Steve Herschbach

18” Nugget Finder Mono Advantage. Commanders are actually good coils, but the 18” is far too heavy given the alternatives.

The Minelab GPX 5000 is a popular and well proven detector with a long history of successful use by many people worldwide. Any concerns about functionality are unfounded or based on excessive and unrealistic performance claims. Depth is related to target size and most gold nuggets are small so max depth will be a foot or less for typical small gold nuggets. Nuggets weighing an ounce or more can be found at up to two feet, with nuggets a pound or more being found up to a meter in depth. My favorite large coil was an 18” round mono. The GPX 5000 has been around a long time and is in the process of being discontinued, but can still be found for $4000 - $5000 in the U.S. To put this in perspective a GPZ 7000 is $9000. How Deep Can I Detect Coins, Relics, Gold Nuggets, etc.? Coil size versus measured nugget depths - Minelab GPZ 7000

https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/25584-algoforce-e1500-vs-the-rest/

Obviously not much action on this forum. Like many I had a Tarsacci but sold it. I would gladly buy another if it had better tones and less irritating menu navigation. It’s more a hobby than a business for Dimitar so who knows, might happen someday, might not. I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime I am genuinely curious. Is there an active Tarsacci forum, Facebook group, or other spot where Tarsacci owners are discussing the detector online? I’m wonder if it is this forum only that is quiet, or just that there is no real Tarsacci discussion going on anywhere? I know it was a Tom D favorite until Manticore came along so nothing happening there either.

The TDI and the Eric Foster Goldscan it is based on were designed to use mono coils. DD coils offer no real advantage on the TDI. The pulse delay is your main tool after the ground balance for dealing with the worst ground. Always readjust the ground balance after changing the pulse delay as they are interrelated. For beach use it is also very important to experiment with ground balance off as this can add depth, especially on targets that happen to fall into the ground balance hole.

Like I said, I do not have enough hours to say anything definitive personally. I do know that in high mineral ground gold can read as pure non-ferrous, pure ferrous, and anywhere in between. In some ground with some gold the Manticore could be very accurate. In other locations on different gold it could be very unreliable. I’d caution anyone against getting too comfortable with using discrimination when nugget detecting.

I have not used it enough to make specific recommendations but I did nothing special - gold field mode, sensitivity to suit conditions, hunt Low and Slow.

I'm sorry to hear that Doc. Rob is a good guy. I know it is hard but I also know the family will weather this difficult time. My condolences to the entire Allison clan.

Thread will be locked at the first hint of political commentary, opinions on fiat currency, etc. For those of us with gold to sell high prices are great. But discussions on the what’s and why’s of it have made it onto my short list of subjects that often seem to go off the rails, so let’s just avoid that right now. Thanks.

No, they are not compatible. Totally different detectors actually. The original Lobo is a Tesoro Jack Gifford design, the ST a Dave Johnson design done under contract for Tesoro. The old coils had a female coil connection and the new coils have a male pin connector to prevent people accidently using them on the wrong model. The frequency is close enough that maybe an adapter would work but I have never heard of it being done. It might work but would probably be off spec with side effects both in ground balance and disc, if it worked at all. I'd not bet on it since they really are two totally different detectors internally.

Garrett does not make a DD coil for the Axiom. It’s a unique Focused Core (FC) coil design and as explained many times before on this forum, anyone equating their performance with what they think they know about DD coils is headed down the wrong path. The FC coils can be as sensitive or more sensitive to small gold than the equivalent size mono coil, and that means they can also react to certain ground conditions or hot rocks more than one would expect with a DD coil. Different ground conditions from one person to another may give conflicting results. In some places a mono might be the better choice, in others the FC coil. In some places the Fine setting may not work, Normal will be better. Personally if something is not working for me I switch to my other options until I find what works best in any given area. That’s why we have different coils and different settings. But again, me comparing what my machine is doing to what other people are getting for results in different ground just seems like a rabbit hole to me. I expect things to be different and not universally the same for all people in all locations. Unless people can get together and compare detectors on the same ground and the same targets it confuses as much as enlightens. There is exactly one version of the Axiom on the market. This also has been asked and answered before. It is always possible a person has a defective detector, or more likely, defective coil. If there is any suspicion about that contact your dealer or Garrett with your concerns. I’ll see that this thread gets forwarded to the engineers but other than that it’s my last comment on the subject.

