Field Test Report

Viking 5

by David Drummond

Viking metal detectors have an established reputation for manufacturing metal detectors that are affordable and which represent good value for money. They are a good beginner's machine and in selected applications are also suitable for the professional.

The Viking 5 has gone through selective cosmetic and electronic design changes over the years. The stem is telescopic and can be adjusted by means of a locking collar. The control box is manufactured from tough plastic and utilises a speaker grille underneath. The headphone socket is situated at the top of the control box between two rotary controls and is of the 6.25mm (1/4") size jack type. The search coil is 20.5 cm (8") and is 'hard wired' to the control unit. The detector utilises one PP3 9 volt battery which is thoughtfully situated in a professional heavy duty 'easy to change' drawer system type wireless module. By using the recommended Alkaline type of battery, 40 hours of detecting time in not uncommon. The colour is the distinctive 'Viking' green and white.

Controls

The Viking 5 uses only two. One of these consists of the on/off and fine tune whilst the other is the course tuning. Discrimination is pre-determined to reject small pieces of iron in the form of nails etc.,

Field appraisal

In a way, I suppose this section should be under the heading "Beach appraisal", for in my part of the world, this detector tends to be used more on beaches than inland. Having said that, the Viking 5 will perform well on inland sites should this be, the type of detecting you have in mind.

I purchased my Viking 5 in 1993 after reading how useful this little machine can be for beach work. My Viking 5 has paid for itself in terms of finds many times over.

The first time I took my detector onto an inland site I anticipated that I would not find any coins, as the detector is not a particularly deep seeker. However, I was proved totally wrong. On my first day out searching a field I found two Victorian pennies, a silver three-penny piece and a musket ball. Admittedly, these were only three or four inches down, but the Viking 5 had no trouble at all in locating them. The same field, had previously produced three hammered silver coins, one of which was on the surface and the others were only about a inch in depth. So if the Viking had been in use at the time, must surely have located these finds also.

Since searching that field I have occasionally been out detecting with my brother and he has used the Viking 5 and it has proved to work well on close-cut stubble fields, but does not care for the long, thick stubble which spaces the search coil too far from the ground. A field of short stubble we were working yielded about a dozen or so coin to the machine, dating back to George II. In addition, my brother unearthed recovered two pieces of scrap lead, copper and brass. If these numbers sound a little low to you, remember I am describing sites in Scotland, which are far less productive than the fields the fortunate detectorist has in England.

My personal use of the Viking 5 is for beach detecting, particularly dry sand areas. If you can get onto a busy beach with the Viking, on an early summer morning before other treasure hunters are up and about, you could find yourself in for a busy time digging up the recently lost coins and jewellery.

The Viking can drift off tune from time to time, from my own experiences this has been of the 'upward' drift, where the threshold or background humming sound gets louder. This has not however, been a frequent occurrence and the remedy is to simply reduce the level of threshold by turning the fine tuning control in an anti-clockwise direction, just until the humming tone is faintly audible.

Pinpointing targets with this detector was found to be very easy and merely involves moving the search coil in a 'X' across the target. The target should be under the immediate centre of the search coil where the signal is the loudest.

Since purchasing my Viking 5 I have found hundreds of coins. Most of which have come from the beach. But as I've described the beach is my primary search area. I mainly use the Viking as a back-up to my main detector, but having said that I like to take it out now and again just by way of a change.

  © Reproduced here (with text amendments) by kind permission of ‘Treasure Hunting’ magazine 

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