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Had a couple hours to get out last Friday with manticore, was running beach deep sens 24 recovery speed 4. Ring is 8.6 grams of 20k tested on xrf gun id was 52-53. Bracelet was gold filled. Ring was about 10-12” deep on towel line and gave a great clear signal. Loving the manti. Thanks John

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.

I went to a school here in Corvallis for a short hunt yesterday. I was just going to detect the playground at first, but I didn't find anything, not even a zinc penny. There is a small grass strip that goes between the school and the street. I was going to call it quits, but then I decided that I might as well detect the grass strip before I left. I was using a modified Fast program that I call my "Pitch" program. I got a signal with a 50-51 TID. I almost didn't dig it because I was also getting an iron tone with it. I was surprised when out popped this 12K gold ring. One of the leaves is Black Hills gold and the other leaf is yellow gold. After I retrieved the ring I passed the coil back over the hole, and there was something iron there also.

I went up to my claim yesterday and hunted a sloping meadow with my Gpx5000 and the 25" NF DDX coil and dug a few iron trash targets and then I got a signal that was the best signal of the day. I scraped a layer back and it got a little better sounding. What popped out was a 1.06 gram nugget, to my surprise. This was the first nugget I have found with this coil since I bought it in 2021 from Rob. I got it on video so that will be coming in a few weeks. When I got to my claim I realized I had left my bungee cord on another shaft with my 15" Evo. I had to swing that 3 lb. Coil on a sloped terrain without it. Not fun. Wore me out quicker. Also check out my new video A Good Day Detecting! - Wages met!

My opinion is the 800 is still right up there as the pinnacle of VLF's, the only thing letting it down was build quality, performance wise it's not been left behind by the Manticore. For anyone that doesn't have a 900 or Manticore you're not missing all that much, better build quality is the major change, but I would not think I'll find much more using my Manticore that I'd miss with my Nox 800. Extreme circumstances like perhaps heavy iron or something maybe, but under most conditions very little difference.

I got the 15 inch concentric X-coil onto a patch today and 6-7 hours later I had a new personal nugget record at 14 for a day. My previous high was 12. Those were a bit bigger found with the stock 7000 coil. The depths ranged up to 6 inches or so but most of the small ones were easy to hear at 3 inches. The sizes from left to right are .44 (far left), then 2 x .2+, 6 x .1+ and finally 5 nuggets less than .1 g with the small one at .03 grams. It was also a nice sunset.

Dug up this Connecticut button today I gave it to the landowner so no pictures of it cleaned up sorry but thought you guys might still like to see it.

It would be cool if it was a PI. Maybe a program added to the remote and an accessory coil would allow PI capabilities. Probably way off, but I can keep hoping.

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.

I'm not one to pussy foot around, I say it how I see it, it gets me in trouble a bit 🙂 The Manticore has improved quite a bit with the firmware update, even in air tests now it's ID's have improved, previously they were quite bouncy even in an air test, now that has settled down. I hope this isn't the last update they do for it, I think there will be another one yet as updates = excitement = sales. I'm seriously considering a Deus 2, I'm not a fan of it's mid sized coils as for coins I want depth and large coils and gold I want small coils and it has neither. The Deus 1 has been a bit of a disappointment for me, for the Deus fans it was the greatest thing since sliced bread until the Deus 2 came out, for my needs it isn't ideal. I'll give the Deus 2 a go at some point, right now my focus is on gold prospecting more than anything and the Deus 2 lacks for that quite severely. I do really like the Nox 800, performance wise it's great, I'd personally rather buy a Nox 800 in the Nox 900 body rather than buy a Nox 900 🙂 800 owners shouldn't feel like they're missing out much on these new models. My 800 is pretty solid, aftermarket shaft, aftermarket arm cuff, aftermarket coils, the control pod is all I care about and it's been good to me.

