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Manticore I.d. Red Line And Iron


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I am not a dig it all guy. I'm 60 years old and in great health for my age, but I'm still particular about the targets I dig. The less I dig equates to longer overall hunts. Has anyone dug a good target with the Manticore where one way you had a great tone and I.D., but when you turned 90 you got a red line and not quite as solid an I.D.? What I have dug in that situation has turned out to be iron. My Ferrous Limits are 8 upper, and 3 lower. It seems all my silver coin finds are pretty solid. Many are really deep, but they are solid. No red lines at all. I hate to walk away from silver coins, but I don't like digging dry holes.

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In my test garden I have three coins buried -- 5" deep 95% copper cent, 6" deep 'nickel' 5 cent, 8.5" deep clad quarter.  I'm still in the infancy of (thorough) testing but for the quarter, in All Terrain Lo and All Terrain General I do get some iron grunt ("red line") mixed with good tones when running both sensitivities of 21 and 23, Recovery Speed =4 and Iron mask 8/3.  My soil is moderately mineralized (2-3 bars on Fisher F75).  I did not notice red-lining in All Terrain Hi mode (otherwise same settings as above).  Both AT/Lo and AT/general were at about their detection limits for that 8.5" deep quarter with the above settings, meaning strong enough signals to indicate digable.  A bit deeper and they sound off, but not at the level that would cause me to stop and investigate.

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I did forget to mention the program I use 90% of the time is AT-HC. GB_Amateur when you get a chance and I will try to do the same. Try to GB and swing over your test garden coins. Then raise and lower your GB manually to see if you get any iron grunts or red underlined I.D.. I'm wondering how much the GB being not exact can cause the detector to misinterpret targets. The weird thing is I dug some super deep stuff last weekend in mild ground zero red line. The ground was really mild. Sandy farm land near the Mississippi river. It may take more mineralized ground to get the red underlined I.D. on deeper targets that could be coins. Like I mentioned the Manticore does a good job on deeper silver/coins, and when the target is actually a coin from what I can tell all signs of determining targets, I.D., Tone, and Non-Ferrous Line are pretty spot on.

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I'll say this much, Mcore provides a lot of information, and based on my last 8 hours, I am likely going to dig a lot of iron signals next time out to see just how far up I need to shift the iron limit. 

I am hoping there is a balance point that creates a more consistent overall target response to decide dig or not dig.  (a nice dot rarely happens in the 2D screen on more difficult targets, for me)

Yes I have dug clad dimes with only iron signal.  AT general,  ground balance about 4, ferrous limits opened up some from default.  About 6 inches deep.

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18 hours ago, longbow62 said:

I'm wondering how much the GB being not exact can cause the detector to misinterpret targets.

I won't be surprised if that turns out to be the case.  I'm getting ready for my annual trip West and thus don't know how much time I'll have to 'play' with the Manticore before I leave.  But I'll be aware of what you have hypothesized when I get a chance to get back at the Manticore testing (and field use).

BTW, the manual says something about where mineralized ground grunt will show up on the 2-d screen.  That's another thing to look at -- the info on that screen.  That was the biggest reason I went with the Manticore, to get that 2-d screen.  And although I have been looking at it I expect quite a long learning curve -- pattern recognition training if you get my drift -- so it will be a while before I trust what I see enough to reject a target based upon the 2-d screen image.

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the graph is a great feature soon as I saw one on the (UK) Golden Mask I knew they were the "next big thing" At the same time it's not a stand alone but works well to round out the picture of what that audio and some coil testing are telling you.  this is a machine that encourages an unhealthy over reliance on tech.  stick with your sold old basic and the whole package is unstoppable. 

cjc 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/17/2023 at 10:40 PM, cjc said:

the graph is a great feature soon as I saw one on the (UK) Golden Mask I knew they were the "next big thing" At the same time it's not a stand alone but works well to round out the picture of what that audio and some coil testing are telling you.  this is a machine that encourages an unhealthy over reliance on tech.  stick with your sold old basic and the whole package is unstoppable. 

cjc 

Agree whole heartedly. I came from a "hear only"  CZ-21 and really appreciate the added info from the TID and 2D screen info. 

I first get stopped mid swing when my tuned ear hears a good target and then I verify it with the Manticore's screen info and then cross check it from different angles. Takes 5 seconds tops. 

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20 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

Agree whole heartedly. I came from a "hear only"  CZ-21 and really appreciate the added info from the TID and 2D screen info. 

I first get stopped mid swing when my tuned ear hears a good target and then I verify it with the Manticore's screen info and then cross check it from different angles. Takes 5 seconds tops. 

I basically do the same. Every time I have dug a signal that is fairly solid one way, then turn 90 degrees and I start getting a red line under the numbers it has been iron. I was basically wondering if that had been everyone's experience.  

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3 hours ago, longbow62 said:

I basically do the same. Every time I have dug a signal that is fairly solid one way, then turn 90 degrees and I start getting a red line under the numbers it has been iron. I was basically wondering if that had been everyone's experience.  

You gotta dig a few of those before you start trusting what the machine is telling you, don't you? Been there, done that on my beaches. BUT, even if it is red lining in one direction, if the TONE you're hearing is screaming GOOD target.....I dig. (thank you prospector audio theme) Most of the time it is iron, but every once in a while, it is iron near a good target. This is when you recover something the competition didn't dig! 😁

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Hello,

From my experience with the Manticore so far, I have seen on my display both the nice round dot on the center line (potential coin) and smudging towards the bottom of the screen. I found a Mercury dime lying next to a large nail a couple of weeks ago. Both of them were being seen my the machine at the same time.

To dig, or not to dig, that is the question. However, I usually dig 🙂

John

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