I have come to like junky areas because i'm convinced that even with a small coil, with quick recovery and a slow swing speed that I miss a lot of the good targets that are there. So much potential in these sites.

Iron/target masking in my opinion is a huge issue. I see just how much it comes into play when I clean out an area of all targets only to find many more targets after the initial ones are removed.

Target ID but only because I know the Deus better than the Vista X right now. I primarily go off of audio ID rather than target ID. I do check the VDI when a good audio comes through but most of the time it is not accurate unless its a target that all by itself or not at the fringes of the detecotrs depth range.

Coil size seems to be key! Imagine if the Deus had a 5 or 6" coil!! The smaller the better if you can stand to use one. Its hard to cover much ground with one and for most people I see and myself included that seems to be the goal. Cover as much ground as possible and the faster the better!

I use iron audio because it provides lots of information IF i'm going slow enough to hear it.

Blended audio is more difficult for me in iron infested sites. I do like the full tones on the Deus when not in heavy iron.

Target ID is in heavy iron is like having a how to manual on your honeymoon. You might find that it's helpful but only at the expense of being distracted and wasting time. That being said, it can help with rusted tin laden sights but there again, it's better to just learn the language of your detector and mostly ignore the 'teleprompter'.

Audio is KING!

I love the Deus but for these kind of sites I would go with the Anfibio with the 5"ish coil on it. Either way to really capitalize on the opportunity of such a site you would have to remove the masking targets to get to a lot of the good ones anyway - so, can I take both?

I think about my first outing in Nevada this year at Cobre and about how many coins were found near the hotel and how many hundreds of hours of detecting has been done there. The seated quarter I found at the corner of the foundation (sorry Rich) was under a piece of rusty tin and was only detectable after I moved the tin with my foot. Then, I got a 92 VDI and perfect audio from the 1876 Seated that was around 2" deep.
Masking is a huge issue that can be partially overcome with the right detector with the right coil,in the right hands, on the right day while holding your mouth the right way. Other than that, remove the masking targets and start recovering whats left!