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UtahRich

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  • Interests:
    exploring with my detector
  • Gear In Use:
    800, Axiom, CoRe. Manticore

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  1. The big difference makers for me? I started back in the mid-70's with a TR. Teknetics Mark I back in the mid-80's. Super accurate Target ID AND Audio Target ID, Manual Ground Balance. Notch ID Minelab Explorer XS in 2000 and several years later the Etrac. Deep, accurate Target ID, great at sleuthing out coins and tokens Minelab Equinox 800 - Opened up the low and mid-conductors in the shallow water for me and continued being deep with accurate target ID. Cutting the weight and being 'mostly' water proof.
  2. Super tough digging in the cobblestones in the bottom of a river. I have a heavy duty scoop that can pry all of the cobblestone and such, but most are much bigger than the mouth of the scoop. Kinda the pry and scoot to the side method. Nice to have the scoop though once the stones are cleared for sorting targets from the sand and gravel. I take both my scoop and a shovel and use whichever for a particular area depending on water depth. Deep waters makes it tough to hunt when the bottom is cobblestones. Lighters, sunglasses and cell phones are very common as well as lead weights and fishing lures. Dig carefully if you use your hands. 🙂
  3. my primary goal wearing a kneepad is to save my pants from the dirt and debris that gets ground into the knee area when kneeling down to recover / investigate targets. Before long the dirt grinds into the fabric and soon a hole forms. As some mentioned above, rocky ground and/or cactus /thorns can make for an uncomfortable outing as well. I like wearing a removable pad rather than specialty pants with heavy duty reinforced knees as i don't have to change. Just place the pad over whatever i'm wearing. Mine are the inexpensive construction type kneepads found at Lowes or Home Depot. A pair of Velcro straps hold it in place. Like somebody else mentioned, I typically wear just 1 pad as i kneel down on my right knee. There have been a few outings i use both, but not usually. Too, having a pad with a thin hard shell has been a plus against thorns/rocks. I didn't spend much on them and the originals lasted like 15 years. I replaced them last year as the velcro ceased to work well. I think i spent about $25 at most. I've seen some guys use inexpensive iron on denim patches to extend the life of their pants and others spend big bucks on specialty construction workers pads. All work in some fashion, just a matter of finding what suits you best.
  4. Appreciate the feedback Clive. After an initial bright start with my Manticore during a winter pause, I've since been staring out my windows watching the eternal winter in progress. By the looks of it, the snow isn't going to stop until the entire Western United States is under 100' of snow and the woolly mammoths have moved back in. My manticore outings are going to have to be road trips for the foreseeable future. I still haven't heard any positive information about Minelab getting the accessory coils to market for the Manticore. I really don't get this. Are they afraid of having accessory coils available at introduction for some reason? Are there valid reasons that aren't coming to my mind for having everybody wait? Other than testing the patience and dedication of your customers? I experienced the same thing when the 800 was introduced. Waited for about a year or so. Perplexing for sure. Forces my hand to take my 800 with the 11" and 6" coils and leave the Manticore home. UtahRich
  5. The Deus 2 had some design challenges for my shallow water hunting, so I sold it. It was replaced with a Manticore. So far the Manticore is doing well stepping into those shoes, but it is early. Still have my proven 800. I also picked up an Axiom. Looking forward to my outings this year.
