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It's been raining a lot here, yesterday I had to cut the grass to get it done before the severe weather we're supposed to get this evening. I am posting this in the Deus 2 forum because I have some observations from today, I was using the D2 and the 13" coil with a customized Beach Sensitive program. I told Chase I was headed up to my local beach, and he got there early with me. It was hot and muggy but now and again it got cloudy and we got enough wind off the river to keep cool. Went through a lot of water today! Last weekend the beach was packed, and this weekend was too apparently. I like to go there early on Monday regardless of tide if it was sunny at all. There were not many people there as expected, I didn't see Chase but he was there before me. Went out to the motel beach, and my first find was a dime, and then I spotted a dollar in the sand. 😀 I knew it would be a much better day than I had last weekend. He finally appeared and we went down the beach searching different parts of it. Here's my observation; I found that audio response causes the detector to make a lot of extraneous noise if auto tracking is turned off. Turned it down from 5 to 3 and it got a lot better! It ran really quiet most of the time until I got over some black sand or a cellphone was nearby. Now the proof: Here's all the trash I got. The bottle caps were all sight picked, love the old round pull tabs that give off a beautiful tone without the brassy sound, some of the others did too, but I was after nickels and ended up getting some. The iron was so close to the surface I dug it. The rubber bat was just funny. 😀 Now the good stuff: 33 coins and a dollar bill, almost $6 in change and paper money. Best was the 1945 wheat. Old coins turn up here all the time. An earring that sounds good when dropped so I included it, a sight picked bracelet with beads and brass. 3 toy cars, the big pickup truck is a Hallmark Christmas ornament without the Christmas tree in the bed. It was a fun day, I hope the storms go by without incident.

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.

Just saw a youtube vid from TNS saying you can go back to older versions. Plug your manticore into your computer, open the update tool, and in the bottom right corner of the update tool screen are three dots. Click those and you can get to the other version!

I was afraid to go to a certain spot , because i was told all who ventured into that spot where met by an angry hag, who kicked them out . but it was raining , and I figured I would try it , and I said if that is true , its going to be loaded, so I turned on the detector. And on my 1st swing a quarter , then another and then a dime , just in a small spot , and this went on thru the hole spot , then the grounds keepers showed up , and they Ignored me , No hag, I was waiting for the hag to show up ,and order me to leave, but somthing kept her away , maybe the rain maybe she was not working that day , so I kept nervously swinging, and the coins kept showing up . for me it was an all time record for one day 19 quarters, and some dimes and nickles all in 6.60$ very good hunt glad i went , cuzz the hag never showed up

I took a good friend to The Dragon's Lair to teach him how to find gold with his brand new GPX6000 and within an hour he had found his first nugget with it. He is excited to find more and we are exploring a new area close to one of mine and GoldRyder's claim. After I got him lined out on hunting with the 6000, I reworked my patch that has given up hundreds of nuggets and just pulled one tiny piece of gold out. I couldn't pull anymore gold out when I was getting ready to leave, so I focused heavily on very faint iffy signals that did not repeat, and pulled out some iron tiny trash. I got a non repeatable signal and scraped a thin layer back and heard a soft faint whisper repeating. I ended up digging a .63 of a gram nugget out shaped like a heart. It was about 14" deep maybe a little more. Damn this 6000 is impressive. I got it all on video and it will go up in about a month. I have the depth marked into my pick handle and will measure it soon. What a fine and impressive machine. Hats off to Minelab!

Just wanted to remind everyone at least in the US to take bug precautions when detecting. I’m in PA, in my mid 40’s, and woke up to a tick stuck to my ribs about 9 days ago. last week I was having trouble thinking straight, that progressed quickly into a high fever, extremity numbness, and blurry vision. After a few days of antibiotics, I’m feeling mush better but still have some numbness and blurry vision. Lyme disease is no joke and can last a lifetime. And there are numerous other diseases that can come from ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, bugs…. Take precautions and be vigilant.

