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Skate

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Everything posted by Skate

  1. Had it out now for 6 hours in the dirt. Just like with the beach, I spent the 1st 45 minutes ignoring the 2D screen, not because I wanted to but because I forgot it was there. I'm normally a tone hunter and if sounds good I usually dig it but after seeing the 2D screen and digging some iffy signals/splotches I can say the 2D is amazing. I went back to an old dairy site I'd hit with my XP2 and 900 several times. Littered with nails everywhere so much so that you would think the cows were squirting them rather than milk. Using the 2D screen as my final decider of dig/no dig, I pulled up 6 wheats and a 1926 Merc. I guess I'm not too proud to say I missed these before as I'm a fairly good and successful detectorist. I did get fooled on a few good 2D hits but overall if you can get the tone, and swing angle to match up the 2D will give you the final say. Almost flawless I'd say. Here's what I did notice about the 2D screen and how to use it. Give it time to figure out what's under the coil. Walk around the target and allow the 2D to paint the picture. One target took a few passes to paint a solid ball on the line as it was mixed in with other metal junk. It finally showed up amongst the trash which was all over the 2D screen but my wheat was right there on the line while it took a moment to lock on to it and then it was clear as to what was under the coil. For reference, I was in AT High conductors all 6 hours in 5 tones. As someone who has successfully used a bunch of detectors over the years, the Manticore is shaping up to be a winner. Minelab may be a terrible company when it comes to caring what the customer thinks but they have built a winner in the Manticore.
  2. My first day in the dirt with the manticore was today. Hunted an avocado orchard that used to be ranch homes. Tons of metal in the ground. My biggest obstacle was forgetting there is a 2D screen. I'm not a regular screen user but rather a sound/tone digger. It took about 5 holes of crap to remember to look at the 2D screen for input. That's when it changed. I ended up digging 6 coins (I had to take a 1/2 hour phone call in the middle of my hunt and I only had two hours) and every coin rang up on the center line in the 2D screen. Nice little circle blobs, every one of them. I also continued to dig good tones that had 2D signatures that were around the line, a little misshapen, a little oblong and they all were junk. A few old bottle caps also came in on the line with a nice circle so the 2D line isn't perfect but it's a difference maker. I had 3 hours at the beach also with it this week and it was sanded in so unless it can reach 36" I wasn't going to recover a lot. For my wet sand it only quieted down when running ground tracking on. I could ground balance all day and it was super noisy but as soon as I turned ground tracking on it simmered down. I'll take it to a private park that I have picked over for the past 4 years and see if I can shake anything out of it. So far I like it so we'll see if I can actually get the coil over something of value.
  3. As has been said before, go out and use it. Dig everything you can to see where they fall on the numbers but more importantly to learn what a good sounding target is vs. a crummy one. Learn to hear the rough edges at the end of your sweep indicating a bad target. Learn to walk around a target while sweeping it to determine whether to dig or not. A bad signal can become a good signal by moving 90 degrees. Like Jeff said learn the 4 basic coins and where they lie on the TID and then go dig. When you get to where you're going take them out and throw them on the ground and listen to the tone and see the ID then go hunt. I always take a few coins with me every hunt just to get my hearing adjusted even though I've dug thousands of coins. There is no replacement for actually using the machine in real conditions. Testing in the garage is when we're too bored to fish and the wife wants us to watch a movie on the Hallmark channel.
  4. That's awesome. You will be rewarded 10x's for your efforts.
  5. The key for me is confidence. I have more confidence in my 800 than I do with my D2 in wet black sand. Most of where hunt has black sand and I just haven’t had the same success with my D2 on the beach. I probably only have 200-300 hours on the D2 so not like the 5 years and 1,000’s of hours on the 800. I can call pretty much most targets on the 800 but not the D2. If you feel better using another detector on the beach I would. I dig pretty much everything on the beach even the crappy targets because the 800 will clear up a target with a scoop or two or it’s crap. I don’t get that from the D2. I traded out my D2 just for this reason but kept my 13x11 coil and Steve’s awesome carbon fiber shaft in case I want to get a puck and use it in the future. Not every new detector works with everyone so keep searching until you got the one the works best for you.
  6. Ventura! I find those dog license tags all over the beaches..........in Ventura! Great hunt and report CPT.
  7. Out of curiosity, what makes the manticore that much better than what you were or have swung before it? I'm in the market to move one of mine and get another so I'm just wanting to see why you have connected with the Manticore so well.
  8. Actually a bunch of pennies! You can bet that even though I was short on time I was digging every good tone regardless because this place is exclusive. The best thing I found that day was probably the two people who run this club and another one owned by the same group further down the beach. I was able to connect with them and the one manager said I should become the exclusive ringfinder for each club! I spent a half hour with the manager telling her stories of finds over the years and every person that came in she was telling them I found the ring from last night's wedding. I kept all the trash and junk from the search and showed her how I cleaned their beach of debris for them. I gave them my card and left with a couple of new friends.