Hear, hear, yes thank you for saying that Hugh. No pins and needles. A person really does have to be persistently abrasive and argumentative in the face of obvious pushback from the general forum membership. It's really you all that as a group are setting the tone, and it becomes obvious when somebody is not going with the flow but against it. T.H.I.N.K. before you post!

You know, that's a very good point. I started this forum purely with the intent of sharing information and helping people. This whole this versus that thing just kind of snuck in and so I did finally create one forum to contain it, the Advice & Comparisons Forum (the one we are on). Even there the Advice part came first or was supposed to. My mindset has always been simple. If a person has a Ace 300 and wants to get the best out of it, how do I help them do that? Tell them their choice in a detector sucks? People would be absolutely stunned by the number and quality of finds made worldwide by Ace detectors. This should be about having fun and fellowship, helping others. Instead people on social media are getting angry, getting in fights - over metal detecting! Yes, please to all of you, let's talk about this detector versus that one, but with the understanding they all can be used to make good finds, and that what is great for one person is too much or too little for someone else. We are all here to just help one another and to have fun. If anyone leaves the forum in a bad mood or angry, something is wrong. Bottom line, anyone who makes a habit of making people feel that way needs to go away. And will. The mods and I have discussed this and we are doubling down on civility and good cheer as being the forum prime directives. T.H.I.N.K. before you post!

It's only the company that is dead, not the detectors. Tesoros are still some of the best and lightest detectors ever made and highly regarded by those that hunt by ear in trashy ground. Analog offers audio nuance that most digital models lose with their overprocessed output. New detector cell phones on a stick also tout their 3 lb light weight when my old Tesoro Silver uMax weighed in at 2.2 lbs over two decades ago - lighter than a Deus!

It says Manticore in first the post and numerous ones later and reality it is not Manticore only. It’s not a put down, it’s advice to you and others. All members should read enough of a thread to understand what they are about before commenting. If that’s too much trouble, don’t comment. This was thread was far longer than it should be for answering the same question repeatedly for people who could not bother, but expected other people to tell them once again what was already covered in the thread - if they would just read it. More advice - prickly won’t get anyone very far with me as I’m all the prickly the forum needs. As Simon notes it’s an issue for any highly sensitive detector, not just Manticore, it’s just that nearly all highly sensitive detectors do not come with conductive lower rods. Again, this was all covered in the thread already. It’s all there, over and over. Thread relocked.

Thread unlocked. Excellent reply from Minelab, neatly summarizes everything. Next time I find a nugget with the Manticore I will have to remember it's not a gold nugget machine. Thanks for your effort on this Simon, and thanks indirectly to Jason for responding in a straightforward and honest fashion.

A member of the forum has had a history of rubbing people the wrong way. I’ve not taken action until now as there was no blatant breaking of forum rules. However, the abrasive behavior is now such that the forum is losing too many good members to harbor a questionable one. They basically trolled a thread about trolling! It's just been too much for too long. I had to make a call that is distasteful to me on a certain level but which I think is in the best interests of the forum and its long term members. After consultation with several forum members, the persons membership was been terminated. Their posts on this thread and anyone’s posts in response have been removed. Please respect the process by not commenting here on the person as what is done is done. There is no need to review the situation in public. If anyone has any comment for me about it please PM me instead. Thank you.

I was deeply involved in the original Nox development from the earliest handmade test units. I saw soon that it was a truly ground breaking machine, once in a decade or more leap. So I did up a very enthusiastic report prior to release, and called it a New Years gift to everyone. More than any model before or after I rode the finest of edges with the NDA making sure people here got the real goods on the Equinox before anyone else. https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/4973-2018-year-of-the-equinox/ Some people just tore into me, one guy from New York in particular. Really shocked and hurt me really, just straight up said I was a lying paid shill. And to this day not one of those guys has ever apologized for any of that, when I think now that history has proven me spot on. I’ve been quieter on the machines I’ve been involved in since. That will include the Garrett Vortex. Although I have one I have seen which way the wind is blowing on social media, commentators who have never held the detector saying everyone involved with it should be "fired. fired, fired." Real people, real jobs - just fire them all over some perceived issue. That one did it for me, the ill will evident to a bunch of good Americans just trying to offer a decent product and so I'm not going to post anything more about it other than my one post about it and a great first use find. To those who would like to have heard me post more about the detector, you can thank the trolls for me going silent.