There's a part of town I've been hunting that has some older artifacts and everytime I go there I drive by an elementary school that was built in 1953. Since I'm usually looking for much older stuff, I never really payed much attention to this school. Well a few days ago I noticed some workers there and they were scraping off an area of the playground with a small excavator. I figured they were changing out some pipes or something and saw that they were dumping the dirt in the parking lot while they continued to scrape a fairly wide area about six inches down. Well that's probably worth checking out, I thought as I drove home that afternoon, and figured I could check it out on the way home the next evening. They were still working hard at it when I drove by the next afternoon, but when I came back by a little after 6:00pm, the workers, and more importantly, the dirt pile were gone. Well, I missed that opportunity I thought, but I decided to check out the scraped area anyway. I had the D2 with the 11" coil still on from some earlier detecting so I figured a quick run might turn up a silver coin or something old from the scraped area. I started swingin on the excavator path going in and out of the scrape and started pulling quite a few older ring pulls. At one point I pulled what looked like a foil milk bottle top that was folded in half and threw it in the trash pouch. A little after getting into the scrape and finding more ring pulls, I hit a '71 copper memorial penny. That could be a good sign or so I thought. I did manage to hit a deep dime, but it turned out to be a 1970. After 3 or 4 passes on the scraped area, I decided to explore the path to the parking lot where they had dumped the dirt from the scrape. I noticed a section of side walk that had also been pulled out and found a 1968 quarter and a 1973 Dog Permit tag from Ventura County, California. When I reached the area of the dump pile, I could tell it had been mostly small gravel with some dirt mixed in and there was a much smaller pile of wood chips still there, which I assume had been on top of the gravel. It had only a few foil targets in it, but the area where the gravel dirt had been dumped started giving up some good targets and a few surprises. One surprise was a small brass skeleton key, and a small brass ID bracelet (without the chain). The other was what I thought was a very encrusted, but high ringing zinc penney, only to find after cleaning it was a 1935 wheat penny! Oh, and the folded foil milk bottle topper that I almost threw out with the other trash fooled me too. I unfolded it and saw "Gold Circle Coin" imprinted on it and thought well maybe it was a gold foil candy coin wrapper. That's when I noticed the phrase, "For the Prevention of Disease" on it and thought what does that mean.... Oooooh.... then I remembered that was commonly imprinted on condom containers in the 40s and 50s. I had never heard of Gold Circle Coin condoms before but I looked them up... there's even one in the Smithsonian Institute, LOL! So I ended up with some older clad coins, copper pennies from 1960 to 1975, a 1935 Wheatie, a brass ID bracelet piece, a skeleton key, a 1973 dog tag, a few mystery items, and a 1950s era condom wrapper. You just never know what will turn up at school! 😎 Mystery item: Another mystery item: And the trash:

abenson has been detecting longer and knows more about detecting than most people. If he says his update went sideways, you can take that to the bank. That’s not to say the update is no good and that others are not getting good results. It’s saying something went probably went wrong with his update on his detector.

I snuck out for an hour between thunder storms to the old hotel site I have posted finds from a couple times....did not disappoint. I can say I have never dug a quarter cent before, but here is my first cut half cent, 1835. Right next to the old pump well, like 6 inches from the platform and only a couple inches down. Most of the old coins have been 8 to 10 inches deep. Probably the dirt there has been dug up a couple times in the past years for maintenance, etc.

Based on some posted consternation based on the anticipated price point for the Minelab Manticore accessory coils, I thought I would put out some price points for popular Simultaneious Multi-Frequency (SMF) metal detector accessory coils, and coil prices for other popular single frequency, selectable single frequency, SMF and PI detectors, for reference. These are approximate retail prices for new coils (in US $) scraped off the internet and don’t reflect dealer discounts, package deals, or sale specials. Legend LG 28 - 11" Stock - ~$135 LG15 6" Round - ~$120 LG24 9.5x6" - ~$135 LG30 12X9" - ~$150 LG35 14" - ~$170 Nox 6" Round - ~$180 10x5" Elliptical (Coiltek) - ~$235 11" Stock - ~$229 14X9" (Coiltek) - ~$260 15x12" - ~$240 15" Round (Coiltek) - ~$290 Manticore Stock 11" - ~$?? M8 - ~$341 (Pre-release estimate based on currency conversion) M15 - ~$417 (Pre-release estimate based on currency conversion) Deus 2 9" Round - ~$399 11" Round - ~$399 13X11" - ~$399 Other Coils: Fisher "Triangulated Biaxial 12" Coil" for F75 - ~$199 Detech Ultimate 7" (Teknetics and Fisher F75) - ~$130 Detech Ultimate 13" (Teknetics Greek and F75) - ~$180 Detech Arrow (Simplex, Fisher, Teknetics Greek and G2+) - ~$150 - $165 Nel Snake - ~$120 - $130 Minelab XTerra Pro - ~$?? Minelab Vanquish (Multi IQ) - ~$100-$140 (size dependent) Minelab CTX3030 11"/17"(FBS 2) - ~$350/$400 Garrett AT Series Coils - ~$130 - $160 (size size dependent) Garrett Ace Apex Coils - ~$135 - $190 (size dependent) Nokta Simplex+ - ~$110 - $170 (size dependent) Nokta Impact - ~$110 - $230 (size dependent) Nokta Anfibio/Kruzer - ~$110 - $220 (size dependent) Pulse Induction: Garrett Axiom Coils - ~$280 - $320 (size dependent) Minelab Commander 10x5" DD (GPX) - ~$225 Minelab Commander 11" Mono/DD (GPX) - ~$270/250 Minelab Commander 15X12" DD (GPX) - ~$375 Minelab Commander 18" Mono - ~$441 Coiltek GoldenHawk 10x5" Mono (GPX) - ~$420 Coiltek 14" Anti-Interference DD (GPX) - ~$410 Detech 12.5" DD (GPX) - ~$300 Detech 15" Spiral Wound DD (GPX) - ~$425 Detech 15" Ultra Sensing Mono (GPX) - ~$425 Commentary - Legend accessory coils are a great value overall consistent with the detector itself, even compared with single frequency detector accessory coils. The unofficial Manticore accessory coil prices (if they hold) are somewhat consistent with Deus 2, perhaps its most direct competitor, although the Deus 2 coils pricing is complicated by the fact that they are wireless, smart, and, therefore, are self-powered which is not the case with the Manticore coils other than perhaps limited pre-filtering and ID chips. The Coiltek NOX coils demand a slight premium vs. the Minelab OEM Nox coils. The higher end Deus 2 and Manticore accessory coils are priced similar to GPX pulse induction coils.

