Vallon VMC 1 - Military PI Mine detector

DurkaDigger

Jr. Member
Apr 15, 2013
93
59
AL
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX3030 & XP Deus with a Whites TRX and Garrett Pro Pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well, I never really thought I would end up with one of these but as luck would have it... I did and at a great price.... FREE! These vallon units are now available to law enforcement from the military. They are required to keep them 1 year, BUT then they can be disposed of...I have an old friend over the program. They had 30 of them new in the box that they had over the year, but never used! I was given one and asked to develop a short train program for them. They just want them to find crime scene projectiles.

The one I got is the Vallon VMC 1. I almost said no when he first called because most of that surplus is junk and I have an XP Deus, but I remembered a post about these PI detectors on another forum. Oddly enough it was this machine. I just got it this afternoon and was late for a speech, but I took a few quick pics. I will get some gopro video up soon. It reminds me of the Garrett ATX.


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EccentricInTexas

Hero Member
Jan 14, 2013
944
659
Central Texas
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800 11DD coil 11x15DD coil 6DD coil
Schiebel AN-19/2,
Bounty Hunter Land Ranger Pro,
Bounty Hunter Pioneer 505,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
How much are they planning on selling them for there is one on ebay for over 3k.
 

OP
OP
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DurkaDigger

Jr. Member
Apr 15, 2013
93
59
AL
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX3030 & XP Deus with a Whites TRX and Garrett Pro Pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
How much are they planning on selling them for there is one on ebay for over 3k.

Not sure if the will or not. I will let y'all know. I saw one of the older models used for 3300. These are all new in the box.

Post a link to that eBay.


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gmradar

Jr. Member
Mar 21, 2014
42
10
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
A new one sells for about 2500 euros or about 3400$. I dont think its worth the money for civil applications.
 

OP
OP
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DurkaDigger

Jr. Member
Apr 15, 2013
93
59
AL
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX3030 & XP Deus with a Whites TRX and Garrett Pro Pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
A new one sells for about 2500 euros or about 3400$. I dont think its worth the money for civil applications.

You may be right. I am still working out the adjustments but it really goes deep. I can imagine clearing a minefield where a war was going on could be frustrating with all the metal and no discrimination.


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U.K. Brian

Bronze Member
Oct 11, 2005
1,629
153
Detector(s) used
XLT, Whites D.F., Treasure Baron, Deepstar, Goldquest, Beachscan, T.D.I., Sovereign, 2x Nautilus, various Arado's, Ixcus Diver, Altek Quadtone, T2, Beach Hunter I.D, GS 5 pulse, Searchman 2 ,V3i
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The latest Vallon, the VMR2, uses Dual Sensor Technology and ground penetrating radar (GPR) from Cobham Technical Services, together with pulse induction to gauge position, mass, depth and provide a cross section of the target. Its going to be a long time before they get to the public but might give standard detector manufacturers a few ideas for their machines.
 

ganixle

Greenie
Jan 9, 2013
15
6
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I just got mine from murphyjunk.net and what a beautiful machine indeed. Have been testing and becoming familiar before striking out into the Nevada outback by running it on some known targets in the dunes here in Florida. A small piece of lead wheel weight at 12 inches loud and clear....a small cat food can at 24 inches on end (small profile)...a signal I would investigate, a 26 ounce tomato can at 27 inches so loud and clear it cannot be ignored...going back with post hole diggers and placing another can at 36 inches and then a metal coffee can at 5 feet for continued testing as a cache hunter....also smaller pieces of lead and nickels in the salt sand pushing for 12 to 18 inches to see what happens. This thing is a neat detector. Definitely not for coin shooting in the local park but does have its sweet spot out in the wide open and would be killer on an old pirate or Spanish cache buried in the high dunes along the coast and on some of these islands. More to come on that later. Trying to recover from a trip to the ER for a lung issue, COPD caused by chemo therapy almost put me away but as soon as this rain passes in the next day or two I'll try to get some extreme depth tests and record a little on the ole camera phone.
 