The first batch of 10 Manticores all sold out in NZ I was one of them, the second batch struggled to sell from what I have seen as they just sat in stock and demand here certainly is nothing like it was for the initial Nox release. Since the first batch there has been no lists and dealers have had stock sitting there. I can't see the Manticore being their best selling detector like the Nox was, If they are trying to say demand for the Manticore is the highest in Minelab's history I would assume that's another lie like their statement about the Manticore having better more stable Target ID's than the Nox which is still on their website even though it's widely acknowledged it does not. Saying things like that though is intended to help sales, if people believe its the best selling detector and selling like hot cakes it makes other people want one too. They have never cared about cols, they're always last on the to-do list. It's all about money and to get the most money they want to sell the most detectors so lets pump out so many new models of VLF that our contracted factories don't have time to make Manticore coils as they're too busy making X-Terra and Nox coils to go in with detectors. It's a management decision like all bad decisions out of Minelab, the buck always stops at the top. It's fine for them, they can sell their detectors with limited accessories and gain more and more disgruntled customers and one day it will come back to bite them when customers just get so sick of it they move on to other brands even if they like their detectors and other brands are coming in with great products now that either are competitive with or in some cases exceed Minelab's products so it's only a matter of time. I would think if Minelab personally can't provide us coils for our flagship detectors, let someone else do it too, Detech would make fantastic Manticore coils, I would be so happy with my Manticore purchase if I could run Detech coils on it, let Coiltek pump out their coils too, they seem to be able to get coils to market quickly as demonstrated with the GPX 6000, once they were "allowed" to make coils they had them to market rapidly in all 3 sizes at once. I think Minelab's a bit too big for their boots.

Brad - thanks for providing that link. Much appreciated. Access to Tom's forum has been spotty of late and frankly, the way its laid out is severely dated and makes it difficult to follow and find information. However, I'm not buying into what ML is saying because the view from the outside kind of contradicts that statement. First, if it's a supply-demand issue, why did they decide to simultaneously take on Nox 700/900 and X-Terra Pro production which utilizes and exhausts many of the same hardware components and consumes precious assembly line capacity and resources at their manufacturer in Malaysia? If anything, the problem is not external demand but an internal self-inflicted wound. I seriously doubt (but can't prove) that the Manticore demand, at its Price Point, is higher than Nox was at its peak in 2018, and while accessory coils were delayed there too, based on similar release time frames, accessory coils should have been released by now. If demand is so high, and supply chain management so challenged, then why take on additional demand and models that would just exacerbate the problem? Despite ML's claims, they seem to have no problem feeding the beast at Cabela's and other big box retailers at a 50 detector per shipment clip, because big box can move vast quantities of product faster that individual dealers. Note also that ML does not have to directly subsidize their advertised manufacturer US military discount like they do with individual dealers, because Cabelas does not participate in that program as they have their own. I think the bottom line is that coils simply do not bring in as much revenue as detectors so as long as ML can focus on cranking out Manticores, Nox's and Xterras they can make money hand over fist and since they've already captured the Manticore buyer, there is no hurry to get the accessories out, because in their misguided point of view, having accessories available on day one does not accelerate detector sales. I disagree and think it is a poor business decision and is sort of a slap in the face to Manticore buyers to keep dragging their feet on it. But it is what it is. All I can say is don't hold your breath waiting for those coils to hit the streets as they apparently aren't even willing to project a release date at this point, 7 months into the release of the Manticore...and nine plus months after simultaneously announcing the Manticore and the accessory coils, with photo renderings.

Grandfather gave me his 800, and I can honestly say why get another detector when this one gets the job done. Yes I know that I don't know everything about it, but when I want to go detecting I just turn it on and do a small setup and I'm detecting. They are a great detector for sure.

I bet you guys are right about the two-box setup. Well for those who wanted to go deeper, that would do it, but who wants to dig 4 foot deep holes? You cache and horde hunters may be getting your wish! 😎

I HEAR you! Went on a three-week binge to learn the D2 this winter, after using it on and off for months. What surprised me the most is when I went back to the Equinox. I realized how simple and good it was. All around, from depth, target ID and, ease of use to run AT PEAK PERFORMANCE! It was nice to give that chirpy mother-in-law D2 a rest.

I have never had a chance to see an Axiom in person, but it's an impressive machine from what I can tell. The SDC 2300, oth, I witnessed in action. It's an amazing little bugger! It was a machine I recommended to a mate starting out, and it served him very very well. He bought a coiltek 14 x 9 coil to go with it, and found some really nice gold with it, including a beautiful 2.7 ozt piece. It works really well in some of the hottest ground I have found. Will try and find some pics.

I must conclude that we who use the beach programs are destined to see this masking issue continue until XP engineers solve it for us. No combination of settings on our end yet found will do it on buried targets. Several of us here on this thread have tried all we know how with no success. We can successfully unmask good targets using land based programs but not the beach programs. For those who do hunt the beach, the General program will work but only on the very dry sand....and I've also used a modified Deep HC program but again, only on the very dry sand. Once you get those programs into even minimally wet sand, they are not effective...nor can they be. Another small consolation is that, at least on the beaches I hunt, good targets are seldom laying very close to ferrous junk. So if you're an odds player, those odds are slightly in your favor. But in as much as this is a software problem, I'm confident that the software developers, and only they, can solve it. Those same engineers have created the best detector on the market today by far, so again, I'm highly confident this too can be overcome....but only with their help. I do hope this issue gets into the hands of XP engineers so they can work their magic. Thanks again to all who jumped into this and gave their time and effort in trying to resolve it and find a solution open to us...the Deus II user community. I salute and appreciate you all....👍 Soldier on.