  9. I had a search yesterday in the sand out front of an exclusive Malibu beach club. I had a two-hour max window to find a ring lost the night before at the wedding. I brought my D2 and my 800, unsure of which I would use. As I arrived, I gave it a moment and took the 800 out and left the D2 in the car. My reasoning? The 800 is a turn-and-go hunt detector, and it has never let me down. It was like riding a bike, I felt like the 800 was the simple machine we all think we need to improve upon when the reality is it works and works really well. I'm not saying I've lost confidence in my D2, but I don't want to spend time tuning my detector as that's not what I want or need out of a detector. I found the ring and all's well that ends well but the point of this is you really don't need the latest and greatest machine to have fun and find things. The 800 is more than enough for 98% of all your hunts.
  10. I would imagine the excuse is their servers are overwhelmed. I'm not buying that as an excuse if it is one, since they know exactly the number of units that are out in the wild and surely they built their IT to handle that amount. One would think anyways.
  11. Same. Checked spam, nothing. It's been about a half hour since I tried to register an account. In our microwave world XP seems to still operate as a Dutch oven.
  12. It's a hobby. People want to have fun while detecting. If the Manticore helps you to do that then that's what a hobby is about. I'm going to get one just for the extra fun factor that it will give me. Life is short folks. The only sure thing in detecting is my wife's purse, everything else requires serious digging.
  13. Pick one or two beaches and learn to read the sand. Go to them often at various times and tides and watch how the sand moves. Dedicate yourself to becoming the expert at these one to two beaches as to how the wind, waves and storms change the sand structure and you will become a successful beach hunter. Anyone can hunt the dry sand as it takes no particular skillset to find stuff. The true beach hunters know their beaches inside and out when it comes to the wet sand. Learning is a process so really take the time to view your areas under as many conditions as possible and you will eventually come out on top.
  14. Great job on not giving up and finding a solution. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow morning to the beach. I'm landlocked right now due to road closures but I'm hopeful now the rain has ended for a day or two they can get things cleared up.
  15. From what I understand Nokta is great at talking with folks and it would seem to be the only one based on these forums. Minelab could be in the MD forum business just by the way they announce and then string folks along based on the sheer number of threads started. My point about customer service is this. It's expensive to hire people who don't create or bring money in. Getting a free update out doesn't cost the end consumer anything but costs the team at XP a bunch which I understand. Unless I buy another coil from XP I have effectively ended (until something new comes out years later) my financial transactions with them. I'm glad they will eventually put out an update and I hope it increases my output but it costs me nothing to get it or wait for it. I'm like everyone else in that I want to see progress in the next version (separation in my soil) and a few more gold rings in the scoop.
  16. I have written them 3 times regarding specific issues. I got one very ambiguous response nearly 14 days after my email. The other two times there was no response. I don't think metal detector companies really care that much about the issues of the end user and I'm not saying that as a criticism but a reality. For most the reality is they release a new detector once every 2-4 years specific to an all around unit like the D2 (which was way longer than 2-4 years) and then after the initial sale the income from that buyer stops. Those of us that buy multiple coils, brand specific pinpointers etc., are the few I think. They don't invest in customer service because there is no immediate return on that investment. No matter how mad you got at XP for their tone deaf customer service they know that all they need to do is come out with a new launch video in 3 years for the D37.9 and most of us will all line up to buy it regardless of any past experiences. It's no different with Minelab, Garret or any other brand. These companies sell dreams, not reality.
  17. Well it would appear that the end of the year update may have been for 2023.
  18. This needs an update. I regularly dig memorials that ID at 94-95. Clad dimes at 90-91. Yesterday I dug a mercury that rang at 89 and a 43 quarter that also hit at 89. I've also noticed some issues with what I will call separation identification. As a wet salt sand machine it's deep and it's ID is great. I'm not as impressed in the dirt as yet.
  19. I heard it from this forum. Not sure who said it or the thread it was in.
  20. I'm just curious what most folks are expecting XP to upgrade to in the D2 update? What are some of the things they need to fix software wise? I've heard the update will be released at the end of this year so if it is it's a few days away. Inquiring minds want to know
  21. Awesome job! Best thing is you dug it all and that's why you came out the winner. First of many coming your way.
  22. Hammer meet nail. Testing is good for one thing, learning the numbers and sounds certain targets come in at. Once you have a good grasp of them you take your new detector out and go dig everything to try and confirm what you saw in the garage. Do that over and over again in as many different conditions as possible and learn your detector. Merrill seems to follow this type of testing. These other videos of how it handles a dime with a rusty nail at 8" with a slow swing speed on a box between a 2x4 with high EMI in hot dirt is just mind numbing.
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