  6. Dang - opportunity for a road/plane trip to Alaska missed! Steve, I need more lead time. 😀
  7. Best Detector Out There? Forgive the comparison, but I find a lot of similarities in what is the "Best Detector" to acquiring equipment in GOLF. In golf, there are an extremely varied group of individuals in regards to skill level from Professional Golfers to those that may golf a couple times a year with friends or family members. Also, the courses played by Professional Golfers are typically much more difficult to play well then our local municipal golf course. A wise golfer would be fitted for equipment they are capable of using well that will compliment their abilities AND is an appropriate choice for the golf course(s) they are playing. I read posts about detectors that are most capable and think to myself, Yes, this detector is incredibly capable - but only in the hands of an advanced detectorist that understands the settings and how the adjustment of each impacts the abilities and results seen with the detector. A beginner detectorist running out and buying "the best" detector, because the internet says so, is likely buying more detector then they can handle or know what to do with. All of those 'confusing' settings are likely to never be used, or if they are used, the results will be a crap shoot because they are being used ignorantly. Along that same thought, a more advanced detectorists can take a detector that is way too much for a beginner and make it sing, so to speak, in the places they hunt because they have the knowledge, skills, and are in a location to do so. So, in my mind, the best detector is one fitted to your knowledge and abilities, the locations you hunt, your temperament, your budget and your willingness and ability to learn. Oh, and don't let me forget physical limitations, like weight. UtahRich
  8. Jeff, thanks for taking the time to do the comparisons and share the results here. It is A LOT of extra work and hassle doing this. Everyone should give this "field report" and/or "detector comparison" thing a try and see how it goes. If you've NOT done it, you will gain some appreciation for all of the work involved. Thanks again Jeff, UtahRich
  9. Steve, Without the On/Off button on the side of the control pod, where I reach to pick up the detector after setting it on the ground for a recovery, I would not get to experience the "Wow, this sure starts back up fast" after accidentally turning it off. It really does start up fast. 🙂 UtahRich
  10. Kinda depends on how harsh the elements have been on the coin. Some coins come out of the ground looking pretty pristine, others, the soil has been harsh to the surfaces. I've found my fair share of good dates / mint marks over the years, but like what's been said above, Official Coin Graders are going to start with a demerit for environmental damage and go from there. Silver coins get washed/sprayed/brushed off of grit, dirt, sand, whatever, before i start handling. Still, the surface of silver coins are relatively easy to unknowingly mar with fine scratches. Years ago, I was in a coin shop with an 1881-S $10 gold piece I had found at an old ghost town in Utah. I was having it looked at by one of the owner's assistants. The assistant was telling me the coin was a counterfeit because of some very fine frosting / hazing on the surface. I laughed at him which he didn't appreciate. The owner came over, who i knew well and asked what was up. He knew me and the coin, as I had found it on a club hunt. He was the president of the local Token Collectors Club (NUTS). He was President of the American Numismatic Association a few years later. He explained to his assistant about the environmental damage that happens as the corrosive soil attacks the copper alloy in the gold coin. Anyway, part of life for us detectorists. Bob had made a comment to me a number of years earlier that the coins I would recover would almost always have some sort of environment damage observable on the surface that would be a big deal to "Coin Collectors" but wouldn't matter so much to me. For me, found coins each have a little personality to them. Many of my silver coins have lovely toning or unusual dark areas due to the dirt or rusty nails and such that were near the coin while in the ground all those years. I leave these character marks and place the coins in a cardboard 2x2 and slip it into a binder for later show and tell. Each has a little story behind it and brings back fond memories of road trips and outings. My only hope is that at some point down the line, the grandkids don't get into them and use them to pay for candy at the local convenience store. UtahRich