Thx for your honesty as you know I sold my Manticore as I was not overly impressed, and as you say the 800 is still up there, mine continues to surprise me its a great machine. The Manticore had a lot to live up to, its still got room to grow so hopefully it will improve. Manticore II will be the machine to get I feel and if they stabilise the 900 that may well be my next step when my 800 dies. I prefer Minelab machines.I keep hoping you weaken and give the D2 a try would love to know how you rate it lol

This is a brand specific forum for people who own and appreciate Garrett metal detectors, or who want to learn more about them. It is not for people to point out how they think some other brand is a better choice. We have a forum for advice, criticism and comparing, the Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons Forum so take it there if that is what you want to do. This applies to all the brand specific forums in general - dropping in on them to say that brand or model sucks will be considered trolling, and such posts moved or deleted. Let people enjoy what they have without the negative commentary please. I don't go to the Ford Forum to tell them they should should have bought a Subaru, and the same general rule apples here when on a brand forum, be it Garrett, Nokta, Minelab, or whatever.

I'm not buying the "high demand" excuse. Just, not, buying it. It's not like they can come out and say "we just don't care" though, either. But, that's what I'm hearing, when they say "high demand". - Dave

Nah nah nah you fellas are way too tesstical, tis ya hearing that jumps up a notch when its suspected gold 😉

Good story. I too use my 800 as a go to Detector because I have confidence in it. I wish I had the same feeling with my golf clubs.

What could it be?

We have had lots of 1, 2 and 2 1/4 ounce nuggets come off one claim and the other claim has given up a 6 1/2 ounce solid gold nugget, so yes this coil has a purpose on my claims. It is also to seek out new deposits on our claims since it can punch so deep.

yep, that's why we circle targets, The 800 shook the market to its core for a reason, fantastic detector.

Ditto -- much sweeter swing with a full CF shaft and sturdy cuff. I was using the Legend for a few months exclusively until I picked up the 10x5 Coiltek coil for the Nox. That coil on the 800 is a little piece of magic! Next thing I knew, I was pulling quarters galore out of previously worked territory. And then I brought the Legend w/stock coil out to the same worked/re-worked area the other night and pulled out even more coins (all clad) and absolutely zero trash! I'm starting to wonder if angle of approach is a significant factor here, on top of machine + settings + coil combo?

Versa is available for order in Poland. Should be shipped in 2 weeks. Price 3290 PLN. https://www.rutus.com.pl/pl/page/69/versa https://www.facebook.com/RUTUSMetalDetectors/

Let us know how it goes. If that doesn't work, try reverting to an earlier version (e.g. 0.71) and then reinstalling 1.1.

Wish you could describe the floor better. 4th floor apartment would have a poured concrete floor I suppose. Like a high rise. Why is there dirt on top of that concrete and how deep is the dirt? Sounds like that's probably where the coins will be hidden is in the dirt. And the boards above the dirt will have nails holding them down won't they? Which means the detector will be sounding off on the nails. How big is the gap between the bottom of the boards and the top of the dirt? When I read your question I was thinking that you need a crowbar AND a detector. You obviously will have to remove some wood flooring to recover anything buried in the dirt. After you locate it of course. It's just a bare wood floor correct? Check out the floor very carefully and you just might be able to find the wood that grandpa removed many years ago. Good luck and please let us know what happens!

all I know is that the exchange2 and the exchange2 extended need to be used together download the data as usual with the exchange2 and then use the exchange2 extended to send the data to google earth, well thats what I used to do but the gpx6000 has no such function so I just use the Trilobite on the mobile phone now to keep track of the live and pending leases in WA and it also makes your trails and waypoints which can be sent to google earth. a screen shot example of the Trilobite on my mobile phone cheers dave

The demand is such that I have not seen a single unit on the beach so far this year...🤔 There is stock in the distributors and I have already seen a couple of open boxes for around 1,400-1,500€. Here, in Europe, its price is 2,000€. I have not seen a single Nox 700 either, and the two 900s I know of, one (more of a novice) is delighted. He, another, more veteran, doesn't like it... According to his words, too much "sensitivity"... The 10' and 8' coils are also not available for the X Terra. Maybe they thought that this summer I won't go diving... They lose the sale of a coil, it doesn't matter. Today buying ML 85 headphones is impossible. I don't understand...