I am not sure why that would be. As a dedicated beach hunter, I run tracking GB with EVERY detector I use. The key to beach success is doing depth testing on your location with gold. I fear turning audio response down has a severe negative effect. Also, if you have pockets of black sand [like I do] without question you are losing performance if not using tracking GB.

Here are another 11 nuggets that were missed by the detectors of the day 10 years or so ago. Now we are getting the crumbs. I'm glad I can get them with an Sp01 (volume) and the 15 CC X.

These are all from woods and yards in eastern Massachusetts. telephone technician's badge, 1910s shoe buckle Pocket watch case. Never heard of this brand. patent match safe, 1883 ladies' shoe buckle clip, Edwardian demi-tasse spoon, plated

Got out for a little bit today before the storms were expected. I was hunting an old home site (late 1800s through early 2000s) with a custom program built off of fast. Lots of iron, so I increased the reactivity to around 2 to 2.5. The old pocket watch is unfortunately missing the back, so I have no idea the age. It was giving me a weird double signal with a fairly solid 72. I decided to dig it anyway because I kept getting a good tone at certain angles. Once I removed the new nail from 2 inches, the signal cleaned up to a good 72 and so did the tone. The watch was another several inches down. I recovered a piece of the cover glass with it. This is actually the second pocket watch I have found with the D2 this year, although neither one are in great condition… Not too far away was the 1914 WHS medallion. I am guessing it comes from a high school and the only one locally that matches would be Woodward. I plan to contact them to see if anyone can confirm if it is truly a class of 1914 medallion. The old car is a matchbox lotus number 19 from around 1966 to 1967. I also found the hammer for a cap gun and an auto city products company (Detroit Michigan) key. All the coins were modern. I’ve been experimenting a little bit with large tones – especially large iron tones when I can get a fairly decent good tone from one discrete area (preferably not the end if it is an elongated iron). If I can get a discreet good tone, I dig the tone even if pinpointing pulls me off to the side due to the larger signal. This has resulted in several coins including today’s nickel. However I did get fooled on a large iron bolt. Thanks for looking and hope you’re having fun!

Greetings! A few decades ago, Coin and Relic Dredging was popular. Keene even made a 3" model with Special Riffles. Other than where it's been outlawed, do people still do this? Thanks! Walt

Keep us updated when you've flashed back if your detector comes right, very interested in this as it's such a weird thing. I guess Minelab USA being just middle men didn't know, that's why it's best to speak to service@minelab.com.au for stuff, they know what they're talking about. I don't know how we all missed the dots 🙂 The ML105 have the same dots for it.

Based on the setting, it's not citrine or something low $. It's also pretty massive to be something really rare like yellow sapphire or yellow diamond. Maybe heliodor, but color seems off. Just taking a wild guess based on the setting, size, and color I'd say topaz. But again, 100% guess. Cut stone ID is not my wheelhouse at all.

