Skate

If you're a jewelry hunter I have found three men's 14k wedding rings that were a solid 36, never strayed off that number. I even air tested my wedding ring (it's 14k) and it also came up 36. Every single 30-31-32 has been a modern pop top. I still dig them because they sound so good and the 2D line presents them as a beautiful target but it's always a pop top. Women's wedding rings have all come up 22-24 with 24 being the most frequent target ID. You can hear every bottle cap so after digging 5-10 of them you should be able to walk over them going forward. The key as everyone says is to just log hours in many different conditions/environments. I'm having a blast currently hoovering a local park that is less than 20 years old and has a bermuda thatch grass that keeps everything no deeper than 3 inches so I have the sensitivity at 10 or less and it's like a coinstar machine blew up in the middle of the field. I know there's a bunch of rings and chains out there amongst the clad so I'm just taking my time as I have the park to myself. Have a great time as there is no better hobby in the world.

sold- Thank you Steve Herschbach and Bill!

I'm currently in my "if I haven't used it in 6 months" sell it mode so rather than just let my trusty 800 hang in the garage I'm going to move it on. I'm selling with it the 11" that came with it and to unused coils, the Minelab 6" and the 5x10" coiltek coil. I'm asking $725 shipped for everything. The 800 has never been dunked in the water. I take care of my stuff and shaft and coils always gets rinsed after any exposure to salt or if I'm bored and just feel the need to clean things up. There is no warranty left on the 800 and I've never had an issue with it.

Yes I was threatened with arrest as I walked the beach detecting back in 2020. As a matter of fact it was just on the other side of the jetty where the big wave hit Seaward. The sheriff's department and Ventura PD were the worst in terms of overreaching. There were literally officers stationed every 100 yards between Marina Park and seaward Ave making sure that no one stopped or sat. They even hassled a young mother who had brought her daughter to the beach to share lunch by themselves. She had sat down and they hassled her and threatened her until she got up and walked away. I know you like the role of wise sage but you should maybe sit some of these out once in a while.

The nanny state here in Ventura has taken the steps of closing down access to the beach out of an abundance of caution. I'm sure it'll be like it was in 2020 when we were threatened with arrest if we stopped for more than 10 seconds while on the beach. The main problem for me during events like this is the amount of debris that gets washed up on shore. Last weeks heavy rains put a ton of broken branches and trees at the ready to be washed out and then back into the beach. Just being able to swing and walk can be an issue due to the volume of sticks and logs. The rogue wave that hit Seaward Ave yesterday is a perfect example of why the Darwin awards were created. It's because of these people we can't have nice stuff.

I have 6 hours of beach time with the 15" coil. It was mostly dry sand/towel line and all I can say is it is deep. Deeper than any other non PI machine I have used. I think I have figured out whether or not something truly is iron and worthy of digging but if you are going to use the 15 on a beach you must dig everything. I dug a quarter in the dry sand that had a non-ferrous tone but red numbers in the 40's and 50's. It was down at least 18" in that the dry sand was no longer dry but wet. The key to dig was the tone and by no means was it good or clear, rather it was just not iron. You cannot go by any of the basic signs like you would if digging in the dirt, you have to dig everything. The 15" is the real deal. I have a job tomorrow to try and find a couple of gold bracelets. I took my wife's gold bracelets out and compared my 800 with the Coiltek 10x5 and the Manticore with the 15 to see which machine I would use to find them. The 15 identified each different bracelet/chain by tone and TID, the nox and the 10x5 never even saw them. The manticore represents a new day in detecting capabilities. It's a game changer.

that's a jaw dropping find.......

Had it out now for 6 hours in the dirt. Just like with the beach, I spent the 1st 45 minutes ignoring the 2D screen, not because I wanted to but because I forgot it was there. I'm normally a tone hunter and if sounds good I usually dig it but after seeing the 2D screen and digging some iffy signals/splotches I can say the 2D is amazing. I went back to an old dairy site I'd hit with my XP2 and 900 several times. Littered with nails everywhere so much so that you would think the cows were squirting them rather than milk. Using the 2D screen as my final decider of dig/no dig, I pulled up 6 wheats and a 1926 Merc. I guess I'm not too proud to say I missed these before as I'm a fairly good and successful detectorist. I did get fooled on a few good 2D hits but overall if you can get the tone, and swing angle to match up the 2D will give you the final say. Almost flawless I'd say. Here's what I did notice about the 2D screen and how to use it. Give it time to figure out what's under the coil. Walk around the target and allow the 2D to paint the picture. One target took a few passes to paint a solid ball on the line as it was mixed in with other metal junk. It finally showed up amongst the trash which was all over the 2D screen but my wheat was right there on the line while it took a moment to lock on to it and then it was clear as to what was under the coil. For reference, I was in AT High conductors all 6 hours in 5 tones. As someone who has successfully used a bunch of detectors over the years, the Manticore is shaping up to be a winner. Minelab may be a terrible company when it comes to caring what the customer thinks but they have built a winner in the Manticore.