They care, as long is it lines their pockets, I can't say it lines their shareholders pockets as most of them are running at a big loss! Simple solution, give the customers what they want, it's surprising how doing that increases sales.

June 18 2002 Jacob had the cleanup done early and there were 1.4 ounces in the jar. Then he went up to the pump to act as watchman while Vern came down to the tom and helped me feed the beast. Even with the extreme heat we made good progress and by day’s end we had managed to process just over 28 yards. I was beginning to adjust to the heat and hand shoveling. Vern said he actually enjoyed the heavy labor but he is also half my age. I cleaned up down at the creek and the cool water felt good. The cold beer tasted good as well. There is no word on when we will be up and running with the trommel so we will be doing hand labor for the time being. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

It would be nice to have coil options. But I'm not that worried about it since I still have the Equinox 900. I would say I use an 11" coil 90% of the time anyway. If I need depth I switch to a PI, if I need separation I grab the Deus 2 with 9" coil. I really find it hard to believe the Manticore is the most sought after detector in ML history, at least here in the US. I know people that wanted one but have now said no way after seeing some of the videos on YouTube. I've got 2 friends myself who have decided to pass on it after using mine for a few hours.

Thanks Rick. I found some crumbs and I kept pulling them. I showed a couple of guys with 6000s where they were and what I was doing and they could only pull out 1! This area had some very old dry wash diggings before metal detectors and some very old dig holes that filled in over the years. I think this is why I didn't get any larger nuggets. There was bb trash and a few wires but all the obvious signs I wasn't the first one to detect this patch of desert. I did leave more for others but not much in that 100x100! Mitchel

I hear ya Chase. I'm not as anxious as some to get the new coils because I'm having a ball with the 11". I understand that some really need the smaller coil due to iron infested or heavy brush covered areas or just wanting it for gold prospecting. I don't really NEED the 15", but I want it for my beach hunting. I'm trying to imagine how hard it may be to swing in the water chest deep, or how much heavier it will be to swing in the dry compared to the 11". So....I want it, but I can wait while entertaining myself with the stock coil.

Kind of nice to reflect back to what got us here.

Metal detecting and fishing, two Virginia favorites. 👍 They probably threw them in the river due to the crackdown on unserialized pistols. Thanks Lynyrd Skynyrd! 😵 Great photos DC, I think Jeff has you covered. They wouldn't have tossed it if it was a Colt. 😀 Here's a pic of the little guy:

Got a great run happening this week with a ring every day so far.. The first one was a call-out from a footy player who lost his ring on the oval.. Got a $50 reward for finding it, took about an hour.. Ever try gridding a football oval? It takes a long time to cover.. The other two rings were at a spot where a huge load of sand had been washed away during a very high tide.. They must have been too deep to pick up before but here they were in the top layer of the washout.. I'm getting better at spotting likely locations, it's no longer the hit and miss affair it was years ago.. I'm slowly developing a 'Geosense' as to where rings are likely to be deposited along different parts of a beach.. It's no longer all about luck, experience is starting to play a bigger role..

I think the crew had made a huge gold discovery. They were probably being watched. Then they were murdered for their gold. The pack of thieves most likely came back to the area weeks later after things had cooled down with the law and mined out the new found rich gold deposit. Just my theory as well as Jacob's. We never found it when Jacob tried to locate it again after all those years. That was most likely because it had already been mined by the new group. As Jacob often said, the law in that area was worthless. As far as we can tell there were never any arrests made. Here are the last two entries in the journal Jacob was writing in in 1937. July 3 1937 There was nothing moving on the mountain last night except for a bear and some mule deer. At breakfast we had a brief meeting and were concerned that whoever had taken those buckets out of the mine while we were in Nevada most likely knew we were on rich ground. We would need to keep a close watch on the mine. Will and I got an early start as the sun was coming up behind the trees. The intense heat was back once again. We worked at a good pace and cut a trench trying to find the depth of country rock. We hit it at twelve feet. I took a sample pan over to the tub with Will and we couldn’t believe the result. The pan was full of small nuggets and pickers as well as coarse gold. We had never seen a pan like this. It was even richer than last year's kettle dig. We still didn’t know how far back into the hill the kettle went. The deposit had the potential to be massive. I kept a thermometer in the shade and it was already reading 98 degrees. It had to be 110 or more in the sun. I sent Will back down to the creek with a lode of buckets filled to the brim with rich gravels for John to wash. I told him to bring up more water and some cool Lucky’s we kept in the creek. When he got back up to the site we found a shady spot and drank a few of them. I have to say that I have never had beer that tasted better on a sweltering hot day. We got back to work and didn’t stop until dusk. We had removed a total of 170 buckets of super rich pay. The weigh tomorrow was going to be a good one as most of the material we took down to John was from deep in the kettle. July 4 1937 I am hurriedly writing this with the aid of a three quarter moon while trapped at the watchpost. It is 3:00 AM and today was to be a gold weigh and celebration of our country's independence. Instead, we are fighting for our lives. I took the second watch last night and all was quiet until an hour ago when we were suddenly attacked by what seems like a small army of well armed men. There has been heavy gunfire until the last ten minutes. I hear no more return fire from camp and I am nearly out of ammo up here on the mountain. I am taking occasional rifle fire and volleys of rounds from at least ten positions which have me surrounded. I am unable to move from cover. I can only think of the Shaman who warned me of our demise. I fear this may be the end. I am seeing my brother Jed and Whisky Jack coming down the mountain towards me with their arms stretched out to greet me.