I headed back to the old school yard this afternoon where I had found 8 silvers there on two trips this year before today. I got 4 more bringing my total there to 12. This was my first hunt with the Manticore update. This ground is really mild. Not a lot of surface trash, and while you here a lot of iron grunts it's not much of a nuisance. As far as the update goes from what I could tell the detector seemed more stable. For whatever reason I had to check less falsing iron. I did not have the Stabilizer turned on. I run a pretty simple setup. Ferrous limits 8 high, 3 low. 5 tones with the bins setup to be louder on nickels and silver. AT-HC with sensitivity 23-24, and Recovery on 4. The ground was pretty dry so I tried to limit my digging. I dug no nickel signals. I only dug one Wheat cent because it was right next to one of the Mercs. I posted some photos of the quarter depths, but the Merc without the hole in it was about as deep. These were no brainer solid dig me tones and I.D.'s Silver in this mild ground rings higher. Even the worn almost slick Barber quarter rang up 88-90. The Washington rang up 90-92. I'm pretty sure there is more there. These deep signals have a rather tight field of detection, and quite enough you just about need to swing right over them to avoid passing them up. So after today I'm up to 32 silver coins for the year. All with the Manticore.

LOL. Don't know? How are your eyes? Do you have sausage fingers?

Lol....was the ws6 crappy I got from you??

Haha Cap'n, nice title. 🤣 And cool finds, I bet your heart skipped when you saw the gold... And then... 🤣 That's way funnier than Merry Widows. Your whatzit looks like a graded fastener, an old potentiometer or maybe a 25 amp fusible link thingy 🤔 I don't think I'd be behind anything labeled "chance" if it was electrical... 😏 Great trash to finds ratio, you're really doing well. 👍

“My client has lost his job and is worried about future employment in the mining industry…” 🤣 What was he thinking?… oh, never mind.

I’m sorry to say I’ve missed a few good sidewalk tear outs in old areas by waiting too long to try, so I learned a lesson that time. You have to strike while the irons hot - like you did.

Full disclosure, I never hunt the dry sand unless asked to find something. 100% wet sand/water contact.

Oh nice! Thanks for that. Wonder why Minelab couldn't just tell me that on the phone?

Before the update the D2 and Manticore were pretty dang close in depth, the D2 held a better ID than the Manticore though. Did some more testing Monday night with different targets buried at different depths and I've found the smaller the target the worse the Manticore performs. It's almost like the stabilizer won't turn off or something. In the 3 bar dirt I was testing the detectors in, the D2 on a penny is easily 2 inches deeper than the Manticore. But the real kicker is on a small pewter button the D2 is like 3 plus inches deeper. If I don't hear from Minelab soon, I'm going to put a video up to show what's going on.

Personally, I haven't noticed any depth issues with the update. I was out last week and pulled a Merc at about 7 inches. This past weekend I found a few Wheaties and one of them was around 8 inches. I crank my sensitivity up at around 28 to 29 because I like to run my machines as hot as I can. Depending on your soil that may not be an option but it works for me. Hope you get the issue resolved. There's a lot of people on this forum that are really smart and are always happy to help. Happy hunting! John

To get a conformation on the stone look for a good jeweler or even better a gemologist in your area for their opinion, and value.

The story under it with the history of gold thieves in Australia was a good read https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-03/gold-stealing-history-western-australia-perth-mint/102170820

I'm sure that these fine men will be able to find work on some television show where they are hunting for gold. At least they knew where to find some gold unlike so many others that think they can just go out and dig it up out of the ground.

Was out today too, for nearly the same scenario as you described!👍 But it was a snap decision, and didn't get on the beach till 7:00! And was getting roasted by 9:00! 🥵 You know the rest!😏 As the junk finds pile up, there's bound to be a few good "morsels" in the mix at some point; hopefully! (Clover power) Keep at it, as will I! Gonna bring the turkey baster🦃 with me now, for the rest of the summer! And way more water!!🍀👍👍

No it was fine but i couldn't resist...lol

Here in Brazil, the new fully automatic NOKTA GOLD FINDER 2000 has arrived. On the other hand, the darling of prospectors MINELAB GOLD MONSTER 1000 of 45KHZ. I want to hear your opinion, which one has more advantage to find gold? I use the GOLD MONSTER 1000 detector, it is very stable in mineralized soil, just leave it in automatic mode, it has good discrimination when detecting the object, it picks up a much smaller object, its battery is great, it lasts around a day on the hunt or more. But what I liked most about this device was the response time, when it finds an object it gives a very high signal, you can go back to it because the signal is very strong. They say that this device GOLD FINDER 2000 of 61kHz ugly to conflict with MONSTER 1000. As I never used NOKTA detectors I would like to know from you, what do you think of this cheaper device.

Good idea to check that spot CPT! I've dug a few Merry Widows but never even heard of the Gold Circle ? That has got to be the gnarliest wheatie I've seen dug in a long time 😉. Nice hunt!

