Had the Compass 77 Auto Legend out for a spin

Since I saw a post about TR metal detectors and 100khz thought I would repost here my latest outing and first, with an old Compass 77 Auto Legend. 100khz.
The nice thing is this is one of rare units that actually functions correctly and doesn't need any mods.


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Went to a school yard with a soccer field that I found about $6 in coins at last week with the Nokta Anfibio. There was so much junk in the ground, the constant report was taking its toll on me.

Today went back there to give the Legend a trial work out. It would be my first time using it. I was expecting an audio work out as I had with the Anfibio. What a surprise, it was rather stable except at the ends of each swing, Also pretty quiet, even with the very slight threshold change, Kind of like any other VLF in all metal mode. Surprised how nice the the Legend worked for an old machine.

I can say the Auto tune in slow setting worked nicely. It really was slow to retune over a coin target, pinpointing was a snap. Also when in fast retune, still easy to pinpoint the target. Retune was similar to modern machines with a faster recovery. Seemed just right. Interesting to note that you could differentiate between junk and a good target by the audio. Didn't take long to clue in on what the target was by listening to the audio report. Found the bigger the target was, the longer the legend would take to retune when stopping the coil over it.

Now I did dig a bunch of junk of all sorts to see what the targets were. Found coins, they were Canadian.
Two $2 coins
Four quarters
Two dimes
One nickel
Total of $5.25

Finding Canadian nickel/steel clad coins won't be an issue for it. The Legend was not a depth demon, deepest coin was about 4". About the same depth as the Anfibio found coins at. The Legend would not pick up one of our Can. clad nickels at 6". Did get some targets that gave off a small threshold change. Checked them out, some large foil wads at 7", iron pieces at the same depth and others that were deeper I just didn't dig. My pinpointer confirmed the targets were deeper and still in the holes. The Legend only like larger surface foil, anything deeper than 1/2", doesn't seem to see smaller foil. That in itself made for quiet hunt..

The Legend was incredibly easy for me to operate, as if I had hunted with it for years. Balance and weight was acceptable but, did start to feel some pain in my bad elbow after 2 hours.

It was fun to use a non-metered beep and dig, old technology machine again.

For those who don't know what the Compass Legend looks like. Its a pre 1990 version with the gold rods, designed for competition hunting.

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

Great story. I had the 77B and it sure found its share of silver.

I agree with okra-gold: Great story.

The 77b auto-legend was an attempt by Compass , d/t the continuous old-timer's laments, that Compass should still be selling 77b's (which had been phased out by 1975 or so). There was still many customers who griped that there were things that the 77b could do, that the new machines weren't capable of. Namely: Good ghost-town machine for seeing through a carpet of nails.

So Compass tried to incorporate the 77b into a new package. The idea of an adjustable re-tune speed was a great idea . Versus only the fast vs slow 2 options of the earlier 77b. But the big mistake they made on the Legend was: No way to turn the auto-tune speed completely off. Hence EVEN ON THE SLOWEST TUNE SPEED, it still had the annoying tendency to "over-shoot" (the re-bound effect) on targets, if you tried to slow down. You had to keep motion. Versus the original 77b where you could practically stop on top of the target.

That, plus the Legend was not as deep at the original 77b. There was a story I heard, that the reason for this was that: When the prototypes rolled off the assembly line, they were found to be staticky in operation. Other fixes, like beefier chords, were going to be a be a possible fix. But instead of trying to solve the problem, they simply "dumbed down the sens" instead.

So, in effect, the Auto-Legend was a lemon machine, IMHO. The original 77b was better.

Tom thanks for the Legend info thru messaging a number of months ago.
This maybe a dumbed down unit, as long as it finds Canadian clad and not a lot of trash down to about 5". It will be usable in many places I hunt where coins are no deeper.
One thing I cannot replicate with this unit is the over-shoot at the slowest speed setting or any other setting. At slowest retune speed (SAT), it is fairly slow, can practically stop over a target.
The Sens. setting I kept at pre-set most of the time, definitely went deeper at max. Max did seem a bit noiser. Switching the boost on also increased signal strength, not sure if it actually increased depth.
It would be great if this detector could detect coins 3" deeper than it did.
Will have to try it at several other places to see if it can go a bit deeper and see how it reacts at places with more trash..
May even try it at one of our clubs annual seeded beach hunts this year. At least take it with me. If it can handle the beach sand with mixed in magnetic black sand and still pick up the clad and silver, will for sure use it in one of the three hunts
that day.

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

Good interesting report Sven. Well done.

There seems to be a bit of a resurgence and fresh interest in older detectors! Must have a wee bit to do with the recent demise of "Tesoro" (seemed to make some go weepy for older tech?)

The 77b was a 'Legend' and I've been on the lookout for one for a long time.

Of late, a pal from Pittsburgh has bought and used an old "AH Pro" and a "Heathkit"

I've reverted to an older "Sov XS2a" and a pal I hunt with (irregularly) has reverted to a classic "Fisher 1266-X"

Sven, does the photo show the person and would we recognise him???



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2019 01:13PM by Des D.

Great report Sven. Sounds like you are enjoying the Auto-Legend.
Do you have any ghost town sites to experiment with it?
Cheers,
Drew.

One thing about it is I always thought it was a cool looking detector with the Black and Orange color combo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2019 05:09PM by Harold,ILL..

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with the old Compass. Isn’t that what this hobby is all about? Great read and interesting information. Thanks!

Des D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good interesting report Sven. Well done.
>
> There seems to be a bit of a resurgence and [size=
> large][u]fresh interest[/u][/size] in older detect
> ors! Must have a wee bit to do with the recent dem
> ise of "Tesoro" ([i][size=small]seemed to make som
> e go weepy for older tech?[/size][/i])
>
> The 77b was a 'Legend' and I've been on the lookou
> t for one for a long time.
>
> Of late, a pal from Pittsburgh has bought and used
> an old "AH Pro" and a "Heathkit"
>
> I've reverted to an older "Sov XS2a" and a pal I h
> unt with ([i]irregularly[/i]) has reverted to a cl
> assic "Fisher 1266-X"
>
> [i][size=medium][color=#6600FF]Sven, does the phot
> o show the person and would we recognise him???[/c
> olor][/size][/i]

That's Allan Cannon in the photo back around 1989-90. A couple years ago he started working at Tesoro, we had high hopes he could do some magic. He left the sinking ship.

Drew, there are some ghost towns, think they are all greened up now...

Was bench testing and at full sensitivity, the threshold audio has static, back it down some and it clears up. Seems to like silver and gold. Does not like beach sand with magnetic black sand mixed in.

Here's a picture
[url]http://tinypic.com/r/166j3o/9[/url]

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2019 10:22PM by Sven1.