Cal_Cobra

I wouldn't be surprised if they did a Nox2 or EQX1K that just addressed the issues that've been a thorn in their rear since it was released (rod, weight distribution, headphones, leaks, etc). Question is how many are will to pay say slightly more than the current EQX800 price? It would have to make business sense for them. I'm sure they have a 10% warranty reserve from each Equinox sale, and while they probably have a higher then industry standard defect rate, they can still siphon off the warranty reserve to fix platform failures before the warranty times out.

Technically you can, but probably better not to advertise it.

Thanks Bill. I plan to get some videos once I get all the settings figured out 😏

My dealer sent me this email this morning: Manticores starting shipping to US warehouses yesterday.... You are number 1 on the list..You still wanting to purchase ? Okay take my money, I ain't mad about it.... 🤠

I received this message from my dealer: Manticores starting shipping to US warehouses yesterday.... You are number 1 on the list..You still wanting to purchase ? Response was yes please, just take my money... Great email to receive! Unfortunately it doesn't sound like I'll have it in time for an upcoming detecting trip, but that's okay I want to bring something I know well to uncharted territory. The Manticore will get a good workout at a particular Spanish outpost site that I think could be a good fit for it with plenty of time to experiment with the new settings.

Considering that a special HF coil would be required, sure it could make sense as they can now sell you a $300 coil. That said, given Minelab's lackluster coil portfolio for the Equinox, they're clearly not in the coil business, so I doubt this HF coil and upgrade will ever see the light of day.

Very unlikely. The Legend is a great machine, the XP D2 is a good machine, but these machines effectively just caught up to the four year old Equinox. With the Manticore's imminent release, I'm sure it's all hands on deck at Minelab to get that machine into production. There's almost no incentive for Minelab to update the Equinox. What updates would you like the see on the Equinox?

Good hunt, not sure on your mystery items, but pretty sure I've found one of those flange things, and the other thing might be gun related. Then again 🤔

Interesting idea. I've always thought that detecting vendors should make the angle adjustable 15 degrees in either direction to accommodate everyone's differences in physical build. I've seen people cut a piece of those foam "noodles" and put it under the control pod so your thumb isn't smashed into the control pod.

Those are prime detecting months out west, as many of our sites get overgrown come spring, and then the ground turns to cement coupled with 100F + temps in the summer usually keeps us at bay until the next fall/winter/early spring returns.

I guess that has to be the angle, I didn't realize some of those Confederate bullets were that valuable. I see guys back south with 5 gallon buckets of dug bullets. We don't find rebel relics out west, and I'm surprised we don't find something, buttons, buckles, or whatnot. A lot of Confederate soldiers migrated west after the war to start a new life, entire townships were started by them, so one would think rebel relics would turn up, but I've not heard of anyone finding anything. Odd.

Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed your video. That looks like a ball buster hunt site! Seems like we have better odds at our desert sites eh?

Nice digs! That's a nice gesture to give the land owner a finds display from his property. Those acts of kindness can pay off in spades with more permissions 🙂 The Navy button should be around 1850's, back probably says Scolville & Co.

It's what Tom call's the "flimsy" style, so yeah stamped thin brass not cast. They seem to be the most common. There's a recently published book on these Gold Rush era tongue and wreath style buckles. Tom's dying to get #17 but he can wait, I'm only on #2 maybe #3 is waiting for me on our trek LOL I bet you got some good stuff, I'll look for your post of your adventures!

Did you get any CW relics? I believe the buckle is a Gold Rush era buckle. #17, so you're one gold coin ahead of Tom? 🏆

Come to papa 🤠

I couldn't handle DP on the F75, mostly because it was so digital and artificial sounding, that it was very unpleasant to the hears. The few that mastered it did okay with it, but it's just not the same as Minelabs full tone analog like audio where there's no mistaking that deep silver tinkle you get on a deep silver coin. You just didn't get that on the FTP machines DP audio. At the end of the day, use what works for you, we all process audio data differently.

That's exactly what he said, Ron changed his mind when he was a White's fan. No doubt about it, he does well with the Exp2, but it's getting harder to get parts for, a few of his got "splashed" while beach hunting and met their demise, but he keeps finding replacements on craigslist and ebay. We'll see how he does with the D2.

Undoubtedly a tough nut to crack. Personally I don't really care what machine he runs, I just find the not waiting perplexing, heck he's had the Exp2 this long and loves it's full tones, so what's a few more months. Given the D2 is XP's first foray into SMF, and Minelab's been doing it for decades, it's a bit of a no brainer to wait for Manticore field tests. Perhaps it'll be a good thing, for me 🤠

We only have four primary sites of interest on our radar, hopefully one of them is the #10 👍

haha nah not scared in the least, just find it to be a waste of time. He did the same thing after poo pooing the Equinox, but then wanted to flag and check signals with his Exp2 vs my EXQ800. No need to waste valuable hunt time flagging and checking signals when you can compare notes at the end of the hunt. Invokes the old saying "you can lead a horse to water..." you know the rest 😉

DELETE

My hunt buddy is an interesting fellow. I've tried out a lot of detectors over the years, and he's seen which ones performed well and which ones did not. He's been a hard core Explorer (XS and then 2) fan since I've known him, and I can't fault him for that as he's does great with it, even in the iron infested relic sites we love hunting. He would routinely out hunt me when I was using my F75 LTD/LTD2, AT Pro, etc. a decade ago But he really raised his eyebrows when I was heavily using the Racer/Racer2/Impact/Multi Kruzer as I was finally consistently keeping up, and even besting his finds (meaning total number of period conductors per hunt). This continued and even improved when I started using the EQX800. Still for some odd reason I couldn't get him off his Exp2. The closest he came was when I orchestrated a group buy for the EQX800 (got them for $720 each when they were released!!!) he bought one, but he cashed in on the frenzy and dumped it on fleabay to make a quick buck when people were paying a premium over MSRP. He talked himself out of it because in his mind it just couldn't perform in deep turf park hunting like an Exp2. I know @stevegdispelled that, and had great success deep turf park hunting trashy parks. Tom tried it a few times (believe he borrowed a couple) and did his best to talk himself out of getting one, despite all of his friends having great success with the Equinox he just couldn't break away from his trusty Dino2K Exp2. Fast forward to now, and even though he knows the Manticore is about to be released, he jumped on the XP D2 bandwagon and has one on order. I asked him why on earth he didn't simply wait a couple of months to see how the Manticore shaked out, and he claimed one of his friends (that rarely even hunts anymore) go to the U.K. and that's the "cats meow" over there. Okay, whatever, we don't hunt in the U.K. and I simply cannot fathom how a life long Explorer fanboy couldn't wait....now he wants to do all kinds of head to head tests when he gets his D2 and I get my Manticore....I think not 😏

Nice job 👍 Like the rosette, and how can you go wrong with seated half dime!!!

Thanks El, it was a fun hunt. There's more there, hopefully we get back there one of these days.