I’m pretty slow to question other people’s motives as I’m not fond of people questioning mine. You know “Garrett gave Steve a Vortex so he’s just shilling for them”. It cuts both ways. Yeah there is money involved with influencers and YouTube views, some get free product, and I don’t have a problem with that. For me it’s more about style and propriety - in other words, good manners. There are plenty of people who do well with YouTube and it does not require low behavior. It’s very possible to criticize in a constructive fashion and not be a jerk about it. It’s just that there is a distinct market for that sort of stuff, some people love conflict and a good fight, and are happy to jump on that train when the opportunity presents itself. It’s a choice.

Nice product, looks to be very high quality.

You really need to be farther from cars, metal chair bases etc. https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/1559-why-wont-my-detector-find-a-bottle-full-of-small-nuggets-or-a-gold-chain/

That and a couple good moderators plus a great membership = happiness

I've never considered what it must be like to moderate a forum specifically aimed at nerd geek engineer types. First thought that comes to mind is OMG!!!! It depends on the forum prime directive. If you want to cater to brilliant people you have to deal with the idiosyncrasies that come with the territory. This forum on the other hand was founded literally on the basis of what I observed and experienced elsewhere. The prime directive IS civility. What that does mean is that certain personalities do not last long here, and unfortunately some intelligent minds in that group. I tried for some time to make room for everyone and then to ride herd on the results, but frankly I'm just too old and lazy now. Anyone with a flair for causing dissension and controversary is simply not welcome here. If that means if it ends up being just six of us having a nice conversation, I'm good with that.

When the internet first got going with the early metal detector forums in the late 90s and early 2000s, it was a different place. Basically a community of like minded people helping each other out and sharing fun finds, etc. As social media has advanced however things have taken a darker turn. There now exists a class of eyeball seeker that caters to people’s less desirable side, getting attention by attacking anyone and everything. Attacking things is now equated with being a truth teller, since you are saying things most people will not say. The problem is truth often has nothing to do with it. It’s just pushing people’s buttons to engage eyeballs more often than not. Controversy sells. The downside is happening quietly. There are many very knowledgeable people in this industry that would be happy to engage and share information. Or would be, were it not for the trolls and negative tone so prevalent now. Say anything nice and you get attacked as a shill or worse. Or have to argue with people who think their uneducated opinions somehow are real knowledge. A lot of good people I know who used to post or who currently post are going away. This includes many of the most knowledgeable people in the industry. People say a person should just have a thicker skin, ignore the trolls, etc. Yet why should a decent person who knows a lot have to endure hateful comments just to try to share and help people? Might it not be easier to not comment at all, leave the field entirely, and let the trolls win? I’m here to tell you it’s happening, has been happening for some time now. The Garrett Vortex really brings this top of mind for me. I somewhat grudgingly accepted one to provide some feedback and thoughts to Garrett. Years ago I would have jumped on the chance to have early information to share with people. Now, I honestly don’t want to get involved. The hatred and vitriol being dumped on this machine before it has even shipped has reached new lows. Now, many would say that Garrett only has themselves to blame, with the huge drip tease buildup fueling people’s expectations to unrealistic highs. There is some truth in that. I think they would have been better served to say little and quietly announce the detector when it was ready to ship. The attacks now are vicious enough however (everyone involved should be fired, fired, fired!!) that blaming Garrett is blaming the victim to excuse the attackers. Some people have even seized on the fact Garrett is still tweaking the machine as evidence of ill intent on Garrett’s part. News flash - every detector from every company I’ve worked with in the last 20 years was tweaked up until the day it shipped, and for a year or more after. Was Nokta ripping people off selling the original Legend and then updating it constantly ever since? Was the original shipping model just an unfinished prototype? No, I’m not saying that at all but that is the argument being put forth now about the Vortex. Some want to line up feature lists, and point out the Nokta Score has a longer list yet sells for less. Another news flash - not everyone wants a mile long set of adjustments, some people just want a detector that works well with minimal fuss. And gee, what about actually using something before saying it’s junk? Not today, not in the current environment. The worst part at this point is anyone being fair to the Vortex and saying anything nice about it is going to get thrown under a bus. You either get on board the hate wagon or get run over by it. I have no real reason for posting this I guess. Things will not change except to get worse. I sure do not want this thread to be people naming names and calling out anyone in particular. That’s not my goal - please don’t do it. I guess I’m just a little sad about it all, maybe looking to commiserate a little on the state of affairs. Not about specific people but just the overall decline in civility. It’s taken some of the fun I used to have getting a new detector away from me and I’m mourning that a little.