Manual, VANQUISH 440 540 EN_WEB.pdf

 

[Terry Soloman]

Not shown: I tried low and high Iron Bias (Horseshoe Button) in all modes with no effect.

 

[Rstynl]

Wow! Thank you so much for doing this Terry. At first I was thinking this was the wrong forum for my newbie questions, then here you are with a custom video response.

I had some more time with the 440 today. I played with relic mode and found it in all metal seemed my best option. But I'll likely dig lots of junk I imagine. Not so bad as I'm starting out and find it all so exciting.

When I first started watching the video, I was a bit embarrassed. I thought for sure I was going to be proven wrong. A combination of steel coins and my lack of knowledge threw me for a loop yesterday.

Hopefully your videos will help others in the future. I wish I had seen it before yesterday. I'm still happy with my Vanquish. It's the cheap coins that are the issue.

A note to add. I've read that some coins are detected, but depending on year, others don't. Over the years, they've slowly changed them all to what we currently have today.

Thanks again for taking the time to do these videos. You now have a new subscriber.

 

[cudamark]

If only our U.S. cents were made of steel......then we could totally ignore them!

 

[IMF2020]

Its funny the most common coin where am at is made out of steel and ive never found one yet ...my settings only find the bronze coins

 

[sprailroad]

With my Minelab's, I find that I will not find steel coins unless I'm in say "All-metal" mode. I think that MAY be the case for most all detectors. I was not even really aware of it until I was setting something up and grabbed a couple of coins to throw on the ground, and over the penny, nothing, tried again and nothing, only then did I realize I had grabbed a Lincoln "Steel" penny, and in the pre set Discrim. it cancelled it out, MUCH to my relief, knowing that my detector was OK. Same thing with finding a German coin. I did not detect the coin itself, turns out IT was steel, what I detected was a iffy signal, that the steel coin just so happened to be in the same hole. In tour case up there, Terry is right in that you can set your detector up to accept the coinage there, without having to operate in all metal.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

Steinless steels, specially ones with high chromium content (AISI 316 and simmilar) are relatively poor current conductors for a metal. Thous, they pose a problem for detection with any kind of detector, not only Vanquish or ML. Not even PIs are an exception. If i would use my "terminator" PI - miner 4 with settings able to detect 50 EUR cent at 1/2m, i would find the much bigger stainless steel spoon at maybe 15 cm. The same spoon made of good conducting silver would be detectet at rufly 1m. That is almost 1:10 ratio.
Some metal alloys or shapes just don't behave very well in MD sense. Another example is gold chain made of small chain links. Unless stacked tightly together, the sinle loop chain links are better magnetically coupled than galvanicaly. This is a killer for a PI machine, which would most probably ignore the chain, but also bares strong effect on any VLF, which would detect the same material as a chunk much deeper than the mentioned chain.
Yet another example are modern gold rings. To make a 10K ring, the manufacturer dilute the gold with other metals, mostly cooper, somethimes some nickel is added. Since some people are alergic to other metals, the manufacturer avoid posible problems by galvanicaly gold plating the ring. The plateing is 24K gold but only few micrones thick. The changeing magnetic field, specially with higher frequencies, will cause the current to flow closer to the surphace, where thin "resistor" will transform the absorbed energy into the heat rather than oposing magnetic field. Again, the effect is more sirious with PIs, but is observable with VLFs as well.
There are of course other situations as well, but i am too long already.

 

[nuggetdog]

I found a steel cent with my equinox, but that’s only because it was with a wheat cent

 

[JerV3]

Vanquish is a great intermediate machine.

Easy to use and has the power to grab deeper older coins.

We hunt here 3 4 days a week if not more through the entire year including winter.

I didn't care to much for the vanquish when I first got one. However things started to change.

I dug two silvers the first day with it at a pounded park.

I then found a walker barber half and had a few hunts where I pulled 5 to 7 silvers per hunt.

It's a damn little good machine.

However most machines on the market don't like Canadian coins.

Although dimes from the late 60%s that contain silver content are no problem to detect.

Give it a little more time. I bet it will start to talk to you.

Jer

 

[CPT_GhostLight]

Got a Vanquish 440 today. It's nice but has been frustrating me. Pretty sure it's operator error.

Today testing it out with Canadian coins on grass and asphalt, it wasn't giving the results I expected. Was not picking some up unless in all metal, mixed TID numbers all over the place. Recovery speed while in coin mode was terrible, not even beeping on most passes. If I test it on a copper tube it hits like I would expect. But this thing seems to hate coins.

Is this due to the mixed metals in our coins? Kind of frustrating that coin mode doesn't pick up coins.

Canadian coins less than a loonie (Canadian $1) have steel cores and are plated with nickel, zinc or copper to add color. Also the Canadian government had the most rigerous recall of all coins minted before 2000 and extracted the valuable metals from them to bolster the precious metal reserves, so there are very few Canadian coins in circulation dated before 2000. Steel is notoriously hard to pickup with a metal detector because of its low conductivity. Look for jumpy numbers in the low 20s mixed with a slight iron tone as the multi-IQ on the Vanquish will detect all of the alloys in your Canadian coins simultaneously. HTH