  11. Very kind words GBA - Yes, silver dollars don't typically show up all the time. I've been fortunate to hunt locations where silver halves and dollars are more likely to turn up, so when hunting these areas, they aren't usually a surprise. A number of detectorists i've hunted with have had lots of good fortune as well, which is nice for me because it offers opportunity to learn from their successes, how they hunt and set up their equipment, how they think themselves around a site, how they research, even how they work with land owners and administrators. I often come away from these adventures feeling a bit schooled. This is one of those times. I've been hunting a long time and have admired Andrew's approach to things. Lots for me to learn there from his approach and methods. Rich -
  12. A couple trips out with the Manticore and I'm off to a good start. A week ago, Andrew and I had done a little testing with our PI machines at one of Andrews long time spots on the GSL, link to the video is on his thread over in the jewelry forum i think. We had a great time. Anyway, the following Thursday we both ended up with Manticore's on our porch, so after some text messaging, we decided a repeat visit on Saturday was necessary. Andrew was able to get out Friday for a brief period and had already set up a temporary test garden of nickels in the lake bed (10", 12", 14" and 16" deep). We used the same garden to test the manticores. Both of our detectors, with 21 sensitivity, hit all of the nickels. After having run our PI's over these same coins a week earlier, with lesser results, I was impressed, as was Andrew. Side note - Andrew tried his D2 on these same targets and it also hit all 4 nickels. I don't know the settings he used on the D2 but as many of you know, he is a well versed XP user. Settings; Set up was Beach Deep - 11" coil Auto Ground balance (bob the coil) which varied depending on location from the mid-teens up to mid-40's. Recovery Speed 4 Discrimination - None Ferrous Limits were Preset used in conjunction with the Horseshoe so I could hear everything classified ferrous or non-ferrous Ferrous Volume 12 Target Tones - 1, All Tones Audio Theme - Normal Sensitivity - started at 21, went to 22 and had a bit of instability that was tolerable. Went to 23 for a while and the instability became distracting and then back to 22. I used my backlight on Full as I don't have a screen protector yet and so the tinted factory film is still in place. I used Auto ground balance frequently as I went from wet sand to wet sand with melting snow water/salt water mix to straight up potent GSL salt water. I also Noise Cancelled frequently as there is a large EMI source nearby. And I hunt with my cell phone powered OFF. Andrew's first target had actually come the day before when he came out to do some prep work. Gold Ring. Nice way to begin ownership of any detector. While I didn't turn up a gold ring, I did have a pretty nice Saturday. I managed a 1918-D Merc, 1937-S Buff, 1958-? Wheatie, 1926-? Standing Liberty Quarter and a Utah Sales Tax Toxen, a number of lead bullets and a pair of keys located with my Axiom the previous weekend, but stuck below the frozen layer, so they were left behind not knowing their identity. Good day. We came back Monday and I added a dateless Buffalo nickel, a 1935-S Peace Dollar, a Sterling silver ring, a brass ring, 2 old keys, and more lead bullets to be repurposed into dive weights. A weather front moved in and it started cooling off so i decided to wrap up. I had 4+ hours hunting time Saturday and another 4 hours or so Monday. Screen backlight was on FULL the whole time, which I wouldn't normally do. My battery indicator was on the last segment as I started winding down to leave. At home it was officially out of green segments so I put it on the charger. I would say it was close to 9 hrs of hunting with full backlight the entire time. I don't know if the Beach DEEP program demands extra power or not. As for the GSL. Older targets in this place typically start at 10-12" deep, Tip to top of my shovel head measures 11.5" and this was the typical depth of the gray layer where most targets lay. They go down from there. The Manticore handled the deep stuff with sensitivity on 22-23. (35 max) The silver dollar was at the edge of detection. Andrew recorded it on his GoPro and I imagine he will post it on his YouTube channel at some point if you're interested in seeing how deep. I'll just say that it was "in the gray". As for the Manticore - My thoughts. I have been swinging Minelabs for quite a few years. I acquired my Minelab Explorer XS back in 2000 after using a CZ-6a for about 5 years and other detectors for years before that. Followed The Explorer XS with an Etrac and then the EQ800. How does the Manticore stack up initially for me? It is very comfortable and light to swing. Natural in hand. Goes deep. Improved menu. ID's well. Easy to use. I like the tones, but still have a LOT of experimenting to do with inland targets. The