1st 14 Karat 4 '23

[Leave-No-Coins-Behind]

Nice John, really nice. Looks like the Quarters slowed a bit but the Gold will more than make up for them. Huge Congrats. Trapper

Thanks Trapper! I'm so glad I found this one goldie. I feel like I can now breath a little bit easier, knowing I found at least one this year. It seems for the past few years I've finding like just one or two golds. Thank goodness those quarters sometimes will pick up the slack from it. If for anything too and for whatever reasons, this year has been really good for finding nickels. This could be some of the reason for the recent gold find. Thanks again for your kind comments! John

 

[aj0421]

What a beautiful site that must have been to see come out the plug! Still waiting to find my first gold in the dirt. I am guilty too of not digging the low signals thinking the are just pieces of can slaw. I have a few deep low signals at one of the places I hunt I look forward to revisiting. Congrats!

 

[Leave-No-Coins-Behind]

What a beautiful site that must have been to see come out the plug! Still waiting to find my first gold in the dirt. I am guilty too of not digging the low signals thinking the are just pieces of can slaw. I have a few deep low signals at one of the places I hunt I look forward to revisiting. Congrats!

Thanks aj0421! The first thoughts that went through my head were, "I hope its not another junk plated ring"; and my second thought was, "How did I miss hitting it on all of my prior hunts there?" And now I'm thinking it was the odd vdi number and perhaps mixed in with some masking too.

And by the way. I think you can relate to this. I just joined the church of the Manticore today. I received it this morning, assembled it and ran out the door even without charging it! Wow, what a deep machine. I went to a small park that's been hunted to death and as a result its probably been on CPR a few times. And yes, I found some very deep coins and a smallest ring too. Since I been home, I have not even looked over the finds yet. I think I'm going to really, really going to enjoy this new machine. Thanks again for your thoughtful words! John

 

[kidlester]

Wow! Gold!
Very nice find!
HH
Tom

 

[GroundSweeper]

Congrats on the very nice gold band! 14… that’s a tough one to dig - and possibly why gold is eluding me

 

[Leave-No-Coins-Behind]

Wow! Gold!
Very nice find!
HH
Tom

Thanks Tom! I think we go out thinking today we'll find gold and when we do, it's a heck of a feeling too. Thanks again!

 

[Leave-No-Coins-Behind]

Congrats on the very nice gold band! 14… that’s a tough one to dig - and possibly why gold is eluding me

Thanks GroundSweeper! I think gold for the most part eludes most of us dirt diggers. I think I most of been over that area at least a couple of dozen of times. But for whatever the reasons, perhaps it was the odd vdi, the angle of the coil, frequency or even EMI in the area, etc. I now feel like I made my gold quota for the year. I hope you find your gold soon too! John

 

[markinswpa]

Thanks Mark! I believe this is reason #6,386 why gold is so elusive are that it did not give a good solid signal nor tone. Every time I find gold and they are very few, I try to analyze that signal that made me want to dig it up for future reference. So in my case, I strongly believe it was large size of the ring, the outside diameter is slightly larger that a quarter. And therefore, this is what threw the game off from priorly digging it up, thinking it was another pull tab or can slaw.

Finally for now, I'm so glad I found my one goldie at least for this year! On a side note, I have not hunted much this year too as some of those possible locations are starting to being gated off or restrictive and the weather. Good luck and HH! John

Well I see you took the plunge. Good for you John. I will be interested to hear your thoughts on the Manticore. I am still on the fence on getting one. I almost pulled the trigger last week but the fact I haven't been hunting much poses the question do I really need another detector. I toyed with the idea of selling the 900, the falsing and stability issues have been getting on my nerves lately but after a long park hunt (9 1/2 hrs ) I used the 800 for the first 5 hrs. and the 900 for the rest. I have to say I liked the 900 much better and learned some new found appreciation for it. Could it use some tweaking with an update or two, definitely! I'll just have to be patient till then. Minelab are aware of the issues with the Manticore/ 900 and hopefully working to address them. Anyway good luck with your new rig John and I hope your first silver is a big silver. Mark

 

[Leave-No-Coins-Behind]

Well I see you took the plunge. Good for you John. I will be interested to hear your thoughts on the Manticore. I am still on the fence on getting one. I almost pulled the trigger last week but the fact I haven't been hunting much poses the question do I really need another detector. I toyed with the idea of selling the 900, the falsing and stability issues have been getting on my nerves lately but after a long park hunt (9 1/2 hrs ) I used the 800 for the first 5 hrs. and the 900 for the rest. I have to say I liked the 900 much better and learned some new found appreciation for it. Could it use some tweaking with an update or two, definitely! I'll just have to be patient till then. Minelab are aware of the issues with the Manticore/ 900 and hopefully working to address them. Anyway good luck with your new rig John and I hope your first silver is a big silver. Mark

Mark, yup, I finally pulled the trigger. I too, been contemplating for months whether or not to buying it when it first came available. So several months ago I decided to get off the can and just order it. Here are my first two mini maiden voyage days thoughts and findings after using it and as to not being redundant as to what many others have said already.

It has a lot of the same DNA of the Nox, but just some more beneficial refinements. I definitely have been digging about 100% more trash, especially tabs and can slaw. I think this is due to the learning curve of it all.

