My New Machine: A Hard Decision with a Happy Ending

I was going to post this last Thursday before I went to Blackthorne Resorts Lost Treasure Weekend, but I had internet issues, so it didn’t get posted.  I was disappointed, but it turned out to be a good thing in the end, because something happened that I never could have predicted, which makes the ending to this post so much better.

So I got this package delivered a few weeks back, and it said Made in France on the box.  A friend said that perhaps there was a little French man inside, so I checked. Nope, no French dude, but there was a new XP Deus–WooHoo!!!

I’ve been wanting to get this machine for a while, but I’ve always been in love with my E-trac.  Seriously, I love my E-trac.  I think it’s an awesome machine, but my age is starting to catch up with me.  After a few hours swinging, my arm starts to hurt (a lot).  Against my better judgment, I just keep on swinging anyway. I tell myself lies like “You’re building muscle”, and “It’s still early in the season, you’re just not used to it yet”, but the reality is they are just lies I’m telling myself.

After finally accepting that I needed to get a lighter machine, I spent months debating over whether to purchase the Minelab Equinox or the XP Deus—I chose the Deus.

I’m a Minelab girl, so it was a very hard decision.  I wanted to be brand loyal, and I’ve had nothing but great results with my Minelab, so naturally I looked into purchasing the new Equinox when I found out how lightweight it was. Then there was the price difference (nothing to scoff at), with the Deus being a much more expensive machine.

The Equinox is waterproof, the Deus is not.  That part sucked. I really wanted something waterproof so I wouldn’t have to worry about stuff like that anymore, but I got over it.

In the end, I felt the Deus was a better machine overall for me and the type of hunting I do.  Lightweight, remote, wireless headphones, tried and tested, awesome target separation, and not currently on worldwide backorder.  

The learning curve is something I wasn’t looking forward to, and even though I prepared myself for it, I was still a bit timid the first few times I used it.

I tried it in the yard without the headphones, in default mode first.  I came away with a cute silver? Bracelet, and a few nails and bullets.  I learned very quickly that bottle caps which used to sound low on my E-trac, have a beautiful tone that screams “dig me” with the Deus…sigh.

The first real test was when my friend JoJo and I went up to the Catskills a few weeks ago for the Nor’easter’s Annual Hunt.  I decided I would take the Deus, but I also took my E-trac because with the ridiculous prices of these hunts nowadays, I wanted to at least feel like I had a chance of finding something in case I couldn’t deal with the new machine all weekend.  

Before the hunt started, CT Todd (Todd Yerks) was kind enough to give me some instruction, and set up the Deus with his own program to get me started.  Thank you Todd!

There were over a dozen sites to choose from, so my plan was to use the E-trac at one site, the Deus at the next, then the E-trac, then the Deus, and so on… It was not a very thought out plan though, because as soon as we got to a site, I was reaching for the security of my old machine–obviously this changeover was not going to be easy. 

We ended up at the Marlowe Mansion—this place has been pounded for years, but were doing quite well with our E-tracs.  JoJo found a Mercury Dime; I found a V-Nickel, an Indian Head, and then a Mercury Dime, and since I felt I had found enough treasure for the day I finally decided to give the Deus a try.  It was all shiny, and lightweight, and I was congratulating myself in my mind for finally deciding to use it.  I knew it was a chatty machine, but when I turned it on the noise screeching out of that thing just about blew out my ears.  For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to work the darn headphones.  I got out the instruction book (yeah, I brought it just in case), and turned the machine on and off a half dozen times trying to get the sound to go to the headphones.

I asked JoJo to help me, but he was like I don’t know anything about that machine (c’mon, I thought guys were born with like super problem solving skills), and where the heck was CT Todd when I needed him?  My frustration was epic, and since I’m clueless when it comes to electronics, I called it really bad names out loud because for some reason that made me feel less stupid, then I put it back in the car and went back to the old faithful E-trac.

Later, at the hunt barbeque, I met up with Todd Yerks, and said “Ask me how I did with my Deus today?”, and he said “I’m not going to ask because I saw you”.  He meant that he saw me detecting with my E-trac.  Gosh darn it Todd, I really thought you couldn’t see me hiding behind those trees!

Even though I was a little bit embarrassed, I had to laugh at myself as I related my Deus trouble to the guys.  I could tell that Todd was amused, and he did try to soothe it over with a diplomatic I can see how that could happen statement, but I knew they were all laughing at me deep down inside.

The next morning I got a bit more instruction from a few of the guys in my club who use Deus’ before starting out (Thank you Joe & Rich).  We hunted a field, and my second target was a silver ring!  Now that I was learning how to operate the machine, it didn’t seem all that bad.  Hey, I used it twice, and both times found silver jewelry–not bad.  

Maybe I would have also found those things with my E-trac, but I’m going to pretend that’s not the case, so I can more easily promote new metal detector excitement within myself.

I will be taking both machines up to the Catskills this weekend for Blackthorne Resorts Lost Treasure Weekend, and regardless of which machine I use, I’m bound to find something, and who knows, I might even come back loving the Deus.

Part 2:  The Happy Ending

So I experimented with my new Deus on the natural hunt at Blackthorne Resort over the weekend.  I can’t say that I did poorly, because I’m not used to the machine and wouldn’t know if I passed over a good target or not.  I did my best to dig everything that sounded good, and I was on the right track because I didn’t pull out a lot of junk, just a lot of clad and some bullets.

We went to a private permission afterward, and I found some more clad, and then another silver ring!  I may not be finding the coppers and reales I’ve been hoping for, but I’ve only used the Deus three times, and found silver all three times.  I’m thinking this machine might be a silver jewelry magnet.

I used the E-trac for the seeded hunts because time matters, my pinpointing skill is spot on with it, and a competition hunt for tokens is not the place to start using a new detector.

I’m not going to tell you all about Lost Treasure Weekend in this post, that will be in the next one, but I am going to tell you about the happy ending.

Most hunts end with raffles, and this one did too.  They were raffling pinpointers, shovels, metal detectors, etc.. with the top prize being a Minelab Equinox 600.  You probably know where this is going, so yes, I did win the Equinox–awesome!  The universe obviously knew that I wanted both machines, and I left the Blackthorne a very happy lady. 

Happy Hunting!