Out and about with the Rutus Jupiter
Catching and Scratching

Catching and scratching is a term I use when searching a new field, looking for that elusive "hot spot", you sometimes hear people saying that you really need 2 machines to be successful.. and up to a point I totally agree.
For example many detectorists use multi frequency machines with big coils for general searching hoping to locate deep targets on reasonably clean farmland, the term I use for this type of general searching is "catching". If they find a badly contaminated area they will quite often go back to their car and get out a higher single frequency model such as the Goldmaxx, Tesoro, Laser or T2  because they know this is a better machine for finding the desired targets amongst iron I call them scratching or "site" machines.

Hence the term Catching and scratching...So far I have found the best all rounder which covers both these situations is the Teknetics T2 which I reviewed some years back and still own and use as one of my main machines, a fantastic detector  although let down these days by it's high price tag which does not match the build quality.
The Prototypes
Nick from Detecnicks had the second prototype, he was searching mainly pasture and reporting some very impressive depths, it was really good to have two mirrored machines both on test in different parts of the UK, when we compared notes our results were almost identical, we both agreed that one or two minor factory changes were needed to make this machine something special, it wasn't long before our prayers would be answered, I had my scratching machine and Nick his general searching catching machine.

When Nick and I originally talked to the designer about what we wanted from a machine one of my main requests was to have a machine with the ability to find targets on difficult sites and naturally perform better than my current machines....I was particularly interested in an adjustable filters as I had tested a machine from Bulgaria some years back with this feature which showed great potential.When I first started using the Rutus Jupiter prototype I found it took a little time to learn, possibly because the target filtering is different to what I am familiar with, or it could have been I just expected great results when my only outings were on virtually baron fields due to the time of year. I really needed to get the Rutus on a good site to boost my confidence and find it's strengths and weaknesses.
Part 1 Catching
I met up with Tony who came down to visit from North Yorkshire, I like detecting with Tone as he is always level headed guy and never get's carried away with the excitement of a new machine.
We decided to pay a visit to the river bank near the Thames on the exact spot where we tested the T2 some years back, again the area is no big secret these days and has been visited by many detectorists over the years as it was a Victorian ferry crossing.
I set the Rutus up to reject Iron, foil, ring pulls and only accepted high numbers where large silver would respond, we agreed that one person would detect the other would dig, then once a target was found we would swap, which was a good idea as the ground was solid and very hard to dig.



We had a great metal detecting session with the Rutus Jupiter and managed to find some nice coins at respectable depths of between 8-10 inches, once we became familiar with the machine we only dug faint repeatable signals which gave an unmistakable high tone. Tony had placed his order within an hour of using this machine, I knew it would impress him.
The picture was taken in my garden after we cleaned the coins with a damp cloth.

Part 2 Scratching
Sunday morning and a long 100 mile drive ahead of us (Barry and myself) had an invite to the west country to detect with a small syndicate of about 20 people.
The site in question had a small "hot spot" which had given up plenty of poor quality Roman coins when the boys searched it the week before.
On arrival I was told that this was actually their third week of searching the farm and the productive patch...Although the fields were vast the "Roman patch" was about the size of a tennis court.
The soil was turned over and very fluffy, although flattened by the hundreds of footprints criss crossing the iron contaminated sector, it felt like we had arrived weeks after the party had finished !

Out of courtesy we waited a while for the regulars to have another bash at their plot, once they started filtering away across the field we moved in, Barry had his usual high frequency machine,
I had the prototype Rutus Jupiter.
Having walked the lines a few times it was apparent most of the good targets had gone, signals came only from pieces of returned surface junk someone could not be bothered to pick up, I decided to have a play around with the machines settings and try to snatch a bonus find or two.

The first setting I adjusted was the discrimination...originally it was set to reject coke at 35, I decided to turn it fully off allowing me to hear everything and rely on the tones to identify targets, number 3 discrimination was enough to just cut out the ground minerals.

I used my personal 3 tone programme that I had entered the night before.
I was bombarded with lots of high tone false signals and low tone iron blurps...the sensitivity at 40 was way to high. I slowly lowered the sensitivity until the false signals had ceased and the machine became stable, 20 was the ideal setting.

Bingo ! my first Roman coin with a nervous sounding mid-tone.... then another 3 followed shortly...again the signals were there and repeatable but not 100% clear, the iron tone was in the background every time.

Having said that this machine had found these tiny coins in amongst iron over a well searched area so to say I was impressed was an understatement...I was really quite chuffed with myself and could have quite easily called it quits then, so what came next just blew me away.

I had the machine running like a dream, but just couldn't resist having another play, this time I went into the "Masking" setting and went from 3 down to 2, which actually makes the machine more sensitive to smaller signals. For those who don't know the Masking feature is a selection of filters that restrict or de-restrict the machines acceptance to suspect targets. The reaction time of the machine is then adjusted simlar to recovery speed which is the time it takes the machine to signal a target and then see the next target, a selection of Rutus's own unique internal filters control the machines "masking" feature.

Having set the Masking speed to 2 and sensitivity to 20, I slowed my pace to match the audio responses, that's when things really started happening...signal after signal and almost every one was a coconut !
I spent about 5 hours on this small patch with my head down and a massive grin on my face, once I got an ear for the Rutus tones the coins started to flow.
I will let the pictures do the talking at this point.


47 Romans a full hammered and a cut half fell to the Rutus, not to mention a pocket full of non ferrous junk all from that small area, Bazza had a total of 9 Romans and some junk...and for the non believers out there....in front of witnesses, what a fantastic day !

The phone call 13/7/2011
I had just got in from work and started unloading the van when the phone rang, it was John the farmers son who called to tell me he was cutting the fields as we spoke,
I quickly grabbed what I could and headed off to the farm. The stubble was so fresh it could only be described as steel bars piercing through the soil, the only possible way to search was to walk along the flattened combine tracks and leave the stubble for another day.


My settings were still the same so it was a case of switch on...set the sensitivity and go, the iron is so bad on this land there is not a good place to ground balance so I simply pressed and released  the "ground" button with the machine at waist height and it defaults to the factory pre-set....pull the trigger and start searching.
I managed to snatch 3 Roman Bronzes and some pieces of lead during my short visit before the fresh stubble got the better of me !



I must say the Rutus language takes a little getting used to especially when running it in "all metal", the tones tell you exactly what's happening in the soil...simlar to the Minelab...but not the same, simlar the the Gold Maxx and T2...but not the same, there is also a little bit of the old Compass Goldscanner in there to.
As I have found over the weeks of testing the Rutus Jupiter has a unique sound of it's own, once the penny drops and you click with the machine the rewards are amazing.

Has metal detector technology gone to it's limits ?
This is a question quite often asked, I would say to a point it has with regards to performance, most top of the range machines these days all perform about the same, regardless of price tags...however when I see a machine that can match this performance at a fraction of the cost it makes me realise what is achievable...Rutus have set new standards for us in the UK and have reacted to a competitive market.

Rutus finds