Ok great. The deal is those guys are still going to probably going to have a big advantage over you, but only because they really know their machines. After 8 hours on any machine, the folks who have the most experience on whatever machine are going to have an advantage over the 8 hour guy, even if he has good detecting experience and the machine has superior features like the Deus. But I can at least give you some pointers and a simplified approach to give you a fighting chance to snag some relics in the woods. Also, when you do get really proficient with the Deus you can and will be able to out-perform the AT Pro and even the 800 under many conditions. I have owned an AT Pro (no longer) and now have 100's of hours on Deus and also own an Equinox (also a lot of swing hours but fewer than Deus - the only machine that comes close to Deus in performance) and a Fisher F75, and Whites MXT all with progressively fewer swing hours than the Deus but great relic machines nevertheless, so I know what I am talking about.
OK - First off, it would be best if you upgraded the machine to Version 5.1 because even though it is not required to be used with the old coils, it does have some new features that are beneficial to relic hunting, especially with respect to ground balance tracking and compatibility with the newer coils which you might want to consider investing in down the line. However, I do not want you to do a software upgrade before tomorrow's hunt because that is something you will want to do when you have time on your hands as it is a little complex and you have to re-load all your custom programs. So think about doing that down the road, perhaps if you decide to get a new coil.
Moving on: With the old coil you have 4 choices of frequencies - 4 khz, 8 khz, 12 khz, and 18 khz.
Higher frequencies are able to hit mid-conductive targets like brass and lead relics better than the lower frequencies. So for your relic hunt tomorrow I want you focus on 12 and 18 khz but I want you to set up custom programs at each frequency (4, 8, 12, and 18 khz) because the lower frequencies will give you more depth, especially for high conductors like copper and silver, even if they don't hit as hard on the mid-conductive targets at depth.
Use the Deus Fast program as your base program for your custom programs. PM me if you need more information on how to set up and save custom programs.
Just save the Deus Fast Program 4 times using the default settings, except change Reactivity to 2 and with the only difference between the four programs is the frequency (save one at 4 khz, one at 8 khz, one at 12 khz, and one at 18 khz).
The Default Settings will be:
Disc = 6.8
Tones = 3 (breakpoints are 6.8 and 76 - all relics except minie balls will likely ring up as a mid tone, iron will ring up as a low tone. High tones will be possibly a minie ball or coin or large target).
Sensitivity = 90 (only lower this if necessary if the machine is chatty or if in thick iron, no need to raise it higher as it will not give you much more depth and may only increase noise)
Tx Power = 2
Frequency = DEPENDS (18 KHZ is the default)
Reactivity = 2 (Changed from the Default of 3 - this will give you more depth)
Silencer = -1 (off) > this is important because the silencer can cause masking of non-ferrous targets. It should be set to -1 (off) or no higher than 0.
Iron Volume = 3 (even though you are using discrimination, you want to hear the iron because of iron relics but also thick iron tones tell you that you may be on top of an old building foundation or campsite, the discrimination helps to keep ferrous targets from down averaging the Target ID (TID) of non-ferrous targets).
Audio Response = 4 (you can bump this up to 5 if deep targets sound too faint)
Now, save one more custom program. Deus fast again, but with the following changes, change tones from 3 tones to pitch and leave reactivity at 3. The higher reactivity setting will give you slightly less depth but better target separation in trash. This is your thick iron program. Your detector will grunt a low tone for any iron below the discrimination point and with give you a variable tone pitch for non-ferrous that will increase in intensity and pitch the shallower or larger the target is. Try this out on some test targets so you can get used to it. This is basically like a two-tone setup where you are trying to just ferret out non-ferrous from ferrous in thick iron. You can use it under any condition but you will be reliant on the display for target ID. You can also save another "pitch" program at another frequency if you want. If the iron is really thick and overloading your coil, try lowering sensitivity into the mid 80's and that may allow some shallow masked non-ferrous targets to pop out of the muck.
Regarding Target ID's: Note that the default setting is target ID's will vary with frequency. For example a minie ball may ring up as follows: 4 khz = 58, 8khz = 71, 12 khz= 77, 18 khz = 82. Similarly, brass buttons will ring up lower anywhere from the mid-40's at 4 khz to the high 70's at 18 khz. If you want to get sophisticated, you can change the default breakpoints for the 3 tones to different high tone breakpoints depending on frequency or you can get even more fancy and go to 4 or 5 tones. But the best relic hunter I know who uses the Deus only uses the default 3 tones Deus fast program with all the defaults I mentioned above. You can also change the audio frequencies of the individual tones to your liking and also the maximum frequency of the pitch tone (I like to use the highest frequency 603 hz). For the three tones I would recommend 120 hz, 644 hz, and 993 hz audio tones, if you know how to change them, otherwise, just use the defaults (can't remember what they are).
Note that there is a setting in the Profile submenu of the Configuration menu that is called "ID Norm". The default setting for ID Norm is off. If you change it to "ON" then all target ID's will be normalized to what they would be at 18 khz regardless of your frequency setting. I like to have it off because you can use that to "check" for Iron because Iron might ring up as a high tone (false) but its target ID will typically not properly follow frequency. For example if you have iron falsing in the 90's at 12 khz, you would expect it to lower when lower frequency to 4 khz but it will often not change at all or do the opposite. You can then make a decision as to whether to dig it. That is why I name my 4 khz program as "Iron CHK".
Match the manual ground balance setting to the ground balance displayed for your ground and you will be good to go. I do not recommend using Ground Balance tracking with Ver 3.2 software.
You can navigate to each of your custom programs simply using the +/- pushbuttons. This allows you to interrogate targets with different frequencies once you acquire them to see what is going on by just hitting plus/minus while you swing the coil.
I would recommend hunting in 12 or 18 khz. If you hit a repeatable target, dig it. If you can barely hear it, try using a different frequency to see if the target signal or visual ID becomes more stable. You can even try the pitch program. Also, circle the target a little to see if you can get a repeatable tone. When relic hunting I basically dig all non-ferrous and most ferrous if for nothing else to get it out of the way but also because there are plenty of cool iron relics (swords, bayonets, rifle parts, buckles, spurs, and other horse tack).
Learn to use the upside down "horseshoe" display on the left hand side. The left side of the horseshoe indicates a ferrous target, right side non ferrous. Both sides lit up then the target is mixed or there are multiple ferrous and non-ferrous targets under the coil. If the right side lights up all black the target is strong and shallow if it is half way lit up, then about 6" deep roughly, if it barely tics black then 10 to 12 inches deep. The center indicator in the horseshoe is the "overload" indicator (e.g., actual shallow horseshoe or aluminum can). Finally, on Deus really deep detectable targets may still register a tone even if they don't display a target ID. Look at the horseshoe display to see if it is a deep target but with no number showing. If you can get the signal to repeat even without a target ID, dig it!
There are A LOT more pointers but hard to do with a single post. For example, the Gold Field program is the Deus ALL METAL program but it is a completely different animal than the tone programs (perhaps more similar to the pitch program above, but still very different) but it can come in useful in thick iron or highly mineralized ground.
Also, the new coils operate at and above 25 - 28 khz which I find to be an ideal frequency for relic hunting. My favorite coil overall is the white round 9" HF coil and my relic hunting Deus buddy has used the 9.5" HF elliptical to snag several banner finds. The X35 coils are also great because they can operate as high as 24 khz but can also operate at low frequencies for deep silver. Think about a coil upgrade down the road should you choose to keep the Deus.
PM me if you have more questions. HTH.