MC has a very nice feel to it. And it finds stuff for me. That's a really good combination. I have yet to take it to the old parks, old houses and such where I will be better suited to get a feel for inland capabilities compared to my 800 and previous detectors. The ghost towns are still some weeks away as well and i'm likely going to need the small 8x5.5 coil before venturing into the rusty tin and nails. Not sure how long Minelab is going to be getting those to Market. Unmasking? I had one target, a buffalo nickel, that came up with a piece of rusty iron. Audio was low in the nickel range / target ID in the mid-20's. There was a target on the 12 line that smeared down into the lower ferrous area. I dug away the sand and the Targets were still in the hole down in the gray yuck approximately 10" deep. A large shovelful brought both up. I found the rusty iron piece first with the pinpointer and was surprised to see it considering the signal. Thinking there must be something else there, i re-swept the pile and discovered the nickel. I know that's not much to go on. But it gave me confidence. The Manticore's new target ID scale is reminiscent of the White's detectors pretty much exactly, at least for coins. I can tell the difference between clad and silver coins. That gives me some familiarity. Well, so far, so good. It's been a few years since I turned up my last silver dollar. And more that a few years since my last SLQ, so an unexpectedly nice start. I have to say thus far, I'm pleased with my purchase. UtahRich -
  13. Hey Andrew, Thanks again for the invite. Much appreciated and congrats again on your great day! Hi Steve, I was using the 13"x11" DD coil. SETTINGS: MODE = Salt (seemed like a given for the area we were hunting) FREQUENCY SCAN - I performed this 2 times while out hunting. When I started, and after we took a break when I was having an issue with instability in a certain area. One scan settled in the 20's, one in the 50's. TONE = 50 AUDIO = 01 HEADPHONES = NO GROUND TRACK = MANUAL. 15,16,17 / 13 were the results of my balancing. Fifteen was most common. I manual ground balanced several times as the afternoon progressed. I am a long time detectorist, but a noob to PI's. When it comes to PI machines, I have wrestled with buying one ever since they started showing up in the gold prospecting magazines. The Axiom was a long time coming. As for sharing information about this first time out, let me share a disclaimer, While I've watched hundreds (my wife might say several hundred) of hours of videos of those using PI's for gold prospecting and relic hunting, I have a grand total of 4 hrs in the field behind the controls, so with that thought, here we go. Prior to heading out, I reviewed Steve's Key Posts regarding the Modes and Use of the Axiom and preset it for Salt Mode, Audio 01, Ground Track Manual. Sensitivity started at 3. Weather was cold - a snow storm had passed thru earlier in the week and as the temp increased from freezing to 40* or so there was some fresh water runoff coming from the shoreline areas out across the sand flats to the lake. We were technically teetering on shallow water hunting in spots and I did have that disaster thought in the back of my mind of accidentally dropping the Axiom into a pool of water or it tipping over in the wet sand and water getting inside. That would be bad. Those not familiar with the great salt lake should know there is a sand layer sitting atop a stinky gray claylike nasty smelly layer 10" or 12" beneath the sand where most targets come to rest over time. We wanted to do some target comparisons with the Axiom and EQ900 so with that thought we got started. Of we went. I started working my way from close to shore. Andrew headed to some familiar areas out in the flats. I noticed right off the bat that the Axiom was very smooth and there was NO audio instability at all. I picked up a loud / wide audio signal which was a round sand ball resting on the surface a little smaller than a golf ball. It was a hardened ball of sand formed around some piece of metal. (i broke it open later at home and it ended up being a nut). Next target was a very nice tight low/high signal that while easy to pick up, sounded deep. Andrew was a couple hundred yards away so I went ahead and dug this one without him comparing signals. At about 10" i hit the yuck layer and a few inches into that was a small round ball formed around my target. I broke the sand away to find the reeded edge of a dark gray silver dime. Wow, not a bad first dug target. The day went on and i worked my way out to Andrews vicinity. He had marked a target along the edge of the water he wanted me to check. It was another low/high. A little softer in tone than the one i had dug. I changed through the 4 MODES to listen for audio differences and signs of instability. There