Pros:

1. Large VDI screen
2. Seems to go deeper
3. Tones are more dynamic
4. 2D target trace map has been helpful as to dig or not (presently I'm digging nearly everything as to test the waters)
5. Simple to navigate within the settings
6. **Headphones are comfortable and sound great
7. Ferrous vs. non-ferrous indicator works well
8. General high conductor setting

Cons:

1. **Headphones--Detector not compatible with other BT type of headphones!!
2. The detector seems a bit heavy
3. The VDI screen is rather dim in full sun
4. Battery power goes down fast

Naturally, I'm in the honey moon and learning stages of the machine. but I feel for my style of hunting, I'm going to enjoy using it as it seems already it may give that unknown edge to finding more targets. Since I been digging a whole lot of junk, this is a positive thing for me as it will incentivize me to dig more of those iffy signal in the future. And so far, it seems to be working.

The two locations that I briefly hunted so far, were probably two of the more over worked-out sites. At at each site I found about a $1.50 with a few of the coins being deep about 9" and heavily discolored or corroded. Based upon the targets that I have found already, I'm judging overall, I may be gaining a inch or so in depth, but for now that is all I need as the soil in the type of locations I hunt get to be rock hard below that especially in the summer. Again, I have only scratched the preliminary surface of the machine capabilities, and I have sooooo much more to learn about it that I'm looking forward to the challenge and new opportunities.

One final note, the 800 for what it was/and is, is one heck of a machine that has made it hard for any new machine afterwards to come along and to recreate that type of measurable strong performance in the number of good finds to recover for within the immediate future development of new detectors. I hope this helps... John

 

[markinswpa]

Mark, yup, I finally pulled the trigger. I too, been contemplating for months whether or not to buying it when it first came available. So several months ago I decided to get off the can and just order it. Here are my first two mini maiden voyage days thoughts and findings after using it and as to not being redundant as to what many others have said already.

It has a lot of the same DNA of the Nox, but just some more beneficial refinements. I definitely have been digging about 100% more trash, especially tabs and can slaw. I think this is due to the learning curve of it all.

Pros:

1. Large VDI screen
2. Seems to go deeper
3. Tones are more dynamic
4. 2D target trace map has been helpful as to dig or not (presently I'm digging nearly everything as to test the waters)
5. Simple to navigate within the settings
6. **Headphones are comfortable and sound great
7. Ferrous vs. non-ferrous indicator works well
8. General high conductor setting

Cons:

1. **Headphones--Detector not compatible with other BT type of headphones!!
2. The detector seems a bit heavy
3. The VDI screen is rather dim in full sun
4. Battery power goes down fast

Naturally, I'm in the honey moon and learning stages of the machine. but I feel for my style of hunting, I'm going to enjoy using it as it seems already it may give that unknown edge to finding more targets. Since I been digging a whole lot of junk, this is a positive thing for me as it will incentivize me to dig more of those iffy signal in the future. And so far, it seems to be working.

The two locations that I briefly hunted so far, were probably two of the more over worked-out sites. At at each site I found about a $1.50 with a few of the coins being deep about 9" and heavily discolored or corroded. Based upon the targets that I have found already, I'm judging overall, I may be gaining a inch or so in depth, but for now that is all I need as the soil in the type of locations I hunt get to be rock hard below that especially in the summer. Again, I have only scratched the preliminary surface of the machine capabilities, and I have sooooo much more to learn about it that I'm looking forward to the challenge and new opportunities.

One final note, the 800 for what it was/and is, is one heck of a machine that has made it hard for any new machine afterwards to come along and to recreate that type of measurable strong performance in the number of good finds to recover for within the immediate future development of new detectors. I hope this helps... John

Thanks John, you might just be the inspiration I need to pull the trigger. I have never been indecisive but for some reason I keep going back and forth on this. And as you mention the proprietary headphones , almost a deal breaker for me. The 105s I've read are bulky, don't fold up for storage and do not keep out external noise. The 85s that come with the 900 pinch and the audio is so so at best. However after sending two b Bluetooth transmitters back I finally found one that has pretty good audio and even works with my bone conductors. But there again thats another thing we need to keep charged and just like the wobbly shaft, coil ears, arm cuff and so on with the Equinox is just something we should not have to deal with. And then the coils, don't get me started. lol. You know that Merrill called out Minelab for lying about the 50 % more power thing and Mark Lowery responded. Well maybe he wasn't lying about that but during release he stated that the coils would be available on release of the Manticore and I'm pretty sure he said there would be different packages available with the coils. Minelab left him holding the bag on that one. Sorry don't mean to rain on your parade, just trying to convey what has got me hesitant about getting a Manticore.
As far as the battery life I've read ATHC will drain the battery much quicker and the fact that you need to keep the back light on the screen all the time doesn't help. I'm pretty sure the D ll draws more power in HC also.
The thing is I do like Minelab's, they make a great machine so sooner or later I will have to give it a try. Again congrats and good hunting. Mark
One more thing, you'll have to find yourself another one of those honey holes to pay it off Hell I ain't even payed of my Etrac yet and thats been gone for two years.