Extreme depth Pirate Black Devil detector

Bet it is a real " barn burner "

[www.ebay.com]

I can't afford the batteries 12 AA

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

[www.youtube.com]

If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

The seller doesn't accept returns, but if it's as deep as they say and a "2 in 1" detector, who'd want to return it? Arrrr

I really liked the looks of the Pirate Apolonia Pro Gold. Just not sure if they are as good as advertised. Anyone here ever tried one of their machines?

Silly Lowboy they are rechargeable! The cord even comes with an adapter for US outlets! Somehow the layout reminds me of Troy's great X's (his X's didn't stay in Texas, get it?). OK, so they are UK units. The upgrade model even has a 2 tone option! They are probably very good units for what they are intended to do. I'll be interested in hearing how they perform. Sure can't complain about the price!

Past(or)Tom
Using a Legend, a Deus 2, an Equinox 800, a Tarsacci MDT 8000, & a few others...
with my beloved, fading Corgi, Sadie

[piratedetectors.com]

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

hmmm, might be something..



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2016 08:36PM by vincentvangerven.

You've got to wonder about AA cells with only 1000 mAh capacity. really cheap nicads? Even no-frills NiMH's have 1800 mAh.Maybe their main function is as weight ballast, it seems pretty frugal (25mA stated consumption), they could've easily designed it with AAA cells (they are typically 800 - 1000 mAh), or 4 or 6 AA's with some electronics changes...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2016 11:35PM by Pimento.

[www.dankowskidetectors.com]

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

I'm sure it's another well performing/packaging variation of a fine Bulgarian detector.

But from a marketing perspective, I can't read the words 'Professional' and 'Pirate' in the same sentence without wincing.

mike

Mike in CO Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm sure it's another well performing/packaging
> variation of a fine Bulgarian detector.
>
> But from a marketing perspective, I can't read the
> words 'Professional' and 'Pirate' in the same
> sentence without wincing.
>
> mike

yup, totally agree, that's where for instance the turks came up with a better name.

anybody tried these yet? (Am emailing with a detecorshop in Bulgaria to see if they'll ship directly.)

Alrighty, decided that it's worth a shot; ordered an apolonia gold pro and a black devil pro 2 tone... Will let you know how i go with these when they arrive from Bulgaria

Reminds me of a deep tech vista?

------------"Cz's still bad to the bone".------------
Living on a big ass Astroid.
The woman that got my rib,I want it back.

yup, that's what i thought, they also bear a pretty solid resemblance to the Golden Mask brand. We shall see...

Alrighty, got them in! the black devil pro in black, the apolonia gold pro in Camo, and guess what, they actually do detect metal !!

Lots of testing to follow, will keep you posted.

First hunt results…

Spent a little over an hour in a recent park, founded somewhere in the 80’s here in California, so no old stuff. Working in tough gold country highly mineralized soil. Using killer B headphones, the model with the limiter switch and adjustable volume.

Took the Apolonia gold pro out for this test run, since I’m just more drawn to metered machines then analog models. I like to get all the input I can get I guess.

I only Air tested the Black Devil Pro and left it at that since a simple quick airtest with some clad and a gold ring were giving comparable depth and audio results, and so it seems to be a an analog version of the Apolonia gold pro.

I’m comparing these initial findings with my other detectors that I have and have had.(Silver Sabre 2, Cortes, Tejon, Lobo Super Track, F19, Minelab Explorer 2)

While I am typing this I am having a hard time putting all initial thoughts on paper, since I feel that this detector is similar to what I have seen in my other detectors, but at the same time this machine is a completely different animal.

This machine is really something else compared to what i have had before, but if anything it feels like a Tesoro on steroids!

Handles in a very similar way compared to the Tesoro brand, but it easily goes as deep as my Minelab Explorer 2 in this difficult soil. It actually might even go deeper, and it for sure is more sensitive to smaller items, even at depth.

At the same time it’s one heck of a high strung machine, where you do have to pay attention to what it tells you, since it speaks fast and often.

I have a bunch more thoughts, and things I want to explore further to see if what I think this machine is about holds true after a few more outings. I feel like with this machine it’s a bit like learning a new language that sounds similar to your native tongue, but isn’t quite the same.

But a few things that stood out from this first outing;

-swings great; no pain, no strain, unlike the Explorer 2 where something, either design, weight or both is/are messing with me. After an hour on the Explorer I already feel it in my shoulders and lower back, with this Apolonia model I still feel fine.

-It’s most likely deeper and definitely more sensitive to low conductors and tiny stuff compared to the Minelab Explorer2 (which I think is quite an accomplishment ) and this makes me look forward to do more testing.

-It’s super fast compared to the Minelab, I can swing it real quick and it still doesn’t seem to miss a thing.

-Forget about discrimination out larger pieces of foil and larger iron; anything bigger then a nail and this detector is begging to have you dig up whatever it is it found.