clayfox

Greenie
Oct 28, 2014
10
7
Spring City, PA
Detector(s) used
VALLON VMC1, VMW1, VMH3, VMH3CS, MineHound MD&GPR (VMR2, VMR2+, VMR3, VMR3G), VX1 Magnetometer, etc...
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
If you need help with the VMC1, I'm the rep who trained most military AFG trainers

The VMC1 can be easy to use, but if you want to get more than 80% out of it, you need to understand the advance controls, such as it's dynamic response (versus the industry standard static response), channel selection and mineral soil compensation. Unless you are holding the pinpoint button, the detector is primarily looking for an increase in metal content, versus the overall metal content. This provides a brisker response for the operator, and it can also allow you to suppress nearby metal objects, like railways and fences. Also take time practicing with small and large objects above the ground to get used to the sounds, especially when the alerts go from the 1st stage to the 2nd stage.
 

ganixle

Greenie
Jan 9, 2013
15
6
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The VMC1 can be easy to use, but if you want to get more than 80% out of it, you need to understand the advance controls, such as it's dynamic response (versus the industry standard static response), channel selection and mineral soil compensation. Unless you are holding the pinpoint button, the detector is primarily looking for an increase in metal content, versus the overall metal content. This provides a brisker response for the operator, and it can also allow you to suppress nearby metal objects, like railways and fences. Also take time practicing with small and large objects above the ground to get used to the sounds, especially when the alerts go from the 1st stage to the 2nd stage.

Would love to get trained up in the full use of this machine. How do I schedule an in service?
 

OP
OP
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DurkaDigger

Jr. Member
Apr 15, 2013
93
59
AL
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX3030 & XP Deus with a Whites TRX and Garrett Pro Pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Clayfox would you say this would be better for finding small gold or deeper relic targets?

I haven't used mine much at all. I was thinking it would be better at the small stuff.
 

BerntOut

Full Member
Jan 12, 2010
156
17
South West USA
Detector(s) used
Deus, BlissTool V3, CTX, Vallon VCM1, ......forgot the others!
Vallon VMC1 Update

"I will get some gopro video up soon. It reminds me of the Garrett ATX."

I have the opportunity to get one of these for testing, I just want to know how good or bad this might be in mineralised ground for small gold nugget shooting! LOL! Really would like your impression of it. Does it hit small nonferrous targets?
 

golden money

Newbie
Jan 19, 2015
3
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
New here, but wanted to share my experience with this detector.

Did some testing and learning at the local beach.

.021 gram (.34 grains) wire at three inches
7.62 grain washer (very small) at six to eight inches.
.05 gram staple at six inches
hair pin or bobby pin at fourteen to sixteen inches.

These machines are very quiet when set up right, no threshold which makes you think that the machine is off. The pin pointer also works well.
There are so many sub settings that it will take a while to learn but I am very impressed with it. My friend who was with me with one as well was very surprised and mentioned that he felt the machine worked better than his minelab at picking up the small stuff and also went deeper. We were also able to work with in ten feet of each other with out interference. I'm hoping to try it out in Arizona in a couple of weeks and will let you know how it goes.
 

clayfox

Greenie
Oct 28, 2014
10
7
Spring City, PA
Detector(s) used
VALLON VMC1, VMW1, VMH3, VMH3CS, MineHound MD&GPR (VMR2, VMR2+, VMR3, VMR3G), VX1 Magnetometer, etc...
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
The VMC1 would be best at finding small gold pieces near the surface, as it is designed to find tiny firing pins in plastic anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. It is also one of the best detectors when dealing with Mineralized soils, allowing you to still have great sensitivity while rejecting the false alarms from the minerals. The search head can find larger objects approximately 2-2.5 times the larger head dimension, so lets say ~2ft-ish. If you want deeper detection, the better Vallon detector would be the VMH3CS with the 60cm diameter UXO search head, which can find large projectiles down to ~4ft, so relic target depth would be dependent on how much metal they have (the more the closer to the 4Ft, and less metal = less detection depth.)

Sorry for the two year delay in replying...
 

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