My first day in the dirt with the manticore was today. Hunted an avocado orchard that used to be ranch homes. Tons of metal in the ground. My biggest obstacle was forgetting there is a 2D screen. I'm not a regular screen user but rather a sound/tone digger. It took about 5 holes of crap to remember to look at the 2D screen for input. That's when it changed. I ended up digging 6 coins (I had to take a 1/2 hour phone call in the middle of my hunt and I only had two hours) and every coin rang up on the center line in the 2D screen. Nice little circle blobs, every one of them. I also continued to dig good tones that had 2D signatures that were around the line, a little misshapen, a little oblong and they all were junk. A few old bottle caps also came in on the line with a nice circle so the 2D line isn't perfect but it's a difference maker. I had 3 hours at the beach also with it this week and it was sanded in so unless it can reach 36" I wasn't going to recover a lot. For my wet sand it only quieted down when running ground tracking on. I could ground balance all day and it was super noisy but as soon as I turned ground tracking on it simmered down. I'll take it to a private park that I have picked over for the past 4 years and see if I can shake anything out of it. So far I like it so we'll see if I can actually get the coil over something of value.

As has been said before, go out and use it. Dig everything you can to see where they fall on the numbers but more importantly to learn what a good sounding target is vs. a crummy one. Learn to hear the rough edges at the end of your sweep indicating a bad target. Learn to walk around a target while sweeping it to determine whether to dig or not. A bad signal can become a good signal by moving 90 degrees. Like Jeff said learn the 4 basic coins and where they lie on the TID and then go dig. When you get to where you're going take them out and throw them on the ground and listen to the tone and see the ID then go hunt. I always take a few coins with me every hunt just to get my hearing adjusted even though I've dug thousands of coins. There is no replacement for actually using the machine in real conditions. Testing in the garage is when we're too bored to fish and the wife wants us to watch a movie on the Hallmark channel.

That's awesome. You will be rewarded 10x's for your efforts.

The key for me is confidence. I have more confidence in my 800 than I do with my D2 in wet black sand. Most of where hunt has black sand and I just haven’t had the same success with my D2 on the beach. I probably only have 200-300 hours on the D2 so not like the 5 years and 1,000’s of hours on the 800. I can call pretty much most targets on the 800 but not the D2. If you feel better using another detector on the beach I would. I dig pretty much everything on the beach even the crappy targets because the 800 will clear up a target with a scoop or two or it’s crap. I don’t get that from the D2. I traded out my D2 just for this reason but kept my 13x11 coil and Steve’s awesome carbon fiber shaft in case I want to get a puck and use it in the future. Not every new detector works with everyone so keep searching until you got the one the works best for you.

Ventura! I find those dog license tags all over the beaches..........in Ventura! Great hunt and report CPT.

Out of curiosity, what makes the manticore that much better than what you were or have swung before it? I'm in the market to move one of mine and get another so I'm just wanting to see why you have connected with the Manticore so well.

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 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 would imagine the excuse is their servers are overwhelmed. I'm not buying that as an excuse if it is one, since they know exactly the number of units that are out in the wild and surely they built their IT to handle that amount. One would think anyways.

Same. Checked spam, nothing. It's been about a half hour since I tried to register an account. In our microwave world XP seems to still operate as a Dutch oven.

I need another picture of the shark.......

It's a hobby. People want to have fun while detecting. If the Manticore helps you to do that then that's what a hobby is about. I'm going to get one just for the extra fun factor that it will give me. Life is short folks. The only sure thing in detecting is my wife's purse, everything else requires serious digging.

Stud.

Pick one or two beaches and learn to read the sand. Go to them often at various times and tides and watch how the sand moves. Dedicate yourself to becoming the expert at these one to two beaches as to how the wind, waves and storms change the sand structure and you will become a successful beach hunter. Anyone can hunt the dry sand as it takes no particular skillset to find stuff. The true beach hunters know their beaches inside and out when it comes to the wet sand. Learning is a process so really take the time to view your areas under as many conditions as possible and you will eventually come out on top.

Great job on not giving up and finding a solution. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow morning to the beach. I'm landlocked right now due to road closures but I'm hopeful now the rain has ended for a day or two they can get things cleared up.

From what I understand Nokta is great at talking with folks and it would seem to be the only one based on these forums. Minelab could be in the MD forum business just by the way they announce and then string folks along based on the sheer number of threads started. My point about customer service is this. It's expensive to hire people who don't create or bring money in. Getting a free update out doesn't cost the end consumer anything but costs the team at XP a bunch which I understand. Unless I buy another coil from XP I have effectively ended (until something new comes out years later) my financial transactions with them. I'm glad they will eventually put out an update and I hope it increases my output but it costs me nothing to get it or wait for it. I'm like everyone else in that I want to see progress in the next version (separation in my soil) and a few more gold rings in the scoop.

I have written them 3 times regarding specific issues. I got one very ambiguous response nearly 14 days after my email. The other two times there was no response. I don't think metal detector companies really care that much about the issues of the end user and I'm not saying that as a criticism but a reality. For most the reality is they release a new detector once every 2-4 years specific to an all around unit like the D2 (which was way longer than 2-4 years) and then after the initial sale the income from that buyer stops. Those of us that buy multiple coils, brand specific pinpointers etc., are the few I think. They don't invest in customer service because there is no immediate return on that investment. No matter how mad you got at XP for their tone deaf customer service they know that all they need to do is come out with a new launch video in 3 years for the D37.9 and most of us will all line up to buy it regardless of any past experiences. It's no different with Minelab, Garret or any other brand. These companies sell dreams, not reality.