-The VDI system leaves a thing or 2 to be desired for the park hunting that I did today.
On the digital Apolonia Gold Pro the machine lumps all USA clad to the far right of the target indicator bar, and VDI numbers are all high and close together. Only foil and gold make the numbers go down to about mid level on bar and numbers (which makes sense) but anything from clad penny to copper penny, dime and quarter gets put to the far right of the target indicator bar, with numbers that are so close together that (at least till now) I can’t tell what’s most likely under the coil. The nickels seem to fall a little lower, in between foil and gold.
When targets get to be too deep, the vdi system draws a blank, and it’s audio only. It seems that this is not an easy thing to do, to create a detector that ID’s accurately and at depth.
I never had a Makro Racer 1 or 2, but read a good amount of reports where people experience something similar. Lumping targets together on the makro racer 1, and with the marko racer 2 the vdi system will throw in the towel before the detector stops giving an audio signal.
Have to say that for me (for visual ID), Minelabs system is about the best as I have seen so far.

All in all I am intrigued by this detector and I like to get to know it better. I will update more as I spend more time with the Apolonia Gold Pro.

The Black Devil Pro will probably be put up for sale soon. Why? Well, I have a Tesoro Tejon, so that's my analog Tesoro machine (got to have a tesoro, was my first brand when getting into detecting), I have the Pirate Apolonia Gold Pro for speed and depth even on small stuff, and I have the Minelab Explorer 2 for depth and accurate ID through multiple tones and its VDI system.

So with the Tejon, Apolonia and Explorer I feel I have my bases covered pretty good

results of 1 hour of detecting, discrimination to max, will pick up some foil and larger iron, but also picks up the 'good' and small stuff.

2 small chain links, were only gold plated at some point.

Another outing, another update...

Went to another park, with slighty different soil conditions (still far from easy soil, but further away from EMI ) to see if the detctor would behave differently. Decided to make it hard on the detector and go over a patch systematically, after I went over it real good with the Minelab explorer 2.

Walking over the same patch and walking the same lines, i was surprised at the amount of signals i still got with the Pirate Apolonia Gold Pro. After the Minelab was pretty much quiet, the Pirate talked up a storm...

Now, the Minelab is known to be a sucker for silver, but not so much for smaller, lower conductors like smaller gold rings and chains.. The Pirate Apolonia showed me that it has no problem with the lower conductors and small stuff. Below a pic of what it pulled out of the ground after my Minelab told me the patch was empty. (I know a plot of land is never really empty, but i was surprised at the amount of things i dug.)



Looks like just a bunch of trash and few pennies plus a nickel, but what this really tells me is that the detector sees the low conductors very well, and the more experienced detectorists know that pull tabs easily fall within the same conductivity range as the smaller gold jewelry. There was no gold jewelry in this patch, at least nothing witing detection range, but i think it's pretty impressive what the Pirate showed me here, and i mght have pulled some gold that the Minelab would have missed

One thing i noticed, and i have been emailing the manufacturer about this, is that the high mineralization content in the soil makes it hard for the detector to give a clear high tone and VDI on some non ferrous targets when running it in 2 tone mode.

I got a few mixed high/low tone signals, that i dug on, which resulted in diging some foil and some bottle caps. Pulltabs were all clear high tone, but sometimes the VDI was either higher or lower then I expcted them to be. So although the detecor does not seem to miss a thing, it seems the VDI was struggling a bit in that conductivity range combined with the mineralized soil.

The manufacturer was very interested in my feedback and told me they're constantly trying to make a great product even better, so i'm looking forward to what's next at Pirate Electronics..

More testing to be done here



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2016 07:11PM by vincentvangerven.

I will be testing one shortly, wonder how it will stack up..... Nice info Vincent also.

great, are you getting and Apolonia as well?

Would be interesting to compare, especially if your soil conditions are different.

Here's a few pics with my Explorer in it for size reference. Coil footprint is nearly identical, length between hand grip and arm rest is shorter on the Apolonia.

I have been leaning toward the Deep Tech Warrior because of the extreme depth and beep and dig features. It has been over 2 weeks since a single post on their forum. Except for Keith on youtube, there is nothing else to go with...There is more feedback on this forum on the Pirate to make a person spend their money on the Pirate.

Think DeepTech lost interest in the American customer in general. Along with the last dealer(s) situations hasn't instilled any confidence in becoming a dealer for them.
And not sure what happened to the US warranty service center in Maine. He's been quiet since becoming the service center.
DT's are excellent machines overall, cosmetically the controls boxes are a bit big and ugly. Slim and sexy sells, much better. Being consumer/dealer friendly company also helps.
The Pirate detectors have very nice graphics.................
I feel the European manufacturers a missing the boat here, would make more sales to coin and jewelry hunters if discrimination settings would disc out more than foil just like US brands.

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

I think that's the key to have any succes in a business, to keep in touch with your buyers, and take their feedback serious. Nokta and Makro seem to have that part down from what i have read so far

Hopefully Pirate Electronics will become succesful here as well; they have a lot to offer for the price they're asking for their products.

The control box might not win a beauty contest, but they do perform way above their price tag.

3 foot on a jar of coins. Watching as he lifts the coil...[www.youtube.com]

Update;

Finally a day where it wasn't too darn hot to go out and detect here in Northern California, so i decided to take the Pirate Apolonia back out for another spin to my local park.

Below the results in the pics. It does like pulltabs, and some beer bottle caps do fool the machine once rusty enough, but by digging these i might have (finally) received my reward for doing so...

Not sure yet if the ring is the real deal or a 'cheapo', but hey, it's a ring, and its in 1 piece :yes:

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where is pinpoint button/switch, somehow i missed it

pinpint button is tip or heel of coil



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2016 07:34PM by vincentvangerven.