We all wish we had a backyard like this

Thanks I’ll give it a go

I thought the E800 was a "chirpy" motha!

I was hunting down by a river today and those blood suckers swarmed me! I think I took out about a half dozen of them before I had to make a hasty retreat. Next time I go down there, I'm going to send a cow in there first to keep them lil' suckers busy before I go in. 🦟🪓🤨

Updated the software on both the M-core and the headphones. It was super easy, even for a technologically challenged guy like me 🙂 Yesterday, I took my updated Manticore to a heavily worked area and managed to pull out this Mercury dime. Been to this site a few times over the past couple of months and this is the first silver. Did the update seem better to me? I dug less iron during yesterdays outing. Based on my one time use with the new update, I do feel that it performs better. Will be heading to the Kenai Peninsula in a few weeks and will be putting it to use looking for those elusive gold nuggets. Happy hunting! John

Not sure that it is common but I had an issue with mine after i'd had it for a couple of years. Sent it back and they put in a new PCB. Prior to sending it in it was working one day and then the next time it got used it just went hay-wire! From a thread I did here on DP Forum. "Just an update to this thread. SDC had been returned whilst we were away. Kevin from Minelab advised via email that they had replaced the main pcb and should have no further issues. I'm not sure what a pcb is but it sounds technical Fired it up this arvo and all seemed good."

Murder weapons? Thrown off the bridge?

Flat out wore myself out yesterday detecting - Lots of tight grids. Even faded on F350 and Joe D while texting last night. Wife got some of the change and the brand new-ish Jessica Simpson designer sunglasses to wear, so she is styling. They will go with the other new ones she got the other day. I scored 3 rings. 1 junker, 1 18k engagement as well as the 1 18k wedding band kicker. Yes the 2 rings are a set. Someone is probably not happy. Basically the diamond ring rang up 49 on the D2 (beach sens). The better news is after I was done admiring the diamond ring I remembered to double check the hole. Guess what another 49 on D2 😊 😃 😜 Well the rest is history — the wedding band came out next. Both same size and maker. I cannot not find any inclusions in the diamond with my loops so off to the jeweler this upcoming weekend for the big microscope inspect and hopefully a quick appraisal. Great Day! The gold dance happened! Double check those holes for 18K!

Another new/old patch, again today, a good day 7 grams for the 6000 today was a good effort, started on a new/old patch this morning and ended with 7 grams The specie has just a fraction over 2 grams in it according to the SG test and it was fairly deep right down under a salt bush New/Old Patch Specie down deep under a salt bush Todays effort for the 6000 cheers dave

June 15 2002 Part Three When I got back to camp Vern was pretty upset that we didn’t find Jim. I told him it was dark, we had tried the radio as well as calling out, but there was just no way to know where he had gone. I figured it was probably the same goons that seemed to be against our mining activities. Vern wanted to go charging out into the woods and find Jim. I asked him just where he would start and he replied somewhere up in the area Jim had last been. I said we didn’t know which direction he had gone. He may have taken off trying to pursue the thugs or he could now be lost. He also may have been taken captive. Jacob was up there in case he returned. We couldn’t leave camp unguarded and I was unwilling to risk Vern’s life. I thought about letting the law know about this but decided to wait until morning. Besides, I figured they wouldn’t want to risk deputies' lives on a wild goose chase into the mountains at night. So Vern and I sat at camp and kept in contact with Jacob via the radios. All I could think of was how Jim had wanted to leave the mine and go home because of the danger out here but I had talked him out of it. I felt responsible for the crew. I knew they were out here on their own choice but still felt horrible. I was beginning to think about what had happened to the crews in 1936 & 1937. It gave me the creeps. TO BE CONTINUED ............