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XP Deus HF round coil pasture test

An afternoon metal detecting with the XP Deus HF coil.

Having used the XP Deus high frequency coil for some time now, it has quickly become my coil of choice for hunting ancient sites, the 54Khz has really opened my mind and proved without a doubt there is no such thing as a worked-out site.


As most of my sites are now under crop I wanted to try this coil on some pasture and concentrate on the low to mid frequencies, 14 – 28Khz, sometimes deep pasture can require a different set up and approach compared to cultivated land.
Personally I like searching pasture because it gives me a chance to see how deep a machine can detect on undisturbed soil.
Which leads me straight into my short article.

How deep is the XP – 9″ High Frequency coil?

This was a perfect time to carry out a little experiment with my HF, I have some permission on some pasture which has not seen a plough for many years, it has always been shy at producing targets but looks ideal for detecting. I wanted to use some standard factory settings for my deep target test.

The DEEP program #6

I chose program 6 (deep) as I was confident this powerful program would suit the pasture field in question as it has minimal iron infestation and hopefully the DEEP program would help locate some deep targets.
Not knowing how the high frequency coil would perform, I took notes on all my targets prior to digging while changing the frequencies from 14 to 28 to see if there would be any noticeable advantages.
I was quite shocked to discover the higher frequency, 28Khz produced a cleaner audio sound than the lower frequency 14Khz on many targets I detected on the day. Perhaps this was a reflection of my ground conditions.
While using the deep program, the occasional deep horse shoe fooled me, giving a fairly good audio sound, this was to be expected as DEEP is a very powerful “RAW” program. To conquer this, I switched to program 9 (hot) and re checked the target. Every time the audio reported Iron, I have to say Iron cannot hide when using program 9 HOT, the full tone audio gives the operator so much valuable information. I found the white 9″ HF coil operated a lot smoother than my 11 inch black coil in this situation, even with the sensitivity turned up to 94 the HF coil was very settled, I can only describe it as “confidence inspiring”.
During the afternoon my targets varied in size, I dug a lot of lead and blank Georgian coins which had been eaten away from cow pee over the years but it was good sport and a good test for the HF coil.


My best find of the day was a Charles 1st silver six pence dating 1639-40 which I recovered at just over six inches deep, also a small copper alloy bell at 10 inches. This is the first hammered coin I have ever found on this field so it has uplifted my confidence for future visits.
Overall I felt the HF coil performed very well using the DEEP setting on my pasture site, and I truly believe even at 28Khz was easily on par with my 11 inch standard coil.
XP technology is moving fast and in the right direction, I can’t wait to try the new elliptical coil on some really difficult sites….Watch this space !


This XP Deus 9″ round coil article was kindly submitted
By Gary Smith

XP Deus TIP :
Ground balance – Lowering the ground balance beyond a recommended level may appear to give you more depth but may make operation unstable, this is a mistake many new XP Deus users make.
Lower settings can make the coil over sensitive and give false signals on certain ceramics, contact with the ground such as rocks or tree roots, hot rocks, holes, disturbed soil, even your hand. Do not adjust the ground balance to the displayed ground reading unless you are confident an adjustment is required.
XP recommends that you stick with 88 – 90 to ensure a smooth operation on a wide range of search scenario’s.
“Only lower the ground balance if you are confident with its operation”

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