I sold my crappy ws6 master because I can't see it and my big sausage fingers do not jive with the little adjustment buttons.

I agree, Phrunt. But I don't know that these older VLF's are really going to have much impact. What we are finding here on the West Coast, both inland and at the beaches, is that affordable newer tech has taken over. The Equinox, as you know, was the game changer. It opened up high tech at at a relatively low price to anyone who wanted to get into the hobby. That has resulted in our beaches being very overhunted. Where ten years ago you'd just see us regulars on a busy day, now there are teams of guys 24/7. all swinging multi's. On Saturday my buddy Frank and his brother hit a local beach and found seven other hunters there. Every one was swinging a Deus II. In three hours Frank and his brother didn't have a dollar in clad between them. Even the zincs we used to pass over had been scooped up. Same thing inland though high trash I think frustrates the newcomers so you can still do well if you take your time. Again, though, I just don't see cheap VLF's anywhere. I really don't have a clue who is buying them because I sure don't see anyone using them.

Horn coral fossils

New searcher here from Fabius, Alabama (NE corner of Alabama, on top of Sand Mountain). I own 35 acres and I have access to several large plots of private land as well. I’m a disabled military veteran & completely new to metal detecting. I’m excited about my newest hobby and am planning to purchase a Garrett Pro Max within the next week or so. I’m mostly interested in searching for American Civil War relics, but I’m sure I’ll put hours in at public places looking for whatever. Pictured is a small section of an old rock wall that runs parallel to a seasonal creek. I’m guessing it was created to use for livestock containment as I don’t see any other purpose considering its location (where two forested hillsides merge to form the seasonal creek). I’m gonna check it out in the fall after the snakes have gone underground! So, until I graduate from my metal detecting preschool status, I’ll spend most of my time here in the forum lurking in the background trying to absorb as much information as possible. Good luck swinging and please be safe out there!

Are you getting this many nuggets on a day trip Mitchel or is this a bunch that you've found over time? I'm quite jealous of the quantities. Rarely do I come home with as many at a time as you're showing in these past few outings.

Actually, it is a new club claim. Anyone can join. We're checking out more claims now.

Excellent job, Mitchel, and well deserved! Greater Barstow area? 😉 GC

RIP Jimmy "Doc" 😔 Your storytelling was a pleasure I will always remember.

I don't know if Tom has a defective Legend, or if something else is going on, but the Legend's SMF will ID deep coins better than its single frequencies. Everyone else that I'm aware of that owns a Legend, says the same thing, and that includes hunters in highly mineralized ground. It's the nature of SMF to ID better than SFs on deep targets. In regards to salt: The You Tuber "Gigmaster" is one of the best known YT'ers for hunting in salt conditions. He picked up a Legend a few months ago, and has mentioned numerous times about how much he loves it for his salt conditions. I haven't seen him use his other detectors since getting the Legend. In fact, in a recent video, he somewhat mentions why it his detector of choice, compared to the Manti, the Nox line, and his D2. With that said, no doubt that you have purchased an excellent detector. I'm not trying to sway anyone's decision making, but misleading and often outright wrong information seems to be prevalent in this hobby. I only mention these things for others who are/will read this thread, and are considering a new detector.

Great finds G-Hound! 👍 Nice 1914 medallion, the car is in surprisingly good shape. Good to see ya Kickin' it with the D2!

Nice one Rod! Rare to find a cut coin in that great shape. 👍

Hi Adam. Congratulations on your purchase. I was curious where you read or saw that the Legend had some salt issues? Granted, upon release, there was some salt issues, but Nokta quickly cleared that up with an update. Since then, I haven't heard of any legitimate issues with the Legend in salt, either on the forums or Facebook pages. In fact, I've only read or seen the opposite. However, I say "legitimate", because the salt issues I did see since that update, were related to user error. For example, using Beach Mode's "Multi Dry" instead of "Multi Wet", or misuse of the Salt Stability control. Both of which are explained in the manual. So ya, they were cases of the "RTFM!" 😁

The 12x7 is by far the most stable coil out so far for the 6000. This is just my observation as I hunt for gold full-time for a living with my 6000 & 5000 for two years now. Every day use tells me a lot of data and my deepest nuggets since having my 6000 have been with the 12x7 except for two nuggets. Both of these were with the 11" and 17" Minelab coils. Anyone know when the 10"x16" will be released.?

Great insight. For me, one of the most important factors when it comes to choosing a detector is the fun factor. The Apex has it in spades.

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.

Sometimes ya just gotta do what you're gonna do anyway.🙄 I'll make it easier. You better buy one or else ! You're welcome. Good luck with it !