was some audio difference, but nothing drastic. The response from Large and Salt sounded best to my ear. From way down in the yuck came another coin. ( i think this one was a wheatie). I was not using headphones so we could both listen to the audio. Andrew was impressed with the stability and clarity of Axiom signal. He has used other PI's in this same area. Anyway, Andrew did some video recording along the way that he may post on his YouTube channel that will give you an idea of the depth targets were being retrieved. All of the targets he recovered, that he had me check, were good solid signals with the Axiom. He found a couple silver dimes, one of which he had me check before beginning to dig. It was another good signal. It was deep in the yuck and an easy 14". That is the deepest dime I've seen recovered ever. I did make some adjustments to sensitivity as i was hunting just to see if i could find the point where instability arose. It seemed to be going from 4 to 5. At Sensitivity 4 i could hear what i assumed were lines of mineralization change in the ground where the threshold increased and i could follow along. At a setting of 5 these 'lines' were quite pronounced. I did have a few ghost targets where i ended up with an empty hole and nothing to show for it. One of these was a high/low target that seemed solid enough. It sounded deep and i dug out the overburden down to the yuck layer. It still sounded in the hole. Remember this ground is wet and like a salt water beach in the splash zone, the sides of the hole are sluffing off into the recovery area. You have to dig quickly. And something i didn't point out earlier is that the yuck layer is frozen. Like concrete frozen. It was taking force and persistence to penetrate. Meanwhile, the sides of the hole are caving in and the hole filling with freezing salt water. Fun, right? I had my gloved hand with Garrett Carrot desperately trying to find this low conductive target and it isn't there. and I'm removing more sand / frozen yuck and spreading out the sand pile to see if I had 'outed' it. And nothing. After about 15 minutes i was stumped. Did i remove a small rusty bit that disintegrated? Was it some concentrated mineralization? Was the open hole full of very salty water and sand in the mineralized ground freaking out the Axiom making my target magically disappear? I thought the pinpointer would find it, but no. I filled in the hole and swung over it before walking off. Nothing. ?? Anyway, Andrew had me checking more of his targets, which he was finding pretty consistently and each time the Axiom was great. After some wandering around digging up shotgun hulls, an old matchbox car, another coin (an incredibly thin copper memorial penny) i decided to wander back to that one hole that i was sure held a good high/low target. I swung over it and nothing. . . . I was thinking back to Steve's advice about the Axiom and not running the sensitivity too high. I switched from 4 back to 3. Bing. High/low target was right there in the hole. I took a couple shovel fulls of mixed sand and yuck out of the hole and there was a mashed lead rifle bullet that looked in the 100-120grain area. Hmmm. Well mystery kind of solved. I talked this over with Andrew . . . and I wondered if i had been unwise for running 4 instead of 3 for about 1/2 of my hunt. So much to learn with the PI. I had a really great time, found some good targets, learned a lot and got to watch Andrew have a banner day. Hoping he shares that with all of you. I have to say that I'm really pleased with my Axiom, I think it's going to be a good one for me. Hope this is of some value to those reading it. Rich
  14. GB - I've tried the experimental settings both ways, before and after a find. Meaning sometime i use my regular settings and after finding a probable target, i experiment with other modes and/or sub-settings and see how the target responds. Perhaps an adjustment to a setting will improve the signal/response. Or maybe make it worse providing some validation to the setting(s) I'm using. When a new detector comes out, most everybody is in a learning phase as the detector goes through the user shakedown and slowly best practices begin to emerge. Each of us can validate / test them for ourselves for our given sites and come up with our own best practices. As for Knowingness, there's a thousand lifetimes of knowledge to gain, most of the time I'm trying to stay two steps ahead of being on the list for the Years' Best Darwin Award. 😉 Rich
  15. badminton racket - hand/eye coordination. 🐞 Storm missed us by just a wee bit to the east - all we got was deep powder for the snowmobiling and skiing. Keeps the snowblower and wood burning stove busy. Hope everybody stays safe in the winter weather. Merry Christmas. Rich
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