BRITISH MADE MACHINES

[Joe(TX)]

I just acquired a Viking VK 30. Was wondering if anybody out there has experience with the Viking Brand and what can I expect? Thanks Joe

[Qiaozhi]

I just acquired a Viking VK 30. Was wondering if anybody out there has experience with the Viking Brand and what can I expect? Thanks Joe

Hi Joe,

One of my detectors is a Viking 5 SeriesII, which is a non-motion model, and it's quite a sensitive unit considering the simplicity of the electronics. I would be interested in your experiences with the VK30.

[Unregistered]

VK 30

I saw your post on the Metal Detecting Equipment forum but couldn't face posting on there.
Viking are one of the oldest British detecting companies. You can also find older models sold as Rimertron or Sol Invictus.
Machines are lower cost so don't expect to compete with an Explorer or Tejon.
Older non motion models were our poor mans version of your Compass 77b. Less cost, less controls but similar performance in heavy iron contamination.
The VK 30 that you have could be the one box latest version or the older one with a couple, one on rod, other under armrest.
I don't think there's much difference electronically....lets hope not I've only tried the older version which has good depth for its price range and fairly good battery life.
If in the U.S. I would tend to go for a similar priced Tesoro for the lifetime warranty as I'm not a great lover of VDI's. Having said that its a pretty good discriminator and has the advantage of an all metal mode that can be used as the main search mode if extra depth is required. The VDI will provide target I.D. but not to the full detection depth of the all metal, non motion mode.
As with many machines coke can be a problem. There is a work round if its causing problems. Select beach mode and coke will respond on audio but not register on the meter.
One quirk for me having had Whites machines for years is that the meter block display works in an opposite way to what I'm accustomed to. With a Spectrum or XLT the less bars the better. A small coin displaying one, larger coin two or perhaps three. The Viking displays one for small iron, a few for a small coin and several for a larger. No problem just different.
It has a beach mode but I never tried one there. Pinpointing is fine. The new model looks far better but I wonder if the balance is not as good.

Brian